6.15 “Across the Sea”
The origins and motivations of Jacob and the Man in Black are revealed.
[Note that I refer to Allison Janney's character as "Mother," and the outside group of people living on the island as the "Outsiders." This episode provides no names for these people, so I have created my own for the purposes of this recap.]
Some time in the distant past, a pregnant woman named Claudia washes ashore on the island after a violent storm destroyed the boat she was on. She’s startled to encounter a strange woman living on the island who speaks Latin. The woman takes her in and gives her food and shelter in a place we recognize as the Caves (where the Oceanic survivors sheltered for a while in Season 1). Claudia asks how this woman got to the island, and she says that just like Claudia, she got there “by accident.” Claudia tries to ask more, but the woman tells her that every question she answers will simply lead to another question, and that she should rest and be grateful to be alive. Claudia wants to go looking for the rest of the people from her ship, but her companion forcibly insists that she stay put, explaining that “if there are other people on the island, I will find them.”
Claudia suddenly begins feeling contractions, and goes into labor. With the strange woman’s help, she gives birth to a blonde baby boy whom she names Jacob. But both women are surprised when her labor pains continue, and she has a second baby. It’s another boy, this one with dark black hair, but Claudia mentions that she doesn’t know what to call this one because she only picked out one name. Claudia asks to see one of her sons, but the woman seems to grapple with a difficult decision, and then suddenly turns, a large rock in her hand, and says, “I’m sorry.” She bashes Claudia in the head with the rock repeatedly, killing her.
Thirteen years later, the two boys have grown up believing that the strange woman is their Mother. The blonde boy will become the Jacob we know, while the black-haired boy will eventually become the Man in Black. One day, young MiB finds a wooden box containing a primitive board game (called Senet) while walking on the beach. Jacob finds him and the two of them engage in a game, using the white and black stones inside the box. Jacob asks how his brother knows how to play this game, and MiB replies, “I just know.” He says he’ll show Jacob how to play if Jacob promises not to tell their Mother about it, because MiB is afraid that Mother will take it away from them.
After the game, Jacob returns home to the Caves, where his Mother is slowly weaving a tapestry on a large loom. Jacob evades her questions about his brother’s whereabouts and current activities, but he’s a terrible liar and she knows it. She gets the truth out of him.
She goes to visit her other son, MiB, at the beach, and he hides the game from her when she gets there. But he knows that she knows, and she confirms with a sly smile that Jacob told her, because “Jacob doesn’t know how to lie. He’s not like you.” He asks what that means, and she says that he’s special. He asks if he can keep the game, and she says that he can, since she left it for him in the first place. He’s surprised to hear this, having thought that it came from someplace else, somewhere out across the sea. “There is nowhere else,” she says, lying to him. “The island is all there is.” MiB is still skeptical, and asks where he and his brother and Mother came from, if that’s true. She lies again, telling him that he and Jacob came from her, and she came from her mother. MiB asks where her mother is now, and Mother says that she’s dead. MiB asks what “dead” is, and Mother replies that it’s “something you will never have to worry about.”
Another day, Jacob and MiB run through the jungle hunting a wild boar. But before they can reach it, it’s killed by someone else’s hands, and the brothers hide before they’re noticed. There, they watch as a group of three men cut up the boar and carry it away.
They quickly run back to Mother and tell her that they’ve seen other people on the island. Jacob asks where these Outsiders come from, and notes that they “look like us.” But Mother corrects him, saying that “they’re not like us,” and they don’t belong on the island. “We are here for a reason,” she says. MiB immediately wants to know what that reason is, and she says that it’s not time to explain that to them yet. But when MiB pushes her, she gives in.
She blindfolds them and leads them deep into the jungle. As they walk, MiB asks if she knew about the other people living on the island. Mother says that she did, and she didn’t tell them because the people are dangerous and she didn’t want to frighten her boys. Jacob asks why they’re dangerous, and she replies with words that MiB would repeat to Jacob on the day that the Black Rock was spotted off the coast of the island: “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.” MiB asks where these people came from, but she lies and says “another part of the island.” She forbids them to ever go looking for the Outsiders, because she says they would hurt her sons if they could. Jacob asks why they would hurt them, and she says that that’s what people do. MiB picks up on this and points out that the three of them are people, and he asks if that means they can hurt each other. Mother stops in her tracks and removes her sons’ blindfolds. “I’ve made it so you can never hurt each other,” she tells them.
She spins them around to see their destination: a small opening in the ground at the end of a stream, that’s glowing with a bright, golden/yellow Light. She tells them that this Light is the reason the three of them are on the island. The boys run up to look inside, but she warns them not to go in. They see that the water rushes into the opening and down over a waterfall formed by a crevice in the ground, where the water is overtaken by the bright Light. MiB asks what’s down inside the opening. “Light,” Mother replies. “The warmest, brightest Light you’ve ever seen or felt. And we must make sure that no one ever finds it.” MiB is entranced, noting its beauty. Mother says that this is why others want the Light, and why they must protect it. “A little bit of this very same Light is inside every man. But they always want more.” Jacob asks if men can take the Light from the cave; Mother says no, but they’ll try. And if they try, they could end up putting the Light out. “And if the Light goes out here… it goes out everywhere.” She says she’s protected the island for a long time for this very reason, but she can’t protect it forever. MiB asks who’ll protect it after she’s gone, and she says it will have to be either MiB or Jacob.
Some time later, Jacob and MiB play Senet on the ground in a clearing. Jacob makes a move that MiB doesn’t like, and MiB tells him it’s against the rules. Jacob argues that he knows his brother just made up the rules, but MiB says it’s his game, so it’s his rules. “One day, you can make up your own game, and everyone else will have to follow your rules.” MiB looks up and is stunned to see a beautiful woman standing in a pool of light, smiling at him. It’s the ghost of Claudia, his birth mother. There’s clearly something supernatural about her, but she tells him not to be afraid. Jacob notices his brother staring at something, but turns to see for himself and isn’t able to see her. MiB makes up an excuse about wanting to go for a walk on the beach, and rushes off after Claudia.
When they’re alone, MiB asks Claudia why Jacob can’t see her. “Because I’m dead,” she replies. She offers to show him where he came from, and takes him across the island to an area he’s never seen. There, he finds a small village of huts where the rest of the survivors of Claudia’s shipwreck have settled. He doesn’t know what a ship is, so she explains that it’s a way to get across the sea. But he argues that his Mother told him there’s nothing across the sea. Claudia corrects him, saying, “There are many things across the sea.” She tells him that he comes from there, and that the woman he believes to be his Mother has been lying to him, because Claudia is his real mother.
That night, MiB sneaks back into the Caves and wakes Jacob quietly, telling him to come with him. As they walk into the jungle, MiB tells his brother that they’re leaving and never coming back. They’re going to be with the Outsiders, he says, because “they’re our people.” MiB tells Jacob that Mother lied to them about everything and she doesn’t really love them, but this is more than Jacob can accept. He tackles his brother and punches him again and again in the face. Mother finds them and pulls Jacob off of his brother, and Jacob cries as he tells her that MiB is leaving them to go live with the Outsiders. MiB tells his mother that he knows there’s more than the island out beyond the sea, and he means to go there because it’s where he’s from. It’s his home. Mother asks who told him that, and he says his real mother. He turns to Jacob and says that Claudia was Jacob’s mother too, and he tries one last time to convince Jacob that they don’t belong on the island, with this woman who has pretended to be their Mother. He asks Jacob to come with him, but Jacob says no. Mother reaches out to MiB one last time and tells him that whatever he’s been told, one thing he must believe is that he will never be able to leave the island. But he doesn’t believe her, and vows to one day prove to her that he can leave.
