Episode Title: "Numbers"

Episode Number: 18

Production Number: 117

Air Date: 3/2/05

Synopsis: Hurley discovers some familiar numbers on Rousseau's stolen papers. He sets off across the island in search of Rousseau so he can get some answers about these numbers. When a group of survivors finally find Rousseau, she confesses that she does not know what the numbers mean, that they were repeated over and over by a radio signal that led her group towards the island years ago.

Flashback: This week's flashback reveals that Hurley used a set of numbers that some believed to be cursed to play the lottery. When Hurley wins a multi-million dollar jackpot, his life starts falling apart and he starts to believe that the numbers really are cursed.

OMG Moment:

• The last scene zeroes in on the cover of the hatch. There, the same familiar numbers are engraved: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
• We find out how Locke was put in a wheelchair, and see him fall from the very building Hurley is talking to his accountant in.

New Information:

• We find out that Hurley had a grandfather who died right after he won the lottery.
• Hurley actually owns the box company that Locke worked for before we went to Australia.

Questions:

• What do the numbers mean? Are they cursed? If so, what do they have to do with the hatch?