Season 5 Number 47?

[reverend]

The number 47 comes up so many times in alias. What is the signifigance? Syd has gone into room 47 of a few different buildings. She openned up Port 47 on a server so the CIA could access it. And there's the ever popular Page 47 from Rambaldi's books. The number has made some other appearances here and there... but why???

Any ideas?

 

[the47thAgent]

Well, the short and simple answer that we have is that Milo Rambaldi had a fascination with the number 47. Therefore all Rambadli-related things naturally have 47 worked in. The machine in the Telling had 47 parts, the prophecy was on the 47th page. Syd dreamed about walking into room 47 likely because before her memory was wiped, she was eyeball deep in Rambaldi stuff and some part of her mind remembered that.

On the broader scope, you are also correct that 47 shows up a lot in the show. Some examples of where it occurs is in the number of Euros Dixon collects while under cover in an airport, part of an ID number, part of a security code, someone even once told me the full Alias intro from Seasons I and II takes 47 seconds... My personal suspicion is that this is JJ's way of hinting that just like the number 47, Rambaldi is threading through and underlying much of the plotlines and story arcs.

 

[rileylovesalias]

the47thagent is right. Although JJ may lead it somewhere. Maybe he have a big series finale planned he wants to use when the geys well you know. NOT THAT THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN IN A MILLION YEARS!

 

[marshall-mellows]

In the pilot, Marshall is configuring some kind of techno gizmo and he says he wants to get it to 47 because 47 is a prime number. Maybe some math genius on the boards here can give us some insight into prime numbers and their significance??

But yes, it does seem to be a J.J. thing, much like 1013 was with Chris Carter, but that was somebody's birthday, I think. However, based on the most recent episode, I would definitely recommend to J.J. not to try to emulate Chris Carter too much, given how that show (IMHO) slid into depravity as it got older.

 

[rileylovesalias]

Prime numbers have only one thing different from all other numbers.

THEY CAN ONLY BE MULTIPLIED BY 1 AND ITSELF. Does that help? or

 

[marshall-mellows]

Do you mean "divided by" rather than "multiplied by" because any numbers can be multiplied.

 

[rileylovesalias]

What i mean is prime numbers have ONLY 2 factors. 1 and itself. or

 

[Julia_Thorne47]

As far as I know the number is used at least once in every episode. I am currently in the process of recording all the times it is used.

 

[Linz12399]

wow.....it's kinda sad that everyone is sooo confused about prime numbers. Like someone said before, prime numbers cannot be factored because the only WHOLE (no decimals, fractions, negatives, etc) numbers that can be multiplied to reach that number are one and forty-seven...and just to tell everyone, my math skills may be above average, but it doens't take a genius to know prime numbers....

 

[Julia_Thorne47]

I think most people know what prime numbers are (47 2 5 3 7) , we are just trying to figure out if there is mor to it then jsut that. I could be wrong though. Granted my math skills are above average as well but... I pointed out in another post that I was watching 10/8 before alias last sunday and they talked about the number 666 and that the real relevance is the base number...6+6+6=18 and 1+8=9 so the base number for 47 is 2 4+7=11 and 1+1=2 so what might be the signifigance of 2. In any case even if it doesn't mean anything I'm still going to record all the 47's in the episodes.

 

[iheartmarshall]

there has been some talk about the fireworks in the background before she saw the big 47 door. fireworks usually mean 4th of July which if 7/4 or 47 backwards...