WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE LATEST EPISODE OF LOST.
After the jump: Mini-recap, questions, theories, and predictions!
This week on Lost, a few hundred years ago, a hot young Latino named Richard (or should I say Riccardus?) accidentally killed a doctor while trying to get medicine for his dying wife, Isabella. Not only did the doctor die, but his wife died too! He got thrown in prison and then sold as a slave to some guy who was sailing the Black Rock!!! As we all know the Black Rock crashed on the island (but not before taking that big statue with it!). After the crash, Richard would have been killed with the other slaves by the ship’s captain, but Smokey came in and killed the captain first! And then he played some tricks on Richard, making him think Isabella was alive – but of course this was just to mess with Richard’s mind and try to convince him that Jacob = The Devil! Smokey told Richard that he was in Hell, and if he killed Jacob, he’d get to leave and be reunited with his wife!
But since Jacob was apparently all-powerful, he convinced Richard that Smokey was really the bad guy, and explained that his hobby was bringing new people to the island in order to prove that they could be good if he just gave them a chance. Even though they always turned to the Dark Side in the end, Jacob said he’d keep trying. He said Richard should stay here on the island as his assistant to help with his Good vs. Evil experiment, and he made him immortal to boot! So Richard joined Team Jacob and the rest is history. But now that Jacob’s dead, Richard thought maybe he’d join Smokey after all! Good thing the ghost of his dead wife (speaking through Hurley, of course) warned him not to, or else apparently we’re all going to Hell!
*slow clap*
So people like Doc Jensen et. al are going to tear every single bit of info out of this episode and write very eloquent novel-length recaps about it. While I might be thinking all those thoughts I just kind of like to ask some questions and ponder them at my leisure :D
Questions:
1. Ilana had been training to protect the candidates – why did Jacob choose her? She doesn’t seem very prepared haha.
2. So Smokey asked Richard to kill Jacob with the knife and warned him about speaking to him, the same way Dogen asked Sayid to kill Smokey! WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Are Jacob and Smokey equals? How come it’s too late once they speak? And how come Ben had no problem killing Jacob with a regular knife, even after he spoke to him?
3. Hurley said if the Man in Black gets off the island “We all go to hell.” Did he mean the people on the island will go to hell, or that it will cause hell on earth? Will everyone on the planet become evil zombies like Sayid and Claire?
4. How did Jacob and Smokey get there in the first place? Did Jacob capture and trap him or what?? Is Smokey like a genie trapped in a bottle? And the island is the cork?? Is the island itself special, or is it special because Jacob is there?
5. Smokey told Richard that Jacob took his body – what was that all about? Smokey keeps insisting he was once a man (with a mom no less!) so what the hell??
6. When Jacob touched Richard, he made him immortal. Then how come Richard thought someone else could kill him? Jacob touched all the candidates, but they’re not immortal as far as we know (Kate and Sawyer aged after he touched them!) – did he give any of them special powers??
7. How come Smokey can’t kill Jacob himself?? And if Smokey’s really evil incarnate then how come he judges people so…fairly? Did he go around judging people to see who’d be capable of killing Jacob? Is that why he let Ben live back when Ben went to the Temple to be “judged?”
8. Where does Widmore fit into all of this?
9. Is it possible Jacob wasn’t only trying to contain the Man in Black, but SAVE him in a Jack Shephard-esque way?
10. Is Jacob God? I never really believed that theory, I always thought of him as being something more…metaphorical, but this is getting nuts. Jacob brings people before him to test their free will against temptation/sin? Is this Eden?? Are the Adam and Eve in the caves ACTUALLY ADAM AND EVE? lol
11. What about Christian’s role in all of this? What’s his deal, anyway? It seems like he’s Smokey’s messenger the way Richard was Jacob’s. He appeared to Locke at the Donkey Wheel, he lured Claire away from Aaron, he let Michael blow up the freighter. If Jack is Jacob’s replacement it would make sense for him to have to face off with his daddy dearest in the end, no?
Thoughts:
– THIS EPISODE WAS AMAZING. WELL WRITTEN, WELL ACTED, WELL EDITED, WELL EVERYTHING-ED. FREAKING LOVED IT.
– Remember last week on Little House Michael Landon said the ones we love never really leave us once they die? RIGHT ON, ISABELLA.
– Jacob dunking Richard in the ocean = Baptism!! Hey-yo!
– Richard’s entire story was so well done and heartbreaking and AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T GET OVER HOW AWESOME THIS WAS.
– So the Black Rock crashed into the statue and broke it!!! It’s like a Lost NERDGASM!!!!! AGH!!!!
