The newspaper that Sheriff Underlay looks at that has an article about him being the sole survivor of the plane crash in 1996 has the date Wednesday, August 14, 1996.
Dave: Hell, I mean, Kira could be one of them.
Russell: One of what? What are we talking about here?
Dave: What?
Russell: Come on Dave. Yeah, fine, these people have changed, OK. But what have they done? Until I know for sure that they're a threat to us, I'm not gonna start hanging everybody.
Russell: Please, Mariel, even--even if I'm wrong, until we know more about this, then you have to do everything you can to save his life.
Mariel: He's my husband, Russell. What else would I do?
When the only thing in the padlocked closet is a small box, and later Tom asks Mariel what she found, she answers, hope. It's reminiscent to Pandora's Box, in that after everything awful escaped there was a little light left when asked what it was, it or Pandora called it Hope.