![[a case of the blog]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdW6m_GKpkUaPi56fHU6TFDQPOe1Rd_Lu0S_T5NgEIvzR2rJYBvUU6yRIyH7xtuBt0hVMDAcuqSlLEu9ooq2iwOOnskdsfS9BMjPZJsFJMVIlMJopdnOVjxqeNRR9etLlOY9wUNdSpW6D/s1600/newblogheader19.gif)
Number 8: Episode 6x09 – “Ab Aeterno”
Featured Character: Richard Alpert
Major Events & Revelations: Richard’s arrival on the island in 1867
I daresay that this was the most anticipated episode of the final season, second only to the series finale.
When Richard Alpert was first introduced in the third season episode “Not in Portland,” all we knew about him was that he seemingly recruited people from the “real world” to come to the island and join the Others. As far as we knew, he was nothing more than a typical, albeit well groomed, member of the mysterious group. It wasn’t until the near the end of that season, in “The Man Behind the Curtain,” that we realized that there was much more to this enigmatic character. In that Ben-centric episode, we came to learn that the Others leader met Richard Alpert in 1973 – and it didn’t seem like he aged a day in the past thirty years.
In many ways, season five was the coming out party for Richard Alpert. To borrow a term from the show’s vocabulary, he was the only constant in the midst of the time traveling chaos. In fact, this unique character played a crucial role in the season five finale, interacting and assisting the central characters both in 1977, and in 2007.
And throughout this all, we knew very little about him. Was he immortal? A time traveler? Eternally young? The Smoke Monster? Aside from vague comments and hints here and there, we were essentially clueless when it came to Alpert. And as such, “Ab Aeterno,” which would tell the story of Alpert’s life before arriving on the island, how he got to the island, and how he became eternally young, was met with great eagerness.
We came to learn that in 1867, Richard was living in Tenerife (fittingly, a Spanish island) with his wife, Isabella, who was on her deathbed. Ultimately, he accidentally kills a man in a struggle to get her medicine, and she dies before he arrives home. He’s arrested and seemingly sentenced to be hanged, before he’s spared because of his ability to speak English. And thus begins Alpert’s journey to the island aboard the Black Rock – a slave ship heading to the New World. Fate had another plan, however, as they hit a storm and crash onto the island.
Almost immediately, Alpert gets the Job treatment, as he’s tortured in every conceivable way by the Smoke Monster. First, the entire crew is massacred, leaving Alpert as the sole survivor. Then he’s physically, emotionally, and mentally tormented, with starvation and visions of his late beloved wife bring him to the brink of demise. Just as it seemed that he was about to break down, the Man in Black conveniently comes to his rescue, and begins manipulating him into killing Jacob – promising that he’ll reunite him with his wife in return. After he tries and fails, Alpert sits and speaks with Jacob. He convinces the island deity to not be so “hands-off” as it relates to these tests and trials to disprove Smokey’s assessment that all humans are corrupt.
And this brief scene ultimately showed us that, even when in despair, Alpert recognizes the difference between good and evil. The Man in Black put him in a miserable situation – leaving him to starve for nearly a week and preying on his love for his dead wife – and then placed all of that on Jacob’s shoulders, in the hopes that he’d be able to vanquish his foe. But even in a desperate mental state, he understood what was right and what was wrong. And, since Alpert is synonymous with the Others (possibly even more so than Ben), perhaps Ben was right. In the grand scheme of things, maybe the Others really were the “good guys” after all.
I also cannot ignore the beautiful, touching scene between Alpert and the spirit of his late wife, with Hurley serving as a surprisingly sensitive and loving moderator. Such a scene is tough to pull off, as it can come across as confusing at best, and hokey at worst. But all three performers really nailed it. In a lot of ways, “Ab Aeterno” was also the arrival of Hurley as a semi-confident sorta-leader.
So why not rank this higher, then? While the episode was really enjoyable, I do sense that a lot of fans were slightly disappointed that it merely confirmed what we already strongly suspected, rather than delivering any earth shattering twists and revelations. In a lot of ways that criticism is unfair. I mean, the fact that we were able to deduce so much about Alpert’s character without witnessing it first hand through flashbacks is a testament to the way he’s been written (and it may also remind us, as we prepare for the finale, that we don’t necessarily need everything spelled out for us). And whileI don’t fault the episode for not getting into this, since it wouldn’t have fit the story, but I would have loved to have seen the birth of the Others. Nonetheless, the fact that this episode didn’t receive universal praise, and that it didn’t live up to everyone’s expectations, is one of the reasons why this comes in at number eight.
