LOST-Work for 6.10. MIB Style

Doc Jensen: 'Lost' recap: The Complete 'Package'

Sun and Jin get lost in translation thanks to all the Island double-speak
By Jeff Jensen Mar 31, 2010

The dream of a happy ending for Jin and Sun died in me last night. Maybe it was the dispiriting experience of watching Sun's systematic deconstruction across two different worlds in a story in which it seemed the God of all possible worlds had declared war on her. On the Island, she lost her voice — the consequence of dark magic that stripped away her English. In the Sideways reality, she was brought to the brink of losing her very life, plus the life of her unborn child, and was left to dangle there, her fate to be determined another time, in someone else's story. Maybe it was the discouraging experience of watching Jin get so easily jerked around by some very powerful, very charismatic villains who could cloud his mind by playing to his heart. On the Island, it was Charles Widmore, promising him reunion with his family and deliverance from evil. In the Sideways reality, it was Martin Keamy, who mocked his romantic ideals to his face and managed to get him to say ''thank you'' for doing so. But mostly, my despair comes from not knowing how the hell to parse the parable of the tomato, the lone living vegetable from Sun's ravaged Island garden. Is it a symbol of stubborn hope? Or is it just a symbol of stubbornness? Is it a symbol of valentine red love? Or is it a symbol of blinding red rage? Do Jin and Sun need to learn to hold on to their dreams at all cost — or do they need to learn to let go lest those dreams damn their individual souls? Damn inscrutable tomato! Thou doest vex me!

This is all to say that for anyone who came to ''The Package'' to see the long-awaited reunion of Lost's long-separated husband and wife, it didn't happen. What ''The Package'' gave us instead was a Pandora's Box packed with paranoia, suspicion, squabbling and discord, plus a fiendish father figure or two. Or three. It was also an episode that communed ironically with one of my favorite season 1 outings, the Jin/Sun gem ''... In Translation.'' I enjoyed the episode's scope and energy. For the first time since the premiere, every single character was represented and all the major storylines were nurtured. ''The Package'' may not have advanced the plot of season 6 enough for some people, but it was plenty riveting for me. And it left me filled with dread that some seriously nasty heartbreaking big-time s--- is about to hit the fan. And hey! Desmond's back! Just in time for things to all go to hell, too...

The Sideways World
To Live and Die in L.A.

Jin-Soo Kwon. Peasant son of a poor fisherman and prostitute, ashamed of his poverty and his heritage. He dreamed of owning a hotel and restaurant. Instead, he fell in love with a criminal industrialist's daughter and became one of his goons to prove himself a worthy son-in-law. When he realized the cost of violence to his soul, Jin sought out his real father and begged forgiveness for rejecting him. His father, who had never stopped loving him, gave Jin some advice. Save your marriage. Take your wife and run away and start over in a new world. Jin resolved to do just that — right after he delivered two watches for Mr. Paik. One needed to go to Sydney, the other one needed to go to Los Angeles...

Sun-Hwa Kwon. She wanted to run away with the poor peasant with big dreams because she was sure her father wouldn't allow them to be married. Mr. Paik surprised her by giving his blessing — then crushed her when he began making Jin do goon work for him. With the marriage becoming increasingly troubled, Sun began taking English lessons as part of a plan to escape to America. In the process, she began an affair with her tutor, a former suitor named Jae Lee. When Papa Paik learned of her dishonorable infidelity, he had Jae tossed out a window. Now Sun wanted to run more than ever. But then Jin gave her a white rose, and Sun remembered why she loved him, and she found new reason to hope. She joined him on the Oceanic 815 flight to Los Angeles, not knowing the happily ever after he had planned for her there once they arrived...

''The Package'' took elements of the combined Jin/Sun narrative and scrambled them into a provocative, ironic new history for their Sideways counterparts. We met them as we left them in the season premiere. Jin — a Paik goon, still on a mission to deliver a watch in Los Angeles — had been detained at LAX after customs found $25,000 in undeclared cash in his suitcase. Sun was deer-in-the-headlights stunned. Had Jin packed the cash to bankroll a new life for Sun and himself in America? Could Sun speak English? And was the conspicuously identified ''Ms. Paik'' even married to Jin? ''The Package'' contained answers. The money was a late addition to the package Jin had to deliver to Mr. Paik's L.A. associates, Sun didn't know a lick of English, and while they were lovers, Jin made their marital status abundantly clear when he clarified they were to have separate rooms. ''No marry!'' he said, pointing to his bare ring finger.

Not that Jin was some hyper-traditional moralist like his pre-reconstructed Island world doppelganger. This Jin was just being hyper-diligent about keeping the secret of their illicit love. In this world, Jin and Sun were carrying on in private, as Sideways Paik had a rule barring employees from playing footsie with his precocious little princess. (All of this lent retroactive irony to Jin's earlier line: ''I don't ask your father questions. I do what he tells me.'') But my guess is that Sun instigated. Quite the assertive young woman, this deceptively doe-eyed sweetie! At the hotel, she invited him into her room and teased him for his paranoia (''Nobody is watching us,'' she cooed, her line ringing ironic in an episode in which everyone got in everyone else's business), then mock-scolded Jin for scolding her about that unbuttoned blouse on the plane. She reminded him of the moment by unbuttoning the button. Then another. Then another. She asked: Did he like? Jin, a Paik buttonman in more ways than one, liked very much...

They had sex, the kind of sex that's so good that it puts girls to sleep and keeps guys up worrying about What It All Means. (Was it just me, or did you get the sense that Sun was more of the dude in this relationship and Jin more of the chick? In fact, I found myself wondering if Jin wasn't the first Paik bagman she had bagged...) Big twist: Sideways Sun, romantic and yearning for freedom, had come to L.A. with Island Jin's run-away-from-Paik plan. She didn't have the English to make her way in the New World, but she did have a secret bank account stocked with cash. Jin said: I'll run away with you.'' Jin said: ''I love you.'' Sun didn't say it back. (Scoundrel!) Instead, she started to say, ''That's good, because there's something I have to — '' and then there was a knock on the door.

character to be given a long, lingering encounter with their looking-glass self. She answered the door. It was Martin Keamy, the creepy crook with the Mayan death-god last name and the Christopher Walken disposition. (In the Island world, he led the mercenaries employed by Charles Widmore to abduct Ben and torch the Island in season 4.) In ''Sundown,'' whose title now stands as ominous foreshadowing of Sideways' Sun's fate, we saw Sayid shoot Keamy dead in the kitchen of his restaurant and then find Jin tied up in the freezer. In ''The Package,'' we saw what brought both Keamy and Jin to that fateful junction — and what happened afterward.

Keamy entered Sun's room, oozing fake politeness. He identified himself as the intended recipient of Jin's delivery. He wanted it. Sun understood Keamy enough to hand over the watch. He liked it enough — but he wanted the $25,000 more. There was another knock on the door. It was Omar, Keamy's all business henchman. (In the Island world, Omar was a member of Keamy's mercenary crew, too.) Omar searched Jin's room and couldn't find the cash. Keamy saw the two champagne glasses and ruffled bed, put some things together, and soon Jin was rousted out of the bathroom. Where was the money? The Koreans could not understand and talked amongst themselves about what to do. The language barrier exasperated Keamy: ''I feel like I'm in a Godzilla movie.'' Offensive and factually inaccurate! (Personally, I got a whole Pulp Fiction vibe from this subplot. But I won't digress....)

Keamy had an idea. They would call in ''Danny's friend'' (Sideways version of Danny the dead Other, maybe?) The Russian who knew all the languages. The man known as Mikhail Bakunin.

Begin Mikhail Bakunin Mini-Dossier!

You knew him better as Patchy the Other. Man of many tongues and man of many lives. He seemed to die a couple deaths before detonating the grenade that blew a hole in the Looking Glass Station, precipitating Charlie's watery death sacrifice. Lost's Mikhail Bakunin is named after the historical Mikhail Bakunin, a philosopher and anarchist who believed in non-violent revolution and the abolishment of all government and religion. Leadership, if any, should come from an enlightened elite that benevolently and invisibly guided the masses. Famous sayings: ''Absolute freedom and absolute love — that is our aim; the freeing of humanity and the whole world — that is our purpose''; ''The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, in theory and practice''; and ''If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.'' Basically, the real-life Mikhail Bakunin would have admired Jacob's kinda-sorta hands-off approach to human redemption and moral freedom — but he'd want Smokey to kill him, anyway. And then he'd want Smokey to kill himself and leave all of us alone.

Sideways Mikhail, who began the episode with two functioning eyes, behaved like a finely-heeled diplomat as he dutifully translated the Jin/Sun Korean. Sun explained she had money. She said she could get Keamy the money he wanted. Keamy said: Do that — but I'm keeping Jin as collateral. Then came the revelation that kicked Sun right in her nads. She was no rebel of the heart, no anarchist of the soul revolting against her father's tyrannical authority in pursuit of absolute freedom and absolute love. She was still very much his property and puppet. She was still owned. Darth Paik knew all about the princess' precious little rebellion and had quashed it before she had even launched it by taking away her secret weapon: her money. Sun was stunned. ''Why would he do that?'' Mikhail was cruel. ''Why do you think, dumbass?!'' (Note: The dumbass was silent and implied.)