Mother retreats to the beach, in shock over losing her favored son. Jacob finds her there as the sun is rising, and asks if she thinks his brother will ever come back. “No,” she says. Then Jacob asks the real question on his mind: did she kill their real mother, as MiB claimed? She confesses to him that she did, explaining that if she had let Claudia live, she would have taken the boys back to the Outsiders, who she believes are bad. She didn’t want the boys to become like them, wanting instead for the twins to “stay good.” Jacob looks her in the eye and asks if he really is good. “Yes, of course you are,” she replies emotionally. “Then why do you love him more than me?” Jacob asks. She’s surprised to hear that he knows this, perhaps even never having consciously realized it herself, but she knows now that it’s true. She recovers and says that she loves the two boys in different ways. She asks him to please stay with her, and he says that he will, for a while.
Thirty years pass, and the two boys grow into men. Jacob remains with his Mother at the Caves, while MiB stays with his people in their village across the island. One day, while Jacob is working the loom, he notes that his mother seems deflated. She says that she’s merely tired when he asks. Jacob’s thoughts turn elsewhere…
He walks across the island to visit his brother at the Outsiders’ camp, and it’s not the first time he’s done this. The two of them have continued to play their board game together periodically over the years. MiB asks if Mother knows Jacob visits him, and Jacob says that she does, but she never asks about MiB. “Well I’m sorry I asked about her,” MiB bitterly replies. He asks why Jacob comes to watch the Outsiders, and Jacob says he’s curious if they’re as bad as Mother says they are. MiB affirms that they are indeed bad, saying their Mother was right about that one thing. Jacob says the Outsiders don’t seem so bad to him, but MiB notes that Jacob has done nothing but look down on them “from above” all this time, while MiB has lived as one of them for thirty years. “They’re greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish.” Jacob asks why MiB stays with them, then. MiB says they’re a means to an end. Jacob asks what end, and MiB reveals that he’s finally found a way to leave the island. He pulls out a metal dagger and throws it. It flies through the air but suddenly changes direction, soaring up to the well and slamming against it, holding tight to it magnetically.
Jacob’s stunned, having never seen anything like this before. He peels the dagger off the side of the well, and looks back at his brother in amazement. “There are very smart men among us,” MiB explains. “Men who are curious about how things work. Together, we have discovered places all over this island where metal behaves strangely. When we find one of these sites, we dig. And this time we found something.” He asks his brother to come with him when he leaves, but Jacob won’t budge. MiB takes another tack, asking what Jacob’s going to do when Mother dies. But Jacob doesn’t believe his Mother can ever die. “Everything dies,” MiB argues. Jacob says he doesn’t want to leave the island, calling it his home. “Well it’s not mine,” replies MiB.
Jacob returns to the Caves and Mother asks where he was. “You know where I was,” Jacob replies. She asks what MiB said to him, and she’s taken aback when Jacob tells her that his brother has finally found a way to leave the island.
Mother traverses across the island herself and watches the Outsiders work at their newest well. When the coast is clear, she climbs into the well and finds MiB working alone down there, building something. He’s startled by her presence at first, but she asks if she can join him and he says yes. He asks how she is, and she says she’s worried. “You should be,” he says, suddenly taking the offensive. He tells her he’s spent thirty years searching the island for the place where she took him as a child, and not once has he even come close to finding that Light source again. But then the idea occurred to him that he might be able to find the Light under the island by accessing it from someplace else, and he’s succeeded. Mother’s alarmed at this news, along with the fact that the Outsiders have seen the Light as well. MiB says that his people “have some very interesting ideas about what to do with it,” but Mother is startled to even hear that someone is thinking of “doing” anything with the Light. She tries to tell him that he has no idea what he’s doing, but he shouts that he has “no idea because you wouldn’t tell me, Mother.” He turns to a wall of stones — which we recognize as being from the frozen chamber beneath the Orchid station, where the wheel is, present-day — and pries loose a few pieces to show her the Light behind it. Nearby, standing on its end, is the wheel itself, not yet installed in the wall. Mother asks what it is, and MiB explains that it’s a wheel that he means to install in a large opening in the wall that they’re going to make, where they’re going to attach it to a system that channels the water and the Light. “And then I’m going to turn [the wheel],” he tells her, and he knows that when he turns it, he’ll finally be able to leave the island. Mother asks how he knows how to do all this, and how he knows it will work. “I’m special,” he reminds her. She begs him not to do this, not to leave, but he says he has to go because he doesn’t belong on the island. “Then I suppose this is goodbye,” she says tearfully. Slowly, tentatively, she reaches out to embrace him, and MiB finally drops his bitter exterior for a moment and hugs his Mother with genuine feeling. He bids her goodbye, but she pulls up and takes his face in her hands. “I am so sorry,” she says, and then in a mad dash, throws his head up against the stone wall, knocking him out.
Later that night, Mother returns to the Caves and wakes Jacob up. “It’s time,” she tells him, and he follows her out into the jungle. Jacob asks her what happened, and she tells him she had to say goodbye to his brother. “You’re letting him go?” Jacob asks, surprised. “I don’t have a choice,” she replies. “It’s what he wants.” She guides him back to the stream with the Light and tells him that he is now going to be its protector. “What’s down there?” Jacob asks her. “Life. Death. Rebirth. It’s the source. The heart of the island.” She makes him promise that no matter what, he’ll never go down inside the Light. “Would I die?” he asks. She says the result would be something much worse than death. She pulls out a bottle of wine, and pours a small cup of it. After chanting some kind of recitation or prayer over it, she hands it to him and tells him to drink it. He asks what happens if he does, and she replies, “You accept the responsibility that you will protect this place for as long as you can. And then, you’ll have to find your replacement.” Jacob argues, saying he doesn’t want to be the island’s protector, that he doesn’t care about protecting the Light, but Mother says that her time is over and that the new protector must be him. Jacob becomes emotional, saying that she originally wanted it to be his brother. “But now I’m all you have,” he says. “It was always supposed to be you, Jacob,” she says. “I see that now. And one day, you’ll see it, too. But until then, you don’t really have a choice.” She begs him to take the cup and drink it, and he finally does. “Now, you and I are the same,” she tells him.
The next morning, MiB wakes up outside the well, on the ground. When he gets to his feet, he sees that the well has been filled in with rocks and dirt. He also spots smoke on the horizon, and runs back to its source: the village. The whole place is burning, and the Outsiders are laying all around, dead. He finds his small game in the wreckage and hefts it over his head in pain and fury, already plotting his revenge against Mother, who he knows is the one responsible for this.
Jacob and Mother head back to the Caves, and Jacob notes that a storm is building. She asks him to go retrieve some firewood before the rain starts, and tells him to be careful. Her face says it all, as does his: he’s finally acquired her approval and her love. They are no longer mother and son, they are equals now. He says he’ll see her back at home, and she turns to go with a look of dread, knowing that something unpleasant but inevitable awaits her there…
She finds the Caves in shambles, everything destroyed, including her loom and the tapestry on it. On the ground, she finds the wooden Senet game, and opens it to pull out two of the game piece rocks: one white and one black. While she stares at the black one, she suddenly gasps and looks down to find MiB’s dagger sticking through her abdomen. Behind her, he pulls the dagger out, and she collapses. He kneels beside her and asks why she wouldn’t let him leave. “Because I love you,” she replies. Then, surprisingly, she thanks him for killing her and (we assume) relieving her of the responsibility of protecting the island. She dies as he watches, and he immediately bursts into tears. Their relationship was a complicated one, but some part of him still loved her, even at the end. As he weeps over her, Jacob returns and finds Mother dead, MiB standing over her holding the murder weapon. “What did you do?!” Jacob cries. He flies into a rage and although MiB asks him to stop and let him explain, Jacob tackles him just as he did when they were children and pounds him in the head even harder than before.
