REBOOT EPISODES 41-44

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 41-44 (Days 60-63 )

These four episodes bring out the one in-story explanation of the Big Premise of the series, the Hurley-Dave relationship and the question of the Island being part of a complex mental episode or condition.

Sun discovers she is pregnant; Ana is recruited to help interrogate the Other in the Hatch.  Ana, Charlie and Sayid journey into the jungle to confirm if Gale's crash story and the burial of his wife is the truth.

Locke’s obsession with his father’s betrayal causes great changes in his life, including the loss of his girlfriend, Helen. When the Hatch goes into Lockdown mode, Locke asks Ben to help him.

Ben’s deception is confirmed when Ana, Charlie and Sayid return from investigating Henry's balloon. Ben would have been killed by Sayid, except for Ana’s intervention at the last second.

Hurley is shaken to the core when he sees his imaginary friend from his days at the mental hospital, “Dave” on the island.

Bernard and Rose’s backstory is revealed. Bernard attempts to assemble an enormous SOS SIGN  on the beach; Kate and Jack go into the jungle to propose a Henry Gale-for-Walt swap with the Others; but they find a dehydrated and crying Michael instead.

Science:

Group psychosis.

Psychosis is an abnormal condition or derangement of the mind, and is a generic medical term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality.”  People suffering from psychosis are described as psychotic. Psychosis is given to the more severe forms of psychiatric disorder, during which hallucinations, delusions and impaired insight may occur.
Hallucinations are different from illusions or perceptual distortions, which are the misperception of external stimuli. Hallucinations may occur in any of the five senses and take on almost any form, which may include simple sensations (such as lights, colors, tastes, and smells) to experiences such as seeing and interacting with fully formed animals and people, hearing voices, and having complex tactile sensations.

Auditory hallucinations particularly experiences of hearing voices, are a common and often prominent feature of psychosis. Hallucinated voices may talk about, or to, the person, and may involve several speakers with distinct personas. Auditory hallucinations tend to be particularly distressing when they are derogatory, commanding or preoccupying.

Primary delusions are defined as arising suddenly and not being comprehensible in terms of normal mental processes, whereas secondary delusions may be understood as being influenced by the person's background or current situation (e.g., ethnicity, religious beliefs, superstitious belief).

Hurley was diagnosed in a catatonic state after his “accident.”  An abnormal condition variously characterized by stupor, stereotypy, mania, and either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs. It is most often associated with schizophrenia. One of various forms of schizophrenia characterized by stupor, sometimes alternating with excited behavior and mechanical, repetitive behavior, accompanied by muscular rigidity. A variety of symptoms are associated with catatonia. Among the more common are echopraxia (imitation of the gestures of others) and echolalia (parrot-like repetition of words spoken by others). Other signs and symptoms include violence directed toward him/herself, the assumption of inappropriate posture, selective mutism, negativism, facial grimaces, and animal-like noises. Apparently, Hurley was treated with a a class of benzodiazepines which are medicines that help relieve nervousness, tension, and other symptoms by slowing the central nervous system.

Improbabilities:

Libby and Hurley being in the same institution, being on the same plane from Australia, and surviving a high altitude break up over the Island.

In the flashback, John Locke as a home inspector for a single Nadia, who most likely did not survive in first Iraq war as a traitor.

Locke going into his father’s safety deposit box. Unless he was on the signature card, he would never get legal access to the box.


Mysteries:

What is the goal of the Others spying on the survivors? When Ben takes the role of Henry Gale in order to infiltrate the survivors camp, was he doing it to gain information, or to set the seeds of internal dissent and distrust?

Who created the Blast Door Map? We would learn that it was Desmond’s prior Hatch watchers who created it during forced Lockdown food drops.

What were the food drops? Apparently, the destroyed Dharma Island facility continued to receive periodic food drops from a Dharma warehouse in America. We do not know how or why these food drops “find” the moving Island. However, was it truly the Lockdown event cycle, or as a subconscious reaction from Hurley after he destroyed his secret food stash?


Themes:

Trust and Change. How can Hurley trust Libby when Libby is also being medicated in mental institution? How can Hurley trust Dr. Brooks when Dave tells him he is not helping him?  Sun is told she can’t have children, but that is a lie by her doctor because he is afraid of her father and Jin’s reaction if Jin was the known cause of infertility. When Sun becomes aware that she is pregnant on the island, she knows it is not Jin’s baby. But Jin believes “it is a miracle.”

Likewise, John Locke in his flashback cannot change. He destroys his relationship with Helen because she concludes John needs his father’s love more than her love. If anything, Locke can never change - - - he is a bad judge of character. He believes Henry Gale’s story in the Hatch Lockdown incident, and trusts him to help him. But it is quickly revealed that Henry is a liar and one of the Others.

Also, Bernard needs “to do something,” to fix Rose’s cancer, but Rose knows he just has to let go and let things pass. This is the same issue Jack has in “fixing” all his patients.

Clues:

The Long Con. Locke’s ability to give up his father’s betrayal causes him to lose the one good thing in his life, Helen. In future episodes we will find Locke “rebooting” his relationship with Helen after his father again takes something away from him, his ability to walk. That whole re-boot in retrospect is wrong; it can only be the imagination of Locke.

Mental fantasy. Hurley meets and talks to his imaginary friend, Dave, in the jungle, who tells him “none of this is real.”  With the revelation that Libby is also a mental patient who intervenes when Hurley is at the edge of the Truth, puts clear evidence of mental disorder as a premise to the show.

In Bernard’s back story, he states he “dreamed of a woman” like Rose, and Rose appears randomly in his life. She only has a year to live, so he proposes anyway.

The same is true with Hurley, who believes a woman like Libby would never be interested in him. Libby is he fantasy girl, the one he could get in his own Island world.

When Ben asks Jack what is the difference between a martyr and a prophet, Jack tells him they both wind up dead. “That’s the spirit,” Ben replies. There were many more references to the dead in these episodes, including fake death of Anthony Cooper.

When Ben is being tortured, he yells out that he does not care because “I’m dead already!”

Ben also tells Locke that God cannot see or find this place. One could infer that God can see all matters on earth, and send messengers to help people. But God would not need to see or care about Hell.

The Blast Door Map. The fan frenzy of a huge clue with intense writing on it was one the biggest Easter eggs in the series. From the configuration of the Hatches, it could considered as a layout of prison cellblocks, or to hospital wards. The mention of Cerberus as guarding the place, the place being Hell.

Rose’s knowledge that Locke’s paralysis and her cancer have been “healed” by the Island. This shows that Rose understands that she is no longer connected to the Earth,
that she made her blessing and peace with her life before going to the outback. All she needs to have a content (after)life is to change Bernard from a man needing to “fix things” (just like Jack) to a man who can let things go.

When Bernard tries to recruit Eko to build his SOS so he can save the survivors, Bernard is upset that the people had “given up their lives” to settle in to this existence. Eko tells him that “people are saved in different ways,” meaning spiritually and not physically.

If Hurley has been on the Island two months without his medications, he would have gone back into a catatonic or dream state, as Dave tells him. Dave tells him that the only way he can get out of the hospital (the island is all made up in his head and subconscious) is to throw himself off the cliff and “wake up.” In the End, people in the sideways world need to “be awakened” in order to move on in the after life. Or it could still be a Hurley dream state because in The End, Hurley is one left on the Island as the guardian, since it was the world he created in the first place.


Discussion:

“ I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set in night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere. ”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Many fans uses Hurley’s character as their substitute for what was going on the Island; Hurley was their proxy. So when the story arc of “Dave” appears in the island narrative,
all hell breaks loose on message boards because it creates an impression that “this is all a dream” premise like the Bobby Ewing “death” on Dallas.

However, Dave’s appearance gives the most detailed analysis of what is happening to Hurley on the island. It is not a fan theory, but an explanation within the actual story. It merits detail reconstruction.

The flashbacks show Dave as Hurley’s imaginary friend at Santa Rose Mental Health Institute. Dave is a friendly guy who keeps on egging on Hurley to do things that are probably not in his best interest like eating snacks to avoid is diet restrictions. Hurley believes Dave is real. When his doctor, Dr. Brooks, takes a picture of Dave and Hurley, only Hurley appears in the photograph. It is supposed to be a revelation to Hurley to help him cope with his mental illness, but Dave continues to pop up at the institution and later, on the island.

Dr. Brooks tells Hurley that Dave was a bad influence who tried to keep Hurley from losing weight or changing. Dave may also be a “transference” of the traits of his missing father as a coping mechanism. Dave appears Hurley, offering him more food and encouraging him to break out of the facility. Hurley refused, and his later refusals to listen to Dave led to a “breakthrough” in his therapy and his eventual release.

