LOST 6.12 - "Everybody Loves Hugo"

WRITERS: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
DIRECTOR: Daniel Attias
GUEST CAST: Cynthia Watros, Harold Perrineau, Zuleikha Robinson, Archie Ahuna, François Chau, Bruce Davison & Lillian Hurst

[SPOILERS] Beyond a few welcome nuggets of information and pat explanations, "Everybody Loves Hugo" failed to really engage me. A lot of that is down to the simple fact I don't think the pairing of man-mountain Hugo (Jorge Garcia) and crazy-eyed Libby (Cynthia Watros) was anywhere near as compelling or romantic as fan circles persist. I'd even argue that Hurley/Libby has been Lost's least successful love-story across its six seasons, so this episode's attempt to make us reconnect with emotions only diehard "Hibbies" care about was a big downer for me.

X-Timeline '04: Hurley, Libby & Desmond

After last week's "Happily Ever After", we at least have some stake in the flashsideways now. There's a definite point to them their existence which, while we don't understand it, we at least have Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) as our guide through them. Rather weirdly, he's become something of a divine presence now, dipping into Hurley's life and playing matchmaker. In this reality, Hurley's a celebrity billionaire with a global chain of fast-food restaurants, but can't find the love of a good woman. Enter Libby, a seemingly delusional woman who approaches him at a restaurant with a nutty suggestion that they're "soul mates" and used to be in a relationship. Desmond encourages Hurley to trust his gut and go on a date with Libby, and Hurley's memories of the "prime reality" were restored after a first kiss with Libby on a beach. His work done, Desmond drove off for his next assignment: running over school teacher Locke (Terry O'Quinn) as he crossed the street in his wheelchair, in a clear attempt to kill him.

It was fun to see Cynthia Watros back on the show, and Jorge Garcia's limited range just about stretches to making puppy-dog eyes at an attractive woman, but I've never really seen much of a spark between these actors. It was more interesting to ponder what's going on in Desmond's mind. He's clearly got a manifest of Flight 815's passengers and is visiting each one, to open their eyes to the "other existence" they've forgotten. So far, this has involved making them remember true love, so I assume singleton Sawyer will remember Juliet, single dad Jack will remember Kate, single mother Claire will remember Charlie, solo fugitive Kate will remember Jack (take that "Skaters"), etc. It's the lonely finding connections they've lost, see.

But I'm still not sure what has to happen next. How are they going to all get back to the original timeline, and will that mean an Island of duplicates or are they only "existing" in a metaphysical sense? I'm also guessing that Locke has to die in the X-timeline because that would in some way incapacitate or weaken Locke/Smokey in the original timeline?

The Island '07: Jack, Hurley & Richard

A common problem with Lost is that characters tend to wander off in little groups for hazy reasons, often traipsing between the beach and whatever major set has been built that year. Jack (Matthew Fox), Richard (Nestor Carbonell), Hurley, Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), Ben (Michael Emerson), Miles (Ken Leung), Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) were recently the ones with little obvious purpose, but now Richard believes they must take some dynamite from the Black Rock ship to destroy the Ajira airplane Locke plans to use to escape the Island. Never mind that it's later mentioned there's less dangerous and more manageable hand grenades and whatnot at the Othersville barracks.

One of the storyline's most unexpected, yet strangely unsatisfying moments, was seeing Ilana arrive back at the camp with some notoriously unstable sticks of dynamite from the Black Rock, which promptly blew her up. While quite a shock, it just felt like a particularly pointless way to terminate Ilana's role on the show, particularly as it felt like there was more to learn about her as a "candidate bodyguard" for Jacob. And is anyone else a little disturbed by the feeling that "the Island" just disposes of you if you're no longer useful, which seems to be the explanation for events like this?

Hurley's having visitations from the ghost of Michael (Harold Perrineau), who wants him to sabotage Richard's plan. Hurley agrees to help, believing ghosts are more trustworthy than the living, despite the fact trusting Richard was what Jacob wanted them to do, and Hurley is particularly loyal to Jacob's ghost. It suggests to me that Michael's lying and Hurley shouldn't be listening. I'm betting the ghosts, like Smokey, will be released from the Island if Smokey's plan succeeds. Oh yeah, we learned that "The Whispers" that have been heard on the Island since season 1 are the ghosts of dead islanders that can't move on. Ghosts, huh. Well, it's an answer. Just a shame it's the most obvious answer everyone guessed in season 1. Was it worth keeping that one a secret for five seasons, guys? I was hoping for something more interesting -- like the whispers being echoes of what's going on in the X-timeline, or something. But no, the ghostly whispers were ghosts.

Anyway, Hurley blew up the Black Rock to scupper Richard's plan, causing the group to split over a disagreement about how to proceed. Richard takes Ben and Miles away with him to get explosives from the Barracks, leaving the others to trust in Hurley's new plan: to go and speak with Locke...

The Island '07: Locke & Desmond

Locke's sitting around carving wood, his own plan being to wait for the rest of the Oceanic Six to arrive so they can all leave the Island together, but nobody thinks that's very likely. In the meantime, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) has delivered Widmore's mysterious "package" to Locke, who is confused to find it's a placid Desmond. In some interesting scenes, Locke leads Desmond to an ancient well (a site where spinning compasses once confused the indigenous islanders, who dug to explain the mystery), and pushes the Scotsman down into its murky depths -- assumedly to his death.

What intrigued me here was seeing how Locke had no understanding of why Desmond is so special to Widmore, or why Desmond is even acting so docile. It suggests that Locke doesn't know whatever weak-spot Widmore is hoping to exploit using Desmond. And is Desmond really dead after that fall? It's hard to imagine how he'd have survived it, but I would have expected something to happen to Desmond in the X-timeline if he died in the original reality, but nothing appeared to change. Or is there something of a cosmic balance playing out, in that the X-timeline showed Desmond injuring Locke to the same extent?

In Summation

I'm very pleased that that the flashsideways universe now feels more relevant, as we have Desmond moving around catalyzing certain events, but there's still enough mystery about what his plan is and what the flashsideways reality is all about. In some ways, we don't really know much more than usual, but it's just easier to relax now there's a character who's being more proactive in these storylines. I'm even willing to ignore the rather silly idea that Desmond's going to be popping up in each character's storylines and helping them put their lives on-track, which has made Desmond into a kind of Guardian Angel figure.

But for me, I guess I just don't really believe the Hurley/Libby storyline was ever that likely or interesting, and sometimes things happen on the Island that just don't feel natural. Would Hurley really trust Michael's ghost over everything else? Is it right that Jack would relinquish all his leadership and follow Hurley blindly? It just felt a bit unlikely to me, but the only way they could basically get certain characters to join Locke's group. Which is what happens here, meaning Locke now has everyone he needs to leave the Island by plane.

Questions, Questions, Questions!

• Why did Locke push Desmond down the well? Just to kill him, having not really understood his relevance?
• Why did the teenage boy appear to Desmond and Locke? And who is that boy? My money's still on Jacob.
• Why did Desmond hit Locke with his car in the X-timeline?
• Why does Pierre Chang appear to have not aged since 1977 in the X-timeline? Ben's father had aged.

16 APRIL 2010: SKY1/HD, 9PM