General Reactions

[Perry]

Great episode on first reaction!
More Richard, Jacob and Smokey is always good.

Really thought this was the episode we were going to see Smokey turn into MIB. When Smokey approaches Richard to scan him, he almost forms a figure in the standing position which is where I was thinking he's going to change in front of us.

Do they really expect us to believe that a wave so big came out of nowhere for the Black Rock to hit the statue in the head?
Not only that, the statue is huge! There is no way that a statue like that would break from a tiny wooden ship hitting it. Or at least if we were supposed to believe the statue had some cracks around the ankle that the ship hit and the top part was in one piece but fallen over. EDIT: Plus the ship seemed to be relatively fine, very very strange.

I wonder how or why Jacob and MIB think that this dagger will kill the other if they don't speak to the person first.

I totally thought it was Jacob, not MIB, that was grabbing Richard on the shoulder in the ship. They got me. Even though he was wearing black, I had it in my head that Richard had to be "touched" by Jacob and that that shoulder grab was it.

Did Jacob at one point touch Hurley and perhaps grant him with the ability to see dead people?

I really like this battle between to people that can't directly harm each other, having to use other people to get what they want, and can just sit and talk about how they're going to win.

EDIT: Additionally I thought it was extremely weird that they could have easily had the convicts' feet shackled to the wall, but they were only shackled to each other meaning Richard could have easily reached that nail. That little detail was frustrating to me.

[Vince]

That was sweet! After three seasons we finally get Richard Alpert's story!!

Teaser: They played a little head game. Consider, they previously duped us re/ Sundown not being a Sun/Jin ep. So, even though 'Ab Aeternum' had Alpert written all over it I was ready for a fake-out. First:Previously On LOST = Ricard. But then..They opened with an expanded Ilana flashback.

Act I: LOVED Ben & Ilana trying to explain Locke to Jack. And Ben & Lapidus setting up the Richard story (campfire style). They finally confirm the direction when they show Ricardo on horse back in 1867 on the Canary Islands. Doctors and Priests can be a-holes.

Act II: Captain Magnus Hanso bought Alpert to travel on The Black Rock, supposedly to The New World. Like Widmore recruited The Freighties to go to The Island? (Hanso's rep was named 'Whitfield') Had M. Hanso foreknowledge of The Island when recruiting/departing? I'll say it right now: i was disappointed w/ the meager presentation of both The Black Rock's landing and The Statue's destruction. Weak Sauce! Regardless.. When Whitfield killed the captives was it really Smokey? more to come on that.. The earliest seen Smokey appearance! Smokey scanning Ricardo in The Black Rock = awesome. Slightly diff'rent from Eko scanning. Juliet, too. Lays groundwork for Isabella in Act III.

Act III: Poor f'n Ricardo w/ the boars, and the nails, and the waters out of mouth's reach. Isabellla alive again, then not. So, if Isabella was Smokey and Smokey weas also heard outside TheBlackRock he can technically BI-LOCATE! Just like Ms. Klu theorized about Walt! Damn that Smokey? Mr. Loophole returns! "I wanna be free, too." There's only one way to escape from hell - you're golnna hafta kill the devil. Credit to Nestor Carbonell, who was a totally different yet plausible precursor to the Richard Alpert we've known.

Act IV: Another forthrigt admission of smokey identity, this time to Alpert. (Mr.Loophole does his McCain impression w/ 'My friend..') Smokey-Loophole promises Ricardo he'll see 'is wife again. (BTW - ricardo sounds ethnically consistent but wtf is up w/ 'alpert?') jacob nearly drowning Alpert was heavy. Jacob was much rougher around the edges in 1867. ( I wonder if the writers are drawing a line at 1867 [they won't show anything before that?] or if we'll see statue construction, or donkey wheel..)

