On ‘Lost,’ Eko is a man divided

There was Eko, standing in a clearing on this week's "Lost," staring down the island's black smoke of doom.

Oh, sure, it thundered into view with the usual explosive force. But Eko stood his ground. He stared, it stared back — as much as a deadly faceless wisp of smoke can stare — and after they shared a moment, it turned tail and fled.

"What the bloody hell did you do?" asked Charlie, scampering down from the tree where Eko sent him to hide.

"I did nothing," replied the tail-enders' spiritual leader. "I was not afraid of it."

Here, obviously, is a dude you don't mess with.

Eko has been quietly fearsome from the first moment viewers saw him, charging the beach as Jin tried to run away. He sat silent for 40 days, carving Scripture into his EkoStick (or as Charlie called it, his "Jesus stick").  He has been a man of few words and decisive actions, and after seeming menacing, then almost saintly as this season has churned along, we finally began to learn Wednesday night just what motivates him.

That his youth in Nigeria would factor into his backstory seemed likely, given the clues floating around in recent days.  So when, in a scene devastatingly reminiscent of both real life and realistic fiction, armed thugs drove into a Nigerian village to haul away the children, the obvious assumption was that the young boy handed a pistol would be Eko.

Of course not. Nothing is ever that simple on "Lost," and indeed that turned out to be Eko's brother Yemi, who Eko would save in a split moment: ripping the gun out of his younger brother's hand and executing the old man whom the heartless band singled out.

"Look at Mr. Eko," said the thugs' leader, as he tore a cross from the boy's neck and threw it on the ground. "No hesitation. A born killer."

Good, bad or other?
Such was the nature of Eko's sacrifice — reluctantly embracing evil to try and do good, making a sacrifice for his brother — that would resonate again and again as he grew into a powerful Nigerian warlord (again, as speculated) with a very hidden agenda. And of course, you could certainly understand why he was upset when the Others stole away with the tail-enders' kids.

When Eko struck a drug deal with a bunch of seedy Moroccans, it was in an attempt to get the drugs out of Nigeria, and he didn't flinch at slitting a throat or two after the deal was done: embracing evil in hopes of embracing a greater good, even if his brother, who would grow up to be a priest, would never accept his moral hair-splitting.

Eko was equally unimpressed with Yemi's black-and-white morality. Grabbing his lost cross from inside his brother's frock, he reminded him of his first murder, demanding: "Is what I did that day a sin or is it forgiven because it is you that was saved?"

Though Eko obviously had a dark past, the fact it is this morally tangled makes him perhaps the most compelling character on the island. His only counterpart, obviously, is Locke — who like Eko is a man half in the light and half in darkness, filled with faith but more than capable of violence (remember Boone's demise?), torn between their greater and lesser natures.

Even more than Locke, Eko is a man divided: half-good, half-evil, torn between the forces within him. The hints have been growing that the island will be the stage for a battle between good and evil — that's apparently what the Others want, if you believe Otherly Goodwin — and Eko and Locke are destined to be the perfect candidates to lead that fight.

Remember how Goodwin, after breaking one of the castaways' necks, told Ana-Lucia: "Nathan was not a good person. That's why he wasn't on the list."  That, it seems, is how the Others view the world, though just how good and evil factor into the Dharma philosophy is going to take a while to hash out.

MORE FROM LOST

‘Lost’ finale finds some answers

‘Lost’ finale finds some answers Answers we'd like to find on ‘Lost’ Best and worst moments of ‘Lost’ ‘Lost’ to answer nagging questions in finale Readers abuzz over ‘Lost’ shootings Dude! How well do you know Lost’s Hurley? Chart: Castaways discover new hatch   Add Lost headlines to your news reader: