The Cost of Living epi 3.5
In classic-Lost fashion, this episode gave us some of the original thrills: jungle, hallucinations, intrigue, and of course, Smokey the Forest Monster! (My little pet name).
Here’s the recap, and my interjecting thoughts…
Ecko-centric: Ecko’s flashbacks reveal the time period between being mistaken for a priest after his brother’s death to his stay in London. Returning to his brother’s village, he takes on the new role of priest, only to find evil come a knockin’ as some new gang of ruffians come to collect their share of the vaccines delivered to the village, in exchange for protection. Ecko then seeks out an alternative gang to sell the vaccines to, and it seems his intentions are to keep the money for himself to afford getting to London where his brother was supposed to continue his studies. News is intercepted from the original gang, who comes to send a warning to the village by cutting off Ecko’s hands. Instead, Ecko turns the table on them, chopping them up with a machete, basically. Emerging from the church covered in blood with weapons in hand, the village can see Ecko for what he is, a killer. Upon his departure to London, the alterboy asks him if he is a “bad man.” (Not the first time we have heard this phrase). The alterboy’s mother tells Ecko that the church is no longer sacred, and that Ecko must repent of the lives he has taken, and that he “owes Emmy (sp?) a church. (Big ah-hah moment here for viewers, as to why Ecko was building a church on the island.)
Back the beginning, real time: Ecko doesn’t look so hot, recovering in a tent back on the beach. Sayid is there, (guess Jin and Sun are also back at the beach?) After leaving Ecko, Emmy –Ecko’s dead brother – appears to him and tells him it is time for his confession. “You know where to find me” is the last he says, before we see Charlie, Hurley, Locke, Sayid and them running towards the tent, which is now on fire. They get Ecko out and sort of throw him down, and when they look back, Ecko has taken off. (We all laughed over here because Charlie says rather softly, “Ecko? Ecko?” – like, hmm, guess he’s not here… pass me a slice of pizza?)
On the twin island: (or is it?) Jack seems to be getting a good work out down in that underwater aquarium hatch. I guess he’s got to work off the extra calories from eating Juliet’s soups and cheeseburgers. Ben comes to get Jack for the funeral of Collette, (and he has to wear a white tunic? Um, can anyone say cult?). Jack confronts him about the xrays and the tumor, asking about Ben’s symptoms and painting a not so hopeful picture of Ben’s bleak future. Ben won’t admit it. At the funeral, however, Ben pulls Juliet aside and asks her why she showed Jack his xrays. Confirmed! Later, Ben interrupts Juliet’s food visit with Jack. Here’s where things get a bit interesting:
Ben confesses that Jack has been down there to be broken, so he would trust them and come to believe they are not the enemy. He even points out how Juliet was picked because of her striking resemblance to his ex wife, Sarah. Why is he telling Jack all this? Because now that Jack has seen the xrays and is aware of Ben’s tumor, there is no point to that plan. He simply now asks Jack to consider the request. Is he trustworthy? If the Others are capable of such deception and plotting, what makes this new story beyond their schemes?
Do you believe in God?: We can’t get through an Ecko-centric without plenty of faith topics, but this particular one isn’t in Ecko’s storyline, but rather Jack’s. Ben asks him before leaving the room, and rather than answering, our “man of science” poses the question back to Ben. His reply? “Two days after finding out I have a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon dropped out of the sky. If that’s not proof there is a God, I don’t know what is.” (pretty close to exact quote.) My thoughts? Shut up, Ben, you are an evil bunny killer pretender, don’t tell me about God! *with drawn out southern slant* You ain’t no Churrrrstin! … But what do I know? I just write blogs.
Sticking with Jack’s storyline,
Juliet’s video stunt: As if we weren’t confused enough, Juliet comes back to show Jack a movie. Claiming the movie is “To Kill a Mockingbird” but she’ll keep the volume low because Jack isn’t interested, she puts it on and begins a little heart felt speech chocked with apologies and encouraging him to go through with the surgery to help Ben. OH BUT the video suggests otherwise, my dear Jack. The tv displays a recording of Juliet holding up large white papers with handwritten messages. Things like, “Ben is a liar. And he is dangerous. Some of want a change, but it has to look like an accident. That is up to you, Jack. I will protect you.” Jack, what art we to do?
I’ll tell ya, at this point I shouted out, “I don’t trust her! She’s lying…..But I don’t know about Ben either! I don’t know about this! … oh my gosh, *dramatic depreciation of emotions* I don’t know who I am! Where do my loyalties lay?!” Hey, I had a moment.
Meanwhile, in the jungle: Locke knows Ecko went towards the Nigerian plane crash site, (which is convenient, as he was headed to the Pearl station to find a way to communicate with the Others.) Locke has certainly taken on a new leadership role, every one is looking to him with the answers. And being unique, he opens up the little trip to the Pearl station to any one who wants to come. Great time to pull in new characters, (Nikki and Pablo, Paulo, what’s his name? Sorry, all their lines are so awkward… they just aren’t family yet, us Lostaholics aren’t very trusting, takes awhile for us to get to know ya!) Anyway, so this group takes off in the afore-mentioned direction.
Ecko’s hallucinations: Stumbling in the jungle, Ecko seems to be followed by Smokey the Forest Monster, who appears as images of the men he hacked in the church. Trippy! While splashing his face in a stream, Smokey rises up behind him and retreats when Ecko raises a machete. Some how I think it has more to do with Locke and his crew showing up on the other side of the creek rather than the machete.
Crash site: Ecko digs his way back into the plane, which I cannot tell but didn’t seem to have been very damaged by the fire set to it by Ecko and Charlie. While removing some stones from the doorway, Locke asks Ecko what he saw. Locke says he saw it once, that is was a bright light, and it was beautiful. Ecko says, “That is not what I saw.” There is some debate over whether they are referring to the hatch explosion, or rather, implosion, or if they are talking about the Smokey and the early season one Locke sighting of the phenomenon. From my feedback on the forums, it seems most agree the language reverts back to Lock’s face to face encounter to the island monster, which he said before in season one was “beautiful.”
Locke’s confession: Locke and his crew go down into the Pearl, which I’ll get to in a minute. Emmy appears and basically asks for Ecko’s confession. With true heartfelt conviction, Ecko sheds his shame and claims that he confesses nothing. He did not ask for the life he was given, but it was given nonetheless. He did the best he could with it, he did what he had to do to survive. He took the life of a man in order to save his brother’s life. He is not sorry, he does not believe this was a sin.
… then Emmy shocks us all… “You speak to me as if I am your brother.” Oh, the mockery, the embarrassment, the confusion Ecko feels over spilling his guts to some one who is not even his brother! “Who are you?!” He calls after the image, but it is gone.
Pearl station: Playing with wires, Sayid doesn’t make much sense of it. Paulo finds out the toilets still work. Nikki watches orientation video and concludes something all of us have already deducted: six hatches mentioned in video, other monitors for watching projects (plural), therefore the other monitors must show them something. Locke, feeling “suddenly stupid” and Sayid playing with more wires, and suddenly a monitor comes on. A man enters the screen, white, middle aged, wearing an eye patch, and looks into the recorder, then places his hand over it before it goes to fuzz. Locke’s conclusion, “They must have been expecting us.” Maybe they knew the toilet was flushed? Maybe it was an older video, perhaps of that Russian(?) guy who was Kelvin’s old partner? I’m sure we’ll find out one day!
Smokey’s big move: Well, we were told in the previews that some one would die tonight. Some of us knew it was an Ecko-centric, and that the title was “The Cost of Living.” Either we were being tricked in the wrong direction, or it went without saying that Ecko would likely be the one to bite the dust. Well, the pointers were correct – and he literally did bite the dust. What we didn’t expect was for him to die by being body slammed several times by Smokey! WOAH! (And we can see how the pilot ended up shredded in a tree.) I’m sorry, but I just have no logical conclusion about Smokey. He has read Ecko’s thoughts before and did not kill him then. I thought at that time that the monster might have concluded Ecko was innocent, a “good person.” Could it be that Ecko’s refusal to repent was his death wish? OR was it that Ecko had made “peace with his past” and the island was done with him?
Spookiest thing? Locke and them rush up to find Ecko slammed into the ground, and Ecko’s last words in Locke’s ear will haunt us… “He said, ‘We are next’.”
NEXT WEEKS PREVIEW: “I Do” Kate-centric… looks as though Kate and Sawyer get “caught in a net”, Pickett makes good on his threat to kill Sawyer (oh, Sawyer, heartbreaking when you ask Kate not to watch) and it appears to happen mercenary style. Doubt this actually happens, but perhaps at last reveals Kate’s true affections???
Next week is the end episode for the 6 week stretch. Will be a mighty boring Wednesday evenin’ around here for 12 weeks, but we’ll see you back in February. I also promise to report any new LOST news, theories, etc on Wednesday’s, same time, same place J
VERY interesting THEORY on Smokey the Forest Monster here: http://o.forums.go.com/abc/primetime/lost/thread?threadID=1374288&forumStart=0
For those who have a buttload more time than me, here is a thread containing all the Lost theories: http://o.forums.go.com/abc/primetime/lost/thread?threadID=1322298&forumStart=0
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