Lost 2.4: "Everybody Hates Hugo"
Written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis
Directed by Alan Taylor
In which Hurley is conflicted when he’s put in charge of the food in the hatch and keeping it from the other survivors, while Michael, Jin, and Sawyer learn more about their captors…
Status Report
With the season premiere now effectively over, the writers return to the format typically used for the majority of the first season: one character profile supported by several subplots impacting the majority of the cast. In fact, with the arrival of characters from the tail section of the plane, there are more characters than ever to explore. The writers may not slip into that mode as smoothly as one would hope, but a lot of the changes are going to take time to work through.
This is another big moment for Hurley, and it’s interesting to see a different perspective on the darkly comic back story that was revealed in “Numbers”. One could assume that part of Hurley’s “curse” was the isolating effect of being a sudden millionaire, but since the events of “Numbers” were so expansive, the personal element wasn’t fully explored. Johnny, Hurley’s friend, was a good vehicle for covering Hurley’s emotional state.
Basically, Hurley hates the way that things change when everyone discovers that you have the one thing that everybody wishes they had. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be. Hurley’s never been the most complicated character, and it’s his simplicity that makes him so easy to identify with. He is the “Everyman” on the island, helping the writers expound on the philosophies of the more prominent characters through his fairly “normal” point of view.
In this episode, he seems to highlight the negative side of Jack. Jack makes the decision to hide the contents of the hatch from as many people as possible, especially the foodstuffs and other consumables. He puts Hurley in charge of that job, which places Hurley in a very difficult position. Nearly everyone has felt that way before, and it’s never easy. Hurley doesn’t lie very well, and he hates being the bad guy. Jack puts him in that position.
Locke, however, is no better, even coming from a very different point of view than Jack. Locke is less concerned about keeping the hatch and its contents secret than making sure that the button is pushed on time and giving everyone responsibility to see it done. Everyone has a role, and Locke doesn’t want to make it voluntary. This is the side of Locke that fits well with Jack, at least when their dictatorial leanings are aligned to the same purpose.
When the producers mentioned that the mystery of the hatch would be an ongoing plot thread for the season, they weren’t kidding. For something that wasn’t at all apparent for roughly 40 days, the various structures built by the Dharma Initiative seem to be popping out of the woodwork. Not only is there Station 3 on this side of the island, but on the other side, the AnaLucia Tribe is holed up in some kind of Dharma structure. Is the transmitter building, still unseen, also part of the Dharma installation?
Speaking of the Dharma Institute, some interesting comments were made after the previous episode. Apparently, if one looks closely at the man who took away Walt in “Exodus: Part II”, he looks an awful lot like one of the people who started the Dharma Initiative. If the Others are people who used to be Dharma employees/followers, it lends credence to the theory that they were part of the experiment, whether as a “control group” or manipulators of the situation.
The hatch seems to be powered by geothermal energy, according to Sayid, and whatever is causing the magnetic anomalies on the island seems to be well-hidden. One wonders if getting to that secret will be the next stage of exploration. It’s also interesting to note that the food situation seemed designed to last Desmond for only a little while longer. What would have happened if Desmond ran out of food? Is someone from Dharma expected to arrive soon, or did something go wrong?
What if the experiment conducted by Dharma went wrong? What if what was the original intention of the island, perhaps some extreme behavioral study, turned into something very different, something less controlled? The Others could, in fact, be infected by something, just as Danielle seemed to indicate. This could be why the producers keep insisting that the island is not an experiment; perhaps it was in the past, and now things are far less controlled.
There’s also the open question of when the series is actually taking place. The producers tossed out that question in the press recently, which is an interesting point. While the history of Dharma seems clear enough (the film in “Orientation” was made in 1980), it’s not at all clear when the series itself must take place. Sure, some of the flashbacks suggest a very recent timeframe, but not necessarily. That would add another layer of confusion to the whole “16 years of transmission” question, leaving a lot of wiggle room for the writers.
There were a lot more character moments this time around. In particular, the attraction between Jack and Kate has restored itself after their artificial conflict in the season premiere (her motivations still don’t make sense), right down to that wonderful shower scene. Kate is exactly the type to talk her way around Jack’s restrictions!
