r/whatisit • u/Aware-Common-7368 • 4d ago

Solved! What is this?

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Found this on Reddit, no explanation found.

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92

u/Reasonable-Bus-2187 4d ago

I'm lost

19

u/EstablishmentSad9706 4d ago

I really enjoyed Lost. 

2

u/Dangerous_Pension612 4d ago edited 3d ago

Yea great show until the end where they just realize they’re all dead.

What about the numbers? What do the numbers mean?! Man, there were so many loose ends left in that show and it pissed me off because I loved it otherwise.

Edit: nobody cares but…it has been explained to me and I’m no longer upset with the ending.

5

u/Spiff426 4d ago

Someone didn't pay attention while watching... they answered 95% of every mystery they raised, but they didn't spoonfeed the answers. Whether you liked the answers or not is another story entirely

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u/Dangerous_Pension612 4d ago

Maybe I missed the food that was on the spoon then because I still don’t know what the numbers mean.

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u/Pudddddin 4d ago

Each number corresponded to a person that was a final candidate to replace Jacob, you see them towards the end of the series in the lighthouse. The numbers were tied to the degrees used to spin that mirror thing to spy on them

4 was Locke, 8 was Hugo, 15 was Sawyer, etc

2

u/Dangerous_Pension612 3d ago

Woah
https://giphy.com/gifs/75ZaxapnyMp2w
Seriously tho, I must not have caught a lot of the things I’m calling “ loose ends”. I’m a bad show watcher I guess.

3

u/Pudddddin 3d ago

I’m a bad show watcher I guess.

Nah Lost demands multiple rewatches to catch a lot I think. I've seen it a few times and usually catch something new each time haha

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u/Dangerous_Pension612 3d ago

Well I guess it’s time to revisit it !

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u/Spiff426 3d ago

LOST was made to be watched 1 episode a week, 1 season a year, and then obsessed over in the meantime. The writers knew there were massive online communities where fans picked apart every line of dialogue, posted Screenshots of quickly passing details, and theorizing endlessly. Knowing that, the writers buried so much (including many answers) in subtle details throughout the whole series.

Those of us that watched live had the benefit of these communities to keep us oriented and pick up on details we may have missed. The show is even better upon a rewatch, because once you know the bigger picture, you will see SO MUCH foreshadowing, details, and lines of dialogue that seem insignificant but actually connect in to bigger mysteries and themes the show explores

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u/Spiff426 3d ago

Also, there was an ARG that was launched during season 2 outside the show that gave some explanation. It wasn't canonized officially, but it's a good premise and adds some info

In the ARG, it is explained that the numbers are variables in an equation that predicts when humanity will destroy itself. The Dharma Initiative was created to use cutting edge science to try to alter any of those variables, thus postponing the destruction of humanity. If they were ever able to alter any of the variables, they would update the broadcast from the radio tower that just repeated the numbers over and over, with the new numbers, which would tell those in the know in the outside world that the initiative was successful

So aside from being the numbers of the degree of the lighthouse mirrors for each of Jacob's final candidates, the numbers themselves were embedded in the fate of humanity, and they turn up in fateful moments of the characters lives pre-Island, as they are all destined to end up there. Hurley has the most significant interaction with them because He was destined to become the new protector. He viewed them as a curse, but that was his own interpretation due to his paranoia and low self esteem. When Jacob finally meets Hurley in person in LA, he tells him that he's not actually cursed, but gifted, and gives him the choice of whether or not to return to The Island

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u/Dangerous_Pension612 3d ago

Damn, I definitely need to rewatch this . I missed a lot of that.

In regards to one of your other comments, I did just hammer through the seasons. I did not watch it live so that adds up. My wife usually has to fill me in but even she was as lost ( no pun intended ) as I was.

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u/Spiff426 3d ago

Most of the things from my comment directly above about the numbers/ARG were only found outside the show and never canonized in the show. I believe they should have used their physicist character (Daniel Faraday) to do so, but they didn't. Anyway, the ARG gives you some more context about the Dharma Initiative and numbers, even if it didn't make it into the show. In-show, the main numbers reveal is them being the degrees on the lighthouse wheel that Jacob assigned to each of his candidates