Meanwhile, at Keamy's restaurant, aka Hell's Kitchen, we got a scene marked by a conspicuously perverse use of language. Omar hauled Jin into the cooler, but as he did, Jin's head banged against the steel door, making a gash. When we saw bound Jin sporting that cut in ''Sundown,'' we assumed torture. Wrong! It was just a party foul! Serves us right for assuming. Still, Keamy was upset with Omar for his sloppy attention to detail and banished his associate by ordering him to ''go get the Arab guy.'' (That would be Sayid.) Omar felt dissed by Keamy's casual racism, objectification, and Otherification. (Keamy had lauded Omar for his loyalty; I wondered why Omar would remain loyal to someone who made him feel so worthless.) Then, Keamy messed with Jin's mind by doing a very mean thing: He told him the truth, but in English, so Jin could never understand. He told Jin he had been hired by Mr. Paik to kill Jin for fooling around with his daughter. He told Jin that the money Jin had brought into the country was actually payment for the hit. Ice cold! Keamy's words said one thing — I'm going to kill you when I get my money — but his sympathetic tone was calibrated to say the exact opposite. He took fiendish delight with his knowing doublespeak, no more so than with his line ''the heart wants what it wants.'' Jin probably thought Keamy was trying to speak the universal language of love, that Keamy, like, understood him or something. Actually, Keamy was no doubt again indulging his unique brand of racially charged humor, as ''the heart wants what it the heart wants'' is most famous for being Woody Allen's infamous defense for cheating on his wife, Mia Farrow, with the actress' Korean adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

Jin's lost-in-translation response to all this? ''Thank you.'' Keamy just smirked and shook his head at Jin's total cluelessness. But he had achieved the intended effect of keeping Jin docile, pliant and agreeably quiet as he took care of business with ''the Arab guy.'' In other words, Keamy's brainwashing cooler in Los Angeles = the Room 23 brainwashing room on Hydra Island, which we visited during Island Jin's storyline. We'll get to that later, but let's note here that the only other time we saw Room 23 in use was when Karl was being punished by Ben for... dating his daughter Alex. Sideways Jin + Sun = Island Karl and Alex, both of whom were shot and killed by... Island Keamy and Omar.

FYI: During the Jin-Keamy scene, Jin got his own mirror moment, his image reflected in the steel of a freezer — but Jin didn't notice. Significant? Debate.

Then Sayid happened. Jin thought he had been liberated — deus ex assassina. But Sayid didn't really care, and told him so. Sayid turned to leave. Jin protested. Free me! Sayid spotted a box cutter and placed it in his palms. ''Good luck,'' said Sayid, the shruggy hero. Free yourself, comrade. I am otherwise indifferent to you. Now, I must go to my Ayn Rand book club. Ciao, Stranger. It was the most this Good Samaritan felt obligated to do.

While Jin cut through the tape, Mikhail arrived with Sun. They found a kitchen nightmare that would make even Gordon Ramsay curl up in a ball. Mikhail crouched down to examine Keamy. Interesting: Keamy was a still alive. And he was strong enough to tell Mikhail that there was a Korean guy behind him with gun to his head. Mikhail — who shrewdly deduced that Jin was incapable of the carnage around him but concluded perhaps incorrectly that Jin was no killer — smiled an angel-of-death smile and snapped into killing-machine mode. He spun away from the gun and they fought. The gun discharged twice. Jin — whose Island iteration had kicked Patchy's ass in ''Catch-22'' — got some distance on Mikhail and proved him wrong about his killer's gumption by popping a cap in Bakunin's eyeball. Ouch. Mikhail died one eye blind, Battleship Potemkin by way of Moe Green. Do svidaniya, Russian guy.

Had Jin escaped from evil? Yes. But Sun had been touched by it, perhaps fatally. One if not two of those discharged bullets blasted into her abdomen, threatening her own precious package. ''I'm pregnant,'' she told Jin, finishing the thought that had been interrupted by Keamy's fateful arrival into their lives earlier that afternoon. We left the lovers lost in Los Angeles, one them dying, the whole of their love imperiled. Cliffhanger. Paging Dr. Jack Shephard! Paging Dr. Jack Shephard! Stop picking Sun's Island tomatoes and report to your Sideways ER, stat!

This Island Earth!
Land of Confusion

In the Sideways world, Jin and Sun were at the mercy of those whose language they didn't understand. On the Island, their plight was slightly worse: They understood, but they couldn't discern the sincerity. If there was a sign that hung on the gates of this epistemological inferno, it should read: ''Trust no one — even someone you think might be telling you the truth.'' This wasn't just a Jin/Sun problem in ''The Package'' — this was everyone's problem. The theme was perhaps best articulated in the exchange between Ilana and Ben, whom she suspected of being deceitful. Ben: ''Why don't you believe me?'' Ilana: ''Because you're speaking.'' (Ilana may have been willing to take Ben into her company back in ''Dr. Linus,'' but she's clearly not yet ready to trust him.) And now we know why Dogen and the Man In Black advocate the policy of ''stab and kill with the weird ceremonial knife first, ask questions later.''

To me, ''The Package'' seemed to mark the true start of the Island endgame. Said contest will boil down to a competition among storytellers, long-conners, and unreliable narrators for the hearts, minds, and trust of the castaways/candidates. Whom to believe? Right now, the matter seems to be undecided. The episode itself mirrored that uncertainty with its very first scene. The opening shot — seen through night vision goggles — evoked the surveillance cinematography of reality shows like Survivor, Big Brother, and of course that mega-hit Dating In The Dark. (I will also accept the film Paranormal Activity.) We saw and heard Kate and Sawyer talk about faux cocoa. Then we saw Fake Locke stroll through his camp twirling his big stick — and then the shot broke off, as if Spooky Smokey's unreal visage had short-circuited the equipment. It was a very un-Lost bit of storytelling. Opening an episode on an eyeball fluttering awake? Yes. Seeing the world through an eyeball? No. I found the effect rather disorienting, which I think was the intention. Who's in control? Who's running the show? Whose vision will win out on Master Plan Island?

chats. First up: Fake Locke and Jin. Topic: Had Jin been informed of the whole numbered candidate thing? Yep. But was ''42'' Sun or himself? Unclear. But either way, Fake Locke vowed to reunite Jin with his wife. He also told Jin the tall tale that in order for everyone to get off the Island, all the living candidates had to join them. What he didn't tell Jin was what we learned last week about the Monster's true mission. In order to be free from the Island, he has to kill not only Jacob, but also all the candidates eligible to replace him. We'll be analyzing Fake Locke's actions from that perspective until we're given reason to do otherwise.

Next, His Royal Smokeyness talked with Sayid. Fake Locke wanted Sayid to watch his peeps while he went on a hush-hush errand. But all Sayid wanted to talk about was his feelings — or rather, his lack of feeling. He confessed that he felt profoundly numb. Actually, Sayid sounded like he was... dead. ''I don't feel anything. Anger, happiness, pain... I don't feel them.'' (Philosophy professors! Feel free to use this scene when you teach the concept of ''The Philosophical Zombie.'') Fake Locke's response was a mysterious as it was chilling. ''Maybe it's for the best, Sayid. It'll help you get through what's coming.'' I have to think that Fake Locke was flicking at his plan to somehow get Sayid killed, an experience which for a normal person would no doubt involve some pain and anger. But how do we explain Sayid's numbness? My theory of the week is that we're dealing with the controversial theological concept of ''soul sleep,'' the idea that the soul dies with the body, or at least falls into a slumber and doesn't awaken until Judgment Day. It would be fitting that this idea is embodied by Sayid, as the concept originated with a third century Christian sect called the Thnetopsychitae, based in Arabia. The concept later morphed into the word psychopannychia, or mind-soul/all night vigil. Wasn't Sayid singled out as ''an Arab'' in the episode? And didn't Fake Locke tell Sayid to stand vigil during the night while he was away? See? Soul sleep!

With Fake Locke gone, Jin tried to leave. He didn't care what Fake Locke was promising him, he wanted nothing to do with ''that thing.'' Sawyer tried to stop him from doing something rash. And then they were all stopped dead in their tracks. Taser/tranq/something darts plunged into necks of everyone at Camp Locke. They passed out, WIdmore's people, led by Zoe, swooped in and abducted Jin, and the game was afoot.

Meanwhile, it was just another day at the beach for Team Ilana. Which is to say, more milling around and mulling what they need to be doing. Was Richard coming back after stomping away from them last episode? Was he really going to join the Man In Black? Ilana advised them — or maybe more like ordered them — to sit tight and wait. Which was the last thing Sun wanted to hear. She had spent three years scrambling to get Jin back. She wanted to keep pushing toward that goal. To stop and to sit and to wait was anathema to her. Of course, it might also mean that she'd have to stop and reflect and think about her choices, maybe take responsibility for her emotional life and accept that things do change — wait. How did those thoughts sneak into this piece!? Damn that Room 23 and its subliminal messages! Anyway, Sun flipped. She stormed off to her refuge, her garden o' busy work, which fortunately offered her a great deal of mind-numbing manual labor to do since it had gone to weedy pot during her three years away from the Island. Jack showed up and wanted to know if Sun wanted to talk about destiny and stuff. No! Get out! Leave me to my pity party! And so he did.

Man put on his friendliest air and made her one of his devilish bargains. Join me, and I can reunite you with Jin immediately. Sun gulped again. She couldn't trust the counterfeit human, this unnatural entity, this inorganic veggie of a man, and so she made like Kate and ran. UnLocke got pissy and ran after her — on foot. Why didn't he convert into a raging column of smoke and blow past her? Hmmm... Sun looked back. Oops. You never look back when you're running from the devil (see: Persephone and Hades), and Sun smacked into a low-hanging tree limb, earning her a forehead owie to match the one her Sideways soulmate got from the cooler door. Matching ouchies! How romantic...

Sun's head trauma was much worse, of course. As she regained consciousness in the company of recovering rogue Ben, Sun realized she had lost her English and could only speak Korean. (The irony: Ben, the man she once tried to kill, now playing the role of her Good Samaritan. Ben's redemption arc continues!) Doc Shephard diagnosed her with aphasia; I diagnosed her with Genesis 11. The story of the Tower of Babel goes something like this: Once upon a time, there was a city unified by culture, language, and audacious human ambition: to build a tower that could reach heaven. God was alarmed by humanity's outsized hubris and decided to humble them — and divide them up — by ''confusing their speech,'' i.e. igniting an outbreak of foreign tongues. The denizens of the city dispersed into separate communities, cultures, and nations. Hence, The Bible's mythic explanation for a world of difference and Otherness. However, different religious traditions tell slightly different versions of the story. In the Kabbalah version, for example, the Tower of Babel isn't a tower at all — it's a giant flying machine.

