"Lost" Numbers (2005)

Director:

Daniel Attias

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

2 March 2005 (Season 1, Episode 18)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

When Hurley becomes obsessed with the French woman and heads into the jungle to find her, Jack, Sayid and Charlie have no choice but to follow. Meanwhile, Locke asks Claire to help build a mysterious item.

Plot Keywords:

Mysterious Island | Labrador Retriever | Plane Crash | Flashback | South Pacific

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
Mira Furlan	...	Danielle Rousseau

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

An early version of Hurley's back story had him as a world class repo man.

Quotes:

John Locke: We were all brought here for a reason.
Jack Shephard: Who brought us here, John?
John Locke: The Island.

Movie Connections:

References "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Car Pool Lane (#4.6)" (2004)

Lost makes its own fan base

"You make your own luck, Mr. Reyes. Don't blame it on the dam numbers. You're looking for an excuse that doesn't exist."

Whether or not one makes one's own luck has become the principal question surrounding Hurley's character throughout the show's entire run. This episode picks up from "...In Translation"'s humorous ending with its monologue about Hurley losing his batteries, and turns the search for new batteries into a whole new story on its own; one of the most memorable stories the show has ever told. Characters like Sawyer, Sayid and Michael had become intertwined in multiple story lines and character arcs before they ever got their own centric episodes, but Hurley had no such luck before "Numbers". He had been involved with multiple sitcom-esquire subplots, all of which lasted one episode and served a brief purpose, usually comedic. And here, the character who most viewers likely underestimated, proves to have one of the most interesting back-stories of them all, as alluded to--as season 1 episodes never failed to--in the previous episode, in which Jin walks by a TV on which Hurley can be seen.

I've witnessed a number of Lost fans cite "Numbers" as "the episode when Lost began", which is usually in reference to the more-central-than-ever-so-far presence of mystery and island mythology. While I personally disagree (I have too much love for the entire first season, especially early mythology-indulgent episodes like "Walkabout", "Solitary", "Raised by Another", "White Rabbit" and even the Pilot), I can see where these fans are coming from. Before "Numbers", we hadn't really seen off-island and on-island plots combine into one mystery, as they do here with the Numbers affecting both Hurley and Rousseau, and also appearing on the hatch. Of all the original main characters, Hurley waited the longest to be featured in an episode's flashbacks, and the turnout was ultimately worth the wait. His flushing-out into a sympathetic, unlucky character who nobody will listen to was made even more enjoyable by Jorge Garcia's hands-down strongest performance so far on the show at that point. Before "Numbers", mythology had been icing on the cake of a strong survival drama, as opposed to the center of the story itself. Although the "Numbers" mystery is less than central to most of Lost overall throughout its run, the episode can be cited as the beginning of true "mystery" Lost.

Tragically, this episode marks the last-to-date script by brilliant writer David Fury, who possibly could have been the only writer to rival Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had he continued with the show. Daniel Attias was a one-time director, which is also something of a shame in that the episode was well-shot, especially compared to the rest of the generally visually-lacking season 1. The flashback exceeds the on-island action in quality due to the sheer number of twists, turns and mysteries, but no plot is boring, including the touching subplot between Locke and Claire.

The bad luck Hurley faces and his desire to lift the curse create newfound depth around his previously stock character. As a character, Hurley is brilliantly written throughout the episode, and although he finds no real answer to his mystery, he gets satisfaction from the climactic moment between himself and Rousseau. Nonetheless, this episode and a few later ones spark the question of whether or not anyone will ever take Hurley seriously, which could be a problem when he has something crucial to say.

"What? You don't know? Okay, that thing in the woods, maybe it's a monster, maybe it's a pizzed 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 because I'm along for the ride, good old fun time Hurley. Well guess what? Now, I want some freaking answers."

Standout performances: Jorge Garcia, Dominic Monaghan, Naveen Andrews

Standout scene: Hurley confronts Rousseau