Acceptance of a Higher Power – LOST 6.9: Ab Aeterno
Acceptance of a Higher Power – LOST 6.9: Ab Aeterno
Mar 25The metaphor of The Island as a stoppered bottle of wine containing uncontrollable evil has me in the mind to think of LOST through the lens of AA – and, as we have a few characters with drinking problems (and a few actors, too), why shouldn’t it?
What has this show been if not an examination of broken, powerless people being given a second chance to accept a higher power and make amends for their past misdeeds and missteps? In Sawyer, in Jin, in Jack and most recently in Ben, we’ve seen redemptive arcs come to fruition. The Island makes the lame walk, brings estranged spouses and fathers and sons and siblings back together, allows the haunted and unlovable to find love. But it always allows for the choice to reject it, which we saw Sayid do in “Sundown” – no strike that, as far back as season 4 when he chooses freely to become Ben’s hired gun.
That this is exactly what Jacob’s agenda is (at least, as he describes it to Richard; Mark Pellegrino’s Jacob is as mystic and inscrutable as ever; he’s not a liar, but he rarely says everything) is a welcome confirmation, but hardly a surprise.
Redemption is a major theme in “Ab Aeterno” (which literally means ‘from eternity’ and colloquially means ‘for a really long time’). Instead of parallel-world hijinks that we still aren’t sure are relevant to what has been a disjointed and lumbering (if still highly enjoyable and packed full of Moments) A-plot, instead we get a taste of LOST’s old bread and butter – the flashback. In it, we see Richard (who might also be Ricardo, Ricardus or Rick Astley depending on who’s addressing him) wrestle with his own inadvertent damnation and his struggle between TMIB’s easy path to salvation (which involves stabbing someone to death) versus Jacob’s eternity of service pitch.
In the present, not much happens beyond a frame to enwrap the flashback, at least until the end of the hour, where Hurley comforts Richard by acting as an intermediary between he and his dead wife. I am going to resist making a Ghost joke, because I’ve already seen like five thousand of them in regard to this scene. This finally helps Richard to get his head on straight after a moment of shouting-at-the-jungle doubt. And it’s an understandable doubt. As has been pointed out about Avatar, religion is not faith on Pandora, but rather fact. It is the same on The Island, especially for those like Richard who have had a close relationship with its primary inhabitants. With his god dead, his people scattered or massacred and his life dependent on a snarky-ass interloper like Jack Shephard, what else can he feel but despair?
And thus, with 9 hours behind us, we move into the second half of the final season. Team Jacob’s can do spinal surgery, talk to dead people, stare creepily and have impressive eyelashes. Team Flocke has Zombie Sayid, Kate, Clairzy (Claire + Crazy) and Cindy the Stewardess. Sawyer’s running his own game. Jin’s been bear-trapped into uselessness. Real Locke is still dead and buried. Widmore is back and has a Flocke-proof fence set up. We’re moving inexorably toward a showdown and the outcome is still anyone’s guess. Will it be Lostie vs. Lostie? Will the good guys keep the wine in the bottle, or will evil overdramatically smash the hell out of it? It’s too close to call, but it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
