|
Tuesday, 14 November 2006 |
By D. W. O'Dell
 Another character on Lost has bitten the dust -- during the episode aired on November 4, the warlord-cum-priest known as Mr. Eko, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, was dispatched by the big bad smoky monster. Mr. Eko is the fifth regular cast member on Lost to be sent to the great big Hatch in the Sky, but this time there’s a difference -- he will be missed.
In Season One the Island demanded Boone as a sacrifice, at least according to Locke. Boone was, as established in the opening episode, completely useless (remember how Jack got him out of the way by asking him to find a pen so he could do a tracheotomy?). The next victim was Boone’s nearly as useless sister, Shannon, who was gunned down by Ana Lucia in a tragic accident. Somehow the Losties went on. Next, Michael gunned down both Ana Lucia and Libby in order to free “Henry Gale” (now known as Ben). It looked as if Ana Lucia was going to be a major character, but her supposed relationship with Doctor Jack never caught sparks, and since Jack’s plan to raise an army to fight The Others was scuttled by Sawyer appropriating all the guns, she was rendered mostly useless. Libby was so unnecessary that in her time as a regular she didn’t even get her own flashback episode.
In contrast, Eko established his presence immediately as a large, powerful man capable of great sensitivity and great violence. He rescued children after the crash of the tail section, and then killed two Others with his bare hands when they tried to kidnap some of the Tailies. Despite his physical attributes and obvious leadership skills, he deferred to Ana Lucia as the de facto leader of the Tailies. When the Tailies combined with the survivors from the mid-section, he and Locke established a bond as the spiritual leaders of their respective groups, albeit in different fashions.
Most fans of the show have expressed outrage over the killing off of what was one of the most popular characters on the show. A strange coincidence occurred wherein the actors playing Ana Lucia, Libby, and Eko all had run-ins with the Hawaiian police just before their characters were dispatched, leading some to believe that the creators killed them off in order to punish the actors for drinking and driving (Akinnuoye-Agbaje had the charges against him subsequently dropped).
The creators and writers on the show have said that the death of Eko was part of the over-all scheme of the show, and not a reaction to Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s traffic incident. Akinnuoye-Agbaje had expressed reservations about a long term commitment to a television series, and so they created a character for him but planned an early demise. Similar calculation went into the deaths of Ana Lucia and Libby, as those actors had been signed on only for one season.
This is one of the most difficult things about a show like Lost -- they can work out plot designs for seven years, but what if they get screwed up? An actor they want won’t commit to a long-term contract; an actor doesn’t like the direction his or her character is taking; someone gets tired of living in Hawaii (it could happen) and wants to go home. What do you do?
The creators of Lost have already successfully dealt with one such occurrence. It appeared early in Season One that the character of Rose would be significant, but she mysteriously disappeared for several episodes. The reality was that the actress playing Rose got an off-Broadway acting gig and was unavailable for some time. Eventually she returned, and Rose and her husband Bernard even got their own flashback episode (which, again, is more than Libby got).
I have expressed some concern over the progress of Lost this season. I am not concerned with how the whole “Losties” vs. “The Others” will play out; the writers may do what they will. However the core of the show, the structure that builds each episode around flashbacks involving one of the characters, has been off. Sensible, down-to-Earth Jack was obsessively stalking his wife; sweet, lovable Sun turns out to have been an habitual liar; cynical Sawyer provided a trust fund for his illegitimate daughter; boring old Locke belonged to a pot-growing commune. These flashbacks have tried to radically alter the characters’ personae from what fans of the show have come to know and love. Plus, there was often little relationship between the flashback and the action taking place on the Island.
This has led me to worry about the future of Lost. But I will not add the death of Eko to the list of problems with Season Three. Killing off a central character re-establishes the peril that the survivors of Flight 815 face while living on a tropical paradise. Hopefully Eko’s influence on the other characters, especially Locke and Charlie, will resonate for the rest of the season.
The biggest injustice of last season’s Emmy awards was the failure to nominate Adawale Akinnuoye-Agbaje for the Eko-centric episode “The 23rd Psalm." I initially felt he deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination; in retrospect he deserved a Best Actor nomination (much like Allison Janney used to steal a Best Actress nomination by submitting the ONE EPISODE in which she wasn’t a supporting player). His performance made Eko’s transformation from a warlord to a priest credible, and his gravitas and intensity made the flight of the Island Monster away from Eko credible.
Akinnuoye-Agbaje may not be gone for good. This is Lost after all; is anyone ever really dead? Boone died in Season One and yet he’s made appearances in Seasons Two and Three. I hope Eko does return. If anything, there should be a rubber match between the Island Monster and Mr. Eko; the first time the Monster backed down, the second time it tossed him around like a dog with a chew toy. I’d like to see the tie broken. |
|
|
