LOST:Dude, that guy is a total douche...That douche is my dad.

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THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

I really like the Hurley-Miles dynamic. Their Abbot and Costello banter about time travel kinda disarmed me, which let Hurley's thoughtful father-son discussion and insight totally blindside me. I really enjoyed that. Sometimes when I watch this show, I'm too intent on anticipating a next move or revelation, "getting" it as soon as two characters are put together, y'know?

But this was a really sweet and thoughtful surprise. Even better, it brought STAR WARS to LOST. Y'know, beyond Sawyer's nicknaming. =)

Miles gets sick of Hurley trying to play therapist to himself and his father and in what is genuinely just a rash slap in the face to Hurley grabs his "journal" and begins reading aloud from it. We find out that this isn't a diary of any kind, but rather Hurley's transcribing of STAR WARS: EPISODE 5...

HURLEY: I'm writing EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
MILES: Uh... I'm sorry. What?
HURLEY: It's 1977, right? So STAR WARS just came out. And pretty soon, George Lucas is gonna be looking for a sequel. I've seen EMPIRE, like, 200 times, so I figured I'd make life easier and send him the script... with a couple of improvements.
MILES: That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
HURLEY: Oh, yeah? Well, at least I'm not scared of talking to my own dad.

For me, the hardest parts of this notion to swallow are that Hurley needed to ask how to spell "bounty hunter" and that the writers couldn't work in the line "I've made a lot of special modifications myself" for Hurley.

Also, I TOTALLY need to hear Hurley's improvements!

Okay, yeah, so Miles lashes out by exposing Hurley's nutty plan. But later, Hurley apologizes for telling Miles that he's scared to talk to his dad. Hurley explains how things went with his own estranged father and Miles softens a bit and explains how his situation is different, and in response, Hurley brings it full circle beautifully...

MILES: My dad didn't leave when I was 10. I was a baby. I never knew him, and I don't want to. It's not happening.
HURLEY: That was Luke's attitude, too.
MILES: What?
HURLEY: In EMPIRE, Luke found out Vader was his father, but instead of putting away his lightsaber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off. I mean, they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? Another Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett got eaten by the Sarlacc, and we got the Ewoks. It all could've been avoided if they'd just, you know, communicated. And let's face it. The Ewoks sucked, dude.

Too much fun!

In my old age, I hafta agree that the Ewoks were something of a cop-out, but I can't go as far as saying they sucked. The STAR WARS lore that I've assimilated in my years as a wannabe nerd and fanboy tells me that Lucas originally outlined the RETURN OF THE JEDI finale to take place on the Wookie homeworld. For whatever reasons (effects tech? casting? did he have kids then?), he ended up cutting the Wookies in half and naming them sideways. Wook-E became E-Wok, see? And y'know, the Ewoks vs. Empire match-up was a young crowd pleaser AND a grand parable about the power of living in harmony with nature and the pitfalls of reliance on technology (please watch SPACED for a more eloquent and entertaining presentation of this observation). Of course, 20-some years later, Lucas was finally able to produce that finale in REVENGE OF THE SITH, when the Clone Wars reach Kashyyyk.

Anyhow... Hurley and EMPIRE seem to have gotten to Miles, and, OK, it's a little hokey, but my head and heart were in just the right place to buy it...

PIERRE: Miles, I need you.
MILES: You do?

I do hope he gets some good quality time with his father before he and the other Losties get slingshot back to the future. I'm concerned, however, that changing his own diaper might be the cause of the EM Incident at the Swan. =)

Did Miles ever get to see his deceased mother?

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RETURN OF THE JEDI

Miles dries Pierre to meet the newly arrived sub, loaded w scientists from ANN ARBOR (I totally didn't hear that when Radzinsky mentioned it a couple episodes back), and the episode ends with the return of one of my faves...

MILES: Dan!
FARADAY: Hey, Miles. Long time, no see.

Geez, how many different LOSTy ways can we interpret that simple phrase now? "Long time, no see." =)

I gotta say, I've totally misread the vague references to Faraday's status in the 70s. I assumed that he went the way of the weird crackpot uncle scientist, the "creepy old man" that Charlotte describes, and was probably living the secluded life in some corner of the DI, mucking about with DI science fun and occasionally spending too much time watching little Charlotte on the swing set.

However, it looks like sometime after 1974, Daniel got his poop together, sold himself to Horace as a scientist, proved himself as such, and took the sub off-Island to consult and join the DI brain trust on the outside. I suspect that he may have had some contact with Widmore on the outside as well, and would love to find out that he revealed some practical 21st century tech to him that would end up securing Widmore Industries its success and wealth for the next thirty years. I wonder if he had the chance to visit with Eloise as well?

Anyhow, he's back! In time to investigate the weirdness (Alvarez, dead by tooth-thru-brain) at the Swan, perhaps in time to set up the experiment or tinkering in the Swan that leads to the Incident, which was not an accident, but designed by Daniel to send all the Losties back to the future/present-day. At first I thought that it couldn't happen this soon, that Radzinsky's model building meant that ground had yet to be broken on the Swan. However, we get to see Hurley watch as a DI minion stamps the Numbers onto the hatch frame, which implies that the Swan has been excavated beneath it, right?

But... We still have to see Faraday work (sneak?) his way onto the construction team fo the Orchid, where we saw him in the season premiere. Hrmmm... Maybe he needs to exploit both the Swan and the Orchid to successfully time jump everyone. Or "tune" the Orchid from the Swan and then turn the wheel...?

Jughead. Encased in concrete at the site of the Swan. I like the idea that the Island transmogrified this leaking atomic bomb into a monstrous EM anomaly. Like the way the earth of Narnia absorbed that chunk of London steel the Witch brought with her and turned it into the Lamppost. =)

Is it just me, or don't you want to see Jeremy Davies and Neil Patrick Harris go head-to-head on some TV show, movie, or—dare I dream?—musical?

Also, remind me to tell you about the black hole theory I've got that Jim reminded me of earlier this week.

Keep on keepin on~