Mr. Eko is one of my very favorite characters. And not only because I'm fond of his Jesus stick. His past is traumatic, dark, passionate, deep. It's a shame we only get him for a little over a season. He would have been epic. I understand though that the actor, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, needed to leave due to his parents' death. It's one of those things that you run into with TV, like Walt. Sometimes I wish Lost was a book.
I feel very resolved with this episode. The mysteries don't bother me. I know what the smoke monster is. I know how and why the plane got there. I also know that this storyline isn't going anywhere and that there won't be extreme reveals - some general connections, you know, as always. But I kind of sat back and enjoyed this episode. The storytelling in the episode was amazing. It really was always about the characters.
After the show ended I heard a rumor that Eko was supposed to have the role that Sayid had in Season 6. The Flocke assassin I guess? And I did notice a couple of interesting things that kind of proves that true to me. The way that MIB scans Eko, I think that MIB scanned Locke this same way in Walkabout. To our knowledge we haven't seen anyone else have an encounter with MIB besides Locke and Eko. I think that MIB may have been seeking these two out to carry out the rest of his plan to completion. I also think it's kind of interesting that the drug dealer told Eko that he has no soul. And I remember Sayid saying something about him having no soul after what happened to him in Season 6. Just a cool idea to me and I kind of connected a few things with that theory and this episode.
This was a beautiful episode that gave us Eko's story. And when you first watch you see a bunch of crazy things that happen on island. It is a great episode! But to me they ruin it a little bit with Michael and his IMing. I guess at the present time when you are watching the IMing is kind of awesome but now I am just trying to figure it out. I always thought that it was not Walt (Damon and Carlton apparently say otherwise). It was the Others luring Michael into the jungle to do something - who knows? But last night on the podcast Dara brought up something kind of interesting.. What if it was MIB doing something crazy in Michael's head? Just like with any vision on a dead relative or crazy dream that one of the other Losties would have. I always thought it was strange that Michael is IMing - Jack walks in the room and his IMs are gone without him pushing a button! I just thought that was a very interesting take on it.
I think I have said it before, but one of the best things about Lost is that everyone can have a different take on things and it would make sense. That's why I love talking with Lost fans and doing the podcast because I get to hear everything - the strange, the crazy, the religious, the funny, the angry, the happy. As a big fan of Eko - I am kind of angry we didn't get to see everything they had planned for him. But I do appreciate his story and what he brought to the island.
