On ‘Lost,’ Eko is a man divided

That Eko can stare down the black smoke and live to tell about it shows just how powerful he is, and how morally split.  (By the way, is the black smoke the "monster" we were promised a view of?  If so, that leaves a lot to explain, like just what snagged the pilot from the cockpit in the show's pilot and had it as an afternoon snack. My bet's on monsters in multiple forms, though it could be an oozing cousin to the "X-Files" black oil.)

Like Locke, who views the island as his own personal salvation patch, Eko is a man in search of redemption (and in case you missed that point, the "Wild Kingdom"-esque narrator in Wednesday's clip show asked of Eko, "How does a man find redemption?"), perhaps because Yemi ultimately died trying to save his brother — by calling in Nigerian troops and trying to keep Eko off the doomed Beechcraft that would ultimately crash on the island.

Irony of ironies, it was one of Eko's own henchmen who betrayed him, pushing him off the plane to be captured. And it was his disguise as a priest that confused the soldiers and apparently let him go free to find his fate.  It was Yemi's desire to save his brother that prompted the arrival of the soldiers who would, instead, fatally shoot the real priest and let Eko live.

Eko is a man saved by the pettiness of evil, and spurned by the blindsidedness of good.  If anyone can survive the island, it's Eko — and Locke, whose goodness is always tainted by a nasty streak. The two men are opposites, and once they stop scouting each other out, they'll either be a formidable force against the Others (who once again were nowhere to be seen) or will tear each other apart.

How much of this is fable, and how much simple coincidence, is left to see. As Eko previously told Locke in the Swan station, "Don't confuse coincidence for fate."

Unsolved mysteries
After all, there's plenty more mystery to unravel about the tail-enders' mystery man.

How would a rickety twin-prop plane filled with a dead real priest (Yemi) and a living fake priest (Eko's betraying henchman) make it to an island in a mysterious South Pacific location, thousands of miles away?  There's enough possibilities there to make your head spin, anything from the usual "Lost"-as-limbo stuff to the notion of the island as a big floating ship.

Why is Eko so intrepidly devout, saying a prayer over the henchman's corpse and reciting the 23rd Psalm (the episode's title) after setting the plane wreckage aflame?  Why did he tell Charlie he was a priest? And when Claire sees his carving Scripture citations on his stick, and asks what he's writing, why does he reply: "Things I need to remember"?

With Michael girding for a fight with the Others, and Locke helping him to prepare — even indulging Michael in a little target practice with a jar of Dharma ranch dressing — the forces of light and darkness seem due for a battle before long, with number-obsessed Locke and fearless Eko the presumptive field generals.

Eko tells his brother: "I understand you live in a world where righteousness and evil seem very far apart. But that is not the real world."

Nor, perhaps, is it so on "Lost's" crazy island, where good and evil are much more subtle than they initially seem.

MSNBC.com lifestyle editor Jon Bonné is staring at aeronautical charts, plotting hypothetical flight paths east from Nigeria.

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