The LOST Truffula: S3E05 "The Cost of Living"

Here are my addendum notes with screencaps for this episode:

- A funny little coincidence - S1E5 "White Rabbit" is the episode where Christian "appeared" to Jack and lead him to the water/caves. In this episode Yemi appears to Eko, and its revealed that the manifestations are Smokie. Nice.

- The very beginning of the episode parallels the ending very well. In the opening FB, we see Eko stealing food so his hungry brother could eat, and when the time came to confess, he didn't want to because, just like Eko said at the end to 'Yemi': "I did what I had to to survive". Also of note, we don't actually see little Eko going into the confessional, it cuts out on the woman yelling at him to confess and he just turns round and stands there. I would assume that he did eventually, but he wasn't too happy about it.

- Hurley to Eko "stay alive dude, okay?" - how ironic.

- in my first round notes, I asked "Who started the fire?" or rather how was it started. I get a slight answer as I rewatch - Yemi has a zippo lighter.

- okay, here's my best attempt at transcribing Henry's Eulogy for Colleen: "As we prepare to send Colleen on her way, I'd like to take a moment to *loud wave and Juliet speaking*. Everyone here *can't make out what he says here* what would that say for our society? The fact that *something* interfering anything but safe. *something to close* as she always has. *music starts the instant Ben finishes the Eulogy* The waves were REALLY loud and that made it very hard to make some stuff out, but I'm sure rvturnage will be able to get the whole transcript for us eventually

- so Locke said he saw a "bright Light" and it was beautiful. Did Eko see it here as he stumbled through the jungle?

We see him stumbling along, then he looks up and sees "the light" and starts to move towards it but as soon as he tries to, he falls over and passes out again. And when he comes to, guess who streaks by?

- Smokie was following Eko around and then all of a sudden a knife is thrown at Eko and almost hits him. Just like the Black Horse that Kate saw, the knife was real, Eko grabbed it. As he sees the zombies of those he killed, I noticed that in two shots there were actually more than one zombie, meaning Smokie manifested two different zombies at once. Every other shot of a zombie is solo except for this (and also the next image as well):

Its also VERY fast. Cause in the first shot above, you see the orange shirt zombie next to the missing arm zombie, and when Eko turns around, there he is kneeling on the ground yelling "Don't! No!", and we can see the armless zombie behind Eko still:

- although this is just the Sun here, I found it very interesting that given Locke's description of "bright light", they chose to use this shot IMMEDIATELY before the first zombie appears and throws the knife at Eko.

- NICE! I didn't catch this the first time - the Warlord that is taking the vaccine from the villagers is named "Emeka" which was originally going to be Mr. Eko's name

- Doctor/patient confidentiality "of course" says Juliet in sly tone of voice as she heads straight for the monitoring room (I think)

- I tried writing this as he said it last night, but it all happened too fast to keep up. Now, here is Ben's "original" plan for Jack, which I still think is what they wanted him to hear, and they're plan for Jack is just beginning: Break him, wear him down until they convinced him they weren't his enemy, gain his trust. Then he would think he was "choosing" to do what they wanted. They want him to hook up with Juliet.

- the religious symbolism in the episode was very heavy, especially Eko and Locke rolling the stone away from the entrance to the Drug plane's cargo hold where Yemi's body was only to find it gone. (Very similar to the story of the resurrection of Jesus)

- Juliet's message: Ignore everything I'm saying. Ben is a liar. And he is very dangerous. Some of us want a change, but it has to look like an accident. It has to look like we tried to save him. And that's up to YOU, Jack. Its a complicated surgery, no one would ever know. And I would protect you. Now tell me to turn off the movie.
A few things about this little message - Why does it have to look like they tried to save him? What are they worried about if it doesn't? If Ben dies, that's it, he's dead, end of evil reign of tyranny, right? Wrong. They're gonna have to explain Ben's death to the BOSS. HIM. Alvar Hanso. Who I imagine would be rather pissed if he found out his little utopia was fractured. Also, she's gonna protect him from who/what if it doesn't look like an accident? The "others" who would blame Jack perhaps and maybe try to hurt him cause of it? I think its more likely the same scenario I just mentioned, she's gonna protect him from the wrath of Hanso.

- There is a tree on the banks of the Charles River in Boston that is rooted into the ground twice. I call it the "Truffula Tree", and I think it is the coolest tree I have ever seen. This one here from last night is a very close second:

- And the cool shots keep on coming. I really like this shot of Eko approaching Yemi to "confess"

- Here's the shot of Yemi all covered in white dust (that I think was meant to be another indication that Yemi and Smokie are one and the same)

- its amazing how Smokie takes many shapes, and I'm not talkin about manifesting Yemi or anything like that, I mean the Smoke itself. When its moving quickly through the jungle, its long and flowing like a Chinese dragon, but here, when it confronts Eko to kill him, its MASSIVE looking!:

And again, its REALLY FAST! It extends what looks like a trunk out of its massive form and snatches Eko up in an instant. I managed to get a cap of that instant too: