Lost ReWatch: The Cost of Living
Season 3, Episode 5
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Hero of the episode: Juliet Zero of the episode: Ben
Quote(s) of the episode: “You’re not going to be taking walks much longer.” –Jack to Ben | “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate.”—Locke | “I am not afraid of you.”—Eko to gang leader | “We had such a wonderful plan to break you Jack.”—Ben | “No, I want you to want to save my life.”—Ben to Jack | “You speak to me as if I were your brother.”—the smoke monster imitating Yemi
Music vibes: sinister while Juliet plays the covert video to Jack; poignant in the last scene showing a young Eko and Yemi playing
Little things: Jack working out in his cage; Others wear white to funerals as the deceased’s body is set on fire and launched into the ocean; Eko uses holy water to wash away his sins; Juliet brings Jack a cheeseburger for lunch
Episode notebook:
Eko has dreams of his past. He sees Yemi in his tent. Eko disappears from the beach after his tent catches fire.
Yemi tells Eko that he must confess. Time for Eko to face judgment for his past?
Sayid, Jin, and Sun are back. At Desmond’s suggestion, Locke proposes going to the Pearl station to communicate with another hatch. They can look for Eko along the way.
Nikki and Paulo keep popping up. They join Locke, Sayid, and Desmond on the hike to the Pearl station.
Eko flashes back to the days following Yemi’s death. Gang leaders threaten the church, unaware of Eko’s past.
Jack knows who needs surgery.
Eko took over Yemi’s church but didn’t become a godly man like his brother.
Eko sees haunting hallucinations of the people he hurt in the jungle.
Locke, Desmond, Paulo, Nikki, and Sayid catch up to Eko.
Glimpses of the smoke monster.
Juliet offers Jack another option to performing the surgery.
New information about the other hatches.
Goodbye, Mr. Eko. Except for Bernard, all of the tail survivors are gone.
Episode recap: Visions or hallucinations of the past are ominous omen on this island. Hurley saw his imaginary friend, Dave, and it nearly drove him to suicide. Jack saw his dead father, Christian, multiple times making him question his sanity. Shannon followed her visions of Walt, which ultimately led to her death. Mr. Eko has been unconscious since the hatch imploded, but even he isn’t spared visions of the past. Visions of his brother, Yemi, are haunting Eko. Yemi is letting Eko know it’s time to confess his sins and atone for his violent past. Is Eko ready?
Locke is ready to find Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Their hatch is gone, but Desmond points out that the other stations could be used to communicate with different points on the island—and potentially lead to their missing comrades. John recruits Desmond, Sayid, Nikki, and Paulo for a pilgrimage to the Pearl station—also the destination of a now missing Mr. Eko. The Pearl station is right below where Yemi met his demise in the downed plane. Eko is on a mission to confront his brother. But how do you make peace or confess your sins to someone dead?
While Locke and co. are on the hunt for their missing friends, Jack is done playing games with his captors. Jack knows Ben needs spinal surgery, much to the chagrin of the island leader. The plan was to run a long con on Jack, breaking him down and making him think the operation was his idea. But no cards are left to play except to ask Jack for help. However, Jack isn't in the mood to assist, doubting he will be freed after the surgery. Even Juliet’s covert offer of protection isn’t enough to persuade Jack. What other options are there? How do you convince a stubborn man to relent?
Eko stumbles through the jungle, alternating between physical pain and emotional pain. After taking Yemi’s place at his church, Eko went back to his old ways. Though he looked like a priest he didn’t act like one, showing no fear to the local gang. Yemi made deals to keep his church running and to keep the clinic stocked with vaccines, but the cost was steep. Eighty percent of the vaccine stock goes to the local gang in exchange for “protection.” This deal kept the locals alive and the gangs in business selling vaccines on the black market. Refusing to go with the flow, Eko makes a play to sell the vaccines on his own—angering a gang leader. Unlike the villagers, Eko isn’t afraid because he’s just like the gang leader. He does what he needs to survive, even if that means killing the competition. A bloodied Eko isn’t a hero for killing gang members, he’s someone to be feared. He’s not a godly man like his brother. While he eventually became a better man, Eko has never confessed his sins.
Locke understands that Eko is driven by a need to confront his brother, but he questions the urgency behind this sudden pilgrimage to Yemi’s grave. When John and co catch up to Eko, the determined man is uninterested in their input. Not even when Locke and Eko discover Yemi’s body is missing from the plane. With no body to confess to, how will Eko get his catharsis?
While Eko wrestles with his demons aboveground, the rest of the group descends to the Pearl station below. Tinkering with the computers doesn’t work. It takes a newcomer, Nikki, to point out that if they can get the TVs to work maybe they will see what’s happening at the other stations. Although Nikki’s observation was valid, it came across as trying too hard. Nikki and Paulo weren’t part of the core cast from the start and forcing them into key moments/scenes like this feels out of place. Which I guess made the fans of the show hate their characters. Unlike Desmond, Rousseau, Ben, or Juliet, who were introduced in intriguing ways, Nikki and Paulo simply appeared asking questions like they’d always been around. But more on these two in another episode. Nikki’s suggestion of powering up the TVs works, briefly, as they spot a creepy man at one of the stations. A creepy man who immediately turns off the camera. People in other stations can see what’s happening in real-time? Oooh? The Dharma Initiative seems more like an experiment in voyeurism. Why are they spying on people? What are they looking for?
Eko finds what he’s looking for but at a cost. Yemi once again appears before his brother, but Eko doesn’t want to confess or apologize for his sins. Ever since childhood, Eko did what he needed to survive whether it was stealing food to feed Yemi or killing a man to protect his brother’s innocence. He doesn’t feel the need to apologize for surviving or working with the hand he was dealt. Yemi, or rather what looks like him, doesn’t agree. The island doesn’t agree, and the island gets what it wants—Eko’s life. The return of the smoke monster marks the end of the road for Eko as it attacks and kills him. Now, most of the tail survivors, except for Bernard are gone. Please keep reading, my recap for episode six is now posted.