Lost: 11/1/06

[Remus Lupin]

Strangely, I was very satisfied when Eko sliced up those wannabe's in the church. His vigilante streak was really popular with me and my wife. A very deep chaotic good character.

I liked Eko too, in large part because he did seem to bring an element of religious complexity to the show. I think what disappointed me, though, was that the flashbacks revealed him to be, not simply morally flawed, but morally reprehensible!

1) He enlists his priest brother in a plot to smuggle herione (what does it say about Yemi that he agrees?).

2) He masquerades as a priest.

3) When he finds out that the vaccines sell for a very high price on the black market, he tries to sell them preemptively, thus leaving the village at the mercy of the smugglers.

4) He murders three men in the Church, and then abandons the village.

There's no moral ambiguity here. Eko is genuinely an evil person. Chaotic evil, even. And this runs contrary to how he was portrayed last season. You knew he had a back story (no priest I know can kill two men with his bare hands!), but figured that he had gone from bad to good. Now we see that he was always bad all the way down, and it just doesn't fit with what we've seen before.

It seems that what the show is doing is getting us invested in each of these characters, and then, one by one, betraying us by showing us that not only are they flawed, but each one will be revealed as DEEPLY corrupt, which may indeed have been the plan all along.

Consider:

1) Eko -- serious bad person.
2) Sun -- has affairs, may have murdered someone.
3) Sawyer -- murderer.
4) Kate -- possible murderer.
5) Jack -- I think the full depth of his corruption has yet to be revealed.
6) Locke -- It remains to be seen, but I don't think he's done with that undercover agent.

Of course, there are a lot of other characters, and it's hard to see how they could ALL be that bad, but maybe that feeds back to the "good person/bad person" theme once more.

Am I missing something here? It's true I don't watch the show as religiously as I used to, but this is what I'm getting. Maybe it really is Purgatory, not in the literal sense, but in a metaphorical sense: A place where people can confront their sins and "purge" themselves of their corruption.

 

[Hand of Evil]

So, it is possible that there are two monsters? The smoke and then one that takes the form of someone in the past of the person?

1) Eko -- serious bad person - yep
2) Sun -- has affairs, may have murdered someone - did when she shot the other!
3) Sawyer -- murderer and then some.
4) Kate -- murderer - she killed her step-father aka real father.
5) Jack -- I think the full depth of his corruption has yet to be revealed - naa, he has just lost his faith, once he gets that back, which I think we saw in this one.
6) Locke -- It remains to be seen, but I don't think he's done with that undercover agent. I think he has found his faith, which was lost.

 

[Taelorn76]

ah, Juliette.... is she for real, or is this all part of some master plan? I'm leading towards the master plan. I think if it comes down to it, Jack will operate and try to save his life.... doctors seem to take that Hippocratic oath seriously....

and who was the guy in the eyepatch? Someone on the mainland somewhere?

I agree that there still is a master plan to break Jack. I think Benry had that conversation with him to ball rolling in Jack's head that maybe there could be an accident durring surgery. Then Juliette comes in asking for him to botch the surgery, now if Jack let's Benry die, then the others have won. If he saves Benry then others have won as well, becaue they got him to help them.

 

[Aaron2]

4) Kate -- possible murderer.

Didn't Kate blow up her stepfather?

Also, what happened to Locke rushing out to rescue Jack? Did he even try?

One thing that bugs me. If Ben knew that he had a spinal tumor before the Losties show up, why didn't he just walk up to the beach on the first day and ask Jack to perform surgery? Jack would have eagerly done that just for information about the island. Why go through all of the trouble of killing people, kidnapping babies, etc to "trick" Jack into doing it? He could have asked when he was captured and would have easily gotten Jack's cooperation in return for Walt (whom they let go anyway). I just don't see how the writers can resolve all these inconsistancies with any semblance of logic.


Aaron

 

[Taelorn76]

And which Emi's were hallucinations and which were smoke monsters? The one in the tent? The one amid the flowers? And why did the writers go to all the trouble to have Locke dramatically rescue Eko only to have him go out like this? At the very least, let Eko win some points for the home team. Grar. I gnash my teeth.

I've liked all the episodes this seasons, except this one.

I think all the Yemi's were the smoke monster. We know that smokey know about their past, seen in the flashes last Eko encountered it, and now it appears to be able to take the form of people. As some one else here said, everyone's hollucinations may actually be a manifestation of the smoke monster.

 

[Taelorn76]

Didn't Kate blow up her stepfather?

Also, what happened to Locke rushing out to rescue Jack? Did he even try?

One thing that bugs me. If Ben knew that he had a spinal tumor before the Losties show up, why didn't he just walk up to the beach on the first day and ask Jack to perform surgery? Jack would have eagerly done that just for information about the island. Why go through all of the trouble of killing people, kidnapping babies, etc to "trick" Jack into doing it? He could have asked when he was captured and would have easily gotten Jack's cooperation in return for Walt (whom they let go anyway). I just don't see how the writers can resolve all these inconsistancies with any semblance of logic.


Aaron

I know Ben said that two days after he was found to have a tumor that a spinal surgen fell from the sky. But I don't think Ben was being literal here. Yeah Jack may have fallen from the sky two days after he found out about the cancer, but it may have taken a few days or weeks to figure out that one the survivors was a spinal surgen.

 

[Taelorn76]

4) He murders three men in the Church, and then abandons the village.

I don't he abandoned the village they basicly booted him out.

 

[Hand of Evil]

One thing that bugs me. If Ben knew that he had a spinal tumor before the Losties show up, why didn't he just walk up to the beach on the first day and ask Jack to perform surgery? Jack would have eagerly done that just for information about the island. Why go through all of the trouble of killing people, kidnapping babies, etc to "trick" Jack into doing it? He could have asked when he was captured and would have easily gotten Jack's cooperation in return for Walt (whom they let go anyway). I just don't see how the writers can resolve all these inconsistancies with any semblance of logic.


Aaron

This is why I see LOST more like the Prisoner with every show. The people don't trust outsiders, they have to get their names, run background checks on them and then process them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I don't he abandoned the village they basicly booted him out.

No, he was leaving to go to London, the village closed down the church because of his actions.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I liked Eko too, in large part because he did seem to bring an element of religious complexity to the show. I think what disappointed me, though, was that the flashbacks revealed him to be, not simply morally flawed, but morally reprehensible!

1) He enlists his priest brother in a plot to smuggle herione (what does it say about Yemi that he agrees?).

2) He masquerades as a priest.

3) When he finds out that the vaccines sell for a very high price on the black market, he tries to sell them preemptively, thus leaving the village at the mercy of the smugglers.

4) He murders three men in the Church, and then abandons the village.

The first three things youre on point.

The last however...

Those men were going to cut off his hands effectively maiming him.
Had he resisted even a little, despite what the lead guy said, they probably would have killed him and if not him another villager. I'm sorry but Eko wasnt evil for killing those men, he pretty much killed them in self defense. There were no police to go to and even if there were who's to say that theyre any less corrupt than those dealers?

Nope, the other stuff shows that Eko was a typical criminal, the fourth shows that he knows how to defend himself when a situation goes bad. Evil? I dont think so.