The Lost Rewatch: 1x18 "Numbers"

On we go to episode 1x18, "Numbers," the first Hurley-centric outing we've had. When Hurley sees the Numbers on Rousseau's maps and notes, he remembers them from his past, prompting him to head into the jungle after the French woman. Elsewhere, Locke asks for Claire's help in building something. Flashbacks in this episode feature Hurley's quest for the source of the cursed "Numbers" after winning the lottery with the numbers in question.

• Hurley, in his misunderstanding of Jin, wonders if Jin is referring to making snowballs. Hurley does seem to love the snow, as referenced from his painting of an igloo during his time in the mental institute. And even though thinking about snowballs on a tropical island may seem pointless, it's ironic that we later find out about the frozen donkey wheel chamber.

• Michael is taking extra care to make sure that his raft isn't destroyed, but he'll later get on a much bigger boat with the intention of destroying it, and will eventually die when the boat explodes (though not by his doing).

• Then we get the first glimpse of Carmen Reyes -- Hurley's mother -- and one of my favorite characters on the show. Her overprotectiveness of her son is alternatively funny or endearing. She's a wonderful character, and will appear in at least one episode each season.

• As I stated in my recap for "Outlaws," the lottery woman, Mary Jo, was seen romancing Sawyer and is played by Brittany Perrineau, the real-life wife of Harold Perrineau. The lottery official conversing with Mary Jo is voiced by Carlton Cuse.

• And there are the numbers, popping up all together for the first time on the show. They're a tantalizing mystery, part of the Valenzetti equation, and have popped up all over the show, as easter eggs, in and on the hatch, in plane numbers, and many other places. However, I fear that the only real relevance that the numbers have will lie with their scientific meaning for DHARMA and the Swan. The way they pop up to Hurley as almost a "curse" will probably be one of the mysteries of the show that's never explained, and really, I'm okay with that. However, one recent event with the numbers remains unanswered. In "This Place is Death," there is a voice repeating these numbers over and over again over the radio that Rousseau's team is listening to. The voice sounds distinctly like Hurley's. I feel certain that this is the transmission that Sam Toomey and Leonard heard while at the listening post (as mentioned later in the episode), especially since both the crash of the Besixdouze and Sam's hearing of the numbers both happened around 1988. Since Hurley got the numbers from Leonard, in a way this would form a predestination paradox, as Hurley would technically be responsible for everything that happened, if it is indeed him on the radio.

• Leonard tells Hurley that he's "opened the box." While Hurley obviously hasn't opened a literal box, metaphorical boxes have popped up several times on the show, most notably with Ben's "magic box" which he described to Locke. The box Lenny is referring to is probably something like Pandora's Box, an object from Greek mythology given from Zeus to the woman Pandora, with the instructions not to open it. However, out of curiosity, Pandora opened it regardless. When she did, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope.

• Martha Toomey has a prothsthetic limb, a theme that's already been explored with the character of Ray Mullen, and will later be explored with Pierre Chang.

• Claire says that John should have a show where he fixes houses for people. Locke actually did used to work as a repairman, owning his own home inspection company, "Welcome Home." He inspected Nadia's house while working as an inspector.

• Danielle mentions that the radio tower is near the Black Rock, but from the events of "Through the Looking Glass," this is obviously not true. She also mentions that her team went up to the radio tower before the sickness, which is most likely not true, since the team seemed to be affected by the sickness after climbing under the Temple wall to rescue Montand.

• Locke builds Claire a cradle, which she will use to keep Aaron until she leaves the beach camp in "Through the Looking Glass." The overturned cradle is later found by Sun in "The Incident."

• The numbers are etched onto the side of the hatch at the end of this episode, though when we see them being placed on the hatch in "Some Like It Hoth," they are hammered into the metal instead, producing a completely different look.

And that's it for the episode. Look for the blog for the next episode, "Deus Ex Machina," soon. You can discuss this episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.