Parenting Tips from “Lost” S1 E18, “Numbers”

Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout Podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and I'm Catherine Jileco. As parents and parenting writers, we can't help but see everything through a parenting lens. But as our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm going over the same parenting topics over and over.

So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere, we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it, if only what not to do. Watch and listen along, and let's all make like we're doing something important for our families.

Each Tuesday we bring you a watch or rewatch of an older entertainment property. And for this week of November fourth, we are continuing with Lost Season one, episode eighteen Numbers, in which Happy Go Lucky, Good Time Hurley becomes Colonel Bloody Kurts and we are introduced to the Numbers, which are going to be here there, every freaking where, just like Roy Kent from now on, now on, and look back Flight eight fifteen wink.

Wink, yep, yeah, look back, We've they've been with us. We just stayed out.

Oh. I was reading on Lostpedia, just reminding myself of the whole number lore, and they were getting into the fact that people were just doing everything they could with these numbers. Viewers, If you multiply this one by that one, it's this and that's how many hours this thing took, or if you do the square root of this number multiplied. But they said you can do anything with them. We understand, but we don't think that that's all canon. No, calm down, people,

That's right, and have a little pocket teams left over.

He won the lottery and his worth what is it he said to Charlie, like one hundred and eighty six million dollars, Yeah, something like that. And among the things in his portfolio is Wink Wink, a box company in Tustin, California. Which part of a box company?

Do we know somebody who worn't there? Yeah, every next gun acted and there's a sneaker factory. I feel like that will come into play at some point.

It's just all it's all happening. But poor Hurley played this particular set of numbers that a fellow inmate of a psychiatric institution kept repeating over and over and over. So once Hurley got out, he thought, hey, what the heck, I'll play those numbers at the lottery and he won, and his life quickly went down the toilet because bad things happened to everybody around him, not him specific him specifically, although he did get or get arrested for being a drug dealer.

Yeah, but then he then he got got out a settlement from the city for so he actually made more money off of it. Yes, yeah, it's all people around him. His grandfather dies, his mom breaks an ankle.

Bought for her, is burning down right. I just you know, have you heard he was in a plane crush, so I have heard that. He goes to see this former inmate who gave him the numbers in the first place, and he freaks out, you shouldn't have used You've let them out of the box. You shouldn't use them. And then he goes to see this guy's somebody, this guy mentioned in like middle of nowhere.

Ust yeah, right, He follows this trail, this this thread that he's been given by this person, which I couldn't. I mean, for him to even like grasp the words that that person was saying and trace them to a particular place in the outback was kind of well amazing.

Number one, he was motivated, and number two, he had the advantage of TV writers helping him out.

He did.

Yes, location scouts were right on it, right.

I don't think they filmed that part in Hawaii.

Huh yeah, maybe maybe on a computer. Did they do that sort of thing yet, because right now you could just make that right out of shot beat, you know, on a computer, But I don't know anyway.

But anyway, he tracks down this woman who also is involved in the numbers.

And was the other guy's partner in I guess the military, and they both heard these numbers, and this unfortunate soul played the numbers on a bean counting contest and won, and then again similarly, everything went wrong, including his wife losing a leg, and he finally shot himself because you know,

Yeah, exactly, Yeah, pay attention.

He was just cash in and get another ticket. Holy cat.

Yeah.

Guess he's just thinking of them as individual numbers and not as combinations of numbers. But still but that was.

A combination of two of the numbers in sequence.

Yeah. But uh, and uh, he's been it's he's been like like Charlie says, you know, happy, go lucky, good time early, and so you expected his flashbacks are going to be kind of goofy and fun and silly, and they're horrifying, right.

I mean we shouldn't have had that expectation, right, knowing what we know.

Yeah, yeah, So and then he just sets out to he sees the numbers on some of the stuff that SAYID has form russo but understandably freaks out to see those numbers in this setting. And I guess up to now he's just been feeling like, well, I'm just on an island, but nobody seems to be dropping dead around me, and I don't see the numbers anywhere, so I guess we're okay.