Click here for my original review of the episode
Watch this episode in its entirety:
Featured Character: Richard Alpert
Major Events & Revelations: Richard’s arrival on the island in 1867
I daresay that this was the most anticipated episode of the final season, second only to the series finale.
When Richard Alpert was first introduced in the third season episode “Not in Portland,” all we knew about him was that he seemingly recruited people from the “real world” to come to the island and join the Others. As far as we knew, he was nothing more than a typical, albeit well groomed, member of the mysterious group. It wasn’t until the near the end of that season, in “The Man Behind the Curtain,” that we realized that there was much more to this enigmatic character. In that Ben-centric episode, we came to learn that the Others leader met Richard Alpert in 1973 – and it didn’t seem like he aged a day in the past thirty years.
In many ways, season five was the coming out party for Richard Alpert. To borrow a term from the show’s vocabulary, he was the only constant in the midst of the time traveling chaos. In fact, this unique character played a crucial role in the season five finale, interacting and assisting the central characters both in 1977, and in 2007.
And throughout this all, we knew very little about him. Was he immortal? A time traveler? Eternally young? The Smoke Monster? Aside from vague comments and hints here and there, we were essentially clueless when it came to Alpert. And as such, “Ab Aeterno,” which would tell the story of Alpert’s life before arriving on the island, how he got to the island, and how he became eternally young, was met with great eagerness.
We came to learn that in 1867, Richard was living in Tenerife (fittingly, a Spanish island) with his wife, Isabella, who was on her deathbed. Ultimately, he accidentally kills a man in a struggle to get her medicine, and she dies before he arrives home. He’s arrested and seemingly sentenced to be hanged, before he’s spared because of his ability to speak English. And thus begins Alpert’s journey to the island aboard the Black Rock – a slave ship heading to the New World. Fate had another plan, however, as they hit a storm and crash onto the island.
Almost immediately, Alpert gets the Job treatment, as he’s tortured in every conceivable way by the Smoke Monster. First, the entire crew is massacred, leaving Alpert as the sole survivor. Then he’s physically, emotionally, and mentally tormented, with starvation and visions of his late beloved wife bring him to the brink of demise. Just as it seemed that he was about to break down, the Man in Black conveniently comes to his rescue, and begins manipulating him into killing Jacob – promising that he’ll reunite him with his wife in return. After he tries and fails, Alpert sits and speaks with Jacob. He convinces the island deity to not be so “hands-off” as it relates to these tests and trials to disprove Smokey’s assessment that all humans are corrupt.
And this brief scene ultimately showed us that, even when in despair, Alpert recognizes the difference between good and evil. The Man in Black put him in a miserable situation – leaving him to starve for nearly a week and preying on his love for his dead wife – and then placed all of that on Jacob’s shoulders, in the hopes that he’d be able to vanquish his foe. But even in a desperate mental state, he understood what was right and what was wrong. And, since Alpert is synonymous with the Others (possibly even more so than Ben), perhaps Ben was right. In the grand scheme of things, maybe the Others really were the “good guys” after all.
I also cannot ignore the beautiful, touching scene between Alpert and the spirit of his late wife, with Hurley serving as a surprisingly sensitive and loving moderator. Such a scene is tough to pull off, as it can come across as confusing at best, and hokey at worst. But all three performers really nailed it. In a lot of ways, “Ab Aeterno” was also the arrival of Hurley as a semi-confident sorta-leader.
So why not rank this higher, then? While the episode was really enjoyable, I do sense that a lot of fans were slightly disappointed that it merely confirmed what we already strongly suspected, rather than delivering any earth shattering twists and revelations. In a lot of ways that criticism is unfair. I mean, the fact that we were able to deduce so much about Alpert’s character without witnessing it first hand through flashbacks is a testament to the way he’s been written (and it may also remind us, as we prepare for the finale, that we don’t necessarily need everything spelled out for us). And whileI don’t fault the episode for not getting into this, since it wouldn’t have fit the story, but I would have loved to have seen the birth of the Others. Nonetheless, the fact that this episode didn’t receive universal praise, and that it didn’t live up to everyone’s expectations, is one of the reasons why this comes in at number eight.
Click here for my original review of the episode
Watch this episode in its entirety:
No comments:
Post a Comment