Question Mark

That about sums up this whole show, doesn't it?

"?"



Another good episode! We got some good drama and some new information relative to the island mystery. I'm amazed at how the writers can make you think you're getting answers when in reality the mystery is just expanding. Boggles.

OK, this was an Eko-centric episode (yay!) and Eko's having dreams and he's seeing dead people. He sees Ana Lucia (sporting a fresh bullet hole) and his brother, both of whom tell him that he has to help Locke find "the question mark", even if Locke does not want to, and that what Locke is doing is important; and he needs to bring his axe with him. Eesh. My mind goes directly to the "?" in the middle of the blast door map, which Eko knows nothing about. Eko wakes up and heads for the hatch to see John about a question mark.

Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke are all rushing back to the hatch after John fessed up about covering up the attack on Ana by Henry. She's alone in the hatch with Sawyer's gun and we all know how she gets when people try to kill her. As they approach the hatch, Michael stumbles out, saying that Henry got loose, took the gun, shot Ana, Libby and him and ran away. Eko joins them and they all enter the hatch and survey the carnage. It's really quite a sad scene. Ana's dead, but Libby's still alive! Barely. And Michael is not too happy about that. Michael always annoyed me, but I think that now I actually wish him harm.

Eko and John head off to track Henry while Jack, Sawyer and Kate stay behind to tend to wounded. Libby hasn't spoken, she's barely conscious, and it's clear that she's not going to survive. Jack sends Sawyer and Kate to retrieve the Heroin Marys from his stash. This means he has to reveal where he's hidden the guns: in a hole inside his tent. While at the beach, they run into Hurley, who asks them if they've seen Libby. Well, actually, yeah we have...they return to the hatch with Hurley and Jack injects Libby with some smack in order to ease her suffering. Poor Hurley goes to Libby and apologizes for forgetting the blankets. You just know he's going to blame himself for this. Or the numbers. Suddenly, Libby has a moment of lucidity, manages to blurt out "Michael!", but dies before she can say "shot me!" Bye, Libby.

Eko and Locke, meanwhile, are traipsing through the jungle, ostensibly tracking Henry. Eko tells Locke that what he and Locke really need to do is find the question mark. Eko doesn't know what that is, but he knows that Locke does. Locke won't do it so Eko head butts him. When Locke wakes up, he shows him the map and they head off to find the "?". What they do find is Yemmi's plane wreck, the same place where Boone fell and sustained the injuries that killed him. They make camp and go to sleep for the night and this time Locke dreams that he's Eko and Yemmi appears to him and tells him to climb the cliff. When Locke awakens he tells Eko and Eko climbs, using his axe (aha!) to help pull himself up. At the top, Eko sees the pattern of a question mark on the ground near the plane. When he climbs back down, he discovers that the pattern is actually a circle and surmises it was made to be seen from above. For periodic ration drops, perhaps?

Locke and Eko have found the entrance to another hatch - the Pearl Station. They enter to find an observation room, with 6 television monitors and 2 chairs. Locke turns all of the monitors on, but only two seem to be working: one is just snow but the second one is a view of Swan Station, or our hatch. There's a computer in the room and Eko uses it to print out a log filled with numbers and the word "accepted". They find an old videotape and pop it in. It's an orientation film, like the one for the hatch, with the same asian man narrating, but his name is not Marvin Candle, it's Dr. Wicklund, or something close to that. He explains that they are to observe the people in the other stations by alternating 8 hour shifts and recording everything they see in notebooks provided to them. The man says that the people they will be watching are part of an experiment and believe that what they are doing is of the utmost importance. This is the last straw for John. He now believes that pushing the button does nothing at all and that nothing in his pathetic life has had any meaning. Eko disagrees.

Which is where Eko's flashback comes in. He is impersonating a priest in Australia and just when he's about to leave town and fly to LA, his monsignor assigns him to investigate a local miracle: a young girl has drowned in a river and come back to life. Eko doesn't believe it, and when her father - Claire's psychic! - tells him that his wife is only claiming a miracle in order to discredit him, Eko accepts his explanation since it means he can wrap this up and get out of town. At the airport, waiting to board Flight 815, Eko is approached by the girl, who tells him that when she was "in between places", his brother Yemmi appeared to her and told her to tell Eko that he is a good (there's that word) man and a good priest, and that Yemmi will see him soon.

Back in island time, Eko explains to Locke that he did indeed see his brother again when he found him on the plane that crashed right on the spot above them. How can Locke not see meaning in this?

A few observations:

~ The timeline was a little wonky: It's daylight when Locke tells Jack about AL being attacked by Henry, yet it's nighttime when they reach the hatch? How far away is it? And then it's daytime when Kate and Sawyer get the heroin and tell Hurley about Libby? Wouldn't Hurley have wondered where Libby went to get blankets that it took her at least 12 hours?

~ I loved the scene where they return to the hatch and find the bodies. It's good to see that Sawyer can still be a decent human being when called upon. He's given up all of the meds, drugs and guns, which means he has no power now.

~ I wonder if they're building up to a major Jack freak out. He seems to be seething with rage.

~ Poor Libby. I had a feeling she wasn't dead yet, but I was hoping that she would have made it through at least to the end of the season. But nope, she's a goner. Don't despair, though - her story will be told. A little birdie told me.

~ I'm confused about the psychic. Can anyone explain to me his reasoning? And how does him claiming to be a fraud affect our understanding of the scene where we saw him telling Claire that she had to get on the plane, and it was important that she raise the baby? Is he not a fraud and was only telling Eko that to get rid of him?

~ I think that Yemmi's question mark and the circle are the same thing. From the air it looks like a "?" but on the ground it becomes clear that it is actually a circle - the crashed plane makes it appear otherwise. Yemmi's "?" and the "?" on the map are not the same, imo. If you look at the map again, you can see that the station outlined in a dotted line in the lower right corner has the notation "The Pearl?", and that is completely separate from the "?" in the center of the map.

~ So now we have the names of 5 stations: The Swan, The Staff, The Pearl, and The Arrow, all of which we have been inside of, and The Flame, which we have not seen yet. Locke saw a camera in the Pearl station, so does that mean that the watchers were being watched? And by whom? Also, the man narrating the Pearl orientation tape tells the intended viewer that they are to take the boat to the barracks to sleep at night. We've seen a boat, but where are the barracks? Off island?

Next new episode is Wednesday, May 17 at 9:00 PM. Namaste!