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.

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

It's in SoCal, over by Anaheim (sort of, at least. I went to an Angels game with a friend who lived in Tustin and it didn't take long to get from her house to the stadium)

his instinct was that he could help (grandiose, perhaps), but as importantly that he wanted to.

That's a good point and I will accordingly cut Charlie a little slack.

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

Heh. I have a former shrink who seems to think that being fat is a legitimate issue for shrinks to "treat."

That would be why she's my *former* shrink.

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.

We know at least there were people on the island up to 50 years ago other than Rousseau's team, i.e. Adam and Eve in the cave. For all we know, the numeric message had been transmitting for years before Rousseau replaced it, luring various people to the island with its freaky mojo. I don't think it mandates the presence of others 16 years ago (it could have been an automated message from way back), but the likelihood is that there *were* some people on the island of Ethan's ilk, both then and now.

Bwah! (This is for the Cleolinda quote.)

What a great episode -- I loved it. And now, what, a MONTH of repeats?

Adam and Eve in the cave.

I'm still hoping that these turn out to be Amelia Earhart and what's-his-name.

Jimmy Hoffa?

I have to say, Naveen was great, especially in his farewell to Shannon (which seemed a perfect setup to bite it) -- my main problem was the target, but the execution was so gentle and lovely.