MiB is weakened by the attack, so Jacob grabs him and drags him into the jungle. MiB begs Jacob not to kill him, explaining that Mother burned the Outsiders, killing them all. When Jacob doesn’t reply, MiB reminds him that they can’t kill each other. “Don’t worry, brother,” Jacob says. “I’m not going to kill you.” Instead, he takes MiB to the Light source. MiB is stunned to see the place again, after all his searching, and realizes that Mother brought Jacob back here. Jacob reveals that he is the island’s protector now, and he tosses his brother into the water. MiB hits his head on a rock and loses consciousness, and the stream quickly carries him into the opening and down into the hole where the Light is emanating from. Though he’s furious and distraught at what his brother did, Jacob is taken aback after his brother tumbles into the hole and he sees that the Light is slowly going out. Once it’s extinguished, the black smoke monster roars in fury and pours out of the cave in a blast, rushing off into the jungle.
Jacob runs into the jungle and finds his brother’s body at the end of a stream. He cradles his brother in his arms, crying over him, and carries him back to the Cave they called home. He places his brother’s body in the Cave wall, and then places his Mother’s body beside him. Jacob takes the two game pieces that Mother pulled from the game — one white and one black — and puts them into a small bag that he situates in MiB’s dead hand. Thus, the “Adam & Eve” skeletons the Oceanic survivors find in the present day belong to Mother and the Man in Black’s human form.
Jacob is left alone on the island — and unaware for the moment that his brother lives on in the form of the smoke monster — and bids his brother and Mother a sorrowful goodbye.
- “Adam and Eve” were the Man in Black and his adopted Mother.
Who were the two decomposed bodies? [1.06] - The Man in Black killed his Mother because she wouldn’t let him leave the island. MiB’s human form died after his brother Jacob punished him by turning him into the smoke monster in retribution for the murder of their Mother.
How did the bodies die? [1.06] - No, they died hundreds or possibly even thousands of years prior to 2004.
Did they really die forty to fifty years ago? [1.06] - When Jacob buried the bodies in the Cave, he left the two stones with his brother’s body because they were part of the Senet game the two of them played together all their lives. It was a token of affection and remembrance.
Why was one of them carrying two stones, one white and one black? [1.06] - Jacob was the latest protector of the island, who was born there after his pregnant mother Claudia shipwrecked just off the shore of the island. He was a human man just like anyone else, until he took over the mantle of island protector from his Mother — an act that infused him with special abilities tied to the island’s power.
Who exactly is Jacob, and how did he come to be on the island? [3.20] & How did Jacob and the Man in Black come to be on the island? [5.16] - The Man in Black is Jacob’s twin brother, and he was born there just as Jacob was. He was once a mortal man just like Jacob, but he became the smoke monster when he was thrown into the source of the Light beneath the island.
Who is the Man in Black, aka Jacob’s Nemesis? [5.16] - They are twin brothers with opposing ideologies about the nature of man. They cannot kill each other because their Mother, the island’s protector at the time, somehow used her powers as island protector to make it so that they could never kill one another.
Jacob and the Man in Black have a real yin/yang thing going on. What’s the nature of their relationship? And why can’t they kill each other? [5.16] - The Man in Black believes his home is the outside world beyond the island, since that is where his birth mother Claudia came from. He wants to leave the island because the woman he believed to be his Mother lied to him his entire life about who he was and where he came from. He has been trapped on the island his entire, very long life, and he longs to escape and see what else there is outside of the island.
Why does the Man in Black want to go home? Where exactly is his home? Is it off the island? [6.01] - Yes, the blonde boy that’s been appearing to MiB is his brother, Jacob. He likely appeared as a boy to his brother to remind MiB of the relationship they once had, and how far MiB has fallen since those days.
The blonde boy bore more than a passing resemblance to Jacob. Was that who he was? If so, what’s the significance of him appearing as a boy to MiB? [6.04] - This was probably meant to remind MiB of the blood on his own hands — namely, that of their Mother.
Why were the boy’s arms covered in blood? [6.04] - No. It was alluded to that Jacob made up his own rules about the Candidates, after being told as a boy by his brother that one day he would make up his own game and everyone would have to follow his rules.
The “rules” the boy spoke of — that MiB couldn’t harm any of the Candidates… are these part of the same rules that kept Jacob and MiB from killing each other? [6.04] - The name and true identity of MiB and Jacob’s adoptive mother was not revealed, but she was Jacob’s predecessor as protector of the island.
Who was the Man in Black’s mother? [6.08] - It’s not clear that Mother was disturbed at all; she may have simply done what she deemed necessary in order to protect the island. But her lies to him during his formative years about where he came from, and her refusal to let him ever leave the island despite long years of trying, drove MiB over the edge.
What “problems” were imparted on the Man in Black due to his mother’s disturbed state of mind, that he’s still trying to work through? [6.08] - MiB was referring the day that Jacob caused him to become the smoke monster by throwing him into the Light source beneath the island. His human body died that day, and though he would be able to take on the form of any human being who was dead, from then on, he would always be the smoke monster and unable to live as a normal man.
What did the Man in Black mean when he said that Jacob took his body/humanity away from him? [6.09] - The people who dug the wells were island inhabitants who originally came from the same ship that Jacob and MiB’s birth mother Claudia was from.
Who were the people who dug the island’s wells, and how long ago did they live there? [6.12]
- Who was Mother? How did she get to the island? Did she have a predecessor as island protector, or was she the first? How did she know so much about the island and how it worked?
- The Light beneath the island is what makes the island so important and special. But what is the Light?
- Why did Mother tell MiB that he would never be able to leave the island? And does this mean that MiB will be unable to escape despite all of his present-day efforts to do so?
- What exactly happened when MiB fell into the Light source beneath the island? Did sending a person (MiB) down into the source create the smoke monster, or release it?
“Across the Sea” was a bold move for Lost‘s creative team. Just hours away from the show’s final minutes, they paused to set aside the main cast and rewind to a story from the distant past that explained the motivations of two pivotal characters: Jacob and the Man in Black, who we learned are in fact twin brothers. The episode felt more like a fable than a history lesson, stuffed to the gills with symbolism, and containing subtle and not-so-subtle overtones of biblical stories like Cain & Abel and Jacob & Esau and even the Last Supper — which I’m sure were completely intentional.
I could go mad trying to dissect every single detail of this mythologically-dense episode, and posing questions about what all the endless, minute bits and pieces mean. An entire book could be written about it, connecting its dots to others throughout the entire Lost story. (Example: a pregnant woman washes up on the island after a catastrophic wreck. Paging Danielle and Claire!) Instead of trying to do the near-impossible, I’m choosing to accept the episode on its own terms and examine the parts of it that I believe are meant to truly matter. (Maybe someday if I get around to writing a guide book to Lost, I’ll examine “Across the Sea” in greater depth.)
Just minutes after it aired, Lost fans were already split over “Across the Sea.” Some loved its poetic beauty, others hated how much it left open to interpretation. The show itself reiterated something that Lindelof & Cuse have been saying for a while now — that every answer just leads to another question — which was meant as a cue for us to calm down and just let them tell the story they have to tell, and don’t expect every single thing to have a definitive answer.
