Ep 310 - Hurley Lives, but "Tricia Tanaka is Dead"

So there were two big surprises this week, from my perspective: 1) what on Earth the title, “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” could refer to, and 2) the negative reactions I got from so many of you (but, hey, love the comments, so keep ‘em coming!) First there was one of this blog’s best unofficial publicists, Kelly, who started my morning with this missive, “how much did Lost suck last night?” More from Kelly later. Then there was my coworker, a fellow Lost Loving Lawyer named Todd, who shrugged, grimaced, and said, “nyeah” when I got into the office (after pestering my secretary for two hours to try to find me so he could vent about it). More on Todd’s perspective later, as well. Finally, there was Grettybetty, a frequent message board poster who was kind enough to invite me in to the exceptional unofficial Lost message board, http://www.lostusers.com/. Her message began with, “the beer is skunky, but they are able to make the bus RUN????? WTF???” Again, Gret’s point will get some more air below.

I want to be clear – I loved this episode, complete with its "Little Miss Sunshine" homage. Now, I don’t want Lost to be this way every week, but after so much darkness since the break ended, and after Jack’s character development really starting to annoy me, I thought it was great that the writers reminded us why we care not just about the mystery our castaways are “Lost” in, but why we care about them in the first place.

So, here's my recap (with some help from Kelly, Todd and GrettyBetty, and some photos snagged from BuddyTV.com)…

Flashback
Hurley’s flashback this week revealed even less we needed to know than Jack’s did last week. As Kelly put it in her email this morning, “no interesting information was given during the Hurley flashbacks.” I agree, Kell. That said, it was a great character piece that enriched our notion of how a once-skinny barrio kid named Hugo became the slackerish, heavyset zillionaire called Hurley. As a boy, Hugo loved nothing more than working with his father, David (Cheech Marin! Freakin’ genius!) on the latter’s old Camaro.

Even though deadbeat David didn’t bring the carburetor Hugo knew would be needed to get the thing running, he had a valuable lesson for his son: “Having hope is never stupid. In this world, son, you gotta make your own luck.” Unfortunately, Hugo would long set aside that advice as his dad picked that very moment to hop on his Yamaha and run off to Vegas, not to return for the next 17 years. Later, we got to see Hurley in his post-lottery, pre-Australia life. For those of us who wondered how Randy, Hurley’s boss at Mr. Cluck’s, would later become Hurley’s employee at the box company (where he tormented John Locke), now we know: the first “business” Hurley bought with his lotto winnings was the old fast food dive where he worked before the numbers brought him all that moolah. But Hurley already suspected he was cursed by the numbers (after all, his grandfather died, and his mother’s new house burned to the ground), so when local reporter Tricia Tanaka came to do a fluff piece for the TV news about Hurley’s taking over his former employer, she was killed by…a falling meteor that blew the place up! Hence, “Tricia Tanaka is dead.” Just to make him feel more cursed, that’s when deadbeat dad David returned, obviously to try to mooch off his suddenly rich son (and, eww, fulfill mom’s needs for the first time in 17 years). Hugo was, by then, determined to go to Australia to figure out the numbers, but we got a sense of what he lost when his dad took off when he took David to the garage, where the symbol of Hurley’s lost sense of hope, the old Camaro, still sat, waiting for the father-son project to resume. David was not such a great dad, and he even tried to stop Hugo from giving up the money by getting a tarot reader to pretend to lift the “curse.” In the end he was not so bad, though, as David confessed that, while he was only there at first for the money, that didn’t mean that Australia would break the curse. The only thing that would was hope. He told his son to give away all the money except enough to fix the Camaro and take the long-delayed father-son road trip to the Grand Canyon. Although Hurley insisted on his trek to Australia, David swore he’d still be there when his son got back…

A parting thought on the flashback (taken from the ABC.com/ American Express “Lost Moments” site) – could the name of Hurley’s dad, “David” be connected to the name “Dave” on his imaginary friend from the asylum?

Real Time
I concur with Grettybetty, who thought the realtime action on the island opened with a truly heartwrenching scence. Hurley, relating what happened when he, Jack, Kate and Sawyer were abducted, apparently to nobody, continues to talk, apparently to nobody, about the group on the beach. He says he’s scared, but then he’s been scared most of his time there anyway, “except when I’m with you. I miss you, Libby.” He puts a rose by the crude cross that marks Libby’s grave on Boone hill, and, I hear you Grets, ‘cause my eyes welled up, too.

