Season 1 - Episode 17 (...In Translation) and Episode 18 (Numbers)
Episode 17 (...In Translation)
This is Jin's eye. This is Jin's eye looking out to the ocean. This is Jin's eye flashing back to an office, where he is asking for Mr. Paik's daughter's hand in marriage. Well, begging for it actually.
*Why do they say "Asking for her hand in marriage"? It has been my experience that Fathers don't mind a man taking his daughter's hand. It's the other bits he doesn't want to grant access to. *
This is Jin's eye watching Mr. Paik grill him about his future before consenting to allow this nobody from a fishing village access to his daughter's er...hand. This is Jin's eye telling Mr. Paik that his own Father is dead. This is Jin's eye nearly jumping for joy when Mr. Paik agrees to let him marry Sun, provided he takes a job in Mr. Paik's organization, at the expense of his own dream to open a restaurant and eventually his own hotel. Oh, and this is Jin's eye nearly jumping out of its socket when he sees his wife on the beach in a bikini.
This is my eye wanting to kick Jin's ass when he wraps a bikini clad Sun in a blanket so my eye can't see her anymore.
The rest of the castaways watch Jin and Sun argue in Korean, unsure whether they should interfere. When Jin tries to pull Sun back to the cave to change her clothes and she falls, Michael decides that he's seen enough. He pushes Jin away from Sun and the two of them stare each other down, language barrier forgotten.
Sun decides that she's seen enough and pushes Michael back with a hard slap in the face. With a long, lingering stare, she backs him down and leaves the beach with her husband.
Back in the cave, as Sun changes into more Jin friendly attire, he interrogates her about her relationship with Michael. She claims that they don't have one. He doesn't seem convinced.
On their wedding day, as Sun is changing, they speak of Jin's father. They also speak of their postponed honeymoon. Jin wants Mr. Paik to see that he's committed. He promises Sun that soon, they will have the honeymoon they've always dreamed of.
I bet he takes her on an extended trip to a virtually deserted tropical island.
Sun goes to Michael and apologizes in English. She tries to explain to Michael what Jin might be capable of. In Michael's opinion, it's no longer his problem.
Hurley comes across Jin, who is whacking lava rocks on the golf course.
"You should try sea urchin. They got more 'ping'."
Hurley tries his best to interest Jin in some fishing. Jin prefers to remain an outsider.
On the beach, Shannon and Saayid are discussing the finer points of knot tying. Judging by the conversation, one day very soon, one of them is gonna have some rope burn.
Walt is helping Michael build the raft. Michael is trying to encourage Walt's interest in going to New York, but Walt would rather throw the ball to Vincent. Jack and Michael discuss who's going on the raft. Sawyer has a place on the raft which he bought with some of his hoarded goods.
Sun and Kate discuss Jin and how much he's changed. Just when we are about to learn all the juicy details about their previously joyous life together, the camp erupts in chaos. Michael's raft is on fire. Michael assumes that Jin is responsible.
Sun runs to find her husband. He's in the cave, tending to some burns on his hands. Sun assumes the worst.
Flash to Jin running up the stairs to Mr. Paik's office. He thinks he's there to take the blame for a problem, when actually, Mr. Paik has a new job for him. He's to deliver a message to a Secretary Han, with whom Mr. Paik is unhappy.
The Secretary's daughter is watching Hurley on television.
He's relieved that Jin is only there to tell him that Mr. Paik is unhappy. So relieved that he foists his daughter's pet dog on him in gratitude.
Saayid goes to Boone, extending a courtesy to him before he starts playing "Naughty Sailor" with Shannon. Boone explains that his sister is a user of men. If only Saayid could know just how intimately Boone knows this.
Sawyer and Jin have a foot to chin talk about how Jin torched the raft.
Saayid and Shannon discuss the finer points of shelter construction and when Saayid suggests that perhaps Shannon should find another man to help her in her hour of need, she rushes off to find Boone and confront him. She finds Locke instead. Locke dispenses some Cool Zen Locke advice about how everyone gets a new life on the island and how she might want to use her new life to better advantage.
Sawyer has Jin at his knife wielding mercy.
