It was always refreshing to get a light break from the insanity and lore Lost. That was especially true by season five, when you also had to keep track of who was where, when, how, and why – not to mention who (any character could be in possession of, dead, or hallucinations). In episode two of the fifth year, Lost he gave us less than 15 seconds of comic gold in the form of Hurley throwing a Hot Pocket fresh from a microwave at Ben Linus and missing right.
Real-time screenshotting and GIF-ing TV scenes on Twitter wasn’t yet the norm, so the metaphorical moment wasn’t viral back when it aired in 2009. But the various fandom sites dedicated to one Lost I ate it up, and one Ruthless TV commenter summed up the general feeling: “All the crazy stuff in this show, I just focus on the hot pocket, lol.”
The show’s marketers knew there was something special about this seemingly random scene – it’s the background of the season five DVD menu on one disc that plays a shot of Hurley putting the Hot Pocket in the microwave. If you are idle there long enough, he comes back to get his snack.
But while that delicious, sauce-filled pastry splashing against the kitchen wall holds a special place in the hearts of many fans, the cast and crew had no idea the gag would have such staying power. random. When Vulture tracked down some of the people responsible for Hurley’s inept Hot Pocket defense — co-writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, director Jack Bender, editor Mark Goldman, sound designer Paula Fairfield, and Hugo “Hurley ” Reyes himself, Jorge Garcia – they at their best, still had vague memories of their creation and filming.
“I said, ‘I think they’ve got the wrong writers. Hurley had never worn a Hot Pocket,” recalls Kitsis. “And Adam said, ‘We did, and that was your idea.’
First, though, let’s back up for a refresher on what’s happening in this episode, “The Lie,” which was the second half of the two-hour season premiere. At this point in the series, the contestants on the island are stuck jumping through time against their will for reasons too complex to go into here. (We’re deep in mythology,” as Garcia puts it.) Off the island, in 2007, the Oceanic Six – Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, and Claire’s child, Aaron, returned to the mainland at the end of the previous season – explaining their miraculous survival with a bullshit story that prevents the villain Charles Widmore and his elders from learning the true location of the island.That’s exactly the setup for this episode, which focuses on Hurley and his efforts to keep the title fib.
Hurley is hiding in his mansion when he is approached by Michael Emerson’s Ben Linus — who is actually on the Oceanic Six side, working with Jack to get them back to the island because of the mysterious powers being he demanded. Ben sneaks back into the kitchen, scared of our hero throwing his snacks in anticipation of the intruder. Like many things Lostthe Hot Pocket had a deeper meaning beyond the bit.
In an earlier version by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’s script, the snack symbolized the bond between Hurley and his mother. “We wanted something that would evoke Hurley growing up with his mom, like he’d come home after school and she’d make him a Hot Pocket,” says Kitsis. “Each character dictated the tone of their own episode, and Hurley’s episodes were at their best when they had a great dose of humor and heavy emotions. Adam and I, at the time, found it very funny, the name ‘Hot Pocket’ – it was a joke and it worked perfectly with the emotion.”
The Hot Pocket’s connection to Hurley’s mom was rewritten but the two were able to deploy the snack when they needed a fun way for Hurley to respond to Ben’s attack. “He’s not a character that would ever hurt someone. Even if he hit Ben it still wouldn’t hurt him,” says Horowitz. “It’s always been about finding that line – funny enough without getting too absurd.”
Why choose a Hot Pocket over, say, a generic frozen burrito? “They’re basically funny,” he says. “They’re sleep foods abroad when you’re a kid. They are stoner foods when you are in college, or now. Hot Pockets is like a Swiss Army knife of snacks.”
On Zoom, Director Jack Bender watches the scene again on YouTube to refresh his memory. “The pocket is hot! I totally remember it!” he exclaims. “The juxtaposition of using Hot Pocket as a weapon is amazing – it’s amazing. Lost-ion. As much as we went deep emotionally, suspensefully, and philosophically, that humor was left off center as well. And Hurley Hot Pocket would definitely make a weapon.”
Bender immediately recalls that he wants to open the scene – which continues with Jack reviving Sayid from being shot with an arrow full of tranquilizer – to switch to a POV shot from inside the microwave. “Look, the cinema is not reinvented. Over the years, I and other directors have shot inside the refrigerator. I wanted to be in at a wider angle, see that stupid Hot Pocket go by, see Hurley’s face come in because I knew that was a great way to start it.”