What else happens on the beach? Hurley finds out about the clairvoyant death sentence that has Charlie in a funk. Paolo and Nikki continue being utterly useless. Just as Hurley comes to think the deadly curse that seems to follow him will soon take Charlie (just like it took his granddad, the unfortunate investor, and Tricia Tanaka), we get a return visit from one of Lost’s most lovable and seldom-seen characters…

Vincent!
Vincent prances out of the jungle, carrying a rotting human arm, which was holding a key on a rabbit’s foot chain. Hurley wants to follow, but Charlie, still feeling down (and a bit in the cross hairs) responds, “Yeah – chase the dog with the creepy skeletal arm into the jungle. You be my guest.” Like Lassie, Vincent seems to want Hurley not to chase but to follow…to an overturned, overgrown VW bus which Hurley sees and says, “awesome.” Of course, the bus has a Dharma logo where the VW should be.

A thought on Vincent…
Walt’s dog somehow survived the crash from inside a crate in the under-plane cargo hold? Somehow I doubt it. I’m starting to think Vincent is some combination of 1) Walt’s apparent power to conjure up animals by thinking about them, and 2) whatever it is on the island that creates apparitions in order to reveal the island’s secrets to our survivors. What’s that, you wonder? Think about it… Jack found the cave (complete with our castaways’ fresh water source and “Adam and Eve” and their white and black rocks) by following his dead father. Locke and Eko found the Pearl station by following Yemi. Boone died because he followed Locke’s dream to where the old plane had crashed. And now, Vincent led Hurley right to the bus, with the ignition key in hand. Well, in a hand, which belonged to…

Roger

For the first time since Desmond, we met a guy in a Swan hatch jumpsuit. Alas, the guy, who Sawyer later nicknamed Skeletor, was a dead man whose nametag read Roger Worman. Or, more likely, Roger, who was a Work Man. The guys on the Buddytv Lost site posit – could Roger be the “him” Kelvin was waiting for, but who didn’t show up because he died in the overturned truck? And, yes, that’s right, the nickname came from…

Sawyer!
Meanwhile, in the jungle, Sawyer and Kate, sweaty messes, believe they’re almost home. Sawyer steps on a dart, and Kate yanks it from his foot. Sawyer talks about how he used to watch Little House as a kid when he had mono, and it looks like they’re going to have another tender moment. Kate says they can get things back if they just apologize to each other. Sawyer, his guard back up (again with the self-loathing thing) says he has nothing to apologize for. When Kate doesn’t just melt over this, Sawyer says “so that’s how its’ going to be.” At that point, with his jerky persona back up, Kate stops calling him James and says, “Welcome home, Sawyer” They emerge on the beach, and first Sun and then the extras come to greet them. Charlie hangs back. Sawyer looks at Kate like he’s already lost her, and she looks back in much the same way as they talk to different groups of castaways.

Back at the van, Jin discovers that Roger was on a beer run! And Dharma had both light and regular Dharma beer! Jin and Hurley work to lever the bus back onto its four tires. Sawyer shows up to complain about the theft of his scotch, but Hurley, suddenly hopeful, shouts, “dude you’re alive!” And bearhugs the big galloot Jin tries some English – “good to see you” – leading to a great Sawyer line – “hey, you’re hooked on phonics!” Sawyer sheepishly says Kate’s with him but “they still have Jack,” and Hurley, surprisingly, says that’s fine, Jack will be alright. We all are. Hurley believes the car and Sawyer’s return are a sign that things are picking up. After all, getting an old car running is something he hasn’t done since the last day he really had hope…
Sayid asks Kate what happened with Jack. He asks about other boats. Locke wants to know if the Others can leave the island. Kate tells Sayid and Locke about the zoo, and the Other village. Kate says she’s getting Jack back and is going to get help, but doesn’t answer when Locke asks “help from who?”

In the jungle, Hurley, Jin and Sawyer succeed in tipping over the van, which is filled with old paper wrappers. There’s a blueprint for a winding road, suggesting Dharma was trying to connect two points on the island, but we don’t know what points or why. Sawyer finds the beer, then Roger’s head. Hurley goes to start the car as Sawyer takes a handful of beer cans. Hurley turns the key, but nothing happens. So Sawyer opens the flat, skunky beer and takes a sip. Again, I agree with Kelly, who said, “watching Sawyer drink hot, skunky, flat beer made me want to vomit.” Hurley is looking for hope in fixing the car – but Sawyer says there sure as hell ain’t no hope here. And that is my response to you, Kell – yeah, it was gross that Sawyer was drinking the icky old beer, but in a hopeless situation like he felt he was in, it was something to hold onto and try to enjoy for him, just like the bus was for Hurley.

