Hugo "Hurley" Reyes

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Hurley
Jorge Garcia as Hurley
First island appearance "Pilot: Part 1" Final island appearance N/A Centric episodes "Numbers," "Exodus: Part 2," "Everybody Hates Hugo," "Dave" First flashback appearance "...In Translation" Last flashback appearance "Dave"
Statistics Name Hugo Reyes Age Mid 20's Place of origin Los Angeles, California Profession Formerly a worker in a fast food chain, multi-million dollar lottery winner Reason for being in Australia Searching for source of "The Numbers" Reason for trip to Los Angeles Returning for his mother's birthday Portrayed by Jorge Garcia

Hugo Reyes, better known by the nickname "Hurley," is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jorge Garcia. Reyes serves as the show's comic relief.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Prior to the crash

Hurley is a Latino from the Los Angeles area. Before the crash, Hurley was involved in an accident where a deck that he and 23 other people were standing on collapsed, leaving two people dead. Believing his weight was the cause of the deck's collapse, Hurley felt tremendous guilt and went into a catatonic state, doing nothing except eating constantly. When he snapped out of it, his mother admitted him to a mental hospital (where, unbeknownst to him, Libby was also a patient). John Locke's biological mother also attended the same mental health hospital as Hurley and Libby, at one point in her life.

In the mental hospital, Hurley's doctor — Dr. Brooks — attempts to ease Hurley's guilt, explaining that the deck was built to only hold eight people, so Hurley's presence was a moot point — the deck would have collapsed whether he was there or not. Hurley also meets Dave, a man who seems to be the only normal person in the place, although he advises Hurley to eat all he wants and ignore Brooks's orders to diet and to take his prescribed clonazepam, which Hurley follows. Eventually, Brooks takes a photograph of Dave and Hurley. When he shows the picture to Hurley, only Hurley is there — Dave does not exist at all. He is only a figment of Hurley's imagination, the part of Hurley's mind that does not want him to get better, and wants him to eat to ease his guilt. Despite Hurley realising that Dave is an imaginary friend — albeit a very real one that even slaps him - he almost escapes the mental hospital with Dave's urging. At the last minute, Hurley refuses to leave because he wants to get better, rejecting Dave. This was a breakthrough in Hurley's recovery, and he was released from the mental hospital soon after.

Hurley gets his old job back at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and moves back in with his mother. One day, he becomes extremely wealthy, winning a $116-million lottery using numbers that were always muttered by a former fellow psychiatric patient named Leonard. The day after the winning draw, Hurley quits his job and spends the day with his friend Johnny (DJ Qualls); he hopes their carefree ways will continue despite his sudden wealth, but Johnny is clearly shaken by the revelation. Afterwards, people around Hurley are afflicted with misfortunes: his grandfather suddenly dies during an interview with news crews; lightning strikes the priest at the funeral; his brother loses his wife to another woman; his mother breaks her ankle while getting out of the car to see the new home Hurley has bought for her; the house then catches fire; he is falsely arrested after being mistaken for a drug dealer; and his previous place of employment (Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack) is smashed by a meteorite.

Hurley, however, continues to experience incredibly good luck and his acquisitions continue to accumulate: over-insurance on a sneaker company he owns pays off when a fire consumes the factory and causes several deaths; his false arrest results in a hefty settlement; and he acquires ownership of a box company in Tustin, California, which Locke worked at. By the time of the crash, his net worth is $156 million. Despite this, Hurley eventually comes to believe that the lottery numbers he used — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 — were cursed.

When Hurley returns to the hospital to discover the origin of "the numbers," the patient he acquired them from, Leonard, reveals that he heard them when working with a naval officer named Sam Toomey. The two of them had heard the numbers when monitoring radio signals from the Pacific Ocean. Hurley tracks down Toomey to his home in the outback of Australia, only to find out from his wife that he had also thought the numbers were cursed, and killed himself to finally escape them. Hurley is on Flight 815 while returning from this visit, despite many incidents that almost cause him to miss the flight, because he does not want to miss his mother's birthday. Hurley now believes that the crash of Flight 815 was his fault.

The nickname "Hurley" has a long history, according to him, which has not yet been explained.

[edit] After the crash

Since coming to the island, Hurley quickly bonds with Jack and Charlie, and manages to sustain fairly strong relationships with everyone else, probably due to his apparent friendliness and straightforwardness. However, he opens up to very few people on the island. He reveals his secret — he is worth millions of dollars — only to Charlie, Walt, Jack, and Libby (if deleted scenes are considered canon). Although Charlie and Walt treat his revelation as a joke, Jack gives little reaction. Hurley appears to be happy-go-lucky and often provides comic relief. He is very active on the island, creating a golf course to ease people's tensions; taking the census that reveals that Ethan was not on the flight; heading into the jungle to find Rousseau; and ultimately recovering a battery for Sayid to use for the raft's radar.

