Broken Frontier

Break out the eyeliner! Richard Alpert has long been one of the most mysterious characters in Lost. The un-aging advisor has been on the island longer than anyone besides Jacob and the Man-in-Black, and yet we know very little about him. That changes after this week’s episode “Ab Aeterno”, in which the origin story of Richard is finally revealed.

The episode begins with “Team Jacob” having a nice little campfire on the beach, Ilana reveals that Joacb told her that Richard would know the next step of their mission. Richard denies that he knows anything and runs off into the jungle, still despairing over the death of Jacob. Hurley has a conversation in Spanish with a ghost, and then bounds off into the Jungle after Richard.

Richard’s flashback takes us 140 years into the past, to the Canary Islands in the year 1867, where Richard is a young, married field hand who dreams of learning English and moving to the New World. In a desperate act to save his dying wife, Isabella, Richard accidentally kills a greedy doctor. Despite Richard’s attempt to save her, Isabella dies anyway, and Richard is arrested. On the day he is to be hanged, Richard is sold as a workman by a corrupt priest to the crew of the Black Rock due to his ability to speak English. During the journey across the Atlantic the Black Rock shipwrecks on the island and in the process demolishes the statue of Tawret.

Only a few of the ship’s passengers survive the wreck, and a combination of murderous crew members and the smoke monster soon leave Richard the only survivor. The Man-in-Black tempts Richard with visions of his wife and sets Richard free after earning his trust. Richard is offered a chance to see his wife again by the Man in Black if he kills Jacob. Richard isn’t ruthless enough to take out Jacob, who kicks his butt and throws him into the sand. Richard soon agrees to be Jacob’s go-between to the others on the Island, in exchange for eternal life. Back in 2007, Hurley gives Richard a message from his deceased wife, which restores his faith in Jacob.

“Ab Aeterno”, which is Latin for “from the beginning of time”, has to be one of the most satisfying episodes of Lost ever. The format of the show changes a bit in this episode, two brief island scenes sandwich a long flashback into Richard’s past. There are no flash-parallels in this episode, which works fine, but is a little bit jarring since the viewer is used to the format of the previous eight episodes. It would have been interesting to see what Richard is up to in the parallel world, but perhaps he doesn't even exist in the island-lacking parallel universe. Halfway through Lost’s final season some long term mysteries are finally answered, and we are given a great lead-in into the final half of the season.