1.18 Numbers

Michael is near to completing the raft, but needs some way to send an SOS to passing ships. He believes Sayid could build something like that, if he had a power source: the batteries kept by Danielle. Jack asks Sayid to tell him how to find Danielle, but Sayid is not very helpful (while not completely refusing to help). While Jack and Sayid bicker, Hurley studies the numbers written by Danielle and appears to have an idea of what they mean.

Sayid wakes up from mid-sleep to see Hurley staring at him, grilling him for information on where Danielle is located. Hurley is intrigued that the six numbers that Danielle wrote repeatedly on the paper are the same six numbers from his winning lottery ticket. He gets as much info as he can, and steals the map.

Hurley packs a number of water bottles for an extended walk, and fends off questions from Charlie, who wants to come.

Locke asks Claire to help him with a project.

Sayid, Jack, and Charlie piece together that Hurley has gone to find Danielle. They head out to find him, starting a couple of hours behind.

Hurley has found the rope that leads near Danielle’s lair.

Sawyer sits near the raft, reading a book and complaining that the hammering is bothering him. Walt asks him to help, which gets a snide remark from Sawyer about how he is helping by keeping guard for arsonists. A large bundle of bamboo, tied by Jin, breaks apart, and Michael unloads on Jin verbally for not tieing it correctly.

Within earshot, Sun tells Kate that Jin will never talk to her again because she humiliated him. She wonders if Jin will leave on the raft.

The three trackers find Hurley just in time to warn him that he is standing on a booby trap. While they search for a replacement rock so he can move, Hurley risks it and moves off the trap, dodging an ugly tangle of sharp sticks. Jack asks why Hurley is really here, but gets no information.

The four guys have literally reached the end of the rope – it disappears into the ground. A little further on, a flimsy rope bridge spans a deep, narrow canyon. Hurley, who seems to have no fear, begins to walk over the bridge, despite the pleas from Jack to come back. The bridge creaks and moans, but Hurley makes it. Charlie is next to go, again, ignoring Jack’s warnings. The bridge collapses, but Charlie is able to dive and make it to Hurley’s side. With the party now split, Jack tells them to wait while he and Sayid find a way around. Hurley wants to keep going, but Charlie tells him to be quiet.

Claire now believes she is helping Locke build a trap.

Sayid and Jack discover Danielle’s booby-trapped hideout. She has left, sensing that Sayid might come back.

Hurley is about to tell Charlie why he is so obsessed with finding Danielle when two shots hit a nearby tree. Charlie and Hurley run in opposite directions. Hurley runs into Danielle, who holds him at gunpoint. Hurley asks her what the numbers mean, but she says she doesn’t know. Hurley, frustrated, demands answers. Danielle tells him that her ship picked up the transmission of the numbers. They found the radio tower by the black rock. Some of the crew searched for the meaning of the numbers, became sick, and died. Hurley tells her that the numbers are cursed. Danielle, who has lost everything, agrees. Hurley hugs her, grateful that someone believes him.

Charlie stumbles upon Jack and Sayid, and, soon after, Hurley walks in, and looks cool as he nonchalantly pulls a battery from his backpack. Back at camp, no words are spoken as Sayid hands the battery to Michael.

Claire tells Locke that she has not selected a name for the baby. She tells Locke that she was going to give the baby away, and that it is her birthday. Locke has finished building the structure, and now turns it over – it is a cradle, a birthday present for Claire.

Back at camp, Charlie once again asks Hurley what his big secret is. Charlie tells Hurley about his own heroin addiction, and Hurley reciprocates, telling Charlie that he is worth 156 million dollars. But Charlie just thinks he is joking.

Finally, the camera zooms in slowly to a series of numbers stamped on the side of the capsule discovered by Locke and Boone: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

Hurley’s backstory flashbacks:

Hurley is at home, having just moved back in with his mother. It is Saturday night and he is watching TV, ignoring his mother’s prodding to go out, find a girl or at least stop eating so much. He catches the broadcast of the Lotto jackpot, and his ticket exactly matches all six lottery numbers. He faints, disappearing from view; we hear glass breaking.

