Essentials
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The Numbers
We first learn about 'the numbers' during Episode 18 of Season One, a Hurley centric episode entitled 'Numbers'. Hurley notices a series of numbers repeated on a piece of Danielle's maps: 4 8 15 16 23 42. In a flashback, we see that Hurley used the exact same set of numbers to win a lottery. After winning, Hurley falls under what he believes to be a curse. Under the curse, he continues to have good luck, but those around him have extremely bad luck and suffer injury and death. Hurley becomes driven to find out more about the numbers, which he believes are responsible for all the bad things happening around him. He visits Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where he was formerly a patient. While he is there, he talks to a patient named Leonard Simms, whom Hurley got the numbers from. Lenny tells Hurley that the numbers are bad, that he shouldn't have used them, and that Sam Toomey heard the numbers in Kalgoorie. So, Hurley travels to Australia to see Sam Toomey. Instead, he finds Toomey's widow, Martha. Martha tells Hurley that Sam and Lenny were serving together on a Navy listening mission in the Pacific when Sam heard the numbers on the radio. Sam used the numbers to win a bean guessing game that had been going on for forty years without a winner. Like Hurley, Sam then fell under a curse where he had good luck, but those around him suffered. Eventually, Sam broke the curse by committing suicide. On the island, Hurley decides to track Danielle down to find out why the numbers are on her map. She tells him that the numbers were being broadcast from the radio tower before she changed the transmission, but that she doesn't know what the numbers mean. When Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley prepare to blow the hatch open with dynamite, Hurley notices the numbers are imprinted on the side of the hatch. Feeling the numbers are a bad omen, he tries to stop the team from opening the hatch, but Locke lights the fuse despite Hurley's warnings. The numbers have also popped up in some ways throughout flashbacks in the show. For example, Flight 815 is a combination of the numbers 8 and 15. Kate had a 23 thousand dollar bounty. You can find more references to the numbers in the numbers section.
Item Last Updated: April 23, 2006, 12:12:53 PM by abbiegail444
