[falsetto]
What happens when they molt?
[/falsetto]
On a more serious note: The speculation about Hurley’s Psych ward friend Leonard being Desmonds predecessor ignores the fact that we already have his story. Hurley was in Oz (and thus on flight 815) because he was investigating Leonards story. He heard the numbers at some sort of radio listening post and used them to win some money. He then had a string of bad luck a la Hurley. More details would have been nice, but we never seem to get that, do we? I believe the ep. title was ‘Numbers’.
Yes, I think he knocked her out and brought her further in, and he heard somebody at the top yelling down, so he didn’t take the time to interrogate her – just hid waiting for Locke to show up. I didn’t take his question (“Who is she?”) to mean “Goodness, I’ve never seen her before, how did she get so far into my cave without my knowing?” but rather, “I captured her, then you. She just woke up, so I still don’t know who she is or why she’s here.”
And a minor nitpick. In the premiere, I went back to check when Desmond was typing – watching his hand positions and the number of keystrokes, I can see that he was, in fact, typing the numbers… AND pressing the space bar between them.
But when he made Locke type the numbers, the space automatically appeared after each number typed. Locke didn’t have to press the space bar.
I was thinking about this - it can’t have been him (surely he would have tied her up there and then or at least shoved her in the cupboard rather than waiting to be outnumbered monstre ?).
There was that beam of bright light just before Kate screamed and was hauled in; something was pulling her mighty fast and mighty strong - remember Locke’s hands ? In series 1 (can’t recall episode sorry) Locke was hammering on the hatch and a the same beam of bright light shone up suggesting that something was responding to his need for a sign … I think the hatch has a few more mysteries to give up.
If you’d asked me I thought the guy in the Outback, he’d gone there to isolate himself and aviod casuing harm to those around him right ?, had died out there, Hurley was talking to his widow - so he couldn’t have been the same guy as in the psych ward. Dammit Rich Mann I’m going to have to do some research here …
Desmond lives quarantined in the hatch; he injects himself every day (or poss. every 108 minutes) with something labelled with a coincidental configuration of the Numbers. Whatever the Numbers mean for his injection, they are also written in a different configuration on the hatch, and this configuration is the way he types them as a password to stop the 108-minute timer. At some point, some radio equipment (almost certainly based in the hatch) was also transmitting the Numbers over a long-range radio broadcast.
Two guys (Crazy Guy and Outback Guy) served together in the U.S. Navy. They worked at a listening post in the Pacific. They catch a broadcast one day which is the Numbers repeated over and over. This broadcast clearly originates from the island – from the transmitter that Rousseau used to later record her French distress call.
Not-Yet-Outback-Guy plays the Numbers in the lottery, and misfortune befalls him after his win. He retires to the Outback and becomes Outback Guy. He dies.
Crazy Guy goes to a mental institution, where Hurley meets him. Hurley gets out, plays the numbers on a whim, and wins lots of money. His bad luck forces him to seek out the other man – the Outback guy – and he does. He asks Crazy Guy where he can find Outback Guy, and hears the whole story from Outback Widow. He tries to fly back to the US, but the whole time he’s fighting fate to get on the plane, he utterly fails to notice that his flight is #815, and he gets on anyway.
Those TWO were assigned to the listening post together right? One goes to the ward, the other moves to the Outback and dies. But they were both exposed to the numbers through the broadcast at the listen post.
Not-Yet-Outback Guy used the numbers to guess the number of beans in a jar and win some money (at a fair in Kalgoorlie, Australia). He “retires” to the Outback in an attempt to run from the “bad luck” he starts experiencing.
Now that I think more about it, I think the swarm dragged Kate into the vault. The way the rope was pulled out of Locke’s hands reminds me of how Locke was being pulled by the swarm in an earlier episode. That could explain why Desmond asked about her.
Actually, I was wondering how Hurley would manage to find his way into the hatch. I just can’t imagine him even trying to get down that broken ladder with a rope. So another entrance underwater (or maybe just near the water) would be interesting. Could the artificial sunlight actually be real somehow? With mirrors, like were set up for the hatch entrance? Hm, no, it was night, wasn’t it. Damn.
Wouldn’t it be great if Hurley took a look at Desmond and said “Dude! YOU!!”
Perhaps the light and the Magnet go together, and Kate was dragged by the Magnet? Easy way to capture someone without getting in danger? And Locke tripped a sensor to automatically wake it, but Desmond put it on manual?
And has that symbol that’s underground and on the shark appeared anywhere else? I think I saw it in Jin’s father’s-in-law’s office.
I hate to dampen anyone’s conspiracy theories, but isn’t it possible that Walt wasn’t available for the photos because he was in school when they were taken, or perhaps even on vacation with his family?
It seems he is way too central a character at this point (creating the polar bears, the object of capture by the pirates) to be written off. I just hope he doesn’t end up like that stupid half-breed alien baby from ‘V’.
Unlikely that a major show like this would omit him from publicity shots over school or family vacations unless there were good, possibly sinister, reasons.
Rumor I heard is that he hit a major growth spurt and they aren’t sure how to deal with it on the show yet. Of course, I got that from the Internet, and you know how reliable that is …
Especially when we were promised that we would learn the fate of all the survivors this week. That’s what really tipped me off. It seems he’s not a survivor.