In order to contact nearby ships when he takes the raft out in the open sea, Michael would really like an electronic signalling device. Even if Sayid could configure something, there would be nothing to power it however. Sayid told them that Danielle Rousseau had batteries, but he refuses to tell anyone how to find her. She won't give them what they want, and he is not sure he even knows where to look for her. The only thing he can discern from her maps is that she resides in a place called Dark Territory. The Re-Max agent is probably going to recommend renaming that neighborhood, and I bet the bunker's curbside appeal leaves something to be desired too!
All thoughts of the battery become secondary for Hurley when he sees Rousseau's papers with the following numbers repeating down the page: 4 8 15 16 23 42 I would like to take this moment to thank Lost for bringing paranoia into my everyday life. After viewing this episode if I see the numbers in certain situations I can easily get creeped out. If my new shoes cost $48.15, I will wonder if buying them might lead to breaking my leg at some future date. And I am really attentive to flight numbers as well. This is not an isolated fear that I alone have. My brother once got a chill when his lunch total came to $8.15.
These numbers are significant to Hurley because they are the numbers he used to win the mega lottery. After his big win, terrible things happened around him that he attributed to the lottery win. There is an urban legend about lottery winners being cursed by their new found wealth. In Hurley's case, his grandpa died, a priest was struck by lightening at the funeral, his brother's wife left him for a waitress, the new house he bought his mother caught on fire, his mother broke her ankle and Hurley was falsely arrested for being a drug dealer. (He will be pursued by the police again once he gets off the island with the new charge being murder. Another false accusation. Come on LAPD!!) He goes back to the loony bin where he once resided to talk to a patient named Leonard. Leonard repeats the numbers continuously which is how Hurley came to hear of them. Leonard flips out when Hurley tells him he used the numbers to win the lottery. He screams that a box is open and won't be stopped. He tells Hurley that a man named Sam Toomey in Australia knows about the numbers. Hurley finds Sam's house in the middle of nowhere...literally. Blimey! His widow tells Hurley all about Sam and Leonard working for the U.S. Navy, listening to transmissions over the Pacific. They heard the numbers repeated one night, and Sam used them to win a bean counting contest at the fair. When bad things started happening he believed the numbers had cursed him. When he couldn't take it anymore, he shot himself. Mrs. Toomey does not buy into the curse, and represents the other philosophy that you make your own luck. Choice over destiny.
Since the numbers have ultimately brought Hurley to the Island, he will stop at nothing to talk to Rousseau himself about what the numbers mean. He steals the map from Sayid and takes off to find her. When Jack, Charlie and Sayid figure out what he's done they set off after him. They find him standing on one of Rousseau's traps, but thanks to his "spryness" he is able to avoid being wounded. They all reach a consensus to find Danielle together, but are soon separated when Hurley and Charlie cross over a ravine on a rickety bridge that falls apart leaving Sayid and Jack stranded on the other side. As Jack and Sayid attempt to make their way over to Hurley and Charlie they come across Danielle's bunker. KABLAAM! And it blows up. Well, that is one less step for the Extreme Home Makeover crew anyway. She knew Sayid would come back with his friends, so she booby trapped it and moved away. Charlie finds them sifting through the rubble. He had lost Hurley as they ran from a hail of bullets that Sayid rightly assumes came from Rousseau.
Hurley did not have a chance of outrunning Rousseau, but she is disarmed by him when he gives vent to his frustration over needing the answers as to the meaning of the numbers. He is willing to go along with a lot of island weirdness including a monster that might or might not be a pissed off giraffe, but the numbers have turned his world upside down. She tells him that her shipmates heard the numbers being transmitted and altered their course to investigate. The ship ran aground stranding them on the Island. They found the radio tower near the Black Rock where the signal was broadcast, but the sickness and eventual death of her group bumped solving the numbers mystery down the priority list. Instead she recorded the distress call that now plays on a loop. But seeing as how the numbers brought her to the Island, and she has subsequently lost everything she holds dear, she readily admits they are cursed. Overcome with relief at finally having someone take his side and not think of him as crazy he smothers Danielle in a bear hug. He also succeeds in securing a battery from her.
In other Island developments:
- Happy Birthday Claire! Enjoy your day with the island DIYer who will show you how to make a crib using upcycled milk jugs and double sided tape
- Charlie is really competing with Sawyer in the a-hole department when it comes to Hurley fat jokes
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