I have to agree with the above posters concerning Eko. I thought he had become a religious man, but now it seems like he never was. Seems like they needed a cheap way to off him and decided to sacrifice whatever we had previously learned about him for convenience.

Well, the actually producers of the show disagree with you and say it was just an effects goof. I don't know if that impacts your theory or not.

dude, no. If there wasn't a guy that got sucked in the engine i'd agree with you, but c'mon....

I think it was just an FX glitch, too. If they had wanted to throw the smoke monster in there, it would have looked like something besides a rectangle, IMO.
But, here's the scene in question, so people can see for themselves:

It's definitely Smokey. In this episode, there looked like there was smaller versions of Smokey, which fits into this. So maybe Smokey can break down into smaller versions as well.

I hadn't heard that. I don't suppose you could point me to a quote or something to that effect...

while it may look like a smoke monster coming down from the heavens and blowing up the engine, a lot of people are forgetting that - someone was SUCKED into the engine right before that gif starts!!!

I didn't say that Smokie caused the engine to explode. I said that Smokie might have helped some people survive. Smokey might have been trying to save the guy that got sucked in, but had to pull up at the last second. Also, after the engine exploded you can see another smokey whisp fly by. Perhaps helping shelter people from the explosion.

I agree that these things might be special effects and if it turns out that the producers have said that, then I will admit I was wrong. Until then, I believe that Smokey is has a much bigger role in the events preceeding and following the crash.

From the official Lost site:

http://lostwiki.abc.com/page/The%20S...0%22Monster%22

"Some people also believe that the Monster is seen in the first episode when an unlucky survivor is sucked into a plane engine. Right after being sucked in, a black shape can be seen swooping from the sky and hitting the engine just as it explodes. It was later revealed by the producers that the black shape was used for special effects timing, and wasn't removed properly afterward."

Thanks.

Exactly -- all I can think about when I see the "smoke monster" are the nanobots from "Prey".

Cuse: When Adewale came on the show, he didn’t want to make a long-term commitment to a series. We love him and so we agreed that he would come on the show and then we would find a time in which his arc would come to an end. And we sort of felt after a lot of conversations with him — most of which took place at the end of the spring last year — that we would finish his character somewhere in [these first] six episodes. And as we started talking about what was going to really help the drama of these six episodes, we thought, “Well, this is the perfect place to do it.” As we said, we all kind of went into this [with the idea] that it was only going to be for a limited period of time.


That is the nice way to say that he was fired...

Just wanted to quote myself here. If "smokey" is controlled by a person, I think this has to be where it's being done.

And I'm guessing the next episode will end with Locke looking down yet ANOTHER hatch?

That's almost exactly what they said about Michelle R.

The bad news: it sounds more and more to me like this show is getting screwed up by pissy actors fighting with one another.

The good news: hopefully somebody is paying attention to what is going on and we'll eventually get a compelling fictionalized film version. From this side of it, I have to guess it would be entertaining.

I've got an idiot character question. Who is the brunette that mentioned the monitors in one of the hatches. For some reason, maybe its just me, but this episode is her first right?

She's been on a few...her name's Nikki....I hate her...she's annoying.
She is supposedly a survivor from the crash that we have never seen before, her and Paolo.

I've been a huge supporter of Lost over the past 2 seasons, even when it seemed like the writers had no idea where they were going. After wednesday's episode, I can now say that I do believe that the writers are making it up as they go along and have no clue how this thing is going to end. The 5 episodes so far this year have seen minimal plot development over what is supposed to be a "mini-season" of 6 episodes. I'm sad to say this, but I do believe that this show will follow the same path that The X-Files did almost 10 years ago. It will keep losing viewers as more and more questions are raised without any answers in sight.

That's exactly how I feel about the show, too. I'm on the fence now that my favorite character is gone.

Ditto - he was my absolute fav character on the show. With Locke back in hunter mode, maybe he can help pick up the slack(but I'm not hopeful).

We forgetting about Sayid people?

And it's total BS. There is no producer who will agree to a one year only deal on a hit series unless THEY only want the character for a year. the production company and the networks will never agree to it and for a television actress like Cynthia Watros whose goal is to book a series regular role each year, this is a load of malarky.

Sayid is great, but I lost a lot of interest in the character when he had the whole love-affair thing with Shannon. Totally unbelievable and out of character for him, and I just haven't felt the same about him since.

The most kickass character on the show right now is Sawyer, and the writers have had him locked up in a cage for 5 episodes now, so he hasn't had much to do except for the beatdown on Danny. If Locke returns to how he was in Season 1, then my opinion will probably change as Locke in hunter mode was always great to watch.

Yeah, I kind of lost interest in the character when he had that thing w/Shannon. However, he was back when he was in his interrogation mode but lately nothing interesting has happened to him.

Maybe, I will give it a chance w/ a couple more episodes just to see what happens to Sawyer and Locke.

Agreed about Sayid and his crap with Shannon. I can kind of see why she'd be interested in him (the father figure type relationship--though a pretty messed up one), but what did Sayid gain from being with Shannon? I can’t see him being the type to care too much about sex and what not.

Anyway, though his character has gotten less interesting over the months (though no where near to the degree of Charlie), we really haven't gotten any Sayid-centric episodes as of late. Perhaps that'll change things. In any event, I'm just waiting for him to start kicking some serious ass. He seems to be put in situations where his brain is always needed, but not so much his brawn. Hopefully this Desmond, Locke, and Sayid threesome will change things in the months to come.