So we finally got our Richard episode, we now know why he lives forever (whyever Jacob holds the power to give that gift), how the Black Rock got into the middle of the jungle (that must have been one hell of a wave) and how the statue came down.
No sideways flashes, just Richard's story, straight and simple. Excellent.
There were quite a few moments in this episode where things seemed to turn around and MIB looked like the good guy, claiming this is hell and killing Jacob is the only way to get off: "There is only way to escape from hell and that is killing the devil".
Well, for him it is hell. MIB's line "he took my body, my humanity" almost convinced me. After some doubts, I am back to believing Jacob, though. Especially after the wine cork image.
What he said to Ricardo on the beach fits to the convo we saw between Jacob and MIB at the end of last season. Jacob wants to prove that humans are not all bad and it's not always in their nature to sin, and MIB keeps corrupting them. Maybe it's a game between a prisoner and his warden.

I wonder what else MIB needs after Jacob died to make his escape. Does he need all candidates to die as well? Then again, they don't even know shit about their job yet so why would their being possible candidates stop him from going anywhere?
Kindy funny that MIB seemed to give Ricardo the same dagger Dogen gave Sayid for the opposite case recently.

It is NOT always MIB when we see dead people, or at least when Hurley sees them. Isabella talking with Hurley was certainly not UnLocke's doing.
According to Hurley, if Ricardo doesn't kill MIB everyone's going to hell.
So the hell issue is back, after it's been a theory rather early on, the island being purgatory or something, and then got discarded when the real world came into play again for the Oceanic Six.

Also, did we see the scene with Ilana in bandages before? It looked so familiar somehow...

Great episode. Excellent acting by Nestor Carbonell.
And "Ab aeterno" means Since the beginning of time, apparently.

Only seven episodes plus the two hour finale left.