The relevancy to Lost? It's all about Fake Locke's plan to get the candidates killed. Remember last episode that Richard had a spiritual revival in the Island's Garden of Eden, underneath a massive Kabbalah-esque Tree of Life. Remember that Fake Locke witnessed that moment. Clearly, he knew Richard would be returning to the beach with a new sense of mission — a mission that I'm now beginning to wonder if Fake Locke/Man In Black gave him. A number of you last week speculated that when Isabella was speaking to Richard via Hurley, she was being controlled by — or was a manifestation of — Smokey. I didn't want to believe that at the time, but I find myself believing in it now. Consider what Richard said when got back to the beach last night. He surmised that Fake Locke plans to flee the Island via a giant flying machine — the Ajira plane. The mission: Blow up the plane. My thinking? Fake Locke is basically running the same con that Sawyer's been trying to run on him. He's trying to bait Team Richard into making a move on Ajira so Charles Widmore will kill them. A more dastardly thought: Smokey is conspiring to get everyone onto that plane — specifically the candidates from his group plus the candidates from Richard's group — in hopes that Widmore will blow it out of the sky. So why take away Sun's speech? Because after she declined his offer, he knew she'd try to talk her friends out the plan — which she did try to do. Either that, or Fake Locke wasn't thinking short term at all by taking away Sun's English, but rather was planting a seed designed that will bare him fruit down the road when Team Richard executes its plan. In other words: Look for Sun's loss of English to prove costly at a pivotal point in Operation: Ajirasplosion.

on Lost in which a character mysteriously lost the ability to communicate verbally. The episode was ''Further Instructions,'' and the victim was Locke himself. The Island had taken away his speech in the aftermath of the Hatch explosion as a kind of punishment for his big season 2 sin: Straying from his Island mission and becoming obsessed with pushing the Button, abandoning the natural world of jungle for the unnatural environs of The Hatch. Stripping Locke of his speech was part of the Island's way of dressing down its unfaithful servant and reminding him of who he was and what he was supposed to being doing. Perhaps Sun was stripped of her English for similar reasons. After all, she learned the language in order to run away from Jin. Moreover, she learned it from a man that became her lover. Sun's English had once saved her husband from the false charge of setting fire to the raft. It helped her build bridges with the castaways. Otherwise, her English must be something of a bitter talent. To use a phrase from Dogen, she must ''hate the way it tastes on her tongue.'' Regardless, she doesn't need it anymore. Her future is in Korea, with her husband, with her daughter, and with a mother and father that need her forgiveness. So maybe losing her English wasn't a psychic assault. Maybe it was a movement of the Island to reminder her of who she is — and what she needs redemption for.

All this said, I think her outburst at Richard was the most telling — and possibly worrisome — development of the evening when it came to Sun. She blasted him for wanting to blow up what had been her escape plan: Find Jin, get Frank Lapidus to fly them off the Island. Moreover, she didn't want to ''save the world.'' She just wanted her lover back! On one hand, you could say it provided her with a much-needed opportunity for catharsis. On the other hand, it betrayed just how tightly she holds onto her past and her dreams of happiness, and the ideals she might sell out to make them come true. We've seen throughout the season that people who cling too tightly to dreams, who have an almost idolatrous relationship to their dreams — Claire and Aaron/motherhood; Sayid and Nadia/true love — they become easy to manipulate, easy to corrupt. Jack gave her the gift of a tomato. He found it in her dead garden, stubbornly clinging to life. I think Jack offered it to her as a symbol of hope in a moment in which she sorely needed it. Okay. But you could also view it as a symbol of... well, stubbornness. Of not knowing when to quit. Of not knowing when to let go. Does Sun need to learn these lessons? Maybe. But she should definitely be thinking about them instead of running away from them. Which is why the gift of the notebook was a gift indeed, for the work it will require will force her to reflect. ''It'll take you a little longer to get your point across,'' he said, ''but at least you have your voice back.'' (I just wish he hadn't made her that promise to get her back with Jin and get them off the Island. Yes, I'm sure he wants to atone for being partially responsible for separating Jin and Sun in the first place. But I'm not sure this recovering fixer is ready to be making messianic promises like that.) (Regardless, English kinda took a beating this week, didn't it? I want all you budding Noam Chomskies out there to write me a 10,000-word research paper on English as a metaphor for a corrupt culture that requires salvation from sophistry and renewed commitment to meaning. Be sure you cite things like ''memes,'' ''spin doctoring,'' ''Swift Boat,'' ''crisis management,'' and Stephen Colbert's philosophy of ''truthiness.'')

to his camp and found his peeps recovering from Team Zoe's taser attack. He was smokin' mad. As he later told Sawyer, ''I don't like surprises.'' It was interesting to see that Smokey wasn't omnipotent and omniscient as he sometimes appears to be... though again, I continue to wonder how much of the persona he presents to the castaways and how much of the information he gives them about himself is but a long con designed to lead them to wrong conclusions about his master plan and poor estimations about his ability and power. For now, let's say he was genuinely unnerved by the sneak attack. And he wasn't about to let the indignity stand. He zipped over to Hydra Island and casually strolled the beach, drawing fire from the spooked Widmore goons hiding behind the sonic fence. Widmore himself emerged from the brush and the two hair-challenged fiends had a summit. FLocke said that yes, he knew who Widmore was. Did Widmore know who Fake Locke was? ''Obviously you're not John Locke,'' he said. ''Everything else I know is a combination of myth, ghost stories and jungle stories in the night.'' Fake Locke eyeballed the sonic fences and called him out: Clearly Widmore knew a little more about The Monster if he knew to make use of the pylons. Pulling from the memory of John Locke, FLocke threw some of Wilmore's own words back at him. ''A wise man once said, ‘War is coming to this island.' I think it just got here.'' Question: Was Fake Locke talking about Widmore — or himself?

Charles Widmore had one thing in common with Fake Locke: both experienced complications in their master plans. We learned that Zoe had jumped the gun when she abducted Jin from the beach. Widmore fumed. Zoe retorted: ''Well maybe you should have put a mercenary in charge instead of a geophysicist.'' And why would Widmore need a geophysicist playing point guard for his newest Island incursion team? The answer fed the mystery of Wilmore's true intentions. Zoe's job is to locate one or more hotspots of electromagnetic energy on the Island. The reason why they needed Jin (sooner or later) was because he had apparently mapped those hotspots during his days in the Dharma Initiative. What might Widmore be looking for? Frozen Donkey Wheel? The Temple's resurrection hot spring? New Mythological Landmark TBD? Regardless, I stick to my long held theory of Wilmore's motivations: the quest for eternal life. (P.S.: Is Sheila Kelly working for you as Zoe? My guess is no. Me? Meh.)

send them home. Jin could get behind both those ideas. Widmore sealed the deal on procuring Jin's loyalty by giving him Sun's camera, which Wilmore's peeps had found on the Ajira plane. Jin choked back on tears as he saw for the first time his daughter, Ji-Yeon. I thought, Well played, Mr. Widmore. Well played. Maybe all his empathetic talk about also being a father who's suffering through separation and estrangement from his daughter was sincere. But I'm not buying it. The proof came in the form of the ace in the hole of his Island campaign: ''The Package.'' Not a what, Widmore said. A who. By episode's end, we were led to believe that who to be Desmond Hume. We saw him get hauled out of the sub, weak and sickly and trailing strings of IV tubing. Sayid saw him, too. Tasked by Fake Locke to finish the recon Sawyer couldn't complete a couple episodes ago, Sayid floated like a killer croc in the water as Desmond stumbled and fell and made eye contact with him. Hopefully we'll soon see what makes Desmond so ''special'' and why Widmore has always wanted on the Island. Whatever it is, it can't be good. Which means that Desmond has one thing in common with Sideways Jin: they both have fathers-in-law that want them dead.

Stuff we didn't talk about: How Mr. Paik's bid to block Sun's escape plan = the Jacob/Team Richard bid to block the Man In Black's escape plan; Sawyer sweating the viability of his own escape plan; Fake Locke's manipulation of Claire and plan to pit her against Kate; the return of Room 23; and whether or not you, too, are wondering if Desmond Hume might actually be Sideways Desmond Hume. But my time has run out, and you deserve a chance to talk back. Check out the new episode of ''Totally Lost,'' a four-part epic graced by the presence of Titus Welliver (the Man In Black) and some choice clips from the original Clash of the Titans. I'll be back on Friday with a new column. Namaste!
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"Ab Aeterno" Poll Results

What did you think of "Ab Aeterno"?

So Awesome, we got so many answers!
17 (80%)

So Great it made me want to follow Jacob
4 (19%)

OK
0 (0%)

So BAD it made me want to follow MIB
0 (0%)

As HORRIBLE as Hell
0 (0%)

Votes so far: 21


What were your favorate moments of "Ab Aeterno"?

Seeing more of Ilana's Flashback
1 (5%)

Finally seeing Richard's Flashback!!!!!
15 (88%)

Isabella telling Richard that she would be with him always
1 (5%)

Confrontation with the doctor and prison
1 (5%)

The Black Rock knocking over the Statue
8 (47%)

MIB freeing Richard and telling him to kill Jacob
4 (23%)

Richard fighting Jacob and Jacob dunking Richard in the water
7 (41%)

Jacob giving Richard immortality
7 (41%)

The Richard/Hurley/Isabella moment
9 (52%)

Jacob explaining that the island is the cork keeping MIB away from the world
14 (82%)

The Jacob/MIB scene at the end
14 (82%)

Votes so far: 17


What did you think of Richards Flashback?

It was everything that I excpected!
5 (41%)

I was expecting something different and it still suppassed my expectations!!!!
7 (58%)

I expected better
0 (0%)

To predictable and weak
0 (0%)

Votes so far: 12

Episode 6x09 -- Don't Get Lost in Heaven (Ab Aeterno) -- By Anna

I do sincerely apologize to you all for my recent 3-episode hiatus. I suppose one could say that I’ve been saving my thoughts on the last few episodes and letting them age like…a fine wine. Yet even with so many current distractions (read: very important life-stuff) nothing gets me “stay-up-all-night-whacky-LOST-eyed-writing” again more than a major mythology episode.


