s2e04: Everybody Hates Hugo

Again, spoilers.

Better episode than last week's. They finally decided to settle things down and move back into what made last season so great - the character-driven episodes. Better still, this one fleshed out Hurley a bit, giving him something to be concerned about other than all numbers, all the time. (Though it's a little plot-holey to watch him pressing the button with bored unconcern, isn't it?)

We start with, oh guess what, a dream sequence. Why Jin needed to show up here I don't know - perhaps it will pay off later? It could just be a call-back to Hurley telling Jin about the rumor he spoke English last season... or it could just be Abrams and Co. intentionally messing with our heads. Either way, I'm officially embarrassed to have devoted an entire post to it when it was such an obvious fake-out. (I do still wonder if Jin doesn't at least understand English a little better than he lets on, though.)

In the main plot, Hurley is put in charge of doing inventory on the food and then not giving anyone any. Because everyone on the island is good at having secrets but terrible at keeping them, Charlie finds out about the food and makes Hurley feel like a jerk. Hurley brings Rose into the hatch and then, remembering how winning the lottery and lying about it cost him a friend, decides that everyone is going to hate him no matter how he tries to parcel out the food, so he plans to blow it up (yeah, no one will hate you for that!) before just deciding to hand it all out in one big go, so that everyone can just kind of have a good night.

(For the record, do we think there's anyone in the world who wouldn't immediately run out to collect 114 million dollars? Odd behavior on Hurley's part here. I understand the idea - he's a big loser, so he needs to know who his friends are before he cashes in and everyone wants to cozy up. But he couldn't tell DJ Qualls? How was it not obvious already that this guy was his friend?)

In the other plot, sulky Sawyer eats up some time. Finally everyone comes out of the hole and go to another bunker where the tail survivors are holed up. Supposedly there are 23 of them, but it ends up being more like six. The woman who gave Michael the 23 number seems as surprised as he is. (By the way... 23, eh?) One of them is Bernard, Rose's husband - everyone who didn't see that coming, raise your hands. (I'd better not see any hands, people. Come on.)

Oh, in still a third plot, Claire finds the bottle with notes from the raft washed up on the beach. She and Shannon have a little freak and decide to give it to Sun (I guess because she's the only one on the island with connections to someone on the raft). Sun buries it at the end of the episode.

On the next Lost! Sun is tired of everyone saying the raft is fine because she knows it's not! (I know something you don't know, Sun.) Meanwhile, Sawyer flirts with Ana Lucia because who doesn't love a dirty, scowly, hairy Southern dude? And we finally get a glimpse of The Others and their handiwork as Michael goes in search of Walt yet again.

This was a good episode. It was definitely emblematic of what I love about the show but so many people dislike - the plot takes a backseat for an episode (for the most part) while character development hits the forefront. Yeah, we didn't learn much about anything, but it was a very nicely-done episode in giving us some Hurley background, and you had to be touched by the ending. I'm glad they're finally reining themselves in after giving us probably too much information in the first three weeks.