So for those still grasping to understand why this episode was made and why it had to be, let me spell it out for you.
“Across the Sea” gave us:
- Who Jacob and the Man in Black are in relation to one another, and how they came to the island.
- Why Jacob and MiB can’t kill each other.
- How Jacob and MiB came to have the roles that they both have (or had, in Jacob’s case) on the island.
- Who built the frozen wheel beneath the island.
- Who the “Adam & Eve” skeletons are.
- Why MiB is so darn angry, why he hates Jacob so much, and how he became the smoke monster.
My one disappointment with the episode — and it’s a big one — is that we still have no name for the Man in Black, or the woman who raised both him and Jacob. I suppose I can live with Mother remaining somewhat ambiguous — some have theorized that she’s “Mother Earth” or some such — but we absolutely require a name for the Man in Black. It almost seemed as though “Across the Sea” went out of its way at times to make it appear as though he doesn’t actually have a name. But Damon & Carlton promised us as far back as Comic-Con 2009 that MiB does have a name, and that it would be revealed in time. I really thought it would happen at the end of this episode.
What on earth could his name be, that’s so big a deal that they’re either waiting until the final episode to reveal it, or they’ve reneged on their promise to reveal it at all and decided that they like it better if he doesn’t have one? I have no idea. At this point, it seems unlikely that any name will live up to expectations, so maybe they really have decided to leave him nameless. I always assumed, though, that his name was being kept secret because it would give too much away. As in, his name is a famous one, a name we would easily recognize from history or mythology or religion, and would hold the keys to understanding Lost‘s entire story.
But hey, it ain’t over yet. So I’m still holding out hope.
Why could MiB see his birth mother but Jacob couldn’t? I don’t know. It doesn’t ultimately matter, but I would suggest that either MiB had the same ability to see and speak to dead people that Hurley would possess centuries later, or Claudia simply chose which of the brothers she wanted to appear to. I think the second explanation is the more likely one, because Claudia’s appearance was a little different than the way dead people have always appeared to Hurley, such as the supernatural light that surrounded her.
A few lines were thrown in to indicate that viewers shouldn’t expect the moon from Lost and all its lingering mysteries, such as the aforementioned bit where Mother tells Claudia that all of her answers will just lead to more questions. Plus, there was the moment when the boys were playing their game, where MiB told Jacob that one day he could make up his own rules that everyone would have to follow. This was an indicator to us that when it comes some of Jacob’s quirkier, more inexplicable actions, we should just chalk it up to his own idiosyncrasies and his brother’s suggestion to make up his own rules. I’m thinking of things like how no one was supposed to go inside the Statue chamber where Jacob lived unless they were invited by Jacob himself. There was no grand, mystical reason for this rule; Jacob just made it up because it was how he wanted to do things. It’s a sort of catch-all explanation, and an indicator to we viewers that not every mystery is meant to have an epic answer.
This episode never states when it takes place, but aside from the primitive clothing and rudimentary tools, we are given two clues about the time period: the use of Latin as a commonly-spoken language, and the ancient game Senet that Jacob and his brother play. Senet is very possibly the oldest board game in the world, dating all the way back to at least 3500 BC. But Latin was a commonly-spoken language only after Rome conquered most of the Eastern world, which occurred between 753 BC and AD 476. So while we can’t narrow it down any further than that, we can safely speculate that Jacob and the Man in Black are probably both well over 2,000 years old. No wonder MiB wants to leave the island so bad! You would too if you’d been trapped there for 2,000 years.
Incidentally, if you’d like to check out Senet for yourself, you can play it online here.
Going back to the “rules” for a moment… Mother’s explanation that she “made it so you can never hurt each other” explains the “rules” that prevent Jacob and MiB from killing each other. Yet twice in this episode we saw Jacob viciously attack his brother, punching him until his face was bloody. I’m forced to conclude one of two things from this: 1) they can fight all they want, but can’t do any actual permanent damage to each other; or 2) by “hurt,” Mother actually meant “kill.” As in, they can physically fight, but will never be able to kill one another. Some might argue that Jacob did exactly that when he threw his brother into the Light source, but I think we’re meant to interpret it that Jacob merely put his brother into the water, and let the stream take him, instead of actually doing the deed himself. I.E., his role in his brother’s death was an inactive one, so the rules didn’t apply.
Another thing that jumped out at me was Mother telling Jacob at the end that he didn’t have a choice about becoming the island’s protector, when Jacob is known for telling people that they always have a choice. I think Jacob learned from his Mother’s mistakes, and found a better way than her methods and beliefs.
Now we know that to become the island’s protector, a ritual is involved. So my theory about the new protector already being installed ever since Jacob’s death was wrong. But how will the new protector know to take the drink? Will Hurley serve as an intermediary between Dead Jacob and the new protector?
It’s never explained or addressed in the episode, but my interpretation of the scene where Jacob tosses his brother into the Light source is that as MiB died, his soul was transferred into the smoke monster. Hence, his body was expelled from the Light, dead. Yet he lived on as part of the “evil incarnate” entity that we know as the black smoke monster. The two of them were joined in that moment, and that’s why MiB never ages. (Jacob, on the other hand, never ages because he is the island’s protector.) Did MiB absorb the Light as he died, and that’s why it was extinguished? Did the act of MiB penetrating the Light source create or release the smoke monster? I have no idea, and my guess is that we’re meant to interpret smokey’s birth or escape or whatever, however we want.
So Jacob succeeded his surrogate Mother in the role of protector of the island. He seems to use much different tactics than she did, though. Although she appeared from the outside as a rather genteel soul, she was willing to go to any lengths required to protect the island — even massacring the Outsiders. She did a lot of terrible things that we consider evil, although she wasn’t what I would call evil herself. What a complicated character she was. Deeply flawed, yet she didn’t strike me as the mentally unstable figure that MiB claimed she was earlier this season (in his beachside conversation with Kate). As much as she was resolute in her duty as island protector, she was happy to be done with it when MiB killed her.
Who Mother really was and why she did the things that she did, have purposefully been left open to debate. As a writer, I perceived the scent of “intentionally vague” when it came to these things. And at the end of the day, Lost is not her story. Lost is the story of the survivors of Oceanic 815, although she played a crucial, if indirect, part of their history.
But because I know this will not be enough for many of you, here’s my official theory on Mother.
She told Claudia that she came to the island “by accident,” which implies that she, just like Jacob, was once a regular human who took on the role of island protector after someone else passed it off to her. Maybe she was telling the truth, and she was a shipwreck survivor just like Claudia, who was taken in by someone else and given the responsibility of island protector. Or maybe she was lying, and she was always on the island. Some will argue, as I mentioned earlier, that Mother was some kind of mythical being, but she lived and breathed and died, just like any normal human can. So let’s assume she was telling Claudia the truth.
Something about this role causes the island’s protector not to age. So we have no way of knowing how long Mother had been on the island before Claudia came along. But when she found Claudia, a pregnant woman, I think she sensed an opportunity. What she would later tell Jacob may have been partly true — that she killed Claudia to protect the boys from the dangers of the Outsiders — but she also knew that she needed a successor, and an easy way to get one would be to raise one from birth. So she killed Claudia and raised the two children herself.
It seems clear that Jacob was right about Mother loving MiB more. Jacob, while very human and flawed, was clearly the more pure-of-heart of the two. But Mother was very skilled in the art of deception, so perhaps she identified more with MiB, seeing in him someone a lot like herself.
