I read somewhere that the Korean TV said that Hurley was being arrested for money laundering. For the life of me I can't remember the site to check it, but am very confused about how that could gain such legs.

From Cleolinda's recap:

he's marching down the beach like Lawrence of Do-Rag.

Hee!

ETA, hm, the quick edit quote thingie seems to be on the fritz.

ETA again- never mind!

My read was that he thought his secret was so earth-shatteringly huge, that telling it was a massive gesture of trust that would shock anyone into instant candour.

Yeah, which was a good plan, but he should have realized that he didn't need the plan when Hurley started talking to him and just listened.

Nah, whoever said that is wrong like a wrong thing. (ETA: the thing about Hurley in ita's white-font.)

I went back and rewatched the Korean TV thing several times (in the interest of research and *cough* scientific verification and whatnot), and the dialog, as much as it's audible, goes something like;

"Hugo Reyes, from Los Angeles, California, is the winner of... lottery. He has been living an ordinary life so far, but it will now be transformed, as if in a dream."

And the caption on the screen states:

"Lucky Winner"
"Los Angeles, California"

No mention of any criminal activities at all.

Where is Tustin? I've seriously never heard of it.

And I'm definitely viewing the episode as saying Hurley was a mental patient at some point. His touchiness about being called crazy, the fact he didn't know Lenny's last name, and the way the doctor reacted to him all pointed that way to me. Plus, I think if he'd been a volunteer or an orderly, the show would have been more explicit about that.

What I think is interesting about the fact Rousseau heard a numbers recording 16 years ago that drew her team to the island, is that it suggests there either was someone on the island then, or is someone on the island now who's been hiding for more than 16 years. There are just layers and layers to this show, though i'm not sure there's anything underneath them.

Also, I thought Locke with the cradle was incredibly sweet.

but he should have realized that he didn't need the plan when Hurley started talking to him and just listened.

Absolutely -- I think he was being self-centred, but I also think his instinct was that he could help (grandiose, perhaps), but as importantly that he wanted to.

Obesity puts you in the psych ward? I don't see how the two are related.

My thought was the possibility of the obesity being a life threatening state caused by an eating disorder. Her comment sounded to me like he might be getting back to old bad habits. Eating disorders being psych related and tough on families.

Laura,

I don't think the interaction between Hurley and his mother in the first scene is any deeper than establishing that Hurley's life was CRAPPY. This lottery win was seen as manna from heaven.

But if Hurley were a binge eater, wouldn't we have seen some evidence of that on the island? We've never seen him steal or hoard food, have we?

I think his weight may be related to a mental illness -- some drugs can cause weight gain, as can the inactivity caused by depression -- but I don't think he has an eating disorder per se.

Of course Hurley was a mental patient. They practically spelled it out for us.

And I'm definitely viewing the episode as saying Hurley was a mental patient at some point. His touchiness about being called crazy, the fact he didn't know Lenny's last name, and the way the doctor reacted to him all pointed that way to me. Plus, I think if he'd been a volunteer or an orderly, the show would have been more explicit about that.

I totally disagree. Er -- I disagree that it was practically spelled out for us.

In fact, it was very deliberately left vague. Hurley never said that he was a former patient; the doctor didn't actually say anything to Hurley that would have definitively indicated that he had been a patient. Hurley could have been a volunteer, he could have been a patient, he could have been a janitor -- hell, he *could* have been a shrink who lost his license because a patient killed himself.

The point is, it was deliberately left vague.