Hugo "Hurley" Reyes/Theories

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Hugo "Hurley" Reyes 		Main Discussion
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Contents

Role

Special or Crazy?

Several strange things have happened to Hurley on and off the island, but it is hard to know whether they mean that he is crazy (consistent with his stay at the Santa Rosa Mental Institution where h had an imaginary friend) or "special" - like those on the island who can have useful experiences other people do not. Below, we review the evidence for each.

Special

  • He won the lottery.
  • Libby seemed to be watching him in the hospital. She may have been watching him for Widmore. 
 (See the evidence for this here: [[1]]


Crazy

  • He hallucinated people before he got to the island. he hallucinates Dave while he is there, then Charlie and Eko after he leaves. Sayid is in the room with him while Hurley talks to Eko - but the chair Hurley is talking to is empty.
  • A bird seems to say his name as it flies past him in the jungle, and when he asks other people if they heard it, Sawyer makes fun of him.
  • It only seemed like Hurley made Jacob's Cabin disappear - we know from when he, Locke and Ben go to find it, it is always moving.
      • Hurley making things dissappear is an indication that he doesn't want anything from the Island. In fact maybe he doesn't make things dissappear, but the Island stops showing it to him as he sees the unwillingness of him.
  • Hurley is special and has a connection with The Island, similar to John Locke. He saw Jacob in the cabin and then saw the cabin somehow relocate, then the door of the cabin opened, as if to welcome him in.
  • Something or someone doesn't want Hurley on The Island, possibly because of his knowledge and fear of the Numbers. First huge obstacles were thrown up to prevent him from getting on the flight, and then Dave tries to get him to commit suicide.



  • The Others specially requested Hurley along with Jack, Kate and Sawyer because they knew that Hurley would not attempt to cause an uprising amongst the survivors, and is also easily manipulated, and thus the Others trusted him to go back to the beach and inform them of what has happened to Jack, Kate and Sawyer. See Lists/Theories for more information.
  • Hurley was picked by the Others because of his size. Hurley, being large, would be slow getting back to the beach, therefore buying the Others the most amount of time to take Jack, Kate and Sawyer to the Hydra station. It prevents an immediate response by the remaining survivors.
  • Hurley may be able to see spirits or ghosts. This explains why he thinks he is insane, why he sees Charlie after his death, and why he is able to see Jacob.
    • Hurley isn't the only one to see Charlie. One of the other patients warns Hurley that someone is looking at him just before he sees Charlie looking at him.
      • The someone that Hurley was warned about could have been Abaddon. When Hurley looked up he saw Charley and did not look for anyone else.--Jim 17:52, 8 May 2008 (PDT)
  • Hurley may be the "wolf in sheep's clothing" among the castaways. He may be working with the Others, may even be an agent for them—possibly even their leader.
    • Before the plane took off, Hurley was insistent on getting on Oceanic 815 specifically. Being rich, he could easily just wait for a later flight and buy a new ticket. His professed reason for needing to leave is his mother's birthday is today "or yesterday", but this could have been a lie for urgency's (and the audience's) sake.
    • After the plane crashed, Hurley was initially the one checking the survivors against the passenger list. He could have been gathering information for the Others.
      • If this was the case, he would not have reported to Jack and the rest of their survivors about Ethan not being on the manifest.
    • Hurley speaks fluent Spanish, yet he didn't understand Naomi when she said, "I am not alone," in Portuguese, The languages are very similar, and someone fluent in one is likely to understand a simple statement in the other.
      • Depends, although two languages can be similar, some words and accents can disturb the translation. If you are supposed to understand someone during absolute silence it should flow without any problem. But during pressure it would be much harder to understand simple words.
    • Hurley turned in Ethan;a classic confidence game move, which put him above suspicion as far as anyone else (the audience included) was concerned.
    • Hurley tried to stop Locke from entering the hatch.
    • Hurley warned Juliet of the dangers she faced among by telling her that other Others had been killed by the castaways. At the time, this appeared to be done with the intention of threatening her not to act against the castaways. In hindsight, though, he may have been warning her to be careful in the execution of her mission for Ben.
    • Hurley was both summoned and released by the Others in the final episode of Season 2. The reason for this still hasn't been entirely explained. See Lists/Theories for more information.
    • Hurley, like Michael and unlike Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, is not seen zapped by the Others when they are all brought to the dock.
      • As far as we saw in that part, he could have been, and probably was zapped.
    • If Hurley wasn't working with the Others initially, he may still have joined their side later. Hurley could have been promised a relief from the curse if he worked with the Others, perhaps on the dock. This explains why he has not seen bad luck in Season 3.
    • Vincent brought the skeletal arm of Roger "Work Man" directly to Hurley, who then found and resurrected the old VW van.
    • We know Hurley is not entirely guileless. After all, he conned Sawyer in "Left Behind".
      • Only to make Sawyer nicer, and prepare him for being a possible Lostie lider
    • Most recently, in "D.O.C.", Hurley fired off a flare gun that alerted one of the Others to the location of the parachutist Naomi. In that episode, he also revealed the possession of the satellite phone to Mikhail Bakunin.
      • Could have been and probably was a mistake.
        • He played off both instances as goofy clumsiness, but that has been his M.O. all along.
    • Hurley tried to go with Desmond and Charlie on the boat to the underwater Looking Glass station, possibly to stop them from turning off the jammer.
    • Most of these theories seem (even more) unlikely after Hurley took out Ryan Pryce with the DHARMA Van.
      • And he threw away his private food-stash as an act of love for Libby and self-respect. He took her to a nice place by the ocean,and looked genuinely sad when she got killed,and mad at her killer(Michael)(who was working with the Others, for real.)
      • However, if Hurley was working for Ben, he may have been responding to Tom and the Others' apparent betrayal: Hurley led the attack immediately after the Others betrayed Ben by not executing Sayid, Jin, and Bernard.
        • Tom and the other Others didn't betray Ben, Ben meant for them not to kill Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. Tom says that they should not have followed Ben's orders, and should have killed them for real, meaning that Ben meant for them not to be killed
  • Jacob might have possessed Hurley, either to kill him (through Dave) or help him.
  • After leaving the Island, we'll learn that Hurley did in fact reclaim all of his money, willingly or not. When the Oceanic Six finally come together to get back to the Island, his money will finance their mission, whatever that may be.
  • Hurley is the one in the casket in Jacks flash-forward. Hurley kills himself shortly after meeting Jack in the hospital, driving Jack to try to kill himself because of his need or desire to go back to the island.
  • Hurley cannot die because the island will not let him.
  • Hurley's use of the Numbers to win the lottery may be what kicked all of our present storyline off. Charles Widmore had to be looking for any sign of the Island, and Hurley using the Numbers must have been a huge clue for him.
    • Also, the Island itself is trying to stay hidden. Therefore, Hurley's incredible publicizing of the Numbers has set off a major "course correction."

