Season 6, Episode 9: "Ab Aeterno"

WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! Best episode so far this season. I can't even process how much information we just got (why can't every episode be like this one?)

This episode is titled "Ab Aeterno," which is a latin phrase that literally means "from eternity"or "since the beginning of time." This emphasizes the fact that Richard has eternal life.

The episode opens once again with an eye opening - we haven't had the "eye" opening in a while now. Typically the person who the episode is about is the one whose eye you see in those opening scenes, but this time it was actually Alana, who is bandaged up in a hospital when Jacob comes to see her. Is Alana going to have a flashback episode? I would like to know why she is all bandaged up, and why she has such a close relationship with Jacob. Anyway, this is when he comes to her asking for help. He wants her to "protect" the final six candidates. Notice he says "the final six" which emphasizes that none of the other candidates are around anymore.

We then go to present time on the island, where we recently left off with Richard being suicidal and a little crazy. He says everything Jacob ever said was a lie, and proceeds to tell the others that they are all dead and the island is hell. (Of course, the producers were just trying to play with us by making us "think" that was the big mystery of the show and the island. But, come on, we still have 9 episodes to go, I did not for one second believe they were all dead.) As we continue through the episode, we learn that is really a metaphor for Richard's life and experiences. I think the point of the whole dead/hell theory was that in Richard's mind, he was dead (because without his wife, he had nothing to live for) and this whole time on the island has been his personal hell.) Now that he is questioning everything he has ever done for Jacob, and he is trying to persuade the other survivors that they too are dead and this is hell. It is this point that Richard takes off to find "the other person that they should be listening to." Of course we learn this is Locke (smoke monster/man in black) and that Richard has changed his mind and wants to follow him now.

Now we start to learn about Richard's backstory: It is 1867 in the Canary Islands and Richard's wife, Isabella is sick. He travels all night to find a doctor, but accidentally kills him when he won't give him the medicine. He returns to his wife, but it is too late and she has died. Did you notice she had a Bible in her hands as she was laying dead? Richard is taken to jail and is trying to ask forgiveness from God. The priest tells him that he cannot give him penance, as murder is something that cannot be forgiven. He tells him he is going to Hell. Just as he is awaiting being hung, a man comes and purchases him as a slave for the Captain of the Black Rock ship, Magnus Hanso. Remember the name Hanso? It was Alvar Hanso who provided much of the funding for the Dharma Inititative. Also remember when Widmore purchased the log book at the auction from Captain Hanso.

I also want to go back a bit and mention the scene when Richard is in jail, he is reading from the Bible and we zoom in on the passage he is reading, which is Luke 4:37. This is the story of Jesus Christ going into the desert after being tempted by the Devil. He comes across a man who has devil-like qualities (evil/darkness) inside him. This is a direct parallel to Richard coming to the island and being "tempted" by the Devil also, and then coming across the Man in Black (a man in human form but with devil-like qualities, filled with evil and darkness). In the Bible passage, Jesus commanded the "evil" unclean spirits out of the man without doing him any harm, and they come out.

After being "saved" from the hanging, Richard is now on the Black Rock ship, tied up in chains with the other slaves. They are caught in a storm and crash on the island. They are all killed by Whitfield (the man who purchased him), but just as he is about to kill Richard, the Black Smoke shows up and kills them all. It appears before Richard and looks him in the eye, but spares him. I am reminded of this same thing that once happened with Locke (the Black Smoke appeared before him and as Locke later described it, he looked him in the eye and what he saw was a beautiful thing.) Why does the Black Smoke spare Richard but not the other men? Does he see something in Richard that leads him to believe he can be "tempted?" Yes, I think he used his wife's death knowing that Richard could be "conned" or tempted the same way that the black smoke knew that Locke could be "conned" into believing he had to die to save the others (when really the man in black just needed to "use" his body). So, the man in black now appears before Richard, now in human form, and tells him "I am a friend." Notice this is also what Claire referred to him as (her "friend") and he promises to help Richard and to free him from the chains if he will help HIM in return. Richard promises he will do anything. After freeing him, the man in black says "It's nice to see you out of those chains." Remember this is the same thing that he (in the form of Locke) says to Richard again, just after Jacob is dead. This is how Richard knows that fake-Locke is really the smoke monster, and he gives him that same line about being out of the chains.

At this point the Man in Black explains to Richard what he has to do. He tells him they are going to escape from Hell but in order to do that he must kill the Devil. He gives him a dagger and tells him to put it through his chest, but he must do so before he speaks or it won't work. Remember this was the same instructions that Dogen (from the Temple) gave to Sayid when asking him to kill the smoke monster/man in black (fake-Locke). The Man in Black promises Richard that he will be able to see his wife again if he does this for him.

After trying (and failing) to kill Jacob, Richard learns that Jacob is NOT really the devil. The Man in Black tricked him, uses him, trying to get around that "loophole" of how to kill Jacob. He wants to kill him because Jacob is keeping him "prisoner" on the island and he wants off. Jacob then explains to Richard in metaphorical form, that the Man in Black represents evil and a darkness, just like the wine in the bottle. The island is the CORK that keeps the darkness from getting out and spreading. Basically the island is what keeps the man in black from unleashing evil on the world. Jacob's role is to protect the world from the evil getting out from its "cork." The man in black believes that everyone can be corrupted and that it is natural to sin. Jacob wants to prove him wrong. That is why he brings people to the island, to give them moral opportunities to choose between right and wrong. He knows that anyone who passes his "test" will be worthy of taking over his job if and when the Devil is able to find his "loophole" and kill him. (so far no one has passed, apparently, as he is still searching for a replacement candidate). Jacob does not believe in intervening, however, so for those that choose wrong, they die (I guess those are the ones that the Devil "takes" because they no longer are candidates for Jacob). So all of the people whose names we saw that were crossed off the list, are now dead? Jacob says that for those who cannot choose on their own between good and evil, he lets them go. So, these "final six" candidates are the only ones left who have the opportunity to CHOOSE good. With Jacob, he makes it clear that you always have a choice. A choice to do the right thing, to be GOOD.

So, after this explanation, Jacob offers Richard a job. He asks him to be his "representative" for those who he brings to the island. Richard asks what he gets in return. After asking first to see his wife again, and second to be saved from ever going to hell (which Jacob said he could not do), he then asks that he will live forever. Jacob says he can do that. Richard never wants to die because he is afraid he WILL go to hell for the sins he committed. After Jacob promises him eternal life, notice that he touches him. Remember all the "candidates" that he went to visit earlier in their lives, he touches all of them. (Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Sun) - so does this mean that they all will have eternal life as well? He also touched Locke and Sayid, but once they became "evil," Jacob allowed them to die because they were no longer considered candidates. So it obviously was not Jacob who saved Sayid and brought him back to life in the Temple. I assume that it was the Man in Black, he saved him so that he could "take" him because he knew that the evil/darkness had spread and that he could "use" Sayid on his side.

Meanwhile, we go back to the present time when Richard has set off in search for fake-Locke (man in black) so that he can "change his mind" and ask him if his offer still stands. He digs up the cross necklace of his wife's that he buried long ago. It is at this point that Hurley shows up and tells Richard that he can talk to his wife (I'm still curious as to how Hurley can talk to dead people - when will we get another Hurley episode?) He finally convinces him when she tells him that it was not his fault that she died, that she knows he was trying to save her but that it was her time. Richard tells her that he just wants them to be together again and she says that they are together. Richard finally understand that he does not need to side with the devil in order to be with his wife again. He puts the cross necklace back on, which also symbolizes that he is good again - wearing the cross is a sign that he is NOT with the devil but that he has made the choice to be good, to be a man of God again. He finally understands that the Man in Black cannot make a promise for him to be with his wife again, because he knows she is in his heart always.

One last thing, Hurley tells him. He must stop the Man in Black from leaving the island, or they are all going to HELL.


A couple other things I also want to mention....

- I want to talk a bit about the four-toed statue. One of the big questions was always what happened to the statue? The only time we ever saw it in its full size was when we saw Jacob and the Man in Black sitting on the beach as they watched the Black Rock out at sea. It was then that the Man in Black told Jacob that he wanted to kill him, but that he just needed to find a "loophole." As they walked away, we saw the full size statue. Now we know that when the Black Rock crashed on the island, it hit the statue, breaking it up into pieces. Only the foot remains (which is where Jacob lived). Ironically, the four-toed statue is that of "Taweret," which in Egyptian mythology is the Goddess of rebirth and fertility. Both are very important in the underlying themes of Lost. REBIRTH, as we have just learned, is what Jacob gives to those who he brings to the island. He wipes their slates free of sin and allows them to start over, believing that everyone deserves forgiveness and that once on the island, their pasts should not matter. He gives them rebirth. We have seen tons of themes involving "rebirth" on the island. Secondly....fertility as we know is also important on the island. The Others have been doing fertility tests as women are unable to have children on the island. Mythology also tells us that the goddess Taweret was paired with another deity, and became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. This is symbolic of the two deities on the island, Jacob (representing rebirth) and the Man in Black (representing evil).

- Another thing....I think that in Richard's "vision" of Isabella coming to him when he was on the Black Rock, telling him they are both dead and that this is hell, I believe this was a dream. Richard had been shackled for who knows how long at that point, after everyone else had been killed. He was delusional and probably near death himself. I think this was just his interpretation, figuring he must be dead and in hell (after the priest told him he was going to hell). I do not think they are all dead or that the island is hell. Richard lived his whole life on the island believing that he "saw" Isabella, which is why he made a promise to the Man in Black to help him, because he just wanted to be with her again. However, I think it was the Man in Black who "appeared" to him as his dead wife as a means to "con" him into trusting him. The Man in Black has also done this with other dead people, trying to get others on his side and promising them the one thing they want most in order to turn them to the dark side (claire, sayid). This just proves that people, in their darkest moments, will promise anything just to get the one thing back that they lost. They will allow themselves to be corrupted (which is what the devil says everyone will do). I guess we just need to see if Jacob can prove him wrong and find someone who will choose GOOD to be his replacement.

This whole series of LOST and the whole existence of the survivors on the island is all just a game between Jacob and the Man in Black. Each one of them is trying to "win" the souls of those people, trying to prove to the other one whether Good vs. Evil will prevail. I guess we have to wait 9 more episodes to see which one wins. The whole show has always referenced good and evil, now we know why!!!