There’s often been an element of comedy to Hurley’s episodes. After all, the ‘unlikely millionaire’ setup is an inherently funny one as it is, and the opening of this episode adhered to that template. Increasingly, though, as Hurley gets a more prominent role in the Lost canon, he’s been getting weightier and weightier episodes, and it doesn’t get any weightier than this, his own version of my perpetually-referenced benchmark, The Constant, as he reunites with Libby, his once-and-future love interest. Of course, Ilana’s death wasn’t totally senseless. We know that the island ‘isn’t done” with some of Lost‘s characters, and now we’ve seen what happens when it is done with you, whether you’re a sassy, gun-toting follower of Jacob or a several-hundred-year-old slave ship. The message is clear: once you’ve fulfilled your purpose on the island, don’t book any holidays too far in advance. Any characters not on the list of candidates should probably start getting concerned about their chances of making it to their next birthday at this point. As for Hurley’s mental state, without the island’s effects on him, he seems to be doing quite well in the flash-sideways timeline. Shame for Desmond and Libby to go and spoil it, really. It’s interesting to note that characters who are dead in the original universe seem to have a better ability to perceive the ‘other’ timeline unaided, and as suspected, that more or less explains what Juliet was yammering on about just before she kicked the bucket back in episode 1 of this series. As for Desmond, I have to admit that I find his new zen-state of acceptance a little irritating to watch, even if it was fun to watch Smoke-Locke be wrong-footed by his complete lack of fear. There’s absolutely no way that Desmond is gone for good. And even better, his plummet down the well suggests we might get one more chance to see the donkey wheel. Presumably, Locke’s near-death experience will allow him to see the ‘other’ universe, but what will that mean? After all, his counterpart isn’t himself, it’s the Smoke Monster. Overall, another fantastic episode. Regrettably, the Lost rule of quality states that the more good episodes you have in a row, the worse the inevitable bad one will be. And given who the episode is about, next week is either going to be really good or really, really bad. Let’s hope we’re pleasantly surprised. Check out our review of episode 11 here.