At his press conference, Hurley says the numbers "…just came to me". He introduces his family and says he is going to use the money to help them – in particular, his hard-working, 72-year-old grandfather. As the press conference continues, however, his grandfather grabs his arm and falls to ground after apparently suffering a heart attack.

Hurley has found that the money he won in the lottery has brought him bad luck. His grandfather died, and the priest that performed the funeral ceremony was struck by lightning and killed. His brother broke up with his wife. And when he brings his mother to show her the huge new house he has bought for her, she slips and breaks her ankle, the house catches fire, and cops arrive and arrest Hurley.

Hurley visits his accountant, who tells him that he has doubled his net worth in a few months. Some of the ways it has doubled (like an over-insured factory burning down, or the windfall from his false arrest) still are convincing Hurley that the money is cursed. Then Hurley reaches the conclusion that the numbers he picked, and not the money, is what carries the curse. The accountant says that is ridiculous, just as a body hurtles by outside the glass windows behind him.

Hurley has come back to the mental institution where he spent some time. It was here that he talked to a patient named Lenny. Lenny gave him the numbers he used to win the lottery. Lenny repeats the numbers all the time. Hurley returns to ask what they mean. When Hurley tells Lenny that he used those numbers to win the lottery, Lenny gets agitated, telling Hurley that now he has opened the box, and that he needs to get away from the numbers because it will not stop. As he is dragged away, Lenny says that Sam Toomey heard the numbers in Kalgoorlie (Australia).

Hurley visits an isolated shack in Kalgoorlie and meets Sam Toomey’s wife. Sam has been dead for four years. He and Lenny met in the U.S. Navy. She tells that Sam and Lenny got the numbers while at a listening post, picking up radio transmissions from the Pacific. The numbers bring good luck to the bearer (they were used to win 50 thousand dollars at a fair) but bad luck to those around them (on the way home, Sam’s wife lost her leg in a car accident). Hurley asks if there’s a way to make the bad luck stop. Sam’s wife says there is no curse.

Comments

I love the expression Jack makes in reaction to seeing the flimsy suspension bridge. He kind of simultaneously rolls his head and eyes, and arches his eyebrows. He looks truly worried and frustrated. It’s not the first time he has pulled that face – and it probably won’t be the last.

Hurley gives Charlie a look to kill when Charlie tells him he is acting like a lunatic – I suppose this is because of Hurley’s mental history.

Ironies or ironies, or more? The numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery were broadcast from the island he is now stranded on.

Terry O’Quinn (Locke) is the best actor on the show, in my humble opinion. He combines sincerity with mystery in equal doses to create an intriguing personality. His act of kindness to Claire may lull some viewers into thinking he’s a nice guy, but let’s all remember that he has also discovered a sealed capsule and has decided to hide this knowledge from all but the almost hypnotized Boone.

Nits

Sawyer’s sarcastic comment to Walt about arsonists seems to indicate that he knows Walt burned the boat. How does he know this? We know the Locke figured it out, but there has been no indication that Sawyer knew about it.

Sam Toomey’s wife says that, on the way home from the fair, a ‘pickup truck’ blew a tire. In Australia, a pickup truck is referred to as a ‘ute’ (short for ‘utility vehicle’). The term ‘pickup truck’ is not used.

Are we really supposed to believe that Claire did not flip the structure Locke was building in her mind and realize that it was a cradle? It was my first thought on what he was building, and that was before he even started.

Quotable Quotes

Hurley: Hi. You awake?
Sayid: I was just wondering that myself.

"Yo! French chick!"
- Hurley

"Need a battery? She says, ‘Hey’."
- Hurley, understated about his meeting with Danielle

Locke: That should do it.
Claire: Okay, I give up. What is it? It’s a cradle.
Locke: Happy birthday, Claire.