It’s been a while since we had a Hurley episode in the second half of a season – in fact, it’s been since “Dave”, back in Season 2, I think. The interesting thing is that Hurley episodes usually aren’t used as plot progressing episodes. They’re usually there to fill the audience in on the story that’ll be told in the coming episodes. With Hurley being the “voice of the audience”, it makes sense. This time, it was different, though. For the first time I kind of got the feeling Hurley wasn’t really speaking my voice at all. But his own voice was interesting.

The Episode…

On a directing perspective, there were three parallels in this episode – an interesting thing. I’m talking about planting and pay-off: we saw Ilana enter with dynamite in her bag, then shake it around, then put water bottles on top of it, and then finally putting them on the floor before blowing herself up. The same mechanic was used around the well (Desmond and Locke circled it for what seemed like hours before Des was thrown in) and the car crash in the end.

On the Hurley side of the episode, we got some nice closure. He finally went on the date with Libby (I can imagine the script saying “emphasize the blanket” underlined and bold) and got Michael to make amends with him. Poor Mike. I’m not fond of him, but being stuck on that island without being able to move on? I can imagine better places to be.

The Questions…

Yet, still, that car crash had me completely fooled. I thought he’d give the resident wheel chair man a little nudge to make him remember – but this? I think Desmond didn’t run over John Locke to show him what he actually is in the real island world – I think he was actually trying to kill him. Last year we had the discussion if you would kill Child Hitler – this year we’re wondering if we’d kill Hitler in a parallel universe. Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I actually like this as much as I do.

Next Episode…

The most interesting thing seems to have happened. I think we’re through. I don’t think there’s any character left that needs another flash sideways. So whom will the next episode be about? I honestly have no idea. I think, with Desmond running over John Locke, we might be heading towards a more open, multi perspective point of view on the sideways.

Picture this: John Locke, badly hurt, ends up in the hospital, accompanied by Ben. They not only run into Jack, the resident doctor, but also Sun and Jin. How the others feature into this story is sort of unclear, but this might be the start. I kind of hope they leave the character stories and move onto something a bit wider in perspective. The stakes are most certainly raised high enough.

In All…

I think the fact that Hugo’s flash sideways focused on Desmond in the end, is a way of telling us that the flash sideways as character stories are over. I hope they switch to using multiple perspectives for the remainder of the episodes: I can’t imagine them wrapping the story up if they keep on focusing on one character at a time…

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