Decoding Lost's Mystery Numbers

Lost fans have been madly hypothesizing about the numbers from the March 2 episode. Some are even trying their luck with them in the lottery!

The doomed digits — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 — came from Hurley's mental-ward pal Leonard, who overheard them while stationed at a naval listening post in the South Pacific.

It turns out the Frenchwoman, Danielle Rousseau, and her team picked up that same transmission and were shipwrecked on the island while trying to investigate it. And the sequence also matches the numerals etched into the mysterious metal hatch that Locke and Boone stumbled upon earlier this season.

Internet theories suggest the numbers can be decoded to reveal a specific date and time, GPS coordinates or even passages from the Bible.

For instance, Matthew 4:8 says, "Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." Hey, maybe the island is purgatory, after all?

"They were not chosen arbitrarily" is all executive producer Damon Lindelof will say of the mysterious figures.

OK, how about this: Those numbers were retired by the New York Yankees in honor of Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Whitey Ford, Don Mattingly and Jackie Robinson. "I am a massive Yankee fan, but that ain't got nothing to do with the numbers," Lindelof says.

Well, Lost aficionados, at least that's one theory you can strike out.

For more of the lowdown on Lost, keep reading today's Insider.