Episode 12 - Everybody Loves Hugo
18 April 2010
Review
Present: Michael visits Hurley and warns him that people will die if they blow up the plane. Ilana blows herself up after collecting dynamite from the Black Rock. Hurley agrees to go get more but upon arriving he blows up the ship and with it all the dynamite. Richard is angry and insists he will go to the Barracks and find more explosives. Miles and Ben agree to go with him but everyone else follows Hurley who wants to go talk to Locke. Hurley gets further direction from Michael and learns that he is trapped on the island. Others like him are responsible for the whispers. Meanwhile MIB takes Desmond to the well and throws him in.
Flashback: Hurley took over the Mr Cluck franchise and is now a hugely wealthy and well loved benefactor. His mother sends him on a blind date and Libby comes over to say hi. She is sure that they have met before but Dr Brooks takes her back to Santa Rosa. Hurley is depressed and bumps into Desmond who encourages him into seeing her again. Hurley goes to see Libby; she tells him she thinks they knew each other in another life. He asks her out on a date and they end up having a picnic at the beach. When they kiss he remembers his other life. Desmond waits outside Ben and Locke's school and then runs Locke over and drives off.
The Good: The Hurley sideways story was pretty straightforward. Instead of being a slacker who won the lottery, he is a smart businessman. Instead of losing friends over his riches, everyone loves him including the very much alive Pierre Chang. And finally he gets to be with Libby, the woman who loved him for who he was. They even got to go on their beach picnic date at last. With Desmond on hand to nudge him toward her it all played out as you might expect. It was gently touching but completely predictable. I did like that his relationship with his mother had barely changed though, she treats him the same way no matter what he does in life.
The final scene of the flashsideways was entirely unexpected as Desmond ploughed into Locke leaving him in a desperate state. It was certainly unpredictable and intriguing. I actually thought the best written dialogue of the episode was Ben quizzing Desmond over why he was loitering outside the school. Ben was just as suspicious as he was on the island but for positive motive. I loved his interrogation style quick follow up question of "what's your son's name?", rather like the way Sayid once tested him (214).
On the island Ben rightly pointed out what Ilana's death might mean for the rest of them. Since he killed Jacob he has become cynical about the use the island puts people to and it was nice that someone acknowledged her death in some way. He and Miles choosing to stick with Richard made sense. Ben has more personal reasons but Miles pointing out the rampage of murder he recently witnessed was good logic. Hurley admitting his lies and fear to Jack was very consistent behaviour. Hurley has never been a confident leader and he raised decent questions throughout the episode about what might happen under each scenario being discussed.
MIB's facial expressions when responding to Desmond's "What is the point in being afraid?" were suitably chilling.
The Bad: I thought this episode was inefficient and frustrating.
Each of the major developments in the plot were handled in ways which didn't have much emotional impact. Ilana blew up which was something of a shock. But in the fine tradition of Lost no one seemed to care or react with much emotion. Without debating the reality of that or not I was left wondering what the point of Ilana's character was after all this (See The Unknown). Surely a character dying should have more impact than that?
Then we had the Black Rock being destroyed by Hurley. Surely that was a huge moment for his character? He had to be so sure that it was the right thing to do and he had to be incredibly brave to do it. Yet none of those emotions was the focus of the scene, it was more of a device to divide Richard, Ben and Miles from the rest of the survivors. In fact the focus of Hurley's emotional state was in his statement that "dead people are more reliable than alive people." That's quite a claim. Of course it's not entirely surprising considering Hurley spent the last two years in a mental hospital talking to ghosts. But we have never had a story focussing on how upset, scared, disturbed or otherwise affected Hurley must have been to come to that conclusion. It's very difficult to relate to a character who says something like that when we haven't had an episode designed to get us in an empathetic state with him.
Which leads into his conversations with Michael. By this point in the game Michael's return was an anti-climax. Especially as his relationship with Walt is the real unresolved emotional storyline, not his status as a killer. We have already seen him attempt to atone for that. Michael's instructions to Hurley are of course vague, yet Hurley risks his life twice in order to carry them out. Again there is no emotional journey for us to follow because although we can imagine why Hurley might trust him, it's not made relatable.
