sl-LOST.com » Hurley

VIDEO: LOST’s Jorge Garcia on FRINGE

SL-LOST — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:31:12 +0000

Jorge Garcia made a cameo appearance on last night’s episode of Fringe:

VIDEOS: Jorge Garcia on ‘How I Met Your Mother’

SL-LOST — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:02:49 +0000

Hit the jump button to watch another video of Jorge’s appearance on last night’s episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’.

VIDEO: LOST’s Jorge Garcia Joins Weezer on Stage at AXE Party to Sing “Perfect Situation”

SL-LOST — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:06:35 +0000

Last night at the AXE party in Hollywood, Jorge Garcia joined Weezer on stage to sing “Perfect Situation”:

[Via Geronimo Jack's Beard]

Hurley!

SL-LOST — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:00:23 +0000

Via @TheEventLog:

The greatest bus bench ad ever (L.A. – Temple and Beaudry).

Jorge Garcia on the Cover of Weezer’s New Album “Hurley”

SL-LOST — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:50:52 +0000

Via Spinner.com:

After putting a flying dog on the cover of ‘Raditude,’ Weezer are one-upping themselves for their upcoming eighth LP, ‘Hurley.’ This time ’round, they’re forsaking an airborne animal for a celebrity: actor Jorge Garcia, aka Hurley from Lost.’ As Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo tells Spinner, the album’s name came easily once they settled on the photo.

“We struggled super hard trying to come up with an album title, trying to find some kind of phrase that summed up the whole aesthetic behind the album: ‘Heavy Mental,’ ‘Smaller Than Life,’” Cuomo says. “I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’ No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face.”

Unfortunately for ‘Lost’ fanatics, the album doesn’t feature any songs inspired by the hit show. In fact, Cuomo didn’t even watch it until meeting Garcia (he’s still watching the series, so don’t spoil the finale for him). “I only made it through season two, so I was really nervous hanging out with Hurley/Jorge recently, because I didn’t want to hear something about how it all resolves, or overhear anyone else talking about it,” he says. “I really like the show though.”

Damon Lindelof’s reaction:

LOST Auction Catalog Reveals New Information About Hurley’s Afterlife

SL-LOST — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:01:05 +0000

The LOST Auction catalog (available at ProfilesinHistory.com) contains details about a deleted scene from the episode “Everybody Loves Hugo“. This missing scene, which might be included on the Season 6 DVDs, reveals that in the afterlife Hurley wins the lottery by playing the serial numbers of a dollar bill he finds on the street. As you can see on the pictures below, the numbers are different from THE Numbers

[Thanks to David for the tip!]

VIDEO: Michael Emerson Teases LOST Epilogue

SL-LOST — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:26:21 +0000

Thanks to Josh for the following:

Michael Emerson visited his hometown in Iowa and met with his old classmates and some fans. I was able to record much of this meet-and-greet and asked a few questions, one of them being about the “New Man in Charge” featurette. This was his response.

New Details about the LOST Epilogue

SL-LOST — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:42:00 +0000

The NY Post has revealed that the LOST Epilogue featuring Hurley and Ben in their new roles as the Island’s Number #1 and Number #2 is titled “The New Man in Charge” and runs 11 minutes long. Here’s the official description of this Epilogue, which will be available on LOST: The Complete Collection and the Season 6 DVD/Blu-ray sets:

Go deeper into the world of LOST with a much-anticipated new chapter of the island’s story from Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse… and starring some very familiar faces.

Which “familiar faces” would you like to see?

VIDEO: Jorge Garcia Talks LOST at the Monte Carlo TV Festival

SL-LOST — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:25:11 +0000

[Via CineTVBuzz.com]

Jorge Garcia Teases LOST Epilogue

SL-LOST — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:23:44 +0000

Spoiler Alert (?): if you don’t want to know any details about the LOST Epilogue, stop reading this now!

Via Kristin Dos Santos:

“It will address some of the issues, like the food drops, and it will deal with what happened on the island after Hurley took over and how he handled things,” Garcia reveals of the DVD bonus feature he shot. “It will give you a taste of what took place after Hurley took over as the new number one. There’s a little epilogue thing going on with the DVD.”

Inside sources also told me that Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) will be shown in the bonus material. “We’ll find out what happens to Walt,” says the insider. But when asked who else he worked with, Jorge replied coyly: “There are other people in it, but I’m not going to tell you who.”

Jorge Garcia Talks LOST Finale, Epilogue & More

SL-LOST — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:10:48 +0000

Jay & Jack from The Lost Podcast are joined by Jorge Garcia who talks about the series finale of Lost and much more including the much talked about epilogue.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.m4a/traffic.libsyn.com/lostpodcast/lp_5_34.mp3]

[Via iTunes - The LOST Podcast with Jay & Jack]

LOST – The Complete Series DVDs To Feature LOST Epilogue with Hurley & Ben

SL-LOST — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:08:45 +0000

Via Kristin Dos Santos:

“For those people that want to pony up and buy the complete Lost series, there is a bonus feature,” Michael just told our Kevin Pereira of Attack of the Show!, which airs tonight at 7 on E!’s brother network G4. “Which is um, you could call it an epilogue. A lost scene. It’s a lot; it’s 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley (Jorge Garcia) becoming number one and the end of the series.”

