LOST - week 17 Column - Numbers

[lenafan]

LOST ? Episode 17
Numbers
?She says ?Hey!??

This week its Hurley?s turn to be featured. He has been wandering in and out episodes and not really giving us a clue as to why he is on the island. His real name is Hugo Reyes, which I believe we were told earlier. Anyway, this was a wonderful action episode and I enjoyed it immensely. Imagine he?s the one with the most money on the island?one hundred fifty six million.

Hurley?s story begins one night at home with his mother, who wants him to go out and find a nice girl (doesn?t every mother?). He wants her to give him space and stop nagging. The lottery numbers are put up on the screen?4 8 15 16 23 42 and guess who has them? Yep, Hurley. Of course, he does what any of us would do. Faint.

At a news conference in front of his home, Hurley introduces his relatives, including his Grandfather who he says has worked three jobs a day for 52 years. He tells the news media that he plans to share his money with the people he cares about. Just then, his grandfather dies of a heart attack.

As the days go by, disaster keeps following him like Joe B#@@**#*@ in the ?Lil Abner comic strip of years ago. It?s like there?s a black cloud following him wherever he goes.

He tells his mother he thinks the money is cursed: a friend at the funeral of his grandfather was struck by lightning and his brother moved back home after his wife left him for a waitress. He drives up in a big yellow Hummer to a palatial home. He has his mother put a blindfold, as he wants to surprise her. She steps out of the Hummer and promptly stumbles, and breaks her ankle, just as a police car arrives. The officers arrest Hurley, wrongly thinking he?s up to something. Hurley looks at the house and sees smoke and fire pouring out of the second story.

His next encounter is with his accountant who tells him he?s making money on every conceivable disaster happening with his investments. As he listens to the accountant, he sees a body fall by the window behind the other man. Hurley now believes the numbers are jinxed?cursed. The accountant laughs.

Those numbers were given to him while he was in a mental hospital by another patient who mumbled them in some sort of psychotic haze. Hurley returns to ask ?Leonard? where he got the numbers. Strangely after he tells Leonard he won the lottery using those numbers, the patient begins speaking recognizable English. Hurley learns that Leonard?s partner, Sam, gave him the numbers. He tells Hurley that

?You?ve opened the box. You got to get away.? Orderlies carry him off yelling that Sam lived in Australia.

Now Hurley is driven by a desire to find where the numbers came from and so goes to Australia. He finds the wife living alone on a beach. She tells him that Sam and Leonard were in the Navy together and that they were on an island at a listening post, probably to hear what the enemy might say. However, they heard nothing but static until one night they heard the numbers repeatedly. She laughingly tells him that they were at a Fair and Sam guessed the exact number of beans in this huge box. When they collected the money, they were in an auto accident almost immediately. She lost a leg. She goes on to say that her husband was trying to do everything to make the ?curse? stop as all sorts of bad luck followed, ending with Sam, her husband, killing himself with a shotgun. She is still a skeptic

Whoa!

Okay that is the back-story. Of course, now he?s on an island he can?t get off, along with the others. So his history is interspaced with the happenings on the island. Of course, Michael and Jin are building the boat, with no help from Sawyer, and the boat collapses. There is an ensuing yada yada yada between the two men. Sun is talking to Kate. She wonders if Jin is planning to go on the boat, leaving her behind.

Hurley sees Jack talking to Sayeed, who doesn?t want to go back to find the Frenchwoman. Jack wants a battery for Michael to use. Sayeed?s not sure he could find anything and we can see he does not really want to go. Hurley and Jack want to know what was in the papers and the drawings he brought back with him. He jams the papers at them. The Frenchwoman he says lives in the area she referred too as the dark territory. Hurley has one paper that he?s now staring at in amazement: a paper filled with the same set of numbers as his winning numbers for the lottery, 4 8 15 16 23 42.