Hurley prays for help while he sits with Vincent. Sawyer tosses him “help” in the form of a beer, but it rolls past. Hurley follows it with his eyes, and smiles. He goes to get Charlie and says they’re getting the car running. Hurley tells Charlie that, if he comes, and doesn’t die, they win! Hurley gives a pep talk (ok, a bitch-slap), and Charlie comes. In the best scene in weeks, Sawyer teaches Jin the only three things a woman needs to hear. “I’m sorry.” “You were right.” “Those pants don’t make you look fat.” They then help Hurley and Charlie push the bus to a hill top, and look down on a relatively treeless hill. Hurley says he’s going to jump start by popping the clutch when they push him, rocks be damned.

Charlie says he’s going to ride shotgun! Victory or death! Hurley starts the car, 8-track and all, and turns away just as they nearly smash into the rocks. They drive across the clearing and do donuts as Sawyer, Jin and Vincent come running after them. They pile in and go for a drive, finally diverted from their plight by the simplest of things, a joyride in a big dumb car.
On this, GrettyBetty grouses, “yes, my friends...i GET the part that it was for FUN that Hurley wanted to start the van. Hurley is the FUN guy...this we are supposed to juxtapose with the few good memories he has with his dad restoring the Camaro (after winning all that money, he STILL had it in the garage, mothballed in exact same condition as it was when his dad bailed on him. WAITING for his dad's return so they could finish it together)...” And to me, that was the point. Particularly this group needed this – Hurley, who has been without hope for so long and yet, as Locke and Sayid pointed out a couple weeks ago, was the camp cheerleader; Sawyer, consigned to loneliness, getting to bond with other people; Jin, trapped in virtual silence by his lack of English, got to connect with the boys; and Charlie, understandably bummed by the news of his imminent death, gave death the finger and enjoyed a moment of hope.

And that I believe explains the other problem GrettyBetty had with this episode – that any environmental conditions that would skunkify beer would also render the car unstartable. Sure, in the real world, but on this island, the laws of physics often seem to bend for what people need psychologically or mythologically. Just as the island, as Locke would say, seemed to provide hatches to further the quests and food drops to feed our survivors, so did it provide this van at the moment that these four characters needed it most.

Later, as Hurley keeps driving in the clearing, Sawyer looks at Jin and Sun, and Charlie and Claire, and, realizing he’s probably lost Kate, drinks alone.

I’ll let Kelly tell you about the last scene: “Kate was being unreasonably cranky by not asking for Sayid's and Locke's help to find Jack.” Kate’s excuse was that they have no motivation and don’t know where to look. Locke says she’s wrong – they have a compass bearing. Sayid scoffs about the “sign” of Eko’s stick, to which Locke refers. Shots ring out, but Kate says it’s safe…and out comes Rousseau. Again, Kelly had some very strong thoughts: “it ended with Kate telling Rousseau about Alex being on the other island, like it was some big deal and an interesting plot twist, when all along we've all known that that girl is Rousseau's daughter, big deal.”
Here, alas, I think the scene played out the way it did because the writers wanted to take it to a certain place (i.e. bringing Rousseau along). I think this part was handled pretty clumsily, but, just as Hurley found Hope in an old beat-up car, I find it here: for the first time that I can think of, the characters are talking to each other about the things we know but they don’t. Sure, it was no reveal to the audience (or shouldn’t have been) that Alex the Other was once baby Alex Rousseau. The big deal here is not that connection, but that Rousseau was brought in on it. Never having seen an “Other” before Ben, but always knowing some group of “other” people took her baby, now she can join the main action because her 16-year-long paranoid delusion has turned out to be correct. Now that’s a plot point, even if it’s not a reveal.

Afterthought
So why did I like this episode? I thought it brought it back to the intangible aspects of Season 1 that made most of us love the show. Granted, my buddy Todd’s reaction is understandable, because he came on board in Season 2, when the writing stopped focusing on character and started being all about the mysteries on the island. And they are fascinating (and the reason I maintain this blog). But if we don’t care about the characters, we’ll lose interest in the plot. This episode gave us snippets of all our chacters (less Jack and the Others) that reminded us why we cared. It gave some psychological insight with the flashback even if it didn’t reveal anything to further the mystery (at least, not apparently). And it gave Sawyer some of his best lines all season and, while returning his relationship with Kate to the status quo ante, made us understand what opportunity those two have lost.

Next week, when the mythologically-intense “Enter 77” runs, please note I’ll be traveling late in the week and may not be able to post until a few days later than normal. So I continue to welcome your comments and thoughts and will continue to work them into my post.