Whispers in the Darkness: Guided by Voices on Lost

Well, we finally learned just what those whispers are in the jungle.

This week's episode of Lost ("Everybody Loves Hugo"), written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Daniel Attias, provided a few answers as well as some explosions in an episode that focused on Hugo Reyes in both timelines. Acting as a bookend with Season Two's "Everyone Hates Hugo," this weeks installment cast Hurley not as a doomed victim but as a millionaire philanthropist beloved by everyone and lucky in every way.

Except maybe love.

Given that we now know that Lost as a whole is about the transformative and redemptive powers of love, it's only fitting that Hurley would get a second chance at achieving true happiness with his own soul mate. If the Lost-X timeline represents a new set of variables for the character, what was Hurley's greatest desire? The chance to reverse his luck, to bring good to the people around him rather than destruction?

So what did I think of this week's episode? Grab yourself a family size bucket of Mr. Cluck's chicken, make a donation to the Human Fund, pucker up, and let's discuss "Everyone Loves Hugo."

While not my favorite episode of Lost this season, I thought that this episode did a fine job at delivering some answers to a long-standing mystery (the whisperers), reintroducing Libby (Cynthia Watros) back into the overarching mythology of the series, and paying homage to some classic moments from the series' past. (Boom.)

Jorge Garcia's Hurley has long been one of my favorite characters and a misunderstood one at that. I've loved the way that the writers have gradually given Hurley more prominence within the castaway group, slowly raising him to something approaching a spiritual leader, one who connects the world of the living with that of the dead and is able to pass messages back and forth between the two spheres.

But this Hurley is one who has been plagued by self-doubt, by thoughts of despair, and by self-hatred. His ability to see and communicate with the dead has lead him to the madhouse and his bad luck has tainted nearly every one of his relationships. Which is why Libby once offered him the promise of something better: of the happiness that comes from romantic union, from finding your soul mate and having your love reciprocated. That revelation was cut short for Hurley when Libby was brutally murdered by Michael back in Season Two.

Lost-X Hurley. So imagine just how lucky you'd be if you got the chance to make that first connection all over again, which is just what Hurley gets to do in the Lost-X timeline. Here, Hurley is a successful businessman, the owner of a global chain of Mr. Cluck's chicken restaurants and a gracious philanthropist who donates his time and money to many charitable organizations. (Hence, the good karma, one can assume.) He's introduced at yet another function celebrating his achievements and good works by none other than Pierre Chang, here a warm and loquacious master of ceremonies who is only too willing to fete Hurley and announce the opening of a wing of the museum in his name.

But while Hurley might be successful and magnanimous, he's still being bullied by his overbearing mother, who arranges a blind date for him with a neighbor's relative, Rosalita. The assumption is that, despite his wealth, he can't be truly happy without the love of a woman. But, despite his mother's well-intentioned meddling, Rosalita doesn't turn up for their blind date at Spanish Johnny, leaving the door open for Hurley to be reunited--in a sense, anyway--with someone else.

Lost-X Libby. While we're no closer to learning about the mainstream Libby's still mysterious backstory than we were several seasons ago, we did get a chance to see Hurley and Libby get that first date after all. Here, Libby is once again a patient of Santa Rosa Mental Hospital (while Hurley is psychologically stable) but, unlike in the mainstream reality, Libby isn't a catatonic mess but there voluntarily, hoping to uncover the truth about the seemingly false memories that are rattling around in her skull.

Like Charlie before her, Libby is able to tap into her subconscious to remember events from the mainstream timeline, events that--as it's 2004--haven't even happened yet and will never happen. While they're impossible memories, they're also entirely real, the cumulative experiences of another Libby living a different life. So why are Charlie and Libby able to remember while the others cannot? Easy: they're both dead in the mainstream reality. They have no consciousness in the other timestream so instead the totality of their being is housed in their Lost-X bodies.

Given this fact, the memories are closer to the surface for them, they are more easily accessed, and therefore more vivid. They don't need Desmond to awaken them for they've already been activated. It's this juxtaposition of memory, the dissonance of having two sets of memories laid on top of one another that leads Libby to Santa Rosa. It's important that she's there out of free will rather than being imprisoned, though her time at the hospital likely means that she wasn't a passenger aboard Oceanic Flight 815, a major difference between this reality and the mainstream one. (Likewise, Shannon too wasn't aboard the flight, which makes me wonder about tailies Mr. Eko and Ana-Lucia as well.)

Is it fate or coincidence that brings Hurley and Libby together at Spanish Johnny? After all, Hurley is meant to be meeting his blind date Rosalita when he's approached by Libby, who tells him that they are soul mates and that she has memories of time shared with him. While Libby is led off by Dr. Brooks (Bruce Davison), Hurley can't shake what happened, even though he has no recollection of Libby and believes her to be mentally unstable.

But the two are meant to be together. And Desmond, acting in the capacity of course-correction, appears at Hurley's side at Mr. Cluck's (along with the number 42) in order to bring the two of them together. Desmond's plan works as Hurley goes to see Libby at Santa Rosa (where, in quite a nice callback, a patient plays Connect Four in the background) and arranges a picnic with Libby on the beach. Once there, Libby's kiss awakens the dormant memories within Hurley's subsconscious as his mind is flooded with images from the time he spent with Libby on the island.