Sayid and Jack had their little adventure under the hatch, but beyond that, it’s not clear where their dynamic is going. Sayid still has plenty of issues with Locke, so one would naturally assume that Sayid would side with Jack. But Sayid hasn’t always been content to follow Jack’s lead, and he could react badly when they finally have direct contact with the AnaLucia Tribe.
Charlie is not the best person in the world in this episode; in fact, he reacts a bit too selfishly under the circumstances. Then again, Charlie is trying very hard to be happy with his emerging relationship with Charlie and Aaron, and he needs that to resist the urge to relapse. So perhaps that plays into his attitude in this episode.
Claire finally gets her peanut butter (and the audience gets to revel in her reaction), and she also got to discover the bottle full of messages. Emilie is finally freed of that fake belly, and she looks so much better for it. Shannon also came back into the picture, but she’s obviously still grieving and this episode is only a minor salve for her wounds. Sun makes an interesting choice about the bottle, however, which is not unlike the decision by Jack and the rest to hide the hatch; sometimes it’s better not to know.
On the other side of the island, Sawyer still seems to be fighting the urge to drop dead from a blood infection. He’s definitely seen better days, but how much can this guy take? He’s been beaten, stabbed, tortured, and shot. Hopefully there’s a doctor on the AnaLucia Tribe. Michael and Jin don’t contribute much, beyond the very end, when they meet Rose’s husband. One thing is abundantly clear: the AnaLucia Tribe has been decimated over the past 40+ days, and it ought to be interesting to know what happened and how they react to the JackLocke Tribe, who has been far more fortunate. It’s also hard to tell whether Rose will become another prominent character.
Overall, the main plot thread advanced a little bit, and the writers seemed to struggle with the idea of returning to the wider scope with so many new characters and situations. Hurley was a good place to start, since his confusion and conflict is on par with the audience. One can only hope that the transition will be swift and the story will continue moving forward at a reasonable pace.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode returns to the wide scope that dominated the first season, covering many plot threads and most of the characters, all while exploring Hurley’s fragile emotional state. The writers seem to be working out the best way to handle so many new plot and character elements, which keeps the episode grounded, but this is a good start to the meat of the second season.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Directed by Alan Taylor
In which Hurley is conflicted when he’s put in charge of the food in the hatch and keeping it from the other survivors, while Michael, Jin, and Sawyer learn more about their captors…
Status Report
With the season premiere now effectively over, the writers return to the format typically used for the majority of the first season: one character profile supported by several subplots impacting the majority of the cast. In fact, with the arrival of characters from the tail section of the plane, there are more characters than ever to explore. The writers may not slip into that mode as smoothly as one would hope, but a lot of the changes are going to take time to work through.
This is another big moment for Hurley, and it’s interesting to see a different perspective on the darkly comic back story that was revealed in “Numbers”. One could assume that part of Hurley’s “curse” was the isolating effect of being a sudden millionaire, but since the events of “Numbers” were so expansive, the personal element wasn’t fully explored. Johnny, Hurley’s friend, was a good vehicle for covering Hurley’s emotional state.
Basically, Hurley hates the way that things change when everyone discovers that you have the one thing that everybody wishes they had. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be. Hurley’s never been the most complicated character, and it’s his simplicity that makes him so easy to identify with. He is the “Everyman” on the island, helping the writers expound on the philosophies of the more prominent characters through his fairly “normal” point of view.
In this episode, he seems to highlight the negative side of Jack. Jack makes the decision to hide the contents of the hatch from as many people as possible, especially the foodstuffs and other consumables. He puts Hurley in charge of that job, which places Hurley in a very difficult position. Nearly everyone has felt that way before, and it’s never easy. Hurley doesn’t lie very well, and he hates being the bad guy. Jack puts him in that position.
Locke, however, is no better, even coming from a very different point of view than Jack. Locke is less concerned about keeping the hatch and its contents secret than making sure that the button is pushed on time and giving everyone responsibility to see it done. Everyone has a role, and Locke doesn’t want to make it voluntary. This is the side of Locke that fits well with Jack, at least when their dictatorial leanings are aligned to the same purpose.