Hurley decides he has to find the Frenchwoman again. He questions Sayeed late at night. He steals the map?and the paper with the numbers on it. Hurley goes to the waterfall and fills several bottles of water. Charlie wants to know what he?s doing. Hurley says he going to take a walk. Charlie says he?ll go with him.

?Dude, I could really use some alone time now.? He leaves. He doesn?t know they will follow shortly.

Earlier, Claire sits alone on the beach. Locke comes up behind her and wants to know if she would help him. At first, she tells him that she is nearly a full nine months? pregnant, but he prods her and she relents, following him into the nearby jungle.

Hurley, who has a head start, finds the rope that Sayeed once found. He begins following it inland. He has gone a distance when he sees what looks like a boar hanging from a tree. He takes a few more steps when Sayeed shouts at him to stop he?s standing on a pressure trap. Sayeed points up at something hanging from a tree near by. Hurley insists he can escape and before they know it, he dives to one side. The thing comes thundering across the space he just occupied. Mean looking thing with lots of root-type spikes sticking out of it. (I guess the Frenchwoman is adamant about no one crossing into her space.)

They want to know why he?s making the trek. He says to get the battery.

They continue together and Hurley finds a rickety bridge over a deep ravine. Sayeed and Jack object to anyone crossing it, but Hurley is determined to find the Frenchwoman.

?Dude, chill.? He tells Jack.

He, miracle of miracles, makes it across safely. Charlie goes after him. He weighs a good one hundred fifty pounds less. Holy Cow, the bridge breaks, but Charlie leaps and Hurley pulls him up safely. Sayeed and Jack want the two men to stay put until they can find a way across to join them. Like that?s going to happen.

Sayeed and Jack finally find a way and they are in an area that Sayeed suddenly remembers. Jack trips a wire and there is an explosion. In the opposition direction, Hurley and Charlie hear the explosion wondering what happened. Without warning, they are shot at with a high-powered rifle. Charlie takes off through the jungle and Hurley goes in the opposite direction.

Hurley stumbles and falls. He picks himself up and barely gets to his feet when he sees a rifle pointed right at him. Guess who? Well, we know it ain?t Ethan. Ah yes, Danielle Rousseau is back with her rifle pointing mercilessly at Hurley.

Meanwhile Jack and Sayeed find the underground home of Rousseau blown apart. Sayeed tells Jack the Frenchwoman knew that he would come back and booby-trapped her digs. Sayeed finds the picture of his Iraqi girlfriend that he left when he got away from Rousseau. (Wonder what that means?little clues planted here and there)

Back in the jungle, Hurley wants her to tell him about the numbers. In the ensuring conversation, Danielle hears what happened to him and she tells him those were the numbers they heard on board her ship?that those numbers were what they thought coordinates and they ended up on the island, shipwrecked. They found a radio tower and it was from there the numbers were being sent. Everyone on the ship got ?sick? and now she was the only one left. She says she went to the tower and changed the signal. They look at each other as she now thinks too the numbers are cursed. She slowly drops the rifle, so the barrel points to the ground. Hurley says it?s not the money, but the numbers that are cursed. She stares, thinking about all the bad things that happened?

?So yes,? she says agreeing, ?I suppose you?re right, they are cursed??

Hurley grabs her and hugs her, saying ?Thank you, thank you. You have no idea how long I?ve been waiting for someone to agree with me.? The shot of the so disparate pair together is funny, yet sad.

Jack, Charlie, and Sayeed are talking at the blown up quarters when Hurley appears with something in his hand. Michael wanted a battery so when he left the island?s outer perimeter he could send a distress signal. The Frenchwoman gave him one.

He smiles, telling them ?She says ?hey?!? I loved that. Hurley is so different from the others, with his own values and language, but still happy now that he?s found someone else who believes those numbers are cursed. They return to the beach and hand Michael the battery. He is astounded.

