Good-bye to "Lost." But just as sad: Good-bye to Hurley

This weekend, I will say good-bye to probably my favorite television show of all time. I know, you non-Lost fans are clueless as to the appeal of this show, but those of you who are also fans totally "get" my regret at seeing it end.

Watching "Lost" was one of those little joys of life. Well-written, well-acted, with characters you came to know and care about, and intriguing mysteries that you could only speculate about, the show has been different from just about anything else on TV.

Now that it's coming to an end, I'm sad not just at saying good-bye to the show, but at saying good-bye to one of my favorite charactes: Hugo Reyes, also known as "Hurley."

In a 2007 post about my favorite TV characters of all time, I wrote:

Jorge Garcia as Hurley--Hurley is absolutely vital to the show. For a while, I was watching "24" fairly regularly, and it's excellent--but there is almost no comic relief, if any. The intensity blasts you nonstop. But the great thing about "Lost" is that just when everything gets a little too spooky, scary or strange, there's Hurley saying, "Dude..." and bringing everything back down to earth. I totally love Hurley.

Posting about Hurley ended up affording me a nice little brush with fame: actor Jorge Garcia actually read a post of mine and commented on it!

Jorge comments on my blog!

It was an erroneous comment in this post that attracted Jorge's attention. I cited a bit of trivia that claimed Hurley had initially read for the part of Sawyer.

Someone named Jorge Garcia commented:

"To say I auditioned for the part of Sawyer is not quite accurate. I knew when I went to the audition that I wasn't up for that particular part. They just wanted to see me do something and that's the material they had."

My rather starstruck post the next day was titled "Whaaaa....did Hurley just comment on my blog?"

Clicking on Jorge's name in his comment took me to Dispatches from the Island...a well-written,engaging, humorous blog that pretty much leaves no doubt that it's written by the real Jorge Garcia.

To confirm that, Jorge commented on my blog yet again:

"That was cute. I'm printing this page up to add it to my scrapbook. (Well to send to my sister who scrapbooks my stuff for me.)
I found your post because it came up on my google alert. (It's a trick Dom had taught me)

And yes it really is me."

So somewhere, in Jorge Garcia's own scrapbook, is my blog post. How cool is that?

In this article inVariety, Jorge reflects on his years on "Lost." It's a good read.

I will definitely miss "Lost." And I'll miss Jorge Garcia as Hurley...but I have a feeling that I may like him in any role, so I'll look forward to seeing what he does next as an actor.

And so ends five years of blogging about "Lost" (I didn't start watching the show till the end of the first season, catching up on DVD.)

It was a great ride!

Who was your favorite character on "Lost"? Let me know in my comments section.

Some thoughts on "Lost"

Since we have to wait TWO weeks for a new episode of "Lost," I thought I would take some time to post some thoughts on the March 4th episode. WARNING: Spoilers if you haven't watched the episode yet!

(Also WARNING! If you think people talking about fictional characters as if they're real is silly, you'll think this post is all kinds of goofy.)

Sawyer-centric

See this picture of Josh Holloway? I posted it for a reason: we got to see a lot more of those dimples in "LaFleur." Sawyer (yes, he will always be SAWYER to me, not James or Jim) seemed happier than ever.

Interestingly, he seems to really have come into his own as part of the Dharma Initiative. And he seems to be genuinely happy in a relationship with Juliet. I think a lot of us saw that coming; they were thrown together a lot as "Lostie left-behinders." But maybe we didn't foresee it being such an evidently solid and domesticated relationship?

I saw a lot of comments on "Lost" discussion boards from people who didn't think they would like Sawyer being with Juliet, but who really liked this pairing.

Ann-Marie of The Left-handed Rabbit wrote on Facebook:

I think Sawyer is just SO much better matched with Juliet than Kate. I mean, Juliet "has his back." (Was that not the cutest scene on the dock EVER? Or what?) Kate is so fickle! I hope Juliet is sincere. Three years is a long time to fake loving someone. However I'd love to see Kate and Juliet square off over Sawyer. Who would win? Methinks, Juliet. Kate would be running off yelling, "Jack! Jack! She's hitting me!" :-) Yeah, obviously not a Kate fan!

Well, I've always wanted Kate and Jack to be together, so if Sawyer has found happiness with Juliet, so be it. And someone pointed out, he's been with Juliet for three years? That's a whole lot longer than the three months he spent with Kate--although it seemed a looooot longer to us as viewers.

But I did have to let Ann-Marie know that a lot of Lost fans still don't trust Juliet. Some of them believe that even if she's not evil, she knows a lot more than she's letting on. After all, she lived with the "Others" for three years--and even though they weren't the Dharma Initiative, they had to know a lot about them.

And when Sawyer saw Kate, all that talk about "three years is plenty of time to get over someone" flew right out the window. The play of emotions on Josh Holloway's face at that moment showed what a really good, under-rated actor he is.

More questions

As always, "Lost" raises more questions than it answers. Yes, we saw at least the backside of the mysterious four-toed statue, but got no more clues on what it really is (lots of commenters are speculating on its Eyptian-ness--maybe the island was the home of an ancient culture at some point?).

And wqw that little red-haired girl really Charlotte as a child? Daniel seemed to think so, but we were told earlier that Charlotte was born in 1979...this was Dharma circa 1974. Continuity error, or was it just wishful thinking on Daniel's part?

Speaking of Daniel...poor guy. Where was he during that episode? And are we ever going to see a sane, rational Daniel again?

Oh...and about the baby that was born. Speculations are flying wildly about the baby's identity, with most people convinced it's someone we know. Miles? Hello...Miles is Asian; these parents decidely weren't. Desmond? Sawyer?!? Now that would be really strange, but this is "Lost," so I guess anything is possible.

And best line of the night, by popular agreement? Sawyer referring to Richard Alpert as "your buddy with the eyeliner." (The guy who plays Alpert, Nestor Carbonell, insists he doesn't wear eyeliner...he just has really, really dark eyelases. Lucky. And yes, I'm jealous, much.)

Missing some favorites

Like a lot of people, I'm wondering where Sun and Sayid ended up when the plane crashed. Can't wait to see a Jin and Sun reunion--but something tells me it may not play out as we might expect, because again, this is "Lost."

And I really miss Hurley (Jorge Garcia.) As I've mentioned, I think he's an integral part of the show. Hopefully next week...I mean, week after next.

You can go here to watch an amusing recap, "Lost Untangled."

If you're a Lost fan, let me know what you think about what's going on. Theories? Comments?