Act V: The Island is a cork containing hell/malevolence. There were many before Ricardo but they are all dead. If you don't (step in, Smokey) will. Richard = intermediary in return for immortality. The Richard/Isabella renion approached Constantness. This was the high point of Hurley's power to speak to the dead. Much better than BS like being pulled over by Ana Lucia. Richard gets from the ghost of his wife the absolution the priest would not grant. (very Yemi, but the opposite) Isabella says Richard has to stop the Man In Black from leaving The Island or we're all going to hell. Don't gloat jacob, it doesn't become you. Just let me leave. I'll kill whoever takes your place. See ya 'round. - Sooner than you think.

An extra five minutes of LOST!

I can't wait to see what Alpert knows as far as which directionto go.

[TheRadioTower]

I loved the new Richard Alpert theme music. Productions values are usually quite good on Lost but in this episode they kicked it up a notch- the sets, the costumes and even a realistic fake beard. The CGI during the storm was pretty awesome considering people have been talking about poor CG in certain scenes this season. The episode felt really surreal to me and for a while I taken aback since it did not seem like an episode of Lost. I have to watch it again to make any meaningful comment on the substance of it.

[Stephen]

Great episode! Reminded me of the Other 48 Days, the way it was so self-contained.

My only thought: Richard's wrists were really beat up from being chained up in the ship... just like Kate's after her lunch with Ben.


HMMMMMM

I think this is PROOF Kate is a mole.

[TheRadioTower]

Great episode! Reminded me of the Other 48 Days, the way it was so self-contained.

My only thought: Richard's wrists were really beat up from being chained up in the ship... just like Kate's after her lunch with Ben.


HMMMMMM

I think this is PROOF Kate is a mole.

Or that Kate is actually Richard in drag, think about it I don't think we've ever seen Richard & Kate in the same scene together. It all makes sense. Yikes.

[muttonboy]

The episode felt really surreal to me and for a while I taken aback since it did not seem like an episode of Lost.

I totally agree. The first few minutes felt odd, kinda of rushed and sloppy with the dialogue of the characters sitting around the island very 'written'...I was worried...THEN WOW!! I was stunned by the quality and AMAZED by the (reverse) transformation of Richard back into a very 'simple' man who was able to convey with his acting that he truly believed that he would go to Hell and never spend eternity with his wife. This episode was on par - even better - than most big budget movies I have seen, even you cut out all the LOST related stuff.

[TheRadioTower]

Oh I hated the first scene. Darlton claim that the reason they don't have the scenes where characters are sharing information on screen is because those scenes suck, I don't think I bought that before but I can buy it after seeing that scene.

Does anyone find it odd that this episode was written by 'Melinda Hsu-Taylor & Greggory Nations'? Usually Damon & Carlton make it a point to write big mythological episodes like this one. Not saying that Taylor & Nations' writing was bad but I would have thought Darlton would have written this episode themselves or atleast given it to old-time Lost writers like Elizabeth Sarnoff or Kitsis-Horowitz instead of two relatively new writers.

[Justin]

Hey, Greggory wrote Eggtown, he's a veteran. I got the impression from the official podcast that D&C micromanaged the script quite a bit, particularly in the scene involving Jacob and Richard.

[Stephen]

For a second I thought it was a pretty big continuity error that the bible was in English then they said that apparently Ricardo learned English just by reading the Bible in that language. Maybe he just knew the Spanish one so well that he could learn it that way, but either way, I gotta get me some bibles in Chinese, Russian and Arabic. I'll be multilingual in no time!

[userpjx]

I actually kind of liked the first scenes. To me, the writers were clearly teasing us, pretty much shoving in our face that we were finally going to see the Alpert flashback.

Also, as far as mythological episodes go, there is a precedent for people other than Darlton writing them. Just look at The Man Behind the Curtain, it was written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Drew Goddard.

EDIT: I figure I should talk about the episode itself as well. It was a refreshing change of pace for this season. Great to finally get closure on so many things. On a side note, I'd like to point out that during the scene where Jacob was drowning Richard, I couldn't help but think of The Big Lebowski.

Also Dramatic Locke was pretty funny.