Michael says this extra footage is not the premise for a spinoff. “It’s self-contained. Although, it’s a rich period in the show’s mythology that ‘s never been explored, so who knows what will come of it.”

That said, as I reported earlier, we’ll find out what happens to Walt on the DVD as well. And so for the last time ever (sniff!), I think I get to say, Lost spoiler alert! Whatcha wanna bet that during Hurley and Ben’s adventures on the island, they run into Walt a few years into the future, when he’s oh, 18 and looking just as Malcolm David Kelley looks now?

So You Could Find One Another: Cultural Perfections in LOST 6.17-6.18 “The End” by Pearson Moore

SL-LOST — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:33:25 +0000

This analysis is for Ree Hines.

I write this for everyone disappointed, angered, or confused.

You invested six years. Give it one more shot. Watch the finale again; you’ll thank yourself for the effort. Enlightenment may not require a punch in the face or renewed sense in legs once dead, but it does require careful thought. Enlightenment was not intended for the already-dead inhabitants of the sideways purgatory. It was intended for us. For the thirty millions around the world, most of whom sacrificed a Monday morning to experience the end.

Give it one more shot. If anyone should be disappointed in the ending, it’s Pearson Moore. Not one of my grand predictions proved correct. But I can tell you this, after a third viewing:

LOST is the greatest piece of fiction ever presented on television.

You Can Let Go Now

“You can let go now.”

Rose’s words of comfort, her enlightened wisdom on the sideways voyage of Oceanic Flight 815, make perfect sense in the brilliant white light of the Church of the Holy Lamp Post. So, too, John Locke’s Season-One statement about his vision of the Island’s perfection. He described his first confrontation with the Smoke Monster, telling Jack, “I looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw… was beautiful.” A couple months later, talking with Eko, he described his experience as having seen a “brilliant light”.

The tomb was always empty. The tomb had to be empty. We knew, from the moment six years ago when Jack first raised the lid on that coffin in the jungle, near the cave of Adam and Eve, just south of the Light–we knew even then that Jack would never, ever find his father’s dead body. His body could not be separated from the full reality of the Island. I thought this fact was due to the mystical nature of the Island, that Christian Shephard somehow represented or was connected to the essential core of the Island. The reality of Christian Shephard was greater than the Island, though. He was connected to something more important that the lush green real estate moving hither and yon around the Pacific.

He Has Work To Do

When did Lindelof and Cuse know the ending?

I suggest the creators knew precisely the way in which the voyage would end at least in the weeks before January 28, 2008, when Mobisode #13, “So It Begins”, first aired on Verizon. If you are a casual viewer of LOST–maybe even if you consider yourself a devoted fan–you may not know what I refer to here. The “Mobisodes” were intended as non-broadcast episodes of LOST fully integrated into the canon of the show. Darlton said as much in several interviews, beginning in December, 2007.

Christian, acting on behalf of the Island and not as the representative of the Man in Black, summoned Vincent. Putting on his Doctor-Doolittle veterinary hat, the former chief of surgery gave these instructions to the white labrador retriever:

“Listen. I need you to go find my son. He’s over there–in that bamboo forest. Unconscious. I need you go wake him up. Okay? Good boy. He has work to do.”

Jack’s work, we know now, was his redemption, his reconciliation with his father, his unrestrained embrace of his Constant, Kate, his communion with the Island, his voyage from scepticism to faith, and his decision to hear Rose’s words and let go. Most of the other major characters had equally full slates. This realisation is critical to a deeper understanding of the series.

Twenty-First Century Odyssey

Did Darlton really intend that we view all the mobisodes, read Doc Jensen’s mammoth dissertations on every single episode, try to see, with Vozzek69, “Things I Noticed”, read the novels of Stephen King, the plays of Shakespeare, the philosophy of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, scrutinise and investigate the endless instances of symbolism and mirror imagery and references to literature, music, pop culture, ancient culture, religion, mythology, and history? After such a simple revelation? They’re all dead, the sideways is just purgatory. Hell, it might as well be St. Elsewhere’s snow globe, right? Wasn’t all this just a waste of the last six years of our lives?

No.

Darlton really did intend that we do a fair amount of homework. They really did intend that we spend not dozens, but hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours in trying to understand their creation.

We must understand the Iliad.

Anyone who has tried to read Homer’s masterpiece at one time or another, perhaps after the seventeenth instance of labouring through interminable lists of names of kings and sons of kings and sons of gods and sons of kings who are sons of gods–at one time or another we all have the same feeling. Why the hell am I reading this? I should just shell out five bucks for the Cliff Notes, read it, and get on with my life.

The point of Homer’s lists is not the memorisation of names. The point is that the names are connected to places and deeds, crucial locations and critical events: Kings, countries, and conflicts. They’re all related, they’re all necessary, they all inform Homer’s work. Take away those lists and there is no Iliad. The battles of the Trojan War have no significance without their relation to the men who fought, the lands they died for, the sons and fathers and flesh and blood they mourned for, their example of endurance and strength and fortitude and bearing, and all of this, every name, every relation, a connection to us, a reminder to us, an example to us of our own capacities for endurance, strength, and fortitude, proof of our shared humanity.

