Episode 9 - Ab Aeterno
28 March 2010
Review
Present: Richard decides it's time he took up the Man in Black's offer to join him and heads off. Hurley follows him and catches up to him where he buried Isabella's cross. She is speaking to Hurley and tells him to pass on a message. She says Richard has suffered enough and shouldn't blame himself for her death. She also says he must stop the Man in Black or everyone will to hell.
Flashback: In 1867 on the Canary Islands, Richard is tending to his sick wife Isabella. He rides a long way to find a doctor who offers to sell him medicine. When Richard doesn't have enough money he becomes desperate and in the struggle he kills the doctor. He returns to find Isabella already dead and is arrested and condemned to death. But instead he is sold to be a slave on the Black Rock. The ship smashes into the four toed statue on its way to the middle of the jungle. The Smoke Monster kills the remaining crew and scans Richard. Smokey then appears as Isabella and pretends she is killed by smokey. The Man in Black comes to free Richard from his chains and asks for his help to kill Jacob. He insists that Jacob is the devil and that by killing him Richard can be with Isabella again. Richard tries but Jacob makes him a better offer, to become his intermediary with the people he brings to the island. In return Richard doesn't want to die and face hell so Jacob touches him.
The Good: First and foremost this was a wonderful acting performance from Richard. Perhaps the most complete piece of acting the show has ever produced. Although many characters have had to portray themselves in complicated ways, be they in the past or the future, none of them had to go to these lengths. Richard had to portray a historical figure, one whose understanding of the world was different to ours. He seemed like a completely different person from the calm, dapper figure who has preached calm for the last three seasons.
Credit to the hair and makeup department too for making him look like someone from a different time, something they haven't attempted with Jacob and the Man in Black. But Richard was amazing to watch, his humbleness, his morality, his deference to his betters (the Doctor, Priest and Whitfield) all created the impression of a completely different person. One who has changed beyond recognition in the preceding 140 years. His desperation was the emotion he had to play the most of course and he played it to perfection. His struggles in the ship, his fear of the smoke monster, his desire to save Isabella, his tears of mourning and misery were all so raw and real. The part which impressed me more than any other was the hoarseness of his voice when he met MIB for the first time. Thick with accent, broken from the stress it was a fantastic performance.
Richard's story did answer a lot of questions too. The mystery over his origins and how he came to be a slave. The continuity of Magnus Hanso being the ship's captain (Orientation film 203, Blast door map 217, Auction house 405). The destruction of the statue and the incredible storm which swept the ship into the jungle interior. Why other slaves were still dead in their chains and what happened to the rest of the ship's crew. Finally we got the reveal on why Richard became immortal and got the job of being Jacob's intermediary. We also had it pretty much stated as fact that MIB is "evil incarnate" and if he escapes that evil will spread throughout the real world. That the island is the cork keeping that evil bottled up and that humans are brought there to prove that they are capable of discerning right from wrong and thus (I assume) don't deserve to have evil delivered upon them. Essentially that is the revelation of what the entire series Lost is all about. So assuming no big twist is coming, that is a huge moment.
Once more Lost shows that simplicity can make for great drama. Poor Richard shackled to the side of the boat made for compelling and sympathetic viewing. All his struggles, his seared wrists, his inability to reach the nail or the water. It was all so easy to understand, so simple, so well imagined. The MIB's plan was also delivered in a simple and clear fashion. He scanned Richard and went after the one motivation which would get him to play ball, Isabella. Again it was confirmation of the manipulation we have seen in 2007 being played out on Claire, Sayid, Sawyer and Kate.
Richard's goodness is what saved him. Jacob wants people to know the difference between right and wrong and Richard knew it. He tells MIB "Murder is wrong, that is what brought me here." His desire to be forgiven for his sins is what makes him serve his time on the island. And clearly he blamed himself for her dying too, clinging to the pain for a long time. That goodness is what made him the ideal intermediary for Jacob which explains that choice pretty clearly. The choice to live forever was essentially Richard's rather than Jacob's which was an interesting way for that to play out.
Having ghost whispering Hurley be a native Spanish speaker was a fortuitous touch or evidence of brilliant long term planning. MIB saying "It's good to see you out of those chains" was a very nice bit of writing (echoing his line from 602).
