With the different writers on this show, that was a main gist, but when you think back to how the numbers appeared throught the series, it starts making sense.
…but they did do things as they went along; Ben wasn't meant to be the leader of the Others until Season 3 was confirmed right?
6 years ago J.J. Abrams didn't plop down a dumptruck load of papers saying, "This is the series. Buh-bye." He had an overarching story with a beginning and an ending. That is to say, they knew where they were starting and they knew what their goal was.
Similar to you-know-who.
However, also similar to that certain someone, they have several ideas that they didn't know how they would use but they knew they could use them in the series since they had an ending. Thus an overwhelming amount of the material in the show was never 'planned' but having their goal set, all they had to was reach that point while creatively manipulating those X factors.
Time was confirmed as a factor within the first 10 episodes, it was the network that nixed that revelation.
Ben was introduced as someone that could have either been a throwaway if he didn't work out, OR the leader if he did.
Eko was introduced as someone who would be a spiritual leader to rival Locke, but the actor wanted out.
Flashforwards were conceived between seasons 1 and 2.
The numbers were only conceived of until the episode of the same title, but they knew they would also play a role later. I mean, the number 42 was introduced solely as a tribute to Hitchhiker's.
In other words, while factors were seemingly randomly introduced, they were for a purpose, not just to be random mysterious shitbags like neanderthal TV viewers around the world accused them of being.
Did they know the numbers would represent 'candidates'?
I dunno. I doubt it. I think someone along the line, somebody thought it would be an appropriate explanation and they went with it.
But….let's not forget that Jack was sitting in row 23 of the airplane in episode 1.
And, I've seen episode 1 over 30 times so it's impossible for me to forget, but for those of you who might have forgotten.
hn-g8OmkEIE
Episode 1 bitches. Episode 1.
Buceph brought up a great point about the food drop. Of the many questions, that's one I think they might actually glaze over.
Yeah okay, we can draw some conclusions about the time AND location shifts on our own. Maybe someone making a drop in the 70's took a wrong turn into the island and got lost in time for years (to them only a moment) and dropped the food. But I dunno if they'll actually devote precious show time to that.
My other fear is that they'll drop Hanso.
They elaborated extensively on him in the first Lost ARG but it would be a shame to see someone who obviously has a link to the island similar to Widmore, being completely dropped. Perhaps Widmore's character replaced his?