Summary: Flashbacks show that Richard accidentally killed a doctor in an attempt to save his sick wife Isabella, but she died anyways. Richard is going to be executed, but is saved when he is bought as a slave on the Black Rock. The ship crashes on the island, destroying the statue in the process. The officers start killing all the slaves, but then MIB arrives and kills all of them, except Richard. He later appears to Richard as Isabella, faking her getting captured by what Richard believes is "the devil". MIB appears to Richard in person, breaking him free and telling him he's in hell and the only way to escape is to kill the devil, Jacob. Richard is sent to kill Jacob but Jacob stops him. Jacob convinces Richard that he is mistaken and offers him a job: to step in and advise the people he brings to the island on his behalf. Richard accepts and is also given the gift of eternal life. On the island, Ilana reveals that Richard should know what to do next. Richard doesn't and he storms off into the jungle, attempting to join MIB. However, he's stopped by Hurley who has spoken with Isabella and she shares a moment with Richard. Richard understands his next task: to stop MIB.
The Good: "Lost" is a show that understands that story is far more important that plot. Plot on its own can be interesting to watch, but it is almost never memorable and it doesn't engage you in the way that a good story does. And its with this logic, that "Lost" decided to focus Richard's backstory on the character himself instead of the potential answers that his backstory could give. For the most part, this works really well, and "Ab Aeterno" ends up being an intense and enthralling character journey in a unique time period. The tone of these flashbacks is so different from any other episode. Going back to 1867 is a huge change, and it is fascinating to see the deeply religious themes that permeate the episode, as well as Richard himself. Richard believes he is in hell, and the character is driven by his limited knowledge of the world, especially when compared to modern standards. This change in time period gives this episode an almost epic feeling as we dive farther into the past than we ever had before, and every second we spend in Richard's past is a thrill. Emotionally, the episode remains grounded in Richard's relationship to Isabella and his fear of going to hell, which are emotions that are very easy for anyone to relate to. This emotional aspect of the episode added a lot, and Nestor Carbonell's terrific performance (more on him later) got the most out of the emotions. Richard's desperation to save his wife early in the episode resonated with me, as did the horror of his realization that he will have to go to hell after accidentally killing the doctor. The story is pretty simple, but the performance elevates it to another level. Then once we get to the island, we are thrust back into the Jacob/MIB rivalry, but we see it from the perspective of Richard, convinced he is in hell and that he has to save his dead wife from the devil. The scenes in the black rock are a highlight of the episode as we see Richard struggling to survive in his chains while having to suffer through losing Isabella again. The scenes are brutal, engaging, and acted to perfection. It's impressive how this episode does a significant formula break to show some key history of the island, but it maintains emotional resonance through Richard's story. The biggest mythological aspect of this episode comes from MIB and Jacob. It's fascinating to see a sequel to the opening scene in "The Incident" as both of them try to fight their own philosophies, using Richard as a pawn. MIB immediately manipulates him and his beliefs in an attempt to get him to kill Jacob, meanwhile Jacob appeals to his compassion and humanity, seeing and understanding that Richard has the morality to understand that killing is wrong. I like seeing the parallels between these two characters and I hope that we learn more about them. Their final scene together was really well done and had some exciting symbolism as MIB destroys Jacob's wine bottle present, highlighting that his motives are likely more sinister than what we have been told in the present. Additionally, I really liked MIB telling Richard to kill Jacob with a stab before he has a chance to speak, paralleling Dogen's orders for Sayid back in "Sundown". MIB and Jacob are like two sides of the same coin. Jacob's big explanation about the island is one of the episode's most important scenes and I really enjoyed it and the implications it has (see: The Unknown). I don't often talk about presentation in an episode, but I can't deny that this episode's presentation added a lot. The costume for 1867 Richard was tremendous and he looked like a completely different person. Furthermore, Nestor Carbonell's performance in this episode was legitimately one of the very best in the series. To go from calm and composed Richard Alpert to playing this terrified, religious criminal is remarkable, and I was blown away by his range in this episode. 1867 Richard feels like an entirely different person. Additionally, this episode introduced a new character theme for Richard and it was beautiful. "Lost" has always had a stellar soundtrack, but this track was especially moving, and it fit this unique episode very well. The Bad: I'm sure that there are people out there that won't like this episode because of some of the choices that were made. This had the potential to be a huge revelatory episode that revealed a ton of answers about the island, the others and Jacob, but we didn't really get that episode. Much of what we saw here was stuff we could have easily pieced together, and outside of Jacob's speech about the nature of the island, I felt like we didn't get any major answers. It was wonderful seeing Jacob's origin story, but I can't help but be disappointed that we didn't get to see what happened after Richard starting working for Jacob. We could have seen him form the others, go through several leaders, grow the organization, send messages from Jacob, all the while dealing with the fact that he is living forever. But that story wasn't told, and even though I liked what we got, I am sad that we didn't get this other story. It looks like "Lost" has entirely abandoned explaining more about the others, which I think is a poor decision considering how crucial the others have been to the show. In "The Good" I explained that I'm glad that the show prioritized story over plot. However, I can't deny that merging story with plot would have hit the best of both worlds, and it's what I wish this episode had done instead of prioritizing story. Ilana's flashback at the beginning of the episode is random and out of place. I can't help but question its inclusion, especially since Ilana could have easily given us the information revealed in this scene without even bothering with the flashback. The Unknown: Did Jacob send Isabella to meet with Hurley somehow? That's the best possible explanation I have for how she knew about MIB and Richard's purpose. Was she even real, or was she just a vision made by Jacob to get Richard to believe? Does this confirm that Jacob is responsible for visions on the island? This could be an explanation for things like Eko's dreams and visions in "The Cost of Living" and Ben's vision of his mother in "The Man Behind the Curtain". I hope we get a more concrete answer on what causes these visions to happen. Is MIB able to take the form of dead people who didn't die on the island? It appears that he took on the form of Isabella in this episode. Was he able to do that because he "scanned" Richard earlier? Once again MIB has offered to reunite someone with a dead loved one. Is he really capable of doing this? Is the flashsideways world created by MIB to fulfill this promise? It should be interesting to see if Richard turns up with Isabella in this world. Jacob's speech about the island raises some big questions. Why is MIB so connected to the "evil" that the island is apparently protecting the world from? What exactly is this evil? Is it purely metaphorical or is there a more literal manifestation of the evil on the island? What is Richard going to do to stop MIB? Best Moment: There are lots of choices, but I'll go with my gut and pick the smaller moment for its emotional value. My pick is Richard's time in the Black Rock, chained to the wall. So well acted, so brutally emotional, and so engaging to watch. Character of the Episode: Richard. Conclusion: Richard's episode finally arrived, and it told an incredible historical story, centered around a superb performance by Nestor Carbonell. But it wasn't a perfect episode, as some of the choices here left me underwhelmed and wanting for more that I know we will never get. There's a lot of great stuff here and I loved most the episode, but I don't feel that it lived up to the unrealistically high expectations I had going into it. This still gets an excellent score, but I was hoping that this would have been one of the best episodes of the series. It's an excellent episode, but nowhere near one of the best. Score: 74
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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