Hurley's Number Run

This fun little jaunt basically tracks Hurley’s dash to the airport during the last episode of Season One. Maybe you picked up on the fact that along the way there are various instances of ‘the numbers’ cropping up. Did you spot them all, though? Let’s run through all the instances and see!

So first up we see Hurley leaving his hotel room where the 23 42 of the numbers are present in his room number: 2342.

As Hurley drives to the airport his car conks out and begins to slow down to a halt. On the dashboard we get some good views of the digital instrumentation that reveal much of the numbers - 42, 23 and 16.

Almost the same image as previously, only the car has slowed down by 1 kp/h, and so now we have a 15 instead of a 16 from the 4 8 15 16 23 42 numbers!

I suppose I should pause for a moment here to fill in those unaware: the 4 8 15 16 23 42 numbers are referred to collectively as The Valenzetti Equation. This equation proposes a calculation that predicts the end of humanity. That, apparently, is what the numbers represent.

Are we to assume that the 'cursed' numbers are trying to speak to Hurley, to warn him? I mean, if he knew these numbers pointed to the downfall of the human race would their presence during this sequence be a potential indication that they are warning him to stay away? Or that the place he is going to, should he get there, is leading him towards the source of the numbers themselves? Is this why the numbers appear in others people's lives? And if one were 'clued in' to them, could following them lead to the Island, or a potential solution to the Valenzetti equation? Big questions, my friend.



Just in case you weren't getting the message - here's a close up of the instrument panel. It says number 8. If we were playing Valenzetti Equation bingo, the instrument panel on Hurley's dashboard would have almost given us a full house. All we need is a 4. . .

There's the 4! BINGO! 4 8 15 16 23 42. All the numbers of the equation present and correct - and once they have been completed Hurley's car breaks down completely. I guess that's just bad luck, right?



The screen shown when Hurley is trying to check-in and board Oceanic 815. Outside of the "815" of the Oceanic flight number, there is also a '15' and a '42' present.

Shamefully, there are also OTHER numbers that are not part of the Valenzetti equation and, frankly, I find their appearance in this sequence wholly unwelcome!

Here's one you might have missed. There's a number 8 on the old fella's cap. How many is that now? Let me see. . . 11. The number 8 on the man's hat makes it 11 different appearances of the 4 8 15 16 23 42 numbers during this sequence. I wonder if the finished total will also happen to be one of the numbers. . .? That would be neat!

Probably the best - and most blatantly unsubtle - appearance of the Valenzetti Equation in the fabric of the Lost universe. The camera pans by this group of cheerleaders who all happen to be sporting the numbers and, not only that, are positioned in a line so that the equation appears in order.

I don't know about you, but if I saw those cheerleaders spelling out that number in a line I would definitely NOT be getting on the flight that they were getting on.

Our count is now up to 14, including these three above.

And here's the other three remaining numbers as the camera pans past.

That makes 17 instances of the numbers appearing during this sequence so far.

Tsch! Would it have killed them to have changed the '14' above into a '15'? Would that have been too much to ask? Talk about a fly in the ointment!

So, unfortunately, we have just one of the Valenzetti Numbers on display here, taking our total to 18.

Ah well. The last and final 'magic number' we have seen before Hurley manages to get himself on board the flight is right there. The number 23. Alas, that takes our total up to a very non-Valenzetti approved 19.

You know, I reckon they could have made it to 23 if they'd just changed the Gate Numbers and some of the figures on Hurley's boarding details. . . I guess I'm just a perfectionist.

But wait. What’s this?

The one apparent anomaly during the entire sequence is this moment - when a number plate can be clearly seen showing precisely NONE of the cursed Valenzetti numbers. What the hell is all that about!? It's such a brilliantly executed scene, loaded with numbers, and they go and overlook this glaring number plate!? Come on!

Is there anyway we can make it fit? Ermm. . . 3 + 2 + 7 = 12. That's no good. How about 3 x 2 x 7? That equals 42.

BINGO! In fact, look at the number plate in its entirety. TX 327. TX? 'Three times', perhaps? Bloody hell, it's genius. And guess what? If we take the 3 numbers (3 and 2 and 7) and the 42 number they multiply as, that gives us 4 more numbers. And if we add that to the 19 instances of numbers we had before, we get. . . 23! It's one of the numbers! The sequence is perfect! (Yeah, I am aware you can make numbers suit your purposes however you want, but that's the beauty of them!)

The sequence is complete. But what does it all mean!!??

The Korean Lottery Wnner

Quick one, this. Before we knew Hurley’s story, about how he was a lottery winner worth millions of pounds, before that episode even took place, we were given our first easter egg clue that Hurley had some level of notoriety.

In the episode . . . In Translation, when Jin turns up at that guy’s house to beat the living daylights out of him (in order to, ironically, save his life) there’s a brief glimpse of the television.



