Episode 9: “Ab Aeterno”

Introduction

What an episode! I know I’ve said great things about a few of the latest episodes, but this may be my favorite. Not only was the acting great and the story extremely compelling – but on top of all of that, we get real, tangible answers to major questions. Of course, not everything is as clear as the waters of Lake George; but do we really want it to be? Come on now, we do have a bunch of episodes left.

Jacob’s Purpose

This episode said explicitly some important things the season had been implying. First of all, Jacob is a defender of the Island, and his main job is to keep The Nemesis there. If his job fails, the evil in The Nemesis will spread to the entire world. I liked the wine bottle analogy. And how about The Nemesis breaking the bottle at the end. Foreshadowing?

Man’s Inherent Goodness/Badness & Freewill

What separates Jacob and the Nemesis ideologically is their opinions on man’s inherent goodness or badness. The Nemesis thinks man is more bad than good, and always will corrupt and destroy. Jacob disagrees, and this is why he brings people to the Island: to demonstrate that people can and will choose to be good. However, he does not want to interfere in human affairs, thinking it will affect people’s freewill. Although this is an incorrect view of freewill, I guess Jacob’s point is that he wants people to arrive at what the moral choice is by their own natural abilities, and to choose to do it. But Ricardo makes the point that the Nemesis is at work corrupting the people Jacob brings to the Island, so Jacob needs to counter; without giving up his belief that he doesn’t want to affect people’s freewill, Jacob compromises, and allows Ricardo to be his figure and representative on the Island (like the Pope?).

Jacob is like God, but not exactly…

Although there have been persistent theories that project Jacob as not good (thanks, Mom), I think this episode really separates the two sides. Jacob believes in freewill and man’s inherent goodness, while the Nemesis does not. I don’t know how they could spin Jacob into being bad now – at least, I don’t think they could do it well, without there being a lot of dumb holes. I’ve spoken in the past about Jacob’s “God-like” quality. I remain steadfast in this belief. However, it must be understood that there are distinct differences between his “God-ness” and our Christian ideas. I don’t think Jacob is all-powerful or all-knowing; and although I think he’s “good,” I don’t think he’s all-good in the way we talk about God being all-good.

Are They All Dead?

The writers of the show already spoke out against the idea that everyone on board the plane is dead, and they’re in hell or purgatory. They said this a year or so ago. So when it comes up in this episode, I think we’re supposed to recognize it as being false.

Two Different Approaches to the Major Questions

In getting at the heart of the major questions of the show, I see the writers of the show as going in two directions. Let me make my point by asking an important question: Why did the plane crash? Why are they on the Island? On the one hand, we can go in the direction this episode presented, and say that they are just another in a long list of people Jacob has brought to the Island to show that man is inherently good and can make good moral choices. On the other hand, we have this idea of candidacy; in this vein, our answer would be that Jacob has summoned the group to the Island to have someone take his place. I’m not saying that the two contradict each other; I’m simply saying that they take us to different conclusions if we focus on one and not the other.

The Rules?

Let me end by simply saying a word or two about the “rules” this Island seems to be bound to. We know some of the rules already, like Un-Locke couldn’t kill Jacob himself – and he can’t kill certain people on the Island now, like Sawyer. But there also seems to be other rules that both Jacob and the Nemesis are bound to: like the only the way to kill one of them is with a specific knife, and only before the victim speaks. Once he speaks, the power seems gone. It does make me wonder how Ben killed Jacob.