Hugo Reyes was the fans surrogate during the final seasons of LOST. He was the one person who began asking questions, or debating the meaning of events (usually with his spirit talker colleague Miles).
Hurley is shown a pleasant, friendly-shy nice guy with serious psychological scars.
He was born on December 29, 1978 in Miami, Florida to David and Carmen Reyes. His parents later moved to Santa Monica, California where Hugo was raised. He had a close bond with his father, spending much time with him. They were fixing up an old Camaro when his father abandoned his family. To deal with his father issues, Hugo turned to food to compensate - - - becoming overweight and depressed, with self-doubt and lack of ambition.
When he was growing up, Hugo was one of 23 people at a party who were on a house deck that collapsed, which killed two people. We are told that Hugo blamed his weight for the incident. His guilt and shame caused a deep depression for which he was committed to Santa Rose Mental Health Institute. At the facility, Hugo seemed to be at ease, comfortable in its surroundings. His friends included Leonard Simms, an introverted shell, who would constantly repeat The Numbers while they played Connect Four.
For a unified theory involving Hurley and Connect Four, go to the Archive name list and click on Hurley, to find that earlier post. Go ahead. We can wait for your return.
At the mental hospital, Hugo had an imaginary friend, Dave (which is the name of his father), for whom his doctor, Dr. Brooks, convinced him was not real by taking a photograph of them in which Dave did not appear. Dr. Brooks was making a photo wall of all the patients at the facility (which would have included Libby, who was a patient in the same day room as Hugo). When Dave wanted to break out of the building to go on a food run, Hugo "locked him out" which supposedly started his personal recovery.
But even when Hugo was released from the hospital, he kept eating as a means to block the negative aspects of his life: his boss, Randy, constantly yelling at him at work; his mother, constantly pushing him to find a girlfriend; and his overall cloud of doom over his head.
But that all changed when Hurley used Leonard's Numbers to win $114 million in the lottery. He kept it secret because he did not want people to like him just for his money. Since he thought his bad luck had ended, he got the nerve to ask out the record store clerk, Starla, out on a date. However, that never came to pass because his best friend Johnny found out about his winnings and squealed with delight - - - which resulted in the end of their friendship, with Johnny ending up with his crush, Starla.
Hugo became convinced that the winnings were cursed, when his grandfather died at the initial press conference, lightning struck the priest at the funeral, and a meteorite destroyed the Mr. Cluck's store killing a television reporter. In his other businesses, accidents killed another eight people. He became estranged from his "idiot" brother. However, the money did bring back his father back into his life. Hugo was suspicious of his father. His father tried to make him believe there was no curse, but the psychic trick failed sending Hugo to find Leonard at the mental hospital. There, he asked about the origin of the numbers, and sedate Leonard went hysterical in rage that Hugo used the cursed numbers to play the lottery. Leonard stated that he heard the numbers from an Australian, Sam Toomey, when they were stationed at a listening post in the South Pacific, 16 years earlier.
Hugo went to Australia to find that man, but only found his widow. She told him that her husband heard that transmission in 1988, which was the same year that Rousseau's expedition shipwrecked on the island and she changed the message to an S.O.S. Sam's widow said her husband used the same lucky numbers to a competition, but it turned into bad luck and his suicide. This convinced Hugo that The Numbers were cursed and that he was cursed.
Hugo barely made it on Flight 815. He overslept due to a power outage, he could not get a taxi, and at the airport, he bribed a person in order to get a golf cart to take him to the gate. He begged an attendant to re-open the gateway so he could get on the plane. As a result, a sweaty, tired Hugo boarded the plane, first making eye contact and a thumbs up to young Walt.
CHARACTER TRAITS
One could say Hugo was a big man with a big heart. But if he was in The Wizard of Oz, he'd be the cowardly lion. He was naive and socially quiet. He seemed to feel most comfortable at the edge of the action. He often questioned his own decision making and too easily assessed blame upon himself. Like the other main characters like Jack and Kate, Hugo had significant "daddy issues," one being abandonment as a small child. He also had a clinical depression and addictive (eating) disorder - - - a means of transferring the mental pain into a form of physical pleasure. But that led to body shape issues, and more depression towards an introverted personality. Raised a Catholic by a strict mother, he also had a deep streak of guilt inbred into his soul, so it was very difficult for him to lie. He is very naive around more outward personalities. He usually takes jabs to his appearance or statements silently which is a sign of his passive demeanor.
HURLEY'S JOURNEY
We first find Hurley on the beach, with Jack barking orders to him to get pregnant Claire away from the burning fuselage. We immediately see that Hurley is a follower and not a leader. When Jack asks for his help in treating the marshal's wounds, Hugo says he can't handle blood. Jack tells him to keep it together, and not to hurl. (For some, this may be the origin of Hugo's nickname, but is never confirmed). He tries his best, Hurley passes out anyway.
