No, this won’t be quite the rant I did last week, just thoughts since watching tonight’s episode of “Lost.” In particular I thought tonight’s Eko-centric episode was far better than last week’s, but most of this is just braindump. Maybe some ranting. And oh yeah, huge spoilers.
Huge spoilers ahead, don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Mr. Eko
Curtain call for him. Which, for me, pretty much makes last season and their focus on the “Tailies” pointless. I mean, the only Tailie left is Bernard, and he hasn’t even been on this season at all yet. Plus, he’s useless. Even more pointless? Eko’s death in the first place; because his entire flashback sequence basically had nothing to do with the show. Well, other than show Eko seriously kicking some ass, which rocked. You know you were all waiting for that. Hell, we’ve been waiting a season and a half for that. But he didn’t get to whup up on some Others, so we’re left with nothing.
Well, not entirely nothing… we (the viewers) now know a bit more about the Monster.
(My wife had predicted it would be Eko dying tonight. Why? According to the TV guide, the actor playing him is appearing on all the morning talk shows starting tomorrow. Why else would he do that?)
The Monster
Still appeared primarily as black smoke, though now it seems clear that whatever it is can take on other forms as well: Eko’s brother this evening, at least. I’d seen some speculation online as to whether this was the case, and whether it could read minds: apparently so (to both). And Locke admitted what he saw was different than what Eko saw: a bright light. Contrast with black smoke? No, not entirely, because at least Locke, Jack, Kate and Hurley also saw snippets of black smoke at the end of the first season. Makes me wonder what Charlie saw when he saw Eko confront the monster last season…
Not sure why it decided to kill Eko this time around. But the fact that it spoke (as Eko’s brother) implies some kind of intelligence is driving it. Remote controlled? Autonomic?
I guess we need to assume any apparitions that are seen on the Island are actually this monster thing. And that should go all the way back to Jack’s father in the beginning of the first season. Interestingly enough, Eko’s brother’s body went missing, much as Jack’s father’s body did, too. Taken by the monster?
I guess that means they’ve addressed several points from my list last week…
(I wonder if the apparitions of Walt last season could also be attributed to the monster?)
The Others
More crap from them with Jack. Nice to see Jack finally—finally!—start to take some control back. Although I was complaining during the seen with Ben/Henry Gale, who’s confessing that they had elaborate plans to break Jack to get him to do what they wanted, that it would have been the right time for Jack to say, “Why not just ask us?” and call him on the entire weird scenario. Damn writers…
And I couldn’t help but think during this same scene that it smells like another set-up. I wondered if the cheeseburger that Jack was conveniently eating would turn out to be drugged or something.
And of course, Juliet appears later with her hidden message for Jack. Of course we the viewers know that they have to sustain this plot twist for the rest of the season at least, so she’s probably for real in trying to get convince Jack she’s not with Ben/Henry. But Jack? He should just assume that it’s more games, and not trust a single one of them. At all. Assume everything is a lie.
Anything else?
Did the guy with the eyepatch on the screen look like Locke to anybody else? No, I don’t seriously think it is, but they way they cut to Locke and then back made me wonder. That, and how did he know there was suddenly a camera on him?
Eko burned the plane his brother’s body was in last season. Sure didn’t look burnt up to me…
When Desmond showed up last season, they gave him the catchphrase/habit of calling people “brother” as a gimmick for Jack to recognize him from his past. I can’t help but notice that it seems like everyone this season is saying “brother” a là Desmond.
I don’t think Echo’s flashback was pointless. It showed his inner conflict which was something he resolved before he died. They showed the flashback to we could better understand Echo’s struggle. I was sorry to see him killed off but I really liked the episode.
I liked the episode too, don’t get me wrong, but there was *nothing* in the flashbacks that had any point to the rest of the story, as near as I could tell. It was a waste of an Eko story… I don’t like it when there’s no relevance like that–it’s just filler.
I’m picky/frugal that way. But I like the Chekhov approach to storytelling… (paraphrasing) if you introduce a gun in chapter one, it had better shoot someone by chapter four, or it should never have been there.
I imagine they were trying to give Eko a good ending, and as a standalone Eko story, it was good, but still; if they just wanted to kill off the character they could have just done that in the hatch implosion and had a more interesting ramification from that: why would Eko have been killed but not Locke and Desmond? …Oh well.
I haven’t watched it yet (but let myself be spoiled, of course). It’s just not sucking me in this season, so I DVR it instead. It feels like it’s not going anywhere anymore.
Clones.
That’s why the bodies disappear. I’m sure we’ll see Jack’s father soon, too. I can’t explain the black smoke beating Eko to death, though. There is still some mystery behind that, and the other "supernatural" powers of the island.
This last episode convinced me to keep watching.
Did anyone else think "Red Shirts!" when the two new characters decided to join Locke on his Trek to the Pearl station?
I think the black smoke can take on form, and appeared to Eko as Emil (his brother).
Is it a coincidence that the black smoke returned about the same time that the Other woman died? (The one that Sun shot on the sailboat.)
Clones makes bodies disappear? Hmmmm.
Well, I would have thought "Red Shirts" if those two new characters weren’t part of the cast now… although I’m tempted to call Worst Introduction Ever.
I’m not even sure the black smoke is "the" form of the Monster, or if that’s how it appeared to Eko, but that’s how it seem to be leaning. But I don’t really see any correlation to the death of the Other, either…
Clarification: The Other woman said that if Sun shot her, then they would be enemies. (Or something to that effect.) Could it be that the black smoke out for revenge and/or working on behalf of the Others?
I didn’t realize those two were permanent castaways. Did they even get names?
I only know they’re permanent because I’ve seen it mentioned on the various websites I read (or my wife reads). They were supposed to have scenes earlier in the season too that were apparently cut for time. Names are Nikki and Paolo.
As for the "we will become your enemies", I took that at face value; the Others will want revenge for Sun killing one of them.
I have to wonder why Smokey killed Eko. It makes me think that the flashback is related to this. Maybe the Island couldn’t tolerate an inhabitant with a past like his. Or it’s trying to achieve a certain chemistry that Eko is throwing off.