Curse

  • If Hurley is working with the Others against the Island, then this might explain his "curse". The forces of nature have been working for some time to interfere with Hurley's presence on the Island.
    • Hurley felt responsible for the collapse of a deck. (Gravity is a force of nature, of course—but in this instance it may have been quite selective.)
    • An imaginary person (Dave) convinced Hurley not to follow his diet. (This is not unlike some of the "dead" people who have appeared on the island.)
    • His grandfather had a heart attack during an interview with the news.
    • The priest at his grandfather's funeral service was struck by lightning.
    • Hurley's brother went on to lose his wife to another woman.
    • His mother broke her ankle when Hurley wanted to show her a house he bought for her.
    • The same house caught fire and burned down.
    • Hurley was arrested by mistake when the police believed him to be a drug dealer.
    • His girlfriend Starla ran off with his best friend Johnny.
    • After he bought Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and re-opened it, the news reporter Tricia Tanaka covered the story inside the restaurant, when a meteorite crashed the place, killing her and destroying Hurley's new business.
    • The sneaker factory Hurley bought burned down, killing 8 people who worked there.
    • Tropical storms hit Florida caused Hurley's stock in Orange futures to skyrocket.
    • An unidentified man (not Locke as confirmed by Carlton Cuse on the 03/30/07 podcast) falls from the building as his accountant tells him that he isn't cursed.
    • The "Hurley bird" seems to think Hurley has some kind of significance.
      • If Hurley somehow pissed off the Island and got "cursed", the Island would have cursed him directly and not the people around him. I think it was made pretty obvious that the Island takes what it wants and is not on some kind of revenge-trip.
  • Hurley's "curse" will protect him from harm (physical), because if he was dead he could not suffer from the curse. Therefore he can only die by his own hands or possibly old age.
    • Now that he has resolved his "curse" issues by finding and fixing the DHARMA van, he will be the next to die.
  • Hugo Reyes's name is very similar to "you go save us". Hurley's curse is too much good luck and can't due unless it's by his own hand.That's why they survived the plane crash. They were all supposed to die, Hurley saved them.
  • Mrs. Hawkins told Desmond "Fate has a way of course correcting itself. Hurley changed all that. He changed the future by making the flight. Now the survivors fate has changed. Hurley is the protector of the survivors.
  • The Orchid video shows a way to duplicate animals and people (possibly). Hurley is Jacob from a past life, and therefore cannot come into contact with himself. This is why it seemed he was not meant to make the flight.
  • If cursed while trying to get on the plane with all his bad luck, making it to the island was a good thing that the curse was trying to prevent and perhaps making it to the island cured him of the curse as it also cures aliments.
  • Hurley's curse was temporarily broken when he fixed the Dharma Van but the curse was restored when he made his cannonball into the ocean.
  • Hugo really isn't cursed. He is "special", but brings the bad luck upon himself because he is not aware of and does not know how to control his ability.
  • Hurley's curse is the universe course-correcting because of the numbers' influence. The Numbers, being part of the Valenzetti Equasion, represent the ability to alter the course of history and allow humanity to survive. As we have heard and seen from Ms. Hawking and Desmond's inability to prevent Charlie's death, the avertion of humanity's destruction cannot come to pass, as the universe is on a set course. Thus, the universe course-corrects upon a person gaining knowledge of the numbers, and the universe is forced to kill or render them incapible of using them (I.E. Toomey's death and Leonard's insanity). This is what Hurley's curse is: The Universe course-correcting in order to render Hurley unable to use the Numbers to alter mankind's fate, either trying to drive him insane or kill him. In the latter case, the correction is being diverted onto others for reasons not yet shown.

