Lost Character of the Week

I got your comic relief right here...

Background:

Hurley was very close to his father when he was young. They spent time fishing and fixing up an old Camaro. Hurley’s dad left when Hurley was about eleven years old (jerk), and this is when Hurley started eating his feelings. One night Hurley went to a party and ended up standing on a deck that collapsed and killed four people. He believed it was all his fault because of his weight, even though there were 23 people on a deck that was made to hold eight. This greatly distresses the Hurls and he ends up in the mental ward. After banishing his imaginary friend, Dave, Hurley was released and moved back in with his mother. He worked at Mr. Clucks, selling, and eating, fried chicken. Shortly after this he won the lottery, using numbers that another hospital patient, Leonard the Connect Four Wizard, repeated over and over. Hurley wasn’t happy when he won the lottery. He was just afraid of how much his life would change. Hurley doesn’t handle change well. He fainted when he saw that he’d won the lottery, but he didn’t tell anyone that he won, for fear that things would change. He loses his job at Mr. Clucks and his friend Johnny quits out of solidarity. They go to a record store to celebrate their freedom and Hurley asks his crush, Starla, out on a date. He and Johnny then vandalize their former boss’s lawn by spelling “Cluck You” in garden gnomes. Afterward they go to the gas station where there is a commotion with the media because they know this is the store that sold the winning ticket. The clerk then points out Hurley, saying that he bought the winning ticket. Johnny is hurt that Hurley felt he couldn’t tell him about the lottery and it’s clear to Hurley that everything’s changing. Later we learn that Johnny and Starla ran off together.

After he won, bad things started happening to those close to Hurley. He bought Mr. Clucks, which wasn’t a bad thing until Tricia Tanaka was killed when a meteor hit the restaurant while she was doing a piece on Hurley. Hurley believes the numbers are cursed after his grandfather, Tito Reyes, dies of a heart attack at the press conference to announce Hurley’s win. After this the priest at the grandfather’s funeral is struck by lightning, his brother’s wife leaves him, and the house he buys for his mother catches on fire. Cut the guy a break. While Hurley’s watching the house burn down he’s erroneously arrested for drug dealing.

Hurley spent some quality time learning to play ping pong in his mother’s basement. Hurley’s father, Cheech, returned. Hurley figured he was just after the lottery money and told him so. Hurley went to Australia to find a man named Sam Toomey, who knew something about the numbers. Sam’s wife told him that Sam committed suicide because of all of his bad luck associated with the numbers. Dum DUM DUUUUUUUHHHHMMMMM

Island: Hurley is the comic relief and boy do we need it. He’s also Mr. Dependable on the island and forms a bond with Jack early on. Later he and Charlie become BFF. Hurley decides to help the group by placing himself in charge of rationing the remaining food and water from the plane. He’s a good guy, and even makes sure pregnant Claire gets two helping of dinner instead of one. Hurley moves to the caves with some of the survivors and finds a set of golf clubs. SCORE! Where were you on that one, Sawyer, huh? Anyway, Hurley thinks what’s a set of golf clubs without a golf course? So he goes off and builds a green and Jack is in heaven and may marry Hurley. When Claire is attacked one night Hurley decides to do a census using the planes manifest and discovers that Ethan wasn’t on the plane. ZOINKS!

One day Hurley is looking at Rousseau’s maps with Sayid and discovered that the cursed numbers have followed him to the island! Guy can’t get a break from those nagging numbers. It’s like that cat that keeps peeing on our front porch. Anyway, he goes traipsing into the woods to find Rousseau thinking she can help him with the numbers. Hurley gets separated from the group and lands himself in an Indiana Jones movie, complete with rope bridge and huge spiky balls swinging on vines. He finally talks to Rousseau and she tells him, “What are you stupid? Of course the numbers are cursed. Moron.” And then she gives him a battery because we all know that the way to a man’s heart is through his electronics.

Hurley tells Charlie that he’s a bazillion-aire and for some reason this pisses Charlie off, probably because Charlie’s life is a huge FAIL. So Hurley decides to be BFFs with Jin instead and they go fishing and stuff. Then Rousseau shows up on the beach and tells everyone that the Others are coming to kill them. She’s such a Debbie Downer. Anyway a group runs off into the jungle to find some dynamite and play with the smoke monster. They find the Black Rock, which isn’t a rock at all, but a giant pirate looking ship! And some bird yells Hurley’s name. Then Arzt has a hormone attack and starts screaming about how life isn’t fair and accidentally explodes himself. Hurley utters the best line ever in the history of LOST: “I think I’ve got some Arzt on me.”

They blow the hatch open with their dynamite. Hurley is in charge of the food again and he doesn’t want the job, but Jack gets in his face, thinking he’s all the boss, and Hurley complies. He gets Rose to help him. Hurley decides to just give everybody the food instead of rationing it. Sawyer discovers where Hurley is hoarding food and tries to blackmail him but Hurley and Libby just destroy all the food instead of giving Sawyer the satisfaction. Then Hurley’s imaginary bad influence, Dave, shows up. Dave tries to get Hurley to commit suicide, but Libby stops him. Then he gets his mack on and finally kisses her. He plans a romantic picnic on the beach but forgets the blankets. Libby scoots off to get them an Michael shoots her. What.a.jerk.

Michael takes Hurley and the pretties to the pier where Ben lets Hurley go, saying they don’t want none of that in the Other’s camp. Hurley trudges back to camp and encounters a naked, psychic Desmond running through the woods. Hurley gives Desmond his shirt and the women of the world sigh in frustration. Hurley and Vincent go for a walk in the woods and Hurley finds a broken down VW van and gets it running again. So the island now has a Mystery Machine. Then Sawyer starts talking trash about his lacking ping-pong skills and Hurley calls his trash and trounces him at ping pong. The penalty is that Sawyer has to go a week without giving anyone a nickname, which, luckily for us, equals half an episode.

