Episode Report Card Daniel: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dyno-mite!
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.11.2005
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.It's a Hurley-centric episode this week as the Inner Circle gets down to the business of looking after the hatch. Hurley's in charge of the food, specifically inventory and rationing. Only the secret of the Hatch-hole and all its glories starts to leak out, thanks to Hurley himself, who brings Rose in on the secret so she can help him (and not so he can help her with the laundry), and Locke, who tells Charlie about the food. So Charlie starts pestering Hurley for peanut butter (still hoping to get down Claire's pants, we see). Hurley sees the beginning of the problems wealth brings (relatively speaking), because it's going to be just like when he won the lottery. That's what the flashbacks are about -- the time in between when he saw his numbers had won and before he claimed the loot. He quits his job, pulls a prank on his asshole non-Dave-Grohl boss, makes a date with a cute girl named Starla, and makes his friend promise that things will never change between them. Unfortunately, things will change, because apparently Hurley bought his ticket at a convenience store where the clerk remembers everyone and their lottery numbers. So Hurley wants to use some dynamite to blow up the food, but Rose convinces him not to. So the lostaways have a big feast, and nobody hates Hugo at all!
Meanwhile, Jin, Sawyer and Michael are hauled out of the hatch to hang with totally NOT the Others, just others, as in other survivors from the plane. Ana-Lucia likes to yell at people and throw rocks at Sawyer, so I'm cool with that. They've taken shelter in what looks like another Dharma station, only it's not as nice. Imagine you took Swan Station and rented it to Motley Crue for a week; this is where the other survivors are staying. They numbered twenty-three to start, but appear to have dwindled significantly. But one of them is Rose's husband Bernard.
Oh, and Jin speaking English? Dream sequence. Total bullshit preview, guys. Not cool. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
When we open with a shot of a turntable needle dropping on another LP, so I was fully prepared for some more "Make Your Own Kind of Music." Instead, we get "My Conversation," by Slim Smith and the Uniques, a song and group I was not familiar with until this episode, much to my regret, as Hurley looks in awe around all the food in the Swan station Costco. He opens the candy. He has a chocolate bar and achieves chocogasm almost instantly. Kate's chocogasm seemed to take a little more effort. Isn't that always the way? He rips into a bag of potato chips. He cuts out the need for bowl or spoon by pouring first the cereal and then the milk directly into his mouth. Then he holds a banana over his open mouth and slices it over top. Next up, he opens a box that contains, um, a fully plated steak dinner, complete with biscuit and vegetables, and he grabs the steak with his hand and dips it in the mashed potatoes.Okay, what? Oh, dream sequence. Something tells me the "Jin speaking English" preview from last week is coming up right away.
But first, Hurley chows down on a whipped cream and chocolate-covered sundae. Sure enough, we hear, "Hi there, Hurley," and the needle scratches across the record. Jin's standing in the doorway. "Jin, you're here," says Hurley. "I sure am," says Jin, pleasantly, in perfect English. "Dude, you're speaking English," says Hurley, whose fantasy self certainly has a penchant for stating the obvious. Jin replies that Hurley is in fact speaking Korean. And Hurley says, "I am?" only in what sounds to my untrained ear as Korean, albeit likely very accented Korean.
Suddenly there is a man in a chicken suit standing next to Jin. He says nothing (chickens can't speak, I guess). Hurley asks, in Korean, what he's doing there. Jin says, in English, "Everything's going to change." We hear the familiar beeping as Hurley says "what?" and Jin says it again: "Everything's going to change." Hurley's silent, and Jin adds, "Have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day, Hugo." And the dude in the chicken suit opens his mouth to speak, only when he says "Hurley!" it's in Kate's voice.
Hurley comes to in front of the Ap(ocalypse)ple II, with Kate saying his name, and the timer at about 3:45. And please, let's hope that's it for the dream sequence, at least for this episode. I hate them on Six Feet Under, I hate them on The Sopranos. I hate them when co-workers stroll up to you and share them with you, and I don't believe I'm alone in this. ["You aren't." -- Sars] Kate strolls up and says, "You fell asleep?" and Hurley goes for the old "resting my eyes" standby, only he doesn't really sell it. Kate taps a piece of paper taped to the computer, saying the numbers are on it. Hurley says he remembers the numbers, and starts typing them in, as Kate explains that Locke went back to the beach, so she's taking the next shift. "Jack told me about your job," she says, adding, "At least we have jobs again, right?" Whatever, fugitive Kate. Hurley says, "Hooray for us," and taps the Execute button.
Back in the prison pits of the non-Others, Sawyer is -- you're never going to believe this -- complaining. Jin starts talking -- in Korean -- and gesturing upwards. "No way, no more human pyramids," snaps Sawyer, who's probably pissed because three people makes for a pretty shitty pyramid. Michael tries yelling, "Let me out!" like that has any shot at working. Sawyer tells him to "chill" and Michael says that every minute he spends down there is another minute his son is out there. Sawyer says that until "Rambina" and her buddies decide what to do with them, there isn't anything they can do about it.