
The title of tonight's episode of Lost, "Ab Aeterno," is Latin ("Gotta learn Latin! Language of the enlightened," as Juliet told Sawyer in Season 5), and it means, more or less, "since the beginning of time."
Maybe we'll get a slightly different translation of the phrase from the man of the hour. This is a Richard-centric ep, and Lost fans are very excited, because "Ab Aeterno" promises to be mythology-heavy and full of disclosures about the Island, the good ship Black Rock, and the mysterious Mr. Alpert himself.
ABC's official promo is, like all its promos this season, impossibly vague: "Richard Alpert faces a difficult decision." Lost fansites are rife with chatter about expecting some good old-fashioned flashbacks, maybe even featuring Jacob and the Man in Black, instead of a flash-sideways this week.
That flashback possibility seems quite likely, if only because this is Richard we're talking about, and he's got tons of history we don't know yet -- thanks to being apparently ageless, which he says is Jacob's double-edged "gift." Also, actor Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard, has been hinting that this episode will carry lots of juicy reveals.
UPDATE: Be sure to set your DVR or VCR to run past the usual hour, because Lost's "Ab Aeterno" episode will run six minutes longer!