Past and psychology

  • Hurley's flashbacks are unreliable, with some incidents only happening in his own mind, including that the Numbers weren't what he actually used to win the lottery (if he ever actually won the lottery at all).
    • We briefly see Hurley on the news in at least one flashback that is not his own—Jin's. This strongly suggests that his story is true, at least with respect to the lottery.
    • Hurley suffers from some form of delusional schizophrenia. He sees people, but he doesn't imagine events.
  • Libby has been stalking him since his days at Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute.
  • Hurley has Multiple Personality Disorder, also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. He is thus the same person as Dave.
    • Hurley is also the same "Dave" who is Libby's husband, explaining their past connection. She didn't tell anyone because she knows about his unstable condition.
    • Desmond may have gotten his "see you in another life" phrase from Libby, who got it from Dave/Hurley.
      • Dave used this term at the end of the Episode "Dave".
  • Hurley became over weight because he thought it was his fault that his father left when he was young. In "Tricia Tanaka is Dead", when his father left, the last thing he did was give Hurley a candy bar. Hurley uses food to punish himself.

References

  • Hurley is based on Piggy in William Golden's Book, The Lord of the Flies.
    • Pros: Like Piggy, Hurley is of large girth, relatively cherub-like and is full of good ideas.
    • Cons: Piggy is uncharismatic and his ideas are thoroughly pragmatic, which gets him killed by the other children. Hurley's ideas tend to be morale-boosting. Piggy seems slightly disconnected from reality, whereas Hurley seems to relatively grounded in spite of his delusions. Piggy's actions in the book seem more similar to Locke's than they do to Hurley's.
  • Hurley represents Gluttony, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.(Religion)
  • In the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', the eponymous character shoots an albatross and is then cursed. His ship is trailed by a ghost ship that has two occupants and they flip to see which of them punishes which group. One of the supernatural spirits gets to punish the crew and kills them all, the other punishes the mariner but the Mariner is never hurt by the spirits. The curse gradually slackens but never goes when the mariner becomes more repentant. This is similar to Hurley's relationship with the numbers. The curse never hurts Hurley but affects all those around him just like in the ancient mariner.

Hurley's visions of Charlie and Eko

  • Hurley's visions of dead people in Season 4 - which definitely includes Charlie and Eko, and possibly others - are actually the Monster, manifesting itself. Some theories hold that the Monster can consume corpses and then manifest itself in their form - it appeared as Yemi to Eko (confirmed by the producers) and probably as Christian to Jack. Both Yemi and Christian's corpses disappeared: consumed by the monster. The corpses of Charlie and Eko were left behind on the island and could have been consumed by the Monster. Also importanty to note is that Charlie's appearance in the Beginning of the End was pointed out to Hurley by another mental patient, suggesting it's not just Hurley being insane, unless he somehow has the exact same insane hallucinations other people do. On the other hand, Sayid could not see Eko.



Theories about the Flight 815 Survivors (Main Characters) v • t • e
Aaron • Ana-Lucia • Bernard • Boone • Charlie • Claire • Desmond • Eko • Hurley • Jack • Jin
Kate • Libby • Locke • Michael • Nikki • Paulo • Rose • Sawyer • Sayid • Shannon • Sun • Walt
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