Season Six, Episode 8

And there's the brain-blowing episode we've patiently waited eight shows to watch. Let's hope we keep up this pace the rest of the season, er show.

Oh, where to start. First, do you really think they are all dead and in hell? I don't. I think Richard is frustrated. I think he is in his own personal hell. And he certainly isn't dead.

On to the back story: Tenerife is an Spanish island off the coast of Morocco (I only know this bc I have a friend who lives there). So, Richard is Spanish. Not Egyptian like so many of us, including myself, thought. And because he is Spanish, and so is his dead wife, Hurley was talking to her at the beginning of the episode. He tells her, "I can do that for you, but I don't know how to find him." (Thanks to David for the translation.)

Richard, like almost every other person to land on the island, finds himself in a bad situation prior to landing on the magical island. He kills the doc by accident, while trying to save his wife. And he is "saved" by the priest who told him he was damned. The verse he was reading in the bible in Luke is about the temptation of Christ, when Jesus, on a 40-day-food-and-thirst hiatus, was tempted by the devil. He was asked to turn stone to bread (and we see stones in tonight's episode). He was asked to worship the devil in exchange for all the power in the world (and the man in black offered Ricard anything he wanted—his wife). He was asked to throw himself from the highest point of the temple (and we see the boat crash into the top of a statue). And all of it was in exchange for something the devil was promising him. The rest of the scripture from that page talks about Jesus driving the demons out of a possessed man. It's more about ridding the world of evil.

So Captain Hanso is responsible for saving Richard from his untimely death. Hanso, that's the name we heard waaaaaaay back in the early seasons. He is the one who is behind Dharma, the one who founded it. And it looks like we may get an explanation about Dharma's roots after all. Don't freak out, David, they will talk about it! I promise!

Speaking of answers, tonight we got some serious answers: We now know where Black Rock came from. We now know what happened to the statue. And we now know why Richard has been the same age since any and everyone can remember. We also see the smoke monster judges Richard. Perhaps the "judging" the smoke monster has been doing all along is more about what it can use as leverage to get you to do what it wants you to do. Case in point: reminding Ben he let his daughter die and then using that anger to propel him to kill Jacob. For Richard, that leverage was his wife. And like so many of our Lostees, the smoke monster picks his brain and makes a ghost from his past (his wife) appear. He then uses it against him. And like Jesus in the desert, Easu (like the devil) waits until Richard it at his weakest before the temptations begin. Why, because Easu is pure evil.

Which leads me to Easu and his lies, lies, lies. Easu promises Richard he can find his wife. He gives him the same speech as Dogen gives Sayid about killing Jacob (only with team reversal). Apparently, that's been going on and on and on for a long, long time now. The show also spends a good deal of time trying to convince us that this is hell and that Jacob is evil. But then we get some face time with Jacob and we get back on track.

The scene with the wine bottle, well, that's it. (It starts at like 50 minutes in, in case you want to go back and watch it.) That's what we've been waiting for. We've now been told directly what the island is. It's a cork, a stopper, a place where evil is corralled so it doesn't escape to the outside world. It's the fine line between yin and yang. And Jacob says once you come there, your past doesn't matter any more. It's like you are washed anew. Jacob says, "That man who sent you here believes that everyone is corruptable because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when you get here, your past doesn't matter." If your past doesn't matter, then that's why Rose didn't have cancer anymore, why Locke could walk, why Charlie could kick the drugs. Your vices don't come with you. Finally, another answer. Could it also explain why babies can't be born on the island? Because they have no past yet? I'm sure we'll get to that before the end.

Back to Jacob: all of he and Easu's past experiments have ended in death. And he didn't help them because he wanted them to help themselves. He tells Richard it's meaningless for him to have to step in to show them the difference between right and wrong. But it's Richard who turns a light bulb on for Jacob (thus landing him a job and eternal life). If Jacob doesn't intervene then Easu will and the scales filled with rocks will lean toward the side of evil. Maybe it's because of Richard that Jacob goes out into the world and touches the candidates. He influences them for good, shows them the difference between right and wrong. Case in point: Kate and the lunch box. It's like he's giving them a heads up, if you will.

But back to Richard. So, that's it, Jacob touches him and he has eternal life. But we know he isn't God because he can't absolve Richard's sin. And we know he isn't God because he can't bring his wife back to life. So who is he exactly? That's an answer we're still waiting on.

The irony of it all, however, is that Richard has been on this island for forever, and he has no more answers than we do.

Anyone else get the feeling that Hurley is turning into more of a candidate than Jack? Just askin'.


Until next Tuesday.