Season 5, Episode 2:
The Lie
Ms. Hawking: Then God help us all.
On Penny's sailboat, the Oceanic Six, along with Desmond, Penny and Frank Lapidus, decide to lie about their time on the Island. Hurley is the strongest objector, and is hurt when Sayid does not back him up.
Three years later, Hurley is visited by an apparition of Ana Lucia, who advises him on how to evade the police. He takes Sayid to his parents, who demand to know what is going on with him. He explains the truth about the Island to his mother, who is very confused, but says she believes him. Ben entrusts Locke's body to an agent of his in Los Angeles. Kate meets up with Sun, and tells her about the lawyers who came to see her. Sun tells her to do whatever she has to to keep Aaron. Hurley's dad brings Sayid to Jack, and warns him to stay away from Hurley. Sayid wakes up, and is worried for Hurley. Ben visits Hurley and offers to help him get back to the Island, but Hurley refuses to go with him, and turns himself in to the police. Ben visits his newest ally, Ms. Hawking, the strange woman who told Desmond it was his destiny to go to the Island. She tells him he only has seventy hours to get the Oceanic Six to return to the Island, and "God help us all" if he fails.
On the Island, Daniel tells the survivors that it's not safe to leave the Island until he's figured out what point in time they are at. Charlotte is starting to suffer from headaches and memory loss. At night, they are attacked with flaming arrows. Many are killed, and the rest are split up, with Sawyer yelling out for them to meet at the creek. Sawyer and Juliet are attacked by a group of strange men, who try to cut off Juliet's hand, but they are saved by Locke.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Bad Liar: Hurley awkwardly tries to covince the cashier at shop where he buys a change of clothes that he is not "the guy who won the lottery and was in a plane crash". It doesn't work, but luckily she hasn't heard that he's wanted for murder yet.Cashier: You're lying.
Hurley: I don't... believe in lying. - Big Damn Heroes: Locke shows up just in time to save Juliet from having her hand cut off.
- The Bus Came Back: Ms. Hawking returns, having not been seen since her debut in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".
- Continuity Nod: Hurley's dad watches an episode of Exposé.
- Dead Person Conversation: Hurley gets pulled over by the ghost of Ana Lucia, who gives him some advice on how to evade the police and tells him "Libby says hi."
- Death by Irony: Neil "Frogurt" is killed by a flaming arrow just as he is complaining that the survivors can't get a fire going.
- Enigmatic Minion: Jill the butcher seems to be one of Ben's most trusted servants, since he trusts her with Locke's body, but we don't learn anything about her background or why she works in L.A. rather than on the Island.
- Gilligan Cut: In the opening scene, Hurley tells Sayid that some day Sayid will want his help, and he won't give it to him. Cut to three years later, and Hurley is helping the unconscious Sayid evade the police while the two are wanted for murder.
- Improvised Weapon: Hurley instinctively throws a Hot Pocket at Ben when he shows up at his house, but misses.
- Internal Reveal: Hurley tells his mom the truth about what happened after they crashed, effectively recapping everything on the show until this point.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After years of being a Manipulative Bastard, it's quite satisfying to see one of Ben's plans blow up in his face when Hurley, remembering Sayid's advice from the previous episode, refuses to listen to a word he says and even turns himself in for three murders he didn't commit just to get away from him.
- Missed Him by That Much: Hurley buys a shirt at a gas station. Kate pulls in right as he drives away.
- Morality Pet: Defied. Hurley asks Penny if she can't just call her father off so that he won't go after the other survivors, but Penny says there is no calling him off, indicating that even she can't stop him in his single-minded mission to reclaim the Island.
- Pet the Dog: Ben sticks up for Jack when Jill makes fun of his pill addiction, telling her to cut him some slack because he's been through a lot.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: Subverted. One of the men who attacks Sawyer and Juliet tells Sawyer that he'll cut off Juliet's "other hand" if he doesn't tell him what he wants to know, and that the first one isn't negotiable, it's just to show how serious he is. He still tells his men to cut it off when Sawyer tries to tell him everything immediately, but they are stopped at the last second by Locke.
- Red Shirt: Neil "Frogurt", who is even wearing a red shirt, exists to be an annoying and whiny side character for just long enough to be killed by a flaming arrow. On a broader level, just about every unnamed Oceanic 815 survivor that was still alive is killed in this attack, leaving only the main characters.
- Shoot the Dog: Sun tells Kate that she did this by leaving Jin behind on the freighter. She doesn't blame her for his death, as she knows that they all would have died too if Kate hadn't been willing to make the tough decision, and encourages her to do "whatever it takes" to hold on to Aaron.
