InsaneBear

Our Adventures: Lost – “Ab Aeterno”

Before I get into anything I’d just like to say that I’m writing this a few hours later than I usually do, so the episode isn’t quite as fresh in my memory. Sorry ’bout that. But anyways, it was a pretty darn good episode. I don’t think it was nearly as mind-blowing as it should have been, but Richard’s personal story was more interesting than most, even if they did try to recapture the magic of “The Constant” at the end and failed.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat–the Losties are not dead and they are not in Hell. “Hell” is a metaphor. They may be in a place of darkness and evil, but they are not in “Hell” in the Christian sense of the word. Now that that’s out of the way, what the hell is up with Richard, man? Two episodes ago he goes from attempted suicide to regaining his faith (because if that’s not what happened, then what reason does he have for following Jack?) and now he’s having a hissy fit about switching sides? That seemed a tad inconsistent to me. But we’ll look past it for now and move onto the man’s story.

Back in the day, Ricardos loved a chick named Isabella, he accidentally killed a man in his pursuit to save her, she died, and he went to jail. He’s told that the only way to make up for his sin is through penance, but that his early-morning hanging could interfere with that. In steps a kind slaver who wants to help Ricardos get to the New World. One tsunami later, their ship is marooned in the middle of the Island and the statue has transformed into a Quentin Tarintino fantasy. One of the slaves on the Black Rock commented that the statue was “el diablo,” which may or may not be of importance to Jacob’s character, considering the statue is his home and all.

Meanwhile, Smokey decides to pay a visit to the new-comers and obliterate them all except for our dear Richard, whom he looks in the eyes (perhaps judging), much the same way he did to Locke way back in Season 1 or Mr. Eko in Season 3. Smokey then leaves and dead Isabella shows up to inform her husband that they’re dead and in Hell. If we consider Isabella’s cross, which features prominently in the episode, as well as the fact that she died with a Bible in her hands, I’d say we have some evidence to argue that this was in fact the impostor Smokey, using his handy-dandy ability to masquerade about as the living-dead. What sin could have possibly sent Isabella to Hell? And considering we never actually see Smokey and Isabella on screen at the same time and only hear her screams, I feel confident in the assessment that Smokey is posing as Richard’s wife to poison his mind.

Then Richard goes through some hard times and may or may not have starved to death. All I know is that special focus was given to the Man in Black’s hand (maybe we should just start calling him “He who cannot be named”) when he touched Richard and all of a sudden Richard was ready for 20 questions. It would certainly make sense for MIB and Jacob to possess the same powers, at least in my mind. But yeah, MIB explains that Jacob’s the devil and that he took Isabella. If Richard ever wants to see his wife again, he’ll have to go to the statue and kill Jacob before a word is spoken (sound familiar?). But Richard objects to the act, because “murder is wrong.” But MIB reminds our Spanish friend of those pesky personal interests and how they tend to supersede abstract concepts like right and wrong.

Richard goes to kill Jacob, gets his ass kicked, decides that he’s not dead after Jacob’s kind enough to fill his lungs with water, and then he switches sides after his new master grants him immortality. It’s also important to note that Jacob can’t absolve Richard of his sins. If we recall earlier in the episode, penance is the only path towards redemption. Richard has all the time in the world to do penance now.

And I’m about to get to what he does with that time, but before I do, I want to touch on Jacob’s philosophies. He believes that Esau is pure evil and darkness because he corrupts men by believing that they are already corrupt. Something like that. I’m not to sure on how the whole tainting process works. Jacob, on the other hand, believes that mankind should know right from wrong without being told, and he’s willing to watch countless people die to prove this point. That, I can live with. But by appointing Richard as his prophet, he completely contradicts his own beliefs. Explain to me how having somebody else tell everybody what you want them to do is not telling everybody what you want them to do. Please, I’m lost here.

This brings me to the part of the post where I rant about one of my theories that I admit the writers would never do but it’s one that they totally should. First Jacob appoints Richard to directly influence the people who come to the Island, an action that directly contradicts Jacbob’s beliefs and mimic’s Esau’s. Then we get that conversation at the end where Jacob refuses to let Esau leave the Island, even though he supposedly believes in the goodness of man. Let me repeat that–he supposedly believes in the goodness of man. I don’t care what anybody says, the very action of containing Esau to the Island is proof that Jacob does not truly believe in what he preaches. If he did, then there should be no fear of the consequences were MIB to escape. A few episodes back, when Focke was explaining to Sawyer that there is nothing special about the Island, I believe that he was telling the truth in a sense. The Island isn’t special because men are just as inherently corrupt on it as they are in the rest of the world. Would anything really change if Smokey escaped? No, because even Jacob is a sinner.

And this brings me to the craziest part of my theory that in no way, shape, or form will turn out to be true. If we assume that Jacob and MIB share the same powers, and that MIB can turn into Smokey because he “had his humanity stolen from him,” then I posit that the now incorporeal Jacob can take the form of the dead, just as his counterpart frequently did until he used Locke’s body in the loophole. Given that Jacob already stacked the odds by making Richard his representative, I don’t think it’s too insane to think that he could be posing as Isabella, the one person that means more to Richard than anybody else, in order to use Richard against Esau. If this is true, then Jacob is truly more corrupt than them all, as he’s tricking a man into murdering his enemy. Richard said himself earlier in the episode that murder is wrong. Yet he’s planning on committing it for the love of his life, who conveniently started communicating with Hurley at the exact moment Richard decided to switch sides again. What other dead guys has Hurley talked to on the Island that he didn’t already know? Oh, yeah, Jacob.

So what all of this means, I’m not entirely sure. Maybe in the beginning Jacob was pure good and Esau was pure evil. But time tends to change things. If Esau honestly wants to escape the Island for his own purposes, presumably to regain his humanity, and he doesn’t plan on massacring the world, then I don’t see what makes him such a terrible guy. Is it truly evil to believe that men are born sinners? And Jacob, well, if my thoughts prove to be true, then the ware of eternity has tainted his beliefs and driven him to desperate measures. It’s his job to guard the Island, not kill the MIB. But even if he has become corrupted, that doesn’t mean good doesn’t stand a chance. As the man himself said many years ago, “It only ends once. Everything else is just progress.” Maybe that ending involves one of our beloved candidates finally proving the goodness of man.

Then again, maybe I’m off my rocker and the writers thought it’d be a great idea to have Richard’s dead wife show up at the most cliched moment so she could turn the man of natural eye-liner into a wild-card out for blood. And maybe Jacob is pure good and Esau is pure evil. And maybe the Island is a barrier to unimaginable darkness and the entire world will go to Hell if Smokey escapes his prison. Maybe all of those predictable things will be the conclusion of an unpredictable show, but I just think my ideas are more entertaining.

Author: Cody

Tags: ab aeterno, lost, lost season 6, lost theories, Our Adventures