LOST Theories - DarkUFO

Richard will kill the MIB by NYMama

In "Ab Aeterno," my husband and I noticed that Richard's interactions with the Doctor and the Priest parallel his later interactions with the MIB and Jacob.

MIB = the Doctor: Just prior to his encounters with both of these characters, Ricardo spoke with his wife about trying to save her. Her health/safety is his top concern. Both the Doctor and the MIB hold out the promise of being able to save Isabella. But both times, the price to save her life is to take the life of another. Unfortunately, Ricardo doesn't know that the promise of saving Isabella is illusory in both cases, too, because she's already dead.

Jacob = the Priest: Ricardo seeks absolution from both the Priest and Jacob, and they both tell him they cannot grant it. Instead both of them give Ricardo the opportunity, the time, to do his penance and earn his absolution. But the price for this borrowed time is enslavement, first on the Black Rock and then on the Island. Jacob even acts like a priest when he "baptizes" Ricardo in the surf to reawaken his desire to live. In the Catholic Church, baptism is the time when one receives his Christian name. When Jacob dunks Ricardo, Richard (or maybe Ricardus) is born.

Following this line of thought, I believe Richard must kill the MIB in order to carry out Isabella's instruction to prevent MIB from leaving the island. Just as killing the Doctor set the events of the episode/the rest of Ricardo's life in motiion, killing the MIB will be necessary to bring the situation to an end.

But I'm afraid that Richard may have to die in order to do it. I think that because there are also many parallels to the life of Jesus in Ricardo's story (as Nestor Carbonell himself points out in the Geronimo Jack's Beard podcast about the episode--such as, his posture while chained on the Black Rock, the deaths of the men on either side of him on the ship, serving as the go-between for Jacob and the people). The essence of being a Christ-figure is sacrificing oneself for the good/salvation of others, so I think Richard will have to die to prevent everyone from going to Hell, as Isabella warned Hurley.

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