LOST- Episode 42: Dave

  Previously on LOST- absolutely nothing relevant to tonight's episode happened.

  Things kick off in the present for a change.  Though not even an official couple, Libby is already trying to change her man by making him go for a jog on the beach.  An exhausted Hurley says he would prefer breathing.  Feeling dejected, Hurley admits he needs to lose some weight.  Libby tries to comfort him by explaining about slow metabolisms, but Hurley knows the real reason why he hasn't lost some weight.

  Hurley leads Libby into the jungle, pulls back some brush and reveals shelf after shelf of his hidden stash of junk food.  He wishes he could get rid of it, so Libby encourages him to do exactly that.  In a cathartic moment, Hurley dumps out gallons of ranch dressing and tears open bags of potato chips.  Soon the shelves are empty and the jungle is littered with wasted food.  Just as a proud Libby is about to reward Hurley with a romantic gesture, they are interrupted by Sun and Jin.  Something has been found.

  What it is is the Dharma ration drop-off.  Everyone is there to grab what they can.  Things start to get out of hand when selfishness sets in, so Charlie suggests that Hurley be in charge once more of food distribution.  Hurley turns some heads by turning down the job a little too forcefully, so Libby suggests that everyone just take what they need in an orderly fashion.  Hurley is no longer paying attention to the proceedings at this point, as he has just noticed a bald man in a bathrobe watching him.  Hurley looks confused and takes off in pursuit of the man.  Before he can catch up, he trips and falls.  Lying next to him is one of the bald man's slippers.  "Uh-oh," says Hurley.  Cue creepy LOST title screen.

  Later at the beach, Hurley twirls the slipper in his hand, but hides it when he notices Libby approaching.  She asks who he was looking for earlier, but he shuts down and says he doesn't feel like talking.  Libby tells him she is proud of him for not freaking out at the sheer irony of more food appearing at the exact moment he decided to destroy his stash.  Hurley doesn't answer.  He just sits and thinks...

   ...back to a therapy session he had during his stay at the mental institution.  Hurley tells the doctor he is no longer mad at his mom for putting him in there.  He knows it was because of the accident, but he doesn't want to talk about that.  The doctor asks Hurley if he has done his homework and made a list of everything he likes about himself.  Hurley says he didn't do it because his friend Dave thought it was stupid.  The doctor reminds him that Dave is a very negative influence and doesn't want Hurley to change.

  Later, Hurley heads over to the gymnasium where he finds his friend Dave trying to enforce the rules in a basketball game full of misguided mental patients.  When Dave suggests to Hurley that they go get some tacos from the cafeteria, Hurley tells him what Dr. Brooks said about him.  Dave warns him about letting the doctors get into his head and tells Hurley he has more important things to think about.  Like tacos.

  Down in Station Three of the Dharma Initiative, Jack tends to Locke's leg injury.  He thinks there is a hairline fracture so Locke will have to stay off of it for a while.  Locke is adament about not using the wheelchair, so Kate goes off to get him some crutches.  Locke tells Jack that "Henry" could have escaped but didn't.  Jack says it's only because he thought his story would check out.

  In the armory, "Henry" is now shackled to the wall by bedsheets.  He explains to Ana-Lucia and Sayid that the real Henry was already dead upon arrival in the balloon.  Sayid shows him a note written on a twenty dollar bill.  It was written by Henry and it says how much he loves his wife and how he is heading to the beach to start a signal fire.  "Henry" is busted again.  Rousseau was right.  He will lie for a long time.  "Henry" then stammers to explain that he was not the one who did the killing, but Sayid has had enough and threatens to shoot if his questions aren't answered.  "Henry" insists he can't answer questions about the Others or he is dead- a notion Sayid almost makes come true except that Ana-Lucia pushed Sayid's arm at the last second and prevented the bullet from being on target.

  At the beach, Charlie brings Mr. Eko a wooden pallet for whatever it is he is building.  Eko invites him to help, but will not yet tell him what they are making.

  Elsewhere, Hurley is clutching the slipper and treading carefully through the jungle.  He finds a box of officially licensed Dharma Inititative goldfish crackers and against his better judgement, begins to stuff his face.  He hears a noise and looks up to see Dave nodding his approval.  Hurley tells Dave he is not really there, so Dave picks up a coconut and throws it into Hurley's stomach.  Hurley chases his friend again, but when he gets to the beach, all he sees is Eko and Charlie hard at work and they didn't see anyone.