During the Hatch Lockdown event, the Island experiences “a food drop” where a pallet of supplies miraculously falls to the island on a parachute. As the survivors rush to gather the food, Hurley sees Dave on the Island. He chases Dave into the jungle. Dave loses a slipper and Hurley picks it up. But LIbby, who is watching him for a distance, sees no slipper. This was meant to tell the audience that Hurley’s “imaginary” friend does not exist because survivor Libby, a clinical psychologist who helped Claire remember her abduction, cannot confirm it for the viewers. However, we later learn that Libby is not a doctor, but a mental patient with Hurley at Santa Rosa. Her eyes are not credible for the truth in the interaction between Hurley and Dave.

Dave tries to convince convincing Hurley that he'd never left Santa Rosa and was currently hallucinating his experiences on the Island. Dave gives Hurley evidence of his position by saying the Numbers in Hatch countdown computer are based on the numbers he got from Leonard Simms, that after two months on the island he has not lost any weight and that he is hallucinating Libby, a woman too attractive to actually be interested in a person like Hurley. Hurley resists those notions.

To prove his point, Dave jumps off a cliff, telling Hurley that doing the same would WAKE HIM from his hallucination. Hurley nearly follows suit, but Libby arrived and talked him out of it. If Libby, a possible another hallucination under the guise of a primal defense mechanism in Hurley’s mind, stops him from the Truth, the series would have come to a crashing halt at the cliff. But the Truth of Dave’s statements cannot be ignored when one tries to make a rational connection between the contradictions of the flashbacks, the Island events and the sideways world reveal.

As with last week’s clues, when Libby is trying to calm down an upset Claire who is starting to remember, Libby tells her that “she is combining experiences before the crash with things on the island” which upsets her. The same could be said now for Hurley, who was institutionalized with Libby, that he is combining her prior mental illness experiences with her island (hospital therapy treatments) to create a vivid new fantasy.

The Dave-Hurley interaction was the longest narrative in the series that actually sets forth a plausible explanation of the Big Premise of LOST. It is so important from an understanding of what may be happening to the characters on the island, a detailed examination of the actual words used by the writers is in order so you can review for yourself the significance of these episodes. From lostpedia.com, the key transcripts from these episodes:

[We see Hurley walking through the jungle carrying the slipper. He suddenly sees a box of DHARMA "fish crackers" on the ground and after a moment's hesitation he opens it and starts shoving them in his mouth. He looks up and sees Dave standing there in pajamas and a bathrobe.]
HURLEY: You're not here!
[Dave picks up a coconut and throws it at Hurley, hitting him in the stomach and making him spit out fish crackers. Dave picks up another coconut and looks like he's going to throw it, but he turns and runs. Hurley follows.]
HURLEY: Hey, wait!
[We see Hurley running after Dave through the jungle.]
HURLEY: Wait, Dave!
[Dave disappears and Hurley runs out onto the beach where Eko and Charlie are working.]
CHARLIE: Are you okay, Hurley?
HURLEY: Did either of you see a guy run through here -- in a bathrobe, with a coconut?
CHARLIE: No. Saw a polar bear on roller blades with a mango.
EKO: I did not see anything, Hurley.
HURLEY: [exiting] Yeah, me either.
--------
[Flashback - We see Hurley playing Connect 4 with Lenny.]
LENNY: 4, 8, 15... [He repeats the Numbers over and over throughout the scene.]
HURLEY: Uh, dude.
DAVE: Pretty sneaky, Leonard. [Lenny wins and gathers the red pieces to his side.] You're using those magic numbers of yours as a psyche-out, are you man? Oh, yeah, that's right, you just play dumb. I'm on to your juju, man.
HURLEY: [eating some celery] They're just numbers, man.
DAVE: [referring to the celery] Hey. What the hell is that?
HURLEY: It's my mid-afternoon snack.
DAVE: Dude, that's celery. Celery is not a snack. Leonard's got graham crackers, man. You should snag one. He won't notice. What's he going to do -- call you a 23? [mocking Lenny] 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, hike!
[Hurley and Dave laugh. Hurley grabs a graham from Lenny's plate.]
NURSE: Here, Hugo. Here's your meds.
HURLEY: Thank you, nurse Lazenby.
[Hurley starts to swallow his pills.]
DAVE: Dude, you want to get out of here with me? Don't take the horse tranquilizer.
HURLEY: What do mean, get out of here?
DAVE: I mean escape, man. Me and you, A-S-A-P. They're getting to you, dude. We've got to split.
HURLEY: Dr. Brooks says...
DAVE: Dr. Brooks does not care about you, man. He's the one prescribing that crap. What the hell is it, anyway?
HURLEY: Clonazepam.
DR. BROOKS: [entering] Hugo, something wrong with your meds, there?
HURLEY: No, me and Dave were just, you know, talking about stuff.
DR. BROOKS: Right, well, sorry to interrupt. Hello there, Dave.
DAVE: Hello there, Dr. Brooks.
DR. BROOKS: And how are you today?
DAVE: Never been saner.
DR. BROOKS: I've been taking some pictures for the bulletin board. I've got everyone except you 2. Would you guys mind?
HURLEY: Okay.
[Hurley moves his chair over next to Dave.]
DR. BROOKS: Okay. Why don't you two get a little bit closer.
DAVE: Are you going to make us look at the ducky, too?
[Hurley puts his arm around Dave and poses.]
DR. BROOKS: [taking a Polaroid] Say cheese.
HURLEY: Cheese.
DAVE: Queso.
DR. BROOKS: Great. Okay, you -- you need a little water with that?
HURLEY: Nope, I'm good.
[Hurley tilts the pills into his mouth.]
DR. BROOKS: Okay, well fine. See you later guys, thanks for the photo op.
[Brooks exits. Hurley turns to Dave and sticks his tongue out, showing that he didn't take the pills.]
DAVE: Dude.
HURLEY: Dude.
DAVE: The revolution has begun, man. Lay low -- when the time is right we fly.
--------
[Hurley is walking in the jungle. Suddenly his pack rips open and the peanut butter jar is split open on the ground. Hurley uses a leaf to scoop some up and eat it. He hears footsteps and sees Dave's feet with one slipper.]
HURLEY: You're not here. You were in the hospital. You can't be here.
DAVE: Sorry, dude. I am here.
----------
[Flashback - We see Hurley in Dr. Brooks' office. He's reading from a list.]
HURLEY: I like that I have a good relationship with my mom. I like making my grandpa, Tito, laugh. I like chicken.
DR. BROOKS: Well, that last one wasn't about you, Hugo.
HURLEY: I like that I like chicken?
DR. BROOKS: So, tell me, how did it feel writing that? Was that difficult?
HURLEY: Kind of -- I think I messed up some spelling.
DR. BROOKS: I notice that you didn't say anything about the way you look. Are you comfortable with your appearance?
HURLEY: It's not like... I can't really do anything about it, right? [Dr. Brooks just stares at him.] If I, uh -- if I w -- wasn't so fat, they never would have died.
DR. BROOKS: There were 23 people on that deck. It was built to hold 8. And it would have collapsed whether you went out there or not.
HURLEY: Yeah, but I did walk out there. And it did collapse. I killed them.
DR. BROOKS: It was an accident.
HURLEY: That was my fault.