Michael is then revealed to be a trapped soul unable to leave the island because of the bad things he did. Hurley guesses that this is the cause of the whispers and apparently that is the case. If that is the whole story then it is a major disappointment. It's possible that there is more to it but on the surface that revelation means the whispers played almost zero role in the story (see The Unknown). But whether that is the truth or not the revelation was delivered in as flat and uninspiring way as possible. With no emotional connection to our story the reveal didn't really matter.
The disconnection from an emotional journey goes deeper into the writing though. Richard is now convinced that he must stop the MIB. Fine, he has plenty of reason to believe that from his own experience. But presumably a day or two ago Hurley passed on the words of his long dead love for him. Those words were what reinvigorated him and led him to decide to destroy the plane. So why didn't he have more of an open discussion with Hurley? This guy was present for one of the most intimate moments of his life. Wouldn't it be reasonable to show Hurley some respect and discuss openly all the options they had? In fact wouldn't Richard have asked Hurley directly why he was seemingly contradicting the instructions which Isabella gave him only days ago? The lack of any hint of that story felt weak.
But it goes deeper than that. I have talked about the frivolous way death is treated on this show before, so I won't dwell on Ilana's end but the absence of much emotion from the other survivors was disappointing. Then you have Frank, to everyone's knowledge the only qualified pilot on the island remaining mute throughout these discussions. Doesn't it stand to reason that he might be asked to play a crucial role in actually flying the plane? Shouldn't he offer an opinion on whether the plane can be flown? Doesn't it need fuel or air in its tyres or something that it would be difficult to get? Shouldn't Richard be upset that Frank is leaving him and walking into the arms of the MIB who wants to fly off the island?
Then there's Jack bringing up the fact that he promised to get Sun off the island. Why did he do that? It runs contrary to his stated belief that he is on the island to do something important or indeed to let go of trying to fix things. If you are letting go Jack, stop making promises.
Finally we have Desmond pushing Hurley into seeing Libby, following him to the beach and then mowing down Locke. Intriguing as it is it also raises so many questions that it becomes difficult to buy into (see The Unknown). Just on the surface it seems very convenient that he would be able to catch Hurley at the exact moment he was in a mood to talk about the key relationship which could make him remember the island. Even more implausible that Desmond could discern from the beach that some positive resolution had been reached and of course completely confusing as to what he thinks attempted murder is going to achieve. I am sure that these issues will be addressed but their presentation actually frustrated more than it intrigued. Again Desmond's emotional journey is being concealed and not made relatable. Yes it might lead to a satisfying conclusion but there's also a good chance that it will lead to a deeply unsatisfying one. If Desmond is running people over on a hunch I will be as happy as I was when Jack thought setting off a nuclear bomb was a reasonable course of action.
The Unknown: Another truckload. Do Hurley and Libby now remember everything about their other lives or just flashes of things? Same goes for Desmond. And how does he know what to target in these individuals? Was he just going to see where Hurley's mental state was at or did he know Libby was the key? Does he remember Charlie as his son's name or is he just throwing that out there? Why did he run over Locke? What does Widmore think he's doing right now?
On the island Desmond's zen state was confusing too. Did he know there was something different about Sayid and Locke? Did he realise why he should be scared of Locke? MIB throwing Desmond down the well was another big moment which was ruined by its presentation. Again I'm left to wonder whether he just wants Desmond out of the way or if he intended to kill him. Clearly Desmond won't be dead. But if later MIB implies he meant to kill him then this reeks of poor writing. Writing which would make MIB look implausibly stupid. If he just intended to keep him out of the way, then why? Who is the slightly older boy now grinning at MIB? Was MIB lying when he said Widmore was only interested in power or was that close to the truth?
Will we ever see Ilana again? Did she really train her whole life just for this? It seems like such a waste. What did Hurley see in that bag that was so important?
Is that all there is to the whispers? At least five or six times they were heard just before a character appeared or disappeared. Do they not have any more significance than being trapped souls like Michael wandering around watching the action? If so that sounds like a complete waste of time.
Best Moment: Ben interrogating Desmond.
The Bottom Line: A deeply frustrating episode. The show attempts to push forward with big developments and bumbles them all. The mystery in the show has become why certain characters are behaving the way they are. Good drama connects you to the emotions of characters. The disconnect here is deep and irritating on several levels.
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