Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Hurley recognizes the numbers in Rousseau's notes as the same sequence he used to win the lottery. Disturbed, he takes a map and sets off to find her. Jack, Sayid and Charlie follow. Their journey passes traps and a rope bridge that collapses after Hurley crosses, separating the party. Jack and Sayid reach Rousseau's abandoned shelter and trigger an explosion, while Hurley presses on despite gunfire and eventually confronts her directly.
Flashbacks reveal that Hurley's lottery win was followed by disasters affecting people around him, including his grandfather's death and a fire at his mother's new house. He visits Leonard, the psychiatric patient whose repeated numbers supplied his winning ticket. Leonard panics and sends him to Sam Toomey in Australia. Sam's widow describes a Pacific radio transmission that Sam and Leonard heard, but rejects Hurley's belief that the numbers caused the misfortunes that followed.
Rousseau says that the same transmission drew her expedition toward the island. She does not know what the numbers mean, but agrees with Hurley that they seem cursed, and he embraces her in relief. He returns to his companions with a battery for the raft. Charlie dismisses his admission of enormous wealth as a joke. Elsewhere, Locke reveals that the wooden project Claire helped him build is a cradle. The numbers also appear engraved on the still-closed hatch.