The fact that the coffin was empty back in Season One, that it was empty in Season Six, that in fact, it was always empty, is not the point.

The fact that all the characters in the church are dead is not the point.

The fact that we had to experience the repeated instances of misery and pain and death, again and again, on the Island, off the Island, and on the Island again–and understand the inter-relationships of leadership, life, and location before we could truly say we understand–is entirely the point. The complicated aspects of the tangled relationships provide the key to the essential message of the last six years. With Jacob, Jack, and Hurley, we must willingly imbibe the rich water-into-wine from Island streams, dine on mango and coconut, join Locke in hunting and feasting on wild boar, before we can claim to have seen, understood, and appreciated this human epic.

And What Is Good, Phaedrus?

Odysseus slaying Penelope’s suitors

We must study the Iliad and the Odyssey.

We must understand LOST.

The intention of the two statements is the same. Plato, in the dialogue named after Phaedrus, provided the rationale: “And what is well [written] and what is badly [written]-need we ask Lysias, or any other poet or orator, who ever wrote… to teach us this?”

Odysseus fought in a war, took a long, difficult voyage home, killed some men who were pestering his wife, and lived happily ever after. The End.

Jack Shephard fought to leave an island, took a long, difficult voyage back to the island, killed some evil men, and died happily in the jungle. The End.

The point of the Iliad and the Odyssey is not that Menelaus and Achilles and Ajax and Odysseus carried out great deeds in battle. The point is not that they properly mourned those who lay mangled by the bronze spear. The point is that they completed noble deeds of valour, ever aware of their station as kings of Sparta and Ithaca, as men of Greece, as examples of good and complete men. These were men who mourned those felled by the bronze spear, yes, but saw goodness and even excellence in the fact of their comrades’ pain-filled deaths. ”It is entirely seemly,” Homer told us, “for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair.” The Iliad is not an adventure story. It is a primer on the necessary qualities of manhood, fatherhood, and leadership. It is not a lesson learned over the course of a 150-minute television movie. It is something acquired through study and toil.

The intention of the Iliad and the Odyssey, shared with LOST, is to enrich our understanding of who we are, who we ought to be, who we can be if we take the time to understand the fullness–the length and breadth and depth and richness–of our humanity.

Darlton’s great work, like Homer’s, is a fictional portrayal of the complete person. As with a recitation of the entire poem, several sessions over a number of evenings are required to absorb the full work. Homer expected his listeners to converse about what they had heard during their daily labours between sittings, draw examples from history, from their own lives, from the teachings of parent and prince. Twenty-seven centuries later, Darlton expected no less of their listeners.

Jack Shephard slaying the Smoke Monster

LOST is about the essence of who we are as complete human beings. The show centres on our humanity, on the essentials of culture. It is not about good versus evil, for we are both good and evil. It is not about free will versus destiny, for we are all free and we all share a final destiny. LOST is neither adventure story nor study in psychology. LOST is about the mature integration of body, mind, and soul. LOST describes the adventure of being fully engaged, immersed–even overwhelmed–in our humanity, yet having abundant faculties of temperance, judgment, and prudence to execute responsibilities with mature bearing, confidence, and valor.

Jack’s Odyssey

Jack’s odyssey had to follow the hero’s journey to unknown lands, the suffering and agony and near-death of self-discovery, and the enlightened and aware return to plan and execute and successfully complete the hero’s task. His mission was nothing less than the complete re-building of every aspect of his broken self. He was obliged to seek redemption, reconciliation with his father, spiritual completion in his Constant, Kate, active communion with the Island, movement of mind and soul from scepticism to trust, and knowledge of when to act with resolve and when to surrender in faith.

This is not a journey summarised in two and a half hours on a Sunday evening (or, for most of you, a Monday morning). The most hilariously funny scene in the six years of LOST occurred in Season Five at the dinner table in Hurley’s mansion. There Hurley relayed to his mother, in less than fifty-eight seconds, everything that had occurred on the Island. Here’s what he told his mother:

Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn’t any rescue. And there was a smoke monster, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or…

well, I was never really clear on that. But… the Others didn’t have anything to do with the hatches. That was the DHARMA Initiative. The Others killed them, and now they’re trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because some worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond’s girlfriend’s father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but it blew up. And we couldn’t go back to the island because it disappeared, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were six of us. That part was true. [Whispers] But the re… But the rest of the people… who were on the plane? They’re still on that island.

The passage is humorous, but Jorge Garcia’s perfectly-timed delivery of this speech in The Lie (Lost 5.02) was hilarious. Mary O’Brien’s “Everything you need to know about Lost in 8 minutes, 15 seconds” was equally amusing. Even as I sit at this keyboard, doctoral students around the world are busy crafting five-hundred-page dissertations on LOST. This will be going on for decades to come. Though I carry the not uncommon conceit of being able to distill into words the ideas presented by Darlton, I recognise my wordsmithing is almost entirely inadequate to the unusual demands of the task. I can only begin to scratch the surface of Jack’s epic journey. And I do all of this very much aware of my former confidence in Locke’s resurrection on the Island, and humbled by the much grander and entirely unique story the writers fashioned out of material I considered within the realm of my understanding.

