DIGESTING CLUES

When the 815 survivors finally get into the Hatch, Desmond uses the opportunity to flee his bondage to the computer and The Numbers.

He instructs them what to do every 108 minutes; then tries to escape. Jack chases him through the jungle. He confronts Desmond, who remembers Jack from the stadium stair run. Desmond asks Jack about the woman Jack said he "failed," and as Jack becomes emotional while pointing a gun at Dez, Desmond says "go ahead and shoot me." When Jack does not, Desmond presses on: what ever happened to the girl? Like pulling a tooth, Jack tears up and Desmond pushes for an answer. Jack's failure is his sudden admission that he married her. The situation quickly defuses, and Desmond runs off into the jungle while Jack sulks back to the Hatch.

During the same episode, the alarm timing begins to wind down. Locke begins to input the Numbers into the computer terminal. Hurley arrives and suddenly becomes aware that Locke his repeating "his" cursed numbers. He wants him to stop. Locke continues: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 32. Hurley then changes his mind and says "go ahead." But as Locke was going to press EXECUTE, Jack returns to tell him he has the wrong number. The last one is 42, according to Desmond. Locke corrects the input, but he refuses to press execute - - -  he wants Jack to do it, but Jack yells at him that he will not push the button on faith. The button is pressed and the timer is re-set, and Locke takes the first watch.

During Hurley's first "watch," he is shown in the Hatch pantry: first gorging on an Apollo candy bar; then a bag of chips, and then he opens a cardboard box and lifts out a fully cooked steak dinner on a white plate. He takes a large bite of the steak, when his dream is interrupted by Kate who shows him that it is time to re-set the computer.

In this short, condensed and emotional episode, we have three important elements explode to the surface. First, the emotional breakdown of Jack in the jungle. This is the first time we really see Jack break from his calm, cool and collected leader role. Second, we have Locke trying to impose his will on Jack - - - blindly taking on faith the importance of pushing the buttons. Jack believes nothing will happen if the alarm goes off. This is a precursor to show that infallible Jack is wrong. Third, it puts dreams of Hurley front in center into the Numbers mystery. There was no reason for Hurley to dream about food when he had access to real food in the pantry. Food had always been the trigger for Hurley's emotional and mental depression. It foreshadows more island mental illusions, including the return of Dave.

If we look at these events through the spectrum of Hurley alone, we can postulate that Desmond could represent Hurley's desire for love. Desmond was desperately trying to win back Penny. He would risk his life to get her back. Hurley on the other hand never fought for the love of a girl. Also, Jack could represent Hurley's desire to be a strong, effective and forceful leader. These are character traits that a low-end fry cook like Hurley would want some day. Hurley's career path was stuck at Mr. Cluck's. And finally, Hurley's dream at a critical time brings into play why Hurley's past experiences (whether true or not) such as the Numbers continually show up in the series. The reason could be as simple as that the Numbers are all in Hurley's head, and the events happening to Hurley then are also happening in his head.