What a great episode of Lost ...
Question: What a great episode of
Lost (Jan. 11)! Kate and Sawyer are my favorite characters, but Mr. Eko's story blew me away! And coming off the heels of Kate's backstory episode, that's two wonderful hours of entertainment in a row. Funny how all those knee-jerk haters who said
Lost was jumping the shark at the beginning of the year are strangely silent now, eh? But seriously,
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's Mr. Eko seems to be the breakthrough character this year in much the same way
Terry O'Quinn's Locke was last year. There's not one bad performance on
Lost, but I'm hoping Emmy voters remember Adewale later this year.
Answer: With a large ensemble like
Lost's — not to mention the fact that many still consider it a genre show — I fear quite a few deserving souls from the cast will be snubbed at the Emmys (especially in a year when
The Sopranos is back in the running). But Adewale was magnificent, and the episode was a brilliant way to return from the long holiday hiatus.
Another take on the episode, from Erin: "I'll admit my interest in Lost had been waning since the beginning of this season. Last week changed that. Eko is by far my favorite character now. How intense was that staring match with the mysterious smoke? I hope we will see this character develop much more as the season goes on. How do you feel about his struggles with evil deeds and the greater good he seems to be striving for? And on what side of the good-vs.-evil list, which Goodwin implied the Others had, do you think he would be on?"
If Lost is, as many have theorized, an allegory of redemption, a place for lost souls to confront their pasts while they attempt to survive an uncertain present, then I think Eko would have to be seen as one of the more heroic, even majestic, figures of the reconfigured tribe. And yes, the showdown with the smoke was astonishing.