Jin flashes back to a dinner that Sun prepared for him. As they sit down to enjoy some domestic bliss, his cell phone rings. He ignores it, but soon after their home phone begins ringing. That he cannot ignore. Mr. Paik doesn't like the way Jin delivers his messages. He sends his son-in-law back to the Secretary's home with another man to deliver the message again. With a gun. When the murder is completed, Jin is to take the car and dump it at the river bank, 8 kilometers away. Jin forestalls the killing of the Secretary by beating the tar out of him in front of his family. He delivers the message and saves Han's life in the process.
Back in their apartment, he tries to wash off the blood. Sun is understandably upset by the sight of so much blood on her husband. She tries to get him to explain what's going on. Jin can only tell her that he does what her Father wants him to do.
Sawyer brings Jin to the beach. Jack and Hurley are barely able to restrain Michael from killing Jin. Jin shouts at Sun and Michael, Michael finally snaps. The two men have it out, with Jin taking a beating from an enraged Michael. Just as Michael is about to deliver another blow, Sun cries out in English for him to stop. She tells them that Jin didn't burn the raft. Hurley sums up how everyone but Michael and Kate feel about the revelation.
"Didn't see that comin'."
She explains that Jin found the raft already on fire and tried to put it out, which is how he burned his hands.
Locke backs up her explanation and points out that "They've attacked us. Sabotaged us. Abducted us. Murdered us. Maybe it's time we stop blaming us and start worrying about them. We're not the only people on this island and we all know it!"
Michael surveys the damage and finds that there is nothing to salvage. He's determined to build a better raft. Walt wants to help.
Jin packs his things and leaves the cave, refusing to speak to Sun. She tells him (In English, so it seems odd that he turns to her and seems to pay attention and comprehend) that she was planning to leave him but he made her think that he still loved her, so she stayed. She wants to go back to the beginning.
Jin goes back to his own beginning. He visits his not so dead Father in the fishing village and begs his Father's forgiveness for being ashamed of him. Hugging and fishing ensue. The two men discuss Jin's wife and their troubles. Jin tells his Father that the couple don't talk anymore and that the reason is that her Father is not a good man, but she doesn't see it. Jin wishes that they could start over, but he has responsibilities and obligations to Mr. Paik. He is to deliver watches to Mr. Paik's associates in Syndey and Los Angeles. Jin's Father suggests that Jin should make that task the last thing that he does for Sun's Father and that he and Sun take that opportunity to start over and save their marriage.
Back in the cave, after a pregnant pause, Jin tells Sun that it is too late to start over and walks away.
On the beach, in front of a roaring fire, Shannon starts her new life by kissing Saayid. Seems a lot like her old life, minus the con game on her brother.
In the cave, Walt is setting up the backgammon board but has no one to play with. When Locke asks if he has an opponent, we learn that Hurley now owes Walt $83,000 and he's giving the big guy a chance to win it back. Locke sits down across from Walt. When the subject of fathers comes up, we learn that Locke's Dad wasn't very cool. As the game begins, Locke casually asks Walt why he burnt the raft. Turns out that Walt is tired of moving around and that he likes it on the island and wants to stay. So does Locke.
In the morning, Michael is beginning construction on the new raft when Jin comes along with an armload of bamboo and the axe.
"Boat."
With one word, the two men bury the hatchet and begin work on a way to get off the island.
Cue Hurley and his Discman walking down the beach.
"So why'd you fill my sorrow, with the words you've borrowed from the only place that you've known?" Shannon and Saayid.
"And why'd you sing Hallelujah, if it means nothing to ya? Why do you sing with me at all?" Sun in her bikini letting the blanket that once covered her blow away in the breeze as she steps into the surf.
"So why'd you fill my sorrow with the words you've borrowed from the only place that you've known?" Charlie bringing a snack to Claire.
"And why'd you sing Hall..." Hurley, running out of juice in his discman.
"Son of a bitch."
Discussion
Episode 18 (Numbers)
This episode opens with Hurley helping Michael and Jin built Raft II. Jack comes along and he and Michael discuss the possibility of Saayid building something for Michael to bring with them for signaling an S.O.S. to catch the attention of any passing ships. The problem is that they lack power for any sort of radio for the raft. Hurley chimes in to remind them that the crazy French chick had batteries. Hurley and Jack ask Saayid to show them how to find her but he is not terribly helpful. It seems that he has given up on translating or even making any sense at all out of the papers that he stole from her as he escaped. Song lyrics mixed with equations and maps don't give him anything to work with.
