For fans of LOST this is the episode we've been waiting for, or at least I have. We finally get a glimpse into the world of Richard Alpert and his youthful looks. And for those wondering what the title of this episode means, apparently Ab Aeterno is Spanish and means "Since the beginning of time" or "Since a very long time ago". Synopsis is below and I'll be back after the episode airs to discuss.
Ab Aeterno
Richard Alpert has a difficult decision to make.
What a great episode this week, and for once it actually answered a bunch of questions, but in true LOST style it also left us hanging on things. As far as the easter eggs for the episode goes, the only things that I saw to be true "easter eggs" is that the owner (or person funding the expedition or whatever) of The Black Rock was Magnus Hanso and the guy who financed the Dharma Initiative (right?) was named Alvar Hanso, Magnus' great grandson. So there's a connection between The Black Rock and the Dharma Initiative in one way or another. The only other thing would be the location where we first see Ricardo/Richard in the past, Tenerife, The Canary Islands which is where the worst aviation accident of all time took place in 1977 killing 500+ people (Tenerife Airport Disaster) Other than those I don't know that anything else was really an "easter egg". Sure the white rock being given to the Man in Black by Richard from Jacob was a nice touch, but not really a true easter egg in my mind. Did anyone else notice anything else?
There were also a few questions answered this week like what happened to the giant statue on the beach, how did Richard end up on the island and how is it that he doesn't age... We also got a vague answer on exactly what the island is, or so we're lead to believe... whether or not it's true I'm not sure. And there's still the looming question over who is actually good and who is bad between the Man in Black and Jacob. I know the obvious thing is to say that the Man in Black is bad and Jacob is good, but I still have my doubts.
Going with the theory that Jacob is good and MiB is bad, what if the Man in Black is actually the god Loki, angel of death and Jacob is Heimdall also known as "the whitest of Gods".
From Wikipedia:
Heimdall, as guardian, is described as being able to hear grass growing and single leaves falling, able to see to the end of the world, and so alert that he requires no sleep at all. Heimdall is described as a son of Odin, perhaps a foster son. Heimdall was destined to be the last of the gods to perish at Ragnarök when he and Loki would slay one another.
I know it's probably a stretch, but some of this can also be used to describe Jacob while the fact that Loki is known to be a shape-shifter and the story also states that Loki was eventually bound by the entrails of his son, which keeps him from shifting shape, thus binding him to his current form... sound familiar? So that's my big theory for this week and I think it has some merit, but we'll have to wait and see.
Now for what questions were answered. Richard ended up on the island when he was bought as a slave and put on The Black Rock ship as it sailed for the new land only to end up crashing into the island. When the ship crashed, it rode an extremely high wave created by a massive storm, which smashed the ship into the statue and sent it deep into the jungle. We also learned that Jacob gave Richard the power to live for ever when Richard told him that if he couldn't ever see his wife again then he never wanted to die, and this is apparently one of the things Jacob could give him. We also learned that Jacob brings people to the island to show the Man in Black that people are capable of being good on their own (or something like that, someone clear me up if I don't have it 100% right).
Jacob also explains a little bit about what the island is. Basically he says that it's a "cork" keeping evil from spreading throughout the rest of the world, he uses the wine bottle to display his point to Richard. So after having just played through God of War III this week, there's a very similar item in mythology that does the exact same thing... Pandora's Box. So what if the island is Pandora's Box... Jacob says that the island is there to hold evil in and keep it from spreading, which is exactly what Pandora's Box was for. And actually in the original stories Pandora's Box is not a "box" at all... it's a jar!
Also, when Richard meets the Man in Black at his "lair", as I'm referring to it as, under the tree with the stone "throne", etc. it seems as though that tree could be The Tree of Life which according [again] to wikipedia:
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the tree of knowledge, connecting heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree.[1] According to some scholars, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, portrayed in various religions and philosophies, are the same tree.[2]
So again, there's that connection between heaven and hell which would make some sense since if it's a gateway, then evil could be present and trying to get free... So a lot of stuff happened last night which leads to a lot of different theories and possibilities and I'm sure a lot of you out there have more of your own so lets hear them...