When MiB unexpectedly found out the truth about Mother from the ghost of his biomom, he couldn’t deal with all her lies and fled. He’d always wanted to leave the island and see what else is out there, and he believed his people might be able to help him accomplish that. MiB was telling the truth to Kate when he said that his mother imparted a lot of serious issues upon him, as we saw here through all of her lies. What MiB failed to mention in his little confessional to Kate is that his mother imparted issues upon Jacob as well. Maybe MiB never noticed, maybe he simply didn’t care. But pure-of-heart Jacob knew that Mother loved his brother more than him, and even though he stayed by her side until the end, even though she showed that she did genuinely love him, it still left him with emotional scars. Yet because of his own innate goodness or maturity, he was able to get past this, while MiB’s immaturity and selfishness have caused him to suffer under his Mother’s lies to this day. Lost has herein made a very strong argument for nature in the old “nature vs. nurture” debate. It wasn’t Mother that made these two boys who they became; Jacob was mostly good and MiB was mostly bad because that’s who they were in their heart of hearts. Put another way, their choices caused them to become good or bad, but Jacob knew how to make better choices than his brother did, who always relied on his selfish emotions as his rudder.
Living with “his people” didn’t provide MiB with the happiness he thought it would. It didn’t take him long to realize that Mother was right, and they were a far cry from the love he was used to receiving from her. Yet he’d already written her off as a liar and felt he had nowhere else to go, so he stayed with these “bad” people. It appears that this is where he developed his opinion of people being fundamentally corrupted. This opinion is the foundational argument between him and Jacob, and the very thing that would lead Jacob to bring countless people to the island over the centuries, in an effort to prove his brother wrong. Jacob believed in the goodness of people, while his brother believed otherwise.
The Light was potentially the most important revelation about the island we will ever get. Others far more versed in mythology and religions will all have their own theories about what the Light represents. Traditionally, Light is a representation of goodness, righteousness, and truth. All that matters in the context of Lost is that the island is the source of the Light, and the Light is the most precious and important thing in all the world. Mother had a lot to say about the Light, yet her cryptic comments revealed very little useful information about it. I think most of her words were meant to captivate her sons’ imaginations more than provide us viewers with useful answers.
In a more practical sense, the Light appeared to be holding in the black smoke. Call it a mystical “force field” or whatever you like, but the Light was the thing keeping the smoke — which we know is evil incarnate, from what Jacob told Richard — imprisoned. Yet Jacob went against his Mother’s warning to never let the Light be put out, extinguishing it when he “fed” his brother to the cave. And as soon as the Light was out, the evil that is the smoke monster was released to roam free. But it is still confined to the island…
Now I’m going to get a little headier than I usually do, so bare with me for a moment. I think we have to assume that the Light that held the black smoke prisoner wasn’t the only source of Light on the island. And I think the Light is sourced by all of the electromagnetic pockets of energy all over the island. I’ve theorized before that the magnetic energy pockets are what keep MiB from being able to leave the island, and this episode appears to have proven me right. Even though Mother treated the Light in the cave as if it was the only source of Light, we know that after that Light was put out by the smoke monster being set free, other sources of Light continued across the island — such as the one behind the frozen wheel. We clearly saw that same shade of bright yellow/golden Light when both Ben and Locke turned the wheel. And we’re meant to gather from all of these wells we’ve been seeing this season that each one marks the location of an electromagnetic pocket. Following this logic, anywhere we see the Light, we are seeing an electromagnetic pocket. (Maybe we’re just seeing different parts or branches of one single pocket that’s deeper below the surface than anything else. Meaning that all of the Light really is the same.)
Mother’s words and reverence suggested a spiritual connotation to the Light, which it may have, and which many viewers will no doubt intuit. The line about “a little bit of this very same Light is inside every man” is a clear reference to the supernatural, the divine, the spark of the soul, life itself. Yet Mother’s note of how men always want more of it is a reference to power. The Light is not a representation of any one spiritual concept or idea. It’s meant to refer to pretty much every positive, mystical/spiritual idea there is, crossing borders of every religion, so that the viewer can assign to the Light whatever connotation he or she wants.
I think this was inserted into the episode as a reinforcement of the science vs. faith theme that Lost has always played off of. The history of mankind has shown that science and faith are unhappy bedfellows, but my feeling is that Lost is trying to tell us that they don’t have to be. Lost is suggesting that these two points of view — science and faith — are observing the exact same things through different lenses.
And maybe there’s validity to both.
about 3 years ago
Jack and Claire.
Siblings.
Jack wants to stay, Claire wants to leave.
maybe
about 3 years ago
She did evil things, but wasn’t evil herself?
Guess I don’t know what being evil means.
about 3 years ago
Sorry, Robin, for my wife and I this was the most least-satisfying episode of Lost in six years. My wife hated it for being too nihilistic; there was no hope whatsoever. I hated it because it felt exactly like… part ONE of a two-part series. There was no conclusion, no finale, nothing that wrapped things up with the facts that we already have.
Biggest example of this: In this episode, we’re told that the purpose of the island and its protector is to guard the Light… but in Ab Aeterno, Jacob tells Richard his and the island’s purpose is to guard the Darkness. How did that happen? What changed? How does Jacob know that the entire PURPOSE that he was taught in the beginning has changed? That’s major. That’s huge.
I don’t buy your comments about the Light being put out. I re-watched it just now after reading your summary, and it’s definitely not clear that the Light has gone out. The smoke monster bursts out of it, but the camera never goes back to the cave afterwards, so we can’t tell whether anything’s happened there. You could argue that it was dimming before he burst out, but that’s very debatable, even in HD.
And where’s the connection to Egypt/Tunisia? We’ve seen pictographs of the smoke monster connected with Egyptian mythology. How does that fit in? The temple? The tunnels? The hieroglyphs all over the place?
It feels like half of this episode is totally missing. I kept waiting for MIB to show up again at the end, which we know that he does… and he never did. We don’t get to see Jacob react to that? What an awkward ending.
Oh, and you’re wrong on the answered questions. We DON’T know who built the frozen donkey wheel. That was MIB’s idea, sure, but he never finished it. Mother dearest destroyed it all (and how did such a frail woman do all that??) before he built it. So someone ELSE built the wheel in a different location, and we don’t know who that was.
So more UNanswered questions to add to your list:
• How did Mother destroy the well and kill all the townspeople? What are her powers? Where did she get them? etc., etc.
• How did Jacob’s purpose change from protecting the Light to holding back the Darkness?
about 3 years ago
“How did Jacob’s purpose change from protecting the Light to holding back the Darkness?”
———-
I thought this happened as soon as Jacob inadvertently created the Smoke Monster — which unleashed Darkness/Evil on the Island. Prior to that, his purpose was simply to protect the Island/Light. But after he inadvertently unleashed Darkness/Evil on the Island, his primary purpose changed to keeping that Darkness/Evil from escaping the Island.
Similar to the Garden of Eden. The initial job of Adam of Eve was simply to not eat from the forbidden tree. Well, once they went against that and ate from the tree, the new job was to not use their newfound knowledge and awareness to commit evil.