In one respect, the post-crash does give Hurley the opportunity to belong in a "new group." This new group has no idea that he is a multi-millionaire, so they can see his "true self." And maybe they would "like" him for what he is. But deep down emotionally, Hugo believes that the plane crashed because he was on it - - - that The Numbers will continue to haunt him.
Throughout the series, Hurley does grow. Other characters trust him. He is given more responsibility. He accepts his role without making a huge argument. He starts to make friendships with characters like Charlie, not knowing of his personal demons, but accepting him as Charlie.
The general consensus within the survivor camp is that Hurley is not a threat, nor a great asset to their overall survival. But whether by chance or design, it was Hurley who became aware that Ethan was not on the plane. This deduction tipped the first domino with the conflict with the Others.
We learn that Hurley was one of Jacob's candidates, but he was not touched as a child like the others had been; he was touched by Jacob inside a cab as a member of the O6 crew during the turmoil of whether to return to the island. During his island time, Hurley continued to see visions of Dave, his imaginary friend from Santa Rosa, and honed an ability to have real conversations with dead people, including physical slaps from dead Charlie and dead Ana Lucia.
Hurley would be chosen by Jacob to steer Jack away from danger, and toward the self-realization of the lighthouse revelation. It would turn the meek non-caring Dharma flashback Jack into the action Jack, island protector.
It may also have been a coincidence that Hurley's story line was always been kept around the fringes of the main conflicts. He would have been the last character one would think of to be the Answer for the entire show. One unanswered question that nobody asks anymore is why is Hugo Reyes called "Hurley" in the first place. The root is in Old Middle English for hurl, meaning to "reduplicate." Duplication was a theme and division between the island events and sideways realm.
SIDEWAYS HURLEY
In the sideways fantasy, Hugo wins the lottery not by playing the Numbers, but using the serial number off a dollar bill. As a result, he is a very successful businessman. He is the charity man of the year. But his mother still chides him about his lack of a social life, or a woman in his life. As a result, she sets him up on blind date. However, he is stood up. But while he is in a depressed mood, another woman approaches him. It is Libby. She recognizes him, and calls him a soul mate. But before anything further happens, Dr. Brooks takes Libby back to the mental hospital bus. Now further depressed that only an insane woman who take interest in him, Hugo goes on an eating binge until an awakened Desmond approaches his table. Des encourages him to find Libby. As a result, Hurley finally gets the first date on the beach with Libby that was taken away from him on the island by Michael's murder spree. As a result, Hurley remembers the island events and Libby. Then Desmond recruits him to awaken the others, including breaking out Sayid and Kate from jail.
Despite the DVD extras, we learn that Hurley stayed on the island as its new Jacob for a period of time, with Ben as his "Number Two." We see them part friends in the church courtyard. We see Hurley reunited with Libby in the end. The strange aspect of Hurley bonding with Libby is that they only knew each other for less than six weeks. Libby had been married before, to David Smith. After her husband died, she went mad and was hospitalized at Santa Rosa. However, she was not institutionalized when she gave Desmond her boat for his transoceanic quest. One would think that a marriage that caused such anguish to be institutionalized would have had Libby meeting up with David Smith in the after life and not with Hurley. Of course, one theory states that Libby's David is also Hurley's imaginary friend Dave.
Hurley's journey is the one that has the most change in the end. He goes from a lonely, depressed, crazy hallucinating wall flower into a successful businessman with a soul mate. He goes from a follower, to a devoted friend, to a leader. In some respects, it is a dream ending for Hugo.
But Hurley's journey also criss-crossing the multiple layers of mysteries of the island and its people. Hurley is the center of the mental and talking to the dead issues. Hurley is also the most culture-centric of the characters, talking Star Wars and pop culture. His reserve was underestimated by many, including the Others in the beach attack when he plows the VW bus through the camp to ping pong with Sawyer. He was one of the characters people thought would do the right thing.
In some respects, Hurley continues to act on the viewers behalf in digesting the series. We do not know how or why Hurley ends up happy in the church, but many people accept it as being a proper reward for being a consistently good person. There was nothing really to purge from Hurley's soul in order to enter the final passage through the church gates. On a good versus evil scale, Hurley's life only had trivial flaws (gluttony, self-esteem issues). In some respects, Hurley is the base line that all other characters could be measured upon.
But did Hurley's adventurous journey cause heroic changes in him? The only difference was that Hurley became the island leader when Jack died, so he had the alleged ability to make up the new island rules. But we have no evidence of whether Hurley's rule was good, bad or indifferent since we have no true idea what the island was or why it needed to be protected in the future.
If anyone was the center pin to all character relationships in the church, Hurley would be that person. He really got along best among all the other church members. So he went from his past life of being a lonely person with few friends, to the glue that quietly held the 815 group together. Hurley continued to be Hurley to the end.