DR. BROOKS: Look, after those people died, you were in a practically catatonic state. You stopped talking, you stopped going out, you stopped sleeping. But you never stopped eating because that's how you punish yourself.
HURLEY: Dave's right about you. You know, you're nothing but a quack.
DR. BROOKS: Dave doesn't want you to lose weight, does he?
HURLEY: You know, Dave cares about me. He's my friend.
DR. BROOKS: Let me show you something.
[Brooks gets the Polaroid out of Hurley's file.]
DR. BROOKS: It may upset you. This is the photo I took for the bulletin board.
[Hurley looks at the picture with surprise and shock.]
DR. BROOKS: Dave isn't your friend, Hugo, because Dave doesn't exist.
[We see the photo is a picture of Hurley sitting next to an empty chair with his arm around nothing.]
--------
[We see Hurley in bed sleeping. Dave enters.]
DAVE: Psst. Hey, wake up, dude. Finally, you could sleep through a damn NASCAR race, man.
HURLEY: Wait, you're not -- you're a hallucination. [Dave slaps him.] Ow.
DAVE: Was that a hallucination?
HURLEY: Maybe I just imagined you slapped me? [Dave slaps him again.] Ow! Damn it.
DAVE: We can do this all night.
HURLEY: Dr. Brooks showed me a picture from the rec room. My arm was around, like, nothingness.
DAVE: Uh, Kinko's, Photoshop? What, you think they really blew up the Death Star?
HURLEY: No.
DAVE: Then stop talking crazy, man. Come on, we're on a clock here.
[Dave starts to leave, but Hurley doesn't follow.]
DAVE: Hey, you in or you out, dude?
[Hurley follows Dave into the hall.]
DAVE: Okay, come on, come on. [They see a plate of food on a cart.] Yo, check it out, Marcus didn't finish his lasagna. That is a waste, man. One for the road?
[Hurley picks up the plate and starts eating. They stop at an area where they can see a guard below them.]
DAVE: Shhh. Wait for it -- wait.
[The guard leaves, and they continue on.]
DAVE: Tippy-toes, big guy. Vamanos.
[They make their way into the rec room, and go to the window which is padlocked.]
DAVE: Okay, man. You've got the keys, hombre. You took them off Brooks' desk earlier.
[Hurley looks surprised when he finds them in his pocket.]
DAVE: [giggles] Come on, man. Open it, open it.
[Hurley unlocks and opens the window.]
DAVE: Oh, oh, oh -- can you taste that? That is freedom, baby. You know what tastes even better than freedom? Cheeseburgers.
[Dave jumps down out of the window.]
DAVE: [laughs] Come on, man, chili-fries on me. [giggles]
HURLEY: I don't think I can do this. I'm sorry.
DAVE: Sorry? What, are you kidding me?
HURLEY: You're not real. You're trying to get me to run away and get cheeseburgers because I want cheeseburgers.
DAVE: Did you take those pills, man?
HURLEY: No, man. I'm just not coming. Look, you don't want me to get better. You don't want me to change.
DAVE: You don't need to change, man. You are fine. You're great.
HURLEY: No, I'm not. You just want me to stay fat. You don't want me to get better. You wouldn't care if I ate myself to death.
DAVE: Do not do this, man. If you don't come with me right now, you will never get out of here.
HURLEY: Bye, Dave.
[Hurley closes the window.]
---------
[On-Island - We see Hurley with his eyes closed. He opens them and sees Dave. He closes them again, but Dave is still there when he opens them.]
DAVE: You wouldn't happen to have my slipper, would you?
[Hurley hands him his slipper.]
DAVE: Thank you. Oh, man, you got peanut butter on it. Okay, look, I know you're freaking out right now, and I'm, I'm sorry. But it's going to get a little worse before it gets better.
HURLEY: Worse?
DAVE: Yeah, kind of. You ready, dude? [Hurley nods.] You remember that night you closed that window on me? [Hurley nods.] You remember what you did after that night?
HURLEY: Yeah, I realized you were imaginary.
DAVE: Mmmmhmmm.
HURLEY: And that was a breakthrough. And a little while later Brooks let me out, and I went home to live with my mom, and I got my job at Mr. Clucks back. And I got better.
DAVE: Okay, good, great, yeah -- except see, here's the thing -- uh -- none of that ever happened.
HURLEY: What?
DAVE: You're still at Santa Rosa, man. You never left the hospital.
HURLEY: That's -- not possible.
DAVE: It's hard, I know, but I mean -- all this? You, me, this island, that peanut butter -- none of it's real, man. None of it's happening. It's all in your head, my friend. The second you closed that window your brain popped a gasket. You went back into your little coma thing. And that's where you are right this very second. In your own private Idaho, inside Santa Rosa.
HURLEY: No. I had my mom, my friend Johnny -- I won the lottery.
DAVE: Whoa, wow, awesome, dude! What numbers did you play? Leonard's numbers, right -- from the hospital? What a coincidence. You, uh, seen them around anywhere else?
HURLEY: The Hatch?