INTRO: Rock It

So, did LOST not ROCK IT with episode nine or what?!

Nestor Carbonell finally got to show off his mad acting skillz is this long-overdue tale of Richard Alpert’s epic back-story, “Ab Aeterno” (which for those of you who don’t know already can be translated to “For Eternity”). And it really did have something for everyone. A dashing hero on horseback straight out of a period romance-novel. A damsel in distress. Bloody outbursts of violence. The battle between good and evil. Faustian bargains. Richard's hysterical laughter. Built-in suspenders! Corks!!

When compared to the rest of the series, it was as emotional as “The Constant”, as mythical as “Cabin Fever”, as shocking as “The Man Behind the Curtain”…and I could go on and on through all of the major game-changing episodes we have seen. Just through following the fan rumblings on Twitter I found that there are only a few who have NOT added this to their “top-episodes of all time” lists. I believe this is true especially because of the fact we had previously been given NOTHING about this character’s tale but little spurts and hints since his first appearance. This in turn made the fan buildup to this particular installment nothing short of phenomenal, dare I say even rabid. And I must concur; it met and surpassed my expectations as it seems to have done for most of the fan-base.

There’s some heady stuff going on in this one so let’s just get right to the recap!

Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

We basically began the story where we left off at the Island beach camp with Ilana and Co. sitting around discussing their current situation. An immediate flashback revealed a little bit more about her time in that hospital when she was severely bandaged and Jacob came to her (dressed in BLACK) to ask for her help. She was told there were only six candidates left that she must protect, and that she had been preparing for this very task. It is still unclear as to why Ilana was injured and if Jacob had anything to do with her healing. Jacob was wearing gloves, so I am assuming he did not actually touch her as he did the candidates as we have already seen. Finally, at some point later during this more fleshed-out flashback when Ilana was no longer bandaged, Jacob told her that after she brought the candidates to the Temple, “Ricardus” would know what to do next.

Of course Ricardus is Richard Alpert, who had been standing in the background as Ilana asked him that very question. With a shocked and insane giggle he denied knowing anything, and then proceeded to basically freak-out in true “game over” style reminiscent of Hudson from the film “Aliens”. He tells the group around the campfire that not only is Jacob a liar, but that they are all really dead and actually in Hell. Richard then made it more than clear that he would no longer be a part of Team Jacob and told the group it was time to begin listening to someone else. He then grabbed a torch and stormed off alone into the jungle.

It would seem the writers still want to taunt the audience with the Purgatory theory, which has already been argued and shot down repeatedly for years now. At the same time, this isn’t the first time a character has declared the Island to be “Hell”, and there have been countless “Underworld” references throughout the entire show. I wasn’t buying it at all though, and we would soon learn there was indeed a specific reason for Richard’s severe doom-and-gloom perspective. More on this in a bit…


Ghost Train

Meanwhile a few feet away from the group, Hurley was quietly speaking Spanish to someone who was not actually there. Freak-y! According to Lostpedia, the translation is, “Ok…What can you do?...Yes, I can help you…But, I don't know how to find him, if I don't where he went...” Jack heard him and assuming Hurley was speaking to Jacob, demanded to know what the Big J was saying. I loved how Hurley dismissively told Jack it was not Jacob and that it had nothing to do with him at all. Then he also turned around and headed towards the jungle.


El Manana

After a quick shot of Richard’s angry trek through the nighttime foliage, we were given a flashback “whoosh” sound and suddenly a very hairy Richard was seen riding a horse through the pastoral Island setting. But it wasn’t our Island at all; it was actually Tenerife, The Canary Islands, in 1867 to be exact. Blam! We now know that Ricardus is over 140 years old, and that he was once just a poor bearded farmer, living in the sticks with a very ill but very beloved wife, Isabella. Just like Isabella, Richard was a Man of Faith, as they had been studying an English Bible together in preparation to fulfill their dream to begin a family in the New World.

However, after seeing Isabella cough blood, he decided it was time to call a Man of Science to try and save his dying wife. He gathered their meager savings hoping it would be enough to pay the doctor, and then in a very touching scene Isabella added her gold cross necklace to the lot. Richard didn’t want to take her cross, knowing that it was not only a treasure but a symbol of her Faith, of their Faith. However she insisted then asked him to close his eyes, and with a kiss told him that they would always be together.

With the promise of saving Isabella, Ricardus rode half the night through a storm to the Doctor’s home, where he forced entry even after being told by a butler that he could not come in. We were quick to learn this doctor was a selfish man, a glutton who cared more for his floor getting wet than for Richard possibly catching cold after his ride.

In fact, is it just me or did that doctor look a lot like The Man in Black? The entire scene was shot in darkness and shadow. Not to mention, how many times have we seen bad things go down in a storm? The only light in the room came from a blazing (Hell) fire. The doctor even threw Isabella’s cross in front of this fireplace as he refused to accept it in exchange for the medicine she so desperately needed. That sent Richard into gimmee-grabby mode as a final act of despair. In a brief struggle between the men, it would seem the doc slipped on that darn water that had dripped from Richard’s drenched clothing, smacked his noggin on a table and died, Desmond vs. Kelvin-style.

Richard got the heck out of there but by the time he reached Isabella with the medicine, the life had already left her. Cue the authorities.


All Alone

Jailed and cuffed, Richard read his Bible as a priest stepped in to visit. Once again, we met a cruel-hearted man in Father Suarez, who insisted that Richard meant to murder the doctor and refused to grant him absolution from his sin. To add insult to injury he told Richard the only way to make up for it is with a life of penance, which he had no time for as a man condemned to die the next day. Then with Richard’s Bible in tow and a crooked grin he told Richard that the Devil awaited him in Hell.

Of course Father Suarez wasn’t going to absolve Richard of his sin, as we soon learned how valuable he was to the slave trading market. Now we understand a bit more about why Richard freaked out at the beach camp; this is his background, his belief system, and he had been manipulated specifically by a priest that told him he was scheduled for a trip on the ‘Down’ Escalator of the Afterlife. That twisted Father sold Richard off to one Officer Jonas Whitfield, who then proclaimed him property of Magnus Hanso, a name which we have heard before from the Island, linked to The Black Rock.

And the crowd goes wild! Well, at least those fans who have for years now held the belief that Richard came to the Island on that ship, and the Man in Black’s reference to Richard being in chains meant that Richard had also been one of the slaves brought there with it. Hizzah!


Highway (Under Construction)

But little did we know that we would spend nearly half of the episode on that ship itself, as we were first introduced to Richard’s trip to the New World during yet another storm. Oh yeah, the same kind of storm that Frank Lapidus accidentally flew into during season four’s helicopter trip from the Island to the freighter. I am pretty sure at this point that anyone coming to the Island who doesn’t use a specific bearing encounters those storms, almost as if the Island has its own type of event horizon.

It was also pretty cool to see the statue of Taweret in the night and in turn get to learn that the statue was still standing when the Black Rock reached the Island. Correction: the statue was still standing as the Black Rock approached the Island. One of the other slaves chained next to Richard saw the statue and immediately proclaimed “the Devil” was guarding the Island. Ah, if he only knew…

Then in a collision of questionable nature, a tsunami-sized wave heaved the giant ship right into Taweret’s face, breaking the statue into pieces and leaving the foot as we know it today. I have to admit I was a little bit underwhelmed by this explanation of both the statue’s fall and the reason why the Black Rock had been left in the middle of the jungle.

However, there is something interesting going on with this scene. For one thing, in season five’s “The Incident” we saw a similar ship approaching in calm daylight as Jacob and The Man in Black had that little talk on the beach, which many of us had assumed was the Black Rock. At this point I suppose it was just another group that Jacob brought to the Island prior to bringing Richard’s ship.

In addition, with all of the white and black stones on the show, and the fact that Jacob later even sends a white one to MIB, I cannot help but think with a name like the Black Rock, MIB may have somehow caused that ship to smack right into Jacob’s abode. MIB does tend to operate well in stormy situations as we have seen, and he obviously had already grown tired of Jacob bringing humans to the Island, what with all their corrupting and destroying and whatnot. If this is true, than that was indeed one heck of a statement Jacob’s old friend sent him that night in regards to their little black and white game.


Last Living Souls

From that point on it was just one awful trial to another for poor, chained, in-much-need-of-a-bath Richard who ended up being one of the few slaves left alive down below the conveniently in-tact ship. Officer Whitfield came down and went into survival mode execution-style, and skewered the bound slaves like some demon Errol Flynn. Raise your hand if you too had a feeling we would hear that familiar "ticka-ticka" sound just as he was about to take out Richard, who had been watching in horror and begging for his life.

Smokey to the rescue…er, sort of. We were treated to yet another great Smoke-Monster sequence, when at first we could not see what was happening above except through a small, grated opening in the ceiling to the deck above. Of course, we all knew exactly what was going on, and then it was just a blood-drip away from Whitfield’s violent introduction to the Island’s Cerberus. We then witnessed one of the Monster’s abilities that we haven’t seen since way back in season three’s “Left Behind”. With some quick flashy face-time the Monster scanned Richard, and then disappeared.


Broken

According to the recent Geronimo Jack’s Beard podcast (with guest Nestor!), Richard was chained in the belly of that ship for four weeks, taking role as the new Island Jonah. If you want to dig further into the Christian symbolism at work here, look no further than the nail which became a tool and metaphor for Richard’s salvation, i.e. his escape from the chains still holding him in place. The Black Rock really was almost like a Purgatory for him, as he is broken down by thirst (more, water except just out of reach), a flesh-hungry boar (believed by some to occasionally be the Smoke Monster taking the form in certain situations), and finally the loss of the nail he had been using to scrape and chip his way to freedom.

