Was it just me, or did Jin look exceptionally fine this episode? More Jin! More Jin!

Grey Bishop, loved your recap, but I wish you had told us what the counting meant a little earlier...I went back and re-read the first 2 pages several times trying to figure out what I was missing!
Loved this episode, reminded me of the glory days of Season 1, and how can you not love the reappearance of Vincent?

I thought this episode was a snooze. A whole episode about Hugo's daddy issues and his victory over a dilapidated bus? Really?

I know this season has its detractors, but this was among its low points, in my opinion. The worst part about the mini-season (first 6 eps) for me was the over-focusing on Kate and Sawyer. I JUST DON'T CARE about them, so their strong presence in this episode just bored me even more.

Can't wait to see more Ben and Desmond in the coming weeks. They're by far the most intriguing people now. (How great will a Ben flashback episode be?!?!)

For those out there who thought that this episode did nothing to advance the mystery on the show, let me share a nugget that I completely missed while I was busy concentrating on writing today's recap. This just occurred to me as I was double checking for spelling, etc., after this was posted.

Randy is working for Hurley. Meteor impact. That night Hurley's dad comes back into his life. A few days (This is the CRITICAL part) later, Hurley leaves for Australia.

Stay with me.

Locke is in the lunch room, and has a run in with Randy, who appears to be his supervisor. A few days later (See where I'm going here?), Locke leaves for his Walkabout in Australia.
So, Randy is working at the box company as a Supervisor and at Mr. Clucks as a manager? Sure, two full time jobs are not impossible, but they both seem like DAY jobs! How's this possible???
Randy might be WAY more important than we thought!

I kept debating whether to go back and reread your intro to see if I missed something about the counting...of course i was too lazy to do that :)

Great recap regardless and I think you make a great point about how much you laughed out loud, because this truly was a feel good episode about hope. And my hope is that this season picks up the pace, so I can appreciate these feel good episodes.

Another great recap, Greybishop. Bravo!

I absolutely LOVED this episode. It did my heart good to see our Losties smiling, laughing and having fun! I didn't even find Charlie annoying this week. Even Paulo, complaining about the cereal bar shortage, couldn't dampen my mood.

I also loved this episode. Mood and tension are great, but after weeks of one downer episode after another, a little comic relief was very welcome.

Boy, those Dharma folks were really into their logo. They even covered the "VW" on the front of the van with the Dharma symbol.

Greybishop,keep up the good work, and kudos on the 24 hour turnaround on the recap!

Randy is working for Hurley. Meteor impact. That night Hurley's dad comes back into his life. A few days (This is the CRITICAL part) later, Hurley leaves for Australia.

Stay with me.

Locke is in the lunch room, and has a run in with Randy, who appears to be his supervisor. A few days later (See where I'm going here?), Locke leaves for his Walkabout in Australia. So, Randy is working at the box company as a Supervisor and at Mr. Clucks as a manager? Sure, two full time jobs are not impossible, but they both seem like DAY jobs! How's this possible???

Ubiquitous -
Respectfully, I'm not so sure.
Unless Hurley spent a LOT of time in Australia, it certainly seemed like his departure and Locke's run right around the same time.
What makes it odd is that Randy and Locke obviously know each other well enough to despise each other. Seemed like Randy had been at the box company a while. We never see Hurley giving Randy any help, so it just seems very odd that he's in the apparently supervisory position so quickly after being a Mr. Cluck's manager.

Great recap, GB! It was nice to have a "lighter" episode and an equally upbeat, HILARIOUS recap. I, too, thought the incoming sound of the meteorite sounded like flight 815-totally freaked me out! Thanks for reiterating the LOL moments. This episode will make me laugh, no matter how many times I watch it, especially with your recap in the back of my mind as I watch. ;o)

This Randy issue really seems like a writing flaw, at the very least, they need to explain the deal.

Actually, in one of the previous Hurley flashbacks when he is speaking to his lawyer, he didnt even know he owns the box company. It seems like the Mr. CLucks thing happens right before he leaves and he has Hurley seems pretty focused on going to getting to the widows house in the outback so I doubt much time was spent in Australia.

So, I would say that Hurley a. knows he has the box company (which burnt down?) b. left right after the clucks incident c. Randy was the boss there.

