"Everybody Hates Hugo" is the fourth of the second season of the American drama television series The Office, and the show's twenty-eighth episode overall. The episode was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and directed by Alan Taylor. It first aired in the United States on October 12, 2005 on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

In this episode, flashbacks reveal why Hurley is hesitant at his new job of distibuting food. Meanwhile, a few castaways become worried that the raft may have not gone as far as they hoped. Jack and Sayid explore the hatch, while Sawyer, Jin, and Michael find out the their captors are from the tail section of the plane.

Plot

The flashbacks reveal the events immediately following Hugo "Hurley" Reyes's (Jorge Garcia) discovery of his winning lottery numbers. Hurley keeps his win a secret, and quits his job at a fast food restaurant along with is friend Johnny (DJ Qualls). The pair enjoy themselves by pulling a prank on their former boss, and going to a record store where Hurley asks out a girl. Hurley asks Johnny to promise that they will never change, and Johnny does so. Johnny pulls into a local gas station, to buy some beer, and notices news crews talking to the attendant. The reporters have arrived because they know the winning lottery ticket was bought there; the clerk recognizes Hurley and points him out. Johnny is stunned, and his expression clearly reveals that, despite his promise, everything has changed.

At the hatch, Hurley struggles with the task of food rationing. Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) asks Hurley if the bunker contains food, specifically peanut butter for Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin), but Hurley won't answer him. Hurley decides to enlist Rose Henderson-Nadler (L. Scott Caldwell) to help him take inventory. At one point, Hurley has a strange dream. In the dream, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) is shown talking to Hurley in perfect English. When Hurley says he didn't know Jin could speak English, Jin replies that he's not and Hurley is speaking Korean. Hurley follows this by speaking Korean. Hurley becomes less and less certain of his ability to ration the food in a manner that keeps everyone happy. He attempts to quit, but John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) refuses to permit it. Hurley then recovers the unused sticks of dynamite and prepares to blow up the food. When Rose asks him what he's doing, he explains that the food, newfound wealth to the survivors, will change everything and everyone will come to hate him, just as things changed when everyone knew he won the lottery. Rose talks him out of his plan. Later, Hurley informs Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) of his decision to give the food all away, arguing that the food stores do not amount to very much when divided among all the survivors. Jack accepts this. The food is distributed freely and the survivors enjoy an enormous feast. Everyone appreciates Hurley's generosity, including Charlie, who gives his benefactor a hug of reconciliation.

James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau) and Jin learn that their captors are survivors from the tail section of the plane and are taken to a hidden concrete bunker site — which appears to be a DHARMA Initiative station — which they use for sanctuary. A woman named Libby (Cynthia Watros) says that there were 23 survivors from the tail section of the plane, but it is clear that many have since died.

Meanwhile, Claire discovers the bottle of messages from the raft floating near the beach. She asks Shannon Rutherford (Maggie Grace) what to do, and the pair conclude that Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) should be the one to make the decision. Sun opts to keep it secret and buries the bottle. During this, she loses her wedding ring. In the hatch, Jack and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) inspect the mysterious concrete barricade blocking what appears to be a corridor to another section of the bunker. Sayid estimates the barrier to be 8 to 10 feet thick, then Jack demonstrates the magnetic force with the key around his neck. They go to the foundations of the bunker only to reveal that its blocked down there too. Sayid's inspection of the hatch raises some suspicions. Later Jack hears noises, but when he goes to see what it is he sees Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) wearing a towel, having just taken a shower.

Production

"Everybody Hates Hugo" was the fourth episode of the series directed by Alan Taylor. Taylor had previously directed episodes of "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City". "Eveybody Hates Hugo" was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the pair had previously written the episode "Born to Run".

Although this is the first time he was credited, Raj K. Bose, who played the shop clerk, had been a background actor, playing a crash survivor and a flight attendant. Bose was originally cast to play the role of Sanjay in the first season episode Born to Run, but was forced to give up the role after he had to teach a marketing class at the University of Phoenix. Casting agent Margaret Doversola later asked Bose to audition for the part of the shop clerk and he got the part.^[2]

For the flashback scene at the gas station, the crew rented out a 7-11 for a day. When Hurley drove in, the van was actually being pushed instead of driven to eliminate any sound from the vehicle. However, everytime the van was pushed it would stall or the timing would be off. Once that problem had been solved, it started to rain, but eventually it stopped and the crew was able to get the shots before ending shooting at midnight. Hurley's dream scene was shot in the Hawaii Film Studio, were the hatch had been constructed. After after take of Hurley eating food in the hatch, the old food would be replaced with newer food. Garcia didn't actually eat all the food though, he would sometimes just chew it and then spit it out into a garbage can. The chicken head that Bose had to wear was extremely heavy, causing actor Daniel Dae Kim to have to hold it up while Bose delievered his lines.^[2]

Reception

"Everybody Hates Hugo" was watched by 21.66 million viewers.^[3] The episode generally received positive reviews. Film Fodder's Mac Slocum said that he was glad that the show "downshifted this week into a far more reasonable gear".^[4] Keith McDuffee of TV Squad wrote that although he heard "that this episode would be mostly filler", but he didn't "think that's true".^[5] TelevisionWithoutPity.com graded the episode with a "B".^[6]

References

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