Tonight’s episode of LOST was, I think, immensely satisfying for both of the major categories of viewers: those who care about the characters most, and those who are more interested in solving the mysteries. SPOILERS FOLLOW.
Tonight’s episode answered one major question – we learned just how old Richard Alpert is, and where he came from. After a brief introduction on the island, we flash back to the Canary Islands in 1867. After accidentally killing a man, Ricardus is purchased as a slave by a man who works for Magnus Hanso, and they set sail on the Black Rock, heading for the New World.
En route, they get caught in a storm. The island is visible, as is the statue, and something – presumably a large wave – catapults them onto the island, knocking the statue to pieces in the process.
Once they regain consciousness in the middle of the jungle, the other slaves besides Richard are killed by an officer afraid they might kill him given a chance. Then the smoke monster appears, the officers are killed, and the smoke monster looks at Richard, and presumably reads his memories of his dead wife. She then appears to him, only to seem to be taken by the black smoke. But presumably she simply turned back into black smoke. The man in black then appears, and says that they are in hell, and that there is only one way for them to escape, and only one way Richard will see his wife again: he is going to have to kill the devil.
Apparently this was the first time that the man in black tried to kill Jacob – and Jacob will later express surprise that he didn’t see it coming. Also intriguing is the man in black’s claim that the devil took his body, his humanity. Is that a total lie, or is there some truth to it?
Richard’s attempt to kill Jacob is unsuccessful. Jacob treats him surprisingly roughly, but persuades Richard that this isn’t hell. He compares the island to a cork that is keeping the evil and malevolence in the bottle so that it cannot spread. He also says that the man in black believes that humans are inherently corruptible and it is in their very nature to sin, and Jacob keeps bringing people to the island to try to prove him wrong. But Jacob himself doesn’t like to step in – he considers it the whole point that for people to be good, it cannot simply be that they are told what to do. Richard is appointed as his representative.
Jacob offers Richard a gift. Richard asks for his wife to be returned to life, and Jacob says he cannot do that. Richard then asks for absolution for his sins so that he won’t go to hell, and Jacob says he cannot do that either. Then Richard says that, in that case, he never wants to die, and Jacob says that that is something he can do.
In a scene towards the end of the episode, Hurley helps Isabella, Richard’s late wife, communicate with him. I think that the goodness or otherwise of both sides is still at least somewhat ambivalent, but one test makes things clear: the Hurleyometer senses that Jacob is the one to follow, and I think that Hurley’s simple goodness is probably a good guide as to where this is going. Hurley’s final message from Isabella is to stop the man in black, or we’ll all end up in hell.
The religious symbolism and concepts were very prominent in this episode. The only other thing I’ll add is that either the ship we saw in the season 5 finale wasn’t the Black Rock, or the weather changes quickly there. Of course, we’ve seen instances in which the temporal displacement of the island had a similar effect. But it would be simpler if it were a different boat.
What did you think about this episode?
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