Ab Aeterno

My face told the whole story about this one. From the “whoooosh” of the traditional flashback sound up until the “boomLOST” at the end, I never once had my face in the neutral position during “Ab Aeterno”. I either had a dopey grin on my face (Richard riding horseback with “Canary Islands, 1867” on the bottom of the screen; the mention of Magnus Hanso), a frowny sad face (Richard discovering his wife, Isabella, dead; the padre telling him his soul was beyond salvation, many others), a eyes-wide, awestruck face (the Black Rock crashing into the statue), a cringing, agonized face (Richard struggling and failing to reach the raindrops falling through the vent; ditto with the nail; as he lay dying from starvation/dehydration) or a mix of them all. “Ab Aeterno” ran the full gambit of emotions and gave us one of the best self-contained stories Lost has ever told.

While “Ab Aeterno” might not fall atop my list of favorite episodes, I can certainly appreciate its greatness and I expect that I’ll grow to love it more with repeated viewings. Right now, my excitement after this episode probably doesn’t match the Lost communities as a whole, not because I didn’t really, really like this episode, but because the general delirium of the fan base is just so high right now. (Last I checked, it was second on DarkUFO’s episode rankings, barely trailing “The Constant”.) Either way, we were treated to a kick-ass episode last night and, as always, I’m going to focus on the positive. I’m going to say it again: I really really liked this episode, but it’s just not as good as “Through the Looking Glass” and it shouldn’t be rated as if it is.

We start off on the Island with the beach team sitting around the campfire trying to decide what to next. We learn from a continuation of Ilana’s flashback scene with Jacob that once she rounds up all the candidates, she needs to get in touch with Richard. He will know what to do. But when she suggests to him that he has all the answers, he flips out, tells everyone they’re actually dead, and takes off into the jungle to find the MIB.

This was a situation we’ve seen many characters encounter throughout Lost – the crisis of faith. Locke refusing to push the button. Sayid shooting young Ben. Desmond ready to kill himself in the hatch. Now Richard doubting Jacob. Sometimes they come out the other side with renewed faith (Locke, Des), other times it’s the beginning of a long spiral toward damnation (Sayid). Richard was ready to throw away his century-and-a-half long commitment to Jacob and the Others and join the MIB, but Hurley pulled him back from the dark side. I wish I had the mental capacity right now to go into this one more, but I think this whole “crisis of faith” discussion will have to wait for another time when I’m more clear-headed (and hopefully in a different line of work). It looks as if, like Ben, Richard will be able to resist temptation and continue on a better path.

I really liked the scenes on the Black Rock. I’ve said stuff like this before, but if you would have told me after Season 2 that we’d get a scene where the Black Rock arrives on the Island and smashes the statue in the process, I would have responded like Jerry Krause winning the draft lottery. My joy would have been expressed through violent neck-fat shaking.

But that wasn’t all. Next thing you know it, the Monster’s ripping threw the hull of the ship, devouring everyone in sight. Except Richard. Smokey snaps a couple pictures of him and books it. It was a clear parallel to the scene in “The 23rd Psalm” where Smokey sizes up a defiant Mr. Eko. And wouldn’t you know it, just like Yemi appeared to Eko, Isabella appears to Richard. She tells him they’re both dead, that they’re in hell, and that the devil could come back at any moment. Like with Yemi, it’s one of the MIB’s long cons. He’s putting Richard in a very vulnerable position so he can take advantage of him – a strategy that was successful with Sayid, Sawyer, and of course, Locke.

The theme of imprisonment stood out most to me this episode. Richard was held prisoner for murder, held prisoner on the Black Rock, and finally held prisoner in his own body. His chains kept him from escaping the Black Rock and then just out of reach of the rainwater and his nail file. His metaphorical chains kept him from ending what he began to feel was a pointless existence and joining his wife in whatever afterlife they would share together. What he once saw as Jacob’s gift became his biggest burden. Richard was chained to the Island in the exact same way he was chained to the Black Rock; he was doomed to suffer there until the end.

My favorite scenes were those of Richard alone in the Black Rock. Chained to the wall, he constantly found himself just out of reach of what he was trying to grasp. First it was the raindrops, then the nail he’d be using to saw himself free. I found these moments so incredibly painful to watch (see the descriptions of my face above), but that’s the kind of stuff Lost does so well. It takes me to very dark places. My favorite scenes are often the saddest – Jack’s “sick of lying” speech, Locke pounding on the hatch door, Ben watching Alex get shot, Sawyer strangling Anthony Cooper – all of them powerful and moving, but all of them showing the characters at their lowest. It’s the hope that out of the pit of despair there will be light, out of tragedy, triumph, and out of sin, redemption, that doesn’t just keep me from crying myself to sleep every night, but connects to something inside me that gives me hope in my own life, and maybe the world as a whole. I relate to Jack and his need to prove he doesn’t need anyone’s help. I relate to Ben’s need for control. I relate to Locke’s need to become something special. I can’t imagine another show hitting all these notes ever again.

End of overdramatic tangent.

“Ab Aeterno” pulled on the heartstrings like few other Lost episodes. And once again, I feel like I haven’t fully done it justice here. There was so much to discuss, so let’s move to some quick hits for the rest of it:

-Jacob likened the Island to a cork in a wine bottle keeping evil from reaching the world. This was a huge revelation, but it didn’t hit me quite so hard. Didn’t we already know that Jacob was preventing the MIB from leaving the Island? Yes we did. And that’s how I took Jacob’s little metaphor. But the Island preventing the MIB from leaving? That’s new. Maybe it’s just semantics. Maybe not. I for one never expected to get an answer to “What is the Island?” but this could be a hint that one is coming.

-The amount of Jack in these last few episodes has been unacceptable. There was that badass scene where he starred down the lit stick of dynamite, but other than that, bupkis. I hope this changes soon. And while we’re at it, I want more about what happened with Sayid. I realize he’s “evil” now, but what does that mean? Just more sitting on logs watching people try to kill one another?

-The scene where Jacob beats the crap out of Richard made me very uncomfortable. I didn’t like seeing that side of the Magnificent Man one bit. Up until now, he’d been this tranquil Wiseman who just went with the flow with this sense of confidence that everything would work out well in the end. This Jacob was angry and it totally clashed with my belief (hope?) that Jacob would turn out to be the “incarnation of good”, if you will. I didn’t expect that kind of rage, even if Richard was there to kill him.

-Along the same line, why did Jacob respond so violently to Richard’s attempted murder while he just stood there as Ben plunged a knife into his chest? That difference must be significant. I just can’t figure out what that significance is yet.