(35) - Everybody Loves Chicken

Doesn't everybody chicken? Hurley sure does, as he turned his Mr. Clucks into an international franchise, which in turn helped him to give back. According to Dr. Chang, Hugo and "giving" became synonymous, as he gave to charities and started his own charity. And he was soon to receive an award from The Human Fund (awesome Seinfeld reference). Was his mom happy? Yes. But she knew Hugo needed a woman in his life, a woman who was not his mother. We'll come back to that though. First, past predictions that deal with this episode:

• Desmond is able to kill LockeMonster
• Well, judging by the fact Locke threw him into a well, I'm going to say TRUE. How is he able to kill him? No idea, but LM was sure spooked by him.

I think that's about it. No, let's eat "Everybody Loves Hugo."

1. LOST is a love story. The show is defined by the relationships that are kept and the one's that are destroyed. Desmond/Penny = Constant, Charlie/Claire = Drowned, Sun/Jin = Fluxuating, Hurley/Libby = Real. Last night, after three and a half seasons, Libby returned from the dead. Not in the Island timeline, but in the alternate reality. She had checked herself into Santa Rosa after seeing Hurley on the TV and getting bombarded with flashes and feelings which she never had before, which apparently came from another life. After bumping into Hurley at Spanish Johnny's (seriously, odds they're both there that night? Zilch. That sort of stuff only happens on TV. Wait a second...), she truly believes they were together in another life. Hurley wasn't 100% sold, but something was "off" about the whole encounter. He believed her, he just didn't feel it.

Desmond, fresh off of obtaining the Oceanic 815 passenger list from George, apparently started with the R's and found Hugo and stalked him to one of his Mr. Clucks, and urged him to give the girl another shot. To see exactly what she meant. Ahh, the matchmaker, it suits you Desmond. That accent, the hair, it could work on a different show. We'll get back to Desmond later, who went psycho. So Hugo made a generous donation in exchange for some face time with Libby. He asked her on a date, and they went on a picnic! At the beach! The date that never happened was happening. And then Libby kissed Hugo, and that was all he needed. The thoughts and emotions that filled Island Hugo have now downloaded into Alto-Hugo. "Dude." Desmond was looking on, and saw that the connection was made. One down, a few more to go.

2. Island Hugo is becoming the alpha male. People are listening to him. He's taking charge. Ilana and Richard were the two people on Team Jacob that were barking orders. Their new orders were to get dynamite and to blow up the Ajira Plane. Sun didn't like this idea, and apparently neither did Hugo. He was willing to go along with operation blow plane up until he was visited by an old friend/enemy: Michael. Michael's message? Don't do this, people will die, and it's going to be your fault. GUILT! Remember in this timeline, Hugo feels very badly about his weight. He believed it was his fault a deck collapsed and two people died. If he wasn't so big, it would have never happened. That's why he was in Santa Rosa. And remember the season two episode (and this episode's counter), "Everybody Hates Hugo." Hugo wants people to like him and for people to not die.

So he argues with Ilana about blowing up the plane: he doesn't want to be stuck with this "thing," the dynamite is unstable, etc. Ilana kept getting fed up, slammed down the bag of dynamite, and BOOM! Arzt all over again! Ilana blew up. I guess I should have seen it coming looking back, but at the same time, we have this whole Ilana backstory which I guess we're never going to see. Why was she in bandages when Jacob came to see her? How has she been training all of her life for her stay on the Island? How does she know Jacob? Why was the closest thing she's ever had to a father? And with one explosion, that was all gone. Will she come back to have those questions answered? Probably not, that's my guess anyways.

What to do next? Richard says to do the same thing: get more dynamite. But this time, Hugo is all for it. Obviously something was up, we just didn't know what it was. It turned out that Hugo snuck ahead of the entire crew (how is that possible?), got to the Black Rock first, and blew up the entire ship. Gone. No more. Goodbye Black Rock. Richard is extremely upset. WTF DUDE?! And then there's a split in Team Jacob. On the one side: Alpert, Ben Linus & Miles. On Team Hurley: Hugo, Jack, Frank and Sun. Why the split?

Hurley made up some BS that he was talking to Jacob who said we should go talk to LockeMonster. Richard called his bluff, but Hurley grew some balls and said that he didn't have to prove anything to him. Linus went with Richard because I'm assuming he knows LM won't give him another chance once he declined his initial offer. Miles went with Richard because I guess after Hurley told him he listens to what dead people tell him (and that they can be trusted more than alive people), that freaked him out. So he peaced. Why did Jack stay with Hurley? Because he trusts him completely. He knows he was making up the Jacob BS, but he has fully realized that he cannot fix everything. With Juliet now dead, he has realized he cannot be the ultimate fixer, and as much as it pains him to realize that, he does. And with that, it is now official (not official, but in my head official), Jack is the new Jacob. That's the transformation. Looking out on the ocean after smashing the Lighthouse really transformed his way of thinking. After this revelation by Jack, we get another answer to a LOST mystery.