Hurley on the other hand finds something very significant in her papers. A series of numbers.
In his Los Angeles home, Hurley is watching television while his mother tries to convince him that he needs to get out of the house. Nothing good ever came from sitting home and watching TV on a Saturday night. Nothing good except "Mary Jo" (who looks a lot like Sawyer's "Jess" from episode 08, "Confidence Man.") announcing that the winning lotto numbers of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are the exact ones on the ticket in Hurley's hand. Seems that the big man is the big winner after 16 weeks without one. Fainting ensues.
Speaking of the unconscious, Saayid is trying to sleep, but Hurley has other ideas. He quizzes Saayid about the papers and the numbers that are repeatedly written. He asks about the cable that Saayid found and where it led him.
At a press conference, Hurley explains that the numbers just came to him. He introduces his Mother and his brother Diego and his wife Lisa (I don't know why, but I think she might be a lesbian) to the cameras. Then he introduces his Grandfather Tito. With the money Hurley now has, his first act will be something for the three job working, never taken a vacation in fifty two years, seventy year old Tito. He plans to "Finally give him the rest that he's earned." What an odd way to put it.
Sure enough, while Hurley is explaining how he plans to use the money to help make up for what he's put his family through recently, Tito gets his rest. He dies, right there on camera.
Wow. Having your Grampa die just as you can finally pay him back for a lifetime of sacrifice on your behalf. The irony could drive a man insane.
In the cave, Hurley is filling water bottles for a hike. Charlie wants to come with, but Hurley is looking for some alone time. Judging by the amount of water he has with him, he's looking for a lot of alone time.
Locke asks Claire to help him build something. Despite her delicate condition, she's just the gal for the job. The two of them waddle down the beach.
Saayid confronts Jack about him stealing one of the maps that he stole from Rousseau. The two of them realize that the big man has gone in search of the crazy French chick. Saayid, Jack and Charlie head after him.
A determined Hurley treks down the beach in search of an explanation.
In his Hummer, he an his Mom are talking about all the bad things that have happened since he won the money.
Grampa dying.
The priest getting hit by lightning at the funeral.
Diego's wife leaving him for another woman.
Hurley starts to think that the money might be cursed. His Catholic mother swats him for blasphemy. Catholics don't believe in curses.
As they pull up to their destination, Hurley has his Mom put on a blindfold to keep the surprise from her. As she gets out of the truck she cracks her ankle on the curb. Comforting her ankle, Hurley's Mom smells smoke. The new house he bought for his Mom is on fire. While he's dialing 911, he hears sirens. That was quick. The sirens belong to police, not fire trucks and they quickly have Hurley in handcuffs on the hood of his H2.
"No such thing as curses, huh, Ma?"
The thick, billowy smoke coming from the house sure looks familiar.
On the beach, Hurley finds a cable and follows it into the jungle.
Back in his accountant's office, the big man is getting some good news for a change. His stocks are all up. His orange futures have improved thanks to some tropical storms in Florida and the insurance settlement from the fire at his sneaker factory in Canada was overinsured and despite 8 people dying, his bottom line will improve. He also owns a box factory in Tuscany. Box factory? Didn't Locke work at a box factory? His accountant tries to reassure him that the money isn't bringing him bad luck. The accountant doesn't believe in curses. He believes in numbers. With that thought in his head, Hurley begins to suspect that it isn't the money that's cursed, it's the numbers he used to win it that are the problem. During the accountant's diatribe against curses, a screaming body plummets past the window.
On the beach Sawyer's headache is getting aggravated by Michael's hammering and all the other raft building noises.
Kate tries to Sun that Jin will come back after some healing time.
In the jungle is following the cable when he comes across a dead boar hanging from a tree. Undaunted by the sight, he continues deeper into the jungle, still following the cable. Saayid finds him just as he's tripped one of the crazy French chick's traps and his frantic shout keeps the big man from releasing the deadly bundle of sharpened sticks by taking his weight off the pressure trigger of the trap. While the three rescuers search frantically for something to replace Hurley's weight on the trap, he decides that he can get out of the way of the swinging bundle of doom. He's spry.
Success!
When Jack asks him what he's doing out in the jungle, his only explanation is that he came out in search of a battery. The three rescuers agree to join his Quest for Juice.
