Eko Tunde

Played by: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Reason for trip: On a trip to Los Angeles

Demographics: Nigeria - Africa
Eko's Island Experience

As a child in Nigeria, Eko and his younger brother Yemi were confronted by a roving band of warlords. They select young Yemi and demand that he shoot and kill an old man. Eko, however steps in, and shoots the man, protecting his brother. The warlords, impressed with Eko's fortitude, decide to take him with them, and he leaves Yemi behind.

As an adult, Eko is no longer the gentle protective older brother, but instead, a violent, murderous criminal. He is offered a shipment of drugs, but to get them out of the country, he needs his brother's assistance. The brother he left behind is now a priest, and refuses to assist Eko in forging documents that would identify Eko and his thugs as priests so to more easily smuggle the drugs. Eko persists and threatens and Yemi eventually relents. However, Yemi has alerted the authorities, and as Eko and his men load the Beechcraft full of the heroin-filled Virgin Maries, the military arrives. A shoot-out begins, and Yemi is caught in the crossfire. Eko loads him onto the plane, but it takes off without him, and Eko is mistaken for a priest by the authorities.

Eko's adoption of his brother's life is not simple however. The soldiers return Eko to Yemi's church, and the villagers, seeing Eko in a priest's collar, assume that he is a priest. An assumption that Eko does not dissuade them of. Soon after arriving, some militia men arrive demanding to see Yemi, and looking for a shipment of vaccines that they were promised. When Eko stands up to the men, they kill an innocent woman to demonstrate their seriousness. Later, a woman from the village, Anima, tells Eko that the village and Yemi had an understanding with the militia--the militia would take 80 percent of the vaccine, and in return, they offered the village and church their "protection." Eko, realizing the value of the vaccines, attempts to sell them on the black market. When the militia discovers this, they return to the church, and threaten to cut off Eko's hands. Eko, however, attacks, killing the men inside the sanctuary of the church. While he has eliminated the village's most immediate threat, Anima is upset with Eko: he has defiled the church and there will only be someone new to take the place of the men that Eko has killed. Eko, she tells him, owes his brother a church.

Eko assumes the priestly mantle, and (apparently) moves to Australia. He is on his way to Los Angeles, when his monsignor informs him that he has a miracle to investigate. A young woman supposedly drowned and came back to life, and her mother is certain that it is a miracle. In his investigation, Eko meets the coroner who nearly performed the autopsy, and hears an alarming audio tape of Charlotte Malkin returning to life. Finally, Eko meets Charlotte's father, Richard, the "psychic," who confesses that he isn't really a psychic, and that no miracle took place with Charlotte. Convinced, Eko prepares to embark on his trip to Los Angeles, when Charlotte appears, and passes along a message to Eko from his dead brother.

See Also:

Flashback Cast and Summary - The 23d Psalm
Flashback Cast and Summary - ?
Flashback Cast and Summary - Cost of Living
Broken Families
Connections
Character Parallels - Aliases and False Identities
Character Parallels - Bondage/Held Captive
Character Parallels - Kidnapped/Abducted
Character Parallels - Responsible for a Death
Character Parallels - Sign on the Line
Character Parallels - Took a Life
Job Histories
Tattoos
Jewelry
Birthdays and Ages
Secrets and Lies

Dreams and Visions
Eko and Locke's Vision
Eko Sees Dead Ana
Eko's Final Visions of Yemi and the Nigerians
Name Meanings - Eko
Name Meanings - Tunde