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Season 1: Episode 18 - 'Numbers'
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| As the waves pound the
shore, we find Hurley helping to build the second raft. Jin is
struggling to tell him what to do, but he isn't getting it. Help comes
from an unexpected place when Michael speaks up and translates for
Jin. It seems the two of them have begun to "understand"
each other in the course of building the raft. |
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And speaking of the
raft, Jack comes to check on the progress. Things are going well, but
Michael tells him their chances of being rescued by a ship would be
much better if they could rig some sort of transmitter to send out a
distress call. Jack agrees with the idea in principle, but, even if
Sayid can rig something up, how would they power it? When Hurley
remembers that Sayid told them the French Lady had batteries, he and
Jack go to ask him about it, but find Sayid less than enthusiastic
about going back to see her again. Jack says he will go instead, but
Sayid knows that's not a good idea. Besides, he was unconscious when
she brought him to her camp and disoriented when he left, so, to be
honest…he doesn't know how to find her. But what about the maps
Sayid took -- maybe they lead to her camp? Sayid hands them over and
Hurley begins leafing through them, but stops suddenly, the color
draining from his face. From his POV we see the page contains a series
of numbers listed over and over again: 4,8,15,16,23,42.
We FLASHBACK to Hurley sitting on the sofa in his mother's house,
eating from a bucket of chicken that bears the same logo as his work
shirt. His mother chides him about going out and trying to find a nice
woman, but Hurley is paying attention to the Mega -Lotto drawing on
television. As the winning numbers are called out we can hardly
believe our eyes. 4,8,15,16,23 and the mega number…42. Hurley checks
his ticket, sees that it is an exact match…and promptly faints,
smashing the coffee table beneath him.
Back on the island, Sayid wakes from a fitful sleep to see Hurley
staring at him. He wants to talk about the numbers on Rousseau's
papers. Sayid wipes the sleep from his eyes and tells Hurley that he
doesn't know what they are -- he thought they might be coordinates for
something, but realized that was impossible. When he asks Hurley why
he is so interested, Hurley makes an excuse and hustles away, leaving
Sayid to go back to sleep. But as he is leaving, we see Hurley pull
the map Sayid took from Rousseau out from under his shirt.
FLASHBACK to a press conference outside the Reyes home. Reporters and
cameras fight for space as Hurley is bombarded with questions about
how he chose the winning numbers. "They just sort of came to
me," he says. And as he is introducing his family -- his mother,
his brother and sister-in-law, and his beloved grandfather,
"Tito." In fact, he says, the first thing he wants to do
with his money is take his grandfather on a much deserved vacation.
But even as Hurley continues to lay out his happy plans, something
horrible happens…Tito collapses in the background and falls dead of
a heart attack -- right then and there.
Back at the caves, Charlie arrives and finds Hurley filling several
water bottles, but he is acting strange. It's as if he is
feeling…guilty. When Charlie asks him if he is going somewhere,
Hurley tells him he is going for a walk. Charlie says he wants to go
with him, but Hurley is adamant about wanting to go alone.
On the beach, Locke finds Claire and asks her to give him a hand with
a project -- nothing too strenuous, just a little sawing. She agrees
and the two set off together.
Back at caves, it's Jack's turn to be found filling water bottles, but
this time it's Sayid who arrives, and he's not in a good mood. He asks
Jack where the map is -- the one he stole from him after Sayid refused
to go and look for Rousseau. And to send Hurley to do his dirty work
for him, that's just low! The look of total confusion is enough for
Sayid to determine that Jack wasn't behind it at all and when Charlie
arrives and they learn of his earlier discussion with Hurley, the
three of them arrive at the frightening realization together. Hurley
is going off to try and find Rousseau…alone.
We find Hurley walking the shore, a determined look on his face and
stay with him as we FLASHBACK to Hurley behind the wheel of a Hummer.
The Lotto money has arrived. His mother sits in the passenger seat as
the car winds through an upscale neighborhood. Hurley asks his mother
if she has noticed how badly things have gone for them lately: His
grandfather's death, the priest being struck by lightning at the
funeral, his brother, Diego's ruined marriage -- it's as if the money
is, well…cursed. Hurley's mother smacks him in the arm. They are
Catholic, that is blasphemous. Besides, they both know there are no
such things as curses. Maybe she's right. No, of COURSE she's right.
Hurley makes his mother put on a blindfold, he has a surprise for her.
And they arrive at a brand new mansion, a gift from Hurley to his
mother. But as he leads his mother out of the car, she trips on the
curb and falls, breaking her ankle. And wait, what is that smell? Is
that smoke? Hurley turns around to find his new home is on fire -- and
before he can dial 911, the police arrive, guns drawn, and roughly
place Hurley under arrest. No such thing as curses, huh?
Back on the beach, we see that same cable that led Sayid to trouble.