At a hospital of some sort, Hurley is on another sort of quest. He wants to talk to his friend, Leonard. While he's arguing with the nurse, he spies a janitor trying to change a lightbulb while leaning precariously from a wobbly ladder. The suddenly bad luck wary Hurley puts a stop to that. He goes back to trying to pry a visit with Leonard out of the nurse but is interrupted by an Asian man he calls "Doc" who calls him by name and asks what he's doing back. The Doc gets him in to see Lenny. Lenny is playing "Connect 4" while incessantly repeating the same numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery. When he tells Lenny that he used the numbers to win the lottery, Lenny comes out of his fuge and starts yelling at Hurley.
"You shouldn't a done that. You've opened the box."
"I what?"
"Aw, ya shouldn't have used those numbers."
"Why not?"
"It doesn't stop. You've gotta get away from those numbers. You gotta get far, far away."
Hurley learns that Lenny got the numbers from Sam Toomey who heard them in Australia.
Back in the jungle, the team comes across a rope bridge strung over a dry river bed. Hurley decide to check it out. He makes it across with no trouble. Charlie follows. He has trouble and nearly plummets to his death, but before the bridge gives way, he's across. Jack and Saayid tell them to wait while they find a way around. Hurley doesn't want to stay put, but Charlie likes the idea of waiting for the other two.
Hurley finds Sam Toomey's house in the outback. Turns out that Sam's been dead for 4 years. His widow relates the story of the numbers. It seems that Sam heard the numbers at his navy listening post 16 years ago. A voice repeated them, over and over through the static that was what Sam usually heard. Later, when he and his wife were at a fair, he used the numbers to win at a "guess how many beans in the jar" contest. Got it to the bean. In the forty years that the jar guessing had been going on, no one had ever come close. They won the money, but on the way home, a pick up truck blew a tire and hits them head on, costing Sam's wife her leg. From then on, Sam kept a record of bad events surrounding him, blaming it all on the numbers. Sam finally escaped the numbers by killing himself. The widow doesn't believe in curses either.
Locke and Claire are building. He's using glue he made out of rendered animal fat. Claire figures he could be the next Bob Villa. Or maybe he should be a home inspector. Claire still can't remember what happened to her.
Saayid and Jack get close enough to the crazy French chick's hideaway to trip an explosion that destroys it. Saayid realizes that the explosion was set when she realized that someone would come looking for her.
In the jungle, Charlie and Hurley are trying to find Jack and Saayid. Charlie suggests that Hurley is acting like a bloody nutter.
"I am not. Crazy. I've got my reasons."
Just as he's about to give Charlie the whole backstory on the numbers, a bullet hits a tree nearby. Then another. Then they run.
Hurley runs and trips.
When he gets up, he's face to face with the crazy French chick and her rifle. He introduces himself and tries to explain his presence. He asks her about the numbers.
She doesn't know.
"What? You don't know? Ok. That thing in the woods? Maybe it's a monster. Maybe it's a pissed off giraffe. I don't know. The fact that no one is even looking for us. Yeah, that's weird. But I just go along with it, 'cuz I'm along for the ride. Good old fun time Hurley. Well guess what? Now, I want some friggin' answers!"
She explains that the numbers were what brought her ship to run aground and her team to the island. She realizes that there might well be something to Hurley's theory that the numbers are cursed. Since she first heard the numbers, she's lost everything. Grateful doesn't begin to describe Hurley at this point.
Charlie comes across Jack and Saayid as they get ready to go find Hurley.
Hurley walks out of the jungle on his own, battery in hand. He has a message for Saayid.
"She says: 'Hey'."
Back at camp, Saayid hands the battery to Michael.
Claire and Locke discuss the baby's name as he finishes his construction project. Claire reveals that it happens to be her birthday today. According to Locke, having birthdays close together is good luck. Claire asks if he believes in luck. He believes in a lot things. When he reveals what it is that the two of them have been building, it turns out to be cradle.
Happy Birthday, Claire.
Hurley and Charlie pick up their pre-shooting jungle conversation where they left off. Hurley reveals that he thinks that the crash was his fault. Charlie reveals his own deep dark heroin secret. When he asks Hurley to reciprocate, Hurley tells him his net worth. Charlie is incensed that Hurley would joke about his own deep dark.
