The Cost of Living

Eko is dead and apparently Sayid, Locke, Desmond, Paulo and Nikki are next!

We got to see the monster again FINALLY! The monster must be some sort of manifestation of what exists inside its target. Eko seems to have been destroyed because he wouldn’t ask for forgiveness which was obviously a theme in his life. He wouldn’t ask because he never felt like he had done anything wrong. I think the monster must be some sort of reflection of the soul: Locke said he saw a bright light and it was beautiful – Eko said that that was not what he saw.

Juliet and Ben are vying for power. Ben may not know it, but Juilet wants him dead. I think that we may find out that Ben is the better of the two. Juliet seems to be nice, but I think she is probably more dangerous than Ben. Remember last week: Ben doesn’t tell me what to do. It will be interesting to see who ends up leading the others…..I bet that figures in strongly in next season.

Ben is the one with the tumor. Or, at least he is leading Jack to believe he is the one with the tumor. He made the statement that two days after discovering he had the tumor, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. I have to say I am still wondering if it is all still a setup. They want to see if he will betray his Hippocratic oath and kill Ben or if he will save him. Let’s face it, the island wanted Eko to confess his sins and be forgiven. It seems there is something similar going on with Jack and his past.

Nice Frocks. Did Ben look like our images of Jesus or what? That frock he was wearing and then invited Jack to wear the same and walk with him had a lot of symbolism. Very cult-like. Remember Jamestown? Maybe we have something like that going on. They are either putting on an elaborate show for Jack or they have established their own set of rituals for death.

Wonderful Plan to Break You. Ben admits that the trials they were putting Jack through were designed to break him so he would want to do what was asked of him. They were trying to wear him down. I believe that is the same reason they had Sawyer and Kate busting rocks – physical exhaustion will break you and you will be willing to comply with requests….they were just wearing them down too. Again, a lot like a cult.

Yemi (Eko’s brother) isn’t really Yemi. We have speculated in the past that these visions od dead people or people from the past are visions pulled from the subject’s subconscious. If you think about movies like Contact, the “alien”—Jodie Foster’s dead father appeared to her so she wouldn’t be scared and would listen to what they had to say. Perhaps the visions are being created by the monster which seems to be able to take whatever shape it wants anyway. As soon as Eko said he wouldn’t do what “Yemi” asked of him, the monster appeared and killed him. I think we can safely assume that none of the visions are the real people or ghosts….they are the monster or a manifestation from the island.

We know why Eko was building a church. Eko’s flashback had a character plainly saying that he owed Yemi “one church”.

And, I love this guy’s (WISH) theory:

http://www.losttv-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27288

3) Ok, now - why does smokey kill people? What is going on?

Smokey has been designed/constructed/summoned/tamed to be a security system for the island and DHARMA. It's self-sufficient and insanely intelligent. It was meant to monitor everyone on the island and watch for any signs of "bad thoughts".

What "bad thoughts", you ask? Well, remember when Benry said that the Others are "good people"? Well, he was right. They're all "good", and by "good" he meant no murderers, no psychopaths, no "sinners" of any kind.

DHARMA wanted to be sure that all their workers were "crystal clear", the best of the best, the good people who can devote all their life to the project.

So what happened? Why does it suddenly kill everyone?

Here comes the third rip-off, a variation of the good ol' "something went wrong and a powerful being turned into a monster". This theme was used in many sci-fi stories, but if I was to name only one, I'd say "2001:A Space Odyssey". HAL9000 anyone? I think that whatever happened when the incident occured, at least one part of it was a change in smokey's behavior. Suddenly he became paranoid, started to kill innocent people based on his own assumptions, just to follow his "task".

Perhaps one of the Swan functions (I mean the whole button-pushing thing) was to somehow control Smokey? Think about it:
• The Others are living peacefully in their own little village, smokey doesn't bother them because they're all "good people"
• Suddenly a plane crashes
• Smokey detects new beings on the island and proceeds to scan & test them
• All the season 1/ season 2 hallucinations/dreams/havids take place
• Desmond blows up the hatch. The button is no longer pushed and Smokey goes mental
• The Others evacuate from the main island in order to a) keep Jack, Kate & Sawyer away from the other losties b) stay away from Smokey
• Smokey is no longer controlled in any way. It "considers" itself as a God, sent to the island to punish people for their sins. If you pass the test, you go free. I guess that Eko failed...