Plus there was a zoo, you bastards.

I thought that Eko's death was ok. I was expecting it to be really disappointing but I think they resolved pretty much all the questions I had about him for the most part. I loved after he died when they showed the clip of him and his brother when they were younger walking together. It was awesome.

I don't mind the new folks that much. I think if people weren't reading up on their oncoming it may not have been so awkward.

This episode was fantastic though. I think it was the best of the ones so far. The ending, "he said we're next" was phenomenal and more closely resembled last season cliffhangers.

Eko was a badass and he will be missed.

Eko did not look good in that white tube top. Smokey killed him out of mercy.

Re: Eyepatch Adams. Somebody pointed out that, in last season's Tailies flashback episode, one of the few things that they found in their hatch was a box with the hollowed-out Bible with the Dharma film clip in it and a glass eye.

The host of the orientation videos had a fake arm and glass eye, though.

See ya Eko.

I wish it'd taken Paolo instead...that guy looks douchey and I guess Kate was getting a little stale so they brought in Nikki.

I think I've seen Eyepatch in a show before. I'm pretty sure it's this dude from the X-Files episode "Irresistible".

The Black Smoke is Fate.

Yea that was me. I saw his death coming once I knew that someone was dying and it was his backstory on Wednesday. He was one of my favorite characters ever and I wish he could've stuck around longer, but apparently they wrapped up his backstory pretty quickly and it was always determined that his character would die before the end of the show (ref: http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1553848_3_0_,00.html).

RIP Mr. Eko
"He was a badass"

I personally had no idea they were planning on introducing new characters to the original wreckage group. I figured all new characters would be a result of them being part of the Others.

I just think they could have introduced these two in a much less awkward fashion by making it more gradual. All of a sudden there are these two people we've never seen acting like the second coming of Shannon and Boone.

I think we're supposed to gather they've been friends with people like Hurley, Charlie and Claire for quite awhile and and have been fairly prominent in the group of Losties who've stayed back at camp while the Big Characters go off on their adventures.

Still awkward, though.

Also, apparently the actor playing Paulo only learned English three years ago but has four or five prominent movie roles on the horizon.

He was the dreamy hunk in Love Actually

No, if they want these characters to have any impact or significance, they should have introduced them much more suddenly, like Desmond was. He had an immediate effect and purpose. Or the tailies. Don't tell me we're going to have to endure Nikki and Paolo's backstories, further perpetuating a formula that's starting to turn redundant. I think a major hurdle for this series is getting beyond the backstory routine.

Dude, I watched it kill Eko......or did I?

Yeah.

They're getting to be as commonplace as Kevin Arnold's inner monologues.

did he? i thought that we met him in Jack's flashback of running stadiums well before we knew he had any role to play.

'Tis right, brutha.

Even still, nice entry, right?

I cite, then, The Tailies ...

Was no one else ready to turn the TV off when the smoke turned into a giant arm? That was by far the gayest direction they could have picked for the smoke to go.

Otherwise, a pretty good episode.

Agreed! It would have much better if Eko were to see in it flashes of his life again, and then be struck dead by the black smoke, sudden like a sting ray barb through the heart.

Yes. And also, since the smoke always sounds like it's printing receipts, it should have dropped one on Eko's lifeless corpse and said, dryly, "here's your receipt."

One thing I didn't notice, but have seen mentioned elsewhere is that smokie's actions when grabbing Eko and throwing him around and down were in the shape of how Catholics do their cross on their chest.

My wife's theory is that Smokey (Smokie? Smoky?) is an energy source which reflects back a person's own strong emotions, so that each person affected is actually judging his or herself.

So Eko basically demanded he repent to himself then refused to do so, and so condemned himself to death.

Works on a similiar principle as poltergeists in that sometimes the damage inflicted by "ghosts" is psychosomatically inflicted - it's caused by a person's own energy field projecting outward, so that a person's fears and troubles become external "ghosts."

Maybe Smokey isn't sentient but an energy source that messes with the human psyche.

Wouldn't explain the plane crash, though, unless the energy source is really massive.

Why would it have to explain the plane crash? We've already got magnets for that.

yeah, I thought it was indicative that the first time the thing encountered Eko it just flahsed and showed a bunch of images from his life. and the second time it just pummeled the living shit out of him.

i have a theory about the smoke that they have no idea what it means or how it exists and they aren't going to explain it.