The Bad: Let's get the small stuff out of the way first. I thought the Ilana flashback was completely unnecessary. Surely she could have just told us that Jacob told her to ask Richard what to do. Then we had the unintentionally hilarious line of the whole show when Jack says to Hurley "Don't lie to me, please, if you know something, anything that could help us..." This is a man who has been deliberately uncommunicative and unhelpful and shut others down who wanted to share over the years and now he sees the value in open communication. What cheek!
Ok. This episode had huge expectations going in and I don't think any of those expectations surrounded Richard's love life. As good as Richard's love story is we have seen many a love story. Desmond, Sayid, Jin and Sun have all had love for a partner keep them going while trapped on the island. To give that same motivation (albeit with a Catholic guilt twist) to Richard was always going to disappoint some.
The show has also built him up as a man of great mystery. The man who spoke to Jacob and informed the Others what to do. A man who could perhaps shed some light on who built the statue, what the magic box is, why the American soldiers had to be killed, why there was a truce with the Dharma Initiative, why bodies have to be buried, why the Dharma Initiative had to be wiped out, who saw people disappear in front of his eyes, who was privy to submarine trips off the island, who saw Charles expelled, children kidnapped, Ben indulge in "novelties" like fertility projects and who saw intelligence files on our survivors. To not see any of that or have any more revelations than the basic collection surrounding his origins was always going to be a disappointment. I have defended Lost over many an accusation about how they handle their mythology but Richard was such an intimate part of the island's secrets that I don't feel the producers have anywhere to hide on this one.
Even if you don't indulge in those mysteries in this story, surely the real intrigue of an immortal man is how it feels to never age? Imagine the stories that could have been told about that. The more you think about what this episode could have been, sadly, the more disappointed you become.
Richard's flashback didn't work out in the satisfying way which most characters first flashback did either. The key to the first flashback was that it shed light on the character's on-island behaviour, filling in gaps in the story and leaving you feeling more satisfied with what has gone before. Richard's Catholic morality gives you a vague sense of why he has always been such a calm figure. But it gave us no insight into any of the decisions he made or was involved with which affect our story. We may know him better now, but we don't actually know much which makes us care about him or his involvement in the story, which is a shame.
A huge tsunami-like storm was always the most logical explanation for the Black Rock's arrival in the middle of the jungle. But for that to be the way the statue was broken seemed anticlimactic. Considering the statue was presumably constructed thousands of years ago, it's not difficult to imagine this collision being fatal but it wasn't a very dramatic end to one of the show's most dramatic locations.
Finally if MIB really is evil incarnate which this episode all but states that he is then that reflects poorly on the presentation of the Others. Why did Dogen, Lennon, Ben or Richard not educate their followers about the terrifying dangers that this man was capable of?
The Unknown: It also makes you wonder how valuable the time spent last episode on MIB really was. His "open" chats with Sawyer and Kate seemed to make his tale more complicated. But if he simply is malevolence then could that time have been used for more useful characterisation?
We do get lots more information about MIB though. He claims that Jacob "took my body, my humanity" which unless he is lying could use more explanation. He gives the same instructions to Richard (dagger included) which Dogen gave to Sayid (606). So why that dagger?
MIB also impersonates someone who isn't on the island. We have seen that before (e.g. 320 with Ben's mother) but this shows that he can take anyone's form presumably. Maybe he can only get "stuck" in the form of those corpses that are brought to the island? Hurley too is now talking to a dead person who he doesn't know, which is a first.
MIB's seemingly sincere offer to Richard to put him back with his wife is an interesting one. Coupled with the sunken island shot (601) could the flashsideways be a world where he gives the survivors what their hearts desire in exchange for his escape and the destruction of the cork?
Eloise Hawking once dramatically stated "God help us all" (502). It seemed out of context at the time but if she knew about real malevolence then perhaps it was appropriate.
Best Moment: Richard in chains trying to get out. So simple, so engaging, so well acted.
The Bottom Line: The episode itself was strong but not strong enough. Richard's acting actually covered for a story which lacked the kind of emotionally resonant details which the best Lost episodes provide. And in context this episode did very little but underline the main drama of the season while also disappointing many fans who waited patiently for this moment.
We learn nothing about Richard's character here which mark him out to be special or important to the overall show beyond what we already understood. And as our understanding of him was built so clearly around his secretive role as immortal gate keeper to Jacob, there was a necessity to deliver some answers. Those answers didn't come, once more indicating that the producers aren't interested in shedding light on Jacob's followers and their very interesting past. That is a decision which disappoints me and this episode suffers in grade as a result.
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