In the Lost episode "The cost of living", Mr. Eko is surprised that the corpse of his brother Yemi has disappeared. What happened with it?
asked Jun 10, 2015 at 9:41
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
It's a solid fact in Lost that The Man in Black has morphing ability. I think the narrative of what happened leading up to Mr. Eko's death leaves little doubt that the Man in Black had either removed, disposed, or taken control of Yemi in order to manipulate Eko (from Lostpedia):
However, Eko found that his brother's body was no longer in the plane. Eko saw Yemi once more appearing in dirty clothing and chased him into an open field. There, Eko confessed that he had not sinned to his brother. Eko stated, he did not ask for the life he was given, but it had been given nonetheless. And with it, he did the best he could. Eko also mentioned his sacrifice for Yemi when they were young.
Eko delivers his last message before his death. However, what appeared to be Yemi announced, he was not Eko's brother. Then, the person who appeared like Yemi disappeared into the jungle, with Eko in hot pursuit.
The manipulation would not have worked as well if the body would have still been in the plane.
-
I see. I heard before that The Man In Black needed the bodies to morph into them, but this is not consistent with the case of John Locke... Your argument is that The Man In Black needs to remove the bodies, but only because otherwise his schemes wouldn't seem coherent? Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 14:53
-
@Dbugger I agree that he does not need the bodies. However, I think the most likely case is that he can take them over if he wants. Again, whatever helps his manipulation. This is a point where a "real life" explanation isn't as interesting as a "story explanation". Creative liberties often gloss over gritty details. Like, can you imagine a scene where the Man in Black walks into the plane, finds Yemi's decomposing body, grabs the ankle bones and starts trying to haul this rancid body out into the jungle just so Eko wouldn't see it? I like the "he takes over the body" explanation. Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 14:59
-
I like that explanation too, it is just not compatible with John Locke's transformation, as the body is found. Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 15:28
-
@Dbugger Again, in some cases a body is not needed at all. Like in the case of Isabella Alpert, Richard Alpert's wife who died before Richard ever got to the island. He appeared to Richard as Isabella. The Smoke Monster was shown in several episodes to be able to "scan" people's minds and could take many shapes. His greater goal was to overthrow Jacob and torment Jacob's candidates. He was a master manipulator, and used his morphing ability to mess with people's minds. Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 15:44
-
There is something to having the bodies, as MiB implies in Season 6. I would suggest that maybe he can take the form more permanently, or more effectively if he scans the body first. By knowing Locke's dying thoughts, it is implied that he scanned Locke's corpse, I'd say he did the same with Christian and Yemi. Otherwise, he is relying on second-hand information about the person, which would be less convincing. Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 16:28