Demon Days

The Monster/Man in Black wore Richard to death’s door, and then pulled the final deception by appearing to him as his dearly departed, Isabella. Since MIB had read Richard’s mind, he knew exactly how to manipulate the situation, and so “Isabella” began to tell Richard that they were both dead and in Hell, that she was there to free him, and that she had already seen the Devil “eye to eye”. MIB could have won an Oscar for this role playing both good cop and bad cop as he enacted the scenario above deck that made Richard believe she too had been taken by the Black Smoke he also had seen “eye to eye”.

Apparently Jacob isn't the only one who will reach out and touch someone. How fooled were those of us who immediately thought from previous setup that the hand being placed on Richard's passed-out shoulder was Jacob instead of MIB? How weird would it be if Richard had actually died and MIB brought him back to life like we have heard hints he has done before? How can I even trust who is alive and who is dead on this show anymore?!?!

OK, OK I don’t really think Richard is dead, but it is easy to see now how Richard could believe such a thing, especially when MIB feeds into it by telling him that the Devil took his wife. MIB gave Richard some water and just happened to have the keys to his bonds as well. There was almost a hint of sincere care for Richard there in the Dark One, until he made sure Richard agreed to “help” him in return for freedom, just like a good little mobster thug.


Faust

Richard and The Man in Black then sat down over some roasted boar for a little discussion about killing the Devil as Richard’s only means of saving his wife and escaping Hell. I loved how MIB not only handed Richard the same dagger that Dogen gave Sayid back at the Temple, but how he also gave Richard the same instructions that were given in order to do the deed. How curious it is that one would need to use the same weapon, and the same approach to kill both Jacob and MIB. I would have never had thought that way back in season one when Locke first revealed his famous case of knives that The Blade would become such an important instrument on the show.

It was interesting that MIB immediately confessed to being the Black Smoke, yet he denied taking Isabella and told Richard he saw the Devil do it. The best lies always have a hint of truth in them, and I suppose he told Richard that he was the Monster in order to gain that extra bit of Richard’s trust. MIB then played victim, claiming that Ol’ Scratch had betrayed him and took his body along with his humanity.

This part I might actually believe. Just as MIB said, “you and I can talk all day long about what's right or wrong”, and just as MIB doesn’t always seem totally “evil” Jacob himself doesn’t always seem completely “good” in this story. Is it possible that Jacob somehow tricked MIB into his current state of what seems like servitude to the Island as its “security system”? After learning the way that Jacob bestows “gifts” onto people, is it possible that MIB asked for his abilities without fully realizing the consequences? This would paint Jacob into more of the role of a Genie of sorts who grants wishes to people, yet always with a twist that results in the wish-fulfilled not quite turning out as the grantee had hoped for.

Even as Richard tried to refuse by saying that murder was what got him into the whole mess in the first place, MIB continued his schpeel about saving Isabella. The Devil isn’t the only one who can be “persuasive”, and eventually Richard headed off towards the ruins of the statue to carry out MIB’s side of the bargain.


Left Hand Suzuki Method

But before Richard even reached the doorway at the four toed foot, Jacob got the drop on him with some serious kung-fu action. How curious once more that Jacob defended himself when Richard came to kill him, yet didn’t raise a finger to stop Ben when he decided to get all stabby. I am wondering now if this means Jacob had been expecting Ben’s move, and that in the end we will find his death was necessary to drive us towards the proper resolution to this ancient back-and-forth match between him and MIB.


Stop the Dams

After baptizing some sense into the beaten man, Jacob brought Richard a blanket (finally!) and some wine. We’ve seen Jacob fishing, and now we see him bringing wine instead of water as did MIB. The Christian symbolism could not be thicker surrounding this mysterious being.

He did however let us in on an interesting tidbit via his wine-bottle, and equated the Island as a cork which held the darkness and evil at bay. I felt the writing became a little too repetitive and expositional as Jacob explained to Richard that he had been bringing people to the Island throughout time in order to prove the inherent goodness of mankind to MIB. However, he did give us a couple of new tidbits.

First, when someone is brought to the Island by Jacob, their past does not matter and they are given the preverbal Tabula Rasa. This would explain how folks like Sawyer and Kate can be murderers off-Island yet still be candidates for taking over the Big J’s throne on the Island.

Second and more importantly he states that he does not like to interfere by telling a person the difference between good and evil. But even as Jacob claims he is pro-free-will, we have indeed seen him interfere with people’s lives and at the least give them a little push in the right direction. Is Jacob himself telling a bit of a white-lie here? Or is this just his own “progress” we are seeing? Did it take some time for him to realize that sometimes certain situations did actually require him to step in a bit and lend a hand, so to say?


Dracula

I mean, is it just me or is Jacob not a fool for failing to realize that the MIB was stepping in and interfering with the people he had brought there in his absence? Why did it take Richard to make him see that he could have his own intermediary? Either Jacob is a very flawed “god” on this Island, or he was also playing a con on Richard. I tend to think the latter, since he can well, time-travel and whatnot.

In the end, Richard accepted the job offer and after three choices (wishes) the two settled on compensation that didn’t involve bringing his wife back from the dead or getting him into heaven that Jacob actually could pony up. Jacob then gave Richard the mother of all cootie-touches, and from that day forth Richard was frozen in time, a man who would age no longer.


Man Research

Jacob and the Man in Black have been playing their little game with humanity for ages now, and although I have no idea whatsoever what the “time-line X” is all about, I would like to put in my two cents in regards to who or what these two really are. Over and over we have been teased on the show in regards to who is “good”, and who is “evil”. Most of the time the answer comes in the form of a little bit of both, and I have already said countless times this is one of the show’s lessons; people are inherently good but do have the capability to sin based on their situation. Perspective, perspective, perspective!

At this point so far it would seem however that Jacob is indeed playing the light side, and MIB really is the bad guy here. We have no reason so far to disbelieve a thing that Jacob has told anyone, and even though he can be manipulative, even smug at times, and could potentially be responsible for countless deaths, he seems to be telling the truth. On the other hand, we have seen MIB repeatedly lie, as he tells different people different things in order to get them on his side based upon what he knows they want to hear.

There are a lot of people out there who keep trying to equate Jacob and MIB to some specific Biblical parallel. But I do not at all believe that they are literally “God and Satan”, nor “Cain and Abel”, or even “Jacob and Esau”. I just do not buy that the creators of LOST would give us an answer that is so literal. Instead, I think the writers are simply playing with these stories and ideas in a metaphorical sense, using archetypes from just about every culture you can think of to create something new. LOST itself has become a collage of religions, philosophies, and symbolism of the human psyche spun into its own magnificent tapestry of sorts.

As Jacob visited MIB one morning, notice how the scene was exactly reversed from the beach scene we were given in “The Incident”. This time it was Jacob who approached MIB, and they were not on the shore but instead they were inland. Opposites and mirrors prevail. Once again we had a discussion where MIB asked to leave, then threatened to kill Jacob and anyone who replaced him. Jacob sounded ready for it, anytime, anyplace. As Jacob left MIB his bottle of wine, MIB smashed it, which I think is foreshadowing that all Hell is literally about to break loose.


White Light

After Richard was given his eternal gift by Jacob, he returned to MIB to pass along a white rock from the Big J and confess what had happened. MIB was understanding and kept his offer open, and then he gave Richard back Isabella’s gold cross necklace as one final reminder that item would be all that he would ever have left of her by taking Jacob’s side. Richard then buried the cross and with it I believe a part of his own humanity in the form of his love for his wife, and in return set off to be Jacob’s new right-hand man.

When we got back to current time, Richard dug up the necklace, and in a setting reminiscent of the Tree in the Garden of Eden, he yelled out to MIB that he was wrong and that he changed his mind. However, MIB was not there, and instead Hurley stepped out of the jungle to drop some wisdom from Richard’s dead wife.

The show had a bit of a “Ghost” moment as Hurley acted as the intermediary between Isabella’s spirit and Richard. However the acting and direction gave it enough emotional weight to put it up there with Desmond and Penny’s phone call in “The Constant”. I become a complete wreck now when I watch either one of these scenes, especially when she asks Richard to “close his eyes” again. I do believe Ricardus really felt her presence there for a moment. Once again we are told that even after death, our loved ones will always be with us, in our memories and in our hearts.


CONCLUSION: Spitting out the Demons

At that point, Richard was redeemed and Hurley basically once again saved the day. Score yet another white rock for Team Jacob, as it was soon revealed that Lockeness Monster was not far off in the distance and had almost caught up to them.

It is important to note this episode marked the midpoint of the series’ final season. If traditional storytelling in regards to LOST tells us anything, it should be a nice ride from here on out.

It is also fascinating to me how the fan-base has split into opposing factions. Life imitates art as people are either believing in Jacob, or trusting the Man in Black. There are the ones who seek a scientific conclusion, and those who want to see a more faith-based ending just as there are those who are rabid for answers, and those who are content to simply let the story play itself out no matter what happens.

If you know anything about the world of J.J. Abrams, he has always been a fan of ambiguity. A quick view of his speech at the 2008 T.E.D. conference gives us all the insight we need to understand his philosophy which I am pretty sure at this point LOST has adopted as well. The answers – the BIG ones at least – will more than likely never be able to top the ones that our own imaginations have been serving up to us at this point. Take for instance the bit of a letdown I described in the reveal of how the Black Rock made it into the jungle, and how the Taweret statue was destroyed. Am I the only one who had grander expectations for these explanations?

I don’t think I want to be told exactly what the Island is, or exactly who or what Jacob and MIB are. I too, enjoy the mystery, the guessing, and where my own musings on these themes takes me. As Team Answers keeps score for each new episode I am just going to sit back and nod along with them.

