Jacob's Foot: The Cost of Living

THE 'LOST' EPISODE OF THE DAY

The episode: The Cost Of Living

Original Airdate: November 1, 2006

Written By: Alison Schapker & Monica Owusu-Breen

Directed By: Jack Bender

Content (from lostpedia.com): A delirious Eko wrestles with demons from his past, while Locke and some of the other castaways head back to the Pearl, hoping to find a computer that they can use to locate Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Meanwhile, Jack doesn't know whom to trust when two of the Others seem at odds with one another. Eko's flashbacks in this episode unusually follow the format of occurring immediately after the flashbacks from one of his previous centric episodes, "The 23rd Psalm".

Why It's Worth Re-Watching: Every season, Lindelof and Cuse like Smokey to show up. Each time Smokey does show up, they like to reveal a new element of Smokey. Well, this episode is third season appearance for Smokey. And this is one heck of an important Smokey episode.

Death dominates this episode. One of the first scenes in the episode is the funeral for Colleen. Juliet asks Jack to let Ben die on the operating table. In the flashback and on the Island, Mr. Eko is asked to repent for the lives he has taken, to confess to what he has done. Mr. Eko, of course, dies at the end of this episode.

The episode title directly refers to Eko's life. There's always been a cost to his existence. He had to do very bad things to save his brother. He did what he needed to do to survive, and that he's proud to have saved his brother's life; however, he receives a very cryptic response from Yemi: 'You speak to me as if I am your brother.' He then walks off and the Monster emerges and beats Eko to death. But, as Mr. Carlton Cuse says on the podcast, Eko doesn't allow himself to be judged and goes out on his own terms. It's a great way to end Eko's personal story arc. In the flashbacks, following immediately the events of Yemi's death, Eko tries to keep the church alive and the little community surrounding the church. Eko tries to take the power out of Emeka and his men's hand, to bring peace. But he can't 'save' the church, the community without bloodshed and he literally sheds the blood in Yemi's church (thus forcing the church to close). Amina also tells Eko that new men will arrive and everything will just repeat itself. She does tell Eko that he owes Yemi a church (which Eko begins to build in season two). My favorite image in this episode is of little Eko and little Yemi walking off into the sunset, with Eko's arm around his brother. It's very moving.

As for actual Yemi, his body is no longer in the plane, much like Christian's body somehow disappeared from the coffin. That's some Monster right there. As for the why and how...that's all for season six I suppose.

As for the other happenings in the episode, Jack and Ben have a good back and forth about the tumor. Ben admits that he wanted Jack to want to help him. Jack has the upper hand in the situation. They're terrific scenes. I think Matthew Fox is fantastic as Jack. I'll continue to repeat it because he's consistently great throughout the series. My favorite between Jack and Ben during these 'pod' of episodes as Lindelof and Cuse once called them is the teaser of "I Do" in which Jack tells Ben exactly how he will die. Anywho, later on, Juliet pulls a Bob Dylan and tells Jack that she wants Ben dead and that she'll make it look like an accident. You know, people hate on the first six episodes of LOST specifically the Others stuff but I think it's terrific. I mean, we've got the great Sawyer episode in 'Every Man For Himself," one of the best Jack episodes in "A Tale of Two Cities,' and "The Cost of Living," Eko's epic send-off. I feel like I'm digressing. I also find Colleen's funeral scene fascinating. The Others are so cool.

Also, Locke, Sayid, and company see Mikhail for the first time while in The Flame. Locke is also told that he's next by Eko. Watch the full episode at hulu.com, folks.

The man himself Jack Bender directed this episode. This episode is written by two ladies who are no longer with the show but they did a great job with this one.

Also, the latest Mysteries of the Universe hit the interweb last week. It's the penultimate episode but it really revealed no new info besides a suggestion that DeGroot was more involved in Dharma than Hanson ever was, that Hanso was just a financer of the project. So I'm looking forward to how Mysteries of the Universe concludes.

Hopefully I'm back with another episode of the day later this week.