Episode Report Card Daniel: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Oh, thou shalt NOT kill. Right. Got it.
By Daniel | Season 3 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.31.2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Man, after all the trouble Locke went to in order to rescue Eko a couple of episodes ago, Eko has to go and get hisself killed!
Eko's haunted by visions of his dead brother (and actual priest) Yemi, which can't lead to anything good (especially since the idiots in charge of putting together promos at ABC should be told how the show generally features one character -- or in the case of Sun/Jin, or Bernard/Rose, one couple. So when they tell us that someone's gonna die, and then we see that it's an Eko episode, what happens isn't all that surprising).
Meanwhile, Locke decides to lead an expedition to Pearl Station, so they can use the computers to try to contact other stations. Locke is apparently the anti-Jack, evidenced by him being Mr. Open-Door Adventure Policy, and puts out an open call for people to join the expedition. In a surprise move, Nikki and Paulo saddle up, and appear to be serving as the Greek chorus. That will be the most useful thing Paulo does on the trip. His other contributions? Saying stupid things, and going to the bathroom. Next time, Locke should use a little coach's discretion and make Paulo a healthy scratch. In Pearl station, Sayid uses a little electronics-fu to fix a feed to one of the monitors, and we see this strange electronic equipment (according to Paulo, they're called "com-pu-ters") and some creepy eyepatch-wearing guy.
In the flashbacks, we see what happened to Eko after his posing-as-priests smuggling routine got his brother killed: he takes over Yemi's church. And when some militia strongmen try to muscle in on vaccine shipments, Eko kills them. The church gets boarded up, much to Eko's chagrin. It doesn't really impress the yummy mummy Eko's got his eye on, either; she has to explain to him, "Dude, I don't think anyone expects you to have the whole Bible memorized. But there are only ten commandments, right? And 'thou shalt not kill' is pretty high up the list. You owe Yemi a church." So: no nominations for Eko at the 2004 Priesty Awards, I guess.
Eko refuses to apologize to his brother's ghost for the things he's done, saying he did what he did to survive. And then the black smoke picks Eko up, like a fist holding a G.I. Joe, shakes him all around, and slams him to the ground. Before he dies, he tells Locke, "You're next." Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Two young boys are crouched outside a metal shed, with the older one bashing the shed's padlock with a rock until the padlock breaks. The boys open the door, and the older boy grabs a basket from which he plucks some sort of foodstuff that he hands off to the younger one, and he tells him to eat. The younger one hesitates, so the older boy says, "It's okay, Yemi," at which point Yemi hungrily wolfs it down. The older boy, who I'm presuming is Eko, doesn't eat anything, or maybe he just didn't get the chance to, because a stern looking nun stomps up and says his name, glaring at him. I think this nun's alleged resemblance to LL Cool J begins and ends with the fact LL also sometimes wears glasses.
Inside a church, Yemi and Eko sit in a pew, the nun standing guard, as a woman leaves the confessional and gives a majorly half-assed genuflection to the altar before scurrying on out of there. The nun tells Eko to go inside. Eko doesn't move; he glances at what he can see of the waiting priest behind the confessional. The nun orders him to go confess that he stole, but Eko protests that Yemi was hungry. The nun says that's no excuse for his sin. I went to Catholic school and would like to tell Eko not to bother. You will never change a nun's mind. No matter how often you tell her you just want to be friends.
Yemi looks terrified, and takes hold of Eko's hand. Eko stands up, and slowly walks over to the confessional. He looks back at Yemi, still petrified. Maybe this priest is one of those priests? The nun yells "Confess!" at Eko, who turns back towards the confessional.
On Craphole Island, though, present-day Eko is unconscious inside a beach shelter as Sayid gets up close and personal with him. Keep in mind that Sayid has apparently been walking for a couple of days, no shower, no toothpaste. If Sayid's smell doesn't wake Eko up, nothing will. Sayid asks how long Eko's been like this, and Hurley says it's been a couple of days. Charlie's there too, and Sayid asks him what happened. "Before or after we rescued him from the polar bear cave?" says Charlie, who might be embellishing things just a little bit with that "we" business, and at any rate could drop the "isn't it self-explanatory?" attitude. Hurley says that Locke's going to want to know Sayid's back. Sayid's gotta report back to Locke now? Huh. They leave, with Hurley offering a "stay alive, dude," to Eko, which ought to take care of things. Zoom in to Eko's eyelids, where the REM bulges tell us we're in for a dream sequence.