2.18 Dave

Libby and Hurley take a break from fast-walking down the beach. Hurley reveals his secret to Libby: he takes her to a shelf unit, hidden in the jungle, that holds a large amount of food items that he has hoarded. Libby encourages him to get rid of it; Hurley gives in and dumps it all out onto the jungle floor. Liberated and free, Hurley embraces Libby. She seems very responsive…but they are suddenly interrupted by Jin, Sun and others running by and saying, "They found something!" They follow and find a large number of people rooting through the food that was dropped from the sky. Charlie wants Hurley to take charge of the melee, but he refuses. Hurley sees an unidentifed man standing just behind everyone, wearing a robe, smiling at him and not taking part in the food free-for-all. Hurley follows him through the jungle and finds one of the man’s slippers.

A little later, on the beach, Hurley rolls that single slipper in his hand, contemplating what it means. He hides it when Libby approaches and is cagey when she asks him why he ran off into the jungle. Libby says she is proud of him for "…not freaking out."

In flashback, Hurley’s psychologist is trying and failing to get him to talk about the accident that caused him mom to commit him. Hurley also hasn’t done his homework. He says this is because Dave (another patient) said it was a dumb idea. Later, Dave is berating some of the more challenged patients during a basketball game. Hurley confronts Dave about his negativity. Dave has no argument about that, but his friendship and humor is more important to Hurley at this point in time.

Jack is checking Locke’s legs and tells him his hairline fracture in one leg will mean he cannot walk for two weeks. Locke reacts almost violently at Jack’s suggestion that he use a wheelchair. Kate mentions a found pair of crutches, and Locke agrees to use those. Kate leaves to find them. Locke argues that Henry could have escaped during lockdown when Locke was hurt, but he came back to help him. Jack says Henry didn’t come back to help; he came back because he thought his story would check out.

In the armory, Henry’s arms are tied to the wall. He tells Sayid and Ana that when he found Henry, he was dead already, having broken his neck on impact. Sayid produces a bill he found in the dead man’s wallet, where he scrawled a note to someone called Jennifer to say that he was heading down the beach to start a signal fire. Sayid manages to get the fact that Henry is a flunkie in the Others who is so scared of ‘him’ (their leader) that he will not give out any information for fear of being killed. Sayid is about to shoot him when Ana grabs his arm and deflects the shot. Ana takes Sayid outside and locks the door, while Locke yells to find out what is going on, and Jack tells him it is under control (but doesn’t tell him what is going on).

Charlie saw that Eko was building something so he brings him a pallette. Eko thanks him and asks Charlie to help.

In the jungle, Hurley searches for Dave at the spot where he found the slipper. Instead, he find a box of snacks and devours big handfuls. He hears footsteps behind him, turns, and is face to face with Dave. Hurley says he isn’t really there, so Dave hits him with a coconut, then turns and flees through the jungle, with Hurley in pursuit. Hurley emerges on the beach where Eko and Charlie are busy building. Neither of them saw Dave.

In flashback, Hurley is playing a board game with Lenny while Dave looks on. Dave seems bent on controlling Hurley, encouraging to stop eating celery and to take Lenny’s graham crackers instead, and telling him not to take his sedative if he wants to escape with him. Hurley’s doctor comes by and takes a picture of Hurley and Dave together. Hurley acts like he is taking his meds but doesn’t swallow them.

Hurley asks Sawyer for medicine to make his hallucinations go away. When Sawyer teases him, Hurley tackles him and beats on his face until Jin pulls him away.

Kate is amused when Sawyer tells her about being attacked by Hurley.

Libby finds Hurley as he is packing to go live alone at the caves. As Hurley walks through the jungle, his pack opens and the huge jar of peanut butter falls and breaks. As Hurley begins scraping it back into the jar and eating big gobs of it, Dave shows up again.

In flashback, Hurley has completed his homework for Dr Brooks – a list of the things he likes. They are concentrating on getting Hurley to deal with his weight problem. Apparently, Hurley blames his weight on the accident – a deck that was overloaded with people collapsed and two people died. Again, Hurley defends Dave as a friend. Dr Brooks shows Hurley the photo he took of him and Dave, but Hurley is the only one in the photo – Dave is a figment of Hurley’s imagination. Dave shows up later that night and certainly seems to be real – he slaps Hurley a couple of times and it hurts. Hurley tells about the photo; Dave attributes it to Photoshop retouching. Dave starts by pointing out food leftovers to eat on the way. Their destination is an open window and freedom. But Hurley turns him down and locks him out.

