Episode Index

2:10 The 23rd Psalm (PSALM)

Episode Number: 2:10

Production Code: 

Air Date: 1/11/2006
Written by: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Directed by: Matt Earl Beesley

When Eko learns about the iconoclastic Virgin Mary statues, he reacts violently and smashes one open, revealing its contents to Claire. Claire won't speak to Charlie, reminding him that he's an addict. But Charlie lies and says he didn't know that there was heroin inside. Their conversation is interrupted by Eko, who demands to be taken to the place where the statues were discovered - the plane.

And in FLASHBACK, we learn that Eko knows all of this because this is the very plane that he intended to use to smuggle the drugs from his home in Nigeria.

It seems that when Eko was a young boy, the Nigerian militia came into his town, interrupted an innocent game of soccer, shoved a gun into his little brother Yemi's hand and demanded that Yemi shoot a man or they would kill him instead. Eko steps up and spares his little brother this horror by killing the man himself. The thugs recognize his bravery and give him the name of Mr. Eko - "a born killer" - thus initiating him as one of their own. They rip a gold cross hanging from Eko's neck and lead him away. His little brother Yemi picks up the cross and puts it around his own neck.

Eko continues down this path into adulthood, becoming a drug dealer, while Yemi grows up to be a priest. Eko devises a plan in which he will buy 300 Virgin Mary statues from the church and smuggle his drugs out inside them on one of the church's relief planes - all the while disguised as a priest. Yemi refuses the deal, but Eko reminds him that the money can be used to buy polio vaccine for the village and finally resorts to blackmail, threatening to burn down the church if his brother doesn't agree.

Yemi attempts to stop Eko from taking the fateful flight, but gets shot in the process and is pulled on board, leaving Eko behind. When the military police arrive, Eko assumes his brother's identity as a priest - the identity he commands on the island.

Eko's past is brought to life when he and Charlie trek out to the plane, and in a strange island twist of fate, discover the body of his brother onboard, identified by the gold cross adorning his neck. Eko weeps over Yemi's body, says a prayer, then burns the plane and all of its contents - except for one statue, which he gives to Charlie in return for the one he broke.

Meanwhile, as the new people settle in, Locke feels the need to secure access to the guns and locks them in the armory. But Michael has other ideas - he wants to learn how to shoot. And though Locke knows Michael intends to go out in search of Walt, with whom he has been communicating with over the computer, he obliges.

When Charlie returns to camp, he swears to Claire that he isn't using and that he doesn't want to be kept away from Aaron. But that night, he treks out into the middle of the jungle and hides his statue amongst several other statues, his demons ever present…