S6 E9 "Ab Aeterno"

"The cork... is this island. And it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs." -Jacob

I have two words for this episode: A and MAZING!!! It was everything I have ever hoped for in a Richard episode. Nestor Carbonell did some Emmy-worthy acting tonight. I don't think any episode could knock out "The Constant" as my favorite episode of all time, but this one is thisclose in second place. And I never even missed the "sideways world."

I do have a bit of bad news: this is the official half-way point of the final season. I'm sorry to make your heart drop like that. But this was the 9th hour of an 18 hour season. *sniff*

Connect The Dots
The first eye we saw open was Ilana's. She and Jacob were speaking Russian. We saw the beginning of this scene in last year's season finale,"The Incident."

Richard was bought by a man representing Captain Magnus Hanso. On the blast door map in the Swan Station were the words "known final resting place of Magnus Hanso." One of his descendants, Alvar Hanso, founded the Hanso Foundation which is the money behind the Dharma Initiative.

This episode answered two major questions at the same time. What happened to the four-toed statue? and How did The Black Rock get to the middle of the island? A tidal wave threw the ship at the statue and knocked it over. A wave that tall, the height of the statue, would throw the ship pretty far inland. Ironically, this theory was suggested by Dr. Arzt the first time the losties trekked to The Black Rock. ("Exodus, Part 3")

The Man In Black said "It's good to see you out of those chains." Earlier this season in "What Kate Does" we saw UnLocke come out of the statue and say that same line to Richard. Richard's face showed the recognition that he was not the real John Locke but was instead the Man In Black. Richard had the chance to say "You!" before getting knocked out cold by him.

Jacob said he brings people to the island and when they get there the past doesn't matter. Jack told Kate the same thing on the beach in Season 1 "Tabula Rasa." She wanted to tell him what she "did" to become a fugitive, but he said "It doesn't really matter. 3 days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over."

Details and Easter Eggs
When we saw Jacob come to Ilana in the hospital her face was bandaged, with bruises all over her chin. But in the next part of that conversation, she was sitting up, her face free of bandages and bruises. So I guess Jacob healed her.

On the beach, Hurley was speaking Spanish to who we would later learn was Richard's wife, Isabella. My Spanish is not that great but he says something like "Why?...Yes, I can help but I don't know how to bargain..."

Richard's story started in 1867 in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Since he was married but didn't have any children yet, I'm going to guess he was about 20. That would make him 140 years old in the island's present day (2007.) One translation of the Latin phrase "Ab Aeterno" is "for long ages."

I was confused about the color of the Isabella's necklace. I thought it looked silver in every scene until the end when Richard held it in the sunlight, then it was clearly gold. As I watched it a second time I noticed the earlier scenes were all darker so I guess the color was washed out and it was gold all along.

The doctor died similarly to how Kelvin Inman did. When Kelvin and Desmond were struggling, the back of Kelvin's head hit the rock just like the doctor's hit the table. Neither Desmond, nor Richard meant for it to happen. ("Live Together, Die Alone")

The doctor's servant came in holding blankets to find that Richard had killed the doctor the same way Libby came in holding blankets to find that Michael had killed Ana Lucia. ("Two For The Road")

Richard was reading in his Bible a passage from Luke 4:24. You can read it here. It's interesting because it refers to two stories where a person was the only one saved by a prophet, the same way Richard was about to become the only survivor of The Black Rock.

The Man In Black gave Richard the same knife Dogen gave to Sayid. He also gave a similar speech about stabbing before the victim had a chance to talk.











Isabella is wearing the same dress when she appears to Richard on the ship as when she appears with Hurley at the end. This is an interesting detail if you believe that her manifestation on the ship was just the Man In Black, but Hurley was seeing the actual spirit of her.

Since this was a little confusing to someone in my Lost-viewing group, I feel the need to explain the conversation between Hurley, Richard, and Isabella. Hurley was repeating all her lines to Richard. He said he would, and then we heard him do the first one. But after that, Hurley's words were cut out of the conversation for us. The writer's used this technique to keep the flow and emotional integrity of that moment intact. And what a beautiful moment it was.

Questions
If Jacob had six people he needed Ilana to protect, why didn't he specify which "Kwon" he meant?

Did the Man In Black revive Richard with his touch? Does he have those powers too?

Was Isabella an incarnation of the Monster? If so, this means that the Monster can appear in multiple places at once, which we've never seen before.

Namaste!