Season 3 Episode 5: "The Cost of Living"

Best episode of the season last night. Very sorry to see one of the strongest characters fall, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Plus knowing this show, I'm sure that won't be the last time we see Mr. Eko.

Let's start with something I noticed in the opening scene last night. As I've mentioned here before, a handful of episodes have begun with a singular eye opening (every season premiere including the pilot, in fact). Well, last night we close in on Mr. Eko's eye to start the show, but alas, it remains shut. I simply thought this was an excellent use of foreshadowing and symbolism. Shit like that reminds me how well written this show is. But anyways, on to the meat...

Let's get right to the point and talk about the black smoke (i.e. "smokie" or "smokebot" as some of the internet folks have dubbed it). Thankfully this is not a gimmick that was going to be ignored. Instead, it seems to be way more important than we originally thought. Last night's episode let us in on a huge secret: the smoke can manifest itself into different people and/or creatures. This certainly isn't an absolute statement (and little is when dealing with this show), but it seems to explain MANY supernatural-esque scenarios on the Island.

First off, it's evident that the Yemi was indeed the smoke. This becomes clear when he states, "You talk to me as if I'm your Brother" to Mr. Eko. It then makes sense to hypothesize that the gang member/alter boy hallucination that Mr. Eko sees in the jungle was also and incarnation of the smoke. But to further pad this theory, let's look at some other scenarios in the past few years that had always seemed confusing and out of place: Kate's mysterious Black Horse, Sawyer's odd hog, Shannon's Walt hallucinations, Jack's Dad (also missing in the coffin, just like Yemi's missing body), Hurley's strange friend "Dave," and even that weird taratacdile bird that Hurley saw in the jungle. And how about this one: Vincent. A popular theory out there right now is that the smoke has been watching our losties through the eyes of Vincent since the very beginning. The producers have long said that everyone has been missing something big from the first episode. Well, the first scene in the first episode is Jack's eye opening, and the first thing he sees in the jungle is Vincent. And later in that episode we see Vincent in the bushes following Jack and Kate to the site of the cockpit and doomed pilot. Immediately thereafter, they are chased away by the "dinosaur," which we now know was most likely another form of our friend smokie. But I guess the question is: what is its purpose?


There are simply too many open ended theories at this point. The whole good verse evil idea certainly holds water. Mr. Eko refused to confess his sins and was dealt with accordingly. (And by the way, the alter boy said "confess" to Mr. Eko - interesting that the creature seemed to be giving Eko a chance to confess his sins and be saved). At the same time, Locke notes that in his visions he instead sees a bright light after his encounter with the smoke..."I've seen the eye of the island, and it is beautiful." Locke is good, therefore he is spared. There could be religious overtones - meaning that the black smoke is the devil and the bright light is heaven/God. In this vein, it's interesting to note that when the smoke tossed Eko like a ragdoll that it did so in the sign of the cross. Similarly, when dead bodies go missing it's hard to not think of the whole "risen from the dead" Jesus thing. Just another path to think about.

More simply, it could be the Island's defense system. On the blast door map that Locke found last season, the phrase "site of Cerberus activity" was seen on their as a defense system (Cerberus is a three headed dog that protects the gates of Hades...hmmmm...a dog). It is possible that the smoke and Cerberus are on in the same? But what is it defending it from? Obviously not everyone, cause then everyone would be dead. Maybe it defends the evil from the good. This would tie the device to the others' philosophy. But I'm not entirely convinced that the others are responsible for smokie/Cerberus.



There are a lot of theories on this as you can imagine but so not to make this too long, I'm stopping here and moving on to other aspects of the episode...please feel free to add your own below.

To move over to Jack's story, who knows who to believe here. No doubt he has a decision to make. What if he goes through with killing Henry only to see that Juliet's been conning him the whole time? OR, this whole thing could be orchestrated and just another way to screw with Jack. You can't trust these people. But as of right now we are to understand that Henry is in a bit of trouble. And I thought the Juliete/Jack scene was very clever and well done.



The new characters: I know, they're terrible. (you're telling me that Sayid and Locke didn't figure out that the other TV's were for monitoring? Seriously? Please.)

Eye Patch dude: I guess we'll have to wait on this one...but there is a chance that he is Razinsky - who is the guy that Kelvin was in the hatch with (and started the blast door map). Now, according to Kelvin this guy blew his head off with a shotgun, but we all know that means nothing after two and a half seasons of watching this show. I haven't seen a body, have you?



All in all a fun episode last night. Looks like a good one next week. Keep in mind that it's the last episode until February (!!!). They're even dubbing it the "Fall Season Finale" which is a tad ridiculous. But be sure that there will be a huge cliffhanger, and most likely many more questions. Until then!