Line of the night – “oohh this should be interesting” – Ben Linus (subtle yet humorous line)
As I sat down for tonight’s episode, I applied my Richard Alpert guy-liner and was ready to absorb answers, answers, and more answers. LOST delivered tonight, but I felt a little let down. I was hoping to see Richard’s relationship with a younger Eloise, Charles Widmore, and Ben Linus...and maybe interactions with other ‘groups’ that Jacob brought to the island.
We start off in 1984, and a Pepsi commercial shoot has gone tragically wrong. Michael Jackson is lying in a hospital bed...oh wait...that’s Ilana. Jacob enters and wants Ilana to protect 6 people for him, they are the remaining candidates. “This is what you’ve been preparing for.” I felt a little buzz kill when we did not learn who or what caused Ilana to be pulverized in the hospital. When Ilana does get to the island, she is to take the candidates to the temple and ask for Ricardos because he will know what to do. Richard laughs, “Hehe…I have no idea what to do next!” Then it happens…we are filled up with a little secret that Richard’s been carrying for a very long time…
“You’re DEAD! And all of this…it isn’t here…we were never on an island.” Wah Wah What?!?!? “We are all dead, and we are in hell.” Richard is convinced Jacob was a liar, and he takes off to find MIB Flocke. “Maybe it’s time we start listening to someone else.” C-Ya, Audi 5000 pops.
Back on the beach Jack is trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle with Ilana. Jack thinks if John Locke is dead, how can he be leading the other group? “It’s not exactly Locke!” Then we see Hurley on the beach talking in Spanish to a ghost…so who could this be? Ana Lucia?? Ben Linus explains to Frank Lapidas that he met Richard when he was 12, and he doesn’t age. Frank’s response, “Now how in the hell do you think that happened?” Perfect segue to Richard roaming in the jungle looking for Flocke.
WHOOSH to a sidewa…wait, where are we? It’s Ricardos riding a horse through a jungle. Are we on the island? It turns out we are on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and the year is 1867. Which means Ricardos is probably around 30 – 35 years old in this scene, and around 175 years old in our present time line on the island.
SIDENOTE – It’s hard enough to write down key points characters say when I hear them, and even harder to read Spanish subtitles and then transcribe them. I’m in for a long evening if his whole back story is in Spanish...END OF SIDENOTE. Turns out Isabella is his wife and she is very sick. Richard is off to see a doctor, “I will save you my love.” Isabella’s response (and theme of the night), “We will always be together.” Richard sees the d-bag doctor in the middle of the night, and the doctor has medicine that will make her better. Richard gives him all of their money, in addition to the Christian cross from Isabella’s neck. Look, it's Desmond’s Vaccine from Season 2! Awesome! The doctor finds Richard's offering to be worthless, and starts to put back the medicine. Richard goes loco, and kills the doctor. This can’t be good.
He gets back to his hut, and Isabella is dead. Next thing you know Richard is in prison for murder. Il Padre enters Richard’s cell to hear confession before he is to be hanged. Richard explains that they were supposed to go to the New World and start a family. The priest will not absolve him of his sins because he committed murder. “There must be some way to earn God’s forgiveness?” The priest responds, “I’m afraid the devil awaits you in hell.” Well that sucks.
Mr. Whitfield enters the prison, and purchases Richard from the Spaniards. Richard is now a slave on ‘Captain Magnus Hanso’s ” British trading ship, The Black Rock. Confirmation at last! The Black Rock is caught in a very bad storm, and a fellow Spanish slave notices the statue of Taweret, “I see an island, and it’s guarded by the devil!” The ship smashes against the statue, and is carried by a high wave into the jungle. This area of the jungle is referred to as the “dark territory” which is a high-traffic area for Smokey / MIB / Flocke.
The Spanish slaves wake up, and a shocked Mr. Whitfield runs them through with his sword. Uh ohhh, I hear that ‘ticka ticka’ sound that always seems pissed off. Smokey kills everyone except for Richard. Richard faces Smokey head on before Smokey disappears (very much the same way we’ve seen John Locke from Season I and Mr. Ecko from Season II face the Smoke monster). I wonder if MIB Flocke ever considered recruiting Mr. Ecko to help him get off the island? So Richard starts to hallucinate as he attempts to use a very small nail to break free of the shackles. Isabella appears to him and says that they are both dead and they are in hell. Isabella attempts to run away when the ‘ticka ticka’ sound comes back, and she disappears. (MIB Flocke can only appear as a person that has died, so I wonder if he took the form of Isabella as a way to manipulate Richard later).
