Lost: Season 2, Episode 4: Everybody Hates Hugo Review

Everybody Hates Hugo
Original Airdate: October 12, 2005
Writers: Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis
Director: Alan Taylor

Now that the prologue of this season has been established, we’re back in the groove season one established of story progression with flashbacks to help develop characters. This will help the viewer return to the status quo (if there is one) of this show while the first act of the season plays out. It helps even more when the character in focus is Hurley, who is a favorite among fans.

Although this episode scaled back on the revelations prevalent through the first three episodes of the season, it was still a good character study of Hurley (who I hope will get another episode this season). “Numbers” provided a darkly comic look at his life following his lottery win and the bad luck that pursued, but in this episode, we explore a more serious aspect of what he lost. This coincides with Jack assigning him to take inventory of the food and ration it so it will last. Again, he is in control of something everyone around him wants. Now he is worried that he’ll be outcast again when people learn what he is doing.

We haven’t seen much of this Hurley on the show, someone whose anxiety almost drives him to blow up the bunker. Before this, he has been the favorite character among many fans of the show because of his jovial attitude towards life. In this episode we see his uncertainty and reluctance to change, stemming from the day he won the lottery and lost his best friend.

One thing I've liked about the characterization of Hurley is that his weight isn’t an overwhelming feature of his character. Also, they wisely decided not to ignore it entirely, as it would be unrealistic that no one would acknowledge it. Too often, we see “the fat guy/girl” in movies and TV as fat foremost. In this episode’s opening dream sequence, they seem to overcompensate for their lack of overt fat characterization by having Hurley dreaming of ravenously eating everything in the bunker. However, considering they haven’t had mainland food in a month and a half and even slender Kate devoured a chocolate bar, I may be overreacting.

The imagery in the dream was interesting enough. Jin’s appearance (and Walt’s picture on the carton of milk Hurley drank) could be the island trying to tell Hurley that something went wrong with the rescue mission. The change in languages between the two of them is certainly another aspect to drive this sequence further into bizarre territory. Of course, the chicken man serves to trigger Hurley’s memory to that last day with his friend.

Hurley and his friend Johnny (special guest DJ Qualls) had great chemistry, which is what a lot of this episode rode on. I hope that they will incorporate him in more Hurley flashback episodes. Johnny’s exuberance throughout the day with Hurley is negated when he learns the truth, which makes us understand why Hurley feels so anxious with his job. Hurley won’t have to look for a job the following day: Johnny will and that rift signifies the end of his friendship. Money changes everything, and we know that Hurley is adamant against change. This insecurity manifested itself again when he’s given control of the food, something everyone wants.

It causes friction with his best friend on the island, Charlie. Johnny is clearly a parallel to Charlie. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much of Charlie since midway through the first season, as he has been focusing on Claire, who hasn’t had the attention the main cast usually gets. This episode changes that trend a bit. Charlie’s attitude, along with many of the politics about the hatch, is a bit childish. Since the leaders of the island appointed themselves to these positions, those not in power have reason to question why they have the power and why some people get some things and others don’t. It doesn’t help that there is no solidarity among the leaders, with Jack wanting secrecy and Locke openly asking any questions posed.

Since much of the focus of the first three episodes cover what was in the hatch, not much attention has been paid towards the other survivors, whose minds must be on those who left on the raft a few days earlier since the hatch is a big unknown. Of course, they have no way of knowing what happened to them, so the writers toss them a hint of uncertainty through the bottle filled with the messages. However, this doubt remains between Claire, Shannon (who apparently has become friends with Claire) and Sun, the only other person directly connected to the raft pack (my nickname for Jin, Michael, Sawyer and Walt, mainly the first three as Walt is MIA). Sun’s decision to hide it from the others was wise, as no one needs their hopes squashed yet, but it clearly will be hard for hear to bear it alone.

As it turns out, those who abducted the raft pack aren’t nearly as insidious as initially believed. They are the other Flight 815 survivors and they are afraid of anyone outside their group. Something has caused their initial tribe of 23 to dwindle down to five. Though some of our castaways have died, 43 are still alive. It appears that the threats looming over and occasionally visiting the original survivors, like disease and The Others, has engulfed the tailies. I wonder if they have encountered the “security” system. It will be great to see the flashbacks of the furious five to learn what happened during their time on the island.

Aside from the main Hurley plot and the B-tailies plot, the moments with Sayid exploring the magnetic core of the hatch produced some low-key, but possibly significant moments. This concrete offers some idea as to what the “incident” Dr. Marvin Candle referred to in the Orientation film. Of course, the comparison to Chernobyl is going to get raise certain expectations as to what the incident was. It will likely be some time before we learn significant details, but this morsel is enough to keep the speculation going.

Sayid’s attitude toward this is an interesting medium between Jack and Locke. The latter two men are clearly defined as a man of science and faith respectively. Sayid goes in with an open mind. He isn’t looking to confirm Jack or Locke’s beliefs, but to find out the truth and report it. Perhaps his time in Iraq conditioned him to keep his questions to himself for fear of what the government could possibly do.

I enjoyed having Rose return to the show. Unfortunately, because L. Scott Caldwell had other obligations, her role in the first season was limited to the first half of the season. Rose offers something that the other characters don’t: that of a guardian. Locke is close, but he is much more of a teacher and guide to the island than anything else. Rose’s maternal nature provided a necessary way to help Hurley from detonating the dynamite. It also made a sweet moment at the end, as she tucked in the chocolate bar for her husband, when they would reunite.

Some viewers questioned Hurley’s choice to give out all the food in the bunker instead of rationing it out. Hurley’s logic does make sense: there isn’t enough for forty people to survive on for a long period. However, this food could’ve easily been used as a form of payment in exchange for being on button duty. I don’t mind his solution, because it provides a nice moment to play against Bernard’s gratitude after learning his wife survived. “Lost” certainly benefits from feel good moments like this one considering the dark tone that’s always there.

While fickle viewers may complain that “nothing happened”, this episode had a lot of interesting character development, as they focused on Hurley’s dark side. Although many of the island mysteries remain unexplored this week, the character study is certainly worthwhile to develop Hurley. Some complained that there was no follow up about Hurley’s number, but what could they really do that would satisfy everyone? Those numbers appear to be one of the MacGuffin’s of Lost.

Score: 8/10