Welcome to another Wednesday where I sit down and presume that you even care what I think about last night’s episode of LOST, titled AB AETERNO. Even if you don’t yesterday’s Tweet from Damon Lindelof let’s me know that someone out there cares.

I’m sure that this episode is the kind that will divide the LOST fan community in half. The ep was a virtual stand-alone that had very little connection to the current events on the Island. This thing was 95% backstory for the mysterious and non-aging RICHARD ALPERT. We were able to see where he came from, how he came to be on the Island, and why this guy never gets any older. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of people out there that are venting today how this is the last season and they just don’t care about the life of some second stringer and instead want to see some real action go down on the Island. Hopefully next week will really deliver for these people (if they are in fact out there). I’m not one of these people. I really enjoyed this episode.

I admit that AB AETERNO was a welcome change of pace for me. There was no flash sideways in the episode to distract me. There wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth action between different groups and trying to keep track of what is going on between them. Once the writers got us from JACOB to CANDIDATES to RICHARD they sent us into a view of his life and they did not break from it at all until near the end of the episode. They dropped us into a romantic tradgedy that, at the end, held the potential for redemption.

I really enjoyed being able to see more of the range of NESTOR CARBONELL in this episode. I am one of those people that actually watched and enjoyed SUDDENLY SUSAN during it’s brief run on NBC and for me NESTOR was one of the highlights. His performance of BAT MANUEL on the short lived live action version of THE TICK for FOX was a pleasant surprise as well. These two instances, however, were the most memorable performances that I’ve caught of MR. CARBONELL so seeing him truly act in AB AETERNO was incredible. During this episode he had to deliver desperation, loss, pain, suffering, confusion and even a little bit of a man on the brink of insanity. One of the best moments of the episode for me was his near psychotic giggle that he gives when asked by Ilana, “What do we do now?” CARBONELL did a great job of stepping off of the side lines and taking a strong lead in this episode.

Even though we did not see a lot of action in the “present” on the Island we did get an explanation of what might be the real reason why people eventually find the Island and why exactly JACOB has been shopping around for his replacement.

During a conversation between RICHARD and JACOB the latter explains, with the aid of a wine bottle, the reason why he is there. The bottle contains pure evil, the kind that will dangerously spread if not kept in check. The Island that we’ve all been in wonder of for the past five years is the cork that keeps the evil in the bottle. JACOB’s role is to protect the Island to make sure the cork stays in place and keeps evil in the bottle. This, of course, makes me wonder if the writers of the show came up with this final idea about what’s going on while hitting the sauce pretty hard one night in quiet desperation in the writer’s room knowing they had to wrap this show up.

All kidding aside that wine bottle description is great in that we finally understand why JACOB is there, why the SMOKE MONSTER is there, and what the struggle is. Makes perfect sense. JACOB also tells us that he keeps drawing people to the Island because the SMOKE MONSTER believes that people are easy to corrupt because it is in our nature to sin and JACOB wants to prove him wrong. We also already know from the first few opening minutes of last season’s finale episode THE INCIDENT that SMOKE MONSTER really wants to kill JACOB. Exactly where does bringing people to the Island so ol’ SMOKEY JOE can try to turn them into JACOB killing machines fit in to the whole “keep the cork in the bottle by protecting the Island” equation? Seems like playing a risky game just to prove a point. I’ve tried doing this kind of thing during arguments with my wife but it always ends with the fight going longer than I wanted and every time I start to do it I know it won’t be worth the effort. Maybe JACOB should have tried arguing with my wife to see how much his effort to prove his point wouldn’t be worth it.

I really shouldn’t have brought up that opening of THE INCIDENT because it, coupled with the final moments of AB AETERNO, just makes me confused in the world of continuity. In the beginning of THE INCIDENT we find JACOB and the MAN IN BLACK/SMOKEY JOE watching a boat on the horizon. The statue is still intact and SMOKEY JOE asks JACOB, “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?” This tells us that this conversation had to have happened prior to the BLACK ROCK showing up since the ship rode a gigantic wave into the island that made it smash the statue to bits before bending the laws of phsyics and coming to rest well inland (that was one big wave). After everything in AB AETERNO we find JACOB coming up to the MAN IN BLACK and stating to him, “So you tried to kill me.” Either JACOB has a very bad memory or he some how was arrogant enough to think that there was no way that SMOKEY JOE could actually harm him with the people that he brings to the Island. I don’t know which, but that bit kind of bothered me.

