Tuesday, May 11, 2010

S6Ep15 - Across the Sea

Hello my dear friends -

I had mostly positive responses to last week's real-time blog, so I'm doing it again tonight.

Here we go!

---

Some chick is floating at sea. I am pretty sure it's Jacob and the MIB's mommy.

Now she's washed up on shore. And pregnant. Yep, it's Mama! Maybe she was the FIRST person to have ever landed there? Now some other chick is offering to help. She looks familiar -- like she was one of the professors in the Harry Potter series or something. No idea what language that is. They're now eating, and Mama's name is Claudia. Uh... now a switch to English? What up with that? Who cares, it's easier for us. The other chick is saying she also got there "by accident." I think that other chick is the original Rousseau-like badass of the Island. I also realized it is Allison Janney, who was on The West Wing, but I never watched that show, hence my confusion.

Uh-oh... labor time. It's a boy... and I'm pretty sure another one will be coming REAL soon. Cause, um, that belly's still quite large. Yep, duh. Well, even though that chick's name is NOT Rebekah, I'm still wondering if we're gonna finally hear if this is Esau. DAMMIT - she only picked one name. I'm loving the light and dark wraps for the two babies.

UH --- WHAT?!?! Claudia just got straight-up STONED by that Rousseau lady. The crunches were enough for me -- didn't need to see anything at all for that to be waaaay too gruesome for my liking.

It's a commercial break and I just want to say that I think it'll be hilarious if we never learn MIB's name. I don't think we will. I never thought we were going to, anyway.

---

OK, now some kid's on the beach and found a weird brick thingy. He's in black so it's gotta be MIB. And yep, there's Jacob, and the box is a game. And those kids aren't very strong actors.

(BTW, this confirms that the blond kid we've seen recently in present-time on the Island IS Young Jacob, as many of us thought.)

Now Jacob's back with Crazy Fake Mama and she's weaving. Jacob's not a very good liar. Next... Crazy Mama's with MIB on the beach and I was happy to see that sea turtle because those sea turtles really do hang out on that beach in Oahu! That was probably the producers' little shout-out to the turtles and/or locals in Hawaii. Classy. Anyway, Crazy Mama tells Lil' MIB (that sounds like an awesome new rapper) that Jacob "doesn't know how to lie... he's not like you."

She told Lil' MIB he was "special." And that there was nowhere else but the Island, and that he didn't have to worry about dying. But Lil' MIB sure was asking a lotta questions. Methinks he got all the brains in the family.

---

Next we see the two young bros enjoying a boar-chasing session through the jungle. Yet someone else spears the boar before them. Clearly in all their years they've never encountered anyone else on the Island. I think the dude they see through the foliage looks like Desmond's old hatch partner, Kelvin. But it was hard to see. All I know is that those peeps had on funky clothes with sweet, HUGE belts that would put any cowboy in Texas to shame. And I'm not really sure what they did with that boar.

The boys run to tell their Fake Mom what they just saw. Lil' MIB is asking a TON of questions again. But Mama just blindfolds them and is leading them somewhere else. She ... uh, wait. What is THIS? What is this glowing light cave?

HOLY HOLY HOLY MOTHER there are going to be elves!!!! I TOLD YOU PEOPLE!! I bet it's just like Lothlorien from Lord of the Rings in that cave. And it is going to rock.

OK, maybe not. But that light thing is really reminding me of the Pulp Fiction briefcase. This is quite a bizarre turn for the show. So is Crazy Mama like a witch or sorceress or something? Was she ALWAYS there? How can she make it so her "sons" can't hurt each other? And a warm glowing light that is in each person that they have to protect? Um... that's NOT the way I thought this show was gonna go! Fo' sho! But you know me, I can roll with it. It helps that I believe in that kind of stuff. Anyway, one of the two bros is going to have to be the Protector of the Light. We all know who it's going to end up being. I bet we're soon going to learn WHY it was him.

---

Commercial break: I'm sure you guys all caught that Mama gave the same speech the MIB did in the Season Five finale about how men come to the Island and corrupt things and it "always ends the same," right?

Right now I'm wondering why she doesn't want them to know that there's anything outside of the Island. I mean, I guess she just never wants them to leave... but I'm wondering if it's because she HAS been off of the Island and knows what "the real world" is like... or if she has always been on the Island and is therefore just afraid of the unknown.

----

Now the bros are playing the black/white stone game again. They're talking about "rules" and how one day Jacob can make up his own game and his own rules. (Was that just THE explanation for The Rules?)

Yo -- Lil' MIB just saw Real Mom. Jacob can't see her because she's dead... yet Lil' MIB can. Hmmm. She's taking him across the Island to "show him where he came from." Now he's looking at a little hut village. Real Mom is droppin' ALL sorts of knowledge on poor Lil' MIB. I feel pretty bad for him, actually. He knows his whole life has been a big lie.

Now Lil' MIB is trying to convince Jacob of the truth. But Jacob will hear none of it. He starts throwing the beat-down on his bro's skull. Damn. Crazy Mama comes to break them up and tells Lil' MIB that he can never leave the Island, even if he goes to live with "the other people" (I kind of like the origin of "the Others"! But how did they come to be under Jacob's rule, though?)

Lil' MIB takes off. Now Jacob and Crazy Mama are on the beach and she confesses to killing Real Mom. She said she needed to keep them safe from the "bad people," and that she needed Jacob to remain "good." But Jacob sensed that his fake mom loved MIB more and called her out on it. She said she loved them in "different ways." This is all really bizarre.

----

OK, now we're back... with the Jacob we've come to know. And he is a-weavin'. Crazy Mama is "tired." I'm guessing she's gonna kick the bucket soon, though she doesn't appear to have aged this entire time. Jacob's spying on the Others and sees his bro working on building a well or something. Now they've reunited for a game o' stones. Jacob says he's wondering if MIB's people are "bad." Oh, and apparently they're about 43 years old now. MIB says the people ARE bad, but he thinks they're his ticket off the Island.

Now he's explaining how they made all the wells because they noticed how "metal behaves strangely." And that they found something BIG. He said he wants Jacob to come with him off the Island, but Jacob's all sad and insists that he doesn't want to leave, because the Island is his home.