Hurley picks it up and, against his better judgment, begins to follow
it into the jungle.
We FLASHBACK to an office high-rise where Hurley is receiving an
update from his accountant. He tells him he should be happy -- his
orange juice futures have gone up in price, after tropical storms
pounded Florida. He owns a box company in Tustin (Wait, why does that
sound familiar?). Oh, and his sneaker factory in Canada burned to the
ground killing eight people, but it was overinsured, so Hurley is
going to make a bundle. When he starts to talk about his feelings that
the money is cursed, his accountant tells him that he is not the first
Lotto winner to believe the money has brought him nothing but trouble.
Besides, he says, he is an accountant, he doesn't believe in curses --
he believes in numbers. That's it. Hurley has finally figured it out.
It's not the money that is cursed, it's the numbers! And his
accountant is just about to explain how crazy that sounds when someone
from a higher floor jumps to their death and passes right by the
window.
Back on the island, Michael, Walt and Jin work on the raft. And all
that racket is disturbing Sawyer who is sitting on his ass, reading a
book. They ask him to help, but he interested. Further down the beach,
Sun sits with Kate, wondering if her husband will ever speak to him
again. And if he decides to go on the raft when it sails, if she will
ever see him again, as well.
In the Jungle, Hurley continues to follow the trail. He steps on a
piece of ground and hears a "click." Before he can wonder
what the hell it was, Sayid emerges from the brush with Jack and
Charlie and tells him not to move -- he is standing on a pressure
trigger. If he moves, the booby trap will swing down and kill him. But
before they can figure out a way to get him out of this mess, Hurley
takes matters into his own hands and steps off the trigger. Just as
the spikes are going to impale him, he dives forward, barely avoiding
the trap. When Jack asks him what he is doing out here, he answers
honestly -- he's going to get a battery for the transmitter. Okay
then, they all will go. But Sayid takes the lead.
FLASHBACK to a hospital. Hurley stands at the reception desk asking
for a patient named, "Leonard." As he argues with the nurse,
he sees a maintenance man climbing a rickety ladder to change a
lightbulb. Just as the man stretches to reach the light fixture,
Hurley yells at him from the desk, telling him to not do that now. Not
a good idea. A doctor arrives and recognizes Hurley, agreeing to let
him see Leonard. It's not clear how Hurley knows this man, or the
doctor for that matter, but we arrive in a recreation room to find
Leonard playing a game of Connect Four and mumbling over and over. He
is clearly not right in the head. Hurley tells him he needs some
information. "What do the numbers mean?" And we begin to
hear Leonard more clearly. He is repeating a series of numbers over
and over again: 4,8,15,16,23,42. Hurley keeps pressing, asking Leonard
if the numbers did something to him that wound up getting him placed
in here. Still nothing. Hurley tells him that he thinks the numbers
did something to him after he used them to win the Lottery. Leonard
stops on a dime. Even he can't believe what he has just heard.
"You've opened the box," he says, "It won't stop.
You've got to get away from them or it won't stop!" When Hurley
asks Leonard where he got the numbers, he tells him that someone
named, "Sam Toomey" heard them when they were working one
year in Kalgoorlie…Australia.
Back in the jungle, Sayid and the others continue to follow the path,
when it abruptly ends, going straight down into the ground. And that's
not all, just up ahead is the world's most dodgy looking rope bridge,
suspended over a massive gorge. Jack asks Sayid why he never mentioned
this, but Sayid has never seen it before. Who built it? More
importantly, how are they going to cross it? Before they can argue too
much about it, Hurley walks confidently out onto the bridge, causing
everyone to panic -- and he makes it across easily. Encouraged,
Charlie goes across next, but just as he makes it halfway, the bridge
starts to creak and moan. Charlie dives onto solid ground just as the
worn and tired bridge gives way beneath him. Hurley and Charlie are on
one side -- Jack and Sayid are on the other. Jack tells them to stay
where they are until he and Sayid can find a way around and meet them
on the other side, but Hurley doesn't want to hear it. He tells THEM
to stay put while he and Charlie follow the path on the other side,
but Charlie has had enough. He tells Hurley to listen to Jack and stop
acting like a bloody lunatic.
FLASHBACK to a small house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the
red desert of Kalgoorlie. Hurley asks the woman who answers to door if
this is Sam Toomey's house. When she says it is, and that she is his
wife, Hurley says he would like to speak with him. His wife would like
to speak with him, too -- but he died four years ago. We follow him
inside and we learn that Leonard served with Sam in the U.S. Navy
years ago. Hurley asks Mrs. Toomey about the numbers and we learn that
Sam heard a voice repeating those numbers, over and over again while
serving his post at a naval listening post monitoring the South
Pacific, 16 years ago. Years later, Sam used the numbers to win a
contest at a local fair. He won a large sum of money…but things
started to go wrong for him and his family after that. Sam believed
the numbers were behind his bad luck, so he moved his family out in
the desert hoping that would stop the curse. Hurley asks Mrs. Toomey
if Sam ever succeeded in stopping the bad luck, he is momentarily
encouraged by her answer. But only momentarily… "Yep. He put a
shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger." Hurley admits that
he thinks he is under the same curse, but Mrs. Toomey doesn't want to
hear it. "You make your own luck, Mr. Reyes," she says.