  A frustrated Hurley walks away and flashes back to the hospital rec room where he played Connect Four with Lenny- the guy who repeatedly says nothing but the cursed numbers.  Dave watches them play and when he notices Hurley eating celery, he suggests stealing Lenny's graham crackers.  A nurse brings Hurley his medication and Dave's next brilliant suggestion is for Hurley to not take it.  Dr. Brooks interrupts the discussion and asks to take their picture for the bulletin board.  After that is done, Hurley opens his mouth to show Dave that he did not swallow his pills.

  At the beach, Hurley cautiously approaches Sawyer and reminds him that he owes him a favor for the tree frog adventure.  Hurley needs his hospital meds to help him stop hallucinating.  When Sawyer mocks him, Hurley snaps and takes the con man down.  As absolutely no one comes to help, Hurley wails on Sawyer, rattling off all the cruel nicknames he has been given.  Finally, Jin stops laughing long enough to break it up.  Sawyer calls the big guy crazy and Hurley answers that he is not.  Then he repeats it, as if to convince himself.

  Later, Libby finds Hurley in his tent packing up his things, but he still doesn't want to talk.  He is going to go to the caves to be a hermit since no one lives there anymore and he won't bother anyone.  He walks off and tells Libby that no one can help him.

  In the jungle, Hurley's backpack opens and his peanut butter spills everywhere.  He bends down, scoops some on a leaf and starts chowing down.  Dave shows up to catch him in this low moment and Hurley again insists that he is not really there.

  Hurley flashes back to Dr. Brooks' office, where he is reading his completed list of things he likes about himself.  Dr. Brooks observes that nothing on the list is about physical appearance.  Hurley somberly admits that if he was not so fat, the balcony would not have collapsed, killing two people.  Dr. Brooks says that after the accident, Hurley went into a catatonic state, but never stopped eating because eating is how Hurley punishes himself.  Then he drops a real bombshell.  He says Dave is not Hurley's friend because Dave is not real.  He shows him the picture he took- a picture of Hurley with his arm around nothing but air.

  That night, Dave wakes Hurley up- it is time to escape.  Hurley insists that Dave is not real, but Dave says that Dr. Brooks is a quack and probably doctored the picture.  After a few stinging slaps, Hurley is reluctantly convinced to make a break for it.  They sneak past security and use the keys Hurley stole to open a window.  Dave hops out and suggests they go for cheeseburgers.  In that moment, Hurley realizes that Dave is not real.  He wants Hurley to go for cheeseburgers because that's what Hurley himself wants to do.  In a breakthrough, Hurley closes the window on Dave and chooses not to escape.

  In the present, Hurley keeps his eyes shut tight, but every time he opens them, Dave is still there.  Dave has even more bad news.  Everything that happened after Hurley closed the window never really happened at all.  He is still in the hospital in a catatonic state.  There are no numbers, no hatch, no island and no blonde who digs him.  Everything is in his mind. 

  They go for a walk as Hurley ponders this impossible development.  Dave explains that he is the part of Hurley's brain that wants to wake up.  Then he leads him to the way to do it.  Jumping off a rocky cliff.  "See you in another life," Dave says.  He then freefalls backward off the cliff and disappears into the ocean below.

  Over in Station Three, Locke visits with "Henry".  He asks for the man's real name, but the prisoner says he has gotten used to being called Henry.  Locke suggests that Henry was captured on purpose- a notion that Henry scoffs at.  When Locke suggests Henry would do that to learn more about the hatch, Henry scoffs again.  "This place is a joke," he says.  He goes on to tell Locke that he never pushed the button.  And nothing happened except the movement of a scary sounding magnet.  Then things went back to normal.  Locke doesn't believe him, but Henry assures him that he is done lying.

  Back at the cliff, Libby appears and asks Hurleywhat's going on.  Hurley tells her that she is the part of him that is afraid and that he thought he met her before because he made her up.  Libby inches closer and asks what the name was of the man who broke his leg on day 1.  When Hurley doesn't know, Libby uses this to prove that Hurley is not dreaming everything.  She is real and her feelings are real.  Then they kiss, and thankfully, step away from the precipice.  As they walk away hand in hand, Hurley asks her if he can really change and she says yes.

  There is one more flashback, but it's not really from Hurley's POV.  He is again getting his picture taken with no one, but then the camera pulls back to show another patient watching him.  A patient named Libby.

  Next time: Jack crosses the line and offers a trade- Henry for Walt.