I for one am, and always will be on Team Mystery Box.

a.N
www.FourToedFoot.com


*I write about LOST because I love the challenge of deciphering the clues and adding the pieces together. My thoughts are based solely on the show, the LOST Experience, and random research, as I try to avoid spoilers, promos, and even future episode titles. I love to guess what is going on, but I also like to do so in a way that leaves some of the conclusions still up to you. I do not know the answers and am often wrong. Whatever the truth turns out to be, it has been the journey that has meant the most to me.*

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Doc Jensen: 'Lost' recap: Uncorked

''Ab Aeterno'' puts the spotlight on Richard Alpert, and gives us more insight into Jacob and the Man In Black
By Jeff Jensen Mar 24, 2010

It began in the darkest of night, on the shores of a place Richard Alpert called Hell. It ended in Easter daylight, in a lush Eden, with the ageless enigma trembling with much fear and a glimmer of hope. In between, we got a story that asked questions that we've been asking ab aeterno — since the beginning. What is good? What is evil? How do we know the difference? Who knows what is truly best for us? Who should we trust? How do we make moral choices amid such ambiguity? Why must we figure this stuff out on our own? Why don't the gods of the universe play straight with us? How the flaming hell are we supposed to live like this?

''Ab Aeterno'' — the story of two great and powerful and angry gentlemen and a third who wasn't quite sure who or what he was anymore — was miles away from Two and a Half Men. It was a heavy, heady hour of TV suffused with Biblical subtext, scribbled with subtitles, and stuffed with answers for the show's Island mythology, albeit in a fabulist form requiring careful interpretation and a clarification or two. Or more. In addition to getting a story that revealed how Richard Alpert got to The Island, we got a story that revealed more of the historical relationship between Jacob and the Man In Black. Indeed, we got the sense that the battle these two angels/demons/whatchamacallums waged over Alpert's soul was actually the first phase of Man In Black's 140-years-in-the-making Smoke-man from Alcatraz escape plan. The episode used a corked, half-empty jug of wine as a metaphor for The Island as a never-to-be-opened holding container for hell and assorted analogous concepts: malevolence, evil, darkness, more. Jacob said all those words were functional words to characterize the archetype embodied by the Man In Black. (No doubt Smokey's own interpretation of Jacob's symbols would have been be more charitable and ''glass half full.'')

Wine was one of several religious symbols of the Catholic-Christian stripe that ''Ab Aeterno'' employed and subverted. I was reminded of the cryptic Last Supper images that ABC released prior to the season, particularly the one in which the castaways were seen serving and sipping the wine at Fake Locke's Passover table. Jacob might say, ''They're drinking poison!'' Smokey's interpretation? Judging from the way he smashed the bottle/metaphor to bits, maybe he'd say ''They're drinking spirits. I mean, their souls. I'm pouring out and returning their souls to them. Get it? Wine = Spirits = Souls? No? Oh, screw this symbology s--t! It's just a damn bottle of wine!''

'Ab Aeterno'' was a big winner in my book. My guess is that most fans feel the same way. As I write these words, Rainn Wilson, star of The Office, just Tweeted the following: ''Tonight's episode was one of TV's greatest of all time. I'm gay for the eternal Richard Alpert. There I said it.'' It was definitely the most unusual episode Lost has given us this season, a mostly linear tale akin to ''The Other 48 Days'' from season 2, ''Flashes Before Your Eyes'' in Season 3, and ''Meet Kevin Johnson'' from season 4. It was technically a flashback episode, thanks to the Island-set framing story; it was definitely not a Sideways episode. (I will pause a microsecond to allow the silly haters to cheer.) It was also the ninth hour of Lost's 18-hour final season. We're halfway to the finish, and the castaways are halfway to home or oblivion. Which one will it be? Right now, I guess it depends on how you view the jug. But let's crack it open and see if we find clarity. And I promise: a minimum of drunken theorizing this week.

The year: 1867. Ricardo was a handsome and horsey man with spectacular eyelashes and little time for shaving. He was a Spaniard who lived on the largest Canary Islands, Tenerife. (FUN FACT! Tenerife is known for its ancient pyramids believed by some to be a link between Egyptian and Mayan cultures.) Ricardo — brave ruler — had a wife. Isabella. God's promise. God is my oath. Pledged to God. The Penelope to his Desmond. His constant. Totally dug her cheese — but not her bloody coughs. She had TB, and she was dying. We met her close to death, clutching her Bible, ready to make peace with mortality. She was all Rose: Time to let go. But Ricardo was not ready to surrender. He was all Jack: Nothing's irreversible. He stormed off into a raging rain, determined to bring back medicine that would restore her to life. ''I pray that I have enough,'' Ricardo said. The difference between Ricardo and Isabella was where they stored their treasure. Isabella kept it in Heaven; Ricardo kept it on Earth. The chasm would prove significant.

Ricardo galloped to the home of a wealthy doctor dressed in a black vest. He needed help. The Black Vest was too busy gumming some greasy chicken, and what's more, wasn't about to get his fine ebony threads all wet for some poor peasant chick in the sticks. But he had some medicine — pure and white and salt-of-the-earthish. It would help Isabella. But it would cost Ricardo... a lot. Ricardo dumped some coins in Black Vest's hand. More, the doctor wanted. Ricardo gave him his wife's most precious possession, a necklace with a cross pendant — the symbol of her life; her soul; her eternal hope. ''Now you have everything,'' Ricardo said. Black Vest threw it to the ground. It came to rest near the inferno of his fireplace. ''This is worthless,'' he said. Her life meant nothing to him. Medicine, humanitarianism, good Samaritan — all blah blah blah to this monster. Ricardo snapped at the injustice. Grab! Push! Krunk-crack! Thud! Drip drip drip drip.... Black Vest's noggin bashed against his table. He bled out like a spilled jug of wine. Ricardo was now a murderer — but he took the medicine anyway and galloped back home. But Isabella was already dead. Was he simply too late? Or did she die because of his sin? And then the Javerts broke in, and Ricardo was muy miserables.

Ricardo was put in prison and sentenced to die. He spent his remaining days teaching himself English and reading the Bible. He had become converted, or so he believed. We saw him reading Luke chapter 4. In this chapter: Christ's temptation in the wilderness by Satan; Christ beginning his public ministry; Christ citing the proverb ''Physician, heal thyself!''; the story of Christ healing the sick and casting out demons. Yay for born again Ricardo, right? Wrong. He made his final confession to a priest — another man in black. But the priest coldly rejected Ricardo's petition with a brutal ''No.'' It made me wonder if the priest declined the confession because he saw that it wasn't genuine. Ricardo didn't really consider himself guilty of a crime. He called it accidental. He called it killing instead of murder. He didn't view himself as a sinner who needed God. Rather, God was a means to an end — a last gasp hope to be reconciled with Isabella in the heaven of her faith. Still, I think Father Black's further explanation will be one for the theologians amongst us to debate. True repentance requires penance, Father Black said. ''You don't have time... because tomorrow they're going to hang you. I'm afraid the devil awaits you in hell.'' This makes sense. It's kind of galling to think that rapists and serials killers and genocidal maniacs would get a Go Directly To Heaven! card with a simple if sincere spiritual conversion minutes before their execution. But if the monsters invalidate the principal, what about everyone else? Whither the multifold of lesser evil lifelong unbelievers — misunderstood villains, semi-harmless jerks, nice guy agnostics, message board slaggers — who on their deathbeds suddenly get the eternity jitters and bet their spiritual house on Pascal's Wager? Should St. Peter rubberstamp them DENIED and trapdoor drop them into Hades just because they didn't have time to complete the full redemption program?

Regardless, as I listened to Father's Black's pitiless theology, I found myself thinking this theory-thought: If only there was some second-chance place somewhere in the land of the setting sun, where you and other last-chance souls can band together and fight smoke monsters and prove yourself to cryptic gods and successfully score a seat on a flight or sub to Heaven. Could that be a viable theory of The Island?

Ricardo thought he found a different kind of reprieve: slavery. He had told Father Black that he and Isabella had dreamed of leaving their Island and finding new life as new creations in the New World. Father Black tipped off a fellow named Mr. Jonas Whitfield, an officer in the employ of Magnus Hanso, a shipping merchant and slave owner, that Ricardo was basically the kind of guy who'd do anything to stay alive — even suffer dehumanization. Ricardo got a new lease on life by accepting a leash, and he soon found himself in manacles and anklets in the bowels of Hanso's ship: The Black Rock. According an apocryphal quasi-canon texts of Lost, Magnus Hanso was an ancestor of Alvar Hanso, the financier behind The Dharma Initiative. I encourage you to peruse his deets at Lostpedia at your leisure on another occasion.

The Black Rock found itself bumping through the proverbial dark and stormy night. Ricardo and his fellow human cargo worried as their stomachs heaved: This is the end/for us my slavey friends/The End... Their frightened tenor turned apocalyptic when they all peeked through the slats and saw the toothy crocodile grin of towering Taweret on the shores of The Island. Taweret: the Egyptian goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, a former bad girl goddess who redeemed herself and helped keep the god of evil Set in check. Not that the Spaniards knew their Taweret from toejam, but they did know their Dante. ''Inferno,'' SlaveSock intoned. The Black Rock caught a wave and hurtled straight into Taweret's mug. In the aftermath, Taweret lost her head and became The Four Toed Statue, and The Black Rock crashed in the center of The Island, where the impact shattered the ship into a million pieces and Ricardo and his friends died instantly... but then both boat and humans were miraculously reconstructed by a flock of magical talking Hurley birds. All to say that I didn't quite understand how The Black Rock survived The Island belly flop, but I rolled with it because 1. If rolling with it hasn't become an instinctive reflex by now, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself; and 2. It evoked one of Lost's key literary touchstones, The Wizard of Oz. Ricardo and The Black Rock touching down on The Island = Dorothy and her house landing in Oz. Indeed, just like Dorothy's adventure was a fantastical mirror of her hard-luck dustbowl life and plucky spirit, Ricardo's Island origin story played like a ''This is your life!'' phantasmagoria of his hardscrabble underclass existence and religiously shaped/scarred psyche. (P.S.: I know many of you are wondering if Lost made a continuity error regarding the time of day of The Black Rock's arrival. The error assumes that the ship that Jacob and the Man In Black saw last season during the sunny breakfast talk was The Black Rock. I was among those who assumed it was The Black Rock; I am now going to assume that I was simply wrong to have assumed that. See? Error resolved!)