– Maybe it’s not that Jacob needed ONE replacement, maybe he needs all 6 candidates to replace him! They could each have a part to play.
– So Smokey found Richard inside the ship, checked out his brain while in smoke form, saw that he’d respond to Isabella, and then showed up as her, right? Right.
– Nestor Carbonell was amazing. AMAZING!!!
– I loved Jacob giving the white rock to Smokey. I know it’s the one that was on the scale, but what does it mean? I want in on that inside joke.
– So I guess now we know why Smokey was “very disappointed” in Richard haha!
I’m sure I’ll be adding more as I think of it. God that was so awesome.
Wow, I just realized I’ve been confusing “Flashes Before Your Eyes” with “The Constant.” I totally meant that “Ab Aeterno” is up there with “The Constant” as my favorite episodes ever.
Good episode, Nestor an emmy now! Who knew he had such acting chops. And the love story with he and Isobella…Ummm. Ranks up there with Desmond & Penelope and Sawyer and Juliet for me.
As for the story…first 1/2 hour was a bit slow for me considering we pretty much knew he was a slave on the black rock.
My hope and expectations were that they would do Richards back story of how he got to the Island quick (like Jacob at the end quickly wrapping up the Cork keeping evil on the island).
The story I was hoping to see was Richards timeline on the Island. We could have found out how the orginal others got to the island (did any blackrock people survive smokey), When and how Hanso got the Dharma people here. Why Richard endorsed Ben in Killing DharmaVille. Where the Temple Other came from. And as always more secrets of the Island. I thought Richard had the opportunity to have the most unique Island Centric story that would have answered a lot of questions about what happened since 1867.
But with that Pet Peeve, Good Episode, Out of this World Acting by Nestor. Heck, even the Real MIB this was the first time I got to see how creepy with his facial expressions and how good of an actor he is. Ashame Locke is getting all the Smoke time as the Original MIB is Great Also.
Also, I guess we found out that Hurley’s gift from Jacob’s touch is his Sixth Sense!
I mean Dude can really see Dead people (Charlie, Eko, Anna Lucia, Jacob, Isobella maybe Yemi?).
While he was in the Psyche Ward, I thought he was just seeing things in his mind or perhaps the Island was showing him want it wanted him to see.
Now I firmly believe Hurley’s gift is “Dude Can See Dead Peopleâ€
On a related but seperate note, if we assume MIB Scanned Ricardo and presented Isobella on the black rock (which I think is a first because most of MIB’s body take overs were of dead people on the island)…How was Hurley able to see Isobella on the Island if she had never been there before???
I have a question: Where is Desmond?
“10. Is Jacob God? I never really believed that theory, I always thought of him as being something more…metaphorical, but this is getting nuts. Jacob brings people before him to test their free will against temptation/sin? Is this Eden?? Are the Adam and Eve in the caves ACTUALLY ADAM AND EVE? lol ”
She LOLs, but really… I think the answer is YES! So, that’s the story of the statue – yay! I love it when they give us big, honkin’ answers during the first half of the episode – when you least expect it, BANG!, there’s an answer!
Nestor Carbonell – you get the “Welcome Back, Kotter” theme song, too!
The original MIB reminds me of Michael Keaton, big time. Just as Isabella’s message via Hurley was heartbreakingly reminiscent of that Quantum Leap episode with Al’s wife. Seriously. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d have leaped out of there in a halo of blue light.
My main question: How the Hell did a hollow, wooden ship completely destroy a solid stone statue and remain intact itself? I know the laws of physics get bent on Lost Island, but that’s just crazy.
@Scriblit: The Statue was destroyed by the TSUNAMI, not by the Black Rock itself.
I Loved the Ricky Ricardo episode!
Thanks to late-night Saturdays on ABC in Chicago, I just got to watch a repeat of “LaFleur.”
At the very beginning, they showed the flash where Locke was descending the rope into the well of the Orchid station, and then he disappeared and Sawyer was left holding the rope in solid ground.
And when they started walking, they saw the whole statue. I had totally forgotten this. So I guess that BEFORE they flashed to 1974 (after Locke moved the FDW,) they must have flashed to a time on the island before the Black Rock ever landed there.
Now I’m wondering, is this significant?
Also, we saw Charlotte in Sidewaysland with Sawyer last week. In “LaFleur,” Daniel says that Charlotte’s body disappeared right before his eyes preceding the flash where they saw the whole statue. Is this significant to Charlotte’s story, too?
@Scriblit – Did you not see the giant tidal wave?
@asami & @erikire
AH! I must have left my good Thinking Hat in the wash. That or I was too dazzled by Captain Revlon’s Fabulous Lashes to put 2 & 2 together. Tsunami. Of course.