Follow along! The episode guide for “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 85-89.I realize this isn’t a strong episode of Lost because the flashback doesn’t really teach us much about Hurley that we don’t already know, aside from his Daddy issue. But that said, it’s HILARIOUS and I’d forgotten how good the writing was. There are so many fabulous highlights. I can’t choose a favourite (I list many of them in my book, but I’d forgotten to mention the part where Sawyer jumps with a start and says, “Why is there a HEAD back here?!” Or where Hurley’s mom says she has needs and he covers his ears and yells, “NO NO NO NO NO!” Hahahahahaha). What bothers me about it is Hurley seems to have a breakthrough, and realizes he’s not cursed and Charlie’s not cursed, and that they make their own luck. And then… in seasons 4 and 5 he goes back to referring to the curse again, as if this episode never happened. That irked me… but maybe it’s because Charlie died. Realizing Charlie couldn’t cheat death perhaps made Hugo think that he was cursed after all.
Fun things I noticed:
• Great. When this episode first aired I had Shambala in my head for weeks. And… it’s there again.
• I love that Cheech is attempting to look like he’s in his mid-30s at the beginning of the ep. Fail.
• Kate refers to Sawyer as James when she’s trying to appeal to him or when she thinks they’re getting closer, and she calls him Sawyer when she creates distance and is pissed at him.
Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we know who Roger was, and how he died, it doesn’t exactly make us more sympathetic to Skeletor, but it definitely makes us watch the scene a little differently.
• At the end of the episode, Jin, Sawyer, Charlie, and Hurley are in the van. One of them is now dead, and the others have since driven in the Dharma van in 1977.
