Episode Report Card Daniel: A- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT The hand that Lockes the cradle
By Daniel | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on March 1, 2005
Sayid turns over in his sleep in the middle of the night, to find Hurley staring at him. "You awake?" asks Hurley, and Sayid says he was just asking himself that same question. Hurley starts asking, as nonchalantly as he can, about Rousseau's notes, but Sayid says that given it's the middle of the night, maybe Hurley could get to the point. Hurley's incapable of that, though, so he hems and haws and asks what Sayid came up with in terms of theories for the numbers that Rousseau scribbled over and over again. Sayid sort of sits up and says that at one time they thought they might be coordinates. Hurley asks about the cable Sayid followed that led him to Rousseau, and Sayid points out that the cable didn't lead to Rousseau, but to a trap that Rousseau set. And because Hurley is asking all these questions and is carrying a guidebook with The Lonely Planet Guide to the Crazy French Chick's Place emblazoned on the cover, Sayid wants to know why Hurley's suddenly so interested. Hurley says he's not, that he's just making conversation, and he lies about as well as I perform open-heart surgery. Sayid keeps rubbing his eyes, and Hurley walks away, spiriting some of Rousseau's notes under his shirt, which I imagine is an advantage to his size: Sayid's not really going to be suspicious of a bulge.
Flashback to a press conference Hurley's holding after claiming his lottery winnings, which Lost would have you believe would attract as much media attention as a Super Bowl or a presidential inauguration. Moreover, all of the reporters are as excited as they would be at the former, and taking this "story" as seriously as they would the latter. And they do that reporter-mob-television-hubbub thing that disappears instantly when a particular question is asked instead of just muttering rhubarb-rhubarb-rhubarb. Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa asks how he came up with the winning numbers, like maybe he FIGURED OUT WHAT THE WINNING NUMBERS WOULD BE or something. "They just sort of came to me," says Hurley, after hesitating a bit. That was apparently the only question all those reporters could think of to ask Hurley about himself, so an earnest reporter in a suit asks Hurley to introduce his family. Hurley sweetly introduces his mom, Carmen, as a "bashful beauty," and then he introduces his brother Diego and Diego's wife Lucy, and Diego's got a shaved head, only judging from the pattern of head stubble, he's not bald entirely by choice. And Diego yells, "We're rich, woo!" and the reporters laugh dutifully, only I think Diego's a bit of an idiot, and Hurley jokingly tells everyone to ignore Diego, as he's a moron, and Hurley is way too nice and this is why everyone loves Hurley. This is also why: he introduces his grandfather Tito, who he says is the best guy he knows, and explains that Tito's worked three jobs for 52 years, and the closest Tito's come to a vacation is when he had a pacemaker put in four years ago, and this is all sweet, and the kind of story when you see on the news you're kind of glad this person won the lottery? I actually found myself going "aww," which I never do outside of when they retire numbers of my favourite athletes and the athletes have their kids there, and the kids are always sweetly amazed, like, you're doing this for my dad? He's just Dad! This is evoking the same feeling for me, only it's fake and now I'm annoyed. And Hurley's going on about giving his grandfather the rest he's earned, and then Hurley blathers on about how nice it is to do things for his loved ones, especially as he's put them through a lot lately, although he doesn't elaborate, and he talks about buying his mom a house, and then when his grandfather gets back from a cruise, they're going to do all kinds of things...only by this point Tito has looked increasingly uncomfortable before finally just keeling right over.