---

Jacob runs off and tattles to Crazy Mama about MIB's plans. I'm liking Jacob less and less. Crazy Mama is not pleased. She sneaks up on MIB in the bottom of the well. I am pretty sure he will end up killing her. I mean, she's going to try and stop him from leaving. Is he building the Frozen Donkey Wheel, by the way?

Holy crap. He IS building the FDW. By harnessing the Glorious Light and all of this other stuff that I don't really understand, but it's all good. OK, one of them WILL KILL EACH OTHER, and, um, we know MIB is still alive when Richard comes droppin' in, so... they're hugging, and he says good-bye, and it's GOTTA be coming.

Wait, what? SHE is the one to slam his head into the wall? (What's with all the skull-crushing in this episode, geez!)

---

Commercial break: So I'm thinking maybe she has the power to save MIB before he totally dies... or has the power to bring him back to life, or something.

---

Now Crazy Mama is leading Jacob back to the Glorious Light. She literally "passes the torch" to him to be the protector. "Life, death, rebirth" is down in the cave. "It's the heart of the Island." But she doesn't ever want him to go down there. "It would be much worse than dying -- much worse." Now she's got wine and she's chanting. Yep, she is a sorceress. What if Gandalf shows up? Hey, at this point, it really could happen. There is some weird crap going on in this episode.

Now if Jacob drinks the wine he officially becomes The Protector. Aww, I feel bad for him because he knows his mom wanted MIB to be the one for the job. She tries to convince him that it really was always going to be him (Jacob) that she picked, it just took a while for her to realize it. Nice. He's like "Ah, hell, what else do I have to do?" and finally drinks the wine. I'm assuming that will freeze his age? "Now you're like me."

---

MIB is alive! With a wicked migraine, but alive nonetheless. The well appears to be all filled in. He sees burning off in the distance. Uh-oh. All of his hut village has been destroyed and all of his peeps have been killed. He finds his beloved game in the rubble. And he cries and does a Darth Vader-ish At the End of Star Wars Episode III "NOOOOO!!!!" gesture, cursing the heavens.

---

Commercial break: So... did Jacob kill all of those people? He doesn't seem like the type. Crazy Mama does, of course... but at some point he's going to need to take over completely. Did drinking the wine make fill him with some sort of rage that will make him do whatever is necessary to protect the Island?

I'm hoping that next we will get to see how MIB came to be able to turn into Smokey, and why the ash will contain him, and all of that weird stuff.

---

OK, we're back. Crazy Mama is still alive. She really doesn't seem to have aged at all. I think she must be going off to die, though, because she sent Jacob to get firewood and just had that "I'm going off to die" look about her. Now she's slinking around MIB's camp. She has the game, is looking at the stones... maybe SHE is one of the Adam and Eve skeletons? And ... yup, yup, there it is. MIB killed her. A big ol' stab in the gut. But she thanked him for killing her. Maybe that's the only way she could've died -- if one of the boys did it? Maybe she really had been alive forever? Maybe it wasn't possible for her to die before finding a replacement for herself?

Uh-oh. Jacob is on the scene. He's back to tackling and beating MIB's face in just like back in the day! Now he is dragging his bro through the jungle. UH-OH. OH CRAP. We all know what's coming. HE IS GOING TO THROW HIM IN THE GLORIOUS LIGHT CAVE. He thinks that will be a fate worse than death, and that is what he thinks his brother deserves. Clearly, this will be how MIB becomes Smokey.

Jacob sends MIB traveling down the stream. That might've been a mistake. HOLY #%(#*%* -- Smokey came CHARGING out. By far the best part of this episode! That was really cool.

---

Now Jacob sees his bro back in human form, lying on the rocks in the stream. He thinks he's dead. He feels bad and is crying. He throws the MIB's body over his shoulder, and then places him in the cave. Wait a second -- now they showed the Jack/Kate flashback just for all the non-hardcore fans who don't freakin' even remember the cave skeletons. That is kind of annoying me. If you can't remember one of the show's biggest mysteries -- you don't deserve to have it spoon-fed to you. Grrrr. Well... and that's how it ended. MIB and Crazy Mama ARE Adam and Eve. I don't have a problem with that answer, but I do have a problem with how it was revealed. I could've done without the Season One flashbacks. Because I'm a Lost snob like that!

---

WHERE MY HEAD IS AT

This episode was a pretty big letdown, in my mind. Don't hate on me for saying that! I guess it was going to be hard to follow last week's awesomeness, but still... "Across the Sea" fell very flat to me. And I feel like with only 3.5 hours left, they are definitely NOT going to explain the ash situation (why ash is able to hold Smokey back). Nor do I feel they will make the MIB/Smokey connection any clearer. My interpretation is that Smokey and the MIB were separate entities. By Jacob throwing MIB into the Glorious Light Cave, he "corrupted" the light a bit, and Smokey was created as a result. Smokey was what killed the MIB. So the MIB was laid to rest in the cave, and was clearly DEAD dead. Because, um, his skeleton is still there in the present time -- Hurley and Jack just came across it, remember?

So to me this means that Smokey was born because Jacob tampered with the Glorious Light Cave, and then Smokey was able to take the MIB's form -- and memories -- because he was not properly buried. But Smokey is Smokey, and the MIB is dead. So that guy who was sitting with Jacob at the end of Season Five? That's not really the MIB, it was Smokey in the MIB's form. But apparently the writers believe that Smokey and the MIB's goal (to get off of the Island) is one and the same, and so I guess we can just kind of substitute Smokey for the MIB, and vice versa. It actually raises more questions than it answers, but I'm too tired to think about it anymore. I accept it. Not really sure why Jack only thought the bodies had been there like 40 or 50 years, either. OK, I gotta let this go.

I'll leave you with a few other "How will it end?" theories from guaranteed spoiler-free people. If you missed my Bonus Post this past weekend, I wrote what I think will happen over the remaining hours here.

