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Lost recap: Is this hell or just a really warm island?

Posted Mar 24, 2010 by Michele Sager

Updated Mar 24, 2010 at 10:24 AM

In this Richard-centered episode called “Ab aeterno,” meaning from the beginning of time, we finally learn what brought Richard to the island, the love he lost and his fear of the devil.
The episode opens with Jack, Ilana and crew pondering what they should do next as “candidates.” Jacob told Ilana that Richard would know what to do. But Richard said he doesn’t have a clue because he thinks he and everyone else is dead and the island is really hell. (Say it isn’t so! The writers promised us no purgatory.)
Richard says he’s done listening to Jacob. Jack discovers that Locke is still alive, well his body anyway. Hurley is seen speaking Spanish to an unseen dead person in the jungle. Ben doesn’t believe Richard knows anything since they’ve known each other since Ben was 12. Ben also reveals to the crew that Richard never ages.
We flash back to see Richard on a horse looking very Dances with Wolves. He’s rushing to his sick wife’s side. He grabs his gold and his wife’s cross to pay for medicine from the doctor. But the doctor says Richard doesn’t have enough money to pay for the expensive medicine and a struggle ensues. Richard ends up killing the doctor and running off with the medicine. But it’s too late. His wife is already dead by the time he gets back and Richard is thrown in jail.
Richard asks the priest for absolution for the murder he committed but the priest refuses saying the devil wants Richard in hell. Richard becomes a slave on the Black Rock headed to the New World instead of being hanged for his crime. The Black Rock gets caught in a storm and shipwrecks on the island. The ship crashes into the famous four-toed statue, leaving only the foot.
The surviving slaves are happy to be alive until one of the ship’s officers starts killing them all because the ship only has limited supplies. Just as the officer goes to kill Richard, smokey shows up for a visit killing everyone but Richard.
Richard struggles to free himself from his shackles with no luck. He sees his wife who tells them they are both dead and in hell. When Richard’s wife runs from the smoke monster, we hear her scream.
Finally, the man in black shows up to help Richard but only if Richard agrees to kill the “devil.” The man in black tells Richard he is the smoke monster but not the person who took his wife. He tells Richard that he must kill the devil who took her if he ever wants to see her again. We find out that devil is Jacob.
Richard tries to kill Jacob with no success. Instead, Jacob convinces Richard that he is not dead thanks to a dip in the ocean. Jacob tells Richard that he brought the ship to the island. He explains, with the help of bottle of a wine, that the evil on the island is kept contained thanks to the island and without it, the evil would spread.
Jacob says the man in black believes that everyone is corruptible because it’s in there very nature to sin. But Jacob brings people to the island to prove him wrong and when they get here, their past doesn’t matter. Jacob tells Richard he doesn’t get involved. He expects the island people to help themselves. But Richard notes that if Jacob doesn’t get involved the man in black will. So Jacob offers Richard a job as his adviser. In exchange for the job, Richard will never die and go to hell because Jacob gives him the gift of never aging.
The man in black is not pleased that Richard joins up with Jacob. Richard hands the man in black a white rock. The man in black tells Richard that he can always change sides and this offer still stands, then he hands Richard back his cross. Richard buries the cross.
Back in the present, Richard goes back to that spot and digs up the cross. He shouts that he is ready to join smokey’s team. But just then, Hurley appears with a message from Richard’s dead wife. His wife said that Richard must keep smokey from getting off the island or they all are going to hell.
The final scene shows Jacob and the man in the black once again discussing how the man in black wants to leave the island and kill Jacob or any other candidate who gets in his way.