Previously: Smokey doesn't like secrets.

Island Timeline

So there's this guy, Hurley. His real name is Hugo Reyes, but for reasons not yet explained, we call him Hurley.

It's another thrilling day on the island. Hurley tends to Libby's grave. You remember Libby, don't you? As Hurley explains to Ilana, he and Libby were going to have a picnic date, but she went and got murdered. Libby is not one of the dead people that Hurley speaks with. Michael, however, is. He appears to Hurley and warns him not to let Ilana blow up the plane.

Returning to camp, Hurley muses: What if Richard's wrong, and getting dynamite together to blow up the plane in an effort to keep Smokey on the island really isn't such a good idea after all? Ilana, bag o' TNT and all, has faith: She's been training her whole life to protect the candidates, and part of that's listening to Richard. Also, it's their job to stop "that thing" from getting off the isalnd. Hurley's just finished reminding Ilana that the dynamite is unstable when she puts her bag down. There's a bang, and some flames, and that's the end of Ilana. 'Bye, Ilana! Say hi to Arzt for us!

Richard, undeterred, is still intent on gathering the troops for their blow-up-the-plane mission, even as Jack gently points out that Ilana blowing up could be the island's way of telling them to freakin' stay away from unstable dynamite. Also, Jack made a promise to Sun to get her off the island, and he kinda needs the plane to do that. Hurley, meanwhile, is looking through Ilana's things. He moves aside a copy of a Russian book (Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground" -- admittedly, I had to look up the title, but Dostoevsky is one of the few words I immediately recognize in Cyrillic. Don't ask), peers inside what sure looks like the bag of Jacob's ashes, and suddenly announces that they should all follow Richard. "Trust me, Jack," Hugo says, confidently. Right, then.

As the Richard-led group approaches the Black Rock, Ben muses that the Island was done with Ilana. He's a smidge worried about what happens when it's done with their merry band. Richard starts barking orders for everyone to stay out of the boat (since the island's clearly not done with him yet). And then Hurley comes barrelling towards them, yelling at everyone to run, and the Black Rock explodes. Richard's pissed, even though Hurley explains that he was protecting them. Exposition Miles asks for more detail, so Hurley explains that he was acting on the instructions of Michael, one of the dead people who comes back and yells at him. And in his experience, dead people are more reliable than alive people, so...

Richard has a new plan: Get some different explosives with which to blow up the plane. Hurley has a different idea: Talk to NotLocke. When Richard is incredulous, Hurley adds, "Jacob says we have to". Richard, exasperated, says that if he's really talking to Jacob, Hurley should ask him what the Island is. Having missed the episode with the corked wine, Hurley huffs that he doesn't need to prove anything; now, who's with Hurley and who wants to keep trying to blow stuff up. So Camp Jacob is now split On Team Blow Stuff Up: Richard, Ben (who tells Hurley he's fairly certain Smokey doesn't want to talk) and Miles. "Don't get in our way," Richard snarls, and starts leading his boys to the Dharma barracks. On Team Hurley: Everyone else. ("Did we make a mistake?" Jin writes to Frank, who shrugs.)

Jack and Hurley have one of their walk 'n' talks on the way to NotLocke's camp. Hurley wonders how one breaks the ice with Smokey-as-Locke, and admits to Jack that he didn't actually see Jacob back there. Jack's all, duh. But Jack blames himself for Juliet's death, and the lesson he takes from that is that he needs to sit back and listen to other people. And he trusts Hurley.

And then those darn Island whispers start up, freaking out everyone except Hurley, who excuses himself to go find Michael. Which he does. Michael admits that he's stuck on the island because of what he did. Those whispers? Ohter people who can't move on. (Ohhh, so the island is purgatory, at least for some characters. Good to know.) He points out where NotLocke's camp is. Also, if Hurley sees Libby, can he tell her Michael's sorry?

Meanwhile, at Camp NotLocke.... Sawyer, backed up by a nodding Kate, wants to know what they're all waiting for. NotLocke patiently explains that he needs to gather the rest of the traveling party: Hugo, Sun and Jack. Sayid returns and has a little submarine secret to show only NotLocke: Desmond, tied to a tree. Almost cheerfully, Desmond makes his case for being released: He has nowhere to run. Sounds logical to NotLocke. As he unbinds Desmond, NotLocke asks for a quick recap of last week's episode. Desmond exposits that he doesn't know why Charles Widmore brought him back to the island, but he does know that he was tossed in a shed and blasted with electromagnetism, which he knows from experience. "Do you know who I am?" NotLocke asks Desmond. Sure, Desmond replies: You're John Locke. NotLocke sends Sayid back to camp and extends a hand to help Desmond up. Unlike everyone else, Desmond takes it.

As they walk somewhere, NotLocke muses that if he didn't know better, he'd think the island has it in for Desmond. Desmond maintains that he's nothign special, and that perhaps the island has it in for all of them. NotLocke is distracted by the appearance of a boy, which Desmond also sees. It looks like the same boy that reminded NotLocke of "the rules" several episodes back. "Ignore him," NotLocke snits to Desmond. Desmond looks back at the boy, who broadly grins at Desmond and goes off on his supernatural way.