An imperfect analogy, I know, since the forbidden tree is not the same as the Light. But the analogy fits in that both were things that were to be revered and from which they were to stay away. But once that command was broken, there was a new purpose created.
about 3 years ago
First I want to say that I did really enjoy this episode but I agree with Tim in the fact that it felt like this was a part 1 episode. I would have enjoyed seeing more of Jacob and MIB after what happened in this episode – choosing the names, using the lighthouse, the caves with everyones name, discussing the new rules perhaps? It did lead to a lot more questions that I don’t think will be answered and for most of them, I’m ok with that. I don’t feel like anything in last night’s episode was unnecessary. I enjoyed it but why oh why couldn’t they have said MIB’s real name! That was the most frustrating part for me.
about 3 years ago
When Lost is on I just enjoy watching it. Later when I read what you have to say, that is when I think about all that happened in the episode. I liked what you had to say about “Across the Sea”. And I too wanted to know MIB’s name. I also think it is important and that’s why they didn’t mention it.
about 3 years ago
I’m not saying she was Mother of the Year material, Randy, or even Citizen of the Year. She had MAJOR league issues: she lied to her children, she killed people, etc.
But I don’t think she ever did anything out of maliciousness or wickedness. There was no doubt some selfishness in the mix, but everything she did was motivated by 1) her love for her two boys, or 2) her responsibility as protector of the island. In both cases, she saw her sometimes-evil actions as a necessary means to a positive end. Much like the Others who would one day follow her son Jacob, who also did a lot of mean, terrible things to innocent people in the name of good.
It’s a muddy shade of gray, all of it. But I think that deep down, there was ultimately more good in her than evil.
about 3 years ago
Here is a crazy idea, what if MIB’s name is Wallace? What if Jacob’s plan all along is to show MIB (who is said to be pure evil) that there is good in people only in hopes that MIB will “become” good himself and possibly be the next protector of the island. A crazy thought but it would make sense in we have seen Wallace at 108, don’t know who he is and don’t know MIB’s name.
about 3 years ago
Michael… I don’t think Jacob created the smoke monster. The more I think about it, the more I have to believe the smoke monster has existed for much longer than that… and that “mother” dearest was probably the monster as well.
In fact, I’m starting to think that MiB is actually dead, and the monster’s appearances as him are just the same as its appearances as Locke… and just as the monster is slowly taking on Locke’s mannerisms and such, over the past 2000 years, it took on MiB’s….
about 3 years ago
I loved the episode. Sue me. I know people miss seeing Sawyer shirtless for yet another week, but I believe devoting this episode to just the Island was necessary. Otherwise, I could have seen them try to shoehorn these flashbacks into the series finale between the modern day stuff in an attempt to reveal all as it built to its climax. It would have just been too confusing and would have detracted from the potential power of the overall finale. So while others see this episode as an unnecessary digression, I see it as the foundation for the final moments to come…
Good news is that I can see an entire spin off comic book series based on the centuries of Jacob vs MiB on the Island, delving further into the many questions people still have about the timeline and history of the Island. Just call it Lost Island or something like that and hire a rotating stable of creators to tackle various story arcs. I’ll throw my hat into the ring for a few arcs. Call me, ABC.
The focal point of everything here is now (and always has been) the Island. More specifically, the unique properties of the island as revealed through the light that emanates from it. I believe the Island is sentient (I am capitalizing the name because I believe it to be a proper noun/name for a living being. Is it a good being or an evil being? I believe it to be neither, but at the same time, it has the ability to be corrupted from its pure state. Whatever it is, someone knew enough that it had to be protected from outside forces by appointing a guardian. And just as Mother saw all outsiders as potential corruptors or manipulators of the energy aka the Island, we see the same thing playing out in the present, with Widmore wanting to take the Island and its power for himself. And why do I think that the Island is sentient? Because it had the ability to appear as MiB’s real mom and tell him the truth, leading him to make some grave decisions. The Island wanted to take human form and the only way to do that would be to let people come in physical contact with the power, which manifests itself as a form of electromagnetic energy (even though we know it’s so much more, what with the time travel and all). But one caveat to the becoming “human”… it would take on the human characteristics (mentally and emotionally) of the flawed human that it touched. So yes, it kind of has a human soul and a human form, but it has power too, even if only a fraction of the Island’s core power. That’s why it bothers to play by Jacob’s rules.
Speaking of MiB, I believe he simply wanted to get off the Island. He is intentionally nameless as he is simply a form the energy has now taken. We know his origin. He was born on the island. His real mother never named him. I imagine Mother named him, but it wouldn’t be anything of consequence unless it a mysterious tie back to our Oceanic 815 gang. Who was his father? Was he among the Outsiders? Was he killed in the shipwreck? None of that probably matters unless it turns out to be Jack Shephard from the future or something crazy like that.
ANYONE NOTICE:
The 4 that washed up on the beach after the sub sank are the same 4 (Hurley, Kate, Jack, Sawyer) that the Others collected at the end of season 2 on the dock. Coincidence? And that Hurley was asked to deliver a message to the rest of his people? I wonder if Hurley will be the go-between to deliver a message FROM his people this time around? …the dead ones.
MY BIG QUESTIONS:
What is the true purpose behind the Island’s ability to time travel? Really, what purpose did it serve other than to look cool? Was it meant to put our people in another time so that they could split time between the two realities, which will eventually be brought back together? Is this Jacob’s end-around attack on MiB to prevent him from seeing the smackdown?
What is the origin of the Island’s power? Did it fall from space? Is the Island an alien meteor being? Is it a fallen angel? Is this where Lucifer landed after the in the war of heaven? So many wacky possibilities…
Why was Jacob able to leave the island to touch all of our main cast?
What is the significance of Jacob touching each of them? Is it simply a potential “candidate” tag-you’re-it touch? Does it mean that he also went around touching hundreds or thousands of other people throughout time, as a way to say, “you’re coming to the Island eventually and you might be a Candidate or you’ll die” without them ever really knowing and they just didn’t bother to show him touching others on the list that we know?
And if so, why isn’t Kate’s name on the list? It can’t be because she killed her stepfather and is now seen as no longer worthy. Sawyer killed a guy and he was still on the list. I believe Jacob intentionally crossed her off to manipulate everyone into a position that will destroy Smokey once and for all. It will come down to the love triangle gang of Kate, Jack, and Sawyer and what either one of the guys does or is willing to do when Kate’s life is at stake (moreso).
Remember that we still have Ben, Richard, and Miles in play. What’s their part in all of the endgame?
What is the significance of Christian Shephard’s missing body in both realities?
Is Desmond’s mind split, but whole, existing in both timelines, giving him a sort of divine, above the chess board perspective on things?
I want Walt’s abilities explained and tied into all of this. What is the significance of his death vision and mental projection stuff? Please don’t be a dangling plot thread…
And why is NO ONE making a big deal about Lupidis dying? Sure, Sun, Jin, and Sayid were all original cast members, but does no one weep for Frank?
about 3 years ago
Tim — Interesting theory. It brings me back to the episode where we were first (I believe) introduced to Jacob and MiB when they were on the beach. Where MiB states “you have no idea how badly I want to kill you” or some such. When did that happen? Was it one of their times they got together behind their Mother’s back to converse? Or was it after Jacob threw him into the water leading to the Light and it was actually the Smoke Monster using Jacob’s body?
That said, if MiB is actually dead and gone and this is just some evil incarnate Smoke Monster that existed long before any of them, then why does it play by Jacob’s rules of the game he apparently created?
about 3 years ago
One more thing… my bet out of left field…
The Candidate that will take over and protect the island is not Jack, but is a redeemed and uncorrupted Locke without any Smokey in him as a result of the collision of the two timelines.
Just a guess. Jack is too obvious. I think he’s a red herring, not just by the writers, but by Jacob himself to resolve the conflict once and for all.
Oh, and I’m looking forward to Ben’s death scene. You know that if it happens (it will), it’s gonna be good.
about 3 years ago
Random thoughts, as I have no coherent theory coming out of this episode.
