Actually, Eko came full circle. He was the religious one. When made the sacrifice for his brother, his brother took his role. When Eko’s brother was killed, Eko resumed his former path and swapped with his brother again. Pretty neat.
Any idea who the women in the TCM flicker were? Did we see them at all during the flashback? Also, is the TCM the real “black smoke” that Rousseau was on about?
I think that we’re meant to draw some parallel with Moses and Aaron. Exodus has already been mentioned explicitly in previous episode titles, and Eko’s micro Bible-study session with Claire weren’t fer nuthin’.
Aaron is the high priest – but it’s Moses who has the more important role – he’s got the direct line.
Moses killed an Egyptian who was menacing the Israelites, and then buggered off for forty years, after which a revelation came to him in the form of a bush that burned but was not consumed.
Eko killed an Other who was menacing the Tailies, and then remained silent for forty days, after which a revelation came to him in the bush in the form of a pillar of black smoke.
And of course the Jesus stick makes him look an awful lot like a Biblical prophet.
[ian dury] “Hit me with your Jesus stick! Hit me! Hit me!” [/ian dury]
That’s basically what’s bugging me a whole hell of a lot.
Everyone was afraid of the TCM. Here we are, la la la, and Charlie sees Eko face-to-face with it. Charlie either saw what Eko saw or his own demons (I’m guessing Eko’s from his lack of insane screaming).
And when they get back you don’t have Charlie saying, “Holy fucking shit. You guys won’t believe what happened! The big thing went up to Eko and ran away! And it’s like some weird smoke cloud! And that crashed drug smuggling plane? His BROTHER was on it! Oh yeah, and what are the odds that a plane chock full of heroin would crash on this island while there’s a fiending heroin addict on it? And why is this remote island so fucking crowded? And where did polar bears come from? Jack actually knew this Desmond guy FROM BEFORE? You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Okay, everyone, let’s all start comparing notes because something really really weird is going on. Maybe we can figure out what’s going on if we all put our cards on the table.”
I mean, we’re reaching X-Files territory here. How many times can Scully be anally probed by aliens before she’s just ridiculous?
-Joe
When I first started watching this show, I didn’t pay attention to the details at all. Now I look over every little thing…the numbers on the combo lock, the images in the TCM, etc. Dangnabit you people! thwap with jesus stick
I’m trying to figure out why Jin and Sun would be the first to forgive Ana-Lucia by giving her food. Is it their way for atoning for all the crappy stuff Jin had to do for his FIL?
Also, we speculated about how funny it would be if the dog started sniffing around where the heroin scattered on the sand when the bag was broken. Poor high puppy. 
Was she the woman selling Jesuses (or Jesusi?) at the Church? Or perhaps we’ll meet her in the next Eko episode.
Not a bad theory!
I think there is a certain amount of desensitivity to it all. We see that people DO tell of their paranormal experiences because people later mention them (AKA- Hurley blabs). But I guess you can only get chased by TCMs and Polar Bears so often before you go numb.
I suspect Sun was behind that. She’s kind of a busybody, and what better way to get the inside scoop on the noobs than to make a “peace offering” of food? I would not be the least bit surprised to find that Sun is somehow elemental in all that is happening on the island. Eventually the Others are going to come looking for her, too, if for no other reason than that of all the survivors, she is the one most actively and directly tied to the land - she is running the garden, after all.
Then again … I am also a crazy, possibly schizoid paranoiac with entirely too much time on her hands. So.
That and Jin is the fisher king (not Fisher King). If this were Survivor, I definitely wouldn’t vote Jin off until after he won the free car challenge.
You never see a fat guy with a hot girl on TV.
Unless you watch King of Queens, or According to Jim or Yes Dear (ok, not the greatest shows, but it does exist)
Well, she did have a thing for Drew Carey.
