Ab Aeterno (S6, ep. 9)
“…a woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full.” – “Works and Days,” Hesiod
Jacob: “Think of this wine as what you keep calling hell. There’s 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.”
I spent the a few hours over the weekend reassembling this column for you all, and I’m kind of glad that I had the opportunity. Ab Aeterno is an episode that rewards on multiple levels: there’s the simple fact of Richard Alpert’s back-story finally being told, there’s the layering of subtextual meaning throughout the episode – moments that reflect Lost’s larger themes and concerns and continue underlining them in largely nifty ways. Finally, there’s the revelation of the Island’s supposed purpose, a purpose that brings to mind the writings of Hesiod and the myth of Pandora. Ab Aeterno was, for me, a thoroughly satisfying and surprisingly “cinematic” installment of Lost’s final season.
Before we launch into the column, a word of shameless self-promotion: I’ve been working on a manuscript that will combine the ideas in these columns with all-new prose into a book that you’ll be able to purchase this summer, should you want to do so. If you’re interested in owning this book, shoot me an email at WhatIsWater@gmail.com, or pop over to Back to the Island, where you can do the same thing. By sending me an email YOU WILL NOT BE BOUND IN ANY WAY – I’ll simply know who’s interested, and I’ll be able to send those of you who are interested some sneak peeks of the finished product, some exclusive excerpts, and some reminders of its existence as the date of release approaches. I will not sell your information to Nigerian “princes,” nor will I bombard you with offers of “Enlargement.” If you’d like to show your support for these columns, or for my ramblings in general, I’d be honored if you’d take the time to drop me a line. And now that I’ve cleared my throat, on with the show!
Thoughts:
I think we need to stop for a minute, right here at the beginning, and talk about science and faith.
If you’ve been watching Lost this season and/or following along with these columns, then you know that Lost, like Van Morrison, has taken a flying leap Into the Mystic. You know that the conflict between Jacob and the Man in Black has taken on Biblical overtones, and that the stories of these castaways have now been revealed as threads in a larger weave that depicts nothing less than an apparent struggle between Good and Evil on what feels like a cosmic scale.
Some of you seem less than thrilled about this.
To some extent, this is inevitable. As Lost begins laying its cards down and showing us its final hand, “The Answers” (or relative lack thereof, depending on your point of view) will either satisfy or they won’t. Most of us have spent at least some time wondering what The Answers would be, and have come up with a few of our own possible solutions over the course of the show’s run. Some of us, identifiable by our lack of social skills and what our former friends might hypothetically refer to as that “crazy-eyed, twitchy thing you do,” have composed weekly columns. And some of us are bound to be disappointed to find that The Answers aren’t what we thought they’d be, or aren’t as numerous as we think they ought to be. I’m sorry if that’s the case for you, but it’s understandable and I have no intention of trying to convince you otherwise. A story is what it is, and you either dig it or you don’t.
But this week, I’ve noticed that some of you have a very specific complaint about this season and while you’re still on-board this Crazy Train, you have reservations – specifically regarding the emphasis on religion and myth that has permeated these episodes. Where did the science go, seems to be the core of these complaints, and if you’re one of those people, I’d like to take a moment to speak with you. Yes, just you. Siddown.
For those of you who are finding this season slightly alienating because of its seemingly-swift shift from quasi-scientific to flat-out mythic, I’d like to caution patience. Lost has always been a show about two men, not one: A man of science, and a man of faith. I’d argue that the last two seasons both gave us heavily science-based “chapters” in Lost’s larger saga. We spent serious time with wormholes, Minkowski space, the effects of electromagnetism on light, the theoretical “rules” of time travel, etc. et al. A lot of scientific Answers were parceled out about the properties of the Island, of time, of space, and these Answers in turn informed and reflected the actions of the characters. The castaways became living scientific Variables, working against the Constant of time itself.
