This episode of LOST starts with Jacob visiting Ilana in the hospital (where it looks like she’s been in an accident) and telling her to protect six people – the remaining candidates on the island.

These candidates showed up on the cave wall where “Locke” took Sawyer – read more about the numbers and where else we’ve seen them here, and then check out the numbers and candidates below:

4. “Locke”
8. “Reyes”
15. “Ford”
16. “Jarrah”
23. “Shephard”
42. “Kwon”

Ilana is told to bring the candidates to the temple and talk to Richard. But rather than being insightful, Richard tells the group that they’re all dead – the island is not really an island, it’s hell.

Jack finds out that “Locke’s” body has been taken over by the smoke monster and Hurly begins talking to a ghost in spanish – and it’s not Jacob!

We then get to see a flashback of 1867, where we see Richard riding a horse in the Canary Islands. He is called “Ricardo” The woman we see him taking care of is Isabella, his wife, and she is very sick. Perhaps Hurley was just speaking with Isabella’s ghost on the island, and that’s why he heads off into the woods after Richard.

The doctor refuses to ride to see Richard’s wife, but offers him medication, which is expensive. The doctor takes all of Richard’s money, and his wife’s necklace – which he says is worthless. The doctor refuses to give Richard the medicine and Richard gets in an argument with him – subsequently pushing him against the table and accidentally killing him. Richard has the medicine and he gets home as quick as he can, to find his wife, dead.

Richard is put in jail for what he did to the doctor, where he continues to teach himself English by reading an english bible. In the cell, Richard admits to the priest that he killed the doctor and the priest will not forgive him. He’s told that the jail will hang him tomorrow and that he has no time for penance The priest tells Richard, “I’m afraid the devil awaits you in hell.” Which is one of the reasons Richard thinks the island is hell.

A man named Mr. Whitfield (similar to Whidmore in name and character traits) wants to bring him to the New World and in turn saves him from being hung. Richard boards a ship with a number of other prisoners. And go figure where they end up – the island.

Onboard, one prisoner begins screaming that the island is guarded by the devil, but it is in fact the four toed statue that he sees. The boat subsequently crashes into the statue during the storm and strands the boat on the island – all the prisoners believing that god spared them death.

Mr. Whitfield comes into the bottom of the ship and kills off all of the prisoners, but spares Richard as the smoke monster startles him by killing the men on the top deck of the ship – and then killing Mr. Whitfield. We then see the smoke monster, who spares Richard.

Richard is stuck below deck, still in chains, until his wife shows up and tells him they are both dead, and in hell. She says that she has seen the devil – who we assume is the smoke monster. The smoke monster comes back and gets Isabella after Richard tells her to run away, thinking he’s saving her. But how exactly can she die again, if she already died once…we’re a bit confused.

Richard is finally rescued by a man we recognize, Jacob’s brother right?. He confirms that Richard is in fact in hell. When Richard tells him that the smoke monster took Isabella, the man says that he probably “has her” still – does that mean the smoke monster doesn’t kill people? But just takes them?

The man tells Richard that the only way to escape from hell is to kill the devil.

The man who saved Richard feeds him and sends him to the statue – which is where he says he will find the devil – who he wants Richard to kill: “If he speaks it will already be too late, he can be very persuasive.” This sounds familiar! It’s the same thing that the man at the temple told Sayid when he went in search of “Locke.”

But the devil is not the smoke monster, the man Richard is with is. The man says that the devil took his body, his humanity. So confused!

Richard takes off in search the statue, which was smashed by his boat crashing on the island. He heads into the door in the side of the statue, but before he can get there he is kicked and hit by Jacob – who speaks before Richard can stab him.

Jacob puts two and two together and realizes that the man got to Richard first. Jacob tells Richard that he is not dead, and not in hell, and that he did not really see his wife. But for the smoke monster to take over her body, she had to be on the island, right? Jacob takes him and tries to drown him in the water to prove that he is not dead already. Richard says he wants to live. He and Jacob need to talk.

Richard asks Jacob if he is the devil, to which he responds “No.” Jacob says he brought Richard’s ship to the island because Jacob wants to keep the cork in the bottle to keep the darkness, or evil where it belongs. The cork is the island. Jacob tells Richard that all the men he brought to the island before are dead, because Jacob wants them to learn the lesson between right and wrong, but if he has to step in their lives end. Interesting.

Jacob offers Richard a job. The job of being an intermediary between Jacob and the people he brings to the island. In return, Jacob gives Richard eternal life.

Richard buries his wife’s necklace underground on the island, because he knows he will never see her again.

Flash forward to nowadays on the island where Richard goes to dig up the necklace, which is still there after all these years. He says “I’ve changed my mind” and waits for the other man to show up. Hurley appears out of the woods, telling Richard that his wife, Isabella, sent him. “She wants to know why you buried her cross.”

Hurley sees Isabella standing right next to Richard. He interprets for her and Richard puts her cross around his neck after she is gone.

Hurley says that Isabella also wants Richard to stop the man in black from leaving the island or else everyone will go to hell. Which could mean “Locke,” or the other man or Whidmore – who do you think it means?

What do you think about what we learned this episode? How is Isabella on the island? Is the island really hell? Who can’t leave the island?

And time out. In the scenes from next week was Sun dead?

Read the LOST Season 6 Episode 8 Recap here.

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