My Aunt Sue's theory: She is 100% convinced that the alternate timeline will win out, that the Alt 815ers will remember all of their Island experiences and live happily ever after and all remain friends, and that the Island was merely a way for them to redeem themselves and learn from their mistakes. She was shocked that I thought it could end any other way. "Why would they do anything else?" she asked, truly befuddled. I said, "Aunt Sue, a lot of people want it to end on the Island, including me. They feel the Island is its own character." She replied, "But then a bunch of people would be dead? Don't you want everyone to be alive? I just can't believe they would not give everyone a happy ending -- I think it will upset a lot of people if they don't." I told her that she better get ready to be upset. I mean, it's not like I don't want all of the 815ers to be alive and happy and whatnot, but I just can't see everything ending like that. I just can't. But I do believe that my Aunt Sue represents the vast majority of "normal" fans, so who knows. Maybe I'm just too deep into the theories and I am not seeing the easier, simpler way for everything to come to a conclusion.

My brother: My brother thinks what a lot of people think and what I've mentioned here on the blog before: Jack will be Jacob's replacement and that Fake Locke will remain as the new MIB, and that the series will end with them having the "Do you know how badly I want to kill you?" conversation. However, the twist with his theory is that he thinks Real Locke WILL break through near the end and will plead with everyone that it's really good ol' Locke again, but no one will believe him. So there will be a glimmer of Real Locke for a bit... but by the time the final scene rolls, the MIB/Smokey will have taken over once more. That would crush me.

My sister-in-law: She believes that the alternate timeline will win out, and that everyone will still retain their Island memories and know that they played a part in bringing the MIB under control. She thinks that "the end" that Jacob and the MIB referred to in the Season Five finale can only come when Jacob finds a replacement... and as soon as Jack takes over, that means Jacob "won," and the MIB will effectively be destroyed and the Island will then cease to exist. Jack will have proved that there's still hope for humankind.

OK, that's enough with the theories. Just so you know, I'm not going to be posting any more theories from here on out. Because, um, next week is the penultimate episode and it's kind of pointless. So there's no need to email me your theories, is what I'm sayin'. ; ) I don't have time to read them the rest of this month, anyway! (The book is coming along swimmingly, by the way -- thanks for asking. You WERE asking, right?)

Time for bed... so I will leave you with this funny story from my best friend, Nerdy P:

"I told my mom that the Lost finale was on Sunday 5-23, because I knew she would just assume it was Tuesday, and not pay attention to any commercials or anything. She says, "Oh no, we have euchre club that night - I will have to TAPE IT ON THE VCR!""

(For you non-Midwesterners, Euchre is a type of card game. And yes, some people apparently still use VCRs. Get a DVR, my VCR-using readers! It will be the best money you've ever spent.)

"Then she told one of the other guys in their euchre club, because he loves Lost, and he says, "NO, I must watch it in real time - we need to move up the dinner and card-playing so we are DONE by 9 pm!" He shoots off an email to the organizer, and SHE gets all offended, saying she has never been rescheduled for a TV SHOW, and thinks they should just cancel. Emails flew back and forth with all kinds of drama, and my mom calls me saying - ARE YOU SURE it is Sunday, because YOU started all of this!!"

Nerdy P told me that eventually the group did get it figured out, and everyone's happy. (And I gotta give a shout-out to Nerdy P's mom, MW!)

So JUST IN CASE one of you out there missed it... the finale is SUNDAY, May 23. From 9 - 11:30 PM EST. There will be two hours of recaps beforehand, and a live Jimmy Kimmel show with most of the cast for an hour immediately afterward. Five and a half hours of LOST!!! And then, it's over.

Until next week,

- e

76 comments:

Jen said...

my husband will feel vindicated by your disappointment e ;) I didn't think it was a great episode, but I am not hating on it too much. Thanks for taking the time to write for us!

tanzio said...

YES, I agree, big letdown. And I was also annoyed with the flashback. After everything they have not explained and have left us decoding for years over the web, to have that answer thrown in our face was an insult. I'm glad to see I am not alone in feeling this way. I expected so much more from this episode so perhaps I set myself up, but I can't help now but feel that I'm expecting too much from the finale. And that breaks my heart...

Aunt J-ha said...

I sort of agree- I feel a bit let down. I'm satisfied with the answers, though. It was my least favorite hour of the final season but the season has been so great I hate to complain. And I also hate the season 1 flashback. Its already been mentioned like 3 times this season straight out in the open. Its like Lost for Dummies.

I'm so bummed to think it will all be over in 3.5 hours.

MEO-Michigan said...

E, I think the evening starts out at 7pm - showing 2 epi. w/pop-ups and Kimmel has a special starting at 11:00pm (no local news) I think this is what I got out of it, posted on dark ufo or abc. Tell the euchre planners that "this is the end" no more LOST :/.

btw, I love playing euchre !

Jaime said...

I actually enjoyed the episode, but one thing I noticed early on was a shoutout to all of us begging for answers.

The boys' mom was constantly asking the pseudo-mom questions and she said something along the line of "stop asking questions, it only leads to more questions. Just be happy you're alive."

Great writeup. Thanks again for taking time out from your book to give us something to read and ponder!

Anonymous said...

Man. Six years after the pilot and we're all still saying "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MONSTER?" Crikey.

Mair said...

wow - I feel very alone now - this is the only LOST eps that I watched twice in a row...I loved it! Trying to figure out who is bad and who is good now.......

thanks, e!

And of course we always want to know how the book is coming!

xoxo

Anonymous said...

I agree with those of you who were disappointed by the episode. The light cave seemed kind of lame to me, and if that's the only explanation we get about how Smokey and the FDW came to be, it's a pretty weak explanation. The ONLY thing we really learned is who Adam and Eve were- and yes the season 1 scene was annoying to anyone who is a true Lost viewer.

Gustavo Fernández Walker said...

The first part of the episode I was all like "WTF!? They've just killed off some of our best-loved characters and THIS is the follow-up?" But then I sat back and actually enjoyed most of what was delivered... As for the questions being answered, I think that 1) yes, Crazy Mom was actually talking to us die-hard fans when she said that "questions only lead to more questions". And, 2) we die-hard fans are in no place to criticise the Adam & Eve flashbacks... Aren't we the ones that, without those flashbacks, would've been finding loopholes and strange theories to prove that those skeletons weren't actually Adam & Eve, because it wasn't plain stated? As it was already said, we've only got three and a half hours to go. We needed this Jacob and what's-his-name backstory so we can be ready for what's to come. And as Fake Locke said, "here we go"...