Seasons 3 and 4 contained finales that essentially “bled” into one another, transitioning subtly from stories told about trying to get off of the Island, into stories about trying to return to the Island. Similarly, Season 5 “bled” into Season 6 in its final scenes – going from an attempt at a massive science-fueled timeline “course correction” to the death/self-sacrifice of a Christ/God-figure at the urgings of a Set/satan figure wearing the face of John Locke. It makes sense then that so far this season it’s been the man of faith’s turn to drive the Dharma van, and we’re getting what amounts to the other half of Lost’s series-long “conflict” between that man of faith and the man of science. The mythical implications of this Island are now being spotlighted overtly, and a lot of Faith-based Answers are starting to emerge – we’ve spent time realizing the ways in which Jacob represents a certain view of God, and how the Man in Black resembles any number of tempter/satan/Set figures in world religion. In effect, as I’ve talked about in past columns and as I’ll explain in more detail in my forthcoming book, the Island has revealed itself as a kind of Mythic/Religious Rosetta Stone, a “key” to possible explanations for/origins of myth, legend, story, religion.
Two sides, you know? If all of the cosmic Jacob/MiB stuff is getting you down, and you miss the science of it all, try looking at things from another angle: When John Locke first discovered it, The Hatch seemed to be some kind of buried Idol, whispering commands to him from under the earth, but turned out to be a Station built for scientific study. The Island’s strange properties have been revealed to have scientifically plausible explanations (in the theoretical sense at least). Time travel was broken down and explained using purely scientific terms, and Jacob is, after all, a kind of scientist. The Island has been his maze, and these castaway people throughout history have been his rats. From this POV, the Man in Black seems more like a fellow scientist who’s decided that the experiment has failed, that they should terminate the trials. Both men have decided that the other is dangerous, and have conspired against each other. The MiB has Jacob killed because Jacob won’t let him leave the testing area; Jacob has trapped the MiB because, so we’ve been told, to let him out would be to cause terrible harm to the people outside of that area.
Just because the story of Jacob and the Man in Black is painted in Mythic colors doesn’t mean that these characters aren’t human. Equating Jacob to a God/Christ/Ra/Aslan figure doesn’t make him an actual God. What it makes him is a kind of living allegory.
Does that make sense?
Science and faith have always been the yin and the yang of Lost. Rather than let the show’s current interest in the yang disrupt your enjoyment of it, why not try rolling with it and seeing where it takes us? Remember: Everything that rises (including seemingly-disparate methods of reflecting on the world) must converge.
Thoughts:
• Nestor Carbonell is a wonder in this episode. Until Season 6, the range of Richard Alpert’s emotional spectrum was extremely limited. Re-watch Seasons 3-5 (Richard’s tenure on the show) and you’ll see that the character essentially has two modes: quizzical and stoic. The closest we’ve really come to seeing Alpert express himself was during his debut episode, “Not in Portland,” and in that instance he was pretending at being someone that he really wasn’t – namely, Dr. Richard Alpert, Mittelos Bioscience recruiter (remember him telling Juliet about the “awesome” nature hikes?). Ab Aeterno gives Alpert the Ageless a chance to flex his acting muscles, and it turns out that this dude is, like, hella strong.
“I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” – Proverbs 8:23, KJV
He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.”) – Psalms 102:17-20 KJV
• Both of the passages quoted above contain the Latin phrase “Ab Aeterno,” which translates (depending on who is doing the translating) as “From everlasting,” or “From eternity.” Both have potential applicability to Lost. The verse from Proverbs refers to God, but one can also see Lost’s writers referencing Richard and Jacob’s apparent immortality. And for a show that’s heavily steeped in cons and confidence men/women, there’s a certain irony to the way that the King James Version of the Bible phrases itself: “I was set up from the beginning.” Other translations have this as “I was appointed from the beginning.” I like the notion of the Man in Black having been “set up from the beginning.” I like the idea that in an episode where Richard and the Man in Black express betrayal over Jacob’s veiled plans and actions, both have been “set up” for him.
• The verses from Psalms reference “the groaning of the prisoner,” which might refer to the Man in Black, Richard, the castaways, or even Jacob himself, and the promise to “loose those that are appointed to death” can refer to Richard, who is scheduled to die for murder but given reprieve, then granted immortality on the Island, and might also refer to all of the people who have died on the Island.
Ilana: “After I’ve brought them to the temple, what do I do?”
Jacob: “Ask Ricardus, he’ll know what to do next.”
• The show again begins with a shot of an opening eye (visually evoking the idea of “awakening,” of “becoming conscious,” of achieving “good being”) – specifically Ilana’s. We’re back in that mysterious hospital room, where Jacob first recruited her into his service. It’s the same scene that we witnessed in the Season 5 finale, but extended slightly. We hear Jacob ask her to protect six people – the remaining candidates. At this request Ilana (who, despite looking like Peyton Westlake’s curly-haired cousin seems genuinely glad to see Jacob) tears up. Does she understand that this request means that Jacob will shortly die? Is that the reason for her tears?
