YES!!!!! Lost is back! This is gonna be a long recap, and maybe I’ll figure out a way to do it shorter, but right now I’m too excited about every little detail not to write it down. Let’s get to it!
Remember how seasons two and three both began with major fakeouts—spending time with Desmond in the hatch, and seeing Juliette’s book club in Otherville. Well this season is even better—we open on a shot of a pile of mangoes, with an ocean in the background and the sound of the breeze and seagulls. Then the mangoes explode! And then you see that it’s a car that made them explode! That’s right, Lost has given us our first honest-to-God car chase—even better than Hurley crashing the VW bus into the Others last season.
Speaking of Hurley, it turns out it’s him driving the Camaro through the mangoes, eventually getting caught by the cops. We also briefly see Jack at home, pouring himself a screwdriver of course, watching the chase on television. So we know that this is all taking place in the future—a flash-forward—and that Jack recognizes Hurley’s car. Hey, all the clues are important! When Hurley is getting handcuffed by the cops, he shouts at them “Don’t you know who I am? I’m one of the Oceanic Six!” And wham! We see the Lost title for the first time in 8 months. Damn it’s good to be back!
Hurley is being interrogated by Ana Lucia’s ex-partner in the police force, who shows Hurley a video of him from a convenience store, being startled by something in the corner and flipping out (this, presumably, is what started the car chase). Hurley won’t admit to what he saw, but he does hallucinate a figure swimming toward him from a window and breaking it, flooding the room. It looks a whole heck of a lot when Mikhail broke the window on Charlie, except the swimmer this time doesn’t appear to be invincible. Yet, at least.
And now, finally, we’re back on the island. Hurley is still talking to Jack on the radio, explaining that everyone is OK. He and Bernard stand on the beach and think about being rescued, and Hurley decides to do a celebratory cannonball in the ocean. When he gets out, Desmond is back, explaining that it’s not Penny’s boat—oh, and that Charlie has kicked the bucket. In the meantime, Jack explains that Locke has run off since stabbing Naomi, but if he finds him again—well, he’s gonna kill ‘im. Ben, tied up to a tree, pulls aside Rousseau and asks her to take Alex and get far away from Jack and company, because “Everyone here is going to die. No daughter of mine—” and Rosseau punches him! Again! “She’s not your daughter!” Damn straight, Rousseau.
Oh, and Naomi’s “corpse”? Uh, gone. Jack goes and assumes Ben did it, but thanks to the hilarious shrug Ben gives him, it’s not ol’ Benry’s fault this time.
Back on the beach, Sayid is being right, as always—he tells Sawyer not to radio Jack and tell him that it’s not Penny’s boat, since the freighter people, obviously, are monitoring them. To make a point, Hurley throws the walkie in the ocean. Well then. The lot of them trek off into the woods to find the other group, and Hurley flashes forward—he’s back in the home he was in before the crash. A representative of Oceanic Airlines comes and says they “feel terrible” about Hurley’s car chase, and offers to move him to a better home. But when Hurley asks him for a card, the guy declines, and asks him one cryptic question: “Are they still alive?”
On the island Hurley turns down Sawyer’s well-intentioned attempt to talk about Charlie, and soon Hurley is totally separated from the group—alone, in the jungle, and hearing the weird whispery voices. And then, out of nowhere, it’s Jacob’s shack! Looking through the window, Hurley sees a figure sitting in Jacob’s chair, before another face shows up and pushes him away. Hurley backs away, turns around—and the shack is there again! After freaking out a while longer, Hurley falls over, and who is hovering over him? Locke, of course. Holy crap that was intense.
Back in the woods, Jack, Ben and Rousseau are on the trail of Naomi, having ignored the second trail that Kate found. But then, guess what? Jack is wrong—as always!—and Naomi laid out a fake trail. Good thing Kate faked Jack out and followed the second trail anyway, even stealing the satellite phone out of his back pocket—yeah, Kate! Kate pauses when the phone rings, and she notices that blood is dripping on her from above for a few seconds before, that’s right, Naomi tackles her. Naomi spends a few seconds on the phone with the guy on the freighter, resets the signal they need to find the Losties, and dramatically dies. Man, the body count is already high this season!
Hurley spends a few moments with Locke, enogh for them to realize, hey, they both trust Charlie, and they ain’t goin’ nowhere with the people on that freighter. They rejoin the rest of the group, where Sayid yells at Locke briefly for blowing up the submarine before the other group catches up with them. Ah, everyone is together at last, even Ben, all tied up being dragged by Rousseau! Hurley, of course, has to take the duty of telling Claire about Charlie, even as Rose and Bernard and Sun and Jin are reuniting. Believe it or not, those tears of sadness for Charlie come back to me again.
And then, we have the best flash-forward of the entire episode. Out in the yard at the home, there’s a weird guy staring at Hurley—it’s Charlie! “I am dead, but I’m also here,” Charlie tells Hurley, explaining why he didn’t tell Hurley he was on his way to his death. Man oh man, it feels good to see Charlie again. Then he explains the real reason he’s come back: “They need you Hugo… you know they need you.” Who is the “they” everyone keeps talking about??
Back on the island, Locke and Jack lay down the law: trust the freighter and go with Jack, or trust Charlie and stay on the island with Locke. Hurley, a loyal friend to the end, goes with Locke. So does Claire, her tears for Charlie not even dry. Ben, who has been hilarious this entire episode, says, “With your permission, Jack, I’d like to go with Locke.” He’s joined by Alex and Carl and Rousseau, who’s still carrying him around on a leash, and Sawyer! Kate is disappointed, but Jesus woman, did you really expect him to just follow you around forever? “I’m doing what I’ve always done, Kate—survivin’.” Dumb line, Sawyer, but hey, I feel you.
I realize this recap is already epic, but wow, I can’t believe it’s already the end of the episode. We’re back with Hurley in the home, when Jack shows up to visit. And it’s future jack, without that awful beard! Ah, but that’s the joke: “I’m thinking of growing a beard,” he tells Hurley. “You’d look weird with a beard, dude.” So we can assume this happens before last season’s flash-forward? Then Hurley tells Jack what he took out of his conversation with Charlie: “I’m sorry I went with Locke. I should have stayed with you.” And then the big one: “I think it wants us to go back.” Is “it” the island?? Regardless, Jack has a simple answer: “We’re never going back.”
And that’s it! After the longest 8 months ever, Lost is back! And there are already so many questions! Who are “they,” and why does this guy want to know if they’re alive? What the hell is up with these freighter people? What does the Oceanic Six mean, and how is Hurley, from Locke’s team, part of it along with Jack and Kate? And what unhinged Hurley so much about leaving the island that he happily went back to the home? Why did I get so spoiled watching old episodes on DVD that I can't believe I can't just go watch the next episode right now! Ah, but its so much fun to be back here, waiting anxiously for next week. Seven more episodes to go, and I'm ready!
