Hurley’s Numbers Repeated This Week
Someone asked me why there’s a first season episode being rerun this week. We can all agree that Lost’s plot is convoluted and accomplishes, successfully or not, more plot twists that what most television series do in their entire run.
This week’s rerun from season one is “Numbers”.
Every time you see a rerun it’s a reminder from the producers that says: “We want you to see this episode again so you’ll know what’s going on in the next new episode of Lost. If you’re more confused than your friends and coworkers let’s get you caught up.”
Ideally this would allow for a better new episode the following week, one that doesn’t rely on too much exposition from characters — the dialog that that they exchange for the sole purpose of getting the viewer caught up with events that have already taken place.
Numbers requires another airing because the Hurley/Libby relationship will soon be revealed and there are a lot of information about Hurley’s pre-Craphole Island life within this episode:
- Hurley worked at a fast foot joint and lived with his mother.
- He won a record lottery using the numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.
- After his win, bad things happen around him, but never to him.
- Hurley suspected the numbers are the cause.
- His source for the numbers is a man in an institution…
- …where a doctor recognized Hurley as “Hugo.”
- The mentally ill patient Hurley visited went crazy after hearing the numbers broadcast over shortwave radio long ago.
Libby and Hurley crossed paths at some point during this timeline, directly or indirectly. Is Libby the mentally ill patient’s doctor? Did Libby treat Hugo? Does she know anything about the numbers, or the Dharma Initiative?
