FILLER

In Japanese anime, television production adaptions of current and popular manga titles leads to a problem: the TV shows burn through the manga chapters faster than the creator can create new content. As a result, anime shows regularly have to elongate their stories or create "filler" (non-canon) story arcs in order to keep their TV show on the air.

It is clear that at some point early in the LOST initial story development, that some sort of filler was needed to keep the story on the air. The prime example of this was the Other 48, the tail section story arc. In some ways, this filler tried to revive the discarded original notion that the survivors would have been led by Kate.

In the Other 48, Ana Lucia was the strong female lead. Eko was the spiritual Locke character. Bernard would have been a weaker version of Jack, the medical doctor.

The filler did touch upon the same original themes of loss, parent conflict, good and evil intentions and deceptive behavior. It seems that all the passengers went Down Under (hell?) in order to investigate or find something. Eko was sent by his church to investigate a miracle he deemed a fraud; but being a fraud himself led to some inner-personal conflict. Ana Lucia came to Australia as a body guard for Christian, but she was running away (like Kate) from her personal demons back home (including a potential manslaughter charge). It seems that these characters were looking to try to change, or purge their past mistakes but they failed to come to any personal revelation in Sydney. Since they did not change, they got aboard another vessel and crash landed on the island, another place where these characters would be able to face their demons head on in order to change (purgatory?).

Eko was supposed to be a centerpiece candidate until the actor playing the role had a contract dispute with the producers. He was supposed to be the conduit for immorality and repentance. Eko was an African drug lord who commandeered the local church to run his illegal operations. As a result of his deceptive plans, his brother, Yemi was killed. Eko assumed Yemi's role of a priest in order to save his own life from the gallows. But Eko was haunted by the visions of his dead brother when he got to the island. It was not possible that a small prop plane from Africa would wind up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This vision of Yemi's crashed plane and his body were clearly created by the island (or smoke monster) from Eko's memories. The island was using Eko's memories and emotions against him; trying to force him to admit is sinful past in order to make something positive out of his life.

But in the end, Eko refused. He stood before the smoke monster and refused to repent. (In some ways, this scene is like TPTB today who refuse to acknowledge the errors in their story telling ways to the show's fans.) As a result of Eko's indignation, the smoke monster destroyed him.

Now, some may believe the smoke monster was passing judgment upon Eko for his sins. But others may believe that Eko passed judgment on himself. He was never going to change. He never wanted to change. There was no further reason for him to stay on the island, so his spirit was terminated with prejudice. (We don't see him in the sideways after life).

In some ways, even more evil people would up in the sideways world (Ben and Keamey). Ben may have come around to regret some of his actions (which caused the death of Alex at Keamey's hand), but Keamey was merely an uncaring mercenary who actually thrived on killing other people. The island allowed these individuals to continue their violent ways, but it did not allow Eko to live with his past. This is another great inconsistency that the filler arcs with new secondary characters was unable to clarify the "big picture" of the LOST island experience.