Eko

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AKA: Mr. Eko, Father Tunde, Ulu Oduduon
Resided in: Nigeria
Occupation: Former drug lord, Impersonator of priest
Reason for Travel: Was in Australia acting as a priest; flying to LA for unknown reasons
Flight Seat #: Uknown

Mr. Eko grew up in Nigeria with a Catholic background.  At a young age, his village was invaded by violent militants.  To protect his younger brother Yemi from being forced at gunpoint to shoot an unarmed man, he shot the man himself.  The militants laughed that "He is a born killer," and kidnapped him. 

His life turned along a dark path and he eventually became the most feared drug lord of that part of Nigeria, known for ruthlessly murdering those who stood in his way.  His brother, meanwhile, took up the cross which was taken from him when he was kidnapped, and became a Catholic priest.  Their paths crossed again when he asked his brother to help him smuggle drugs out of Nigeria under the cover of church relief aid supplies (he was saying that he can use the money earned to help with polio relief).  His brother initially refused to be involved.  But Mr. Eko came back later to threaten him with two other men, saying that they would burn down his church if he didn't cooperate, and Yemi was forced to sign papers that will falsely ordain them as priests to carry out the plot themselves.  Mr. Eko and his associates hid the heroin in Virgin Mary statues, and started loading them into the Beechcraft plane on the runway.  At the last minute, Yemi drove up, and told Mr. Eko that he had called the authorities, and that they still had a chance to stop this plan.  They refused, and got in a gunfight with police that were driving up to the plane.  In the crossfire, Yemi got killed, but was dragged onto the plane with the drug dealers.  Mr. Eko lost his spot, and was kicked out by a man with a gold tooth.  The military police, mistaking him to be the real priest who called, returned him to Yemi's village.

At Yemi's village, Eko decided that he would take on the identity of a priest and fill his mortally wounded brother's role.  There, he met Amina and her young son Daniel, two of the villagers.  Amina worked for a clinic and procured vaccines, a portion of which were then sold on the blackmarket to satisfy the demands of a local gang led by a man named Emeka.  The deal that Emeka had struck with Yemi in the past was that he would not harm the village so long as they kept paying him off.  However, Eko was not as easily intimidated, and resisted these threats.  When Emeka found out, he tried to cut off Eko's hands as punishment, but Eko retalliated and killed Emeka's whole group with a machete in the church.  Amina was appalled at the sacrilege, and had Yemi's church boarded up.  She then told Eko that he now "owed Yemi a church".  It appears that after this point, Eko left for London to fullfill another of Yemi's obligations.

At some point, he was called to Austrailia, where he was sent by the Monsignor to investigate the supposed "miracle" of Charlotte Malkin, a girl whose mother Joyce believed "came back from the dead" after a near-drowning incident (the Monsenior said that Eko was "chosen" because of his skepticism).  He met  Ian McVay, the coroner who worked on the case, who claimed that Charlotte woke up in the middle of the actual autopsy.  He proved it with a tape of the incident.  Eko went to the Malkin house to investigate further, but was met by the father, Richard Malkin, who happened to be the psychic that talked to Claire.  Richard Malkin told him that there was no miracle, and that the only reason his wife was making a fuss was because she's a religious zealot, and was partly acting out of spite towards him.  He claimed that he's a fraud, and that the psychic business is a scam. 

Eko closed the case and later prepared to board Flight 815 with a fake passport made by a document forger named Caldwell.  He was unnerved as Charlotte Malkin approached him in the airport, and claimed to have a message from Yemi, who she saw "in the in between place" after she was pronounced dead.  She told Eko that he may not believe it now, but that he is a good person and will believe this soon.

Mister Eko is with the tail section survivors from Flight 815. He was originally the strongman and protector of that group, and at one point killed 2 of the Others in self defense; in repentance, he took a vow of silence for 40 days.  He appears to be an experienced tracker, and aids Jin through the jungle to find Michael. Eko also leads the tailies to the middle section survivor's area. Along the way, when Sawyer passes out, Eko goes against Ana-Lucia, and helps Jin and Michael build a stretcher for Sawyer. Eko appears to be someone of compassion and respect. Ana-Lucia blames Eko for Cindy's abduction, telling him he chose to help Sawyer despite the risk it placed on everyone else.  He is the one who makes the decision to carry an unconscious Sawyer back to the beach camp (being the first tail section survivor to make contact with that camp), saving his life.

After the two sections merge, Eko sees the Virgin Mary statues again, he realizes they are the same as the ones from his past, and forces Charlie to show him where he found them.  Along the way, they meet the Smoke Monster, and he faces it down head-on and fearlessly (and there are images of his past reflected back in the smoke) until it shrinks away.  When he finds Yemi's body (recognizing the cross) in the Beechcraft plane, he is able to say goodbye.  He and Charlie burn the plane and everything in it in memorial (except a few statues full of heroin Charlie has secretely snuck out), while saying the 23rd psalm.  He tells Charlie he is a priest.

Back at camp, he carves out the books of the Bible on his stick as a reminder to himself.  He is the one who baptizes Aaron and Claire.  Eko is also the one to find part of the Swan orientation splice while in the Arrow, hidden inside a Bible, which he later watches with Locke.

He marks "special" trees, and enlists Charlie's help with building a church out of them (apparently doing it out of pennance for the murders he commited in Yemi's church previously).

Mr. Eko has a dream in which Ana-Lucia (recently killed by Michael) and Yemi tell him that he must help Locke find the question mark on the map.  After coercing Locke into the jungle with him to find it, and hearing Locke's prophetic dream about Yemi, Mr. Eko climbs atop the cliff from which the Beechcraft plane had once fallen.  He sees nothing on the other side, but finds a large mark in the earth when looking down the cliff.  They realize that the ? mark in the ground is marking the entrance to another hatch (partly obscured by the now burnt Beechcraft), and underneath, find the Pearl Station.  Learning that the purpose of the Pearl is observation (of the Swan Station) affirms Eko's faith that what they are doing ("pushing the button") is of great importance, but has the opposite effect on Locke's faith.

Eko abandons the church project, and takes over Locke's role as button pusher in the Swan.  Locke resolves to prove the task meaningless, and locks Eko out of the computer room one day, with Desmond's help.  Eko, determined to get in, makes Charlie get the hidden dynamite, and ends up setting off an explosion in the Swan.  This, however, doesn't breach the blast doors.  During the final moments of the EMP, Charlie and Eko are caught in the Swan.

After the blast, Locke, Desmond and Charlie survive with few injuries, but Eko is nowhere to be found.  After putting himself in a drug-induced trance, Locke knows where to find Eko, and drags him out of a polar bear cave, unconscious and injured.  While recovering and in a delerious state, Eko starts seeing visions of Yemi again, and is led back to the Pearl Station.  The Yemi vision then confronts him and tells Eko he should seek forgiveness for his sins.  Eko returns the cross he had been carrying, and gets down on his knees, but then surprisingly says that he does not ask for forgiveness.  He says that he only played the hand that was dealt him in life, and that he only did what he had to to survive and save his young brother, and for that, he is proud and not sorry.  The Yemi vision then reveals that he is not Yemi and walks off, returning minutes later as the Smoke Monster.  It grabs Eko and violently bashes his body against the ground and trees before disappearing.  Eko's lifeless body is found by Locke.  His last words before dying are "You're next."