Maybe this is why he's He's with Walt and Lock like this is this place is fine and we can can stay here and hang out here for a while.

He's kind of relieved, you know, the pressure is off. But then he sees the numbers and it's like here we go. Is suddenly action hero Hurley making his way through the jungle cannon stopped even by island Dad jack right and and said no. They keep telling him, no, this is not for you. This adventure is not for you, guys. No, we are the guys who go through the jungle. You it's not for you, Hurling, don't go across that bridge.

Right, right, this is this is not what we've gone dude.

Come on right, laughing? Yes, going over a rickety bridge and jumping away from a trap? No, so.

What did he keept me saying I'm spry, I'm spry and he was.

I mean, kudos Torge Garcia for making that switch in that character to just be so dark and driven all of a sudden, right and uh.

And he knew that he would be able to escape the trap because nothing, nothing bad happens to him, Nothing bad happens to him.

Don't follow too close there, Charlie.

No, that's where the problems are.

Oh but he finally does find Russeau and talk to her and find out that she too agrees that the the numbers are cursed. Right, so somebody finally believes him, even if it's a crazy lady out in the jungle tat. But when he comes back and he sort of tosses the battery to them, right, she says hey and walks off. Jack had a smile that looked like like a proud dad smile to me, like I expected from that kid.

But hey, look at that, Hey look at him.

Go that's my boy.

Yes, mmmmm so impressive.

Yes, so that was all very daddy. There were no bad dads in this episode, No dad drop Daddy's just no just grandpa. Grandpa didn't do nothing except.

Except being the wrong place of the round time, oh dear.

But we did have luck as the kind of dad who can build you a cradle and also make glue.

And build a cradle under your nose while you're helping and not realize what you're doing.

This is a trap. There's no mars on it.

That was sweet once we realized what it was.

Yes, So so both Island dads weren't full on dad mode once one action dad and one you know, tinkering dad. But hm, you gotta love it. Yes, And I mean, I wonder how many slacks that babies where they did they add up to? Were they regulation?

I was wondering. I was thinking about, like, you know, there's all kind of consumer products.

Yeah, yeah, well there was a there was a you know, a magazine with instructions there in the jungle somewhere. Somebody had it on the plane. So Grandpa the island, Grandpa.

That's true. Yes, playing back ammon, that's a grampi ish thing, it is.

And you know building building the kid a cradle.

Mm hmmm yeah, and you know, receding in favor of the actual dad, which he's done a few times. So. But I mean that baby's arrival has been imminent for quite some time.

And very pregnant for a very long while.

I mean that is generally how it feels. I think at the end, you're like, how can this possibly go on? And then it does. It just does, so I can I can relate to Claire. No, right, exactly.

Yeah, it's uh, it's coming up.

Well, yeah, we have We're getting towards the end of the first season, so they've got to surely we must be getting towards how many episodes are there?

Loved but this, this is like one of the first episodes that really starts digging in on the mythology, whether the creators intended that or not. No, right, but this is when people started go a little nuts. But also, I mean at the end, you see the it wasn't clear to me what that was at the end, but I knew it from before that that was the hatch that has the numbers on it.

Yeah, I actually rewound to check it and because they did, you know, keep it very mysterious. But yes, I believe it was the hatch also.

So there is obviously something bigger going on here than just an unfortunate plane crash and a unfortunate scientific mission.

So it's going to go on from here for quite some times.

This is wheres Yeah, there's one, two, three, four, six episodes in a recap episode left.

So wow, that's a lot. I mean, isn't a season usually like twenty two?

This is twenty four plus a recap.

Numbers twenty four?

Twenty four? Is that one of the numbers?

Only four? Right?

But see probably if you if you h you know, do some masks. Yeah, yeah, you can make it work. Yeah, So there is that, right, So we still have have quite a lot of mischief to get into. Okay, we keep getting serious mischief. So next week the episode is Dios x Makina and it is a lock flashback episode. Little mini spoiler, the Daddy Issues are back. Oh great, this was an episode of that Daddy Issues completely They missed that We'll see you back here tomorrow discuss shrinking,

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