Is it possible that the Locke flashback happened way before this? Could Locke have spent lots of time in Australia? That is certainly possible. Maybe Locke went to go on his walkabout and decided not to come back to the states? Until the flight?

Of course the writers could see this problem. Good Catch GB! And Great recap, too.

I totally agree with you, this episode had me laughing out loud. The only thing that got me was that nobody bothered to ask Kate and Sawyer what happened when they first got back to camp. That would been one of my first questions. After I hugged all over Sawyer that is.....

This was the best episode of the season so far. After reading the recap I just have to watch it again. I laughed out loud as well at all the things you did GB. And like msu11y28 I went back and started re-reading the recap to try and figure out what you were counting. I finally figured you would tell us at the end of the recap.

In regards to Locke/Hurley/Randy... When Locke worked for the box company and had his run in with Randy wasn't he (Locke) younger? I mean didn't he have a full head of hair? Maybe Randy worked there first and then went to work at Mr. Cluck's. It's possible he worked at both places at the same time but I don't know. Just a guess.

What? No Little Miss Sunshine references?

dsc805 -
I had to have the "Little Miss Sunshine" thing explained to me when someone brought it up with regards to the episode.
Never heard of it until yesterday.
I have PCI.
(Pop Culture Impairment)

I didn't really get a lot from this episode, I agree that it was funny and feel good overall but it really seemed to be about nothing. The whole van thing was a stretch the idea that it would have started after years rusting in the jungle was ludicrous and the "big moment" of the episode where Kate goes to Rousseau for help was predictable. All week long the ads said that this would be the episode everyone was talking about but I just didn't see it.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. Not your summary, the episode. Your summary was much better. Unlike some of you, I thought it was wholly unfunny in that it was ENTIRELY predictable. Geez, Stevie Wonder could see those jokes coming from a mile away. I feel like they asked my nephew to come up with the punch lines. He's 7.

Hey Jacob, we need something funny to happen when the news people go into the restuarant.

"Umm, you could have a missile hit it! That would be COOL!"

Seriously, it was 1st grade humor at best. I think the writers should worry less about constructing lame-ass jokes and get to the story at hand. I'm about thisclose to giving up.

jasonr
im into old VW's i own two buses and a bug Volkswagen of America nazi Lawyers will not allow anyone with written permission (and probly cash) to use VW logo

Die -
I agree that a lot of it was predictable (still laughed even though I KNEW the head was going to fall off!), but some of it they telegraphed WAY back.
Hurley mentioned that the Mr. Cluck's got hit by a meteor back in the "Numbers" episode in Season 1, so we knew it was coming. Much like the head though, I still found it really funny.
I admit it. I have the comic sensibilities of a seven year old.
;o)

Dharma outs its own label on the Green Giant Niblets, why is it unusual if they do it on the microbus as well? It's like they don't (didn't) want the participants in the project to even be aware that there was an outside world.

"Oh him? That's just Roger." Great stuff. Great episode. Soooo good to be back on the beach.

I did some Googling about Randy & found this:

"According to the official Lost podcast, Hurley feels sorry for Randy after Mr Cluck's is hit by the meteorite and gives him a job working at his box company." from lostpedia.com

I think the writers realized their timing mistake (like you said, both events seemed to have happened fairly close together) & used this explanation as a cop out.

This episode was BORING the only thing that made me laugh is the striking similarity between the name of the reporter- Tricia Tanaka- and
Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa
from the Family Guy.

Man those Lost writers...

wniffene, I agree that there wasn't much to take from this episode, but I'd take a 1st season-esque Lost with Hurley, Sayid, et al that reveals very little over more Jack episodes that PROMISE to reveal something and then never deliver...

Hurley did not even go so far chasing the dog to find the van, so how could no one have found it before? That kind of stuff ticks me off! I was glad that it was a Hurley episode because I've enjoyed his previous stories. This episode though... eh... I didn't really care that much for it.

I too didn't understand your counting GB and I scrolled up like 3 times to check if I missed something lol. I didn't find any of it Laugh out loud funny, but some parts did get a chuckle. Lost needs to pickup in the next episodes, so far this season has been the worst of them all, so hopefully they can do something about that.

I liked Sawyer's one-liners (and your recap as well GB). I didn't like the fact that the previews built this epiosde up to be something greater than it was.

