This week’s episode of LOST, “Ab Aeterno,” was what I imagine LOST fans everywhere have been waiting for this season. Answers. Ab Aeterno, which is Latin for “since the beginning,” was an almost full-length flashback episode telling the story of Richard Alpert, the never-aging adviser to the Others. Unique, in that it was almost an entire episode devoted to a flashback, it also significantly advanced the Jacob/Nemesis plot and answers scores upon scores of questions. Let’s do this…
As we all mostly figured out, Richard was indeed a slave that came to the island on the ship, the Black Rock. What we didn’t know was why Richard was on that ship, as a slave, to begin with. Well, now we know. Richard, and his wife Isabella, were poor Spanish farmers or peasants living a pretty modest life. They were very religious. When Richard’s wife takes ill and seems to be getting worse, he takes everything that they have of value, and rides to find a doctor. The doctor is very callous and refuses to ride out in the rain to treat Richard’s wife. He’s obviously of a much higher class than Richard. He offers to sell Richard, then known as Ricardo, some medicine to treat his wife, but it’s too expensive for Richard to afford. In a struggle, Richard accidentally kills the doctor.
Richard is captured and arrested. In a particularly powerful scene, Richard, who is devoutly Catholic, seeks forgiveness from a priest who visits his cell. The priest refuses to forgive his sins and Richard is left in complete agony, told that he will be hung the next day and, as a murderer, go to Hell.
The next day, Richard finds his fortunes turned when an English captain buys him as a slave/worker to bring with him to the New World.
As we know, Jacob summons the Black Rock to the Island. It crash-lands in the middle of the jungle, killing some, but leaving others alive. Those that are left alive, aside from Richard, are killed by the Smoke Monster. Richard tries desperately to escape his chains but is unable. At one point, he’s awoken by his wife, Isabella, who explains to him that they’re both dead and in Hell and that they must escape before the devil returns. As she hears the Smoke Monster approaching she flees but is assumed to be killed by the black smoke.
Eventually, Richard is met by Jacob’s Nemesis, in the form we first saw him in when he and Jacob were on the beach. The Nemesis uses Richard’s faith and fears against him, explaining that they are indeed in Hell and must kill the devil. He frees Richard, and convinces him that he must kill “the man who lives in the statute” who he says is the devil. But Richard cannot. As he approaches the statute Jacob intervenes, expertly defending himself and disarming Richard. As Jacob convinces Richard that he is not, in fact, dead he also explains the nature of the island and of the Smoke Monster.
Using a bottle of wine, Jacob explains that there is a concentration of evil. The cork in the bottle is the island, it keeps evil contained. Jacob explains that he believes people are inherently good; his nemesis believes that people are inherently evil. Jacob brings people to the island to prove his point, to show that people are inherently good and will make good choices. That is why people come to the island, he says. Evil, his nemesis, is trying to leave the island, trying to uncork things so that he can leave.
Jacob then offers Richard a job on the island as mediator, as his messenger and, I think, his priest. With this choice, he is given the ability to live forever. Richard later meets the Nemesis in the jungle who tells him that if he ever wishes to change his mind and to team with him, he would take him back.
The closing scene of “Ab Aeterno” is crazy powerful.
Richard, back in the present timeline, is fleeing into the jungle to “take back” the choice that Jacob gave him when they first met. After Jacob’s death Richard has felt very confused and upset, like his presence on the island was meaningless. He’s decided to defect over to the Smoke Monster’s team and finds himself at the place where he buried his wife’s cross necklace in the ground. He digs up the cross, looks to the sky, and shouts for Jacob’s Nemesis. He yells that he’s taken back his choice, he wants to change his mind, he wants to join him. As he’s shouting someone emerges from the jungle. It’s no one we expect though: Hurley. And the drama gets insane.
Hurley informs Richard that his wife is here to speak with him. The scene then becomes Hurley, speaking to Richard as his wife. We can see Richard’s wife and hear her words, but he can’t see her. It’s a powerful, insane piece of drama and totally changes the game for Richard’s character. In her closing comments, she tells Richard, through Hurley, that he must stop the Man in Black from leaving the island otherwise they’ll all go to Hell.
Like I said, this episode advances the plot light years.
Why People are Brought to the Island
This was as I suspected. People brought to the island are there as candidates to replace Jacob, and perhaps his Nemesis. Now I don’t think we know why everyone is brought there, but certainly some are there for that purpose. And certainly the Oceanic survivors. Jacob explains that people are there, essentially, to prove his point, or prove his Nemesis’ point. So far, he tells Richard at that point of time, all have died. That means, either all failed to show that they were inherently good, or the Smoke Monster killed them. Something I’m still puzzling over is what criteria the Smoke Monster uses to kill people. Remember, he’s killed lots of people who seemed to be inherently good: Mr. Eko, Charlie, Shannon. People who were making good choices, he killed.
I think this is why Jacob instructs Illana to protect the remaining candidates on the island. Previously, the Smoke Monster has got to candidates who were making good choices, who were proving their goodness. I think, for some reason, that Jacob can’t actively protect these people, even if he was still alive. So Ilana’s job is to protect the rest of the candidates. One of these people is going to have to replace Jacob.
I still do think that the cave and the lighthouse are two different animals. I think Jacob and his Nemesis have different, opposite, criteria for what makes a person a candidate. Jacob is trying to prove his point, or to replace himself, or both. Jacob’s Nemesis, alternately, is trying to replace himself and to get off the island. If the lighthouse is Jacob’s window into candidate’s lives, then I think the cave is the Nemesis’.
Choices, Choices, Choices…
This is interesting, and I’ve said similar things before. Jacob intervened in the lives of the Oceanic Six survivors at critical points in their lives: points when they were given someone to hate. John was about to hate his father, Jack his father, Sawyer the man who killed his parents, etc. Jacob intervened to suggest to them another way—a better way. As we know though, all of these people didn’t chose Jacob’s way. John hated his father. Jack hated his father. Sawyer spent his life trying to track down the man who killed his parents. They didn’t follow Jacob’s advice and, as we know, this is what landed them on the island. Jack was in Australia to pick up his father. Sawyer was in Australia hunting for the man who conned his parents. Or, Jacob brought these people to the island because they didn’t choose his way, and he was sure that they would, if given another chance.
It’s interesting that Jacob says that nothing in a person’s past matters on the island. He is giving them a fresh, new choice. A new chance to remake the choices that they made before; to make good choices this time.
And some do.
Sun and Jin repair their relationship, making the good choice. Jack, finally, stops trying to prove himself to his dead father and makes the good choice. Sawyer, during his time with Dharma, tried very hard to make the right choices. Charlie, Mr. Eko, and lots of characters from the past have made good choices, too. But some make poor choices. Sayid has given in to his hatred and to violence, and has made a poor choice. Ben, when confronted with the choice of his daughter’s life or his coveted power, made a poor choice. There are lots of examples of this, too.
It’s all about choices.
Final Thoughts
I’m still puzzling over the alternate timeline, and I think they’re doing a good job keeping us guessing. It can’t but just what would happen if the Oceanic flight didn’t crash. If that were true, then people like Ben and Ethan would still be on the island, etc. It goes further back than that, but I’m not sure how far. Has Jacob intervened in these people’s lives? Offered them a better choice? We don’t know. They continue on making bad choices, for the most part, but better bad choices, and Ben actually makes good choices. So, I have no idea.
The future of LOST is pretty clear, I think. It’s going to be a battle for the remaining candidates. Jacob wants to prove that they’re good. The Man in Black wants to prove that they’re not—wants to replace himself and get off the island. It’s going to be a showdown for lives, and for choices. Where Widmore, who is sitting just off the island on a sub, figures into this, I’m not quite sure. I still suspect that he knows something. He was maybe had by Jacob’s Nemesis, maybe tricked, and maybe Ben was tricked too and he’s figured this out. Maybe Widmore is back to get rid of the Nemesis. I’m not sure. Whatever the case, I think this season is finally heating up and getting down to answering a lot of questions and it’s awesome.
Such a good episode!! I have a few questions/thoughts…
1. How did Richard’s wife appear? When Richard first meets Jacob, Jacob tells him that it wasn’t his wife he saw, which lead me to believe that the smoke monster took on the form of his wife. However, that is out of character for the smoke monster because in the past he has only taken on the form of people whose dead bodies came to the island. hmmmm….
2. Did anyone else pick up on the fact that when Richard was bought as a slave he became the property of Magnus Hanso… as in the Hanso Foundation, funders of DHARMA??? What the heck? where does DHARMA fit in??