DAVE: Bingo! The Hatch -- with the button that you've got to push every 108 minutes or the world ends. Oh, oh, oh, and what's the code for the button? Oh yeah, the Numbers.
HURLEY: But I got better. I changed.
DAVE: Changed? What, are you kidding me? Take a look at yourself. You've been on a deserted island for over 2 months and you haven't dropped 10 pounds. How is that even possible, man?
HURLEY: I just destroyed my stash, and I've been exercising. Libby says it won't happen over night.
DAVE: Oh, right, right, right, Libby -- the mega cute blonde chick who magically appeared from the other side of the Island. Oh, oh, oh, yeah -- and who just happens to have the hots for you. Come on, man, let's take a walk.
----------
[We see Dave and Hurley walking through the jungle.]
HURLEY: So this is all in my brain?
DAVE: Every rock, every tree. Every tree frog. Even me. The real me -- the one they told you was imaginary? He went out the window, man. Right now he's probably bouncing from hot chick to hot chick, unlike me, who's really you, who's got more important things to do.
HURLEY: So I'm making you up?
DAVE: Well, sort of. I'm part of your subconscious, man. All the people on this island are.
HURLEY: What part of me are you?
DAVE: I'm the part of you that wants to wake up, man. Follow me.
[We see them arrive at a high cliff above the ocean.]
DAVE: This is it, dude.
HURLEY: It?
DAVE: The big finale. The answer to all your problems. A way for you to wake up, snap out of it.
HURLEY: I don't want to kill myself.
DAVE: Who said anything about killing yourself, man? This is going to bring you back to life. The only way for you to bust out is to tell your mind that you don't believe any of this.
HURLEY: So, if I -- all this will be gone? I'll just wake up?
DAVE: That's right. And when you do wake up, come find me. I'm sure I miss you. See you in another life, Hurley.
[Dave backs up to the edge of the cliff and lets himself fall backwards, laughing all the way down.]
HURLEY: Dave!!
------
[Back at the cliff, we see Hurley looking down into the surf.]
HURLEY: Dave!
LIBBY: [appearing] Who's Dave?
HURLEY: What are you doing here?
LIBBY: What are you doing here?
HURLEY: How'd you know where I was?
LIBBY: Jin saw you while he was fishing.
HURLEY: Hah! Jin doesn't speak English!
LIBBY: Sun was with him. She translated. Hurley, what is going on?
HURLEY: No! You're just a part of me that's scared. You don't want me to wake up. Well, guess what? I'm not scared.
[Hurley takes a couple steps back toward the edge of the cliff.]
LIBBY: Okay, okay, Hurley, you're having some sort of panic attack. I get that. But this isn't like you.
HURLEY: Like me? You don't know me.
LIBBY: I was starting to.
HURLEY: Yeah, well did you know I'm so fat that I killed 2 people? And that I have an imaginary friend?
LIBBY: Hurley, please, you're going to hurt yourself.
HURLEY: No, I'm not, because this isn't happening! None of it! I'm just imagining it! This isn't real life!
LIBBY: Why would you say that?
HURLEY: Because in real life -- no girl like you would ever like me. Remember when I said I knew you from somewhere? Well, maybe it's because I made you up?
LIBBY: What was the man's name who broke his leg? The day of the crash on the other side of the Island, Eko brought a man with a broken leg to me for help. What was his name?
HURLEY: I don't know.
LIBBY: You don't know. You know why? Because it happened to me. His name was Donald, and I buried him. I buried a lot of people, Hurley. So don't tell me that that wasn't real. And don't tell me you made me up. It's insulting.
HURLEY: When you saw me on the beach this morning was I holding a slipper?
LIBBY: Not that I can remember, no. [She holds Hurley's face in her hands.] Hurley, look at me. I am real. You're real. The way I feel about you -- that's real.
[She kisses him.]
LIBBY: And that was real.
HURLEY: Maybe you should do it one more time just to be sure.
LIBBY: Ready to go back?
[They start walking back.]
HURLEY: Do you really think I can, you know, change?
LIBBY: Yeah, yeah I do.
[Flashback - The scene when Dr. Brooks takes the picture of Hurley and Dave repeats with some changes.]
DR. BROOKS: Why don't you get a little closer together.
[We see Hurley put his arm around nothing.]
DR. BROOKS: Say cheese.
HURLEY: Cheese.
DR. BROOKS: Great. So, you need some water to go with that?
HURLEY: Nope. I'm good.
[We see a woman patient's profile, apparently watching Hurley.]
DR. BROOKS: See you later, guys. Thanks for the photo op.
[The camera pans around and we see that woman is very disheveled, out-of-it, Libby.]
NURSE: Here's your pill, Libby.
----
That final reveal of the “true” Libby leads one to believe that the Island could be a layered multi-person group delusion and/or Hurley combining his memories of other people in the hospital and his life into a vivid mental illusion of the Island events.

