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GET
A weekly commentary of the television showby Carlos R Savournin
2-21: ?
*This commentary contains spoilers. Do not read if you have not seen the above mentioned episode.*
The episode, simply titled “?”, began with a dream sequence so subtle, we weren’t sure what we were witnessing as AnaLucia approached Ecko while he worked on his church. It could have very well been a pre-death visit, but the moment the blood began to seep out of her mouth, the darkness took over waking Ecko from his dream with a jolt, but not before Ana Lucia told him that Locke needed help.
Ecko’s flashbacks revealed a girl who drowned then mysteriously awoke just before her autopsy began. Ecko, posing as a priest, is sent to investigate and finds more than he bargained for despite the fact that he claimed there was no miracle at all. Perhaps it was because of the girl’s father, an admitted fake psychic (the same psychic who told Claire that only she can raise her child) was opposed to the “miracle deeming” or perhaps it was because Ecko himself didn’t believe in miracles. But when the girl finds him in the airport just before he boards the doomed flight, she tells him that his brother had a message for him; that he has faith in Ecko. It’s the one thing that both Ecko and Locke have in common; faith. Just as before though, their faith leads them to a place where they find more than they bargained for; another hatch named The Pearl.
The Pearl is an observing room where televisions tune into all the other hatches. The orientation video explains that the "experiment" is to be observed in this hatch and recorded by observers in notebooks provided by The Hanso Foundation. After the notebooks are filled, they are to be slipped into pneumatic tubes like we see at drive-through bank tellers. Where do they end up? When Locke slips his hand drawn map into the tube, it's sucked up immediately indicating that the tubes still work, so who or what is watching the survivors?
By the end of the episode, it is clear what Ecko was sent to save Locke from; himself. Locke has lost faith in the island and deems his button-pushing useless, but Ecko assures him that it's more important that even he realizes. "If you don't ontinue to push button," he tells Locke, "I will."
With Locke and Ecko caught in a battle between faith and reality, the foundation of what has kept them alive was shaken. It seems, however, that all Locke needed was someone he could relate to, someone who was led by faith to the same place where they stood. But really, was it all necessary? Locke lost his faith and gained it back in one episode. Ecko's back story, though important to the happenings of this specific episode, proved nothing more than filler for the hour until we reached he scene we were all waiting for; the scene where Libby opens her eyes.
After the rest of the crew find Michael and the rest of the hatch blood-stained, they confirm Ana Lucia's death and that Libby
is still alive. Once Jack injected her with heroine to "ease her pain", we knew she was a goner, but with an emotionally shaken Hurley by her side, Libby's eyes open for one final word; "Michael." In her last breath, she names her killer, but Jack mistakes it for a concerned question. When the good doctor tells her that Michael's okay, I couldn't help but throw the remote at the television. Once she died (for the second time), there was a certain look to Michael that was both relief and menacing. One can only hope the rest of the island's residents wise up and begin to question why Ana Lucia, the tough-talking, no-nonsense cop, would sit on a couch to get shot while Henry Gale was breaking out of his cell to shoot everyone around.
In short, this episode was nothing more than a big question mark (pun intended) in the thread of episodes leading to the eason finale. Our heroes are dying one by one, and the others are too wrapped up in everything else to stop and think about what's really happening around them.
One more thought before this commentary comes to an end, and it's probably one of the most important things revealed in his episode that can be overlooked.
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk on a theory about a “collective consciousness” shared by the survivors of Oceanic 815. The two C’s mean that each and every survivor share memories which would explain why a different character is seen in the background of another character’s back story. Sawyer in both Ana Lucia’s and Boone’s, Sayid in Kate’s just to name a few. And there’s no better explanation than that to provide an answer as to why Locke’s dream involved himself as Mr. Ecko, and Mr. Ecko’s brother whom Locke has never met.
Food for thought.
Until next time, get LOST.
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© Savournin, 2006
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