LOST: Ab Aeterno... Translation Implications, Richard bonds with Jacob, and more!

This last episode of LOST, Ab Aeterno, definitely gets bonus points for being moving! Poor grieving Richard (or rather, Ricardo) trapped in the hold of that horrible ship, watching his fellow prisoners murdered and then experiencing the loss of his wife all over again, nearly had me in tears.

I'm a little burnt out on Lost right now (life has me preoccupied ;P), so this will be a short post and later I'll link to some of my favorite Losties like I've done in the past. One thing though... the translation of "Ab Aeterno," if you haven't already looked it up, is apparently "from the beginning of time" or "from eternity." The phrase can be found in Psalm 92 in the Vulgate... which corresponds to Psalm 93 in the English Bible. This wasn't the passage Ricardo was seen reading in prison (the passage in Isaiah about a prophet never being recognized as such in his home town. Though he might have been reading where Jesus quotes in it the New Testament. Did anybody notice?), but I figured it was worth mentioning just the same. Psalm 92 is very clearly discussing God, which would make the title of the episode more about the God-figure Jacob then about Richard himself. Some of the people on the message boards were complaining that Richard wasn't old enough to justify the whole "from the beginning of time" thing, so the Bible connection does serve to clear that point up at any rate.

Questions answered or clarified:

In a recent post I hypothesized that it would be revealed that Jacob was actually protecting the world from the island, and not the island from the world (see the section "My Best Prediction"). Jacob himself did indeed confirm for us that this is the case... at least as he sees it.

We know now when/how the statue was broken... but we still don't know when/how/why it got there. PS The ship crashing into the statue seemed kind of dumb to me. Like, 'oh we gotta have a reason for it to be broken... here, we can do that quick while the Black Rock is wrecking...'

Richard's role was to be Jacob's "representative" to the people Jacob brings to the island. In a way, I think he was kind of supposed to act like a prophet, steering the islanders in the way they should go and reminding them when their ways were faulty. That seems like it would fit with the Bible passage he was reading, right?

New or Continuing Questions:

Do y'all believe what was communicated in this episode, that Smoky-Dude is basically a manifestation of evil? I felt like this episode was trying to set up clearly the good/bad dichotomy, and I was curious as to whether y'all think we can trust that, or if it's just another rug that will be jerked out from under our feet later.

Smoky-Dude has wanted to get off the island for ages. When he says that Jacob took away his body and his freedom, does he mean that Jacob is responsible for the whole smoke-monster thing? So is Jacob the authority on the island, or was he too a man at one time, and there is some higher authority that made him into the island's keeper?

If Jacob can die... can Evil Smoky-Dude die?

Let me know y'alls thoughts! Also, there's a couple fun threads on the ABC message boards relating Lost to Greek and Egyptian mythologies, if you're interested in exploring some of those further. :) Come back later for updates and links to my favorite Losties, and keep me posted on any exciting theories you come across!