Lost: Season 3, Episode 5 "The Cost of Living" Review

 "I ask for no forgiveness, Father, for I have not sinned."

-Mr. Eko

"The Cost of Living" gives us some flashbacks for Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), where he takes over his brother, Yemi's (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), church.  The local clinic has a deal with a group of militiamen to give them 80% of their vaccine shipments to sell on the black market and the clinic keeps the rest.  When Eko does not want to give up any of the vaccine, the leader of the group, Emeka (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), kills a villager.  

Eko puts the vaccine on the black market himself, which enrages Emeka, who attempts to cut off Eko's hands.  Instead, Eko kills Emeka and his men.  Later, when Eko leaves for England, the villages board up the church because of the bloodshed and a nurse from the clinic tells him Emeka will be replaced by other men and that Eko owes Yemi a church.

On the island, Eko is haunted by his brother, who tells him it's time to confess.  The delirious and injured Eko wanders into the jungle where he encounters visions from his past and the Monster.  Locke (Terry O'Quinn) forms a group to track Eko down and go to the Pearl station to try and use the computer there to contact the Others.  Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Nikki (Kiele Sanchez), and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) join Locke and they manage to find Eko.

At the plane, Yemi's body is missing.  Down in the Pearl station, the group is able to get a feed into another Dharma station, where they see a man with an eyepatch (Andrew Divoff) before he disables the camera.  Yemi lures Eko away from the plane to confess, but Eko says he has committed no sins and has only done what he needed to do to survive.  The entity pretending to be Yemi reveals he is not and leaves Eko, who goes after him, but runs into the Monster, which mortally injures him.  Locke's group arrives and Eko tells Locke they are next before dying.

On Hydra Island, Jack (Matthew Fox) asks Ben (Michael Emerson) if the x-rays he saw belong to him and if they do, he has a serious tumor on his spine.  Ben denies it, but later tells the truth and asks Jack to consider performing surgery on him.  Later, Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) puts on a movie for Jack and starts talking about how Ben is a great man and he needs to save his life, but the video is of Juliet asking Jack to kill Ben during the surgery and make it look like an accident.  

What Works:

The best part of this episode is Eko's anti-confession.  It's a great scene that perfectly sums up everything we've seen from Eko.  He's a great character and this is an excellent (if premature note) for him to go out on.  It has a lot of emotion and is extremely well written.

I also really love how this episode fits into place in the grand scheme of the series.  I like to think the final flashback of Eko and Yemi as children is Eko's flash-sideways.  It would explain why Eko never shows up in season 6 like the other characters.  Also, his death at the hands of the Man in Black is very interesting if he was a candidate.  Perhaps his anti-confession removed him from the list allowing his death to occur.  I liked this episode a lot when it first aired, but since the show has ended, re-watching this has given me more to think about.

My favorite incarnation of the Others is when they act like a weird cult and we get more of that in this episode.  They all dress up in long, white shirts for a funeral.  It never really goes anywhere, but it's a weird and slightly creepy moment with the Others, which I'm always a fan of.

Finally, Juliet asking Jack to kill Ben is fantastic.  It's an excellent scene with Juliet saying one thing, but doing something completely different.  The dissention among the Others is great and cements how much I like Juliet as a character.

What Sucks:

I always get annoyed during the flashbacks when Amina (Muna Otaru) gets mad at Eko for killing Emeka and his men.  They were going to cut off his hands and because he defended himself, you get pissed at him and board up the church!?  Whatever.

This isn't the fault of the episode, but just less than favorable circumstances.  Eko's death feels a little bit rushed and his story ends too soon.  He wasn't originally going to die so early, but Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje wanted to leave the show.  That's simply the nature of TV.  It's fine, but I wish I could have seen Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje stay on the show for longer.

Finally, Ben's plan to get Jack to perform surgery on him seems overly complicated.  Couldn't he have approached Jack after the crash and filled him in on where they are and asked him to perform the surgery?  In a pre-Ethan world, I'm sure Jack would have done it.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in an episode.  For "The Cost of Living," this award goes to Jack for destroying Ben's plans.  This is Jack's 7th time winning this award, which ties him for 2nd place with Sayid.

Verdict:

"The Cost of Living: is a solid episode that has improved in hindsight.  Eko's final scenes are great and the Jack storyline is creepy and engaging.  There are little things that bother me about the episode and I wish Eko's story could have gone on for longer, but this episode has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good