Hurley accompanies Danielle, Jack, Locke, Kate, and Arzt into the jungle in the season finale of Season 1. With Arzt's demise, Hurley again assumes the blame for everyone's misfortune. After returning to the hatch, Hurley discovers that the serial number on the hatch matches the numbers he played in the lottery, and he unsuccessfully tries to keep Locke from blowing the hatch open. Once Desmond abandons the underground bunker to the castaways, Hurley is assigned the job of inventory in the supply closet. His previous experience with sudden privilege makes him fearful of what the food distribution task will mean to his standing with the others. He is prepared to blow up the bunker's pantry with the unused pack of dynamite from the Black Rock, but Rose talks him out of it. He decides instead to hand the food out freely as a kind of Santa Claus, pointing out to Jack there is no feasible way to ration it.

Hurley thinks he has a chance for a romantic relationship with Libby in the episode "The Hunting Party". Hurley becomes closer to Libby while doing laundry with her in "Fire + Water", and although he has the feeling that he knows her from somewhere else, he does not remember that they were both patients at the same mental hospital.

In "One of Them", we find out that Hurley has a secret stash of food from the hatch. Sawyer catches him with the food and blackmails him into finding the tree frog that is bothering him. He tells Sawyer that even if he reveals his secret, he is aware that he is fat and that he has always been that way. He also says that even though he has stolen food, his popularity means that people are more likely to believe him than Sawyer. Hurley is also discovered eating from his secret stash of food by Sun in "The Whole Truth".

In "Dave", Hurley destroys his secret stash of food, wanting to diet with Libby's help. This is put to the test when there is a sudden delivery of new food supplies from an unknown source. On top of that, Hurley starts seeing Dave again. He tells Hurley that his recovery from the mental hospital never happened, and life on the island is all a figment of his imagination. According to Dave, he indeed does exist in real life, and after refusing to escape with him, Hurley went into another and more severe catatonic state, which Dave claims Hurley is still in today. He uses examples to back his claim up: Leonard's "numbers" appear everywhere, Hurley has not lost any weight, he won the lottery, and an attractive woman like Libby is actually interested in him. Dave says he has suddenly appeared in Hurley's mind because Hurley subconsciously wants to "wake up." Dave suggests that Hurley commit suicide by jumping off a cliff to "wake up." However, Libby stops Hurley just in time and assures him that everything is really happening, supporting the claim by demonstrating that he does not know everything that happened to the survivors on the other side of the island. She then kisses him as further evidence.

Hurley and Libby then begin a short-lived romantic relationship, which ends tragically. While in the hatch to get some blankets that Hurley forgot to bring along on a romantic picnic, Libby is shot by Michael. She is mortally wounded, and Hurley is by Libby's side as she dies soon afterwards. He tearfully tells her that he is sorry about forgetting the blankets.

Hurley digs Libby's grave and Kate digs Ana Lucia's. Michael asks Hurley to join him for the attack on the Others' camp, but Hurley is too sad to do so. This angers Michael, who - unbeknownst to Hurley - was told to bring him (along with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer) to the Others in order to get Walt back. During the funeral, as Hurley gives a eulogy for Libby, he becomes angry over her death and tells Michael that he will join him after all.

In "Live Together, Die Alone", Hurley goes with Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Michael to confront the Others. On the way, a large, green flying creature briefly swoops over the group, and Hurley hears what he believes to be the creature shrieking his name. Michael leads the group into an ambush, where the Others knock out Sawyer with a dart to the neck. Before he is also shot, Jack tells everyone to run. In response, Hurley puts his arms over his head and freezes. It is possible that Hurley was not shot, since he apparently did not try to resist or escape. The Others bring their captives to a dock, bound and gagged. After Michael is reunited with Walt, Ms. Klugh frees Hurley, telling him to go back to his beach. She says that his job is to tell everyone else that they must never come to the other side of the island. Hurley asks about his friends, and Henry Gale replies that they will be staying with the Others now. Hurley clearly does not want to go, but Jack nods, signaling that it is all right for him to leave, which he reluctantly does.

In "Further Instructions", Hurley is almost killed by Locke, who mistook him for a polar bear emerging from the brush. He explains the capture of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, and relays the Others' warning about coming to their side of the island. As Hurley continues his way back to the camp, he runs into Desmond, who is naked after the hatch implosion. He gives some spare clothes to him, and during their walk to camp, Desmond mentions that Locke said he would rescue Jack, Kate, and Sawyer during a speech, but Hurley points out no speech has been given as Locke just found out about their capture. When Locke and Charlie return to camp with Eko, and the survivors begin to panic at Hurley's news, Locke tells everyone that he will rescue Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Hurley realizes that Desmond somehow saw the future.

[edit] Trivia

• Jorge Garcia was the first actor cast for the first season of Lost, as mentioned in the featurette, "Before They Were Lost," in the first season DVD.

[edit] References

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