Tonight on LOST: 'Everybody Loves Hugo'

Tonight's episode of Lost, "Everybody Loves Hugo," is obviously going to be Hurley-centric. There is a lot of fan speculation that we'll see Hugo's long-lost Island love, Libby (played by Cynthia Watros), returned to life and meeting up with alt-Hugo in Sideways World.

This episode promises to be reminiscent of the Season 2 ep, "Everybody Hates Hugo." In the flashbacks, Hurley uses The Numbers and wins the lottery, quits his job at Mr. Cluck's, and soon becomes convinced he is cursed because with his new money, everything in his life changes for the worse. On the Island, Hugo is given the job of supervising the food and supplies from the Hatch, and he worries that everyone will resent him for the decisions he has to make. In that same episode, we also are introduced to Libby, one of the Tailies who captured Sawyer, Jin and Michael after they lost Walt to the Others and were shipwrecked from the raft at the end of Season 1.

In Sideways World, we have seen alt-Hugo describing himself as the the luckiest guy in the world. In other glimpses we have seen him as a conscientious and kindly boss, though one with a more corporate persona than Original Recipe Hugo.

While things would seem better overall for alt-Hugo, it's likely that not everything will be perfect, just as nothing is perfect for any of our LA-X Losties. It will be interesting to see if he has any flashes of his Island life, and if he interacts in Sideways World with any more of his fellow 815ers.

Come back after the show ends and discuss "Everybody Loves Hugo" in the comments!

More questions answered -- sorta

I hesitate to put the spoiler tag up for this post, but if you click on this link to E!Online's Watch with Kristin, you'll see some about who is coming back, who they are trying to bring back and some questions that will be answered. Josh Hollway, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof talk a little about season 6 and the show in general.

There are no spoilers about the plot.

Here's an example from Cuse:

Obviously, you can't answer every single question, but some things like the numbers—
No, obviously, if we said nothing about the smoke monster, if we said nothing about the numbers, we would be killed, but we believe that we recognize what the major questions are, and we will be providing some answers to those questions.

Will fans' 15 top LOST mysteries be solved?

EW.com's Doc Jensen just posted a list of the top "15 must-answer mysteries" that fans hope will be explained in the sixth and final season of Lost.

Some seem likely to be answered, such as No. 5, "What happened to Claire?" After all, Emilie de Ravin (right) is to be back as a series regular, so we should be seeing a lot of her, and presumably we'll find out what happened after Claire walked off into the jungle with Dear Old Dead Dad.

Only Locke has seen her since then, hanging with Christian inside Jacob's cabin. He was asked not to tell anyone he'd seen Claire, and he didn't tell. And now ReaLocke's really dead, it seems, not magically resurrected after all. (Although "Esau," aka Jacob's enemy, certainly seems to know everything that ReaLocke knew, plus a whole lot more.) So, once Claire reveals herself in Season 6, we should learn more of the mystery behind her vanishing. Maybe we'll find out whether she's actually alive or just among the Island's numerous walking dead. Miles (whose Island-bred talent lets him hear the dead) certainly didn't seem to think that Claire was entirely alive after apparently surviving a house explosion -- but then, after the Season 5 finale, we don't yet know what happened to Miles, either.

Other mysteries may never be completely explained, such as No. 14, "What's Libby's backstory?" For one, Doc says, the Lost producers have said that actress Cynthia Watros is unlikely return to the show. For another, the show runners are going to do extremely well if they can just unravel the major plot points in the 18 hours they have allotted to finish the Lost saga. Compared to the larger Island mythos, Libby's backstory is relatively small potatoes.

My theory is that Libby went into a depression after her husband David died, and that's when she went to the Santa Rosa mental hospital to recover. She remembered Hugo from Santa Rosa, but he doesn't remember her. After she was released, she met Desmond and gave him David's boat, the Elizabeth, to compete in the Widmore solo-sailing race. Three years later, she boarded Oceanic 815 and crashed on Craphole Island. She survives with Ana-Lucia, Bernard and the Tailies, then treks to the Losties' beach, where she makes friends with Hugo, hypnotizes Claire, and gets tragically shot by Michael in the Hatch. End of story. (Sorry, Libby.)

UPDATE: Doc Jensen's also presenting a short Lost-related course on "The Cult of 'Cult TV' " --with the option of a fun but tricky "Final Exam" on Season 5. Its 26 multiple-choice questions will determine if you've really been paying attention.

And there's more... ABC.com has begun signing up participants -- er, make that "students" -- for "LOST University", and Doc J explains what that's all about. He says:

Included among the many real-life academics on staff is actor Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), who proved himself something of a science egghead the last time I interviewed him.

Lost U's mascot is, of course... a polar bear.

You may go to the http://lostuniversity.org/index.php site and sign up now to be notified by e-mail when "enrollment" beings in two months.