?
The BIG question mark.
For Libby, it’s whether or not she’s going to live long enough to tell Jack and the gang Michael shot her. For Michael, it’s whether or not he’s going to come clean and tell the truth, whatever that is. For Jack, it’s whether or not he’s going to rush off into the jungle to get all medieval on Henry’s ass.
But for Locke and Eko, the big question is whether or not they still have faith in the island.
In a flashback, we see Eko in Australia, still posing as a priest. His past continues to haunt him, but he’s getting his papers in order to go to the U.S. to start a new life. He gets a minor detour, however, when he has to stay to investigate a supposed miracle. A girl who had drowned and died came back to life–and she brought a message with her from Eko’s brother: He doesn’t blame Eko. [As a side note: the drowned girl’s father is a psychic, who admits he’s actually a sham artist, but he is the SAME psychic who gave Claire the advice to hold onto her baby.]
Back on the island, Eko is now having strange dreams in which his brother and a now dead Ana Lucia are telling him to make Locke take him to the “question mark.” Remember, that’s in the center of the map Locke saw on the back of the blast door. Locke is reluctant to show Eko the map he’s tried to draw from memory, but Eko is insistent.
Under the guise they are going after Henry, since Jack has to stay and take care bullet-in-the-chest Libby, Eko and Locke make their way back to the fallen drug plane, in which Eko previously found his brother’s remains. And there they find the question mark, carved out in the ground, partially hidden by the plane and covering another hatch.
Yes, yet another hatch. Not the medical research one. Not the Tailies bunker. A new one. Eko and Locke climb down into it to discover a wall of TV monitors and two big lounge chairs. Locke turns them all on, and only one shows an image–the inside of the Losties’ hatch. They see Jack walking around. Eko finds another “orientation” tape on which Dr. Candle explains this is the “Pearl” hatch–an observation lab where the rest of the “psychological experiments” can be observed and recorded in notebooks, which are then sent to the Dharma peeps through a mail tube.
But there are more questions: What’s with the computer Locke finds, which looks like it can send messages and prints out a weird series of numbers? Why aren’t any of the other TV’s showing anything? Where does the mail tube go exactly? Where IS everyone? My brain hurts. The end result is that Locke feels like he’s been played for a fool and no longer has any faith in the island, while Eko is now determined more than ever to keep pushing the button. Hmmm.
And speaking of the Losties’ hatch, Libby is there, clinging to life, with a distraught Hurley by her side. It’s very sad, but she comes to for a moment and tries to tell Hurley and Jack what happened. But all she manages to spit out before dying is a blood-gargling “Michael,” which Jack takes as concern for the guy. If only should have just finished her thought: “Shot me…”
