Lost: The Cost of Living
Well, here's your Lost thread for the week. I can't say I'm thrilled about where the show is currently going but I'm hanging with it nevertheless. Don't read further if you haven't seen the episode. Here's some of my thoughts:
Now that the black smoke has reoccurred, what is it? If any of you have read Michael Crichton's Prey, then I think it might be something along those lines. I am still really pissed they killed off Eko. He was by far one of the more interesting characters on the show. If they kill off Sayid, I'll stop watching. Anyways, don't for a moment think that Juliet's little movie thing was anything other than a trick...and don't think Jack is fooled by it either. They're playing up next week's episode quite a bit so we'll see what happens. I'll hopefully write some more tonight (Thursday) but I need some sleep. Cheers.
posted by thewalrus at 3:21 AM
14 Comments:
Since I am writing a dissertation on forgiveness and non-forgiveness, this was my favorite episode by far. I am also sad to see Mr. Eko go, since the shows that feature him seem to really dig into the religious issues of what's happening on the island.
What do you make of the Christ imagery in this episode? Mr. Eko is involuntarily ordained, and later he rolls away the stone only to find the empty tomb (plane). Next he seems to be on a kind of road to Emmaus, where he encounters his brother, and in an inversion of Paul's conversion scene, he refuses to confess, and is swept up by the black smoke. Should he have confessed? Was he guilty? Were the scenes of him staring at the crucifix meant to be somehow prescient?
Here are his last words to his brother: "I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it, I did my best." This sounds something like Gethsemane to me, but who is the Christ figure? Eko, his brother, someone else? Why all this emphasis on and resistance to repentance and forgiveness?
-w
1:21 PM, November 02, 2006
dante,
I agree that none of the dead are gone for good (as is obvious from their reappearances, however we take them). It just sucks b/c I liked Eko I guess and feel he has much to offer. I also agree that the purgatory thing might not be totally out yet.
watercolor,
Wow, that was pretty enlightening. I did not catch the religious imagery the first time through either. It's hard to tell what's going on with the refusal to ask for forgiveness. It could be chalked up simply as a complexity in character or it could be something much deeper. I never know which to hang my hat on because they're both often true. The whole "gift of life" language was quite interesting.
Either of you familiar with Crichton's book? It's the only thing that would make sense of the black smoke. It's essentially a product of nanotechnology that acquired intelligence. It would make sense of its great strength, its ability to reflect intellect, its form, and the machine-like noise. It would also easily connect with a type of governmental project. Who knows.
You guys think the movie thing was a ruse?
I'll check back later tonight but I'm off to class now.
2:21 PM, November 02, 2006
thewalrus,
I don't know the Chrichton book, so I can't offer much on the black smoke. I didn't see Eko's behavior so much as the refusal to repent, but more of a struggle over the definition of sin. He steals because his brother is hungry, and will not call it a sin. He kills to save his brother's life, and will not call that a sin either. Context changes the definition of sin, and is that true for the island as well? People are thrust out of context, and so the whole moral universe is shifted?
I don't know what to do about purgatory, but I agree with you and dante that the theory is still hanging in there. If they are indeed in purgatory, then who is the judge? The Others? The black smoke? When Shannon died, her death seemed like a liberation, as compared to Eko's more sinister demise. So, it seems like there are two ways to leave the island, but the Others were not present at either death, even though they are the ones making lists and declaring who is "good."
The speech with the television was pretty interesting, a sort of summing-up of the themes of truth and trust that have run through the entire show. I thought having the truth and the lie thrust up against each other so vividly, without being able to tell which was which, was a really interesting way to present that scene. I don't know what to make of the Others at all, and I agree with dante that I get aggravated with the episodes set entirely in their world. I don't have a speck of context for understanding them or what they're doing, but maybe that's the point. Maybe the lack of information about the Others serves to highlight for viewers the discomfort and confusion of encountering "others" without the context or experience to judge what they are doing. Which, it seems, is sort of what the island is all about.
-w
9:31 PM, November 02, 2006
I do agree with the whole struggling with the definition of sin thing.
How do you see Shannon's death as a liberation? Is this what you mean by "two ways" of leaving?
There seems to be a whole "testing" scheme going on - with the survivors in the others' world as well as the viewers of the show. This type of doubling of meaning seems to be more and more obvious now.
10:22 PM, November 02, 2006
I saw Shannon's death as liberation, or maybe an upwards-release from purgatory, because of the backstory that led up to it. It seemed like her whole life was full of people who didn't believe in her, or people who betrayed her. On the island with Sayid, she encountered the first person who reversed that experience. And when he actually spoke the words to her, "I believe in you" (or something like that; it was a long time ago), it was right at that moment that she was shot. Curiously, when Ana-Lucia and Libby died, they were both in a falling-in-love and being-affirmed state as well, and they were also shot. All three were shot by one of their own, not by the Others, which adds to the confusion of whether the Others have anything to do with the arbitration of this sort-of purgatory.
I don't know what to do with Boone's and the other deaths on the island, though. Even though the dead folks show back up in flashbacks, the only dead person to reappear in the flesh (or so it seems, and so it is implied by the empty tomb/plane) is Eko's brother, who didn't actually die on the island, right, because he was shot on that runway.
If the falling-in-love-on-the-island = death scheme really has any weight, it would seem that Sawyer and Kate are the next to go. But what did Eko whisper to Locke in his last moment? "You are next"? What does that mean, and how does he know?
-w
9:30 AM, November 03, 2006
HAve you guys discussed the idea of the black smoke showing eko those images in last season? I thought that was one of the most interesting aspects, but it was so amazingly subtle that my sweet wife didn't catch in until we went back to watch it frame by frame. One thing that seems like is developing though is that the smoke does seem to be a character in the interactions with eko...it's more of a device when it interacts with Locke, even though we don't really know much about that interaction...a bright light? what was that about?
Walrus,
You're flirting with a paradox when you suggest that Juliet's actions are a ruse and that Jack won't fall for it. Doesn't that imply that he will in fact go along with the surgery, and heal benry. therefore, through a complicated interaction he actually finds that he wants to save ben's life...er, wait a minute, didn't ben suggest that they had a complicated plan to create in Jack the desire to save Ben?
By the way, Ben's apologetic for the existence for God was really strong. I'm going to start using that argument.
10:54 AM, November 03, 2006
horrible typing. I'm embarassed.
10:55 AM, November 03, 2006
dante,
My hunch is that stevepvc's comment was intended to be sarcastically humorous.
5:27 PM, November 06, 2006
Dante,
So was mine ;)
1:01 AM, November 07, 2006
For the record, all of my comments have been dead serious.
10:14 AM, November 07, 2006
lol
There's no Boston Legal tonight :(. Those damn elections...
11:29 AM, November 07, 2006
Dude, I was serious.
:o
6:52 PM, November 07, 2006
I'm a little behind, I just watched the episode with Eko a few days ago, after I had already read this thread. It was too tempting to wait and watch the show first.
In the episode before last week's,
Ben showed Saywer the other island from the cliff. Are we to believe there are two islands? Why didn't anyone ever discover this before?
Also, Why did the black smoke pick up Eko and hurt him, resulting in his death? I never caught any reason for this.
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just curious what everyone here thinks.
9:46 AM, November 09, 2006
Well, as far as the two islands, I can't make out any rational reason why they wouldn't have seen the other island.
And as for the black smoke, I can't think of any reason as to why it would hurt Eko. I'm confident that will be explained at some point.
10:32 PM, November 09, 2006
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