LOST- The Hugo Reyes Show

I hope everyone enjoyed last night's episode of The HRS. Yes folks it was the Hugo Reyes hour on LOST this week. Hurley definitely put forth one of the best individual performances of the year, with an array of quips and pop culture references.

Although Lardo was the one that shined through during The Lighthouse, this was a Jack episode. For some reason the sideways storyline seems to matter more to me when it has to do with Jack rather than Locke or Kate. Why? Well because the other Locke is dead and we've recently found out that Kate isn't a candidate so how much can she really matter. Every time Jack made a face during the sideways story, I was thinking about how that could translate to the other universe and how these parallel worlds could collide. And to be honest, I'm not hating Jack nearly as much recently.

It was either Sepinwall or Doc Jensen that talked last week about how the similarities in the sideways stories are so interesting, but this week I loved all of the difference we saw in Jack. Whereas Locke seemed to be in a much better situation in sideways 2004, Dr. Shephard seems to still be extremely troubled in this other universe. The most notable difference...he has a kid. So far it seems as though he has been just as much of a bad parent as Christian was. He is divorced, but we do not exactly know to who.

Back on The Island we got to follow to major arcs. Hugo and Jack's adventure to The Lighthouse and Jin being saved by Crazy Claire. Although a complete nutbar, I absolutely would take this extremist Claire over the annoying whiny Claire we knew before. I loved Jin having to backtrack from telling Crazy Claire that Kate took her baby. Luckily she is so mixed up in her own wackiness that Jin's unease while explaining to her that The Others actually had baby Aaron went unnoticed.

And we finally get to the Hugo Reyes Show. Jacob made his triumphant return to Hurley's side to explain that someone was coming to The Island and he needed Hurley's help in finding it. Of course the big man did what Jacob asked of him, even if he had to write it all down on his arm. When the Seventh Samurai finds him snooping around The Temple, Hugo simply explains that he's "a big fan of temples, history...Indiana Jones stuff." Him trailing off towards the end was what made it work so well.

After Jacob tells him that he needs Jack to go with him, Hurley breaks out his best Manny Delgado impression and pretends to tie his shoe while coercing Jack to go on the adventure with him. "Be cool man. Act natural." Of course it takes a while to get stubborn old Jack to go along with the plan, but he finally is down when he learns that Jacob told him that "he has what it takes." As we learn later in the episode, Christian Shephard always used to let Jack know that he did not have what it takes. When Jack demands to know where Jacob is, Hurley throws down yet another brilliant pop-culture reference in explaining that The Island God is dead and "turns up whenever he wants like Obi Wan Kenobi."

Once Hugo and Jack make it to the Lighthouse they discover the Wheel with the Mirrors (for some reason I find it necessary to capitalize every object on the Island). Obviously the Wheel has all of the numbers on it. Jack sees his name and turns the Wheel to it. The Mirror shows the house he lived in as a child and freaks the F out, smashing Jacob's Mirror to pieces. I didn't think it was quite a smart move at first, but then realized that Jacob is dead and he wasn't much of a fighter when he was alive anyways. So was this Wheel just a way for Jacob to spy on his candidates, or was it another way of attracting them to the Island? I guess we shall see.

So Hurley freaks out when Jacob isn't more upset that they broke the Lighthouse. Jacob, in all of his calmness, explains that the person who needed to get to the Island will find it another way. He also lets Hurley know that he really needed to get him and Jack away from the Temple because someone bad (MIB) is coming there. Since Sawyer and Jin were already out of the Temple, Jack and Hugo were the only other candidates he need to help escape. That must mean that Sayid is no longer a viable candidate because of his new darkness. I guess we can cross number 16 off the cave ceiling at this point.

Other Points

-Claire knows that The Others have her baby because first her father told him and then her friend did. Well how obvious was it that her friend, and her father for that matter, were both The MIB.

-Another great quote by Hurley, "This is old school...you and me trekking through the jungle on our way to do something that we don't quite understand...good times."

-The sign at David Shephard's audition/recital said "Welcome All Candidates." And so Jack walked right in.

-In some of Jacob's last words of the episode we got this, "Sometimes you can just hop in the back of someone's cab and tell them what they're supposed to do. Other times you have to let 'em look out at the ocean for a while." This dude would be better a better Zen Coach than Phil Jackson. He knows just how to cater to everyone's needs.