Speaking of deep dark, slowly pan to the side of Locke's hatch.
4 8 15 16 23 42
Discussion
This is Jin's eye. This is Jin's eye looking out to the ocean. This is Jin's eye flashing back to an office, where he is asking for Mr. Paik's daughter's hand in marriage. Well, begging for it actually.
*Why do they say "Asking for her hand in marriage"? It has been my experience that Fathers don't mind a man taking his daughter's hand. It's the other bits he doesn't want to grant access to. *
This is Jin's eye watching Mr. Paik grill him about his future before consenting to allow this nobody from a fishing village access to his daughter's er...hand. This is Jin's eye telling Mr. Paik that his own Father is dead. This is Jin's eye nearly jumping for joy when Mr. Paik agrees to let him marry Sun, provided he takes a job in Mr. Paik's organization, at the expense of his own dream to open a restaurant and eventually his own hotel. Oh, and this is Jin's eye nearly jumping out of its socket when he sees his wife on the beach in a bikini.
This is my eye wanting to kick Jin's ass when he wraps a bikini clad Sun in a blanket so my eye can't see her anymore.
The rest of the castaways watch Jin and Sun argue in Korean, unsure whether they should interfere. When Jin tries to pull Sun back to the cave to change her clothes and she falls, Michael decides that he's seen enough. He pushes Jin away from Sun and the two of them stare each other down, language barrier forgotten.
Sun decides that she's seen enough and pushes Michael back with a hard slap in the face. With a long, lingering stare, she backs him down and leaves the beach with her husband.
Back in the cave, as Sun changes into more Jin friendly attire, he interrogates her about her relationship with Michael. She claims that they don't have one. He doesn't seem convinced.
On their wedding day, as Sun is changing, they speak of Jin's father. They also speak of their postponed honeymoon. Jin wants Mr. Paik to see that he's committed. He promises Sun that soon, they will have the honeymoon they've always dreamed of.
I bet he takes her on an extended trip to a virtually deserted tropical island.
Sun goes to Michael and apologizes in English. She tries to explain to Michael what Jin might be capable of. In Michael's opinion, it's no longer his problem.
Hurley comes across Jin, who is whacking lava rocks on the golf course.
"You should try sea urchin. They got more 'ping'."
Hurley tries his best to interest Jin in some fishing. Jin prefers to remain an outsider.
On the beach, Shannon and Saayid are discussing the finer points of knot tying. Judging by the conversation, one day very soon, one of them is gonna have some rope burn.
Walt is helping Michael build the raft. Michael is trying to encourage Walt's interest in going to New York, but Walt would rather throw the ball to Vincent. Jack and Michael discuss who's going on the raft. Sawyer has a place on the raft which he bought with some of his hoarded goods.
Sun and Kate discuss Jin and how much he's changed. Just when we are about to learn all the juicy details about their previously joyous life together, the camp erupts in chaos. Michael's raft is on fire. Michael assumes that Jin is responsible.
Sun runs to find her husband. He's in the cave, tending to some burns on his hands. Sun assumes the worst.
Flash to Jin running up the stairs to Mr. Paik's office. He thinks he's there to take the blame for a problem, when actually, Mr. Paik has a new job for him. He's to deliver a message to a Secretary Han, with whom Mr. Paik is unhappy.
The Secretary's daughter is watching Hurley on television.
He's relieved that Jin is only there to tell him that Mr. Paik is unhappy. So relieved that he foists his daughter's pet dog on him in gratitude.
Saayid goes to Boone, extending a courtesy to him before he starts playing "Naughty Sailor" with Shannon. Boone explains that his sister is a user of men. If only Saayid could know just how intimately Boone knows this.
Sawyer and Jin have a foot to chin talk about how Jin torched the raft.
Saayid and Shannon discuss the finer points of shelter construction and when Saayid suggests that perhaps Shannon should find another man to help her in her hour of need, she rushes off to find Boone and confront him. She finds Locke instead. Locke dispenses some Cool Zen Locke advice about how everyone gets a new life on the island and how she might want to use her new life to better advantage.
Sawyer has Jin at his knife wielding mercy.