Hurley buries Nikki and Paulo because he thinks they’re dead, but they were just sleeping. This is why every society needs a coroner.

Hurley, Sayid, Jin, and Charlie see Naomi fall from the sky and rush to find her. Hurley, being the bumbling comic relief, accidentally sets off one of her emergency flares and Blackbeard, I mean Mikhail, comes running. They take Naomi and split and try to tend to her wounds but she dies. Charlie insults Hurley by implying that he’s fat, which is so funny because he doesn’t mind being friends with Sawyer when Sawyer verbally abuses him, but when Charlie says it, his whole world comes crashing down. The Others invade the beach and Hurley takes them out with his VW van and saves everybody.

Hurley gets lost in the woods yet again, after learning that the boat is not salvation, but a danger. He runs in a panic and finds himself at Jacob’s cabin. He looks in the window, screams, and runs away, right into Locke!

Hurley decides to switch loyalties to Locke. He’s sick of Jack’s big-headedness and non-listeningness. Sawyer and Hurley bunk together in Otherland, like a throwback from Parent Trap. Explosions happen and Hurley rescues Aaron. They all go to find Jacob. Ben, Locke, and Hurley go to move the island and Ben tells Hurley that he needs to leave on the freighter, so Hurley gets on the helicopter, becoming one of the Oceanic Six.

After Hurley leaves the island they have the discussion in the cargo plane about what to tell the press. Hurley’s not to happy about it but goes along with it anyway. He’s reunited with his family and finds out that he gets all of his money back, even though he doesn’t want it. His mom throws him a surprise party with an island theme (because she doesn’t have many smarts), and the Six are all there to see him. Hurley’s dad gives him the old Camaro they were fixing up and Hurley is stoked until he sees the mileage is set to the numbers and he runs like he has bees chasing him.

Sun has her baby and Hurley visits her. He asks if the other four are coming and Sun says no. Hurley says, “Good.” Sheesh. A little harsh there, Hurls. Hurley then gets arrested after he speeds away from ghost Charlie (who is hotter than real life Charlie, for the record) at a gas station. He freaks out on the police and they put him back in the booby hatch, where he’s happy. Abbadon shows up claiming to work for Oceanic Airlines. He wants to transfer Hurley to a place with an ocean view. Hmm…a polar bear cage, maybe? Hurley tells him he doesn’t want any of that and Abbadon gets all menacing and then leaves.

Ghost Charlie, looking all fine in the afterlife, approaches Hurley during his outdoor times. Charlie tells Hurley that he is, in fact, dead. Charlie tells Hurley, “They need you.” Then he floats away to play his harp on a cloud or something. Jack comes to visit and Hurley suggests going back to the island and Jack tells him to shut it.

Later Hurley goes even more crazy and Sayid breaks him out of the mental institution. They go to an apartment where some men are waiting to kill Sayid. Sayid goes all Bruce Lee on them and kills them. Hurley picks up their gun like a doof, someone takes his picture, and BAM, he’s public enemy number one. Ghost Ana Lucia later pulls Hurley over and tells him how to escape. He hides out at his parents’ house and is approached by Ben. He launches a Hot Pocket Rocket at Ben but totally misses and wastes a good hot pocket. Ben asks Hurley to come back to the island with him, but Hurley runs and gets arrested to get away from Ben. Ben had his lawyer pull some strings and get Hurley’s charges dropped, but they still have to practically use a shoehorn to get him out of the jail because he’s so afraid of Ben. He jumps in a cab and talks to none other than Jacob, who tells Hurley that he needs to return to the island. He then gives him flight information and tells him that it’s his choice, but if he does return Jacob wants him to bring a guitar case with him.

Hurley ends up on the plane. He bought up a ton of seats to prevent other people from being in the crash. Hurley is transported to 1977 island and joins the Dharma initiative as a Chef. He’s loving his new job and life with the Dharmites. Hurley spends his island time writing the screenplay to The Empire Strikes Back, hoping to sell it to George Lucas. He is on the bomb when the H bomb is detonated.

Nicknames:

Grimace, Hulk, JumboTron, Snuffy, Three Men and A Baby (this nickname was for Hurley, Charlie, and Aaron. When Charlie points out that there are only two men, Sawyer says he counted Hurley twice), Lardo, Stay Puft, Pillsbury, Jabba, Jethro, Hoss, Rerun, Babar, Muttonchops, Mongo, Deep Dish, Grape Ape, International House of Pancakes, Ese, Avalanche, Montezuma, Chicken Little, Kong

Off Island Connections:

Hurley was in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute at the same time as Libby. He never realized that he knew Libby from the institute in their time on the island. Hurley listened to Driveshaft (Charlie’s band) in a record store. Jin and Sun see Hurley win the lottery on TV. Abaddon visited Hurley in the mental institution. Hurley owned the box company that Locke worked for. He was a fan of “Exposed,” which Nikki was an actress in. Hurley was “haunted” after he left the island by Charlie and Ana Lucia. He was part of the Oceanic Six and had contact with them, especially Sun. Jacob visited Hurley off the island to convince him to go back. It was the most “recent” visit that we’re aware of. All of the other visits happened sometime in the survivors’ pasts, before they crashed on the island.

Sources: Lostpedia, lost.about.com, muckety.com, my memory.