Episode Report Card Daniel: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Make sure your sign doesn't read
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.11.2006
Rose and Bernard are eating in a restaurant with a spectacular view of the natural majesty of Niagara Falls. But Rose is alone in taking advantage of it. Bernard's too busy trying to signal someone offscreen to even barely make conversation with her. "So what does God need to do to get your attention?" she teases. But he's gotten the attention of a pair of violinists who are sawing out some appropriate proposal music, and Bernard's getting out of his chair and then down on one knee. He tells Rose that he's been a bachelor for 56 years: "And then I met you, and we just fell into this rhythm, like we'd known each other forever." He says he'd given up hope of ever finding someone like her. Rose looks stunned, but not overly happy. She tries to speak, but he won't let her. He says he knows it's crazy, because they just met five months ago. "But five months is long enough. Because I knew after five minutes." He opens the box to reveal a big honkin' diamond. "Rose. I love you. Will you marry me?" he whispers. Rose stares at the ring, stares at Bernard. "Bernard, I'm dying," she says. Dying…to marry Bernard? No, the real kind of dying. "I'm sick, and I'm dying," she says. Needless to say, this throws Bernard for a bit of a loop, and when he regains his composure, he asks the stupid violinists to knock it off, because they apparently couldn't tell that maybe they should probably make themselves scarce.
A shaken Bernard sits back down, looking at Rose. "I've been in remission for the last couple of years," she says calmly. "But now it's back, and this time it's not going away." She says her doctor said she has a year left, maybe a little longer. Bernard thinks about this. He still hasn't said anything. Rose gets this look on her face like, "Your move, dude." Bernard thinks about it for about five hours before looking at her, and says, without changing his expression, "You haven't answered my question." Aww. "Are you sure?" she whispers. He reaches over and takes her hands in his and says he is. She smiles, and lifts her eyebrows, and softly says yes. Bernard's all smiles. I guess the upside if that marriage turns out not to agree with him, then he'll be a bachelor again before too long.
Eko and Charlie are hard at work gathering wood on the beach. Bernard strolls up and jokes with Eko about how you bunk with a guy for forty-eight days and then he doesn't call or write, like maybe this is summer camp for Bernard or something, and Eko smiles and says hello. When Bernard asks what they're doing -- he asks that unnecessary question a lot, doesn't he? Like when you're in a video store and you run into a friend you haven't seen in a while and they say, "What are you doing here?" -- Eko says they're just working. Bernard tells them about the big sign throwdown he's putting together and how they could use all the bodies they can get. But Eko's barely got time enough to say that he's busy. Bernard tries Charlie, who says he's only got "two hands" but wishes him good luck. Bernard asks if he can at least help himself to the pile of logs that Eko has himself gathered, and Eko says he needs those. "For what, exactly?" says Bernard. Charlie tells him they're building a church. Bernard's about as impressed as I would be that they've been on the island two months and already someone's trying to bring in organized religion. "Everybody on this island is building something!" he says, whatever that means. "I'm trying to get us saved!" I did my best Eko voice and said, "So am I," which is close enough in spirit to what Eko actually does say: "People are saved in different ways, Bernard." But unless the church you're building has a distress beacon or possibly turns into an oceangoing vessel, I think I'd prefer the way Bernard wants to save people. Bernard even gives Eko this look that says, "You know what I mean, Eko." But what he says is better: "I think I like you better when you just hit people with your stick." Bernard stomps off, and Charlie helpfully says that he likes Eko just the way he is. I guess if you're going to suck up to someone, the massive guy with the big stick is as good a choice as any. But I also think that maybe Eko should try a religion that advises he not act like a dick to people.