Summary: Flashbacks show that Hurley's father left when he was a kid. After Hurley wins the lottery, he returns and Hurley is upset by it. His dad tries to make things right for Hurley but Hurley doesn't give him the chance. On the island, Hurley discovers a Dharma van in the jungle and vows to get it running. Jin goes to help him. Kate and Sawyer return to camp. Sawyer ends up helping Hurley and Jin with the van. Kate goes into the jungle to find Rousseau to plan a way to bring Jack back. Hurley gets the moping Charlie to join him as they try to force the van to start. It works and everybody celebrates.
The Good: The best thing I can say about this episode is that it was entertaining. There is a lot of humour here and most of it is actually really good. Hurley is a really fun character who is almost impossible to dislike. The lightheartedness that results from the focus on Hurley makes this episode a joy to watch across both the island and flashback stories. The deterioration of Kate and Sawyer's romance continued from last episode and it felt a lot more final in this episode. It was quite sad to see them drift apart, and over practically nothing. The acting from Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly was as great as ever and I felt the impact of their split. The Bad: Unfortunately this was in no way a good episode. Following a filler episode, we get what is essentially another filler episode. Nothing of importance happens here outside of Kate and Sawyer returning to the camp, and that's not even the central focus of the episode. To put it bluntly, this whole episode felt like a waste of time and it didn't tackle any sort of interesting themes, character development, or plot movement. The deeper exploration of Hurley's character didn't work at all. Now, just like many other characters, Hurley has been given the case of daddy issues. His problems aren't particularly interesting, and they are worse off because it has taken nearly 3 seasons to unveil this detail about Hurley. His relationship with his father has never been important to Hurley and it simply feels tacked on in an attempt to inject some emotion into the episode. Furthermore, the themes about making your own luck are hammered on too hard and are explored with far less subtlety than they were in "Numbers". Kate and Sawyer's return ended up being a major anticlimax. We got the happy reunion scene which was fine, but nobody asked anything about the others. In what world would Kate and Sawyer not be expected to provide information to everyone? I was stunned at how they were both allowed to simply wander off in the jungle without providing any help. Additionally, I was surprised to see that Locke and Sayid still hadn't followed up on the hint that Locke found back in "I Do". They were both talking about immediately doing something, yet here they are 4 episodes later having done absolutely nothing. It's very odd storytelling, and I find it absurd that Locke agrees with Kate about them having no motivation, despite him making it clear that getting Jack, Kate and Sawyer back would be a top priority back in "Further Instructions". The storytelling is odd and makes no sense. Another case of the survivors acting strangely is when nobody shows any interest in checking out the Dharma van. Why wouldn't they want to learn more about the island technology? Perhaps there is information that would help them, or something else valuable to find. The fact that nobody showed even the slightest bit of interest is unrealistic. The scene with Hurley and Charlie in the car as it goes down the hill was shot extremely poorly. It was hard to determine how far the car was from the rocks and there were several moments where it looked like the car was right about to hit the rocks despite it apparently being extremely far away. Additionally, do they have to turn the car on to swerve away from the rocks? Just turn the damn steering wheel. The Unknown: Who was Roger? Why is there a Dharma van on the island? Were there roads on the island at some point? Are there other Dharma settlements? Best Moment: The comedy was really the best part of the episode, and the funniest scene was Hurley's mom covering Jesus' ears and telling Hurley "I have needs". As poorly executed as this episode was, I can't deny that it was hilarious. Character of the Episode: Hurley. Conclusion: This was another meaningless filler episode. But thankfully, unlike the last episode, this one wasn't boring and it at least had some great comedy going for it. Granted, that's not enough to give this episode a passing score, but it was at least pretty funny. Outside of that, the poor pacing of this season continues and the follow-up to "Flashes Before Your Eyes" has been atrocious so far. Score: 48
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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