A Clarification

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, circa 1990

In introducing this essay I said I was writing for the benefit of Ree Hines. I imagine she or at least some of her co-workers at NBC’s The Today Show will read all or part of my words and wonder why I singled out a most excellent television critic. I will clarify. I am not singling out Ree Hines so much as I am appealing to her readers, and to all who believe themselves disappointed or confused by the last episode of LOST. I will point out here that the critic’s mission is necessarily different from the analyst’s. My intention, as analyst, is to illuminate. A critic’s objective, the reason she is paid much more than someone like me, is that she is able to evaluate. The criteria for any valid criticism of artistic presentations must include some determination of the accessibility of the artistic creation, intrinsic merit of the piece, and many other factors that have no bearing on the more subjective type of analysis I have been engaged to perform. Ree Hines’ critique of LOST is entirely on point because she has taken into consideration all of these factors and has provided excellent criticism of the work. If you wish to read a valid, thoughtful, and well-written critique of LOST, you could do no better than by beginning with her essay, currently posted at MSNBC (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37308154/ns/today-entertainment/), among other locations on the web.

The Big Picture

LOST is not the story of a single hero working alone against all odds, conquering vast armies, vanquishing forces of nature, escaping the very snares of death to achieve godlike ends. It is the story of ordinary people working in concert with each other and in communion with nature and forces beyond nature to propagate very human goals. Our best and most noble virtues are those that require the happy collaboration of those committed to the common objectives of humanity and civilisation.

I predicted last summer that there would be Seven at the end. I was envisioning some close variant of the Oceanic Six, or the Six Candidates (I once included Kate but exclude her now, since Jacob confirmed she was not formally a Candidate). The writers chose not to echo Akira Kurosawa, instead creating their own significant numbers. In decades to come much will be made of Jack Shephard’s status as Prime Candidate (he bore the number twenty-three, the only prime number among the six Candidates), but the six coefficients of the Valenzetti Equation proved to have no significance at the deepest level of Island mythology. I concede the very obvious fact that no intrinsic significance attached to the number seven, and that no importance was given to any of the numbers existing at the end of the series. However, I do wish to acknowledge, as very minor footnote, that seven sentient intelligences existed on the Island with the last light of the final scene:

1. Hugo Reyes (“Number One”, Protector of the Island)
2. Benjamin Linus (“Number Two”, Advisor to Hurley–the “Richard” function)
3. Desmond Hume (angel of enlightenment)
4. Rose Nadler (enlightened guide)
5. Bernard Nadler (enlightened guide)
6. Vincent (intelligent; he understood and obeyed Christian)
7. Jack Shephard (Prime Candidate, Slayer of the MIB, Defender of the Light)

Progress

LOST reveled in disunity and conflict. These are of course the elements of good drama, but LOST took conflict to new extremes. The intent, I believe, was to demonstrate through contrast the good that might derive of collaborative unity. The building of the raft, the distribution of Dharma food, the sharing of button-pushing shifts, the united effort against the Others, the integration into the Dharma Initiative, and the final battle against the Smoke Monster were examples of the salutary effects of people surrendering individual objectives to work toward common goals. Collaboration is not only a benefit, it is essential to our humanity.

“The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people,” Christian said. “That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.”

The characters of this series were lost. They were lost because they had not found a way to truly share with each other. Last season, with Penny and Desmond’s phone call, we began to understand some of the elements that would provide the foundation for united purpose. Love was shown to be the way indivisible spirits could achieve unification even across dimensions of time and space. Trust was a constant motif throughout Season Six, and was the foundation of social unity in the sideways realm. These are elementary components of civilisation, but they were almost entirely absent for much of Jacob’s two-thousand-year reign. With the ascension of Jack, who loved and was loved, who knew at the deepest core of his person that Kate was with him, was always with him, the Island was finally guided by a person of trust, faith, and love. After two thousand years, the Island truly became, in the words of Jack’s mentor, “a place where miracles happen”.

“This is a place that you all made together so you could find one another,” Christian said, referring to the sideways world, the antechamber to what lies beyond. It was here they found their Constants, understood who they were, felt in the depths of their souls their dependence on each other, their need to cultivate and enjoy every good facet of civilised life.

The Game

Two players. Two sides. One dark, one light.

No one sat beside John Locke inside the Church of the Holy Lamp Post. Almost everyone else was paired into a Constants-couple. But John Locke was not alone. His Constant was with him, the Constant that had always been with him. From the day Flight 815 crashed, he became the guide, the man who understood the game, felt the presence of the players, heard them in Jacob’s cabin. Most importantly, Locke knew the rules of the game. He struggled in his faith, because he trusted, even when others took advantage. But in the end it was Locke whose spirit prevailed. Man of faith, he knew belief provided a sure foundation for the trials of life. Knowledge, science, logic were corrupt illusions.

