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So anyway, the episode finally starts, and it's the first new content in what, six months? I want to say six months.
So we're in Africa, which you can tell because it's brown and dusty, and the show goes for the stereotypical bongo drum music that signifies Africa. It's Nigeria, specifically, and a bunch of kids are playing football, or, as it's called over in Europe, "American soccer." And there is a marketplace, and goats, and women carrying things on their heads, and a Coke bottle dropping from the sky.
Suddenly a truck full of gun-toting thugs comes roaring into the village. Replace the kids playing soccer with kids playing hockey and you have a normal small-town Alberta Saturday night, really. One of the boys, who turns out to be Young Eko, is wearing a cross around his neck. He looks concerned, as well he might, because now the ne'er-do-wells are hopping out of the truck and herding the children together. Shrieks and cries from the villagers earn a "be quiet" as the men run them out of the market.
A priest comes running out of the church, yelling for them not to take any more of the children, and he earns a rifle butt to the back of his head. One of the thugs yells, "Grab the old man," and said old man (not the priest) is dragged forward and forced to his knees. "Get the little one," says one of the thugs. "The little one" is the younger boy Young Eko is clutching to his chest. The leader of the gang steps forward, unholstering his gun, and rips the boy from Young Eko's arms. The leader puts the gun in the boy's hands, and helps him point it at the quivering old man. "Kill him," says the leader, stepping aside. "Shoot him now." I get it: the old man represents the viewers! The boy's terrified but doesn't pull the trigger, so he gets cuffed in the head by the leader, who orders him again to shoot the old man. Just as it looks like the boy is about the pull the trigger, Young Eko runs forward, grabs the gun, and shoots the old man himself, looking sick at what he's done. It's too bad he didn't grow up playing Grand Theft Auto, because then he'd be desensitized.
The leader grabs the gun from Young Eko's hands. "What's your name, boy?" he yells. "Young Eko," he says, quietly. The leader laughs. "Look at Mr. Young Eko," he says. "No hesitation. A born killer." He puts his arm around Young Eko's shoulder, rips the cross from Young Eko's neck, and hurls it to the ground. "You won't need that anymore," he says, leading Young Eko to the truck. The other boy picks the cross up and watches Young Eko drive off.