Brant said...

I was disappointed in this episode. Some of the writing this season has felt sloppy to me, but especially in "Across the Sea".

In "The Incident, part I", the Black Rock is approaching the island during clear conditions, in the middle of the morning. Then, in "Ab Aeterno", The Black Rock approaches the Island at night, in the middle of a storm, and we're expected to believe that it's what broke Tawaret's statue?

Sure.

And now, we have Jacob and MIB's pseudo-mother saying the line about how "It always ends the same...", which was so perfect for "The Incident", but just completely out of place in this episode.

Very sloppy. I'm really disheartened by "Across the Sea".

Looking forward to the end of the series, for sure... :/

Hanan said...

I felt this episode was a bit to 'abstract.' Nothing really concrete.

1) Oh you are 'special'
2) The Light

Also, Jacob told Richard that the island was a cork to keep in the evil. But the island existed before the smoke monster was released.....so what IS the island anyways? Why does this light affect space/time? Is the Smoke Monster all that is left of this light?

I didn't hate the flashback really. It was a nice nod to an episode that seams eons ago.

BTW, those weren't the "Others". Those were simply the other survivors of Claudia's shipwreck.

DianneT said...

Didn't Jack say when they first found Adam and Eve, they weren't laying side by side? But that's where Jacob placed them - side by side. The second time we see them, they are laying side by side, right? Any thoughts?

Tim Gibson said...

All times EST: 7-9 Special/Recap.9-11 "The End" 11:30-12:30 Kimmel (local news in the 30 min break)

Daniel said...

I was really disappointed with this episode, it raises more questions than answers.

The Smokey reveal doesn't make sense, so whats the link with the hieroglyphics, and the picture of smoke and anubis that we saw when ben was down there,

there is still far too much to explain

Unknown said...

I think that at this point in the series, this episode wasn't necessary at all. I didn't feel like Jacob and MIB backstory provided any relevant answers to the main story. Adam and Eve - not relevant to me. MIB building the donkey wheel - doesn't change anything. They explained Jacob and MIB but their "mother" that was before then remained unexplained, so we didn't get any answers. Pretty useless episode.

Much to do about nothing said...

I am all but certain that they were speaking Latin in the beginning of this episode. The language was switched to English for our benefit I think. I don't believe that the English Language existed during the time that these events occurred.

Kyvyny said...

It was a sweet episode, enjoyed it muchly. Sad, though, but a great history of the tension and love-hate between the brothers over being picked as the favourite.

Michael said...

I was thinking the glowing toilet bowl hole kind of "stripped" his consciousness from his body. Thats what he meant when he told Richard that Jacob "robbed him of his humanity". Doing so made him immortal...like, REALLY immortal. Jacob can be replaced and get some eternal sleep, but MIB will be trapped forever. He just wants the light to go out, knowing its the only way he'll be free of the island. Free of "life".

Unknown said...

Hello e
I know I wasn't the only one who noticed that "Pseudo-Mom" offerd her hand to Jacob & MIB's REAL mother. So she was touched and so were the "Twins". She touched Jacob first and then was a little dismayed and surprised to deliver the second child. Touched them both.
Wow! now let the story unfold.
And when the finale is done then and only then let us all "Metamorphize".

Alisha Rene' said...

I also disagree with your Aunt 'e'. I liked this epi more than you I think becasue my theory about MiB/Smokey are grand :P

Keeping fingers crossed about your book!

Cheryl from Lakeview said...

About the A&E reveal - I think that they showed the flashback *because* Jack commented that the skeletons were 40-50 years old. Otherwise, some die-hards would be saying "that can't be A&E! Jack said they were dead 40-50 years! CLEARLY the 'real' A&E are still out there."

As far as Smokey/MIB, I think they're one and the same. Remember in Ab Aeterno, how MIB told Richard that Jacob took his body? So yeah, MIB doesn't actually have a body anymore, but his spirit is Smokey, and he's borrowed the visage of himself, like he does with other Island corpses.

Finally, about the origin of The Others, in the enhanced Ab Aeterno, when Jacob touched Richard to give him eternal life, the pop up said that was the beginning of The Others. Not sure how, but there it is.

I guess I'm in the minority that I LOVED this episode! Thanks, e!

Indecks said...

Crappy episode was crappy. No one really cared who Adam and Eve were. Everyone had just chalked it up to being Rose and Bernard from the 70s. And that was a better explanation for them anyway.

Terrible, terrible episode. With only 4 hours left in this series, they brought up tons of new questions. This episode was complete garbage. They wasted 55 minutes just to 'reveal' who the skeletons were.

Idiotic. And this season had been so satisfying up until this point.

ShirtlessLocke said...

Thansk for sharing your thoughts in real time..something I could never acomplish as I'd find it too distracting.

This episode got alot of hate from fans online and I see why. The light issue bothered me and that whole topic is still very unclear.

Hm, oh well.

Anonymous said...

don't give up hope yet for more jacob/smokey answers.... i am crossing my fingers that next weeks episode, entitled "what they died for" will explain why everyone jacob has brought to the island has died... which hopefully will give us more insight to their "game" and "rules"....

Anonymous said...

Hi e, thanks for continuing to post your thoughts, even though you're busy with your book! I wondered if "Mother" was Taweret in human form (protecting mothers and their newborns, protector of the passage from life to death, another "re"-birth). Just a thought. Although I guess she doesn't give a crap about the mother once the babies are born.

Erin said...

I've never commented before. I just wanted to say thank you for your amazing reviews of the episodes.

I'm 37 weeks pregnant, and it looks like they are going to start my labor on Friday the 21st. I really hope to be back from the hospital by Sunday so I can watch the finale Sunday night!

Jo said...

My main question is, WHY is it so bad if MIB leaves the island, i.e. why was Pseudo-Mom so determined to prevent him from leaving? Clearly MIB wasn't evil - at least not until he turned into the Smoke Monster - so why was it so important to keep him on the island? I think the episode blurred the lines between good vs. evil. Even the preview for the episode said "there are two sides to every story." So in fact it seemed that Jacob was the evil one in this episode (killing his brother by throwing him into the Light Cave), and MIB was innocent.