Locke enjoyed a place of honour in the first pew of the church, even without the physical presence of his Constant. As it was for the others, so also it was for him: he found his Constant, came into perfect communion with that place where miracles happen. John Locke’s Constant was the Island. It is fitting that his body found its final rest on the Island, fitting that his wisdom guided Jack and Hurley, and was source of inspiration and enduring respect for Benjamin Linus as “Number Two”. John Locke played by the rules. Thanks to him, all things on the Island are fair and just. In his death, all things appear fair.

With Jack and Hurley, Locke immersed himself in our common humanity, cultivating abundant faculties of temperance, judgment, and prudence to execute responsibilities with mature bearing, confidence, and valor. Of these three men, we can truly say they embodied the best qualities of men, showed us who we are, and who we might become. As long as we remember their example, we will find one another, delight in our Constants, no longer alone, no longer LOST.

VIDEOS: Jorge Garcia on ‘Lopez Tonight’

SL-LOST — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:36:09 +0000

Watch the interview after the jump.

VIDEO: Jorge Garcia On The LOST Finale & More

SL-LOST — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:00:21 +0000

Spoiler Alert: this interview contains minor spoilers (some tidbits about tomorrow’s episode, Libby and the finale).

[Via AOLTV]

Video Interview with Jorge Garcia on G4TV’s ‘Attack of the Show’

SL-LOST — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:32:52 +0000

“Attack of the Show’s!” Kevin Pereira sits down with Jorge Garcia to talk about his thoughts on the series ending and other projects in store for fans.

[Via G4TV.com]

Jorge Garcia Talks About The Finale

SL-LOST — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:05:28 +0000

Movieline.com: Over these six years, what was the most challenging moment you were asked to play?
Jorge Garcia: I’ve got a pretty hard moment in the finale.

Is it physically hard or emotionally hard?
It’s emotionally hard. Perhaps my heaviest moment ever.

Have you wrapped the finale yet?
No, we’re still shooting. Right now, I think we’re going until the 23rd or the 24th, and I think that’ll be the real ending.

Have Damon and Carlton been on set for it, now that there’s no more episodes to break and write?
They have been, twice this past week. It’s kind of a thing that happens at the end of the season. A lot of times, they’ll come out and tell us what happens in the secret scenes that we don’t get in our scripts. We have our scripts for the finale missing the final act, and when you’re with them, they’ll pull you aside and say, “OK, here’s what happens in the final act.”

So they just tell you to reserve that day and you won’t know what you’ll be doing until the last minute?
I have a scene that I’m shooting tomorrow that I got the pages for yesterday. It was great because I knew I had that scene for a week and I hadn’t gotten the script for it, and then I was in the makeup trailer and I saw that somebody in the makeup department had left the scene there. I snatched it and read it and then when I got my script, I saw on the last page it said, “This page is only for producers, director, and actors in the scene to read.” The scene actually continued past what I’d read in someone else’s copy, and it was kind of fun to be in the know that time, because I haven’t ever been in a secret scene before.

[Via Movieline.com]

Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat: Cultural Discoveries in LOST 6.12 by Pearson Moore

SL-LOST — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:16:19 +0000

There are no coincidences for those who risk all.

Libby will find Hurley. Even if others are sure her wild visions indicate dementia, stand as positive proof of a delusional mind, she will find Hurley. A timid woman would never summon the courage to face the man of her dreams, the constant of her memories. But Libby is not a timid woman. She will discover her destiny, and live it, regardless of what others may think.

Ilana risked all, and by force of character pushed aside the randomness of life. Her death was no coincidence, and has dire significance for everyone on the Island. Desmond risked all–for himself, for Penny, for the Island. Desmond risked all–for John Locke. Fortes fortuna adiuvat. He knew Locke was destined not for classroom and study hall, but for sandy shore and jungle trail.

Locke is going to the Island. Desmond Hume is going to get him there, even if he has to ram the man with his car to make it happen.

Caritas

The sixth season of LOST has launched a continuing series of human virtues: Love, Trust, Faith, Honesty, Hope, and now in this episode, Charity. The sideways reality has offered these virtues as potentialities, as credible, positive extensions of the personalities of the major characters.

We have seen in recent episodes that the sideways world is not always a fairy-tale, Brady-Bunch kind of place. Sayid lost his soul in the sideways spacetime just as surely as he did in the MIB’s camp on the Island. Sun, her abdomen torn apart by a ball of lead, may experience a more painful death in the sideways reality than any she might have experienced on the Island. The sideways zeitgeist is defined not by positive outcomes, but by potentials and tendencies. Regardless of the particulars of Jin’s situation, he seems always to live and work in the shadow of powerful and nefarious men. Off-Island, he is Mr. Paik’s chief thug. On-Island, he serves the Dark Lord himself, the MIB. No matter where Sayid finds himself, he cannot walk away or forget, even if he is free to do so; something in his character compels him to answer evil with evil.

