OK, so we’ve been waiting a loooong time for this. Tuesday night we finally found out how Richard got to the island, why he’s been ageless and what his relationship to Jacob was.
I would say we’ve learned who Jacob and the Man in Black are, but we still don’t really know that, do we?
Let’s break it down, shall we?
Richard’s background
He’s not nearly as old as I thought he was.
I had visions of Richard having been around for a thousand years. Maybe since ancient Egypt. I suppose it’s his dark eyes that look like he’s wearing eyeliner that engendered thoughts of that.
But 1867? Color me surprised. He’s only, what, 175 to 200 years old?
So Richard killed some rich guy and therefore was sold into slavery (instead of being hanged). He lost the love of his life (murder and personal loss is a huge theme in this series, no?) and had nothing to live for, though he still couldn’t let go of his life.
Somehow or another, Richard was able to see his beloved after the Black Rock was moored in the middle of the island. It actually WAS moored in the middle of the island. And it was the Black Rock landing there that caused the four-toed statue to be smashed to pieces.
Though, to be honest, I don’t really see how the Black Rock, a wooden ship, could do that, but that’s not going to hang me up. This is Lost, after all.
What I’m curious about, though, is how Richard was not a candidate. How did he end up being brought to the island, and who brought him there? Jacob obviously didn’t. So the MiB did? Did he do it because he thought he could manipulate Richard into killing Jacob?
OR, is Richard really THE candidate, but he had to find his own way to eventually become the island’s protector? Jacob didn’t seem to know him when he came to the island, but he could have been pretending, in order to let Richard come to his own conclusions. Jacob seems to be all about free will. Well, sort of all about free will. He nudges, but never forces or lures.
And were all the other “candidates” were people who needed to come to the island and do certain things to help Richard develop into a new Jacob?
OMG, imagine if that’s it? Did I just figure it out? Probably not. But it’s making you think, isn’t it?
The Black Rock
It was a slave ship, but not of the sort we expected. I do have to say, I was surprised that Alvar Hanso was killed by Smokey. How did his journal get back to the “real world”? We know that Widmore traveled between the island and the “real” world (for lack of a better way to describe it). Did he bring the journal back? And if so, how did he lose track of it?
If it wasn’t Widmore, was it Ben? If it wasn’t either, then who?
Was Hanso actually trying to find the island? It didn’t seem that way, but we know that you don’t really accidentally stumble upon it. Though if Richard was meant to come to the island, then his being on board would have been all it would have taken to find the tiny slot through which it could make its way there.
By the way, the Canary Islands are in the Atlantic, off the northwest coast of Africa. The “New World” is just across the Atlantic. So they obviously were not in the Pacific. We know the island moves across time and space. So the island, at one point, was actually in the Atlantic.
Side note: I’m not sure why Richard didn’t try to get the nail he dropped by using his feet. They weren’t chained against the wall, and could have reached out quite a bit farther than his hands or face. One of the exceptionally rare errors by Team Darlton. I love it when I catch things like that, because it makes them more human. lol.
Jacob and the MiB
As previously mentioned, the warning (and the sword) the MiB gave Richard to kill Jacob was exactly the same as Dogen gave Sayid to kill Flocke. As we know, there are no coincidences on Lost. So perhaps Dogen was actually telling Sayid the truth and that would have killed Flocke.
Despite the fact that it seems so very obvious that Jacob is protecting the rest of the world from the MiB, I’m still not totally convinced that Jacob is right. That’s mainly because this is Lost, and until the very last moment of the very last show, we’re not going to know everything.
But let’s look at what happened in this episode and take it face value for the moment.
Jacob can’t tell anyone what to do. He can’t be seen by everyone, even. What I wonder is when that occurred, when he became “invisible.” How did he come to be living in that shack instead of under his statue? The MiB obviously gained power over the years (was that because of all the people brought to the island whom he gained control over? Danielle couldn’t have been the first), driving Jacob to have to be in the shack, surrounded by the ash.
We also know that the MiB has been under the temple for a long time. That’s how he got some from Danielle’s crew. That’s where he appeared to Ben as Alex. How come he couldn’t get INTO the temple until recently? Or did he somehow infect the pool when Ben was put in it, too, but in a different way?
What was with the rock that Jacob gave the MiB? What did it symbolize?
Odds and ends
• How utterly heart-wrenching was it when Hurley was acting as mediator between Richard and Isabella? To see Richard so human after his being so so long was beautiful.
• We know that Richard basically helped lead all the Others all that time. We now know why he was never the “leader.”
• More curious than ever about where Widmore came from.
• Who are all the other Others? They’re obviously not all candidates. Were the “lists” that Ben & co. drew up when Flight 815 crashed just of people likely to do whatever The Others said? The children, obviously, Cindy seems to have adapted well to Others life, along with many others. But she’s not a candidate. So why is she still alive?
• How does the island have healing properties? Is it Jacob who has the healing properties and that’s why Locke was cured, but Ben wasn’t? (Jacob never really trusted Ben.)
Anything else? I know I’ve missed something, because I always do. Please share!