A Hurley episode – woo-hoo!  And it contained one big answer!  Sort of, maybe, anyway.  Anyway, SPOILER ALERT – James, you really should get caught up already…

• In Sideways land, Hurley is the opposite of cursed – he is beloved, as Pierre Chang begins the episode by telling us.  We knew that Miles’ dad worked in a museum, but Chang didn’t look much older than he did in 1977.  And he still had his hand.  I guess none of that is all that important, but interesting to note anyway.  On a  blind date that never came, Hurley meets Libby and she “remembers” him.  So, picking up from last week, the sideways world and Island worlds are starting to merge.  Many people are probably thinking it’s about time.  I’m intrigued, but I think it’s a little weird that people in the Sideways timeline can “remember” what happened in the other timeline.  Hopefully we’ll get a better explanation of what’s going on in the parallel universes soon.  Still, it was nice to see Libby and Hurley go on the date they never got to have on the Island, though I did think they really spelled that out for the viewers, which was overkill.
• Desmond’s tactics to show the members of 815 their other lives are certainly inconsistent; he has a chat with Hurley, and he runs over Locke?  I get what he’s going for with his vehicular attack – a near-death moment – but still.  Really, running over a guy in a wheelchair to prove a point?  Yikes.
• On the Island, Hurley saw Michael, but was it really him?  I can see arguments for and against “Michael” being the Smoke Monster.  We know that Smokey can appear as dead people, and because of Michael’s advice, all of the Black Rock dynamite is gone, and the last bunch of candidates just waltzed right over to Fake Locke’s camp, all of which is good news for FLocke.  Still, it could have just been Michael’s ghost. Ilana said that Smokey was going to be stuck in Locke’s body now.  And it seems like if Smokey could have appeared as anyone to tug on Hurley’s heartstrings, he would have picked Libby.  Also, it seems weird that the reveal about the whispers being what they are would be a lie at this stage in the game for the show.
• And speaking of the whispers – so they are just dead people talking?  I can understand that, but we’ve also seen them be associated with the Others, as well as the Smoke Monster.  When a young Ben kidnapped Alex, he told Rousseau to run anytime she heard whispers.  Why, if it’s just some deceased folks having a chat?  It seems to me like there’s more to it, but I’m also guessing that’s all the explanation we’re likely to get on that mystery.  Maybe the dead people whisper to warn you that the Others/Smokey are coming?  And why can’t some of these dead people “move on?”  Where are they supposed to move on too?  Sideways world?  Heaven?  Hell?
• Ilana went boom!  I didn’t see that one coming.  So does that mean we won’t get anymore of her backstory?
• We got more of the creepy kid in the jungle.  Who is he?  Why does FLocke hate him so much?  Why can Desmond and Sawyer see him, but Richard couldn’t?  And why chuck Desmond down that well?  Will Sting be able to dig him out?  (“We’re sending our love down the well… All the way down!”)
• I love Hurley’s role as leader, and it was nice to see Jack admit what’s been on his mind.  The look between him and FLocke was amazing; FLocke had been waiting a long time for that moment, and it really hinted that there was going to be a big throw-down between these two.

This week, if there was a mirror-moment in the Sideways world, I think I missed it.  Did anyone else catch it?  Just four more regular episodes before the series finale!  I wasn’t able to glean/guess who will be the focus of next week’s episode.  We still haven’t had a Claire or Miles episode this season, though they were both featured in Kate and Sawyer’s Sideways story, respectively.  Lapidus maybe?  Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened.