Since the beginning..

After having the night to think about it, I don’t think that “Ab Aeterno” is my favorite Lost episode ever, but I do think that it is my favorite season 6 episode so far. This is coming from a season where I have genuinely liked every ep, and while some stand above others (“The Substitute,” “Dr. Linus”), this one really rises above even those.

I try not to read any other reactions of the episode before I write my own reactions – saying pure and what not, but I do go on Twitter, so I usually do see knee-jerk reactions right after the ep airs. And while this week, the reaction has been pretty uniformly positive, the one complaint that I noticed (and I’m sure I will read more as the day goes on) is that it was all too predictable. And I agree with that – there was nothing that completely surprised me last night. But I will say that though predictable has a poor connotation, I don’t always view it as a bad thing. Yes, I saw where the story was headed when we met Richard’s sick wife – it was pretty clear, given all we’ve been told about him, that he was going to end up on the Black Rock as a slave and that would take him to the Island. At least for me, though, watching it all happen didn’t make it any less enthralling. For years now, I’ve wanted to see Richard’s story and even though it played out in a way that didn’t shock me, I don’t think that Lost always has to offer shocking twists and turns to deliver a good episode. I mean, there’s really only so much they could do, and to throw in an artificial twist just for the sake of shocking the audience would be more detrimental than playing it safe (if eternal beings living on a supernatural island that can heal the sick and grant everlasting life is “playing it safe,” that is.)

And now it sounds like I’m getting defensive over an episode that I really loved. (And that’s why I really shouldn’t read reactions before writing this stuff.) Anyway, onto my non-defensive thoughts…

Another eye-shot to open the episode, this time it’s Ilana’s. We saw this first scene in last year’s finale already. Who or what exactly is Ilana? I have no idea if we will get an Ilana ep before the end, but I certainly hope that we learn more about her sooner rather than later either way. Are there more people like her that are tasked with protecting the Island? Why is she so special that Jacob visits her? Why does she know Richard as Ricardus? Is she immortal too? Maybe she’s Jacob’s off-Island Richard?

Jacob tells her that there are 6 candidates left to protect. I would like a definitive answer if Kate is one of them or not. “Austen” was written in the lighthouse, so I’m guessing yes. That would also mean that this meeting occurred after Ben killed Locke, thus negating Locke’s status as a candidate, because with Locke and Kate, that would make 7 candidates. (Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin/Sun, Sayid and Kate)

Thought Richard’s laugh (when they asked him what to do) was pretty amusing.

While it should have been obvious to me (later in the ep, of course) that Hurley was talking to Richard’s wife when they were on the beach, I actually didn’t put 2+2 together, so that was a nice mini-surprise.

When in his cell, the Bible verse Richard was reading was Luke 4:24: “I tell you the truth…no prophet is accepted in his own country.” I know that the Christian imagery was especially heavy last night, but I’m usually one to generally overlook that. (And I think that much of the imagery last night can be explained away as being told through the lens of a clearly religiously devout man.) I don’t really think that Jacob is God/Jesus/an angel and MIB is the devil/a demon, so I don’t think that this line really points to Richard being a prophet of God, but more points to Jacob’s influence on the Island.

The name Widfield (as in the guy who bought Richard from the priest) sounds awfully close to Widmore.

A Magnus Hanso mention! Seeing the Black Rock on the stormy seas! (Does this mean that the ship that Jacob/MIB saw in last year’s finale was not the Black Rock, or that the storm just popped up as storms tend to pop up on and around Craphole Island?)

The shot of Tawaret in the storm was chillingly awesome. (“El Diablo!”)

When Widfield started killing everyone on the Black Rock, I’m guessing that he was “infected” much like Rousseau’s crew. (And Claire/Sayid?)

Speaking of the “infection,” could “infection” = the inverse of Jacob’s blessing? Those that are infected are overcome by MIB’s darkness? If the whole point of this game is for Jacob to prove to MIB that in the fight between good and evil in people, good will ultimately win, could the infected just be those who are too weak to overcome the evil? I’ll briefly mention love later, but it is interesting that Claire and Sayid have lost their loves (Aaron/Nadia) and are infected, and Rousseau was not infected when the rest of her crew was because she had the love of Alex. That would also make Sawyer a logical target for MIB, since he lost Juliet.

Was MIB not allowed to kill Richard? Was he a potential candidate? Or did Jacob bring him to the Island because he needed a consigliere?

When Isabella appeared to Richard on the Black Rock, that was MIB as her, right? (I’m guessing that the smoke “read” Richard earlier when it was killing everyone else.)

Titus Welliver sounded more like Terry O’Quinn as MIB than I remember. And man, he and Mark Pellegrino are commanding presences whenever they are on-screen.

The knife that MIB gives Richard is the knife that Dogen gave Sayid (and the conversation sounded identical to my ears.) So did the knife do something to Locke/MIB or is this all part of their game and it’s inconsequential?

MIB and Ricardo’s conversation is identical (or nearly identical) to the one that Locke/MIB had with Richard earlier this season.

Everything from the moment that Jacob arrived was absolutely riveting. In that way, it was the opposite reaction I had to last week’s ep. This one started out good and interesting and ended Amazing. (Capital ‘A’ intentional.)

Jacob’s bottle of wine – so if the Island is the stopper, is there more evil in the sideways world that we just haven’t seen yet? Will we see, say in Hurley’s sideways world, that things that seemingly are good (like winning the lotto and having good luck) are not truly good, but are just masking the evil? Since this was the midpoint of the season, I wonder if the sideways world stories to come will illustrate more of the bad rather than the good, to mirror the first half of the season.

“If you don't, he will.” – Richard to Jacob about MIB interfering with people’s lives. I think that after hearing this, Jacob reached a turning point. Richard helped him realize that if he just sat idly by, no progress would be made – anyone he brought to the Island would be influenced by MIB and they would die with no resolution of Jacob/MIBs dispute.

I would not be surprised, based on how initially antagonistic Jacob was to Richard, if this was the first human that Jacob had actually encountered. Lucky for Jacob, it was one who truly is good. Not coincidentally, it was a man who had experienced love. As the show has shown us so many times, it’s not the powers of the Island that make people do good; it’s the love that one character has for another. And that’s the one thing that, no matter what he may say, MIB does not understand.

This is how I kinda see it now: Whatever/Whoever Jacob and MIB are, they have this disagreement. Jacob thinks people are by and large good, MIB thinks people are sinners. They agree that Jacob will draw people to the Island to test this theory. MIB wants to leave the Island and Jacob dead, but is stuck and cannot kill him. Jacob just wants to be vindicated. When Richard arrived, I think Jacob realized how trapped he was too and how he truly wanted this all to end.

The entire episode was a perfect blend of a mythology and stand-alone story for one of the most mysterious characters that Lost has offered us.

We got concrete answers to a number of questions: Richard does not age because he asked Jacob for immortality. The statue crumbled because the storm caused the Black Rock to crash into it. (Though I’m guessing that it had more to do with the tsunami-like waves than just the ship.) Also, the symbolism of the statue falling when Richard arrives reinforces my thoughts that his arrival was truly THE turning point in Island history. The Black Rock is in the middle of the jungle because of the storm. We now know that this game that Jacob and MIB are playing truly is about human nature and not just some fun between two omnipresent gods using our characters as pawns. We finally get true resolution that all of the past character action was not orchestrated by Jacob. He believes in free will. And that certainly makes me feel better about where the show is going.

Finally, I have my requisite ‘holy crap that actor totally sold the episode for me” moment. However, this time the praise deserves to be heaped on a little heavier. When Richard first showed up in season 3, I called Nestor Carbonell Batmanuel (because all I really knew him from was the live action version of The Tick). It’s not that I ever really thought he was bad (on The Tick or otherwise) but I guess I used the nickname cuz he wasn’t really distinctive enough to be anybody but Batmanuel. Last night though, but he carried this episode like we’ve seen Michael Emerson/Terry O’Quinn/Josh Holloway do. He sold everything from his time on the Canary Islands to his moment with Isabella/Hurley. (And of course, there was that awesome laugh of desperation from the opening scene on the beach.)

All and all, an all-time great episode to rank along my favorites (“The Constant,” “Walkabout,” “LaFleur,” and “Through the Looking Glass,” off the top of my head) and certainly the best of season 6.