Lost 2.18: "Dave"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Jack Bender

In which the discovery of a ration drop challenges Hurley’s decision to stop eating so much, and when he begins seeing someone he once knew on the island, he questions his sanity…


Status Report

Ever since the beginning of the series, Hurley has been more or less cast as the “comic relief”. Even when he has a serious point to make, there’s the underlying humor in the way he says things and approaches the “social” exercise. Lately, his story has been walking a very fine line. Many viewers wanted to understand why his overwhelming desire to eat food was being mined for laughs, and it was getting old. Sure enough, this episode takes a lot of assumptions about Hurley and tosses them aside.

The funny thing is, this little twist isn’t so much of a twist as a revelation hiding in plain sight. Hurley has always been a little off. His reactions to some things, like the “numbers” and the food situation, have often been extreme. It’s easy to forget that he almost set off dynamite in the hatch, or that he went off on a wacky quest to find Danielle when he discovered that she knew the “numbers”. Frankly, Hurley has never been the poster boy for mental health, so this episode’s events are consistent with what has been revealed to date.

That doesn’t make it any easier to watch. Hurley has become such the lovable teddy bear on the island that any blow to his psyche is like a gut punch to the audience. At the same time, there was no better way to explain to the audience why Hurley was in that institution. And now his voracious appetite makes a bit more sense. It’s not that the fat dude can’t control his eating; it’s that the fat dude got fat because he has psychological issues that push him to eat.

It’s not entirely clear what his psychosis might be; there’s a few different conditions that could fit the bill. Hallucinations, for instance, suggest a form of schizophrenia, but there are several different conditions that tie similar “delusions” to coping mechanisms like overeating. Ultimately, Hurley knows that he shouldn’t be eating so much or so compulsively, so he embodies that desire in the form of “Dave”, who conveniently also takes the form of someone who Hurley believes he killed.

Without more information, it’s hard to draw conclusions. In nearly every other respect, Hurley appears to be “normal”. But tying this particular situation into a larger perspective explains much about his conclusions regarding the “numbers”. Hurley’s psychological condition (whatever it might specifically be) drives him to take his anxieties and give them an external source. So his anxiety over guilt turns into a friend who pushes him to find comfort in food, and his anxiety over the “numbers” turns into a “curse” carried by the numbers themselves. (And he even refers to the “numbers” as though they are self-aware and acting on their own.)

The writers manage to tell Hurley’s tale on two levels. From one point of view, Hurley’s story is rather straightforward. When he didn’t have a source of food to fuel his psychosis, he was doing a lot better. Once that food came along, it was a downhill struggle to this point. Libby is there to help him, quite possibly because she understands his situation based on her own experience. Libby, in turn, could replace food as a source of comfort.

This is an interesting parallel to Charlie’s situation. Charlie was an addict who tried to give up his vice and turned to Claire and Aaron to fill the psychological void. Unfortunately for Charlie, he assumed that Claire was just fine with the idea. In this case, Libby is fulfilling much the same role for Hurley, but it appears to be a lot more voluntary. If nothing else, it could lead to some interesting tensions between Charlie and Hurley, should this prove to be genuine.

Of course, the end of the episode brings up a few compelling questions about Libby. Just what are her motivations? It’s possible that she was, in fact, a patient at the institute with her own psychological issues. If so, her relationship with Hurley could be fueling whatever psychosis she’s been hiding. But there’s a far more disturbing possibility, which could be even more damaging to Hurley in the end.

There’s a growing body of evidence that Dharma in an active international group with the ability to ensure that certain individuals are on a particular plane at a particular time and date. Whatever the Dharma Initiative might be up to, there’s the strong suggestion that they were looking for individuals with a variety of psychological issues for their project. So why wouldn’t Dharma have agents (for lack of a better word) seeded in particular places where these psychological types could be found for evaluation? It may be reaching for a deeper interpretation, but if Libby is trained in psychology as she claims, she would be in the perfect position to fake a condition and deal with the effects of medication.