But there are positive potentials and harmonious outcomes, too. Hurley’s capacity for good is greater than any of the other candidates’, and he was able to exercise the full range of his humanity in the sideways experience. To lesser degrees, Jack, Kate, Claire, Locke, and Richard have found sunshine in their worlds. This uplifting of the human spirit is something entirely foreign to the various factions on the Island. But just as these virtues are credible potentials in the sideways world, the message we can absorb and apply to our analysis of Island events is that every one of these virtues could be practised in the shadow of the statue. Nothing prevents those on the Island from trusting each other, from being honest, from extending themselves in acts of charity.

I take the exploration of virtue in Los Angeles to mean precisely this: The Island’s true destiny is to become a haven of harmony and humanity. Those who remain after the coming battles will exercise the complete repertoire of their virtues, and in doing this, they will bring to fulfillment the final and true destiny of the Island.

Destiny

Analysts here and at other websites make much of the essentiality of the characters. The characters are the essence of LOST, and their stories are the true foundation, the real story of LOST. The mythology, the conflicts of Mittelos, the entire plotline–all of it, some are now telling us–is secondary to the completion of character arcs. Some tell us–forcefully, sometimes in multiple articles in a single week–that character redemption is the final objective of these six years. LOST will end, not on the Island, but in Los Angeles. With or without the Ajira airplane, character consciousness and physical bodies will move away from the Island and into the sideways reality. The questions generated in the land of Mittelos may or may not be answered, but that has never been the point of LOST. The point is that everyone find her own destiny, and that destiny–at least according to these very well-known analysts–is to be found off-Island.

Imagine a man determined, from first light of dawn to the long red rays of setting sun, to hunt down and face a whale. Not just any whale, but Leviathan himself: the great white sperm whale, Moby Dick. Every paragraph, page after page, one long chapter following another, we learn of Ahab’s fascination, his obsession with the quest for this mighty adversary. His single-minded drive cannot be deterred by weather, material resources, mental fatigue, or human reason. One way or another, he is going to face that whale. Until, on page 674, he receives a letter from his ex-wife, Rachel. Come back to me, she says. Ahab thinks for a moment, over the course of a paragraph, and comes to realise defeating the beast of the seas would never bring completion to his life. “This whole quest thing has been a waste of my time. In fact, I’m going to have the pilot turn around right now. Why, we could be back home in less than two weeks. Back to my Rachel.” Ahab’s character arc is complete, and Melville finishes the novel. The End.

Or Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, facing the darkest agony of existence, barely able to put one foot in front of the other, walks to Juliet’s tomb. She’s dead, the messenger told him, poisoned by her own hand. He arrives at the tomb, wipes the tears away from bleary eyes, and sees–two friars. Why, it’s Friar Laurence and–Romeo frowns at the two boisterous friars playing cards. “Who is this with thee, good Father?” The two tonsured men look up from their game. “Ah, Romeo!” Friar Laurence says. “Tis my counterpart from days of yore, visiting here from Sherwood Forest: Friar Tuck.” The visiting friar lifts his frothy mug in greeting and takes a mighty gulp of ale. “Go on inside, young Romeo. Juliet sleeps. Tickle her toes; she’ll awake by and by.” Romeo wakes up Juliet, they escape their families and live happily ever after. The End.

Neither of these two scenarios could ever play out in novels of any merit. Ahab must confront Moby Dick. The character arcs of Romeo and Juliet cannot be separated from the House of Montague and the House of Capulet, nor even from the social constraints of Verona. Without the conflict of Montague and Capulet, without the level-headed prince to reveal the issue and set the terms, there is no tragedy for Romeo and Juliet, and there can be no Shakespearean play bearing their names.

LOST began on a mysterious Island. It will end on the Island. There is no redemption off-Island. If there is redemption, the harmonious fruition of incomplete souls will be achieved only in context. All stories have context, and the overwhelming context of this story has been the Island. If there is migration of consciousness, spirit, or body, it will be from sideways reality to the Island, and not in the reverse direction. Completion of character arcs is important, and in fact, essential. But these arcs are essential not in and of themselves, but rather, they find their necessity in service to the plot and completion of the story. The Island is the question, it is the source of conflict, and it will become the focus of final resolution. The Island is the story.

Ilana

She was Jacob’s hand-picked representative, Protector of Candidates. “You have to trust me. I’ve been training my whole life for this.” Indeed. She knew every square centimetre of the Temple. She knew every hill and dale, every stream, every secret of the Island. Was she over-confident? Did she not train in the proper handling of explosives?

The physical properties of kieselgur-embedded nitroglycerin are not at issue here. Ilana had more than adequate training, and the large measure of confidence she brought to every action was the product of her well-practiced familiarity with every nuance of the task. More importantly, her work for Jacob was far from having reached completion. With the Smoke Monster gaining a growing number of followers, with Widmore’s gang taking up residence on Hydra Island, with the destruction of the Temple, the Candidates had greater need of her protection than ever before.

There are no coincidences for those who risk all. Ilana took a risk in handling the dynamite, but the risk was no greater than that posed by invading the Temple at sunset or leading an expedition from Hydra Island to Jacob’s Island. More than anyone in Jack’s band, she had trained and knew exactly what she was doing. There could be no coincidences in her actions, because by force of will, practice, and experience, she was in command.