J. M. Richards said...

I liked this ep in that it kept me interested and entertained, but it left me perplexed!!

Did anyone else feel for a second there at the end (as Jacob put the two bodies in the cave) that this whole thing was just Jacob going crazy, playing "the game" against himself, a la "Psycho" or something?

Also, I'm a little annoyed that Jacob's brother doesn't have a name yet. I think names are important, and they have proven to be on this show, so why keep the name a secret?

I was also a bit heartbroken at the messed up family drama going on...felt bad for Jacob, noticing that his mom loved MiB more.

And thanks for the funny stories at the end...I needed a laugh after this ep!!

Dr. Adam Norten said...

I loved this episode. I was actually disappointed in last weeks episode. I thought this weeks was much better.

Anonymous said...

Hi e,

I think the Season 1 flashback was done purely for reasons of self-indulgence--Darlton wanted everybody to "see" that they had the story of LOST mapped out from the beginning. The question is, do we believe them?! Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no. What do you think? If some of the big questions go unanswered, I would lean towards, "no".

Another e

MamaJolley said...

@ J. M. Richards - I think you're on to something. The two sides to every story are Jacob's side and the *other* Jacob (i.e., MIB)'s side.
...and *that* is the reason that they haven't revealed MIB's name yet. He has the same name as Jacob - because he *is* Jacob!

Unknown said...

I have put a repository of scenario (funny or serious) here: http://thelostfinale.com

SF said...

THEORY:

I do NOT think that Smokey was created when Jacob threw MIB down the tunnel of light. I think Smokey already existed and that game has gone on for years. Before Jacob/MIB, the game was being played by Mother and Smokey, hence why lil' MIB could see his dead mom and jacob couldn't. dead mom was just smokey manipulating lil MIB (trying to get him to abandon fake mom, who was the jacob-esque protector, and leave the island, the same thing current smokey (flocke) wants to do)

hmmmmm

Anonymous said...

NOW, I am definitely not buying that they had this all planned from the beginning. Jack said they had decomposed 40-50 years, I think? Yet, Richard wasnt even there yet, and he got there in the 1800's...I call B.S.

A couple of thoughts on comments I read - I agree, those people were not the orginial "others", and I think there were many more before that, or how would the crazy mom know that they always do the same thing (humans)?

I also think that the crazy mother may have been a/the smoke monster herself...how did all of those people get killed so fast? AND, Maybe MIB isnt even Jacobs brother anymore, but just another body, used by smokey.

I think MIB is probably the biblical Esau, and they wanted to expand on that fable, that is the story they set out to tell to begin with, but quickly realized that people get WAY to upset when you mess with the bible, so leaving out the other names keeps people from getting upset. "if you choose to believe he is Esau, then you can. But we never said it was"....that is their thinking, in my opinion.

Overall, I still have faith that they might wrap this up well...man, I REALLY hope so....

In case I dont post again, THANKS, E!!! for all the memories, and a spoiler free place to dicuss.

Anonymous said...

I didn't feel let down because I was SO messed up after last week that I didn't sleep for a couple of nights. I was boohoohoooing way too much.
So last night was a nice break. Lame, I know.

And we got the whole Adam/Eve thing answered.
And that's good because I was so sick of trying to figure out whether it was Sun and Jin or Rose and Bernard or Kate and Jack or blahblahblah....

I feel glad that you agree that the MIB we've met isn't the MIB for real but just the smoke monster in MIB's body because it was unburied and unoccupied (like, christian, yemi, locke). Yet that relationship between him and Jacob remains filled with tension about "let me leave" the way that the brothers' relationship was.

So I'm thinking that smokey is the embodiment of evil, like Jacob told ricardos that day on the beach, which was previously held captive in the marcellus wallace cave of light by the goodness in there (or something), and when Jacob shoved his bro in, it set the badness free from the light cave and it can travel around the island in the smoke form but is still stuck on the island (or something).
Jacob brought people to the island to try to prove to evil that it is not the dominant aspect of human beings, so it should stay on the island where it is instead of trying to go out into the world and infect everyone with it...
or something...

SF said...

I also think that des is going to play a huge role - i think they will find des in the next episode and then in the finale hurley will fulfill his tourguide purpose by leading jack and des to the magic light source and then jack will become the new jacob and instruct des to crawl into the light tunnel. des is able to to do this bc he is special and can with stand the electromagnetism. also of note is that widmore prob knows about this light source somehow which is why he brought des back to the island along with the team of super scientests to try to find it - remember when eloise said to des "the island isnt thru with you yet" - will des will fulfill his purpose in the finale when he crawls into the tunnel of light and some freaky deeky stuff goes down

J. M. Richards said...

@SF--I like the idea that Smokey existed before the Nameless Brother & was manipulating him with Dead Mama the way it does with EVERYONE else. It fits.

And it could fit with my idea that Jacob's gone crazy: his bro is really dead, and Smokey's manipulating him, too. Who knows!!! That is why I felt like my head turned inside out at the end trying to figure this stuff out!


Also, just to say it: I'm pretty sure what Jack said in that season 1 ep was that CLOTHING takes around 50 years to decompose, so there was NO WAY of knowing how long the bodies had been there.

Mark S. said...

This episode was weird, and should've been earlier in the season. I don't think the "Adam & Eve" was that important to the story - but oh well. I guess we now know a little more about Smokey.

Kelly S. said...

Random question - will you be giving away anymore Lost koozies? I am looking to go decked out for my Lost finale party. Also they just put some limited edition art on ABC.com - it's awesome!

Josh said...

My theory is this: Jack is Jacob's replacement - this has been established. However, MIB will attempt his escape after the demise of Hurley and Sawyer (and possibly Kate). Just as in last week's episode, Flocke will try to fly the plane off the island, and crash and burn as he did in the alt timeline with A Cooper. CLAIR will become the next Smokey - Brother / Sister - like the original Brothers - This has been Flocke's plan all along (just as it was fake mom's)- taking Claire in the first place, and setting her up to be his original replacement - continually lying to her - keeping her from getting on the sub as well. He needs to have a replacement, just as Jacob does. He cannot leave without one.

Aunt J-ha said...

Wow- Josh. That theory speaks to me more than any other theory I've heard. Can't wait to see how it plays out.

Anonymous said...

Actually, after watching it again with my wee mind a bit more open, I enjoyed this one after all. It's still flawed to me of course, but it didn't leave me with that dirty Star Wars prequel-feeling I had with it the first time around. But I still definitely agree with people saying it would have had a larger impact if this one came out earlier in the season. Oh well, we can still watch it out of order when it hits video. That's my plan anyway.

Lorraine Be said...

Just watched the episode here in the UK - how timely that Jacob and MiB are aged 43 when here we have just had our new government leaders imposed on us in the shape of Cameron and Clegg, both aged 43. Is there something going on here????

Pikachao said...

I read every single one of the recaps up on Darkufo, and none of them seem to agree with my theory. Whe I saw MIB's body, I figured that the light had seperated his body from his soul, and that's why death was worse than being smokey.

Anonymous said...

The box found on the beach looks a lot like an ancient Egyptian game called Senet. Whether this was meant as a reference to the time period or the place, or just building on the Egyptian themes we've already seen - who knows.

e- Thanks for all the insights over the years, and good luck on your book!

RedNeckMan said...

e, A friend of mine noticed that apparently when Flocke saves Jack from the explosions in The Last Recruit he has a cut on his neck which is pretty much identical to the one Jack finds in LA X. I haven't checked it out myself but I figured it might be worth mentioning to see what you reckon.

ElsieM said...

Great real-time write-up, E, as usual. I always learn something from you.

I do have to beg to differ on the wonders that are old-fashioned vcrs though. I still tape on vhs, but I also have a vhs-to-dvd converter, so I then transfer anything (whole or part) that I want to keep to dvd. I never have to worry about my dvr running out of room and erasing things I've recorded previously. Plus I have lots of cool things on dvd that I would never have had otherwise - like a dvd dedicated to only scenes of Richard Alpert. Yum! ;)

Unknown said...

Hello e! Your live posts are awesome, I laughed out loud a few times =)
I was surprised to read that you felt annoyed at the season 1 flashbacks. Personally, I thought it was really well done and it served as a nice link between the two stories (the 815 story and the Jacob/MIB story), it added a nice element of continuity. I liked it. I honestly don't think the flashback's purpose was to remind us of the skeletons...I think the scene from Lighthouse served that purpose, rather.

Anne said...

I didn't like this episode at all. And after last night, i cannot help but think: My gosh, we are going to be sooo disappointed with the end... how can they fulfill our high expectations?
And i am SURE they didn't have all of this figured out from the beginning... if they had, the writting wouldn't be so unequal and answers wouldn't be so lame and rushed. They would've planned this much better and we would'nt feel like they are trying to fit everything in at the last minute...
what? all of this for a freaking light in a cave!!!!!!
Erika, I would love to hear your thoughts on the writting of some of the episodes... as a writter, do you fell its rushed compare to the first season...? (I mean, we spent all season 2 watching them going back and forth from the forrest to rescue our losties from the other and the losties pushing a button... )

Sue Liberman said...

I wasn't thrilled with the episode as I was watching, but it made me think about a lot afterwards..sort of like sipping red wine....slowly encroaching as only a LOST episode can....BUT I agree with SF that this may not be the first time SMOKEY appears....You should also check out LOST HANGOVER--written by my colleague at work...OMG...I need drugs...it's ending.... :)

Julio Zulletta said...

Going with the theory thread:

After watching last weeks episode I called my father, who, for what it's worth, agrees with the idea of everything ending with Jack and Locke recreating the Jacob / MIB season five finale scene. In addition to that, however, I think he adds some insight as to why they flashed back to season one on the Adam and Eve reveal. While my dad is an avid Lost watcher, and we typically have a half hour phone conversation after every episode discussing theories, he's only watched every episode once and doesn't read up on each episode online. In light of this, I asked him whether he would have remembered the Adam and Eve scene from season one if they hadn't flashed back to it, and he admitted he probably would not have. So, because of this, I'm looking past my immediate "Really!? You think we don't remember this!?" reaction and chalking it up to the fact that most Lost fans aren't nearly as obsessed as us, and they probably needed the reminder. That's not to say the episode was perfect, but I'm giving that one benefit of the doubt.

Unknown said...

First of all many many thanks for all your posts..A Lost-related week has always had two parts: 1. Watching the episode 2. Reading your recap! And both parts were always amazing!

To our story...Let me have a different opinion to the Season 1 flashback - Yes, it was useless for us as hardcore fans, but on the other hand it reminded us of a different era and showed the vanity of some things..Lock was just Lock, Jack was just a doctor who cruched on an island...It felt like a hundred years before...

And a theory: What if crazy mother WAS Smokey at that time, Esau killed her, smokey had no body to use and was "trapped" probably to the light cave and then Jacob makes the terrible error of sending his brother in that cave...It would all have ended at first place...(something like the lord of the rings where it could all end there..but "Isildur kept the Ring")

Unknown said...

First time poster - love your blog but have to disagree with you on this one.

I LOVED this episode.

As an aside, my funniest moment was thinking we were going to see a column of writhing smoke tastefully burst out from between the birth mom's legs after Jacob was born, effectively birthing the MIB. I cracked up at the visual for like 5 minutes. But before I digress too far, here are the points that compelled me to post:

I think the language switch was just so we could avoid having to read subtitles for the entire episode. They spoke a few sentences in their 'native' language, then made the artistic choice to switch to English. Good storytelling in my opinion.

"The game" their mother gives MIB is called Senet, it's an ancient Egyptian game dating to around 3100BC. I think that Fake mom is for sure Egyptian, and that birth mom is likely Roman from around the time of the fall of the Republic.

Here's my big theory: I think the "light" in the cave represents knowledge, which is a classical ultimate corrupter of man. A little bit of the light is in all of us, fake mom says, but they all want more, and more of the light will destroy them. Watch the episode again (if you're bored) and in your mind replace all the "light" references with "knowledge" and see how it reads to you. I did. :)

To further support my crazed theory - did anyone else notice the apples lying around by the bodies in the village after is was smote Sodom and Gomorrah style? Cave of light = the Tree of Knowledge, symbolism of apples, the "others" and MIB taste from the tree (the light) and the wrath of god smites down and destroys them all.

I of course could, probably am completely, entirely wrong, but I still think this episode was super, super sweet. :)

Jeff~

Sherylm said...

Yes, I say, yes to elves and Gandalf! As a separate story, the episode was quite good but from the very moment we saw the Twins' mother (it was a bit far-fetched for a Roman woman to give her child a Hebrew name and those twins are a lot like Romulus and Remus, but whatever) and the actress from The White House, I felt a bit annoyed because I just didn't want to see any new characters. But we have been in this so long, I'm just going to try to roll with the punches (pun intended :-) I must say, though, that your theory was lots less convoluted than I have a feeling the real ending is going to be.

I do think they had to thrown in the Jack, Kate and Locke scenes to force dedicated (sometimes referred to as rabid :-) fans to accept that explanation. My husband was like: "What the heck are Jack and Kate suddenly there for?" so I can say for the casual Lost viewer those popups were more confusing than if they had done nothing.

How did Jacob kill MIB since Looney Demon Mom had said that she had made it so that they could never hurt each other (beating your brother to a pulp may not count as hurting to someone who murders a whole village as an afternoon past-time, I suppose) and she specifically told Lil'MIB that he would never know death?

I hope you are not too stressed out with the upcoming deadline. We have faith in you, e, and look forward to being able to read your prose even after Lost ends.

HappyNat said...

I liked the episode, but agree it seems like it should have been earlier in the season.

Good to see MIB's side of things, all he did was question the world he was in and when the answers he got weren't satisfactory he tried to answer them on his own.

Good to see more evidence that it isn't as easy as Jacob = good. How many people does he have to bring to the island to get slaughtered just to prove people aren't evil?

Anonymous said...

E- I think you missed one of the biggest points when fommy told her boys that she made it so that they can never hurt each other. So I see why MIB can't hurt Jacob and that Jacob wasn't the one that killed MIB. MIB was already dead when fommy knocked his head.

There is no way either Jacob or fommy could fill in that well and kill all those people as humans. From what I believe they are all smokeys. When MIB's body was sent into the light it let the smokey out of him. That is why fommy told Jacob to never go into the light, she knows that the smokey she put into them would leave and they'd become unprotected.

Petros said...

As far as I'm concerned, I liked the episode. I've said this before, we expect to be shocked in every episode and when the obvious explanation is correct, we feel disappointed. All the evidence pointed towards a religious/metaphysical sort of explanation, from the first season onwards. Light and dark, good and evil, miraculous cures, "the island isn't done with you yet" and things like that.
So what is the Light? Fake Mum says it's the source (God), that each human being possesses a small part of(our souls), but because we are greedy, we want more. We want to become God. But what happens when we try to acquire more of that light? A fate much worse than death. Fake Mum says that the light is life, death and rebirth. This fate is the endless cycle of birth and rebirth (reincarnation). We become identified with our animal natures and forget all about the divine spark inside. Which means that we should stick to the little light that we already have. It's the only way to stay in Eden (island)and be left unharmed.
We also saw that MIB was the best of the twins, much like Lucifer, who was the most gifted of all angels. But he fell from grace because he wanted to become as powerful as God. So the Light is basically the source of all good, but it can easily be turned into evil depending on how we use it.
I, too, agree that not everything was explained and there's still much left unanswered. But we should perhaps not expect anything shocking, although I believe the writers have kept a few surprises for the finale.

Jason said...

A few things, Erika.
1) Great recap!
2) The end of the post ... with the euchre rescheduling ... I got a chuckle out of it. :)

elizabeth said...

First off - that is a hilarious story - I love Euchre (but not as much as Lost!) and have only found one person who knew how to play it in the South over the past 20 years! I miss my midwestern peeps!

Second - I am really glad that you said you weren't 100% liking the direction the show is going. I'm disappointed not so much in the answers, but in the inconsistency of the behavior we'd expect from our Losties and MIB and Jacob. They need to show what has changed Jacob's mind over the past 2,000 years to want people to come to the island, and MIB to not want them to. Also Jacob leaving the island - what's up with that, given his behavior this episode?

Anyway. I hope they pull it out in the end and I don't feel gyped. If nothing else, it's been a fun ride!

Unknown said...

...not my usual style!

@-anon or AKA 'another e'.
Yes, from the first,it was called "Pilot".
Carlton and Damon had an outline.
Ask erika, a writer never enters a boardroom without an 'Outline'.
They knew. (& know)

hatch-man said...

HA! you wrote "and then it's all over" "until next weekend"

Interesting that you brought up "Pulp Fiction." My brother and I disagree on a point: he thinks that PF is a cycle, that it ends where it began. I see it as a set of somehwat connected shorts, like a set of stories in an old anthology, or like, (ugh) Heavy Metal.

So, will LOST loop? will it implode? no, that was just my brain imploding...

Glad to hear the book is going well. Hope you get a milion bucks for it, and for each of the six sequels!

gregv said...

ok, i'm thinking that the light is knowledge. knowledge is power. power corrupts. but what if the light is complete knowledge of the future and maybe past. right now man has knowledge of the present, memories of the past. desmond took a hit of the light and it gave him the ability to see many possible futures. if all men had that ability, at the very least vegas is out of business.
this ep gave us more than it's getting credit for.
-jacob and jacob's other brother jacob were born regular mortal humans, of human parents.
-they were raised by a woman who was in the role of guardian of the gold well
which has major powers.
-drinking island wine stops the aging process.
-jacob, twin and bad momma are always mortal. mom says you can't hurt each other. oops, bro gets beat down, beat up, killed... mom lied. jacob's twin is dead. mom is done in by a dagger. seems pretty mortal. the only other 'being' stabbed is smokey locke and he is magical. ben stabs jacob and it's over.
- momma uncorked smokey to kill the twin [danny devito's] friends just like ben did to get keamey's men. smokey can't kill the guardian. guess he could have killed twin and jacob...
- the island is the wizard, jacob and mom are the man behind the curtain.
tired of typing....

Evan said...

Since the first season, there have been several references to twins.