Of course the writing is in Korean, and there’s no real indication that a lottery win is what the news report is about, but anyone who happened to spot that before the next Numbers episode might have been given pause for thought to wonder what Hurley had done in order to get himself on television all over the world!

I wasn’t one of those people, by the way. I didn’t spot it first time around. So I never got that pause for thought. It would have been exciting though. If I had. Oh well.

Hibbs' Missing Finger

Maybe you missed this debate. Maybe this one passed you by. The man in question was Hibbs. You know, that guy that used to be a Terminator. He showed up and told Sawyer he knew who the real Sawyer was and where to find him in the episode Outlaws. The debate that ensued, that had online Lost fans frothing at the mouth in fervent need-to-know madness, wasn’t about who the ‘real Sawyer’ was, nor was it even really about the infamous “Tampa job” that gets mentioned during this scene.

No, the real furore concerned Hibbs having a missing finger.

I’m not kidding. Someone e-mailed me asking what I thought about it. They asked me if I thought it was part of some deeper meaning to do with missing body parts; like Ray Mullen the farmer and Marvin Candle only having one arm. There was debate about whether or not, indeed, Hibbs had perhaps lost his finger during the infamous “Tampa job”.

I mean, come on! One missing finger means that Hibbs has FOUR fingers on one hand and FOUR is one of THE NUMBERS and so surely it has to MEAN SOMETHING!?

Perhaps what should be remembered is that the actor playing Hibbs, Patrick Roberts, doesn’t have a missing finger. So the logic ran that if it had been intentional to make him have a missing finger than it very well might have some kind of significance.

But hold up a second, I thought. Take a look at the above image. Could it not be the way he was holding the glass? Could he not have just curled his finger inwards? I had to know. So I sat with my face inches from the monitor, watching in slow motion, looking for one clean shot of Hibbs’ left hand to either confirm or deny the theory.

Believe it or not, there’s only one single, solitary fleeting moment where we get to see Hibbs’ left hand. It’s here:

(Click image to enlarge)

Oh look. There’s his finger! He's got five fingers, all present and correct! So I guess that’s one mystery solved. Phew! Bet you can sleep easier at nights now, right?

Black Smoke And The Turbine Explosion

This sequence of images goes towards investigating a theory that the Black Smoke was present at the crash site of Oceanic 815, and was responsible for the explosion of the engine. I will say, right from the start, I think this theory is a nice idea but I don't believe the evidence is there to back it up.

So, first we see one side of the turbine engine with some hapless survivor being warned not to wander in front of it by Locke.

In this second image we see the hapless survivor unable to heed the advice given by Locke to stay clear of the engine and is, instead, lifted bodily off the ground and sucked into it. This is, of course, some cool shit. See you later, hapless survivor.

As a point of interest the writers have confirmed that this hapless survivor is in fact Gary Troup, the author of ‘Bad Twin’, a book which featured in the ARG The Lost Experience that took place between Season 2 and 3, and was the manuscript Sawyer was reading until Jack threw it on the fire.

And, yeah, in case you didn’t know: Gary Troup is an anagram of Purgatory. He’s also in love with Cindy Chandler! Well, was. It’s unknown whether Cindy gave a shit, mind.

We now cut to the other side of the engine. So over Jack's right shoulder, on the other side of the engine, is where we have seen the hapless survivor Gary Troup be sucked into it. The theory about the Black Smoke being responsible begins in this shot also, with that piece of black debris in the air directly above the running woman's head. This, so the theory goes, is the Black Smoke in its smaller, flying form - and it's about to dive into the turbine engine. . .

As can be seen, the small, black piece of debris - or Black Smoke, if you're a believer - moves towards the turbine engine.

And so to the final shot, where the explosion has just occurred and the black piece of debris shoots upwards and away in that elongated streak that is, perhaps, what convinces a lot of people it is the Black Smoke at work.



However, for me, we have already seen the reverse side of the turbine engine, with a hapless Gary Troup wandering in front of it and getting sucked in. Surely this, more than any Black Smoke notion, is responsible for the explosion? And just as the explosion happens, the blast of hot air radiating outwards at a rapid rate would naturally cause this drifting piece of debris to be rocketed away so quickly as to turn into a streak of blackness.

Those that see a Black Smoke as either present or responsible for the event are merely hopeful. Like I said, I love the idea, but I don't think it's what's actually occurred. There’s an ‘online urban myth’ going around saying the producers have explicitly stated that the above images are the result of a computer-generated glitch. . . However, there’s no actual evidential source for when this was ever stated and appears to be just one of those pieces of misinformation that finds its way into circulation and is impossible to stop.

Even still, I don’t think the Black Smoke had anything to do with the crash of Oceanic 815 or the turbine explosion. It may do bad things, but that doesn’t mean we can pin everything on it!