It’s also possible, based on some hints and innuendo from “Henry”, that there’s something about the Dharma food. It’s not the first time this particular idea has come into the picture, but since Hurley’s condition is tied directly to food consumption, why not question the main source of foodstuffs on the island? There’s not enough information to draw any specific conclusions, but it’s one possible source of mind-altering substances.

Interestingly, Hurley’s condition leads him to do exactly what Eko warned Locke to avoid: mistaking coincidence for fate. Instead of taking responsibility for his own actions, assumptions, and fears, Hurley points to some external agent or “curse” as the source of everything bad. Locke hasn’t been all that different in his interpretations about the island, and in a way, Hurley’s reaction in this episode says a lot about where Locke’s psychological issues could go.

“Henry” has certainly noticed that side of Locke’s personality. If “Henry” is at all aware of the contents of the hatch, then he probably knows exactly what Locke saw at the end of the lockdown. And he must know that Locke tends to apply a sense of destiny to whatever he finds on the island. In essence, “Henry” cuts right into the heart of everything that Locke needs to believe by saying that the hatch and its contents are nothing more than a game.

In fact, that might be true, since the strong suggestion is that Dharma contrived much of what is on the island. But it’s just as possible that “Henry” wants Locke to believe that it ends there, that it’s all part of some massive psychological study. But if one accepts his comments to Sayid and Ana as genuine, especially the fear, “Henry” may be trying to hide the fact that Dharma’s activities on the island are a lot more complex than an elaborate psychological experiment.

Whatever the case, the question of what happens when the countdown reaches “0” is now even more complex. The fact that “Henry” claims that nothing happened is basically enough evidence to suggest that something would happen, because he’s such a master manipulator. But why tempt Locke to allow the countdown to lapse? The possibility is that the countdown and everything related to it may be completely unrelated to the true goals of the Dharma Initiative.

After all, the hatch and its systems were never designed to be handled by a group as large as the JackLocke tribe. Even accounting for the fact that a handful of people are designated to watch over the hatch and keep entering the code, it’s more than originally intended, if the “orientation” film is to be believed. So it should always be remembered, when thinking of the countdown, that the maximum occupancy for the hatch was meant to be “2”.

It’s also interesting to note that the Others, who are now tied to the Dharma Initiative, haven’t said a thing about the code and the countdown. If it was something so critical, why would the Others allow the JackLocke tribe to be in control of it? Two possibilities come to mind. Either the countdown’s purpose is no longer valid, since the conditions have changed, or the Others want the consequence of a missed countdown to take place.

It all comes down to the fact that everything “Henry” says or suggests must be taken with a mountain of salt, and it’s the difference in how much his words are trusted that generates more and more conflict. That said, it’s quite possible that the reference to “Him” is completely genuine, and there’s a reason not to cross the person in charge of this entire project. If it was genuine, it’s a good bet that “He” is Alvar Hanso. (If anything, the question is whether Hanso has already appeared on-screen.)

What’s brilliant about this episode is that there’s ambiguity in terms of what Hurley did or did not see. Most of the evidence does suggest that it’s all in his head, at least where “Dave” is concerned, but that’s not necessarily the case. After all, Jack and others saw people who were supposed to be dead or, at least, not on the island. It all comes down to where Hurley’s psychosis ends and Dharma’s intentions begin.

Sawyer’s role in this episode was quite interesting. For one thing, he continues to push for some degree of control over trade in goods on the island, which is interesting in light of his struggle with Jack in the previous episode. But the best Sawyer moment had to be his tussle with Hurley. It figures that the one person who would take Sawyer down is the last person anyone expected to go on the attack! Jin’s reaction alone was priceless.

It was a little bit of a risk to follow an episode with a major reveal with a more stand-alone character-based hour, but the writing has become a lot more consistent in the second half of the season and the effect is not as jarring as the last time a Hurley episode followed a Locke episode. In fact, it feels like the series has returned to the level of quality evident during this stretch of the first season, which is a great place to begin the final leg of the season arc.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was another strong character piece, delving into one of the questions that had long been left unanswered. This episode continues to complicate one’s conception of what is happening on the island, and while that could have been frustrating, it provides the perfect counterpoint to other recent revelations. The second season has hit its stride in a big way!

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

(Season 2 Average: 7.3)