A switch has been flipped, not just within Lost-X Hurley, finally able to complete himself now that he's been reunited with Libby but also within the mainstream Hurley, as he steps into his own destiny: to lead the survivors.

Hurley. Back on the island, Hurley seems to be able to finally take on the mantle of leader as Jack is oddly willing to take a back seat for a change. (Which, if I'm being honest, makes me like Jack a hell of a lot more.)

While that role is initially Ilana's, having trained her whole life to protect the candidates, her divine mission comes to an end this week as she's blown up by the volatile dynamite she brought back from the Black Rock. Boom. It's a nice callback to Leslie Arzt, who suffered a similar fate at the end of Season One. It's interesting that the writers would chose to kill Ilana off now: we still haven't gotten her backstory and, despite the fact that we've spent nearly two seasons with her, I don't feel like we've gotten to know her at all. But it does mean that it's one less newbie to focus on as the emphasis is being placed back on our original castaways... and Desmond Hume.

With Ilana dead, the group is unsure what to do next. Richard wants to go get more dynamite and use it to blow up the Ajira plane so that the Man in Black cannot use it to escape. (Little does he know that there's another means of egress from the island with the submarine.) But Hurley, having been instructed by the ghostly presence of Michael, knows that he can't allow that to happen as people will be killed as a result of that. He opts to play along with Richard but instead uses the dynamite to blow up the Black Rock, destroying the cache of explosives and the historic ship in the process.

And that's when things get interesting. Hurley lies to Richard and claims that Jacob told him that they need to go talk to the Man in Black but Richard's far from convinced, especially after Hurley is unable to tell him what the island really is. (Hint: it's the cork in the bottle metaphor.) Richard opts to continue on the path to render the plane inoperable, suggesting they head to the Dharma barracks to get explosives; he's joined by Miles and Ben. (Interesting.)

While Richard seems to be on a path of destruction, Hurley opts for a nonviolent confrontation with the Man in Black, choosing words over grenades. It's fitting with his sudden emergence of a Christ-like leader among the group, with a foot in both the worlds of the mundane and the divine. While Richard wants to destroy, Hurley wants to turn the other cheek, to talk rather than battle. And, only fittingly, Hurley stands up to Richard rather than be cowed by the former spiritual leader of the Others. He doesn't have anything to prove to Richard. Not anymore.

So what did Hurley take from Ilana's pack? We see him toss aside Ilana's Russian book to take a sack with him. Does it contain Jacob's ashes? And is that why he suddenly has a hell of a lot more conviction? While he claims to Jack that he has no idea what he's doing, he's leading them right into the heart of darkness, armed only with torches: a fire to illuminate the night, the spark of truth set against deadly lies.

Interesting too that the group that contains Hurley is symbolically comprised of those whose purpose is to lead: a shepherd (Jack), a pilot (Frank), a sun (Sun), and a true leader in Hurley himself. Each are tools by which others can follow and yet each of them chooses the path of peace rather than that of war. Could it be that Jacob was right to bestow his favor on these individuals? And could Frank Lapidus also be a shadow candidate?

Whispers. This week's episode answered the question about just what those mysterious whispers are in the jungle: the souls of those who can't leave the island, who are trapped there by dint of their actions. The whispers precede Michael Dawson's appearance at Libby's grave at the start of the episode and when Hurley hears them once more in the jungle at night, he finally realizes just what they are. When Michael appears to him once more, he gets his confirmation: the whispers are the voices of those for whom the island is truly purgatory: a place of eternal unrest where they remain, perhaps until they can redeem themselves. The whispers then are an attempt for the dead to communicate with the living, to help, to perhaps act as a chance at redemption.

As for Michael, he seems to be acting here as a positive influence for Hurley. While he doesn't tell him that he has to go see the Man in Black, he's able to point Hurley towards his camp and issues an apology of sorts to Libby, saying that if he ever sees her again (which he has in the Lost-X timeline) to tell her that he's sorry. For, you know, killing her.

I'd be interested to know just who else is trapped on the island, unable to move on: those who committed crimes against the island and its inhabitants or souls who were never able to come to terms with their own issues, trapped by their own inability to grow psychologically, spiritually, or physically. Or those who just never achieved closure?

The Truce. By bringing the group right into the Man in Black's camp, Hurley has seemingly fulfilled the wishes of Jacob's Nemesis, as he was looking to grab as many of the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors--and those that managed to return on Ajira Flight 316--as possible as he believes that's the only way that his plan will work and he'll be able to flee the island.

He's already prevented from harming the candidates, per the rules of his eternal agreement with Jacob, but that doesn't mean that he can't attempt to sway them to his side. Giving his knife to Hurley is nothing more than a symbolic truce, a way of saying that he won't harm them directly, a physical bond of his word. But I think he's hoping that he'll be able to manipulate the candidates into siding with him... and that they'll chose otherwise. At the very least, I'm hoping that this reunion isn't short-lived now that each of the castaways--save Jin, of course--is finally in one spot together.