The explosion was not the result of over-confidence or lack of training or dearth of understanding. The explosion was entirely due to the rules of the Island and the expectations of relationship.

“The Island was done with her,” Ben said. Simple and to the point, Ben spoke a truth in which he had absolute certainty. “No sooner had she told you who you were, then she blew up.” It is not yet clear whether she broke any rules regarding disclosure of information to the Candidates. What is clear is that this was no accident and she was Jacob’s representative on the Island.

Many reasonable explanations might be offered in hopes of making sense of Ilana’s death. The one that most appeals to me is simple. “The Island was done with her.” Jacob was not done with Ilana, but the Island was. That is to say, the Island’s agenda is not Jacob’s agenda. Ilana’s death becomes yet another solid indication that Jacob does not have the Island’s best interests at heart.

Trust

I have to confess confusion over Hurley’s insistence that the group take a trip to the Smoke Monster’s camp. Hurley knows the MIB destroyed the Temple. He heard with his own ears Isabella’s warning that the Smoke Monster could never be allowed to leave the Island, and he took pains to relay this information to Richard, applying his own emphasis to the force of Isabella’s words. He may not be privy to the MIB’s implicit statement to Claire that she could kill Kate when the MIB was finished with her. He probably does not know that the Smoke Monster believes he has killed Desmond. He may not understand the great depths of the Smoke Monster’s evil intent. But he certainly must know the MIB is opposed to them in every way.

So why would he dream up a falsehood to lead Jack’s group to the Dark Lord’s camp? This is Hurley, the one who didn’t want to lie about those they left behind when they were the Oceanic Six. Hurley, man of truth and honesty. He is leading Jack’s team into what could be a death trap, and the only reason he provides is that he wants people to follow him.

The single, feeble rationale I can come up with centres on trust. Jack invoked the virtue when Hurley asked why Jack followed him, even after he realised Hurley was lying about Jacob’s instructions. “You asked me to trust you,” Jack told Hurley. “This is me, trusting you.” Trust has been a motif throughout Season Six. The strangest, most radical example of trust occurred this evening, when the MIB surrendered his sword (actually Locke’s hunting knife) to Hurley. Hurley certainly understood the handover carried nothing more than symbolic significance, for no one could prevent the Smoke Monster from taking on his eponymous form at any time. And yet Hurley extended his hand to accept the knife, symbolically accepting the MIB’s good intentions, and more importantly, placing some measure of trust in the Smoke Monster.

As soon as I saw the handover, I recalled a most powerful scene from one of my favourite movies, Excalibur.

Uryenes leads a majority faction opposed to “the boy-king” Arthur’s ascension to the throne. He has laid siege to the castle of one of Arthur’s supporters. Arthur, barely a squire, jumps from the castle wall and pulls Uryenes from his horse and into the water of the moat, where he commands Uryenes, at sword point, to swear allegiance to him. The magical sword, Excalibur, held firm to his neck, the knight refuses.

Uryenes: [scornfully] A noble knight swear faith to a squire?
Arthur: You’re right… I’m not yet a knight. [Hands Excalibur to Uyrenes and kneels] You, Uryenes, will make me a knight.
Merlin: [Alarmed] What’s this? What’s this?
Uryenes: [arms shaking, he hesitates and then touches Excalibur to Arthur's shoulder] In the name of God, St Michael and St George, I give you the right to bear arms and the power to mete justice.
Arthur: That duty I will solemnly obey, as knight and king.
Merlin: I never saw this.
Uryenes: Rise… King Arthur.
[Uryenes kneels before Arthur]

In both situations a younger man (Hurley or Arthur), apparently with nothing more than courage and a willingness to engage the enemy with respect and without violence, appeals to some common chord of humanity to open dialogue and establish a foundation of trust. The common chord between Arthur and Uryenes was their shared sense of decency, courage, and nobility of purpose.

If Hurley’s mission was intended as this season’s supreme example of trust, what is the foundation for this almost unthinkable act? Does Hurley believe his courage, his willingness to respect the Smoke Monster, will evoke from the MIB some measure of reciprocity sufficient to establish dialogue between equals? Does Hurley approach the Dark Lord from an attitude of submission, of inferiority? Does he approach from an attitude of virtuous plenty or moral superiority? Or does he bring only courage, hope, and trust? Most importantly, what was the common chord? What aspect of humanity could possibly have been shared in common between Saint Hugo and the Dark Lord?

I do not bear even the weakest speculation to account for Hurley’s strange but courageous act. I can only guess that this demonstration of his trusting nature may yet again be pointing to some higher purpose for Hurley, Jack, and any of the others who eventually release the Island from its long captivity.

Notes From Underground

The Book of the Week tonight was “Записки из подполья” (“Notes From Underground”), the only Dostoevsky novel I began but never finished. Thirty years ago it was one of the handful of novels I attempted in the original language. Only a few pages from the end, I could no longer continue reading. Well, to be honest, I threw the book across my dormitory room and never picked it up again. I was so completely disgusted with the behaviour of the Underground Man that I refused to read more.