To achieve this, the equipment team removed the back of a working microwave and its heating element, allowing the camera to pass through while the turntable and other electronics functioned normally. “It kind of lights up, which makes it even goofier,” Bender says. “We made sure it wasn’t going to be a steaming-hot Pocket Hot.”
Bender and Garcia remember filming that day as having a relaxed, light-hearted atmosphere – and not just because Garcia had to “wear her regular clothes instead of island clothes.” In light of a fake pass by prop master Rob Kyker, they took after take, with resets to clear sauce from the wall or wherever the Pocket landed when Garcia missed.
“He was so silly, wearing that rubber Hot Pocket. I had to do it a lot,” says Garcia. “Fake food is always fun to look at and play with. I didn’t really have a Hot Pocket experience, but it had a decent amount of strength. It had a little bounce to it, so sometimes it was quite funny where it would go after hitting the wall. Trying to get the accuracy on that, when you hit it, you’re really proud of the smear — ‘Oh, that’s it!’ That was fun.”
There was one downside to using the Hot Pocket as Hurley’s weapon of choice: Without product placement, the Lost the team was not allowed to mention its brand name. “There was a great line – as he slides down the wall, Ben turns to Hurley and says, ‘Well, that’s just a waste of Hot Pocket.’ Michael took this line and hit it like a home run,” says Kitsis. “We had to cut it in the edit because it’s like gratuitous commentary.”
After the splat, the atmosphere shifts from comic relief to white-knuckle suspense due to Emerson’s disturbing scene. But it’s not just the acting – much credit goes to editor Mark Goldman for keeping the audience uneasy about the positions and shot choices.
“It’s Hurley’s scene, so by using the camera angles that move with it, you’re thinking it’s a domestic scene. Ben throws it in,” he says. “If we were playing a scary moment and the music had gone ‘dun dun,’ some of the humor of Hot Pocket would have disappeared. I’m a firm believer that a show is more engaging when the tone changes, and Michael is so strong that the tone changes immediately when he’s cut to medium close. He’s Mr. Cool, the coolest guy around, and Hurley’s wearing Hot Pockets.”
The microwave-to-counter segment plays out realistically, lulling the viewer into its familiar feel. Ar Lostthe scripts, performances, editing, visuals and sound were all done with the idea that the show had to be real and that the audience would put themselves in the shoes of the contestants, or lack thereof.
“We tried to make the show about real people living through confusion, fear, and, Where the fuck are we? How did we get here? Monsters are chasing us!” says Bender. “What I always pushed for – and the instincts of the actors were the same – was ‘Let’s make this real so that people can relate and care, no matter how harmless it is .’”
In this case, it’s meant to make you wonder how you would respond if you were in Hurley’s position – and you wouldn’t be doing that if you weren’t interested in the little details. For Paula Fairfield, the episode’s sound designer, that meant making sure elements like Pocket’s cooking were realistic to the ears. After all, if it looked like the pastry was being grilled over coals, the audience might pick up on that misnomer and miss the action.
“Sísle, say, open the door, close the door, and then bam – it has to be very natural, kind of understated but very specific,” she says. “I think I recorded the wedge but the other stuff I had in my sound library. The sizzle was a bacon infused sizzle. The Hot Pocket has a little slap that hits the wall, a little wet, a little crunch, and a little weight to it. Can’t sound too difficult. You don’t want to push something too much because it will take the viewer away.”
Obviously, the moment landed as planned, now and then – it comes in tweets and is thoroughly discussed on Reddit threads. “We never thought in a show that won an Emmy for great drama, that the Hot Pocket would get to meet Locke in a wheelchair, no,” Kitsis says with a laugh.
“We knew the weight of ‘not Penny’s’ boat and ‘The Constant,'” said Garcia. “There is so much intensity surrounding the show, and the audience really appreciates the sassy moments. It’s like when Hurley makes a golf course. People responded to it and talked about it like the ‘Hurley makes the golf course’ episode. But I’m like, ‘No, that’s the Sayid capture and hold hostage episode! I’m the B story!’”
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