Of course, Ricardo's Island ordeal also followed the beats of the mythical drama that apparently must always play out when castaways arrive on The Island, albeit with some bleak derivations. The Mysterious Island Arrival is followed by The Mad Scramble To Get Our Bearings, followed by A Heroic, Idealistic Embrace Of Live Together, Die Alone Survival Ethos... unless you're two-thirds man slave property and deemed a drain on precious resources, in which case you get skewered through the heart by the designated castaway leader. The scene was Richard's class struggle of life in little deadly strokes. (That scene, with Mr. Whitfield systematically murdering Ricardo's' steerage friends — chilling. In his small defense, I got a whiff of mercy killing, too, and certain eau de Dogen: I think it would be better if you were dead.) And then: Monster Attack. First, the crew was chomped. Then, Mr. Whitfield was plucked and crunched. With that, Jacob and MIB's latest Olympiad of the Soul had been christened with bloody sacrifice.

Smokey snatched up Whitfield's body seconds before he was going to shish kabob Ricardo. It was a deus ex machina salvation. But then he saw the face of divine intervention on The Island, and it was terrifying. Smokey snaked into the ship and slowly tikatikatikatika'd over to Alpert. Then, Smokey bent into shape so he could get a good look at Richard (Those are some amazing eyelashes, he thought) and then flashed him with his psychic strobes. After acquiring the necessary intel from Richard's head, Smokey left — and Richard fainted.

Days passed. Richard tried to escape his bonds by prying a nail out of the floor and using it dig around the chain mounts on the wall. It was slow work. He was making progress, but he was also becoming dehydrated and weak. Then the boar — always an omen of demons and doom on Lost — showed up and began eating out of a dead man's stomach. The sinister swine then charged past Richard, knocking the nail out his reach. Despair. More days passed. Then, Isabella showed up. They were in Hell, she said. The devil was chasing her, she said. Let me help you out of those chains before he comes back, she said. Then: Tikatikatikatkatikatka. Ricardo told her to flee, that he would find her, save her. She padded up the steps. Ricardo heard scary sounds. Ricardo concluded: The Monster got her. Ricardo screamed. We said: Ricardo, you've been played. Someone or something left you down there to weaken your body and soften your mind to set you up to be their killing tool. Someone has played a Ben/Sawyer long con on you to warp you into a reckless hero like Jack, or worse, a ruthless assassin like Sayid. And here he comes now...

Enter the Man In Black. He gave slumbering Ricardo a long touch on his shoulder. Ricardo woke, then was taken aback. MIB called himself a friend, but everything after that seemed suspiciously tailored to Ricardo's worldview/state of mind. Yep, friend, you're in hell, the Nameless one (lied?) purred. Your wife? The devil has her. Sure, I can help you out those chains (Lucky you! I found the keys!), and sure, I can help you save her... Then came the bargaining. ''I want to be free, too,'' MIB explained. ''I need to know you will help me. You will do anything I ask. Then we are agreed?'' Ricardo said Si. This Is Your Life, Richard: Another man in black, selling salvation at a price.

Ricardo delighted in his release from bondage. MIB shared in that joy. ''It's good to see you out of those chains,'' MIB said, radiating true sincerity. He scooped up weak, witless Richard, and there was a quick shot of what looked like Ricardo's eyes looking cataract-gray blind and almost rolling into the back of his head. MIB carried Ricardo's half-life weight up and out of The Black Rock, and as he did, I recalled the words Richard had been reading in his cell from Luke 4: ''The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free those who are downtrodden, and proclaim the year of the Lord.'' In this scenario, Smokey = Jesus. He played the part — but is he Christ or anti-Christ? We debate.

The matter got murkier as the episode progressed. In the ruins of some ancient garden, the Man In Black quickly nursed some vitality back into Ricardo with roasted pig. ''I'm going to need your strength to escape,'' said MIB, a line also spoke to the Island drama in the present, in which MIB/Fake Locke needs the strength/support of the castaways to complete his supernatural prison break. As Ricardo chomped, MIB said some interesting things about himself. He claimed that ''the devil'' had ''betrayed'' him. ''He took my body. My humanity.'' My guess is that hard-core theorists will spend the next week factoring that bit of info into their ''Who is Smokey?'' conjectures. Some ideas I'm mulling over? Cain and Abel, the world's first CSI murder case. Cain was punished to wander the world as an immortal entity because he murdered his brother. He was also given a dark mark to scare away anyone who'd want to do him harm. I'd dare say that Earth-bound immortality qualifies as a kind of body-nullifying, dehumanizing curse — and that being able to convert into black smoke and change shape can qualify as some kind of protective-spooky defensive mechanism. Abel's final fate is more on-the-nose with Lost: Wikipedia cites an apocryphal Biblical text that says that Abel now resides in a ''netherworld,'' an ''awful man'' who is tasked with judging all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners.''

Irrelevant? Maybe. But it was hard for me to resist the connection when MIB and Ricardo started talking about murder. ''There's only one way out of hell,'' MIB said. ''We're going to have to kill the devil.'' Ricardo argued that he'd basically be damning his soul with the same sin that damned him in the first place. Again: shades of Sayid. MIB got pragmatic on him. ''My friend, you and I can talk all day long about what is right and what is wrong but the question before you remains the same: Do you ever want to see your wife again?'' His utilitarian logic is located in the broad, contentious body of thought known as ''Consequentialism.'' As you might glean from MIB's sentiment, a weaknesses of ''Consequentialism'' is its shaky, nebulous definition of justice. A major egghead in this field? Jeremy Bentham, the name Charles Widmore gave John Locke before his death. He had at least one thing in common with MIB/Fake Locke: Bentham was an abolitionist. And that explains everything, right? Right! Moving on...

The Man In Black sent his newly emancipated angel of death to the beach to slay Jacob with a ceremonial knife that looked very similar to the one Sayid stabbed Fake Locke with, if not the exact same would-be murder weapon. Ricardo got the same specific instruction that Sayid got, too: Stab first; don't even let him to talk to you. He eyeballed the shadowy entrance to Jacob's crypt-HQ, then got his ass kicked three different ways by the sunny blonde demigod, new and improved with action hero powers. He interrogated Ricardo with a mix of indignation and glibness that was both terrifying and funny. I loved the way he was framed against the blue sky, bright and elemental, a morning star. The Latin word for ''morning star''? That's right: Lucifer. Which brings us to the semiotic cipher that is Mark Pellegrino. The actor is marvelous as Jacob. But Pellegrino also appears on Supernatural, playing... Lucifer. According to a few recaps I've read, Pellegrino's Lucifer is on a mission to purge the Earth of mankind, which he views as innately corrupt, and torments humans with visions of the dearly departed dead. He also requires a human host to get around. Again, I say all of this having never seen an episode of Supernatural, so here's hoping the Internet is reasonably correct. Regardless, I find the Lucifer/Luciferesque overlaps between Supernatural and Lost to be intriguing and ingenious. What better way to cultivate further mystery around Jacob's moral allegiance than by casting him with an actor who currently plays the devil on another show? One would assume that neither Lost nor Pellegrino would want to duplicate efforts — unless encouraging that assumption is exactly why you make that move. Hmm... will the series reveal that Sideways Lost = the Supernatural world?

Jacob listened to Ricardo accuse him of being the devil and heard the allegation that he had kidnapped his wife. Jacob seemed genuinely taken aback that MIB had tried to kill him. He was even more bothered by Ricardo's insistence that he was dead and in hell. Jacob picked him up and dunked him in the surf repeatedly — water-boarding as wake-up call/baptism. Jacob: ''Still think you're dead? Why should I stop?'' Ricardo: ''Because I want to live!'' Jacob: ''That's the first sensible thing you've said.'' He then dumped him on the beach. ''Get up. We need to talk,'' he said. Interesting: MIB's m.o. was all about helping people to their feet. Jacob's m.o. was all about making people do it themselves. Physician, heal thyself!

The theme of self-determination continued in their conversation. Jacob brought his jug of wine and poured them both a drink. I was again reminded that Jacob looks like Sting, that the former leader singer of The Police had recorded a song about a son who engages in a drinking game with The King of Season to release his father from The Soul Cages. Ricardo asked him if he was the devil. Jacob smirked, as if enjoying a private joke. Maybe he wanted to say: ''Yes, I am — on another network.'' Instead, he just said, ''No.'' He took responsibility for bringing The Black Rock to The Island. And when Ricardo asked why and what for, we got the Allegory of the Jug.

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''Think of this wine for what you keep calling hell. There are many other names for it, too. Malevolence. Evil. Darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island. And it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me thinks that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.'' (Note that Jacob seems to be evoking the idea of Original Sin. More on this in a minute.)

Ricardo asked if others had been brought to The Island before him. ''Yes. Many,'' Jacob said. Ricardo asked what happened to them. ''They're all dead,'' he replied matter-of-factly. (Both Pellegrino and Titus Welliver as Man In Black injected their line readings with some knowing humor that lightened the mood while making their characters even more inscrutable and unsettling.) Ricardo asked a crucial question: How come Jacob doesn't take a more active role in shepherding his spiritual reclamation projects? ''Because I want them to help themselves. To be able to tell the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them, it's all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything! Why should I have to step in?'' Richard's reply: ''If you don't, he will.''

This answer seemed to stump Jacob. It was as if Ricardo had told him something he never considered before. If only he read more books. It's interesting to note that last week, Lost re-introduced into the narrative mix three of Sawyer's favorite books: Watership Down, A Wrinkle In Time, and Lancelot. To varying degrees, all three books deal with corrupt leaders, false messiahs, and wickedly dark spirits that rise to power when a culture lacks a strong, truthful moral agent guiding it. Take Lancelot, whose narrator fancies himself a righteous knight determined to purge the world of corruption. In truth, he's a tragically damaged, deeply disturbed potential psychopath who is locked up in a mental institution and should stay there. At the end of the book (SPOILER ALERT), he comes to a six-point conclusion about the world. Pay close attention to Number 5. ''1. We are living in Sodom. 2. I do not propose to live in Sodom or to raise my son and daughters in Sodom. 3. Either your God exists or he does not. 4. If he exists, he will not tolerate Sodom much longer. 5. If God does not exist, then it will be I not God who will not tolerate. I, one person. I will start a new world single-handedly or with those like me who will not tolerate it. [He then goes on to say his new world order will also include... genocide against the Russians and Chinese, America's main ''enemies'' during the books mid-'70s setting.] 6. I'll wait and give your God more time.''