If the name of MiB were truly unimportant, then why not go ahead and name the character something–anything? I can only surmise the two remaining options–that we will never know the name, or that the name carries meaning–serve a larger purpose in the story.
If we are to learn the name, I can only think of two possibilities for holding it back. Either the name is specifically recognizable independent of LOST (Esau, Adam, or Lucifer would be obvious possibilities) or the name is recognizable within the confines of LOST (a similarity with an existing character name). Why go this route unless there was a significant payoff?
I get the impression that nothing starts with Mother. Perhaps this cycle has been going on for even longer. I keep thinking that the island is the source of the elements of major religions. For instance, many elements of Old Testament stories are present–Garden of Eden, Fall of Man, Great Flood, and so on… perhaps the island has been visited throughout the millennia by various cultures and those who left the island did so with stories of phenomena that evolved into religious fables, etc. Just a thought–here is your grain of salt to go with it.
I’m thinking Mother knew what she was doing in instructing the boys to avoid the other people on the island, etc. What was her real end game? Death? The release/creation of the Smoke Monster?
Are we all still firmly convinced as to the relative good/evil of Jacob and MiB? I’m still not sold on Jacob as the “good guy.” Perhaps all is relative and all is gray?
On the fence about this episode. I liked it and am OK with the “part 1 of 2″ feel, provided there is some additional payoff. I would be shocked if the remaining 3.5 hours do not include additional interaction between Jacob/MiB.
about 3 years ago
A couple of thoughts… I thought the cove with the Light and Mother’s role in protecting it were very analogous to the Angelic beings tasked with guarding the entryway to Eden after Adam and Eve fell. Obviously, Cuse and Lindelof have taken pains to create the Island’s own mythology outside of any specific religion/mythos we are aware of, but they do borrow heavily from the Judeo-Christian history, and I think this was an example of it.
@Tim… How do we know that over the 2000 years since Mother buried the original well, MiB didn’t dig it back up or influence others on the Island that Jacob keeps bringing to dig and install it. There’s no reason why burying it once would keep it buried. In fact, I felt it was clear that the writers were saying that that particular spot was under the Orchid, where we know the Donkey Wheel is in our time.
I think one other mystery was hinted at – the Tawaret statue was, I think, built as a tribute to Mother, by people on the Island who were told the tale by MiB, perhaps in another failed attempt to get off the Island.
One minor mystery I want to know the answer to – why is MiB pissed whenever someone else sees the young Jacob? And does it mean that Sawyer and Desmond (and Hurley) are possibly the “other” to the Candidate – not in a good vs. evil sense, but as a balance for the Island guardian, a companion to endure the long, lonely days guarding the Island.
Is the ritual wine that Mother used the same bottle Jacob gave to MiB in Ab Aeterno after enlisting Richard’s services? If so, how will the ritual be performed?
@Michael in MI – The scene where we were first introduced to MiB was when The Black Rock was off the coast – MiB asked Jacob why he kept bringing people here – Jacob is clearly already the Protector of the Island, Mother long-dead.
One last thing… I thought Mother’s attempt to raise the boys, including killing Claudia was along the lines of Ted Dekker’s Blessed Child – the noble savage… of course, it didn’t completely work, but I definitely saw her motivation along those lines.
about 3 years ago
@ lonerangerone… the idea of a balance for an island guardian is an interesting thought. Immediately made me think of the two teammates assigned to push the button every 108 minutes. A nice parallel.
about 3 years ago
If Desmond is that person, it would definitely be a nice parallel of him in the Sideways reality connecting the Oceanic flight folks just as Jack is coming into his own as the potential replacement Jacob…
about 3 years ago
It was clear Jacob knew that his mother loved MIB more, but I also wonder if her love for MIB was not also tied to his potential as a candidate, or her replacement. MIB could talk to the dead like Hurley, but he also knew things, like how to play a game he and his brother had never seen or heard of before….sure, they did mention MIB made up the rules of the game, but I think MIB knew exactly how the game was played.
What I’m not sure about is if some of these people’s powers and abilities qualify them to be candidates, or if the fact that they’ve been chosen as candidates has given them powers. Like Jacob saw who he wanted and downloaded them with abilities maybe. But why not give everyone some kind of ability? Confusing I know, but it’s in my head
)
I was satisfied at the revelation of Jacob telling his mother that he knew she loved MIB more. Jacob, like our candidates on flight 815, had Daddy/Mommy issues. Is this a coincidence? Did Jacob hand pick his potential replacements? It makes sense that he did.
I wonder about something else…MIB called himself special…I believe even his mother did. After the episode I wondered if they gave MIB this distinction because he had the potential to be the next protector of the island….which it could be….but I now think his being special might have meant something different entirely. Here’s what I mean:
LOST has many themes running through its story line, we all know this. One of these themes I believe is whether a person has free will or not. Do people have a decided destiny or is everything up in the air. The MIB knew things, and saw the dead and maybe more we don’t know about….so he was special. But what if his destiny was in fact to never be the next replacement for his mother as protector of the island. What if he was meant to always turn into the smoke monster, and his abilities and being special somehow aided in this outcome.
I may just be blowing smoke here, but again, it’s in my head
) And if the above thought is somehow correct, then that means other individuals who are deemed, “special” might also have the ability to become like the smoke monster as well. I think the closet comparison we have to the MIB as a child is Walt……Walt was the definition of special….so if you threw him into the light, would he turn into a smoke monster as well. I’m just not sure….the plot thickens….
about 3 years ago
Very candid interview with Damon & Carlton:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/exclusive-interview-lost-producers-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse-talk-across-the-sea
There won’t BE a name for the MiB, and the whole light/smokey thing WILL be explained.
about 3 years ago
@Tim Yes!!!! Another crazy viewer!!!!
I thought the murdering Mother could well have been the smoke “monster.” And look at the style and efficiency with which the outsiders (working on the well and the donkey wheel) were killed. Left exactly in a post-smokey state.
I think we have to agree that if MIB’s body was killed “by the river” or whatever, that MIB afterwards appears as the chosen embodiment of the smoke.
Then Mother’s “thank you” could refer to several things
1) The gift of death, a recurring theme (Richard)
2) Release from the burden of island protecting
3) Release from the actual dissembodied form of smokey, and his/her responsibilities
Counterpoint – she was killed before MIB was smokey. If she was still smokey, wouldn’t she be protected from knives/bullets? Or had smokey left her to return for a moment to the light? Or was self protection at conscious control?
Agree with a previous post that MIB’s entry into the light did not effect its intensity, just a temporary smoke screen.
Thanks for the comment, Robin. Everything seems to be light grey/dark grey, as in life.
about 3 years ago
Regarding the mommy/daddy issues…
That seems to be a theme in LOST as well.
MiB and Jacob have issues due to their mother.
Jack had issues with Christian.
Sawyer had issues, because his parents were murdered.
Kate had issues with her father abusing her mother.
Sun and Jin had issues, because of Sun’s father.
Locke had issues, because his father pushed him out of a window.
Ben had issues with his father.
I’m not sure about Sayid or Hurley.
In the Sideways reality…
Jack still has issues, but makes things right with his son.
Sawyer still has issues, as he is still searching for his parents’ killer.
Kate still has issues, but apparently did not kill her father.
Sun and Jin still have issues, but decide to cut her father out of their lives and run.
Locke still has issues, but for a different reason, as he is the one who crippled his father, instead of the other way around.
Ben now has a better relationship with his father.