I think a lot of us assumed that the boat they were watching in THE INCIDENT was the BLACK ROCK. Since she ran aground during a big storm during the night it would seem they were just watching some other boat. Then again they may have been seeing her as she passed the Island and the storm could have later forced her crew to turn around to head for the safety of dry land. I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

It was nice to also see some things come in to play that we’ve seen already this season. The knife given to RICHARD by SMOKEY JOE was the same one given to SAYID to kill SMOKEY JOE. We now know why the term, “It’s nice to see you out of those chains” was the trigger for how RICHARD knew who our Island LOCKE really was. Seeing where the white rock that LOCKE throws into the ocean in THE SUBSTITUTE (if it was the same one) was both amusing and made me raise questions on whether the cave was really JACOB’S cave or SMOKEY JOE’s (since if it was the same rock it was given to SMOKEY by JACOB).

We also learned that ILANA’s true mission, in coming to the ISLAND was to protect the six remaining candidates. I have no idea why protecting the candidates included bringing the dead body of LOCKE to the statue to show JACOB. I would think that her time would have been better spent looking for the candidates. I guess JACOB must have told her to drop by the statue and say hello to let him know she was there and she thought the dead body might be a nice gift to bring. We also learn that she knows the names of the remaining six candidates so unles FRANK is actually a candidate she must like his company or needed someone to help lug around her housewarming gift for JACOB.

One last item that I haven’t really discussed is the whole CANDIDATE business. For some reason I never really wondered who the remaining candidates were. I realized last night, however, that they are trying to get us to wonder who they are since they really went out of their way to specifically say that there are six remaining candidates. Some candidates are already given since KATE, SAWYER (as FORD), JACK, SAYID and HURLEY have already been identified. That only leaves one of the two KWON’s (JIN or SUN)? I’m sorry I ever thought about this since most of the other failed candidates are failed because of the inconvenience of death. I really hope there might be an exception in this case since without it there would be a very unhappy ending for the KWON’s. (Man, I’m really sorry I bothered to stop and think about this.)

So, in conclusion, we may have learned the following with AB AETERNO:

• RICHARD ALPERT has been on the Island since 1867.
• JACOB protects the Island because it is the only thing that is keeping a pure kind of evil trapped from infecting the entire world.
• THE SMOKE MONSTER/MAN IN BLACK is what JACOB believes is that pure kind of evil.
• JACOB keeps bringing people to the Island to try to prove his point that all of man isn’t completely corruptable with sin (and doesn’t mind that the people he brings keep dying).
• JACOB made ALPERT his spokeperson because he didn’t want to directly influence the people that he brings to the Island.
• THE BLACK ROCK is what broke the big statue on the Island while coming ashore.
• HURLEY once again seems to be fighting on the side of good by convincing RICHARD to not join the evil LOCKE/SMOKE MONSTER.
• The knife that SAYID tried to kill evil LOCKE with was the same knife that the MAN IN BLACK gave to RICHARD to kill JACOB.
• The white rock that evil LOCKE threw into the ocean may have been the one that JACOB gave to RICHARD to give to the MAN IN BLACK.
• JACOB sent ILANA to the Island to protect the remaining six candidates and she doesn’t like to show up without a gift.

From the preview for next week’s episode, THE PACKAGE, it would seem that evil LOCKE is either going to drop in on the JACK camp to try to lure SUN away with promises of taking her to her husband. Based on his past tactics this can’t really be his real intention. THE PACKAGE also marks our start of the ‘back nine’ as there are only 9 hours of LOST ever. If my predictions are correct than from this point out it is just going to be a roller-coaster ride until the finale. I really hope I’m right.

– Will Wilkins is a little less LOST than he was last week.

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