When the producers mentioned that the mystery of the hatch would be an ongoing plot thread for the season, they weren’t kidding. For something that wasn’t at all apparent for roughly 40 days, the various structures built by the Dharma Initiative seem to be popping out of the woodwork. Not only is there Station 3 on this side of the island, but on the other side, the AnaLucia Tribe is holed up in some kind of Dharma structure. Is the transmitter building, still unseen, also part of the Dharma installation?
Speaking of the Dharma Institute, some interesting comments were made after the previous episode. Apparently, if one looks closely at the man who took away Walt in “Exodus: Part II”, he looks an awful lot like one of the people who started the Dharma Initiative. If the Others are people who used to be Dharma employees/followers, it lends credence to the theory that they were part of the experiment, whether as a “control group” or manipulators of the situation.
The hatch seems to be powered by geothermal energy, according to Sayid, and whatever is causing the magnetic anomalies on the island seems to be well-hidden. One wonders if getting to that secret will be the next stage of exploration. It’s also interesting to note that the food situation seemed designed to last Desmond for only a little while longer. What would have happened if Desmond ran out of food? Is someone from Dharma expected to arrive soon, or did something go wrong?
What if the experiment conducted by Dharma went wrong? What if what was the original intention of the island, perhaps some extreme behavioral study, turned into something very different, something less controlled? The Others could, in fact, be infected by something, just as Danielle seemed to indicate. This could be why the producers keep insisting that the island is not an experiment; perhaps it was in the past, and now things are far less controlled.
There’s also the open question of when the series is actually taking place. The producers tossed out that question in the press recently, which is an interesting point. While the history of Dharma seems clear enough (the film in “Orientation” was made in 1980), it’s not at all clear when the series itself must take place. Sure, some of the flashbacks suggest a very recent timeframe, but not necessarily. That would add another layer of confusion to the whole “16 years of transmission” question, leaving a lot of wiggle room for the writers.
There were a lot more character moments this time around. In particular, the attraction between Jack and Kate has restored itself after their artificial conflict in the season premiere (her motivations still don’t make sense), right down to that wonderful shower scene. Kate is exactly the type to talk her way around Jack’s restrictions!
Sayid and Jack had their little adventure under the hatch, but beyond that, it’s not clear where their dynamic is going. Sayid still has plenty of issues with Locke, so one would naturally assume that Sayid would side with Jack. But Sayid hasn’t always been content to follow Jack’s lead, and he could react badly when they finally have direct contact with the AnaLucia Tribe.
Charlie is not the best person in the world in this episode; in fact, he reacts a bit too selfishly under the circumstances. Then again, Charlie is trying very hard to be happy with his emerging relationship with Charlie and Aaron, and he needs that to resist the urge to relapse. So perhaps that plays into his attitude in this episode.
Claire finally gets her peanut butter (and the audience gets to revel in her reaction), and she also got to discover the bottle full of messages. Emilie is finally freed of that fake belly, and she looks so much better for it. Shannon also came back into the picture, but she’s obviously still grieving and this episode is only a minor salve for her wounds. Sun makes an interesting choice about the bottle, however, which is not unlike the decision by Jack and the rest to hide the hatch; sometimes it’s better not to know.
On the other side of the island, Sawyer still seems to be fighting the urge to drop dead from a blood infection. He’s definitely seen better days, but how much can this guy take? He’s been beaten, stabbed, tortured, and shot. Hopefully there’s a doctor on the AnaLucia Tribe. Michael and Jin don’t contribute much, beyond the very end, when they meet Rose’s husband. One thing is abundantly clear: the AnaLucia Tribe has been decimated over the past 40+ days, and it ought to be interesting to know what happened and how they react to the JackLocke Tribe, who has been far more fortunate. It’s also hard to tell whether Rose will become another prominent character.
Overall, the main plot thread advanced a little bit, and the writers seemed to struggle with the idea of returning to the wider scope with so many new characters and situations. Hurley was a good place to start, since his confusion and conflict is on par with the audience. One can only hope that the transition will be swift and the story will continue moving forward at a reasonable pace.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode returns to the wide scope that dominated the first season, covering many plot threads and most of the characters, all while exploring Hurley’s fragile emotional state. The writers seem to be working out the best way to handle so many new plot and character elements, which keeps the episode grounded, but this is a good start to the meat of the second season.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 7/10
posted by John Keegan | 14:36
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