In "Exodus Part Two" there are a pair of twins on the boat when the Others take Walt.
In "The Long Con" Hurley finds a manuscript called "Bad Twin"
In "White Rabbit" we learn that Kate is a Gemini.
Now in season 6 we have twin timelines. And just recently, in "Across the Sea", it turns out that Jacob and the Man in Black are twins (but not identical twins.)

So, is the twin motif something that was planned from the beginning?

I thought it might be, until I read this from a 2007 interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse:
 
BuddyTV: Going way back, and maybe I’m just imagining this but at the end of Season 1, there was a pair of twins on Mr. Friendly’s pleasure yacht and I swear that somebody said that the twins were going to become important to the storyline at a future date. Is that still something that’s hanging around in the background somewhere?

Damon Lindelof: I remember the twins because we hired the twin stuntmen to be guys on the boat, but I don’t ever recall having said, although it’s highly possible, sometimes we get asked questions at Comicon, for example, about nano clouds and stuff like that and things that we say in jest actually just come back and slap us later from the press in terms of saying, "You said that twins would be of critical importance to later storytelling." It sounds like something we might say talking out of the side of our mouths but we can tell you, sitting here now that twins have nothing to do whatsoever with the mythology of the show.
  
So I guess not.
E

GARRY UK said...

How many commercial breaks do you have per episode in the USA?

We have three per episode, but I record it and fast forward thru the breaks!

I cannot stand adverts!!!

I did not like this episode, I would rather some mysteries stay mysterious rather than be feed some lame reason, I mean its just opened up more questions!

Who is fake Mum? Where did she come from, how far back in time was it? Who are "the other people"? Who built the statue? Who built the lighthouse?

GARRY UK said...

- e

We don't get the finale until the 28th, Friday!

I am going into hiding for the week!

:-)

SDS said...

THANK YOU.

Thank you.

Finally someone else agrees with about the "Lost Snob" aspect. The flashbacks were there solely for the Season 6 newbies, not for us hardcore fans, and I could have done without it, totally.

Thank you.

Unknown said...

i didn't like the episode very much at all. very dissappointing.

E, my question for you is, since when do you write your LOST posts with such a ghetto dialect? crazy lil mib's like "wassup mo-fo?" i felt like i was reading 50 cents' thoughts on LOST. oh well, good thoughts nonetheless.

Ankh said...

Did this episode explain anything?

Man I am seriously disappointed, too.
I thought Jacob was a God or something not a good mother's boy. The nameless brother just wanted to leave the island! That is it. Then he turns into the Smoke Monster. The killer mother was a nutcase. Reminded me of my mother a bit.

I hope the next episode is better

CiccioPiccolo said...

Don't know if anyone wrote this, but I seriously think the Mother was Smokey. I mean, How could she have killed the strangers AND put all that mud in the well? Also, I read that the scene where she appears to Claudia in the water is very similar to a scene in "The cost of living" where Smokey appears to Mr. Eko in Yemi's form.

Big fan of the blog, love the show, and I miss the old reviews with your photos with the comments. Good last week of Lost from Italy!

Brian said...

Hey E - have you read this Darlton interview? It answers a lot of questions about what they were thinking about this last episode. Also covers their plans for revealing the outrigger shooting mystery and about answering/not answering mysteries in general. It's completely spoiler free (unless, of course, you haven't seen all of the current episodes). It's also, I think, very frustrating.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/exclusive-interview-Lost-producers-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse-talk-across-the-sea

Marcus Varner said...

In honor of the end of Lost, I wanted to share this infographic with you that shows the castaways’ time travel, arrivals, and departures. Enjoy! http://ow.ly/1MgoS

MBA Day Camp Prof said...

Lost has great story telling and characters (H/T to writers when you are rooting for an Iraqi torturer, con man etc). But when you try and tie methology over six seasons it really doesn't hold up.

The writers are giving lip service to Good/Evil...free will vs destiny. What free will or choice did Jacob or MIB really have? Their mom lands on a Island is very pregnant straving. Goes with some woman (no real choice) and Seconds after Jacob & MIB are born their Mom is clubbed to death. They've never met their father or come in contact with any other person till they are young adults. They are raised by someone that lies/manipulates them from day 1. How is MIB Evil? Bc he doesn't listen to his Mama (who killed his natural Mother)? Wants to leave the Island and find out where he came from? And what's the big deal about the loop hole that involved Flt 815. Jacob killed his brother (throwing him into the well)and I'm not sure why it took 2000 yrs for MIB to manipulate someone like Ben to stab Jacob.


The other thing that rings hallow is the whole Widmore/Ben conflict this clearly was much ado about nothing. One of the best scenes was the Ben/Widmore bedroom conflict. It turns out Ben had never met Jacob didn't really know much about Richard...He knew how to work the Donkey Wheel...But what rules are Ben/Widmore talking about?

Anonymous said...

e, I would just like to make it clear to you, that your season 3 posts were 10 times better than the season 5 and especially season 6 posts. This season, your posts are horrific, all your theories are impossible, and you clearly put no more effort into these posts, so I dont understand why you keep writing them. Please start explaining things better. You used to write down all the questions raised, start answering them better. Youve ruined the last two seasons of lost for me. And for the record, how can you not like "beyond the sea". That episode explained alot, and it was terrific ! It answered many many questions

Jenn said...

LMAO, at the previous poster...and, the fact that e POSTED YOUR COMMENT! Obviously you have been waiting to say mean things to e, and didnt have the guts until the end of the show.

And, WOW, your enjoyment of this show was ruined by e's recaps, for the past 2 seasons? She really needs to stop holding guns to people's heads, and making them read it!

Unknown said...

After all the mystery to just I feel bad for MIB, what a raw deal, Mothers dead, killed by faux mother, can't leave and his clueless brother who constantly f@#%$ him gives him a fate worst then death. Here I thought Jacob was god like, truth be told he is just a snotty scared punk! LAME> Have any of you checked out the Previously on Lost band?http://www.itsasickness.com/lounge/adam-and-jeff-are-obsessed-lost
They recap episodes in there music live, they're so fun and punk (the good kind), some of the cast even came to one of there shows in Brooklyn NY recently. I am sure they will bring us some joy when the show ends.

EB

Anonymous said...

Smokey is = that MIB, they wanted the same thing, LEAVE the island... the light changed his form, but he was the same "person" or "thing" xD