Thursday, March 25, 2010

"Ab Inferno"

This week's story has as many mentions of Hell as last week's ep had attempted cons. One man's heaven on earth is another man's hell on earth, as MIB does his best to convince Richard that the island is nothing but a Hell-hole made to drive men crazy.

Richard's long desired episode was a surprisingly Gothic tale of how he too came to this island during his own "dark night of the soul," ripe for the tricks of MIB and Jacob after he survives his island arrival. I'd be tempted to say that he has a better chance of saving his soul with MIB, than with an 18th century Catholic priest, but I won't go there but to say thank the Lord for the Reformation. Overall this episode was one of the most artfully beautiful, with the backstory scenes looking very much like a painting by Caravaggio, who did a painting that we saw last season BTW.


Nitpick #1: should we call anachronism-shenanigans here? I don't think that there were modern study-bibles with the center column footnotes back in the 18th century.

Nitpick #2: throw rotten tomatoes at me if you will, but in my mind I imagined a much more science-y, or Scifi, mechanism that put the Black Rock in the center of the island, and broke up the statue. I'm just saying. That's just a product of giving us way too much time to think about what the source of those mysteries were I guess.

Nitpick #3: ducking tomatoes again, some of the Black Rock scenes dragged on a bit for my taste, I began to lose concentration here and there.

I am very confused as to what went on between the crew, Smokey, MIB, Fisabella, and all that MIB told Richard, but I hope that those things will become clear soon. It seems as if MIB has the keys to everyone's happiness or desires, except for his own. And BTW, if all of the crew was killed by the shipwreck or Smokey, who buried Magnus as noted in Radzinsky's Blast Door Map recordings? Hmm?

I wasn't very impressed by Jacob's cavalier attitude towards RA, or the way he seemingly left RA to starve and rot to be fodder for MIB's plans, but maybe that's all a part of The Rules. Can Jacob not approach them until MIB does? Or can he not help the humans until they come to him for help? And why doesn't Jacob seem to care about the fact that everyone else who he's brought to the island is dead? Maybe he just knows that they're in that "better place" or something. But now we know how RA chose the eternal island life, most likely with the echoes of the priest ludicrously refusing him absolution still ringing in his head. He surely would have chosen eternity with Isabella instead, if he hadn't have been scared into false thoughts of his own damnation.


All of MIB's talk about Hell probably didn't help Richard's psyche any either, as MIB knew exactly how to scare him into believing his stories and helping him. MIB told Sawyer that there wasn't anything special about this island, but for him the island is a living hell. It makes you wonder if the island is some kind of universal prison that he's been banished to like those prisoners in the Superman-2 movie who were imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. Come to think of it, MIB does act a lot like General Zod at times. Or it could be something much simpler, as a job that Jacob and MIB have been assigned to, and MIB just can't stand to be stuck in one place. "The mind is its own place, it can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven" ~ Milton.

Meanwhile back at the ranch-beach, the Losties try to cheer RA up, and get some answers out of Ilana to no avail. RA is inconsolable and returns to his mock grave for Isabella giving us another classic touching Lost scene to make the eyes tear up. Thankfully Hurley assists RA in finding some peace with his memories a-la Sawyer's Little House episode. And Isabella leaves me wondering what she meant by saying that she and RA are already together, as in, are we sure that it's just an island and not some way-station between Life and Death?

9 comments:

maven said...

Thanks, Capcom, for a down-to-earth analysis! Good point as to who actually buried Magnus. I don't think Richardo has any close relationship with Capt. Hanso and feels a need to bury him (and all the others that weren't boar smorgasbord).

It was cool to see how BR got in the jungle, but my big Nitpick is how a wooden ship can topple a stone statue that's been there for a while, then go a mile inland and basically stay intact.

Capcom said...

LOL, that's a great point as well.

I would also agree that it's doubtful that Ricardo buried Magnus. He may not even have known who he was for that matter. And will we ever know how the logbook got back the The World? Probably not.

Tx for stoping by Maven!

:-)

Greg Tramel said...

YEAH! Caravaggio!

Fisabella, LOL

with that many plot holes the Island just might sink

Greg Tramel said...

i was hoping they would take on the science of FF here but they do take on the feasibility of a wooden ship breaking a stone statue, i agree i liked some of our scifi ideas MUCH better

http://www.popularmechanics.com/digitalhollywood/

Capcom said...

Wow, thanks for that article! It sure confirms what we suspected about that, yay.

But, it must have been the freaky nature of the magnetic storms that the island causes that made the wave so strong, heheh. Now that I think about it, the BR surely couldn't have maintained a course of 305' on its way in, so it messed up the balance and multiplied the force of the wave and hit.

:o)

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

I just rolled with Jacob's magical touch, the BR landed safe. He didn't care about the statue because it wasn't his to begin with. Yet "his" portion, the base, stayed intact, not both feet. That's why I think he helped the BR land safe.

My crazy idea: 'Titus Welliver' is Magnus Hanso. We don't know what he looked like. If Smokey killed him, MiB could take on his form & memories, eventually funding Dharma. It would be easy enough to put another dead crewman in a marked grave for Radzinsky or whomever to find.

Bet you twenty-three cents that there's a photo of Hanso in Widmore's journal, and it's 'Titus.'

Capcom said...

Good point about the statue.

Wow, what a thought that we are looking at TW/MIB as Magnus, I love it. And a photo showing up eventually would be an amazing stunt. How would we explain seeing MIB like that before the BR got to the island though? Just as a vehicle for TPTB to show the entity in some/any form first?

:-D

Greg Tramel said...

Wayne, I’ve been mulling your Magnus is Titus theory, it is very feasible assuming he was on ship which was brought to the Island before Richard’s ship and figuring Alvar was on the Island at some point time it also goes along with the theory that there are familiar connections with those brought to the Island, father/mother and sons/daughters

Capcom said...

Agree, it would work with that as well. Too bad we don't know who Magnus' mother was.

Sheesh, I just remembered that not only did RACHEL BLAKE (inside font joke from the ARG)from TLE have MIA-daddy issues, it was implied that her mother went crazy as well. TPTB have really got to get their personal issues worked out somehow. Maybe this show is how they best kvetch about it for self-therapy.

:o)