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Fictional character of the TV series Lost
the fictional character from the TV show "Lost"

Mr. Eko is a fictional character, played by Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje on the ABC television series Lost. He is introduced in the second season episode "Adrift" as one of the plane crash survivors from the plane's tail section. Flashbacks reveal that he became the leader of a gang of guerrillas to save his brother when he still lived in Nigeria. He assumed his brother's identity and became a priest after his brother was killed in a botched drug smuggle; Eko killed two guerrillas in defense, was ostracized, and left Nigeria to become a priest in Australia. After investigating the alleged miracle of a girl who came back to life after drowning in Australia in 2004, Eko boarded Oceanic Airlines Flight 815. This plane crashed and left Eko, along with a few other survivors, on a deserted island. Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were fans of Akinnuoye Agbaje's work on HBO's Oz, and asked him to portray the character. Although Akinnuoye Agbaje was not initially interested in joining the cast, he was persuaded by Cuse and Lindelof, but for a shorter period than they had in mind. Akinnuoye Agbaje had a lot of influence on his character, changing the character's name and making adjustments to Eko's personality. After appearing on the show for one season, Akinnuoye Agbaje asked Cuse and Lindelof to write his character out of the show because he did not feel at home in Hawaii. They decided a "shocking and emotional death"

From Nigeria, Mr. Eko grew up always looking after his younger brother, Yemi (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), with whom he lived in a small village. As Eko and his men assemble at the airfield on the day the shipment is ready to be smuggled, it is revealed Yemi has tipped off the military and now tries to convince Eko not to go through with his plans. In "Adrift", Eko beats Jin Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim), James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), and Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau) unconscious when they arrive on their beach and hauls them into a pit. When their innocence is proven, Eko and the tail section survivors head to the camp of the other fuselage survivors. After their arrival in "What Kate Did", John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) shows Eko an orientation video from the DHARMA Initiative. Eko watches it and fits in with the remaining fuselage survivors. In "The 23rd Psalm", Eko discovers a Virgin Mary statue in Charlie Pace's (Dominic Monaghan) possession and he demands to be taken to the Beechcraft where it came from, knowing his brother's body is there. As he discovers the survivors hold one of the others named "Henry Gale" (Michael Emerson) captured in the Swan hatch, he requests to speak to him. Following his confession, Eko starts building a church down the beach with Charlie's help. In the season 2 finale "Live Together, Die Alone", Locke and Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) initiate a lockdown and lock Eko out of the computer room. Although Eko survives the implosion, he is dragged away by a polar bear. In "The Cost of Living", Eko awakens to find Yemi in his tent, telling him he needs to confess before finding his tent is on fire. In one of the flashforwards in the final episode of the fourth season, Hurley is seen sitting at a table with a chessboard on it across from a seemingly empty seat. Before he leaves, Hurley says: "Checkmate, Mr. Eko."

When creating the character, the producers envisioned Mr. Eko as "the one character who comes to terms with living on the island, and not being consumed with trying to get off". Eko is a mysterious When Akinnuoye Agbaje was at a bank in Hawaii, a fan said his character was a criminal pretending to be a priest, to which Akinnuoye Agbaje replied: "No, actually, I'm a priest pretending to be a criminal." The character of Mr. Eko was created to explore the spiritual element of the show, Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse's first choice for the actor to portray Eko was Lance Reddick, after they had seen him as Cedric Daniels on HBO's The Wire. Cuse and Lindelof decided to contact Akinnuoye Agbaje, because they were big fans of his work on the HBO prison drama Oz. At the time, Akinnuoye Agbaje was filming Get Rich or Die Tryin' and, being unfamiliar with Lost, While the producers succeeded in persuading Akinnuoye Agbaje to take the role, he did not want to make a long term commitment to the show and was therefore only hired for a short period of time. Eventually, Cuse and Lindelof decided to combine their original idea for the character with Akinnuoye Agbaje's character on Oz. Originally, the character was named "Emeka", and later "Omecca", Adding "Mr." in front of the character's name was also a suggestion made by Akinnuoye Agbaje. While at first Cuse and Lindelof thought this was "the silliest thing in the world", they changed their minds after repeating the name a few times, realizing there "was something really cool about it". The character first appeared in "Adrift", where he was only shown briefly, knocking down three of the show's main characters with a stick. The religious scripture on the stick was a suggestion of Akinnuoye Agbaje. He discussed Mr. Eko's departure with Lindelof and Cuse, and the three decided the character would die somewhere in the first six episodes of the third season. They also found a "shocking and emotional death" would be the best way to write the character off the show. However, despite Akinnuoye Agbaje's wishes to return for the sixth season, the producers stated he would not be returning. The actor was eventually offered a guest role in the series finale, but turned it down due to salary disagreements.

Overall, the character was positively received. The first week he was on the show, Akinnuoye Agbaje received a lot of fanmail, much to his surprise. Craig Berman of MSNBC called Mr. Eko "one of the most creatively complex characters on the island". The Los Angeles Times depicted him as "the island's favorite 'tailie'". IGN named him the third best character from the first three seasons of Lost, behind Hurley and Locke. Akinnuoye Agbaje's performance was praised by critics; Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle said he was "probably the best actor in the cast". In 2006, Akinnuoye Agbaje shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with the cast of Lost; they were also named "Entertainers of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly. He was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television in 2005, but lost the award to Masi Oka of Heroes. Generally, critics and fans were disappointed Mr. Eko was killed after being on the show for only one season. Kristin Dos Santos of E! called Mr. Eko "the best character of the show", and was therefore very disappointed with his death. In response to Mr. Eko's death, Christine Fenno of Entertainment Weekly stated "I'll miss Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje—his acting was up there with Terry O'Quinn's, Elizabeth Mitchell's, and Michael Emerson's. I guess he was the sacrifice the island demanded". Writing for Zap2it, Rick Porter said that his death "sucked hard, and loud, and long". IGN listed Eko's death as number one on its list of "Top 10 Lost Deaths".