Richard is greeted by Essau (MIB Flocke). Essau introduces himself as a friend. He also tells Richard that he is in hell. Essau offers to free Richard only if he promises to help him and do anything he asks. Richard promises to do so. “There is only one way to escape from hell, you are going to have to kill the devil!” Essau shows him Gryffindor’s sword, and explains, “You have one chance, do not hesitate. Drive this through his chest, and do not let him say a word. If he speaks it will already be too late, he can be very persuasive.” Richard cannot imagine how he will be able to kill the devil if he is a pillar of black smoke. Essau’s response, “No, I am.” Ok, so he just revealed to Richard, like he did to Sawyer, that he is the smoke monster. Interesting. “The devil betrayed me, took my body, and took my humanity.” So if Richard ever wants to see his wife again, he needs to kill him if he wants her back.
Richard comes to the shadow of the statue and gets sucker punched from behind. After taking a beating like Johnny from the Outsiders, Richard ‘wants to live.’ Jacob wants to talk.
Richard asks if he is the devil. “No, my name is Jacob. I brought your ship to the island.” Jacob uses the bottle of Pinot Noir as a metaphor for Essau. Essau / Flocke is the wine and the cork is the island, keeping him in check. The island is the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. Essau believes everyone is corruptible, because it is in their very nature to sin. Jacob brings people to the island to prove him wrong. Their past doesn’t matter once they get to the island. Jacob brought others to the island, but they are all dead. He does not interfere or help, because “I want them to help themselves.” He offers Richard a job. “If I don’t want to step in, you could be my representative…my intermediary.” In return Richard wants his wife back…can’t do that, nor can he absolve Richard of his sins. “Then I never want to die, I want to live forever.” Jacob’s response, “Now that…I can do!” Cue Jacob’s touch.
Richard rejoins Essau, and puts a white rock in his hand. “You let him talk to you, didn’t you.” Essau reminds Richard, “If you ever change your mind, and I mean if ever…my offer still stands.” He gives Richard the Christian cross necklace, and Richard proceeds to bury the necklace in the soil. WHOOSH to the 2007 jungle and Richard finds the necklace after 140 years. Richard screams into the air, “I’ve changed my mind…does the offer still stand!” Enter...Hurley?
Now it makes sense, Hurley must have been talking to his ghost wife on the beach. “Your wife sent me…Isabella.” I feel like Hurley is Whoopi Goldberg, and Richard is Demi Moore from Ghost. It’s a very sentimental moment. Richard would do anything for them to be together again. Isabella says, “We are already together.” So sad as she fades away and Richard is all alone…except for Hurley. “Oh she said one more thing, something you have to do. You have to stop the Man in Black, you have to stop him from leaving the island, because if you don’t then we all go to hell.” Ok, to recap the series, we went from simply surviving a plane crash, to the discovery of a Dharma hatch, to conflicts with the Others, to conflicts with the Freighter crew, to a time traveling island, to an 'Incident', to good versus evil…angels and demons…heaven and hell? WTF?
Final scene with Essau and Jacob.
Jacob – “So you tried to kill me.”
Essau – “Do you blame me? I want to leave…just let me leave Jacob.”
Jacob – “As long as I am alive, you are not going anywhere.”
Essau – “Now you know why I want to kill you, and I WILL kill you Jacob.”
Jacob – “Even if you do, someone else will take my place.”
Essau – “Well then, I’ll kill them too.”
Jacob – “I brought you this (the wine bottle) to pass the time, see you around.”
Essau – “Sooner than you think!” Then we observe the imagery of Essau being released from his prison as he smashes the wine bottle on a nearby rock.
BAMM- LOST
Lots of information tonight, and I think we are setting the stage for the final showdown between good and evil. Is Jack up to the task to become the new Jacob? Maybe it’s Aaron who is the “Littleton” candidate from Jacob’s list?
Building off the comment from last week’s blog entry, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Aaron was in the locked room on the sub.
So if MIB Flocke is a singular being that can take the shape of a dead person and have intelligent conversations with people, how was Ben Linus able to ‘summon’ the pillar of smoke in Season 4?
I honestly think the writers had no idea the story line would end this way, but I hope and pray that they deliver as we come one episode closer to the series finale. Does anyone else feel like we are running out of time?
Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!
-Slice