And then there's the look the Man in Black gives to Jack when he sees him enter the camp. It's a look that a cat might have upon seeing a mouse, an expression right before he pounces. The game is, as they say, afoot and the Nemesis has just gotten even closer to controlling all of the pieces.

The Boy in the Jungle. Of course, Jacob's Nemesis hasn't won, not yet. There's still the fact that he appears to be alternately afraid of and irritated by that young boy that keeps popping up in the jungle. It's significant that the boy smiles at him here and that it enrages the Man in Black to no end... and that Desmond, like Sawyer before him, can see the boy.

So who is he? I theorized a few weeks back when we last saw The Boy that he was an incarnation of Jacob and I'm still convinced that that's true. After all, dead isn't really gone, not on the island. Just because Jacob's corporeal body was destroyed and burned up in the fire, doesn't mean that another--ethereal manifestation--won't rise from the ashes, a holy spirit rather than the man himself. (It's also telling that The Boy appears after Desmond says that the island has it in for all of them.)

The fact that both Sawyer and Desmond are able to see him points to the candidates being privy to the island's mysteries, able to see the hidden face of the island. Sawyer, as we know, is a candidate. Desmond likely is too, the Wallace (a traditionally Scottish name) indicated on the 108 degree mark on Jacob's lighthouse wheel. After all, Jacob wanted Jack to turn the mirror to that mark, saying that someone was coming to the island. That someone did end up being Desmond, the shadow candidate whose fate is bound up with the number 108, not just with the candidates' reference points (themselves representing the 4-8-15-16-23-42 of the cursed numbers) but also the fact that he pushed the button every 108 minutes for three years. Could it be that he's the island's last hope?

Desmond. Desmond, meanwhile, found himself the unwitting prisoner of the Man in Black and Sayid this week but didn't seem to be in any real need of escape. (I loved his line about having nowhere to run.) This Desmond, one experiencing a Zen-like inner calm, is at odds with the one we saw at the beginning of last week's episode, one who attempted to kick and punch and escape his captors at every turn. He's very cool towards the Man in Black, saying that he knows that he's John Locke. (Or does he know something more? Hmmm...) And he's all too willing to share with him just what Charles Widmore did to him in the solenoid chamber, dosing him with a massive amount of electromagnetism.

The Man in Black takes Desmond to an ancient well (not to be confused with the one that contains the frozen donkey wheel, now the site of the Dharma's Orchid Station). He claims that this spot is where compass needles spin and that people, looking for answers, dug down into the earth. Is it a meeting point for ley lines? Another pocket of electromagnetic energy, the very ones that Zoe is looking for? Jacob's Nemesis claims that Charles Widmore is looking not to protect the island but for power, but I felt like I couldn't quite trust the MiB here. Neither could Desmond either, as he seems skeptical about why MiB would have brought him to the well.

There's another reason, of course. The Man in Black seems infuriated by the fact that Desmond isn't afraid. That he has no fear, even being alone with him in the jungle, away from everyone, and standing over an ancient well that's pretty deep. While Desmond, again very Zen-like, says that there's no point to being afraid, the Man in Black knocks him right down into the well. Ouch.

Lost-X Desmond. In the Lost-X timeline, Desmond is spotted by Benjamin Linus hanging around the parking lot of the school where he and substitute John Locke work. Significantly, Desmond doesn't appear to be there for Ben (his name, after all, wasn't on the passenger manifest) but rather is keeping an eye on Locke himself. Ben is suspicious and Desmond lies about why he's there, saying that he's looking for a school for his son, Charlie. Why Desmond chooses Charlie as a fake name for a son he doesn't have is also significant; is it because Charlie Pace is on his mind after recent events? Or does he have knowledge of his actual son Charlie in the mainstream reality?

Interesting too that Desmond then puts his car in full throttle and runs down John Locke in his wheelchair. Is he looking for payback? ("Locke" did just throw him down a well in the mainstream reality.) Or is he looking to awaken Locke's memories of the island? Given that he has no island love to reconnect him with, Desmond chooses to instead bring Locke close to death, to use his brush with mortality to fire his synapses and recover those lost memories.

Locke will, of course, have to be rushed to the hospital, where I believe Jack will be forced to operate on him, removing the choice of spinal surgery from Locke and course-correcting once more. This Locke will walk again and will once again regain his belief in miracles, especially after he glimpses another world through the veil. Casting off his pragmatism, Lost-X Locke will be forced to believe once again, to reconnect to the island.

I'm also intrigued by another possibility: given the fact that the Man in Black is currently using John Locke's form in the mainstream reality, would Lost-X Locke's repossession of his island memories have any consequences on his body back on the island? Could we be seeing the return of the one true John Locke? Hmmm...

What did you think of this week's episodes? Agree with the above theories? Disagree? Get yourself over to the comments section to share your thoughts on last night's episode, pose some questions, and discuss.

Next week on Lost ("The Last Recruit"), alliances are forged and broken when Locke and Jack's camps merge.