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When Eko learns about
the iconoclastic Virgin Mary statues, he reacts violently and smashes
one open, revealing its contents to Claire. Claire won't speak to
Charlie, reminding him that he's an addict. But Charlie lies and says
he didn't know that there was heroin inside. Their conversation is
interrupted by Eko, who demands to be taken to the place where the
statues were discovered - the plane.
And in FLASHBACK, we
learn that Eko knows all of this because this is the very plane that
he intended to use to smuggle the drugs from his home in Nigeria.
It seems that when
Eko was a young boy, the Nigerian militia came into his town,
interrupted an innocent game of soccer, shoved a gun into his little
brother Yemi's hand and demanded that Yemi shoot a man or they would
kill him instead. Eko steps up and spares his little brother this
horror by killing the man himself. The thugs recognize his bravery and
give him the name of Mr. Eko - "a born killer" - thus
initiating him as one of their own. They rip a gold cross hanging from
Eko's neck and lead him away. His little brother Yemi picks up the
cross and puts it around his own neck.
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Eko continues down this path
into adulthood, becoming a drug dealer, while Yemi grows up to be a priest.
Eko devises a plan in which he will buy 300 Virgin Mary statues from the
church and smuggle his drugs out inside them on one of the church's relief
planes - all the while disguised as a priest. Yemi refuses the deal, but Eko
reminds him that the money can be used to buy polio vaccine for the village
and finally resorts to blackmail, threatening to burn down the church if his
brother doesn't agree.
Yemi attempts to stop Eko
from taking the fateful flight, but gets shot in the process and is pulled on
board, leaving Eko behind. When the military police arrive, Eko assumes his
brother's identity as a priest - the identity he commands on the island.
Eko's past is brought to life
when he and Charlie trek out to the plane, and in a strange island twist of
fate, discover the body of his brother onboard, identified by the gold cross
adorning his neck. Eko weeps over Yemi's body, says a prayer, then burns the
plane and all of its contents - except for one statue, which he gives to
Charlie in return for the one he broke.
Meanwhile, as the new people
settle in, Locke feels the need to secure access to the guns and locks them in
the armory. But Michael has other ideas - he wants to learn how to shoot. And
though Locke knows Michael intends to go out in search of Walt, with whom he
has been communicating with over the computer, he obliges.
When Charlie returns to camp,
he swears to Claire that he isn't using and that he doesn't want to be kept
away from Aaron. But that night, he treks out into the middle of the jungle
and hides his statue amongst several other statues, his demons ever present… |