Hurley focussed on two items from the now-deceased Ilana’s pile of belongings: Dostoevsky’s book, and the pouch containing Jacob’s ashes. We know of the power of the ashes. But anyone who has read “Записки из подполья” knows of the power of this book. Of the two items, which will become more useful to Hurley? By coming to understand the Underground Man, by knowing the completeness of his depravity, will Hurley find some way to overcome him? Perhaps the book will prove to be the most powerful weapon Jack and Hurley can harness in taking on the dark forces of the Island.

A Little Push

Desmond’s mission continued tonight. He knew well the ability of true love to transcend time and space. Last week he learned he was not alone in the ability to at least glimpse a reality and a truth that was unfettered by the normal constraints of physics and logic. Both Daniel and Charlie showed him that Truth was something even ordinary mortals could experience, and it allowed them, in their own limited way, to gain glimpses into their true destiny. The message last week was that the sideways reality does not contain the fullness of reality. Truth is to be found in the Island spacetime, and Desmond has taken upon himself the task of informing the major players from Flight 815 of their responsibilities on the Island. All Hurley needed was a little push. “Go with your gut,” Desmond told him, referring to Hurley’s hesitation over Libby. It was the only encouragement Hurley needed.

If we had any question about the extent of Desmond’s enlightenment, the good Dr. Linus showed up to prove that the Scottish Odysseus has become a most comfortable frequent flyer.

BEN: Do you have a child who goes here?
DESMOND: No, no, I was, um, uh, I just moved to the neighborhood and, um, and, uh, I’m looking for a school for my son.
BEN: What’s your son’s name?
DESMOND: Charlie.

The sideways Desmond, of course, has no children, no wife, and no way of knowing that in another life his son’s name is Charlie. But the Island consciousness has fully invaded sideways Desmond, and vice versa. I believe the intention of the brief dialogue between Ben and Desmond was precisely to demonstrate the fact that Desmond is fully enlightened–fully aware of all spacetimes–in both realities. I don’t believe the Island Desmond was unaware of the Smoke Monster’s true identity. Rather, I believe he was feigning ignorance so that the MIB would mistakenly believe he had power over Desmond. He even accepted the Smoke Monster’s proffered hand. It was not a sign of Desmond’s trust. It was a sign of his mastery of both timelines.

In the school parking lot Desmond had to put up with Ben’s insinuations of pedophilia. The cause was much greater than anything Ben could have imagined, and Desmond had no way of explaining the mission that brought him to the school. He could not even begin to explain that he had been carefully observing for many days the comings and goings of Ben’s wheelchair-bound colleague. How could he explain what he had to do, and why? Ben would have shouted for help, called the police.

For Hurley, emotion-guided Hurley, a woman’s lips touched gently to his own would suffice, for feeling her lips touch his would be the most intense emotional experience of his life. For Desmond, nothing less than several million Gauss of magnetic energy would be required to simulate the most intense experience of his life, when the Swan Station imploded, and he turned the failsafe key that sent him back in time.

The most gut-wrenching event in Locke’s life was the (nearly?) fatal fall from eight storeys.

Desmond knew of only one sure-fire way to stimulate Locke’s recollection of the Island reality. It would be painful. But perhaps one day Locke–or maybe even the Island–would thank him.

Extreme times call for extreme measures. The Island is days or even short hours from releasing to the world the most powerful evil it has ever known. The survival of everyone on the Island–possibly the survival of everyone on the planet–depends on the actions of a few individuals in these critical days. Humanity, the ability of human beings to trust each other, now has a chance. The most trusting man in the world now has a chance. Will he remember? Will he choose to accept the awful burden of responsibility? I trust we will find out very soon.

LOST 6.12 “Everybody Loves Hugo” Recap/Live Reaction Video

ajruck — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:30:43 +0000

Editor’s Note: Spoiler Alert: Adam talks about next week’s episode at the end of this video.

This is the video recap for LOST season 6 episode 12, “Everybody Loves Hugo,” which aired April 13, 2010 on ABC.
My friend Allison joins me to summarize the night’s events and share our personal reactions to the show as it aired.

This episode focuses on Hurley (Hugo) both on the island and off the island in the flash sideways. We finally see more of Libby’s story and her involvement in the loony bin. This leads to Hurley and Libby realizing their connection in the flash sideways. There’s also a surprise visit from Michael and an explosive death!

SHARE your theories in the comments section and tell me your thoughts at Twitter.com/adamrucker

Thanks for watching, and subscribe for more videos and a new LOST recap every week!

All of my videos can be found at RuckitUp.com

LOST Episode 6.12 “Everybody Loves Hugo” [Open Thread]

SL-LOST — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:54:26 +0000

Synopsis: Hurley agonizes over what the group should do next, and Locke is curious about the new arrival to his camp.
Written by: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz.
Directed by: Dan Attias.

What did you think of tonight’s Hurley-centric episode? Tell us in comments below!

Please, do NOT post any info about upcoming episodes in comments. This includes the preview shown at the end of this episode, episode titles, etc. If you post a spoiler, you’ll be permanently banned. If you see a spoiler, please flag it. Thanks!

sl-LOST.com » Hurley

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