It turns out that NotLocke is leading Desmond to a well. It's a very deep well, as a splashing torch proves. It's also very old, dug by previous inhabitants who had to find out why this spot made their compass needles go all wonky. They didn't find out. NotLocke contends that Widmore is less interested in answers than power (never mind that some sort of power source seems to be part of the answer), and he needs help finding it. And, P.S., this isn't the only well. "That's what you wanted me to see?" Desmond asks, placidly. This brings NotLocke up short: Desmond's not afraid of him? They're out there, in the middle of nowhere, hardly anyone knows he's even on the island, and Desmond isn't afraid? "What's the point in being afraid?" Desmond shrugs. And then NotLocke does what he, Desmond and every single person watching has suspected he was going to do: Throws Desmond down the well.

Errand accomplished, NotLocke returns to camp and tells Sayid they don't have to worry about Desmond anymore. Sawyer's slow "Son of a bitch" is a sign that something odd's happening. They turn around, and there's Hurley and company. Hurley tells NotLocke that while he doesn't know who NotLocke really is or what he wants, they need to talk, and he doesn't want anyone to get hurt or killed with those guns and stuff. Hurley asks for Locke's word that no one will do anything. Locke gives it to him, along with his knife. Hurley calls Frank, Sun and Jack in. (As Jin is still behind the electric fence on Hyrda, it's another non-Kwon-reunion episode. In case you were wondering.) Jack and Kate make googly eyes at each other, until NotLocke says, "Hello, Jack". Jack looks at NotLocke, and it's this weird look of recognition, like he knows exactly who or what NotLocke is.

Sideways Timeline

So there's this guy, Hugo Reyes. Hugo Reyes is awesome. He turned his lifelong love of chicken into a successful chain of fast food franchises and gives a lot of money to charity -- including endowing a paleontology wing at a museum, which honors him with an awesome T. Rex trophy (presented by Pierre Chang, natch). Hugo is, by most measures, successful, except one: He is single. And, as all of us single types keep getting told, this means that no accomplishments matter. Which is how one of the richest men in the country found himself in a restaurant called Spanish Johnny's one lunchtime, waiting on Rosalita, a blind date set up by his mother. I guess the Sideways Timeline has Bruce Springsteen, too.

The date doesn't show, but someone else does: Libby. They've never met, but she feels like she remembers him from somewhere, like they're connected somehow. Hugo is rather taken by the pretty woman, despite her somewhat crazy talk, and he is both crushed and intrigued when a doctor type comes over, apologizes for her intrusion (she has issues with reality) and bundles her back to the Santa Rosa mental hospital.

Grumpy, Hugo gets himself to the nearest Mr. Cluck's and demands a family-sized bucket from the starstruck clerk. He's sucking down the wings when he notices some guy staring at him. This guy? One Desmond Hume, who claims he's been staring because he recognizes Hugo from the Oceanic flight. He listens to Hugo's tale of woe and suggests that if Hugo believed Libby while she was talking to him and is so taken with the woman, he should follow his gut. And then he picks up order 42 and leaves.

Hugo's gut leads him to the office of the doctor who was accompanying Libby. The doctor is reluctant to let anyone see Libby, but is easily swayed by a six-figure donation to fix up the hospital rec room. As they huddle next to some spacey, jerky extras, Libby explains that -- crazy it sounds -- she saw Hugo on TV one night and became sure that she knew him from another life that they weren't living. Hugo concedes that it does sound a little crazy, what with the whole "bizarro alternate universe" and all, but asks her out for a lunch date anyway. And since she's a self-admit, she can accept.

They have a picnic on the beach. Something seems off to Libby. Hugo gets all insecure about why she's there with him, and she explains that she simply likes him. And then she kisses him, and all these flashes of Libby on the island come to him. Well, then. So it's not just near-death experiences that trigger the flashes of the island timeline: It's any intense experience, I suppose. Shut up. That kiss was pretty intense to Hugo.

From a nearby car, Desmond watches. Satisfied that Hugo's seen his flashes, Desmond drives off to his next stop: Outside the school at which Dr. Ben Linus and John Locke work. Des has his eye on Locke slowly wheeling himself across the parking lot, but he's interrupted by Ben, who is wary about some guy sitting there watching the kids. Desmond explains that he's new in the area and looking for a school for his son. "What's his name?" Ben asks, skeptically. "Charlie," Desmond answers, almost too quickly, and excuses himself. He drives off and, deliberately, straight into Locke, who flies out of his seat, over the car and onto the asphalt. (Trying to provoke an other-timeline vision for Locke, or somehow aware that he's been pushed down a well? Discuss.) As Ben kneels by Locke and yells for someone to call an ambulance, Desmond drives off. He's got more work to do.

Next week: That song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that gave you nightmares when you were five.

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