Hurley tries to make Dave go away, but it doesn’t work. Dave says that Hurley’s recovery and release from the hospital was all imagined – that Hurley is still in the hospital. Dave says that Hurley has been in a coma since locking him out of the window. Dave leads him to a high cliff and tells him if he jumps off, he will wake up and return to reality. Dave then jumps off the cliff into the water.

On crutches, Locke asks Ana to talk to the prisoner for five minutes. Henry doesn’t answer any of Locke’s questions, but he does tell him that he never put the code in the computer – and yet the timer reset itself anyway. Locke says he is lieing, but Henry says he is all through lieing.

Libby finds Hurley on the edge of the cliff. Hurley believes she is not real – that in real life, no girl like her would ever like him. Libby tells a story of something that happened on the other side of the island to prove that she is real. She kisses him, and that is proof enough.

In flashback, we see the scene where Dr Brooks is taking the photo of Hurley and Dave. Dave is clearly missing, but the camera pulls back to reveal that Libby is sitting at the next table, looking dazed and confused as she takes her medication.

Comments

When Dr Brooks takes the photo of Hurley and Dave, it was evident to me that Dave must be an imaginary character, and that this would be revealed when we see that he doesn’t appear in the photo.

Everyone must have figured this out by now, but it just hit me: the magic numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 add up to 108 – and the button in the hatch has to be pressed every 108 minutes!

Is Henry lieing about not inputting the numbers? Is his goal to get Locke to not put in the numbers too, so that the place blows up?

Great Libby ending…is this proof that Hurley did make up this whole thing? Or is this just another one of the many strange coincidences of Lost?

Nits

We have castaways on a deserted island with a limited food supply. I’m surprised that neither Libby nor Hurley would realize that throwing away good food could be condemning someone to starvation a little further down the track.

When Ana stopped Sayid from shooting Henry, I initially thought this was all planned so that they could play good cop / bad cop interrogation. It was the opportune time for Ana to sweet talk Henry into giving the information after she got rid of Sayid. But instead, Ana just leaves Henry alone in the armory without asking Henry any questions.

Memorable Moments

• Sun’s reaction shot when Hurley falls on Jin

Quotable Quotes

Libby (while fast-walking): Isn’t this nice?
Hurley: I kind of prefer breathing.

Libby: Okay, hey, guys, guys - how about no one's in charge, okay? I'm sure everyone can manage to just take what they need.
Sawyer: Great plan, Moonbeam. After that we can sing ‘Kumbaya’ and do trust falls.

Sayid: So tell me…how did Henry Gale write a note to his wife with a broken neck?
Henry: It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill him. You don’t understand.
Sayid: How did you know his wife’s name? Did you interrogate him?
Henry: Please, just listen. I’m just a -
Sayid: How many of you are there?
Henry: If I told you about them you have no idea what he’ll do.
Sayid: He?
Ana: You mean their leader? The guy with the beard.
Henry: Him? He’s no one – nothing!
Sayid: Where are your people?
Henry (whispered): I can’t -
Sayid: How many of you are there?
Henry: You don’t understand!
Sayid (drawing gun): Understand this!
Ana: Hey.
Sayid: You have three seconds to answer my question. How many of you are there? One.
Henry: He’ll kill me!
Sayid: I’ll kill you. (cocks gun) Two.
Ana: Sayid!
Henry: You can’t do this! I’m not a bad person!
Sayid: Three. (fires gun)

Hurley: I was kinda looking for something.
Sawyer: Forget it, I’m done trading. I got enough food now to open a chain of mini-marts. Hey, you think Sayid needs a job?

"Don’t you have an adventure to get to? I think Timmy fell down a well over that way."
- Sawyer to Kate

Libby: Where are you going?
Hurley: Back to the caves. No one lives there anymore, so I won’t bother anybody. I’m just gonna live alone and be one of those guys – you know, the crazy guys with the big beard and no clothes who’s naked and throws doody at people.