Episode 221 - Secret Clue

This week's episode, "?", saw a whole lot of theories destroyed by an avalanche of new clues and reveals. Mr Eko and Locke's hunt for the ? on the blast door map led them to find a new hatch, a new Orientation film and an interesting print-out. The theme of dream imagery was heavily present in this episode, strengthening the character link between Eko and Charlie. We had a major flashback character crossover that has put one survivor's reason for being on Oceanic flight 815 in a completely different light, and we were forced to say goodbye to two of our survivors.

In flashback, we learnt of how Mr Eko came to be on the doomed flight. Pretending to be a minister in a parish in Sydney, he was sidetracked by an apparent miracle. Mr Eko doubted the mother's claims of her daughter's resurrection but the further he dug into the matter, the more he was forced to reconsider. When he met the girl's father, however, a huge piece of the LOST puzzle snapped into place; her father is Richard Malkin, the psychic responsible for Claire being on the island by convincing her to travel to LA to give up her unborn baby for adoption. He tells Eko "I collect information on people - and then exploit it," telling him to look elsewhere for miracles as his wife is only pushing the claim to spite him for being a fraudulent psychic. Does this mean he had collected information on Claire and was exploiting her, not to get her to LA but to the island - meaning he didn't see the crash in her mind, but instead knew 815 was doomed already? If he did, who and for what purposes?

Their family name certainly doesn't inspire confidence - Mal meaning bad, kin being family. His daughter Charlotte seemed to posses the abilities her father didn't, knowing several personal facts about Eko's brother Yemi - unless she is using information fed to her by her father. But it was the strange, almost knowing glance shared between Charlotte and poor Libby in the airport before boarding that was the most confusing - could it have been denied recognition? To help you make up your own mind, read our LOST interview with Charlotte herself, Australian actress Brooke "Mikey" Anderson!

Yemi directed Eko and Locke through dream to climb the cliff face that claimed Boone's life, which Eko eagerly does and spots a large ? salted into the earth with the dot lying underneath the plane. Locke and Eko shift the burnt-out drug plane - and discover a hatch door. Inside, Eko and Locke explore the hatch silently, discover several amazing new secrets. It's comprised of two armchairs, nine television screens an apparently still-burning cigarette and a computer just like the one in the Swan, but with a printer and a PRINT LOG Y/N prompt on the screen. Locke presses Y and Eko later takes the print out. Eko finds a tape for the Orientation film for station 5 of 6, The Pearl. This film is hosted by Mark Wickman, a man who looks nearly identical to Dr Marvin Candle (host of the Swan's film) except that he has both of his arms.

Wickman explains that occupants have undertaken a three week tour of duty in the Pearl, charged with observing and recording all events that take place in the Swan - Jack walking in the kitchen now seen on one of the TV screens. Those in the Pearl are observing a psychological experiment in progress though they are not told the nature of the study. Instead, they are told that those manning the Swan "believe it is of the utmost importance." Each action, no matter how unimportant, must be recorded in the notebooks and sent up a pneumatic tube to be taken to the Dharma headquarters, with sessions to be conducted in eight hour shifts, after which researchers will return to the Pala Ferry to be taken to the barracks. You know the LOST Ninja will have more information on this over on his blog.

During the video, we get a few more shots of Gerald and Karen DeGroot, founders of the Dharma Initiative. It is interesting that the Pearl had a video rather than a film reel, even though both were made in 1980 - could this have something to do with the strange magnetic forces behind the concrete wall in the Swan, as magnets wipe film? There was a shot of the television above Wickman's shoulder with two men working in the Swan, but one of the largest banks of lit-up machines is missing from the computer room in the present and as shown on the foreboding Swan film. So why does Wickman look just like Candle? And why was their a camera observing things in the Pearl?