Jin flashes back to a dinner that Sun prepared for him. As they sit down to enjoy some domestic bliss, his cell phone rings. He ignores it, but soon after their home phone begins ringing. That he cannot ignore. Mr. Paik doesn't like the way Jin delivers his messages. He sends his son-in-law back to the Secretary's home with another man to deliver the message again. With a gun. When the murder is completed, Jin is to take the car and dump it at the river bank, 8 kilometers away. Jin forestalls the killing of the Secretary by beating the tar out of him in front of his family. He delivers the message and saves Han's life in the process.
Back in their apartment, he tries to wash off the blood. Sun is understandably upset by the sight of so much blood on her husband. She tries to get him to explain what's going on. Jin can only tell her that he does what her Father wants him to do.
Sawyer brings Jin to the beach. Jack and Hurley are barely able to restrain Michael from killing Jin. Jin shouts at Sun and Michael, Michael finally snaps. The two men have it out, with Jin taking a beating from an enraged Michael. Just as Michael is about to deliver another blow, Sun cries out in English for him to stop. She tells them that Jin didn't burn the raft. Hurley sums up how everyone but Michael and Kate feel about the revelation.
"Didn't see that comin'."
She explains that Jin found the raft already on fire and tried to put it out, which is how he burned his hands.
Locke backs up her explanation and points out that "They've attacked us. Sabotaged us. Abducted us. Murdered us. Maybe it's time we stop blaming us and start worrying about them. We're not the only people on this island and we all know it!"
Michael surveys the damage and finds that there is nothing to salvage. He's determined to build a better raft. Walt wants to help.
Jin packs his things and leaves the cave, refusing to speak to Sun. She tells him (In English, so it seems odd that he turns to her and seems to pay attention and comprehend) that she was planning to leave him but he made her think that he still loved her, so she stayed. She wants to go back to the beginning.
Jin goes back to his own beginning. He visits his not so dead Father in the fishing village and begs his Father's forgiveness for being ashamed of him. Hugging and fishing ensue. The two men discuss Jin's wife and their troubles. Jin tells his Father that the couple don't talk anymore and that the reason is that her Father is not a good man, but she doesn't see it. Jin wishes that they could start over, but he has responsibilities and obligations to Mr. Paik. He is to deliver watches to Mr. Paik's associates in Syndey and Los Angeles. Jin's Father suggests that Jin should make that task the last thing that he does for Sun's Father and that he and Sun take that opportunity to start over and save their marriage.
Back in the cave, after a pregnant pause, Jin tells Sun that it is too late to start over and walks away.
On the beach, in front of a roaring fire, Shannon starts her new life by kissing Saayid. Seems a lot like her old life, minus the con game on her brother.
In the cave, Walt is setting up the backgammon board but has no one to play with. When Locke asks if he has an opponent, we learn that Hurley now owes Walt $83,000 and he's giving the big guy a chance to win it back. Locke sits down across from Walt. When the subject of fathers comes up, we learn that Locke's Dad wasn't very cool. As the game begins, Locke casually asks Walt why he burnt the raft. Turns out that Walt is tired of moving around and that he likes it on the island and wants to stay. So does Locke.
In the morning, Michael is beginning construction on the new raft when Jin comes along with an armload of bamboo and the axe.
"Boat."
With one word, the two men bury the hatchet and begin work on a way to get off the island.
Cue Hurley and his Discman walking down the beach.
"So why'd you fill my sorrow, with the words you've borrowed from the only place that you've known?" Shannon and Saayid.
"And why'd you sing Hallelujah, if it means nothing to ya? Why do you sing with me at all?" Sun in her bikini letting the blanket that once covered her blow away in the breeze as she steps into the surf.
"So why'd you fill my sorrow with the words you've borrowed from the only place that you've known?" Charlie bringing a snack to Claire.
"And why'd you sing Hall..." Hurley, running out of juice in his discman.
"Son of a bitch."
Discussion
Episode 18 (Numbers)
This episode opens with Hurley helping Michael and Jin built Raft II. Jack comes along and he and Michael discuss the possibility of Saayid building something for Michael to bring with them for signaling an S.O.S. to catch the attention of any passing ships. The problem is that they lack power for any sort of radio for the raft. Hurley chimes in to remind them that the crazy French chick had batteries. Hurley and Jack ask Saayid to show them how to find her but he is not terribly helpful. It seems that he has given up on translating or even making any sense at all out of the papers that he stole from her as he escaped. Song lyrics mixed with equations and maps don't give him anything to work with.
