"Lost" The 23rd Psalm (2006)

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Director:

Matt Earl Beesley

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

11 January 2006 (Season 2, Episode 10)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

When Claire comments to Mr. Eko about the Virgin Mary statue which belongs to Charlie, he asks to see it...

Plot Keywords:

Plane Crash | Flashback | Survival | South Pacific | Doctor

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 15

4:00 PM

SYFY

The 23rd Psalm

#2.10

Cast

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Mr. Eko
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah (credit only)
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Ana-Lucia Cortez
Cynthia Watros	...	Libby
Adetokumboh M'Cormack	...	Yemi

Runtime:

43 min

Language:

English | Hausa

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Company:

Bad Robot

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Eko recites the 23rd Psalm, he incorrectly says, "Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death...." Charlie recites it incorrectly as well. The correct verse is "the valley of the shadow of death...."

Quotes:

Mr. Eko: The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death...

Mr. Eko

"The 23rd Psalm" is very much in the tradition of the great introductory "Lost" flashback episode, much like "Walkabout" or "Confidence Man" in its structure and purpose. It doesn't quite match the quality of those two episodes, as it is prone to mild slips in quality when not dealing with Eko, and it doesn't quite pack the same sort of punch those two episodes did, but it is still a great episode with a lot worth discussing.

I believe "The 23rd Psalm" to be one of the key appearances of the monster. During its encounter with Eko we see flashes, images in the smoke itself, and on the commentary track for the DVD release Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof note that having discussed the nature of the monster and exactly what it was with Kevin Blank, the visual effects supervisor, the images were put in based on that discussion. I'm not going to offer any theories but I have a feeling that when we do get an answer on the smoke monster we will come back to this episode and wonder why we didn't figure it out.

The episode does look very good, although the production design is lacking towards the end during the showdown scene, but in any case the main pleasures of "The 23rd Psalm" are found in the writing and acting in the scenes focusing entirely on Eko and/or his interaction with Charlie. This is some outstanding character writing here, even if I don't care for the specifics of the plot itself in the flashback, as Eko is well-developed enough as a character that we focus on him as opposed to the story surrounding him. My complaints about some of the plot aside, the very first scene with Eko being forced to commit murder as an adolescent is one of the most brutally effective scenes on the show.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's performance is tremendously effective, particularly when he burns the plane late in the episode, and Giacchino's score here is one of his more inspired moments. This is a great episode with some minor but nagging faults.

9/10