Season 6, Episode 9:
Ab Aeterno
FLASHBACK! Ilana, her face wrapped in bandages, is lying in a Russian hospital bed when a man wearing black clothes and black gloves takes a seat next to her. It's Jacob. He gives Ilana a list of names—the remaining Candidates—and asks her to help protect them. She is instructed to bring the Candidates to the Temple, and once there, "Ricardus" will know what to do.
Ilana finishes telling this story to Jack, Sun, Hurley, Ben, Miles, Lapidus and Richard this story while they sit around a campfire at night, still at the beach camp. Ilana and Jack ask Richard what they're supposed to do next, but Richard has no idea, on top of having completely lost faith in Jacob and his plan.
Richard leaves the camp and Ilana follows, despite Jack saying that Richard has lost his mind and clearly doesn't know what they need to do. The rest of the group start to explain the "Locke" situation to Jack, but he doesn't pay attention, having noticed Hurley standing by the water and having one of his "ghost" conversations in Spanish. Jack thinks he's talking to Jacob, but Hurley claims it's someone else and refuses to talk about it. Ben agrees with Jack's earlier point about Richard being a waste of time, and explains to Lapidus about Richard's agelessness. Lapidus wonders how a thing like that might've happened...
Tenerife, Canary Islands, 1867. Ricardo returns home via horseback and finds that his wife, Isabella, is even more sick with fever than when he left. He promises to bring back a doctor or some medicine, and Isabella gives him her crucifix necklace. Ricardo rides through the night and the pouring rain to the home of the nearest doctor, a rich snob who refuses to give up the medicine that could save Isabella, despite Ricardo offering all the money he has. Ricardo tries to take the medicine by force, and in the ensuing scuffle he accidentally kills the doctor. Medicine in hand, Ricardo rides back to his home only to find that he's too late and Isabella has died. Moments later, constables arrive to arrest him.
In prison, Ricardo has nothing but an English bible—he and Isabella had been planning to travel to the New World and were learning English—and Isabella's crucifix. A priest takes his confession but refuses to grant Ricardo forgiveness in the eyes of God because the only way for him to earn absolution is through penance, and he doesn't have enough time to do so: Ricardo is to be hanged the next day. Later, the priest takes Ricardo from his cell and brings him to an Englishman named Jonas Whitfield. Because he can speak English and was previously a farmer, Ricardo is sold as a slave to Magnus Hanso, captain of the Black Rock. The ship spends weeks at sea on its way to the New World before being hit by a severe storm. Ricardo is locked in the hold with the other slaves, one of whom manages to spot an island—the Island—through a crack in the wall. He mistakes the intact statue of Tarawet for the Devil and shouts that the Island is a cursed place. As Ricardo prays for safe passage, a tidal wave picks up the Black Rock and propels it into the statue, smashing it to pieces.
When Ricardo regains consciousness, it's the next morning, most of the crew—including Captain Hanso—are dead, most of the slaves are alive, and the Black Rock is lying in the middle of the jungle. Whitfield goes down into the hold and starts killing the slaves, not wanting to risk them revolting against the crew. He finishes off the others and is about to run Ricardo through with a sword when the Smoke Monster shows up and wipes out the rest of the crew, including Whitfield. It enters the hold, goes right up to Ricardo, "scans" him and then leaves. Still chained up in the hold, Ricardo is left for days without food, water or means of escape. At one point, he is almost gouged by a wild boar that enters the hold to feed on the dead remains of the slaves. Just as he's ready to give up, he is visited by Isabella note , who claims they have both died and gone to hell. She tries to free him before "the Devil" returns, but they hear the sound of the Monster approaching and Ricardo tells her to run. She has barely climbed out of the hold when Ricardo hears the sounds of the Smoke Monster attacking and Isabella screaming.
That night, Ricardo is woken by the arrival of a man arrives, a man with water and the keys needed to free him from the chains, a Man in Black. He claims to be a friend and confirms that Ricardo is in hell, and that Isabella was taken by the Devil. Ricardo promises to help the Man in Black in exchange for being freed, and for his help in trying to rescue Isabella.
Once outside, the Man in Black feeds Ricardo, tells him that the Devil can be found at the remains of the statue and gives him a ceremonial dagger, along with instructions to kill the Devil before he can speak, or else it will already be too late.
Ricardo takes the knife and goes to the statue, prepared to kill "the Devil". Among the statue's debris he is attacked and quickly subdued by Jacob, who quickly realises what's going on and tells Ricardo that he's not really dead, and what he saw wasn't his wife. When Ricardo continues to claim that he's in hell, Jacob drags him to the water and holds him under until Ricardo exclaims that he wants to live. Jacob brings Ricardo some blankets and some wine, and they talk.
Those words strike home, so Jacob decides to give Ricardo a job as his intermediary, guiding people on his behalf so that he doesn't have to step in himself, and as payment, he offers Ricardo whatever he wants. Ricardo asks for his wife back, and then for his sins to be absolved so that he doesn't have to go to Hell, but Jacob can't do either of those.