Hurley on the other hand finds something very significant in her papers. A series of numbers.
In his Los Angeles home, Hurley is watching television while his mother tries to convince him that he needs to get out of the house. Nothing good ever came from sitting home and watching TV on a Saturday night. Nothing good except "Mary Jo" (who looks a lot like Sawyer's "Jess" from episode 08, "Confidence Man.") announcing that the winning lotto numbers of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are the exact ones on the ticket in Hurley's hand. Seems that the big man is the big winner after 16 weeks without one. Fainting ensues.
Speaking of the unconscious, Saayid is trying to sleep, but Hurley has other ideas. He quizzes Saayid about the papers and the numbers that are repeatedly written. He asks about the cable that Saayid found and where it led him.
At a press conference, Hurley explains that the numbers just came to him. He introduces his Mother and his brother Diego and his wife Lisa (I don't know why, but I think she might be a lesbian) to the cameras. Then he introduces his Grandfather Tito. With the money Hurley now has, his first act will be something for the three job working, never taken a vacation in fifty two years, seventy year old Tito. He plans to "Finally give him the rest that he's earned." What an odd way to put it.
Sure enough, while Hurley is explaining how he plans to use the money to help make up for what he's put his family through recently, Tito gets his rest. He dies, right there on camera.
Wow. Having your Grampa die just as you can finally pay him back for a lifetime of sacrifice on your behalf. The irony could drive a man insane.
In the cave, Hurley is filling water bottles for a hike. Charlie wants to come with, but Hurley is looking for some alone time. Judging by the amount of water he has with him, he's looking for a lot of alone time.
Locke asks Claire to help him build something. Despite her delicate condition, she's just the gal for the job. The two of them waddle down the beach.
Saayid confronts Jack about him stealing one of the maps that he stole from Rousseau. The two of them realize that the big man has gone in search of the crazy French chick. Saayid, Jack and Charlie head after him.
A determined Hurley treks down the beach in search of an explanation.
In his Hummer, he an his Mom are talking about all the bad things that have happened since he won the money.
Grampa dying.
The priest getting hit by lightning at the funeral.
Diego's wife leaving him for another woman.
Hurley starts to think that the money might be cursed. His Catholic mother swats him for blasphemy. Catholics don't believe in curses.
As they pull up to their destination, Hurley has his Mom put on a blindfold to keep the surprise from her. As she gets out of the truck she cracks her ankle on the curb. Comforting her ankle, Hurley's Mom smells smoke. The new house he bought for his Mom is on fire. While he's dialing 911, he hears sirens. That was quick. The sirens belong to police, not fire trucks and they quickly have Hurley in handcuffs on the hood of his H2.
"No such thing as curses, huh, Ma?"
The thick, billowy smoke coming from the house sure looks familiar.
On the beach, Hurley finds a cable and follows it into the jungle.
Back in his accountant's office, the big man is getting some good news for a change. His stocks are all up. His orange futures have improved thanks to some tropical storms in Florida and the insurance settlement from the fire at his sneaker factory in Canada was overinsured and despite 8 people dying, his bottom line will improve. He also owns a box factory in Tuscany. Box factory? Didn't Locke work at a box factory? His accountant tries to reassure him that the money isn't bringing him bad luck. The accountant doesn't believe in curses. He believes in numbers. With that thought in his head, Hurley begins to suspect that it isn't the money that's cursed, it's the numbers he used to win it that are the problem. During the accountant's diatribe against curses, a screaming body plummets past the window.
On the beach Sawyer's headache is getting aggravated by Michael's hammering and all the other raft building noises.
Kate tries to Sun that Jin will come back after some healing time.
In the jungle is following the cable when he comes across a dead boar hanging from a tree. Undaunted by the sight, he continues deeper into the jungle, still following the cable. Saayid finds him just as he's tripped one of the crazy French chick's traps and his frantic shout keeps the big man from releasing the deadly bundle of sharpened sticks by taking his weight off the pressure trigger of the trap. While the three rescuers search frantically for something to replace Hurley's weight on the trap, he decides that he can get out of the way of the swinging bundle of doom. He's spry.
Success!
When Jack asks him what he's doing out in the jungle, his only explanation is that he came out in search of a battery. The three rescuers agree to join his Quest for Juice.
