And J hates this episode. WOAH! It’s funny because it’s like the title.

Oh, ok. If I “hate” this episode, I only hate it relative to the better episodes of Lost. On a scale of Freddy Got Fingered to Schindler’s List (Worst Thing Ever to Best Thing Ever), “Everybody Hates Hugo” falls comfortably into mediocre territory. Not bad. But it has one of the silliest dilemmas a Lostie has ever faced, and there’s a distinct lack of outright worthwhile material to counter that. It’s definitely a shame because I’m generally a fan of Hurley episodes.

After a very strange dream in which Hurley has a vision of Jin and a man in a chicken suit, we find out that he’s been put in charge of rationing out the food in the pantry. The idea of having responsibility stresses Hurley out to no end, since he liked things the way they were and everybody is going to hate him for rationing out whatever to whomever. Charlie is already coming up to him and calling him “The Man,” and I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a humorous scene or wounding accusation or what. In any case, Hurley takes the situation to its logical conclusion; he has to use the dynamite to blow up the pantry.

……Do I even have to… Well, alright.

He’s scared of everyone hating him. And he’s scared of change. The entire camp now has access to a huge underground bunker filled with all kinds of creature comforts. The Change Ship has sailed. And plenty of people already know about the food pantry. Once it’s blown up, Charlie is definitely going to vilify him far and wide for depriving Claire of peanut butter. It’s the same either way. His final solution to just hold a feast makes a lot of sense, but I can’t believe it was Plan C in Hurley’s mind.

I couldn’t get into the flashback either. Mainly because I’ve looked at the situation every way I can think of, and maybe I’m just not understanding human nature at all, but why would Hurley’s friend Johnny look so betrayed when he finds out that Hurley has won the lottery? Oh well, Hurley’s mom makes a really funny appearance at the start, and I’m afforded my yearly chance to call Randy Nations a douchebag, so it’s not a total waste of time.

In what mostly amounts to setup for the next episode, Claire happens upon the bottle of messages, and lets Sun decide what to do with it. And Jack and Sayid spend some time crawling around in the bowels of the Swan Station, where they don’t really come across anything interesting. When does Henry Gale show up again?

Tail section! Ana Lucia punches Sawyer again, which actually scores her some cool points with me. Meanwhile, the gradual unveiling of Shirtless Black Guy continues. In Adrift, he was in silhouette. In Orientation, his face was seen. In this episode, he gets dialogue, but no name. Also the actor who plays him, Adewale Akinnonlee-Atmostayforoneseesun or something like that, gets boosted to the main credits. Also joining is Cynthia Watros as Libby. I look forward to almost never having a reason to talk about this character.

At times like this, there’s precious few things to cling to. Hugo’s mom is still hilarious.There’s that unbelievably sweet moment in which Charlie finally gets to present Claire with non-imaginary peanut butter. And that’s topped when Bernard learns that his wife Rose has survived the plane crash, followed by a shot of Rose hanging on to a chocolate bar for her husband’s imminent return. Otherwise, I’m finding that there’s very little to really love about this episode. Maybe the next one can break the slump?

Rating: 6/10
Average: 6.5/10
Ranked: 3rd out of 4 episodes.

Happy Real Thanksgiving!