The Untold Truth Of Hurley From Lost

It's not uncommon for an actor to lose weight for a role. As reported by GQ, Christian Bale lost a whopping 55 pounds for his role in "The Machinist," and Matthew McConaughey lost 50 pounds ahead of his role as Ron Woodroof in "Dallas Buyers Club" by subsisting on egg whites, tapioca pudding, vegetables, fish, and wine, according to Insider. It stands to reason that if any role called for weight loss, it would be a character who ends up marooned on a remote island. But due to the show's extensive use of flashbacks and its slow-moving timeline, it was essential for characters to maintain a more consistent weight throughout production, with Garcia telling Today that the producers had not asked him to lose weight for the series despite abundant rumors to the contrary.

Hurley's lack of weight loss was even explained in a storyline, with Hurley at one point remarking to Charlie, "I'm a big guy. It's going to be a while before you're going to want to give me a piggyback ride." And thanks to the Island's strange properties and its Dharma Initiative connection, it doesn't take long before more food comes his way. In reality, however, the demands of production, as well as the healthier lifestyle habits that become easier to afford when a person goes from a struggling actor to a network television star, can naturally cause actors to shed a few pounds. By Season 2, Hurley's weight had visibly dropped, something Garcia addressed in a now-archived Maxim interview. But on an Island with polar bears, supernatural healing, and an enigmatic super-computer, a little weight fluctuation is a pretty small issue in the grand scheme of things. Garcia's fantastic performance as the likable Hurley more than made up for any visual inconsistencies.

It's always a good idea to bring reading material on a long flight, and the overseas flight from Sydney to LAX certainly qualifies as a great opportunity to crack the spine of a book or two. While Boone prefers the rabbit-oriented adventures of "Watership Down," fun-loving Hurley is more of a comic book guy, and he can be seen reading a Spanish language comic book before the plane goes down. After landing on the island, 10-year-old Walt gets ahold of the book and finds it a welcome diversion, especially with his overbearing dad Michael constantly in his face. Even though he can't understand the language, the young medium enjoys looking at the art and following what he can of the story until his mad dad chucks it in the campfire.

Like many things in the series, Hurley's comic book carries hidden clues to the secrets of "Lost," and it's worth taking a closer look at the pages before they get torched. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice the book is a copy of the real 1997 comic "Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends Part One." One of the most obvious hints is the polar bear, which foreshadows the two real polar bears that would menace the survivors shortly after their arrival on the island, with one cornering Walt in a terrifying scene. This is also foreshadowed by Michael bringing baby Walt a stuffed polar bear as a gift during a flashback. 

For almost as long as musicians have been recording albums, they've been making references to their favorite literary works or films. In 1976, Rush released "All the World's a Stage," a nod to a monologue from Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It." Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" and "The Battle of Evermore" reference events and places from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

And just as fans of Tolkien were delighted to see their favorite rock band jamming about ring wraiths and magic runes, fans of "Lost" were fairly stoked when Weezer released their 2010 album "Hurley," complete with an adorable photo of Jorge Garcia on the cover. That's why it came as something of a shocker when the band revealed that they weren't fans of "Lost" at all and had actually named the band after the surf wear company also called Hurley, which partly funded the record. During a conversation with the Guardian, guitarist Brian Bell commented, "Using Hurley, this character from 'Lost,' which I've never seen in my life, as our mascot almost ... is somewhat postmodernistic [sic] maybe."

The survivors don't have to spend much time on the Island before they notice it has some unusual fauna. In addition to potentially supernatural animals like Kate's black horse, there are animals that were used in research by the Dharma Initiative like polar bears, sharks (as seen in Season 2, Episode 2, "Adrift"), and dolphins once housed around the Hydra Station (according to Juliet in Season 3, Episode 1, "A Tale of Two Cities"). One of the more oft-debated creatures inhabiting the island is a bird known to fans as "the Hurley bird" because of its connection to Hurley.

The enigmatic bird first appears to the survivors in the Season 1 finale episode "Exodus, Part 2" as the group is walking through the jungle. After observing the bird's 16-foot wingspan, the survivors seem stunned, with Hurley remarking, "Whoever named this place 'Dark Territory' — genius." During a later encounter, Hurley believes it calls his name — a belief supported by the subtitles, despite Sawyer's snide remark that the bird also "crapped gold." Like many things in the world of "Lost," it is difficult to discern where the bird came from or whether it is even real at all. After the somewhat divisive series finale of "Lost," left many fans scratching their heads, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse later released a short film to help clear a few things up — including the Hurley bird. During the 11-minute epilogue "The New Man in Charge," Ben Linus plays a Hydra Station orientation video in which Pierre Chang introduces the "Hy-birds" — genetically altered birds created as a Dharma experiment.

Every survivor on the Island has their own share of baggage. But for Hurley, that baggage is worth more than $150 million as a result of winning the lottery with a set of allegedly cursed numbers. Across the Island and in the world at large, the numbers seem to pop up again and again, with Hurley first hearing them from Leonard at the mental institution, who in turn learned them from Sam Toomey. All three men would eventually come to believe the numbers are cursed, with Hurley arriving at this belief after a string of astonishingly bad luck that begins with his abuelo's sudden death at the family's post-lottery winning press conference. More specifically, Hurley came to believe that the numbers imparted bad luck to everyone around the person who used them.

But not everyone is afraid of the numerical curse. In 2011, thousands of folks used Hurley's numbers to play the lottery and wound up taking home winnings — although nothing on the scale of Hurley's jackpot. The lucky 9,000 or so winners snagged about $150 each in the Mega Millions lottery, according to CBS. Jorge Garcia took to his blog Further Dispatches to warn them all, playfully posting, "When Will You People Learn? The Numbers Are Bad! Enjoy your CURSED money."

From strange coincidences to odd magnetic properties, the survivors on "Lost" encounter all sorts of strange phenomena during their time on the Island, as well as before and after the crash of Oceanic 815. Before their time on the Island, many of the "Lost" survivors crossed paths with each other or had indirect contact with each other's lives in some way. For Hurley and Locke, who both share a very special connection to the Island, their pre-Island associations include a couple of professional connections. Observant fans will notice that Hurley's boss Randy Nations at the fast-food joint Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack goes on to become John Locke's terrible box factory manager. It's also worth noting that the box company John Locke works for is purchased by Hurley as an investment, although neither seems to be aware of the connection. The link becomes significant during the flash-sideways in Season 6. After Randy fires Locke from the box factory, Hurley promises to help Locke new employment, and tells Locke that he thinks Randy is a jerk. Although, Hurley doesn't actually use the word "jerk." He uses a harsher, more accurate word.