<Jack and Kate> Oh yeah. Just like the smoke cloud that tried to pull Locke into the ground. Odd that we forgot to mention that.</Jack and Kate>
No, we don’t… but that would make for some pretty tedious writing. His main concern was trying to redeem himself with Claire, and that drove the story in a way that a bunch of redundant exposition wouldn’t. We can assume that, as before, this information will be disseminated naturally offscreen – or that Charlie and Eko will make it their little secret, as Boon and Locke did with the hatch. My guess is that pretty soon, eveybody except for Sawyer will have some of the details, giving Hurley the opportunity to casually say, “What, you didn’t hear about the prehensile column of smoke?”
I think that’s an established character trait. Jin has been wordlessly reaching out to people with offerings of food from the word “go,” and Sun is knee-deep in gathering and horticulture duties – so they’re the logical people to use. That was a great bit, though. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” That was so excellent. The solemnity of the V.O. and the look on Anna Lucia’s face made the line “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” a little tenuous and poignant.
Tell me about it! It’s enough to drive you batshit crazy.
It’s like, “Eko is interested in the story of Moses and Aaron, and he carries a jesus stick – and Aaron’s staff is connected to an incident which prompts people to exclaim ‘We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die?’ – That’s got to mean something…”
Pretty soon you’ve progressed to: “Kate gave Sawyer a hair-cut, and there’s that bit in Leviticus – (Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community.’) That’s got to be significant. Or maybe Kate just figured he was getting a bit shaggy. I don’t know. My brain hurts!”
And then you spend the rest of the night in the corner mumbling to yourself about seventeenth century philosophers, bible history, and whatever the hell else the writers have got rattling around in the grab-bag. It’s awesome.
A cursory googling of “‘lois griffin’ MILF” should shoot that theory down pretty quickly, while revealing some troubling things about certain aspects male sexual psychology. Not that it’s anything new:
Well, Jin did meet Ana Lucia before everyone else, he also knows she’s not as good at fishing as he is and he was a witness to the events of Shannon’s death so he realizes that it was an accident. Plus I think Jin feels people should get second chances.
Did you read my whole post?
Ayuh – that was meant to be jokey agreement.
On the previews:
So “Walt”, after telling his father to compost more, tells him he needs to come. It doesn’t say on the screen where, and it’s up in the air if “Walt” actually gives Michael a location, but from the way the camera holds on Michael’s face a few moments longer before Jack walks into the room I think he does.
We then have Locke being knocked out in the storage room of the hatch, and waking up to tell Jack that Michael took some guns–ostensibly to continue practice shooting poor, innocent ranch dressing jars. Hurley confirms the truth: Michael’s going out after his son.
This is definitely going to be cool.
I also think the numbers–and the computer–are going to play a major role in the upcoming episodes. Michael’s been messing around with it to talk to “Walt”, and we haven’t seen them typing the numbers in or heard the siren… they are so screwed now, aren’t they?
The Charlie and Claire store will have to build up as well.
I remember when the fortune teller in her back story was so adimant about her not letting anyone else raise the child.
Can soemone remind me what he accually said?
And several folks here where mentioning the possable importance of young people/kids on the isalnd. That fortune teller sure was being driven crazy about Claire’s kid. I need to rewatch that episode.
But the thing is… how smart would it be to have ‘THE’ numbers as the combination? That would defeat the purpose of locking the guns away from everybody else, because everybody who’s working the computer shifts knows ‘THE’ numbers at this point. Combination logically needs to be something else.
Well, as comfortable as he could be after being thrown in a pit, yelled at by a crazy bitch, and then having his neck wrung like a chicken.
Or did you mean Goodwin…? 
Hey, maybe that’s going to be a Samson and Delilah kind of thing. Foreshadowing how Kate will end up emasculating Sawyer and taking away his sarcastic bad-boy powers…
And here I thought it was a jar of that nasty-tasting fat-free mayo, or something, and nobody wanted it, so why not use it for target practice.
I wonder if something will be turning up soon about that, as the Hanso Foundation website has changed slightly. The life-extension project screen is blank, it doesn’t even have the ‘Access Denied, proprietary information’ warning anymore.
Of course that could be a mistake of some kind on the webmasters part… but I don’t know.