The season started with Hurley's rescue from the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute by Sayid. Unfortunately for both of them, Sayid's safe house was compromised, and Sayid shot with several tranquilizing darts. Sayid lived, but because he was unconscious, Hurley was essentially on his own. With some (misleading - at least to me!) advice from Ana Lucia, Hurley was able to pull his act together, ending up at his parents' home.
In the same episode, The Lie, we learned that Hurley was against lying about the Island. So angry was he that he threatened to never help Sayid again - a promise he did not fulfill. But it was clear that the lie weighed on Hurley, and that he honestly believed those left behind on the Island were harmed by their actions. Finally, 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. But the re... But the rest of the people... who were on the plane? They're still on that island.
Have you ever tried to explain why you love Lost to people who've never watched? I would argue that you would sound a lot like Hurley did trying to tell his mother what the show was about. You might find that there was a lot that happened that you could argue you were "never really clear on".
The end of the episode ended with Hurley rejecting Ben's offer to return to the Island and surrendering to the police. We didn't see him for a while. Unbeknownst to him, Ben had his attorney working to get Hurley released. Despite his numerous misgivings, Hurley was released from jail, all charges dropped. And it was then that I think one of the most momentous events in Hurley's life and possibly in the show itself occurred. Hurley met Jacob.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into the fact that Jacob had a far longer conversation with Hurley than he did with any other Oceanic 815 survivor. Perhaps I'm reading too much into the fact that Jacob gave Hurley more than Sayid, Jack, Kate, and Sun were given - a choice to return to the Island. Sayid, as you recall, was in handcuffs, while Jack, Kate, and Sun all returned due to the manipulations of Ben. Hurley was given a choice.
Hurley was also given something else almost as important to Hurley. Hurley had viewed his visitations by the ghosts (for lack of a better term) as a curse, part of the same curse that had struck him after using the numbers to win the lottery. In his mind, it was the curse that caused Oceanic 815 to crash and his friends to die. But Jacob thought otherwise:
JACOB: Well, what if you weren't cursed? What if you were blessed?
HURLEY: How do you mean "blessed?"
JACOB: Well, you get to talk to people you've lost... seems like a pretty wonderful thing to me.
HURLEY: Oh, I'm sure it's wonderful, except for the part where I'm crazy.
JACOB: I've got some news for you, Hugo, and you're just gonna have to take my word on this. You are not crazy.
Clearly, Hurley listened, because back on the Island, he willingly shared with Miles that he spoke to dead people too, even going so far as to brag,"You're just jealous my powers are better than yours."
One of the best pairings of the season was Hurley and Miles. The hostile, angry Miles matched wits with someone whose intelligence he severely underestimated. Hurley worked hard to figure out how the "whatever happened, happened" theory applied to them, since they were in the past, a past that had already happened, but not to him. It was hard to wrap the mind around the fact that what Sayid, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles did already happened, but not to them. Because for them, the past (the 1970s) was their present. And Hurley finally stumped Miles: If Sayid shot the young Ben in the 1970s, why didn't Ben recognize Sayid nearly 30 years later? Sadly, we know the answer, which I found to be quite dissatisfying. But that is another topic.
Is Hurley The Little Prince?
When I wrote a study of who might be the Litte Prince, I declared that Hurley's chances of being so low to medium. This essay was written in the middle of the season, before Hurley's conversation with Jacob. I didn't even think of it, until I read a post on Ryan McGee's Lost blog on Zap2It on Jacob's heir unapparent. He argues that perhaps Hurley, in all his goodness of soul, generosity of spirit, and devotion to honesty, is the true heir to Jacob. It quite got me thinking.
The Actor
As you may know, I'm pretty sure that Jorge Garcia left a comment on my blog, correcting an error of mine - an error I found again today on another site. Garcia did indeed read the lines for Sawyer in auditioning for Lost, but he denied auditioning for the role of Sawyer. Now I know.
The actor has his own blog, which is an amusing slice of life about his life on Hawaii and as a celebrity. The actor also appeared at Comic Con this year, and did an excellent job of being Hurley, asking the questions we all want to ask. I'll quote from a blogger who was there:
[Garcia] asked Darlton if the commercials indicate that Jack's actions in the S5 finale worked and flight 815 didn't crash. Darlton's response? "Trust us." Jorge's comeback? "The last time you told me to trust you guys, you said that Nikki and Paolo were going to be awesome."
He makes an excellent point.
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