Its a goodbye to Mr Eko but he goes out in some style. Its hard to review this episode as its so tempting to just list the things I like, obviously I give the episode 10/10 as its not only excellent from an artistic standpoint but also a production standpoint. From Eko's view point the episode feels like a last moment gasp of breath before death, theres a distance in him from the other characters - there always has been but its more defined in this episode. His flashbacks have a yellowish filter to help convey the feel of Africa which makes a visual difference even from other flashbacks set outside of America. The story of the flashback perfectly counterpoints where Eko was when we first met him on the island as before his arrival he had sunk to a judgemental low, murdering in a church and defiling his brother church Amina's line about owing Yemi one church lingers long in the mind long after viewing.
I mentioned production earlier, as one main character leaves others are introduced in the form of Nikki and Paulo - we'll bang our heads against a wall about them later. The Losties head out on a mission separate from Eko but heading in the same direction adds emotional distance. As viewers we want details about this mission, we want to know about eyepatch guy but we're tied into Eko. Eko's ending confrontation with the smoke monster who kills him is dynamic and raises the threat of the Smoke Monster to another level, up to now its been a mystery, a bit of fluff when an episode needs excitement - now its a killer. Without going into spoilers it feels like something wanted Eko and because it couldn't have him wouldn't let anyone else have him.
The stuff on Hydra island is low key which is good as our main attention is elsewhere this episode but as we say goodbye to Eko the show moves on and the plot of the next few episodes are developed. We now know for sure why they took Jack, what they want from him and that Juliet isn't what she seems.
A pivotal and powerful episode.
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