Season 2, Episode 18: Dave

Hugo Reyes is insane (and he digs crazy chicks, but I digress). Any remaining doubt is erased by this episode, where he first starts to see his nonexistent friend Dave on the island. Meanwhile, the group must decide what to do next with Ben Linus, who has been exposed as an impostor. He is not, in fact, "Henry Gale from Minnesota."

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

Turns out that Hurley walked out onto a deck that had 23 people on it but was designed to hold eight, as his therapist Dr. Brooks explains during a session at the asylum. Two people died and Hurley blamed himself, becoming a recluse and punishing himself with food.

On the island, Libby is helping Hurley exercise. When he confesses his food stash to her, the psychologist helps him break his bondage by encouraging him to destroy the stash, which he does and feels liberated for having done so. Of course, the rest of the camp is now racing to the new food stash and when Hurley finds out about it, he's very distraught. No sooner has he beaten his demon when it challenges him again. And so, he turns to Dave.

Dave is a short, bald fella in a bathrobe and grandfatherly slippers that exists only in Hurley's mind. Dave, who we first meet with Hurley in the mental hospital, doesn't think Hurley needs to change and, in fact, encourages him not to change. Chasing Dave around the island, Hurley goes ballistic on Sawyer when he makes his typical snide remarks. The blowup prompts him to decide to move back to the caves alone, so he can't hurt anyone.

Along the way, he meets Dave again. Now, Hurley knows Dave is a figment of his imagination because Dr. Brooks showed him a Polaroid in which he supposedly had his arm around Dave, but in reality nobody was there. Hurley opted not to leave the mental hospital with Dave when he made a break for it and tries to get better, which he succeeded in doing until the visions of Dave started up again in the wake of the food shipment.

Dave tries to convince Hurley that he's still in a coma and that island is all a hallucination in his own mind. He shreds pretty much every aspect of Hurley's life and then leads him to a cliff, where Dave jumps off. He tells Hurley that he'll wake up if only he'll leap off the cliff, but Libby talks him out of committing suicide by convincing him she is real and then kissing him. Seems like gravy for the jolly tub of goo that is Hurley, who seems to remember Libby from somewhere else. But it may not be gravy after all when we learn Libby was locked up in the psych ward with Hurley.

Jack patches up Locke, who's leg is likely broken. But he refuses a wheelchair for obvious reasons and demands crutches instead. Meanwhile, Sayid tries to make good on his promise to shoot Ben Linus if he turned out to be a liar, but misses when Ana Lucia intervenes. (Something tells me Sayid will get another shot at the little bugger.) When Jack goes to tell the remaining survivors about Ben Linus, Locke pays the captive whose identity still isn't officially known a visit, during which he tells Locke he never actually pushed the button.

Elsewhere, Mr. Eko is continuing to build his church and gets help from Charlie. Of course, we don't actually know it's a church yet.

QUOTABLE

Locke: "God only knows how long we've been here."
Ben Linus (as captive): God doesn't know how long we've been here. He can't see this island anymore than the rest of the world can."