In my Friday column, I'll explore those literary references some more, plus tell you what Doc Arzt's has to do with all of them. In the meantime, think about this: In Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, there's a young boy — supernaturally bright and powerful — who falls prey to an evil, disembodied mind known as IT. He turns out okay, and lives to save the day in other books. But in a subsequent series of books that take place many years after the events of A Wrinkle In Time and its sequels, we learn that this protagonist has gone mysteriously missing, allegedly on a secret mission. He never again appeared in L'Engle's books. This young man's shares his first name with three different characters on Lost: Charles. (Think: Charlie, Charles Widmore, and Charles, the son of Desmond and Penelope.) But L'Engle's Charles preferred to be called by the combination of his first and middle name: Charles Wallace. Wallace: the name at No. 108 on the dial in Jacob's Lighthouse. Now, last week, Charlotte Lewis made a return appearance in the show. Charlotte's father was named David Lewis. David Lewis is a famous philosopher who championed a theory of alternate/possible realities known as modal realities. Lewis' theories were pretty radical. He argued that even fictional fantasy worlds like Lost could exist somewhere within reality. Now, given the knowingly ironic Lost/Supernatural overlap represented by Mark Pellegrino, is it possible that ''Wallace'' is actually Charles Wallace from A Wrinkle In Time? Could he be the one that Hurley needed to bring to The Island? Is he locked up inside that room on Charles Widmore's sub? Or could he already be on The Island? Could he be... Jacob?

Jacob offered Ricardo a job! Moved by Ricardo's point, Jacob said: ''If I don't want to step in maybe you can do it for me. You can be my representative and my intermediary between me and the people I bring to The Island.'' Ricardo wanted compensation. He asked his wife back. Jacob: Can't do that. He asked for absolution of his sins. Jacob: Nope, can't do that either. He then asked for eternal life. His logic: Better than going to hell; and maybe I an accumulate enough penance to improve my chances at Heaven. ''Now that, I can do,'' Jacob said. And with, Jacob touched him, and the Ageless Enigma was born. Let us note two things. If Jacob really was some kind of God/Jesus figure, you'd think he would have been able to grant Ricardo's first two requests. Moreover, Jacob's rejection of Original Sin is provocative for anyone whose theory of a Christ-like Jacob has been informed by Christian theology, as many Christians do believe in Original Sin. Maybe Jacob-Jesus is trying to prove that spiritually renewed people can truly ''go and sin no more'' (John 8:11)? Perhaps The Island isn't a place where people are spiritually tested, but rather where religions are tested for relevancy and truthfulness. Jacob and Smokey are basically quality control experts — Inspectors 1 and 2 — of Fruit of the Loom holy underwear. And right now, Christianity's up.

Ricardo accepted Jacob's offer. Why not? It's a ''Somewhere Over The Rainbow'' dream come true — a sweet, secure life in The New World... minus the love of his life, of course. Ricardo went back to MIB, who knew that Jacob had turned him. But he didn't blame him much. ''He can be very persuasive,'' he said. You got the sense that MIB's current incarceration had something to do with buying into something Jacob had once sold him long ago — something that hadn't gone exactly as planned or promised. MIB reminded Ricardo that siding with Jacob meant that he could never see his wife again — as if that was truly something he could deliver. (Again, we wonder: Is the Sideways world the fulfillment of MIB's promises?) ''But I want you to know that if you ever change your mind — and I mean ever — my offer still stands.'' Ricardo gave MIB a gift from Jacob: a white stone, which I took to be nothing more than an inside joke, an ironic declaration of victory (I won Richard's soul! Nah-nah-nah!) punning off of Black Rock. (I get the sense these clever boys enjoy their almost childish cruel winks and coded banter with each other.) MIB in turn gave Ricardo Isabella's cross-necklace. I couldn't tell if MIB was taunting him or being kind with the gesture. Maybe the quiet understanding was that the token served as a talisman for summoning Smokey. Ricardo took it and then buried it...

Only to return over 140 years later to dig it back up and tried to ring up Smokey. ''Does the offer still stand?'' he bellowed. Earlier in the episode, Richard's crisis of faith spurred by the death of Jacob had been reignited by Ilana's claim that Richard was supposed to know what to do next with the candidates. Richard freaked. He had no clue. Yes, Jacob had given him the job to serve as mediator and advisor to Island visitors and assorted Others. But it now seemed that Ricardo was pretty much flying on blind faith and making up the job as he went along. But he had held onto his belief that The Island was hell, and that he was dead, and exasperated by the madness of Jacob's apparent meaninglessness, he stormed off to do what Ben was tempted to do back in ''Dr. Linus'': Switch teams and hook up with someone who offered him something like purpose and hope, even if it meant unleashing darkness upon the earth. Way to go, ''Lancelot.''

But instead of a rendezvous with the devil, Richard got Hurley instead. What followed was an extremely effective and affecting scene that flirted with trite emotional resolution but managed to work thanks to some great acting and direction. Leveraging his Ghost Whisperer secret powers, Hurley was able to facilitate a moment between the living and the dead, between Ricardo and Isabella, and translate and impart some spiritual wisdom that Richard desperately needed to hear. Put another way: Hurley and Richard basically switched roles last night, with Hurley playing Island advisor and Richard playing castaway spiritual seeker. Isabella asked Ricardo why he had buried her cross — her soul; her love; his compass. It was a gentle indictment of Ricardo's misplaced values — of finding treasure in the material, not spiritual, in what he can hold in the moment, not carry forever in his heart. Isabella then praised his English — English, the language they were learning together; the language they had learned form the Bible they read, together; the language of the new world they wanted to be recreated into, together. ''Tell him his English is beautiful,'' Isabella asked Hurley. He did. Gotta admit: Kinda choked up there.

Ricardo/Richard had not been able to see or hear Isabella for most of her spectral visit. But at the end, with eyes closed, Ricardo heard her voice, and in her words, he heard what he wanted to hear from the priest several lifetimes earlier: absolution. ''It wasn't your fault that I died, Ricardo,'' Isabella said through Hurley. But the rest Ricardo either heard or felt: ''As much as you wanted to save me, it was my time. You've suffered enough.'' He replied: ''I've missed you. I would do anything for us to be together again.'' She said, ''My love. We are already together.'' Translation: It's what Michael Landon said in that Little House on the Prairie clip from last week: It's about ''knowin' that people aren't really gone when they die. We have all the good memories to sustain us until we see 'em again.'' Alpert's real life namesake, Hindu guru Richard Alpert/Ram Dass, advocates the idea that everything is suffused spirit. With an assist from Hurley, Ricardo/Richard finally earned the eyes to see that, and to recognize that we can let go of Hell and move into Heaven whenever we want. What Ricardo/Richard got was huge whollop of ''Amazing Grace,'' the hymn written by a former slaver during a harrowing night at sea: ''Amazing grace/how sweet the sound/that saved a wretch like me/I once was lost/but now am found/was blind but now I see.''

Over the last several weeks, I've been pushing this idea — inspired by those darn Last Supper images — that Lost 6.0 was being modeled upon Jesus' Thursday-to-Sunday Passion weekend. That's now unlikely, since last night's episode represented the third day of Jesus' trip to hell and back — Easter Sunday. But we did get a story that thematically symbolized resurrection and the restoration of relationship between mankind and the divine. Hence the setting of the episode's climax: a Garden of Eden motif, complete with a proverbial Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — Ground Zero for the big bang's humanity's fall from grace. Ricardo was saved. (Yay!) But then came his Great Commission. (Groan!) Richard's Island mission: Keep the Man In Black from popping that cork or cracking open the bottle and getting out. Interesting, though, that Richard wasn't told he had to try to kill the Man In Black. At least nobody is asking him to play Sayid the Assassin. Still, how can Richard succeed? Did he learn something from this spiritual journey that could help him? Something about love? Something about sacrifice? In many of the mythic stories Lost cites, including A Wrinkle In Time, pure, sincere love makes a difference. Oh, and a good magical sword, too.

on MIB being ''bad'' and Jacob being ''good.'' Neither sold me as wholly trustworthy last night — which is fitting. My other big theory of late has been that each episode of Lost this year has been linked to one of The Ten Commandments. This was the 9th hour, so we should have gotten the 9th Commandment, and we did: Do not bare false witness against your neighbor. Translation: Don't lie; don't break a promise. I'm willing to cede that Jacob did right by Richard, fulfilling his promise of giving him purpose and clarity over the course of the episode. But I'm not sure he was telling us the truth about his wine bottle. I accept The Cork. The Cork makes sense. But I wonder if Jacob is wrong about the wine. I get the sense that Jacob isn't keen on death. His only super-power is the one that Satan has: Fall into his clutches, and he gets to keep you forever. I'm not saying he's evil. But I am saying that in so many heroic stories, the real, necessary reality of death is often mistaken for evil. So what if the wine in Jacob's bottle = all the souls that have come to The Island and lost the wager with Smokey? What if all those souls are trapped on The Island because Jacob refuses to let them go? In fact, what if the terms of the wager are akin to one of those Old Testament bets that God would make with his prophets, whereby a while wicked city can be saved if one ''good soul'' can be found? Maybe Jacob has been holding onto all those souls who've lost the wager because he's holding out to find that one good man that can give them all a second chance at life? And maybe Smokey thinks that's fundamentally wrong or unnatural, which is why he's so desperate to just end this whole damn redemption game, so everyone can move on to whatever afterlife they deserve — including himself. Breaking the bottle doesn't release a toxic cloud of evil — it just sets the prisoners of Jacob's purgatory free. Namaste!?
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