LOST (6x9)--Let's Recap

*Disclaimer: If you've not watched the LOST episode that aired on 3/24, discontinue reading this post. It contains ALL the answers to the LOST series.

*In a flashback, we see Jacob and Iliana talking about her need to protect the Candidates. Jacob tells her to ask Richard what to do. When she says this to Richard in the present, he just laughs and says he doesn't know what to do.

*Sun tells the others in her group about the Candidate theory. Jack questions Richard and he blurts out,"We're dead... Everything is not what you think it is... We're in hell." So the connections between LOST and theorolgy continue.

*Richard's story is told. His wife died and he was shipped to the new world as a slave. On The Black Rock, a ship that the passangers found in Season One. As the shipwrecks, a few passenger spots the four toed statue and says he see "The Devil." Once the ship stops, the same passenger says, "God spared us," not long before he's killed by the captain and the smoke monster kills everyone else.

*Later, Richard's dead wife appears and tells him that they are in hell; he must escape because the devil is coming. She runs, the smoke monster appears, and we hear her screams. Later as the MIB appears, he says he didn't kill her, but we already know that he is Smokie. He frees Richard and says, "It's good to see you out of those chains", a reference to the statement Smokie/Locke made to Richard in the first episode of this season.

*MIB too confirms this is hell. He tells Richard that Jacob is the devil and to kill him before he can talk (Dagon said this to Sayid about Smokie in an earlier episode). MIB promises what Richard wants the most, to be reunited with his wife, a common tactic of Smokie.

*Jacob tells Richard that he brought him, designates Richard as an intermediary between Richard and those he brings. Jacob is looking for someone to take his place in keeping Smokie on the Island. Jacob wants the people he brings to help themselves. He can't promise to absolve Richard of his sins or to reunite him with his wife so Richard asks to live forever.

*MIB/Smokie tells Richard that there's only one way to escape hell: kill the devil. This is confirmed by Richard's wife later in the episode. My suspicion is that Smokie is materializing as the wife to manipulate Richard. When she first appears in the episode, MIB appears right after her. When she appears a second time, the scene flashes to Smokie/Locke standing at a distance. Smokie ability to change forms has been confirmed on many occasions.

*After Richard turns Smokie down in joining his "team," Richard hides his wife's cross. In desperation for answers, he digs it up and puts it back on. That's when his wife returns for the second time. What could this have to do with "returning to faith?"

*Again we're tossed between who is good and who is evil. It would appear that Jacob is trying to protect the world from evil (Smokie). He says that the Candidate must keep Smokie on the Island. But then again, this is LOST. I'm afraid to commit to anything for fear I'll be thrown on the last episode.

*And I'm still wrestling with where Whitmore fits into all of this. Hopefully we'll learn more next time.