My Freedom (Take It to the Limit, Don Henley / Glenn Frey / Randy Meisner)

Smokey: I want to leave. Just let me leave, Jacob. Jacob: As long as I'm alive, you're not going anywhere.
Smokey: Well then, now you know why I want to kill you. - Ab Aeterno

Smokey has one simple request for Jacob, but Jacob is not budging. Here's the two of them to the tune of the Eagles' Take It to the Limit.

My Freedom

Smokey: All alone at the end of an era.
No one left here with me except you.
I was thinking that you might have considered
What I long to do.
You know I’ve been stuck here forever.
Jacob: I don’t have to tell you why.
Smokey: Humans never will change.
Jacob: Always been worth a try.
Smokey: Well, you really must hate me.
I implore and you ignore me.
I abhor this old exchange.

I wanna say goodbye, friend.
Is that such a crime?
But Jacob, you begin it one more time.

Do you count all the lives you have wasted?
Will you waste all your life counting more?
In an eon, will I have to meet you
Again on the shore?
I’m only looking for my freedom.
Jacob: You’re not going anywhere.
Smokey: Don’t you gloat with that wine.
Jacob: No? ‘Cause I’m glad to share...
Smokey: Well, no matter what, I’m leaving.
If I have to kill, you know I will
Until escape is mine.

I wanna say goodbye, friend.
Is that such a crime?
But Jacob, you begin it one more time.
Jacob, you begin it
Jacob, you begin it
Jacob, you begin it one more time.

Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Please)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Let me go!)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it one more time.

Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Please)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Free me!)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it one more time.

Smokey: Jacob, you begin it
Jacob, you begin it
Jacob, you begin it one more time.

Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Please)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it
(Smokey: Free me!)
Jacob: Face it, I begin it one more time.

Smokey: Jacob, you begin it
(Jacob: No!)
Smokey: Jacob, you begin it
(Jacob: No!)
Smokey: Jacob, you begin it one more time.

(fadeout)

Take It to the Limit

Hoffs-Drawlar (Hotel Caliifornia, Don Felder / Glenn Frey / Don Henley)

Funeral Director: My deepest condolences. Friend or family? Jack: Neither.
- Through the Looking Glass, Part 2

"If you do leave this place, the day may come when you want to return."
- Ben, King of the Castle


On LOST, few relationships are as complicated as the one between Jack and John. While his death brings the doctor to the brink of suicide, he can't even bring himself to identify himself as John's friend. Then again, it's hard to blame him... Here are some musings from Jack at the Hoffs-Drawlar funeral parlor in the third and fourth season finales, to the tune of the Eagles' Hotel California.

Hoffs-Drawlar

Saw your name in the paper.
I had to look twice.
I’d done too much boozing;
Maybe this was the price.
But I wasn’t mistaken.
Sometimes it stings to be right.
I made my mind up as the plane touched down.
I had to end it that night.

As I gazed at the pavement,
About to take the leap,
I felt a fierce inferno and
I heard a crunch and a scream and a beep.
Went to go play the hero
Because that’s what I do.
When I got out of the hospital,
I had to come see you.

I’m here, but I find it hard to mourn ya.
I will not pretend (I will not pretend) that I was your friend.
Sorry you’re dead, but it’s hard for me to mourn ya.
All you brought my life (all you brought my life) was a lot of strife.

You put a knife through Naomi.
I always blamed you for Boone.
You blathered on about a sacrifice...
What a goon!
You set off those explosives,
Scads of C-4.
The Flame was in flames and
The sub was no more.

All the while you insisted
I misunderstood.
You swore that every single thing you’d done was
For the Island’s good.
And when you wearied of telling me not to leave,
You encouraged the tangle of deceit
I went on to weave.

I’m here, but I find it hard to mourn ya.
I will not pretend (I will not pretend) that I was your friend.
Yeah, Jeremy Bentham, it’s hard for me to mourn ya,
With your pseudonym (with your pseudonym) and your vanished vim.

The man here informed me
That nobody else came.
Pathetic. You went out a bitter old man,
All alone and lame.
You said that we were special
And shared one common fate.
I think I might accept that now,
But I’ve found my faith too late.

Who lurks in the shadows?
Am I really seeing Ben,
And can I trust he’ll get me back
To the Island once again?
He once tried to warn me
Of the lesson I would learn:
“If you leave this place, the day may come
When you want to return.”

Hotel California

Mr. Eko (Desperado, Glenn Frey / Don Henley)

I started writing this back in December during my family's Christmas travels. I had Ryan Kelly's rendition of Desperado firmly lodged in my head, and I thought I should try to take advantage of it. A couple years back, I saw a YouTube video in which somebody had set a series of Sawyer clips to the Eagles' version of the song, and ever since I'm always thought of Sawyer when I've heard it. So to avoid being a copycat, I consciously avoided writing about him and instead began to think about what other LOST characters the song could describe. I started my search by trying to come up with a character whose name or nickname had four syllables, and when I stumbled on Mr. Eko, I knew I'd found a winner.

I ended up setting the song aside for a couple of months, only picking it up again a few days into Lent, at which time it felt particularly meaningful. The Cost of Living is still one of my least favorite LOST episodes; it's befuddling and tragic, but I think it has some interesting things to say about the value of repentance. Eko seemed to turn over a new leaf when he came to the Island, but he couldn't bring himself to express any regret for the evil deeds that marked his previous life, instead claiming that he had no choice. A bit odd that Smokey singled him out like that; maybe we just have to chalk some of it up to needing to get Eko off the show, since Adewale wanted out. But I wish that confrontation had gone differently...

Mr. Eko

Mr. Eko, why don't you drop your defenses?
Confess the offenses that weigh you down.
You've had a hard life, but you must listen to Yemi,
Who drives you to demonstrate humility now.

You were never a repentant boy.
A Robin Hood, a rebel,
You stooped to ugly means to reach your noble ends.
But you can't go on pretending
That your plank is just a pebble.
True forgiveness comes to those who make amends.

Mr. Eko, don't you discern any danger?
Surrounded by strangers, your sins seem long gone.
But evil, oh evil has a habit of haunting.
The terror that's taunting you won't die with the dawn.

Have you kept a count of your heinous crimes?
You've seemed so full of remorse sometimes,
With silence stretching on for forty days.
Oh, but why deny you had free will
When you killed before you changed your wicked ways?

Mr. Eko, why don't you drop your defenses?
Expunge your expenses. Strengthen your state.
It may be painful, but you can paint a new morning.
But if you disregard the warning...
But if you disregard the warning, you've sealed your own fate.
Your own fate...