• Hey, did you notice that in Jacob and Ilana’s first scene together she’s all bandaged-up but in their next scene together, which takes place moments after the first, she’s un-bandaged and unblemished, seemingly healed? Continuity error? Or intentionally stealthy detail? What do you think?
Richard: “You wanna know a secret, Jack? Something I’ve known a long, long time? You’re dead….We’re all dead. Every single one of us. And this? All this? It’s not what you think it is. We’re not on an Island. We never were. We’re in hell.”
• Ab Aeterno returns us, briefly, into the company of Jack, Frank, Miles, Ben, Sun, Ilana, Hurley and Richard, aka the Jacobians. We’re reminded that some of these people (Frank’s sole purpose at this point seems to be “convenient, not-dead pilot”) are Candidates to replace Jacob, but not what that actually means, nor how they go about determining who the “true” candidate is. All we know: Jacob told Ilana that Richard would know what to do next. Except that he really, really doesn’t seem to know. In fact, Richard’s more-or-less losing it (as Jack points out). His world is crumbling around him and the central defining purpose of his life has burnt up (literally and figuratively). In this context, Alpert’s near-hysterical giggling is both funny and deeply sad. It’s the laughter of a man who believes that everything he thought he believed was a joke.
• If you’ve been following along with the Rewatch columns and/or reading along with this season’s recaps, then you already know that the Island is a kind of “Underworld,” if only in the allegorical/mythical sense. The dead can be glimpsed, the living are judged, signs and symbols scattered over the Island reference and refer to “Underworld,” “sheol,” “Hel,” etc., and once you’ve arrived on its shores, the Island is a terribly difficult place to leave. So, in a sense, what Richard says is true. The Island IS hell, in that it shares certain features with the proposed versions of the afterlife that Greek, Jewish, Egyptian, and Christian belief systems.
• Speculative note: Jacob seems certain that Richard will know what to do regarding the issue of Jacob’s candidates. Suppose that this is because Richard has already performed this task/duty once before: when he tested a young John Locke with what seemed to be a variation on the test that the Pachen Lama has given to prospective Dali Lama candidates. Recall what Richard asked Locke: “Which of these things belong to you already?” Is it possible that, in addition to testing Locke for leadership of the Others, Richard was also, unknowingly, testing him for candidacy?
Jack: “Locke is dead.”
Ben: “If it’s any consolation, it’s not exactly Locke.”
• I’d forgotten that, after all this time, Jack still has no idea that “Locke” has resurrected. The eventual meeting between them should be epic, and you and I both know that it needs to happen.
Hurley (translated from Spanish): “Why? I don’t know. Yes, I can help you, but… I don’t know how to find him.”
• We see Hurley speaking in Spanish to what looks like thin air. It’ll turn out that he was speaking with Isabella, Richard’s dead wife. Her presence on the Island and her appearance to Richard has me amending my “Island ghost theory,” where I guessed that the body of a dead person needed to be on the Island in order for the Man in Black to assume her form. From what we see here, it looks as though memories, whether taken from the living (as the MiB seems to do with Richard in this episode) or the dead (as Miles is shown doing throughout the show) may be the key to the Man in Black’s “ghost” appearances. This assumption keeps my “Island Ghost theory” in play but adds this corollary: the memories of the living are fair game as well.
• Apparently, Richard and his wife Isabella lived in the Canary Islands, which are located off the Northwest coast of Africa, placing it roughly near one of the “Vile Vortices” which may be transporting people to the Island ala the “Bermuda Triangle.”
Isabella: “We will always be together.”
• Isabella is dying from consumption, and gives her husband the same basic advice that we saw Michael Landon dishing out on Little House during “Recon”: The dead never truly leave us, because they reside in our memories (and this further supports the Island Ghost theory, suggesting that Isabella can manifest because Richard remembers her, and that Hurley can see her because Hurley is “special”). She gives Richard her necklace to help him pay for the medicine she needs – trading the symbol of her faith for the hope of science in a symbolic sense.
Note that the bottle of medicine which the Doctor is shown holding STRONGLY resembles the vial of “sand” which Richard brought to Locke during his aforementioned Pachen Lama test in Season 4.
THIS COLUMN CONTINUES, AB AETERNO, AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!