The statement Dave makes that rings true is the idea that for Hurley to get out his mental fantasy world of the Island, he has to “wake up” and kill himself - - - and in the End, the characters need to be “awakened” in the sideways world in order to reunite and move on in the after life. Not being “awake” has a direct connection to the mechanics of the Island and the sideways world concepts.

The fantasy loop centers around Hurley’s inability to change. He has hidden himself in a shell because of the guilt of deck accident. And it is Hurley “just making” the plane as the starting point for his “journey” is the polar bear comic in Spanish that Walt would later find to the end point where Hurley must “stay” on the Island as its new guardian. Why? It is a mental bridge in order to Hurley himself to “wake up.”

Hurley will wind up as the guardian of Island. Why? Because he made up everything about the Island. Remember, it is Hurley who knows all the campers names (he has to correct Bernard several times in his quest to recruit people for the SOS sign). Hurley as the last main character standing on the Island, to put in his own “rules” and to basically shut it down is like a patient finally working through his issues, having a breakthrough, such as to go back to reality. But in Hurley’s world, his post-Island time frame is the sideways world, which Christian says is the afterlife. But is it? Or is it a continuation of Hurley’s Island delusions but now in time-space or heaven?

When he talks for the last time to Ben outside the church, he remarks that Ben was a good number two man, but Ben has things to “work out” before leaving that existence. This could also be a clue to a layered effect of multiple mental patients possibly tied to group therapy or a connected brainwave network (Dharma Institute was trying experimental investigations, including mental procedures and mind games). It is possible that Dharma hooked up catatonic patients into a neuro-network and allowed them to have some “virtual life” in their delusional states. It would play with the characters showing many signs of psychosis or possible group psychosis.

What is psychosis?

Psychosis is usually a symptom of a mental disorder. Psychosis means there is a loss of contact with reality. One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange or bizarre nature of the person's experience or behavior. Even in the case of an acute psychosis, sufferers may seem completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and impossible delusions are in any way unrealistic. This is not an absolute; however, insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, and rhyming or punning.

Sawyer use of puns and cut-downs such as “deep dish” or “Jabba” to Hurley, could be pure meanness or could be a symptom of psychosis.

How does it occur?

The exact cause of psychosis is not known. It may be caused by something physical. This is called organic psychosis. Organic psychosis can be brought on by brain tumors, epilepsy, head injuries, a severe lack of sleep, or infections such as meningitis. Too much or too little of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters may lead to psychosis.

Psychosis may also be the result of a mental disorder such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression.

All the characters have back stories of injuries, being beaten up or involved in major crash crashes.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms are:
Hallucinations: People may hear voices that no one else can hear, see people or objects that are not there, or feel something that is not there. Hearing voices is usually a sign of a psychiatric problem. Hallucinations that involve seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting are more likely to be a sign of a medical problem.

Delusions: People with psychosis have false beliefs or ideas that are not true. For example, they might believe there is a plot against them by powerful people, or that they have special powers no one else has.

Changed feelings: People may feel strange and cut off from the world, with everything moving in slow motion. Mood swings are common, so they may feel very excited or depressed. Or people may feel less emotion or show less emotion to those around them.

Changed behavior: People with psychosis behave differently than the way they usually do. They may be very active, or just sit around all day. They may get angry without apparent cause.

Disorganized thinking: Everyday thoughts become confused. Sentences don't make sense. A person may have trouble concentrating, following a conversation or remembering things. Thoughts may seem to speed up or slow down.

More and more characters see visions of their pasts in the jungle, including Kate’s horse, Hurley’s Numbers, Jack’s dead father, etc. The survivors seem content on the beach knowing that they are in danger; but are quick to violence.

How is it treated?

The treatment of a psychosis depends on the cause. Medicines are usually the most important part of the treatment. Many medicines are available. These medicines can cause some side effects, but you and your healthcare provider will watch for them closely. Peer support can be very helpful in the healing process. A  group facilitator can  use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people cope with the negative thoughts and symptoms of psychosis. Group therapy could be helpful in certain circumstances. Human beings are essentially social. If the individual is the basic biological unit, the basic psychological unit is the small group. In our culture the family provides this primary role. This widens to the extended family, the community and then into society as a whole. We arrive at a sense of ourselves through our interaction with others. We also derive meaning and significance from personal and social relationships. The notion of someone having a sense of themselves in isolation from others is ultimately untenable. The individual must be placed within the context of his or her natural group.

Loners worst fear is being alone. Many episodes conclude with bonding moments between two people, or the isolation of one person like Charlie on the beach after kidnapping Aaron, or Sawyer after Hurley beats him up alone in his tent until Vincent comes by.

There has always been a question of whether Ben knew about the Hatch. You would think that if he grew up in the Dharma collective, he would have been aware of the various stations. But maybe not. The Hatch was in the territory of the Others. Ben will be surprised to learn about Desmond, the man who manned the Hatch prior to the 815 survivors. But during the Lockdown event, it appears Ben knows about the Numbers and the computer interface. We don’t see him actually input the Numbers and stop the event - - - which calls into question, what is really the event: the imaginary perils of Locke or a real dangerous event cycle?

Ben devious smile happens only when Locke goes nearly mad, needing to know whether Ben actually pushed the button during the Lockdown event.

There was also a question of why as the leader of the Others, Ben allowed himself to get captured by Rousseau in the first place and then taken to the survivors camp. It is possible that the Others in the Barracks were upset that Ben’s two spies got killed by plane crash survivors. He had to “man up” and do his own recon. He may have also wanted to start baiting the mental traps in each of the main characters - - - the distrust issues, the power issues, the secrets - - - in order to weaken the group as a whole.