In the jungle, Claire is watching Locke finish what it was she came to help him with and during their conversation she relates she has been trying to remember what they did to her?the others in the jungle, but she cannot. Locke tells her he?s pretty good at putting bits and pieces together. Then she tells him it?s her birthday. He wants to know why she didn?t tell the others, but she says she?s pregnant and single and she didn?t think it mattered here in this place. Finished, he puts the object up on a table. It?s a cradle for her baby. ?Happy Birthday, Claire,? he says with a smile.

Charlie and Hurley talk. When they were in the jungle, Hurley had been about to tell Charlie a secret, but they were interrupted by the shots. Now Charlie wants him to finish.

Hurley says it was his fault the plane crashed, and hesitates. Sensing his reluctance, Charlie tells him that he was snorting cocaine in the restroom on board the plane. Hurley hesitates some more, but finally tells Charlie that back in the states he?s worth one hundred fifty six million dollars. Charlie gets up angry, thinking it was a lie and leaves.

The final scene is silent as the camera focuses in on the concrete block, or should I say BOX, that Locke and Boone found. The camera slowly zooms in and we see 4 8 15 16 23 42.

REMARKS

The two producers of this show are sneaky. There are little clues dropped here and there which eventually will point to the upcoming episodes. They certainly have maintained the level of excitement and make you want to watch.

You know I was thinking about Alias and Lost and I feel that JJ Abrams should do the same thing with Lost that he negotiated with ABC to run Alias without interruption (just one time). Lost should run without interruption the first half of the season and Alias the second half. It certainly would make writing columns easier because they would run separately. Wednesday nights are rough because I?m busier writing than watching.

Locke?s the most provocative and interesting character on the show, at least that?s what I think. He has a better handle on the island?s ?nature? than anyone else. It?s like he?s morphed into a part of the island?that he understands everything, knows everything. I know he?s going to be a featured in an upcoming episode, so I?m eager to see how that pans out.

DISCUSS

Do you think Jin is going to be the fourth passenger on the boat once it is built? Will it get built?

Rousseau and Hurley have become ?friends? because they both believe the numbers are cursed. Is the island cursed? How about the ?others? on the island, Ethan?s friends, where are they?

What is the meaning of the numbers on the cement block? Can you guess the meaning (besides being cursed)? Where did they come from?

:boat:

[Sydney]

Do you think Jin is going to be the fourth passenger on the boat once it is built? Will it get built?

I don't think it will get built... well from what I heard...

Um there was only a limited amount of spots on the raft?! I missed that...

Rousseau and Hurley have become ?friends? because they both believe the numbers are cursed. Is the island cursed? How about the ?others? on the island, Ethan?s friends, where are they?

Ethan's friends... I doubt he has any... lol

The island I think it could be curse the voices and what not.

---Do you think that Hurley and Danielle said anything after he hugged her?

What is the meaning of the numbers on the cement block? Can you guess the meaning (besides being cursed)? Where did they come from?

I think it's some Alien thing but please tell me I'm wrong cuase that's so cheesy and stupid.... lol yes I want to be told I'm wrong

----About the season episode airing dates... I think they didn't do that the first season because then it wouldn't have been druing the summer season... and it would be weird... but I DO hope they do it next season.

[lenafan]

Sydney posted:

----About the season episode airing dates... I think they didn't do that the first season because then it wouldn't have been druing the summer season... and it would be weird... but I DO hope they do it next season.

Maybe we should sign a petition... :rolleyes:

Um there was only a limited amount of spots on the raft?! I missed that.

..

JUST four...Michael, Walt and Sawyer (who paid for his spot).

I think it's some Alien thing but please tell me I'm wrong cuase that's so cheesy and stupid.... lol yes I want to be told I'm wrong

Wrong...how's that! No, I don't think JJ would ever do that to us... :pirate:

:boat:

[Sydney]

lol thank god lol I didn't want something like that to happen.... !!! lol I don't think I've ever wanted an idea of mine to be shot down

[HarVardGrl92]

lol

[Sydney]

what?! it's the truth