Jack, Hurley, and the Real Hero of Lost

 Lost is an interesting show. It's not a story that gives away all it's secrets at once, heck. Some of it's secrets aren't even explained at the end.

One place where it's surprising though, is the hero.

The beginning of the show, we have Jack Shephard.

Jack is obviously the hero. He's a doctor with daddy issues, he's the de facto leader of the survivors, and he's vaguely good-looking to boot, ladies! You think that you know exactly who Jack is, and where his story-arc is going. You know, because he's the designated hero.
But as the series goes, you (or at least I did) start to get really irritated with Jack. His actions are selfish, haphazard, and ultimately self-serving. Gradually, the squeaky voice and compulsive head-bob that you initially found funny start to get grating. And eventually, you just want to smack Jack for his bottomless stupidity.
I think that Rose put it best when she chewed Jack out in Season 5.

It's been this long, and you people [Jack, Kate, Sawyer, The Others, etc...] are still trying to find ways to kill each other!

What makes it worse is that, for all his guilt issues and sorrow, there's about a hundred more pounds of Hero Complex.

You don't even have to think about it that long to realize that Jack is not the hero we thought he would be in the beginning. So if Jack isn't the hero, then who is?
In our main cast we have, among many others Kate (a convict on the run for blowing up her abusive step-dad), Sawyer (a jerk who nobody likes, and he's cool with that), Charlie (a rock star with a drug problem), and 'Hurley'.

Like Jack, at the beginning, you think you know exactly who Hurley, or Hugo Reyes, is. He's the funny fat guy who arranges golf tournaments and faints at the sight of blood. And you know, for a while he is. Then as you learn more about Hurley, you see that there is WAY more to him than what meets the eye, and that's what makes him such an awesome character. One of the first things you learn about Hurley is that when he makes up his mind- he is a force to be reckoned with. There is absolutely no stopping him once he's set his mind to something. He's a total determinator.

I mean look at that smile. Who could resist that?

Hurley's also one of the few characters who hasn't done anything really horrible or sinful in his past. Kate had understandable and sympathetic motivation, but she still committed murder. Charlie has a lovely redemptive ending to his story arc, but he was still a drug-addled rock star. And Jack spent most of his time arguing with his Ex-Wife. I won't even get started with Sawyer or Ana Lucia.

Aside from Rose and Bernard Nadler and probably Claire, Hurley is the only character who led a relatively good life. By 'good life' I don't mean he was always happy or had a perfect family life (he wasn't and didn't), but I mean he was a good person doing his best. He's very normal, and very relatable.

Because Hurley is normal when compared to the rest of the cast, you're tricked into thinking that there isn't anything special about him, and that he won't be that important in the long run. As it turns out though, Hugo Reyes is one of the most important characters in the entire story.

I mean, there's a reason you look forward to Hurley Episodes like Everybody Hates Hugo, and dread Jack episodes like Stranger in a Strange Land.