He certainly put paranoia and confusion in the mind of Locke. He also stirred the conflict between Locke and Jack on who is in charge of their group. Those conflicts will continue to effect the group decision making process, leading to more splintering of loyalties.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The appearance of Dave, an alleged “imaginary friend” on the Island, who can physically interact with Hurley. Example, throwing a coconut at him or Hurley picking up his slipper.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 41:
GALE: Wow, you guys have some real trust issues, don't you? Guess it makes sense she didn't tell you. I mean, with the two of you fighting all the time. Of course, if I was one of them -- these people that you seem to think are your enemies -- what would I do? Well, there'd be no balloon, so I'd draw a map to a real secluded place like a cave or some underbrush -- good place for a trap -- an ambush. And when your friends got there a bunch of my people would be waiting for them. Then they'd use them to trade for me. I guess it's a good thing I'm not one of them, huh? You guys got any milk?

EP 42:
SAYID: We did find your balloon, Henry Gale, exactly how you described it. We also found the grave you described -- your wife's grave. The grave you said you dug with your own bare hands. It was all there. Your whole story -- your alibi -- it was true. But still I did not believe it to be true. So I dug up that grave and found that there was not a woman inside. There was a man. [Sayid shows him a driver's license] A man named Henry Gale.

EP 43:
[The camera pans around and we see that woman is very disheveled, out-of-it, Libby.]
NURSE: Here's your pill, Libby.

EP 44:
[Suddenly they hear movement and see a torch coming through the jungle. Someone is running toward them making frightened gasping sounds. He falls almost at their feet and they turn him over.]
KATE: Michael?

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Hurley was deemed by many fans as the viewer's surrogate on the Island. The one character who would ask the right questions and observe the tension and events of the other characters. He was the one character to bring some light moments to an otherwise dark situation. Many people could relate to Hurley's character.

When Hurley talked about transference, it could also relate to the concept of the show’s mental institution theories.  When we talk about transference in the setting of a hospital mental institution, with its floors and “stations,” one could argue that there are similar pieces on the island. When you have institutional group sessions and group rooms, the island also has their own “groups.” If these groups have vivid fantasies, then they could create the island dynamic as it pits them against authority. Dave is Hurley’s alter-ego against such authority. When Dr. Brooks asks Hurley to make LISTs, that idea is transferred through to the Others who also demand “lists” or work off “lists of names.” The idea of the Numbers, lists, food - -  neurotic triggers of Hurleys mind - - - being of importance and repeating on the Island is because those elements are repeated because Hurley’s subconscious continues to repeat them in his fantasy world.

This leads to the possibility that the big premise of Lost is contained in Hurley’s dream world. Dave’s explanation to Hurley that all of this is in his mind is the most detailed character driven rationale in the entire series. Where else can the surreal nature of the smoke monsters, polar bears in the jungle, whispers in the brush, and hostile natives all function except in the vivid fantasy world in someone’s creative mind.  People have said that their night visions are so “real” that they wake up in a panic, thinking the events are happening to them in real time. What if they are so real, a catatonic patient cannot wake up from his nightmares? Dave’s solution is that you need to kill yourself in your nightmare in order to wake up in the real world.

Hurley has an opportunity to end his mental trap, but some part of him does not want to deal with reality. In his reality, he blames himself for the death of two people in a deck collapse, because of his weight. In an Albert Brooks movie tangent, the idea that Hurley was in an accident that killed two people, one of those people may have been himself. Like in Defending Your Life, a dead Hurley boards a plane to the afterlife with fellow souls, except for some reason, these people don’t believe they are dead. The plane crash was a fiction for these lost souls to work out their sins, issues and character flaws in order to pass on to the next level of existence.

Hurley choses to continue his fantasy over a chance at getting back at reality. If you believe that the flashbacks are “real,” then Hurley would have known about Libby at the mental institution: they shared the same day room. Her photograph would have been on the bulletin board. She was only a few feet away from him when Leonard is playing Connect Four. Hurley’s memories of people we know he saw or who he could have saw if it is a criminal mental institution create all of his Island “characters.” That makes sense on all the backstory “coincidences” of the Island characters, such as Desmond telling Jack at the stadium, “see you in another life,” just as Dave tells Hurley he will “see him in another life.” How would Hurley know Desmond’s line to Jack unless Hurley himself had a memory or subconscious use of it.

These episodes dynamically reinforce the theories about mental illness creating a fantasy world that the characters are trying to get through, via quests, religious ritual or missions of survival. It seems that some characters must reach their personal “rock bottom” in order to change, in order to be saved.

Any form of dream state could explain away all of the inconsistencies, continuity, legal errors, medical errors and supernatural elements of the show. For in a dream you can do anything you want, including reviving the dead.