Lost Rewatch: Dave

 

At the time of this episode many fans of the series questioned why it was here. Some argued that the story was a deflection from what we had learned in the last minute of last week’s episode, some question that it was solely there for the writers to denounce one of the major fan theories about what was happening on Lost rather than tell a story. When the season ended, many of us wondered whether the last shot of the episode was a storyline that the writers never chose to pay off on.

But in retrospect I think Dave is one of the most critical episodes of the series at this point. Not only because it focuses on Hurley but because there may be a critical explanation as to why he is seeing what he is seeing that may have nothing to do with his mental condition and possibly the writer’s endgame.

Hurley even now seems to be as much the subject of the humor in the series as well as the voice of the fans. But the more we learn about the island, the more it seems there might be a connection to it. The numbers he heard in the asylum were on the hatch door and they are the code that they have to enter in the Swan computer.  We know that most of the characters seemed fated to get on the plane based on several of the scenes we’ve seen throughout Season 2, but Hurley’s connection clearly goes deeper than that. Now, in what is chronologically his first flashback, we learn how he ended up in Santa Rosa – and it’s as sad as many of the other characters.

Hurley has spent much of the series flinching whenever someone calls him crazy, but now we know there’s a reason for it beyond being in Santa Rosa.  He ended up there after an accident when two people died when he stepped on an overloaded balcony and it collapsed. He went into a catatonic state, he stopped sleeping and speaking – but he never stopped eating. His beloved mother finally put him in Santa Rosa and he has clearly been resistant to the therapy of Dr. Brooks and is now hallucinating a person named Dave who clearly represents the part of his consciousness that is resistant to change.  The major part of that change – losing weight.

Now, back on the island, he confides in Libby that he has been hiding food from the rest of the camp. She urges him to get rid of his stash (you don’t consider wasting food might be a bad idea) and he does. When he finishes he feels free – and then he finds the pallet drop. Immediately afterwards, he starts seeing Dave.

This is the first time Hurley legitimately thinks he might very well be going crazy and ends up going to see Sawyer, hoping to find medication. Now Sawyer has spent the better part of two seasons mocking Hurley every chance he gets, saving by far his cruelest nicknames for him, certain that happy-go-lucky Hurley will never push back. But everyone has a breaking point and Hurley has reached his and both the viewer on the beach and the fan at home cheer as Hurley delivers an ass-whupping on Sawyer. (I love how Sun watches for several moments before persuading Jin to pull Hurley off, how Jin clearly takes his time before doing so and really love how Kate smirks as she hears the news.)

The major theory when we saw Dave at the time was that he was the part of his subconscious that emerged when Hurley was confronted with this kind of situation. Having seen the series all the way through, there is a possibility that’s not what Dave was – and honestly, given what we’d already seen even to this point, I’m kind of shocked the fan base missed it. I will tread carefully to avoid spoilers but let’s say for now that it seems that Dave in this episode seems to be serving the same purpose that Christian initially did when Jack saw him in White Rabbit. The parallel is pretty exact – both men see something they know can’t be real, both men spend much of the episode denying it before following their hallucination into the jungle, and it both cases it very nearly leads them to their deaths. In Jack’s case, he follows it off a cliff; in Hurley’s case, it tell him that the best thing he can do for himself is jump off it.  We’ve known that the smoke monster has the ability to kill those that it chooses; we’ve also seen other forces on the island that seem to draw from the survivors pasts to the point they question their sanity.

There is also the fact that in the flashback after Hurley knows that Dave isn’t real and Dave confronts on him, Dave slaps him twice and he feels pain. This will happen again much later in the series run, so its possible the writers were trying to show that Hurley clearly has a connection to a different realm of consciousness. (We will never know for certain if there ever was a Dave but given what we will learn in Hurley’s next flashback, there’s a reason that it has this name.)

As for what we see with Libby, this again seem like a theory Cynthia Watros was intended to stay around longer than just Season 2.  This is the first (but not the last) connection we will see between her and people connected with the island this season and I’ve always been convinced that there was something more to it than that. I never thought she was a spy for the island or a representative of the Others but there clearly was more to be done here, and until the truth about Watros and Lost is revealed, we will never know why,

We do spend quite a bit of time in the hatch where Jack must for the first time play doctor to Locke, and for reasons that the viewer is aware of but Jack isn’t, Locke has a justifiable reason to be pissed at him for his care.

That being said, many of Henry’s actions now make less sense than they did at the time. Locke asks Jack why Henry didn’t escape when he had the chance, and it’s a question that’s never really answered. Jack says Henry stayed because he thought his story would check out, but it’s hard to imagine that’s the case considering how smart he is. His attitude towards Sayid and Ana Lucia is now of genuine terror but he has no intention of telling them anything. He keeps saying that ‘he’ll kill me’ and doesn’t deflect when Sayid mentions the leader.  But given what we will soon learn, its very obvious why he continues to hide everything.

His conversation with Locke makes less sense given what we later learn. It’s clear that he’s trying to manipulate Locke to doubt the button which he knows is important to him. It’s also clear that he knows that Locke’s faith in the island is clearly wavering and this is the best way to do it. The problem is doing so doesn’t fit in when we eventually do learn who Henry is. He of all people knows just why this button needs pressing and exactly what will happen if it isn’t.  He has to know if gets what he wants and he’s still hear when it happens, it won’t end well for him. So why does Henry do so in this case? At the end of the day he will tell us that lying is what he does. Maybe right now he thinks Locke is his best way out.

In the end Hurley finds a way to move past his fears both with his sanity and with Libby. We actually think for a moment someone might be happy on this island. The thing is, the last time two people fell in love on this island and admitted they cared for each other, it was with Shannon and Sayid. And we all know how well that turned out.

The trailer for the next episode is something of a misnomer, not because much of what we see in it doesn’t actually happen – it does, and the action within it is critical for the remainder of Season 2 and much of the series going forward.  But it leaves out a critical part of what the episode is about, which is wise because if we’d known, the viewer might have dismissed it – and missed a true gem.