Leonard and the Numbers.

Remember Leonard? The guy in the mental ward with Hurley who kept repeating the numbers?

I had an idea about him, that could tie in with some of the new plot developments in series 4.

As we all know he and his friend Sam Toomey first heard the numbers in a signal they picked up at a listening post where they were stationed together. Sam used them and won $50,000, and afterwards bad things happened to everyone around him, in the same way as they seemed to happen to Hurley.

But why did Leonard become so obsessed with the numbers?

What I am proposing is that Leonard was a superstitious type, and he believed that there was some kind of larger purpose to the numbers, and that he and Sam hearing them was some sort of 'sign' (much in the same way as Locke believes in his 'destiny').

Sam triangulated the source of the transmission and sailed to towards its source, i.e. the island. As his boat neared the island he began to experience time-jumping episodes similar to Desmond and Minkowski. At this point he turns around and heads back, but it doesn't stop and the jumps become more and more frequent.

But then by chance he discovers that repeating the numbers holds the time jumping episodes at bay. In Faradays conversation about constants with Desmond, it is apparent that a constant doesn't have to be a person, just [i]something[u] you really care about. It is only in Desmonds case that the constant is a person, this is proven by Desmond asking 'can it be a person?'.

Sam Toomey had made it his mission to discover the meaning of the numbers, a quest that became all consuming and so they became his constant, and why he continues to repeat them over and over.

hmm yes that makes some sense. I always thought that it was odd that the only time Leanard stopped repeating the numbers was when Hurley told him he had played them...and then he seemed almost normal. Like he knew the constant repetition would get him sectioned, and perhaps what was easier for him, but that he was not actually mad. I guess the numbers could well of been his constant!

Hmm....actually makes sense somewhere....Nice thoughts! And great job remembering me a constant doesn't have to be a number...*starts thinking*

remembering should be reminding in my previous post ^^

Oh wait, on this site, you can actually edit comments! NICE!!

plus the mental guy with hurley was playing connect four, obvious to the point but nonethe less have u ever considered the significance of connect four in relation to six degrees of seperation...opens up quite nicely that maybe all the characters or some maybe 4 maybe 6 are seperated by only 4 degress.....the trick is to connect 4 i guess...maybe connect 4 of the 6 numbers and the other 2 are....constant...

JR when I started reading this theory I thought I was going to hate it. As is it turns out I really liked it. I don't think it will be the case because I don't think in season one the concept of a constant would have even been imagined, but I'd love to be wrong on that.

Poor Hurley, haunted by those numbers. I would love to see a turningpoint for Hurley where he realises he can use those numbers for good and he will be liberated from their negative clutch.

I agree obscure I hope and think that hurley will figure out a way to use the numbers, maybe to get the 6 back to the island!

This makes sense. It explains why he needed to repeat the numbers so often and why they were so important to him. It also explains why he went so nuts, having to repeat numbers to himself all the time.

bit like the rule of quantum physics suggesting that some particles will only exist if you observe them.
as with the numbers its a case of leat we forget.
what i mean is that those numbers, the equation where the goal is to change one of these factors to avoid the ehd of the world...have to be under observation...and those that carry the code ...through exposure to whenever they are observable as a sequence, as hurley is....are somehow necessary to the overall stratergy of the group of peoples i would class as the instigators....or those oppossed to them....?

Lost-mosh that commet made me laugh. I like it Jim, good explanation for the number repeating thing.

I go with the obvious. Leonard repeats the numbers because the numbers drove him crazy.

Besides, to experience the 'mental time travel' that Desmond experienced requires exposure to large amounts of radiation in tandem with travelling to/from the Island. (Sayid and Frank, for example, were fine.)

Well-written theory, mind. Obviously the product of a mind bent unheathily on Lost. (Which, for me and this site, is actually a healthy condition. Keep it up.)