At a hospital of some sort, Hurley is on another sort of quest. He wants to talk to his friend, Leonard. While he's arguing with the nurse, he spies a janitor trying to change a lightbulb while leaning precariously from a wobbly ladder. The suddenly bad luck wary Hurley puts a stop to that. He goes back to trying to pry a visit with Leonard out of the nurse but is interrupted by an Asian man he calls "Doc" who calls him by name and asks what he's doing back. The Doc gets him in to see Lenny. Lenny is playing "Connect 4" while incessantly repeating the same numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery. When he tells Lenny that he used the numbers to win the lottery, Lenny comes out of his fuge and starts yelling at Hurley.
"You shouldn't a done that. You've opened the box."
"I what?"
"Aw, ya shouldn't have used those numbers."
"Why not?"
"It doesn't stop. You've gotta get away from those numbers. You gotta get far, far away."
Hurley learns that Lenny got the numbers from Sam Toomey who heard them in Australia.
Back in the jungle, the team comes across a rope bridge strung over a dry river bed. Hurley decide to check it out. He makes it across with no trouble. Charlie follows. He has trouble and nearly plummets to his death, but before the bridge gives way, he's across. Jack and Saayid tell them to wait while they find a way around. Hurley doesn't want to stay put, but Charlie likes the idea of waiting for the other two.
Hurley finds Sam Toomey's house in the outback. Turns out that Sam's been dead for 4 years. His widow relates the story of the numbers. It seems that Sam heard the numbers at his navy listening post 16 years ago. A voice repeated them, over and over through the static that was what Sam usually heard. Later, when he and his wife were at a fair, he used the numbers to win at a "guess how many beans in the jar" contest. Got it to the bean. In the forty years that the jar guessing had been going on, no one had ever come close. They won the money, but on the way home, a pick up truck blew a tire and hits them head on, costing Sam's wife her leg. From then on, Sam kept a record of bad events surrounding him, blaming it all on the numbers. Sam finally escaped the numbers by killing himself. The widow doesn't believe in curses either.
Locke and Claire are building. He's using glue he made out of rendered animal fat. Claire figures he could be the next Bob Villa. Or maybe he should be a home inspector. Claire still can't remember what happened to her.
Saayid and Jack get close enough to the crazy French chick's hideaway to trip an explosion that destroys it. Saayid realizes that the explosion was set when she realized that someone would come looking for her.
In the jungle, Charlie and Hurley are trying to find Jack and Saayid. Charlie suggests that Hurley is acting like a bloody nutter.
"I am not. Crazy. I've got my reasons."
Just as he's about to give Charlie the whole backstory on the numbers, a bullet hits a tree nearby. Then another. Then they run.
Hurley runs and trips.
When he gets up, he's face to face with the crazy French chick and her rifle. He introduces himself and tries to explain his presence. He asks her about the numbers.
She doesn't know.
"What? You don't know? Ok. That thing in the woods? Maybe it's a monster. Maybe it's a pissed off giraffe. I don't know. The fact that no one is even looking for us. Yeah, that's weird. But I just go along with it, 'cuz I'm along for the ride. Good old fun time Hurley. Well guess what? Now, I want some friggin' answers!"
She explains that the numbers were what brought her ship to run aground and her team to the island. She realizes that there might well be something to Hurley's theory that the numbers are cursed. Since she first heard the numbers, she's lost everything. Grateful doesn't begin to describe Hurley at this point.
Charlie comes across Jack and Saayid as they get ready to go find Hurley.
Hurley walks out of the jungle on his own, battery in hand. He has a message for Saayid.
"She says: 'Hey'."
Back at camp, Saayid hands the battery to Michael.
Claire and Locke discuss the baby's name as he finishes his construction project. Claire reveals that it happens to be her birthday today. According to Locke, having birthdays close together is good luck. Claire asks if he believes in luck. He believes in a lot things. When he reveals what it is that the two of them have been building, it turns out to be cradle.
Happy Birthday, Claire.
Hurley and Charlie pick up their pre-shooting jungle conversation where they left off. Hurley reveals that he thinks that the crash was his fault. Charlie reveals his own deep dark heroin secret. When he asks Hurley to reciprocate, Hurley tells him his net worth. Charlie is incensed that Hurley would joke about his own deep dark.
Speaking of deep dark, slowly pan to the side of Locke's hatch.
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