Lost: Season 3. Episode 10 "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" Review

 "Those pants don't make you look fat."
-Jin Kwon



"Tricia Tanaka is Dead" starts off with a flashback to when Hurley (Jorge Garcia) was a kid, where he and his dad, David (Cheech Marin), are fixing a Camaro together.  Unfortunately, David takes off and leaves the family.  17 years later, after winning the lottery, Hurley buys Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack.  He does a interview with Tricia Tanaka (Sung Hi Lee) before the grand opening, but a meteorite destroys the Shack and kills Tricia and her cameraman.

Hurley returns home to find David has returned.  Hurley believes David just showed up for the money, but his mother, Carmen (Lillian Hurst), reveals she called him because of Hurley's insistence that there is a curse on the money and his plan to go to Australia.  David tries to remove the curse by taking him to a fortune teller, but Hurley gets her to admit that David set the whole thing up.  As Hurley prepares to leave for Australia, David admits he showed up because of the money, but now asks Hurley to give all the money away except for enough for them to fix the Camaro together.  Hurley decides to go to Australia anyway.

On the Island, Vincent leads Hurley to an old hippie van in the jungle with a skeleton inside.  Hurley tries to convince the survivors to help fix it up, but only receives help from an unwitting Jin (Daniel Dae Kim).

Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) return to camp only for Kate to immediately go after Jack (Matthew Fox) with Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), and Rousseau (Mira Furlan) joining her.

Sawyer and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) eventually join Hurley and Jin, who can't get the van started.  Hurley plans to roll the van down a steep hill and pop the clutch to get it started and convinces Charlie to ride shotgun to prove they can make their own luck.  The plan works and the boys drive around in the van having a grand old time.


What Works:

In some ways, this episode is very similar to the previous episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land."  Both episodes make very little forward progress in the story and both feel like the writers were stalling as they convinced the network to give them an end-date for the show.  The difference is; this episode works as a character development episode and is one of the most fun episodes of Lost.  Who cares if the story doesn't move forward?  We get to go along for a very fun ride.

This episode is one of the funniest episodes of Lost.  We get some excellent dark humor around Roger the skeleton, Sawyer teaching Jin English, comments about David and Carmen's sex life, and Sayid trying not to laugh at where Locke got his compass bearing.  It's a yuck-fest nearly the entire way through.

The deaths of Tricia Tanaka and her cameraman are just wholly absurd and I love it.  Hurley had mentioned Mr. Cluck's getting hit by a meteorite in a previous episode, but I didn't think we'd ever see it.  I'm so happy we did.  It's so bonkers and an extremely memorable moment. 

This is a great character study for Hurley as he overcomes the curse that has been plaguing him since he won the lottery.  I could be wrong, but I don't think it's ever mentioned again, and I love seeing how happy Hurley becomes as he makes his own luck.  

Finally, I really like Cheech Marin as David.  At first, you think he's just a deadbeat dad who's back to cash in on Hurley's winnings, but his final scene shows he's so much more than that.  It's a very touching scene and starts David on the path to becoming one of the better dad's on Lost.


What Sucks:

You can level some complaints at this episode, for sure.  Like I said above, there isn't much forward progress with the plot.  On paper, who cares if they get a car started?  I think these are fair criticisms and I can understand why some people aren't big fans of this episode.  It doesn't bother me very much, but it's worth pointing out.


Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in an episode.  For "Tricia Tanaka is Dead", I'm giving the award to Hurley for beating the curse, getting the van started, and helping Charlie to get out of his funk.  This is his 6th time winning the award, which puts him in 4th place overall.


Verdict:

While it doesn't move the story forward, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" is a very fun episode of Lost.  It's extremely funny, but still manages to be touching.  It's got some great moments and excellent performances from Garcia and Marin.  This episode has definitely got it going on.

 9/10: Great 


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