So many problems with this episode, mainly the total disregard for character & legitimate motivation. If H's mom had had the ability to pick up the phone & call his dad to help out with a problem he was going through, why didn't she do it earlier? Like, when he was upset his dad ran away in the first place? Why didn't H call her out on this and ask why this wasn't done earlier? If she was really motivated by her "needs" (a really bad attempt at Desperate Housewives-style humor) wouldn't this have come up years & years earlier??

OK. So, first off, I want to agree with most and say I enjoyed this episode. I love laughing WITH Lost and not AT Lost. The whole "Red. Neck. Man." one-liner was hilarious!

However, for those of you blaming the writers for the RANDY incident, I'm not sure if it's totally their fault. I mean collectivelly it would be the writers, casting, and JJ Abrams. I mean, the writers could have just wrote, "RANDY" in the script and the casting guys just figured it was the same guy. And then JJ Abrams didn't pay enough attention. But we're all just grasping at straws and who knows what really happened behind the scenes.

As far as i-HEART-hummus' comments go though, Hurley's mom never called him before because she knew there was no reason for him to come back. This time, her son had over $100 million and she knew that him being the jerk-off that he is, he would come back for the money. So she figured she let him know so she could get some of that ----- from her old man! He obviously left his family out to dry and would not come back unless there was a reason for it.

Also, in response to silentfire, someone probably did see the van before. First off, the dog pulled the arm out of the car that had the key on it. So even if anybody did find the van, they wouldn't have any way of starting it (at first site). Plus, it was burried under leaves and debris, so it was difficult to see anyway. And finally, you saw everyone's reaction when Hurley told everyone. No one cared. No one saw the point. So someone probably did see it and just didn't care enough to do anything about it because they had lost hope.

That's why this episode was important because it reiterated the essence of hope in a few of the characters, which is a necessary tool for survival. But I'm not gonna get on a soap box or anything.

Lastly, I just want to say that although I loved this episode, I was pissed that the "BIG REVEAL" at the end was telling the French Woman that her daughter was with the others. And they laid it on thick as if they were breaking down some big secret to us. AS IF we didn't already know that was her daughter. What would surprise us, and even piss most of us off, would be if she WASN'T daughter. Because all signs lead to it and if they were just fucking with us, I know I'd be pissed. We've had three years to figure out that Alex is her daughter, what's the difference now?

Ubiquitous -
Respectfully, I'm not so sure. Unless Hurley spent a LOT of time in Australia, it certainly seemed like his departure and Locke's run right around the same time.

This ep is making me rethink my decision to continue on w/ this show. At every commercial break I found myself saying "who f***in' cares. I truly hate this show, but can't stop watching because I want ANSWERS!

Sorry to come so late to the party, but how exactly did the restaurant look like a plane when it was on fire? I guess I just don't see it.

Excellent episode, although Cheech Marin made my stomach curdle a little -- not because I dislike him (c'mon! He's Cheech the School Bus Driver!) but because I didn't really expect to see him on Lost. Eh, I got over it.

I'm with jobu. The episode was well done and funny but seriously, who f-ing cares?? Episodes like this worked well in Season 1 because show was at it's peak and there wasn't an urgency for answers like there is now. It was so boring I actually fell asleep. Everyone claiming this was a great episode just seems so desperate to have Lost be good again that a mediocre episode gets transformed into something much better. And the cliffhanger really pissed me off. Seriously? Was there anyone who didn't know that Kate was going to look for Rousseau? And "revealing" that Alex is her daughter? Come on...

I agree with Sam and others who have said that the ending was a letdown. That was no revelation to even casual fans of the show ... they should have focused that scene around Danielle's reaction, rather than the reveal. Otherwise, I liked the episode. It was nice to get back to some of the characters that have been neglected so far this year. I think that the placement, after last's week's snoozefest, wasn't so hot (2 episodes in a row where not much really happens); if it came after a couple of more exciting episodes, the lack of momentum in moving along the story wouldn't have been as irritating, I think...

Sorry I missed your comment in last week's comments section Overcaster!
If you want to run anything by me, best to do it here. Sorry, but I don't post in the forums.
Best bet will be in the comment section of the most current recap. I look at those daily, just to see if there are any questions or comments that I should respond to.
I don't know if you'll see this, but if you do, feel free to ask away in the comments!