Lost: Put a Cork in It

This is the episode people have been waiting for ever since Richard Alpert showed his face in the present day to recruit Juliet and in the Dharma days to recruit a young Ben Linus to the Other side — and it turned out that the face looked exactly the same.

After seeing the feature film-scale “Ab Aeterno”, I suspect that your enjoyment of the episode hinged largely on how much time you spend thinking about “Lost.”

If you watch the show casually, then you probably thought it was a thoroughly entertaining hour of romance and action (the scene with the Smoke Monster taking down the Black Rock crew was sneakily outstanding) with a healthy dose of Big Ideas about good and evil, God and the devil jammed into the second half.

If you’rea semi-obsessive fan (like me), this episode didn’t seem to reveal a lot of new information, because you already theorized that Richard had come to the Island on the Black Rock a long time ago and that he was immortal because of Jacob’s touch. (That second fact had been pretty much stated explicitly by Richard himself.)

Some of the people in my group (the semi-obsessives) may complain that they didn’t learn anything new, but I’m always grateful to get concrete confirmation on any “Lost” mystery. (Just because I’m pretty sure about something, doesn’t make it so.) Also, if you do a little work for yourself (like Jacob would want you to do), you’d probably see this episode revealed plenty of the sort of character-based nuggets that truly make this show great.

For example, we could all guess how Richard became immortal (and we were all right), but this episode also told us WHY.

Richard was actually Ricardo (though never called “Ricardus” at any point last night), a Spaniard living in the Canary Islands in 1867. His wife Isabella had tuberculosis and Ricardo had accidentally killed a haughty doctor who refused to go out in the rain to help her, despite the fact that Ricardo offered him everything he had (including his wife’s necklace). Ricardo grabbed some medicine, but couldn’t make it back in time to save his wife.

He was arrested and sentenced to be hanged. The poor guy couldn’t even gain absolution from his priest, who told Richard that there was no way for him to do penance and avoid hell since he was going to die the next day. Enter a man named Jonas Whitfield who bought Richard as a slave on behalf of Magnus Hanso (ancestor of Dharma Initiative founder Alvar Hanso) and put him on the Black Rock. During a particularly violent storm, the ship was hurtled into the famed four-toed statue (which Richard and his companions thought was a representation of the devil), allegedly wiping out most of the statue and leaving the Black Rock in the middle of the Island.

(Two things here: 1.) I’m guessing that the ship Jacob and MIB saw in the distance during their breakfast chat in season 5 finale “The Incident” was NOT the Black Rock, since that happened on a bright sunny day. 2.) Maybe I’m being thick, but I still don’t understand how a wooden ship or the accompanying tsunami could wipe that four-toed statue out like that, and I REALLY still don’t understand how Richard’s ship landed so far inland and relatively intact. I guess it’s just one of those things.)

Fortunately, Nestor Carbonell (stepping into the “Lost” spotlight for the first time) really stepped up and did a terrific job of carrying this episode. Yes, the romance between Ricardo and Isabella was rushed and underdeveloped (we saw her alive for about two minutes), but Carbonell’s passion and intensity went a long way toward selling it. Even more impressive was the way his eyeliner-y eyes portrayed the guilt (over committing murder; over not being able to save his wife) that Ricardo carried around. It turns out the reason he never wanted to die is because he was afraid of going to hell!

Ricardo became convinced that he was in hell and it was hard to blame him. Whitfield had killed the rest of the crew (out of fear of running out of resources) and was about to run a sword through Richard before the Smoke Monster intervened, took out Whitfield and got an up close and personal look at Richard. Another reason for Richard to believe he was in hell was probably his wife popping up and telling him that they were in hell.

Now, I realize there’s a lot of speculation as to who is “good” and “evil” in the Jacob/MIB power struggle, and I also realize this show delights in subverting our expectations of those very concepts. However, after last night’s episode, I think it’s pretty clear that Jacob represents “good” and MIB is meant to represent evil.

For example, it was pretty obvious to me that it was MIB who appeared to Richard as Isabella and made it seem as if she’d been kidnapped by “the devil.” That allowed the still-nameless Man in Black to conveniently appear with a set of keys to set Richard free and offer a way for him to reunite with his wife – he had to kill “the devil.”

Now, when I say that Jacob is clearly “good” and MIB is clearly “evil”, that’s obviously just my perspective. In this case, perspective is everything because I think that the MIB character honestly believes that Jacob really does represent “the devil”, at least as far as he’s concerned. He offered Ricardo a knife and the same instructions Dogen gave Sayid in “Sundown” – kill him before he has a chance to speak and persuade you.

Unfortunately for Richard, Jacob kicked his ass and disarmed him without even opening his mouth to speak. I thought it was interesting that Jacob defended himself so vigorously (as opposed to the way he let Ben stab him in 2007). I’m guessing the reason he let Ben kill him was because he knew he had backup coming in the form of the castaways he touched. If Richard had been able to stab him, he would’ve died and MIB would’ve won.

Anyway, the subsequent scenes between Richard and Jacob were absolutely terrific. I loved the forced baptism (“I want to live” “That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said.”) I love that we got some insight into the purpose of the Island (Jacob brings people there to prove MIB wrong, since MIB believes people are inherently wired to sin.) Jacob even laid out his own God-like philosophy to explain why he doesn’t intervene in the Island inhabitants’ lives, leading to a fantastic exchange: “Why should I have to step in?” Jacob asked. “If you don’t, he will,” Richard responded, in reference to the MIB.

Most importantly (probably), was Jacob’s explanation of the Island’s purpose in relation to MIB. He used a half-full bottle of wine to explain that the wine was hell/evil/etc, while the Island was the cork that kept it from getting out and spreading. My question would be, “How much worse could the world be if MIB was allowed to escape and spread his influence?” I mean, the castaways’ lives with MIB as a prisoner were pretty sucky. Maybe the flash sideways represent what happens if MIB got loose – and things aren’t so bad.

I particularly enjoyed the final scene between Jacob and the MIB which ended with the MIB smashing the bottle – to me, it suggested that the MIB is hell bent on finding a way (a loophole) to free himself, and that it’ll probably be a way that Jacob never considered.

Back in the present, Richard (who had let out a hilarious yelp and freaked out when Ilana asked him what they were supposed to do next) had his faith restored thanks to Ghost Whisperer Hurley.

In a scene that definitely should’ve been ridiculous, Carbonell and Jorge Garcia delivered a pair of knockout performances that absolutely made Richard’s restored faith believable (and may have brought a tear to some people’s eyes). (Not my eyes, I swear, but I can see it happening.) Through Hurley, Isabella was able to convey that she and Richard will always be together through their shared experiences and pulled him back from the despair that had caused him to run in the jungle and seek out Anti-Locke’s allegiance. My favorite part was Hurley’s translation of “Tell him his English is beautiful” to “She says your English is awesome.”

Now, we’ve had Richard’s back story and we got crucial intel on the Island’s history. With the final season of “Lost” at its halfway point, the two sides have been set (Anti-Locke’s team vs. Jacob’s Jack Attack) – it’s time to get down to business!

So what’d you think of this episode? How IS Richard supposed to stop the MIB? How did Ilana end up all bandaged up in the hospital? (And do we care?) Finally, would Hurley really align himself with someone who is “evil”? (That’s my best argument for why Jacob is “good.”)