"You're looking for an excuse that doesn't exist."
Back on the island, Claire and Locke begin to bond while she helps him
with his project. She is glad to have something to do other than
trying to remember what happened to her out in the jungle.
Meanwhile, Jack and Sayid continue through the jungle trying to find a
way across the gorge. Sayid begins to feel like he recognizes
something and when Jack presses on he walks straight into another trip
wire. KA-BOOM! A huge explosion rips through the brush in front of
them and when the dust settles we see Jack and Sayid combing through
the remnants of Rousseau's habitat. But wait a minute, why isn't there
any wreckage? There is nothing here. Sayid realizes that Rousseau must
have known he would eventually find his way back here, so she
booby-trapped it and moved on. But moved on where?
Meanwhile Charlie and Hurley are trying to work their way toward the
sound of the explosion to see if Jack and Sayid are hurt. Charlie
demands to know why Hurley has been acting so strange, and, finally,
Hurley is ready to tell him. But just as he begins, a shot rings out,
shattering a tree-branch next to them. Wait a minute…did someone
just shoot at them? And they get their answer when a second shot hits
even closer than the last one. They scatter, running for their lives
in opposite directions. Hurley is charging through the jungle and
falls flat on his face. When he rises, he finds himself staring down
the barrel of a rifle -- with Rousseau on the other end.
Normally, Hurley would be scared out of his wits and, yeah, there's
some fear here, but beneath it there is something else….desperation.
He needs to know what the numbers mean and he wants the answers right
now! Something in his attitude touches Rousseau and she tells him that
her team picked up the transmission repeating those numbers from their
ship. They changed course to investigate and wrecked on the island as
a result. Her team continued to search for the transmission source
and, weeks later, discovered the radio tower on the island, by the
black rock. They continued to search for the meaning of those numbers
while they waited for rescue, but then the sickness came and destroyed
her team. After they were gone, Rousseau went to the tower and changed
the transmission to the one that we heard in the pilot episode. But
what about the numbers, where did they get their power? Doesn't she
know that the numbers are cursed? Rousseau tells him that the numbers
are what brought her here -- just as they brought Hurley here, too.
And ever since then, she has lost everything she ever loved. So yes,
she agrees that the numbers must be cursed.
And Hurley is redeemed. He is so overwhelmingly relieved to finally
have someone agree with him that he can't help himself. He throws
himself at Rousseau and smothers him in a genuine embrace of sincere
appreciation. He isn't crazy. He really isn't.
Back at her habitat, Jack and Sayid are trying to salvage what little
they can from the wreckage. And that's when Sayid discovers the
tattered remains of his photo -- Nadia's face still clear, her eyes
looking right through him. And all of a sudden, Charlie appears and
tells them about being shot at. And just as we wonder what happened
with Hurley, he shows up. Just walks into the scene as calm as can be
and hands a battery to Jack. And there's one more thing too. He makes
eye contact with Sayid… "She says hey."
Later that night as Jin and Michael continue to work on the raft, Jack
and the others return to the beach. Sayid hands the battery over to a
very grateful Michael.
Elsewhere, Claire is helping Locke put the finishing touches on his
project. While they talk, Claire admits that she was going to give her
baby up for adoption. And you know what? Today just happens to be her
birthday. When Locke asks her why she hasn't told anybody about it,
she makes a case for why she believes it doesn't matter. And as Locke
turns over his project, we can all clearly see it for what it is. It's
a cradle -- and it's beautiful. "Happy Birthday, Claire."
At another campfire, Charlie joins Hurley and asks him to finish the
conversation they were having when the gunfire started. Hurley tells
Charlie he thinks the plane crash was his fault. But Charlie tells
Hurley that bad things happen to good people all the time and admits
to Hurley that he was a drug addict. And that most certainly wasn't
Hurley's fault. And as that sets in, Hurley Charlie tells Hurley that
he just shared his deepest, darkest secret -- the least Hurley could
do is reciprocate.
"Okay," Hurley says, "back home…I'm worth one hundred
and fifty-six million dollars." Charlie is dead silent for a
beat. Then… "Fine, don't tell me. I bear my soul and all I get
is bloody jokes."
And as we leave the beach for the evening we make one last stop deep
in the jungle at the hatch. We get closer and closer and we begin to
notice something etched into the concrete surrounding the hatch
itself. It looks like a series of numbers. And as we get still closer
we can read exactly which numbers they are:
4,8.15,16,23,42… |
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Information
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