Ricardo returns to the stone bench where the Man in Black is waiting and gives him a white stone, a gift from Jacob. The Man in Black isn't surprised that Ricardo didn't go through with it ("He can be very... convincing"), and tells Ricardo that the offer still stands if he ever changes his mind. He also gives Ricardo something: Isabella's crucifix necklace, recovered from the ship. Once the Man in Black has gone, Ricardo buries the necklace under the stone bench and says goodbye to his wife.
Present day. Richard Alpert returns to the stone bench, digs up the necklace and starts shouting that he's changed his mind and wants to know if the offer still stands. He hears someone approaching, but it's not the Man in Black: it's Hurley. Richard gets angry until Hurley says that he was sent by Isabella, who wants to know why Richard buried her cross. He doesn't believe it at first, until Hurley tells him to close his eyes—something Isabella said to him before she died—and relays her message.
She disappears, but not before giving Hurley one final message for Richard.
As Richard and Hurley talk, the Man in Black watches from a distance.
1867. Jacob and the Man in Black sit on a log overlooking a valley and talk about the recent events concerning Ricardo.
Jacob gives him a bottle of wine ("something for you to pass the time") and leaves. The Man in Black takes the bottle by its stem and, once Jacob has gone, smashes it against the log, spilling wine everywhere.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Accidental Murder: Ricardo accidentally kills a doctor while desperately trying to convince him to give him medicine that could save his wife Isabella's life.
- Actor Allusion: The Man in Black convinces Ricardo that Jacob is the Devil, referencing Mark Pellegrino's role as Lucifer on Supernatural.
- All for Nothing: Ricardo's journey to the doctor and accidentally killing him to take medicine back to Isabella fails, as she turns out to be dead by the time he gets home.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Jacob explains to Ricardo why he brings people to the island but doesn't help them after they get there, he asks why he should, as the point is that they are able to be good by themselves, and if Jacob were to tell them, it would be pointless. This leads to...
- Armor-Piercing Response: Ricardo points out, based on the fact that The Man In Black told him to kill Jacob, that if Jacob himself doesn't interfere directly to make the people do good, the Man in Black will step in and get them to do evil. This leads Jacob to compromise by offering Ricardo the position of his intermediary, to step in on his behalf.
- Asshole Victim: Even if Ricardo didn’t mean to do it, it’s doubtful anyone felt too bad about the doctor biting the dust. See Dr. Jerk below.
- Call-Forward:
- Richard is revealed to have come to the Island as a slave on board the Black Rock.
- It's revealed that the tidal wave that carried the Black Rock to the middle of the jungle is what knocked down the Statue of Tawaret when the ship crashed into it.
- The Man in Black tells Ricardo "It's good to see you out of those chains" when he frees him, the same thing he would say to him 140 years later while in the form of John Locke to reveal his true identity.
- When telling Ricardo how to kill Jacob, the Man in Black gives him the same knife and the same instructions that Dogen gives Sayid when telling him how to kill the Man in Black in "Sundown".The Man in Black: You only have one chance. Put this through his chest. Do not hesitate, do not let him say a word. If he speaks, it will already be too late. He can be very persuasive.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Jacob beats the crap out of Ricardo when the Man in Black sends him to kill him.
- Dead Person Conversation: At the end of the episode, Richard is able to talk to Isabella through Hurley, and she reassures him that they will always be together and helps him find his purpose again.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Man in Black takes the form of Ricardo's dead wife Isabella to convince him that he is in Hell and manipulate him into killing Jacob.
- Dr. Jerk: The doctor from whom Ricardo tries to get help for Isabella refuses to ride out to Ricardo's house because it's raining, charges him an exorbitant amount of money for medicine and callously refuses to help him when he can't afford it.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Man in Black tells Ricardo that Jacob separated him from his body and stole his humanity.
- Jacob describes the Island as being like a cork in a wine bottle, keeping evil from spreading throughout the world. The finale reveals that there is a literal cork in a hole in the Heart of the Island, and implies that it could lead to the end of the world if it were removed.
- The Man in Black smashing Jacob's wine bottle foreshadows his plan to destroy the Island in the finale.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: The Man in Black, in the form of Isabella, tells Richard he's in Hell. After everything he's been through Richard believes it and it takes Jacob dunking him in the ocean to convince him he's still alive.
- Origins Episode: The episode explains how Richard, or as he was known then, Ricardo, came to the Island, started serving Jacob and gained his immortality.
- Rule of Three: Ricardo asks for three different gifts from Jacob before he makes a request that Jacob is actually capable of granting.Ricardo: I want my wife back.
Jacob: Can't do that.
Ricardo: Can you absolve me of my sins so I don't go to Hell?
Jacob: I can't do that either.
Ricardo: Then I never want to die. I want to live forever.
Jacob: Now that... I can do. - Trauma Conga Line: It's little wonder Richard believed the Island was Hell considering everything he'd been through up to that point.
- Villainous Rescue: The Man in Black, in his Smoke Monster form, saves Ricardo from being killed by Whitfield after the Black Rock lands on the Island.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Aside from a brief segment at the beginning and end, the entire episode is a flashback covering the story of how Richard came to the Island.
