Numbers

 

The flashbacks featured in this episode offers some information about Hurley, who is at home arguing with his mother when he realizes he has won the lottery.  The numbers he used to win the lottery are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.  Those of us familiar with the show will remember them as they show up A LOT during the series run.  After winning, Hurley is asked where he got the numbers from and he answers that they just came to him.  During a press conference he says he is going to give some of the money to his grandfather who then immediately dies of a heart attack.  A short time later we find out that the wife of Hurley’s brother has left him and then, at his grandfather's funeral, the priest performing the ceremony is struck by lightning and killed.  See, money can’t buy happiness.          

On the island, Jack and Hurley ask for Sayid’s help in getting a battery from Danielle Rousseau’s bunker.  Sayid suggests they stay away as she is crazy, and her maps are useless.  While looking at the maps and charts Hurley sees the same numbers he used to win the lottery repeatedly written on them.  Later that night Hurley goes to Sayid’s tent and questions him more about the numbers and Sayid says he thought they might be coordinates.  Hurley also questions Sayid about the cable he found and about Rousseau’s campsite.  Sayid becomes suspicious and Hurley leaves but not before he manages to steal one of the maps.  The next morning Hurley sets off on his own in search of Rousseau. 

 

Back on the beach, Locke asks Claire for help with something he is building.  Sayid discovers one of his maps is missing and after some investigating discovers Hurley took it and went off on his own.  Jack, Charlie, and Sayid go looking for Hurley.  They soon find Hurley in the jungle just as Hurley steps on one of Rousseau’s traps.  Hurley says he can jump to safety before the trap gets him “I’m spry.”, he claims.  He safely avoids the trap and when they ask him what he is doing he tells them he is going for a battery so Michael can take it on the raft with him as an SOS beacon.  The four continue together and eventually find a rope bridge crossing a huge ravine.  Hurley decides to go across and makes it easily.  Charlie goes next but the rope bridge begins to collapse.  Charlie is just able to make it across.  Jack and Sayid tell them to stay where they are, and they will go on around and try to find another way across.  Hurley doesn’t listen and continues alone.

     

After his grandfather’s funeral, Hurley says that the money is cursed and Hurley’s mother reminds him that they are Catholic and they don’t believe in curses.  Proving that Hurley just might be right, Hurley buys his mother a house and when he takes her to it the house in on fire.  After seeing the house on fire his mother falls and breaks her ankle.  Right after this Hurley is arrested because the police suspect that he is a drug dealer.  Later, while talking to his financial advisor we find out that Hurley is a part owner of a box company (the same one Locke works for it turns out) and all of his stocks are up through the roof making him even richer.  All of the financial gain is due to tropical storms, fires, and suing the police for false arrest.  Hurley concludes that it’s not the money that is cursed but the numbers he used to win the lottery.  In the consultant’s office we see a man fall past the window behind him.

Locke and Claire continue working on the mystery item as the two talk.  Claire tells Locke she was going to give the baby up for adoption.  He asks if she has a name in mind which she says she doesn’t.  Claire tells John it is her birthday, and he wishes her a happy birthday and finally shows her what he has been making with her help: a cradle for the baby after it is born.  Elsewhere, Jack and Sayid find Rousseau’s camp and Jack triggers a trip wire exploding the entire camp.  While that is going on Charlie is still questioning Hurley on what Hurley wants with the Rousseau because he knows it’s not just about the batteries.  Hurley begins to tell Charlie, but gunshots cause them to scatter.  Hurley nearly runs right into a rifle that Danielle is holding.

Pre-crash Hurley goes to the Santa Rosa Mental Institute visiting someone named Leonard.  Leonard is a former U.S. Naval offices who knows Hurley from when he was also a patient there.  Leonard is mostly non-verbal only repeating the same numbers Hurley used to win the lottery continuously.  Hurley tells Leonard he used the numbers to win the lottery.  This makes Leonard extremely upset and yells at Hurley about “opening the box” and that Hurley must get away from the numbers.  As interns at the mental institute remove Leonard, he tells Hurley to find Sam Toomey in Australia as he is who Leonard got the numbers from.

Back on the island, Hurley tells Rousseau he was in the same plane crash that Sayid was; “You know that guy you tortured.”, he reminds her.  He shows her a piece of paper with the numbers on it asking her why she wrote them down and what they mean to her.  Hurley then gets pissed and tells her he wants some answers.  She tells him that her and the science team she was on heard a transmission of them on a constant loop.  A few weeks after that she explains they found a radio tower near something called “the black rock”.  They initially tried to figure out what the numbers were but then the sickness began to take them, and Danielle then changed the numbers broadcast to her distress message.  She tells Hurley the numbers brought her to the island just like they brought Hurley there.  She says that only bad things have happened to people she cared for since she heard those numbers.  She too thinks the numbers may be cursed.  Relieved that someone finally agrees with him Hurley hugs Rousseau and thanks her.

Hurley makes his way from L.A. to Australia and goes to the home of Sam Toomey where he meets Sam’s wife Martha.  She tells Hurley that Sam and Leonard heard the numbers about sixteen years ago.  They were stationed there in a listening post to monitor the Pacific.  Sam, like Hurley, used the numbers and was met with nothing but bad luck.  Martha lost the bottom half of her left leg and believing the numbers were cursed, Sam killed himself.  Martha however is very sure that the numbers are not in fact cursed because she believes "you make your own luck".

 

      

Hurley returns to Jack, Charlie, and Sayid with a battery.  He also tells Sayid that Danielle said “Hey.”.  When they get back to camp Hurley tells Charlie he thinks the numbers are the real reason the plane crashed.  He goes on to tell Charlie that bad things happen to people who are around him.  Charlie tells Hurley he was in the bathroom of the plane doing heroin when the plane crashed.  He asks Hurley if that was his fault too.  Hurley then tells Charlie that back at home he is worth $156 million dollars.  Charlie doesn’t believe him and walks away.  The final image we see in this episode is the hatch that Boone and Locke are working on uncovering.  Carved into the side of the top rim of the hatch are the same numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery.  I have to admit that other than Sawyer's story, Hurey-centric episodes were my second favorite episodes of the show.