Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Lost in Thought: "Everybody Loves Hurley"

I just realized that I was watching this last episode of Lost in my John Locke outfit. I have these green cargo pants with a bunch of pockets and I'm wearing a tighter blue t-shirt. Shave my head and throw me in a wheelchair and I'll tell you "Don't tell me what I can and can't do!"

Anyway, I will get into this by saying that I really like the man on a mission Desmond in the flashsideways. It's interesting with his rather brutal attack via high end luxury car on a man in a wheelchair, because does that mean he remembers Locke's attempt on his life on the island realm? I am assuming so.

Is Desmond dead on the island? There's a good chance, although it was admittedly anticlimatic. Although maybe his role is ultimately about the flashsideways and helping people to connect to the island. I don't think that they are going to try to head to the island, but perhaps they may need to do something to either save their island selves or use their island memories to save themselves.

Finally, they have revealed the nature of the whispers, although I was hoping that it would turn out to be Jacob or whoever else that was viewing the people via the mirrors in the lighthouse. But dead people are cool, too. It is interesting because the show is once again painting the island as hell or at least purgatory.

Purgatory or at least a place like purgatory would make a lot of sense. It's a place you're trapped until a change can occur before you leave and find your ultimate destination. Some could say that life for us is the same kind of place for people. It's a place where we have all of these ideas coming at us and we are broken and we have to decide what we are going to do.

The one scene I liked and stood out for me was a rather small one. It was the instance where Hurley claims that Jacob talked to him and has told him what to do and in reality it wasn't true. In addition, Jack seems to have believed him and follows Hurley. When it turns out that Jack is aware that Hurley didn't actually talk to Jacob and Hurley asks him why he would come, the answer was, "Because I trust you, Hurley".

Before I say this, I want to stress that I don't think Jacob is God in the show of Lost. What I think he represents is our perceived relationship to a higher power. The idea that there is a lifestyle that we follow based on essentially heresay and tradition and people are following it despite how wild and far-fetched the instructions can become. Hurley is the closest thing at this point for the island's spiritual leader. He is connected to the island and has a sense of where they should be going but it is interesting that he is willing to use the old "God told me so" arguement in order to convince the others to come. It's interesting that for Jack at least, that he is aware of the lie, but he is fine with it and goes along with it because he trusts Hurley (despite the fact he was deceitful).

If it's from the candidates are going to be taking over Jacob's job, it is hard to say who will be the choice. Whoever it may be, might be the creator's way of indicating the new perception of God. Perhaps? Things are definitely different both in the world of the show and the real world than they were. It could ultimately be a commentary on the relationship between people, faith and purpose.

2 comments:

Brad said...

I really enjoyed this episode (granted, I usually enjoy Hugo-centric ones). The things that stood out to me most involved Desmond however.

This episode revealed a lot of what Desmond's mission is. It was clear at the end of the previous episode is that there is some link in understanding of purpose between island Desmond and sideways Desmond and that each are aware that this other timeline exists. Sideways Desmond's mission has been somewhat revealed through his interactions with Hurley: he wants to make other members of the Oceanic 815 flight aware of this alternate timeline. He clearly encourages Hugo to pursue Libby and that notion that she remembers him. However, I'm not entirely sure why he chose to run Locke down at the end. Perhaps he remembers that John tried to kill him?

This episode also confirmed something that occurred to me after reading a few things after "Happily Ever After" is that sideways Eloise is perfectly aware of the split timestream. This is consistent with her role before the events of the past season. Her awareness of the island still exists and her awareness of time streams, or rather guardian of the time streams, is still intact. She shows it most clearly in the previous episode when she tells Desmond that his pursuit of Penny "...is, in fact, a violation." She was aware that if Desmond were to meet Penny, that the timestream of their sideways world would be upset.

I don't think that island Desmond is dead after his long fall, though. I can't explain it, but I just don't think that they'd build up his role as someone special and just get rid of him.

I was glad to see Hurley and Libby back together, and I thought the flips in the sideways world were smart and clever. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Hurley's very different life and seeing his and Libby's relationship blossom in a similar way as before.

Jack's trust of Hurley also struck me as a reinforcement of Hurley's status as a speaker of Truth on the island. So far this season, we have been able to trust almost anything that Hurley has said. Is guilt in lying and confession to Jack only reinforces that he has the best interests of the group in mind and he's honest. In fact, I would argue that one of the central truths of Hurley's character is Truth. His hatred of the lie to cover-up the Oceanic Six's return reinforces this idea.

All in all I thought it was a pretty great episode and look forward to the next.

And as a non-Lost-related aside, hope you're having a great trip!

Dana said...

jacob is the pope. i'm calling it. the smoke monster...smoke is used when deciding the new pope...coincidence? i think not.