3. The whispers. Hurley pieced it together himself: the whispers are all the people who have came to the Island and have died. Michael clued him into the rest: They cannot move on due to something they have done or not atoned for. They are stuck. They cannot move on to whatever is beyond the Island. The producers brought the whole the Island is purgatory theory right back into play. Michael then tells Hurley that if he ever sees Libby again, to please tell her he is sorry. But don't tell Ana Lucia? Fucked up Mike.

4. Sawyer is getting impatient with Locke. Whyyyyy are they waiting??? Stop being a whiny bitch Sawyer. LM was carving a long wooden stick when Sawyer approached him. What's that, a spear? LM's response: he's not sure what it is, but when the time is right he'll know. AKA, relax Sawyer and sit your ass down. You don't want to? Then I'll tell you a little bit more: They all came back to the Island as a group, and that's how they have to leave. I'm calling BS on this. Again, my theory is that he needs all the Candidates together so he can wipe them out all at the same time, this way Jacob's essence cannot fill a human host. Sawyer didn't come in on the plane, neither did Jin. Bologna if you ask me. He wants everyone to die, we know this.

Sayid returns, with the package in tow. He had tied Desmond up to a tree in case he wanted to run off. Desmond's response was that he had no where to run, so why even try? LM cuts him free, and asks him do you know who I am? "Of course. (pause) You're John Locke." Locke smiled and dismissed Sayid so he and Desmond could go on a walk and have a chat. What was so odd about this exchange? Something bugged me. Desmond is now this enlightened being, he knows he has to do something "important." He knows about the alternate universe. Sawyer called LockeMonster on his bluff, he knew immediately it wasn't him. Jin knew it wasn't Locke. So what gives? Why didn't Desmond know? And that's when I thought, that Desmond did know. That he was correct. That he was staring at John Locke.

• Yes I know. That makes no sense. We saw the dead body, and dead is dead. John Locke died when Ben strangled him. We get it. But what if, just what if, the loophole that the man in black was talking about wasn't looking like John Locke, but becoming John Locke? What if John Locke finally understood the Island and what it wanted from him, or what it wanted to use from him, and he was ok with it? What if the loophole was that the Man in Black got John Locke on his side? How do you explain the dead body, you ask? No fucking clue. Is this theory correct? 100% incorrect. But I thought it was interesting to add. Desmond seeing LockeMonster for who he really was: John Locke.

Anyways, they go for their walk and come upon a well. One of they many wells on the Island. Dug by man, deep deep into the Island. Why? Because they wanted to understand the Island and its properties. They knew It was/is special. Des told LM that he was kidnapped by Widmore, and what they wanted from him was to help identify electromagnetic hot spots on the Island. How does he know this? Experience, he says. LM clearly didn't like this answer. He knows Widmore is on to something. LM asks Desmond why he isn't afraid. No one on this Island saw him except for Sayid and LM, and he is alone with LM now. Why isn't he afraid? Because there is nothing to be afraid of. Uhhh wrong answer buddy. LM proceeds to push him down the well. There goes Team Jacob/Team Widmore's one hope to save this universe. LM goes back to his crew, Sayid questions him about Desmond and before he can really give an answer Team Hurley shows up. They want to talk. But no one can get hurt! That's the rule! LM hands over his knife, sounds good. Team Hurley comes out, Jack last. Sees Kate, Sawyer, and then, holy shit, John LOCKE?! WTF???!!! Craziness.

5. Cut to Alto-Verse (that's my new way of saying the alternate universe). Desmond is being creepy and staring at little girls at a high school. Orrrrrr he's just waiting for Locke to get out of class and cross the street so he can run him over with his car!!!!! Make sense? Not yet. But it obviously will. Desmond has either gone mad (which he hasn't, he just got Hugo and Libby together) or he wanted to kill John Locke for some reason. Or, he wanted Locke to connect with his Island consciousness. Maybe for some people, love is the connection. For others, it's pain. And what has John Locke felt all of his life: PAIN. Major daddy issues, including getting a kidney stolen and being tossed out a window. So for Desmond to make Locke's connection, he had to put him through a ton of pain. Now Locke will get sent to the ER and run in to...Dr. Shepherd!!! Ahh how the world goes round and round.

I don't believe Desmond ran over Locke because he doesn't want LM to transfer consciousness into Alto-Locke. I don't think Island Desmond and Alto-Desmond have a current link. I think Alto-Des has all of the thoughts that Island Desmond had, and vice versa.

6. Predictions!

• Continuing a past prediction: Jack will be the new Jacob. 
• Desmond ran over Locke so he can experience a shitload of pain hoping that would connect him to his Island counterpart (wait....that makes no sense. Maybe he did run him over hoping he'd die...)
• Sayid will help Island Desmond out of the well. I know this is out of left field, but I'm hoping all of Sayid's soul didn't die. And since he's the only other person who has even an inkling where Desmond might be, he'll track him and help him out.

 I'm hungry for chicken.