Is there some kind of theme about how parenting affects children?
about 3 years ago
Regarding Mother as the smoke monster theory…
Wouldn’t that mean then that the woman whom we see as Mother is actually already dead, like Smoke Monster in Locke’s human form is actually dead? The MiB we’re seeing (such as when we first meet Jacob and MiB on the beach where he states to Jacob “I want to kill you”) apparently is the Smoke Monster taking human form through the use of dead people. Jacob isn’t talking to his brother MiB there, he’s talking to the Smoke Monster using the body of his dead brother MiB. Correct?
So, circling back around, if the theory that Mother was the Smoke Monster in human form, then the lady who was Mother actually was already dead. And the person who raised Jacob and MiB was not an actual person, but simply the Smoke Monster in human form of an already dead woman.
But then, as someone already noted, I though that the Smoke Monster in human form was immune to knives and guns and such. So how would Mother die from the knife from MiB if she was the Smoke Monster in human form? Either there’s something I’m missing, or the fact she dies from the knife wound discounts the theory that she is the Smoke Monster.
Or…
Remember when she told Jacob “you and I are now the same” after the ‘ceremony’ to make him the new protector of the Island/Light. I took this to mean that Jacob was now immortal like her. But, as we know, Jacob could die, as he was killed by Ben. Was Mother’s death at the hands of MiB akin to Jacob’s death at the hands of Ben? And recall that MiB could not kill Jacob, but he could try to convince someone else to do so. Was there a someone to Mother as there was a MiB to Jacob?
At this point I’m just throwing out all the ideas going through my mind right now. Maybe someone else can organize them a bit better for me (or show where some of my reasoning and WAGs may be off).
about 3 years ago
I loved reading your recap, and I loved the episode. I’ve made peace with the fact that not all questions will be answered fully, and am really enjoying experiencing the Lost ‘story’ as its creators reveal it. Thanks for putting so much into context & giving such great perspective. I’m a big fan of yours too
about 3 years ago
@ Michael in MI – Rorschach (Side note: my physics professor at Rice was Dr. Rorschach, whose father developed the ink blot test. And to Robin, now I know why all those night games were so bright, and we were forbidden from entering the underground tunnels on campus;)
Regarding mommy’daddy issues:
I would add about Sayid, and a segue into his defense: As in anyones life, pleasing our father (or like Jacob, our mother) is one of our greatest goals. Sayid’s father gave him high praise for killing the chicken. Definitely a behavioral reinforcement. But did he do it for fun? He did it whether pleasant or not to HELP HIS BROTHER avoid shame and punishment. And instead of accepting his father’s approval (for the gift from Sayid) the brother gave credit to Sayid, which brought him scorn and brought Sayid unsought praise.
For this, Sayid has been labeled a bad person with a blood lust. What bugs me is that this is inconsistent with analyses by viewers and commentators in the six year history of the show. A prevailing analytical rule seems to be that “the end justifies the means.” Is this the view of this day and age? It is not what I was taught (of course there are rare exceptions, but let’s not get bogged down.) But why is this forgiveness/justification not extended to Sayid? He was forced to become a torturor, as part of his ‘communications officer’ job. For which he was remorseful and risked his life to save Nadia and leave. To save a life, he stuck some stems under Sawyer’s fingernails (minimizing here), then was so remorseful he did not feel worthy to stay in the community.
We all have some scars from childhood that push us in the wrong direction (in a loose sense, destiny.) We all have the free will to see what is right and wrong, and exercise that freedom. A continuation of the theme of predestination vs free will. Sometimes the only choice that will help the many is one of dark grey for the individual. What is right? I don’t know.
about 3 years ago
@Michael in MI – Part 1.99 Regarding “mother” and smokey.
Lots of material here but after 4 hours work not ready to be posted. So help me out (anyone)
**** I contend that smokey is not sentient ****
Thanks
Randy
about 3 years ago
Was the knife MiB used to kill Mother the same Dogen gave to Sayid to ‘kill’ MiB?
I’m not convinced MiB died and smokey stole his image. I think he lost his physical body but lived on in Smokey. I think it would be a cop out if ‘he wasn’t killed by Jacob because it was the rock that killed him’ – I’m sorry but that’s lame!
Also MiB’s quote from earlier this season that ‘Jacob stripped me of my humanity’ could be Smokey taking on more and more of who MiB is but it still sits with me more like he IS MiB but no longer human.
I had been wondering how mother could kill all those people and destroy a well! There could be something in the theory that she was Smokey.
about 3 years ago
@ Lots…
The smoke monster is definitely NOT immune to knife wounds – at least not that particular knife – otherwise Dogen wouldn’t have believed that he could send Sayid to kill him…
@ Michael in MI
Hurley’s dad abandoned the family as I recall, returning when Hugo became flush with $$ from the lottery
about 3 years ago
Paul, that dagger did MiB no harm. He just pulled it out of his gut, like nothing. It was later established that Dogen knew it wouldn’t harm MiB, Dogen just wanted Sayid dead, and hoped MiB would do it for him.
about 3 years ago
First I would like to say to Robin how much I enjoy that you put so much time and effort into this to help us understand this show and all of is nuances better.
Regarding the dagger and the mother being the smoke monster (I’m going to kind of circle my thoughts here so try to stay with me):
Remember what Dogen told Sayid when he gave him the dagger (which I think was the same dagger MIB had) not to let MIB speak to him or it wouldn’t work. I agree that this was all Dogen’s ploy to get Sayid killed. But I found it interesting for all of you who think that the mother could be an earlier version of the smoke monster that the mother did not say anything to MIB or know he was there when he stuck her with it and thus killing her with it. So I could see the possibility that the mother could have been the smoke monster all along especially with her taking out the well and Outsiders as efficiently as we know the smoke monster can do. But here is where it looses me, why would she seem to be “protecting” the light and the island? Is the light really the source of evil? I’m inclined to think no. And making Jacob drink the wine to be the new protector and “the same as her” wouldn’t add up. I don’t think she would be both. But as the article with Damon and Carlton pointed out, they like to show that people have the capacity to do good and evil. So I guess I don’t really have a theory here and it could just be a coincidence that the mother didn’t say anything before she was stabbed. However I think that all of those elements might be too much of a coincidence considering this is LOST. Just something to think about.
I am irritated that they won’t reveal the name for MIB and part of me is hoping they just said that and the will. Hoping…Praying…
Also I really feel we need some more answers to Walt. They have left that danging for a long time. I think I read somewhere that he will be mentioned before the end and I certainly hope it is to give us answers.
I have to be honest, after reading the interview with Damon and Carlton I am starting to get worried for the finale and how it will end. They seemed way to happy with the way Sopranos and Seinfeld ended and I really hope they will not follow down the same path. I have come to terms with the fact that we won’t get all of the answers and we can’t. Plus is does add a reality element to the show but I can’t help but be worried after those comments. Thankfully Robin is here to bridge some of those gaps.
about 3 years ago
Smokey was once described as the islands ‘security system’. I know since then we’ve learnt more about his motivations but is it possible he has also been protecting the light source/island despite wanting to get off? Probably not now that I think about it more
but he was trying to find the light to get off the island but he did, in a manner of speaking, find the light so maybe he now protects it or at least kills people who might want to take it?
Knowing that he helped build the well and the donkey wheel certainly adds a new perspective on the scene where he gets John to move the wheel. I wonder how he knew that it wouldn’t also transport him?
about 3 years ago
The “Smoke Monster” ????
The term as it is used in the context of this show implies a conscious entity, intelligent, intellectually autonomous, manipulative, deceitful, with a plan of its own (or that of its master,) and which is evil.
Haven’t come up with a good term yet, but it seems to be more of a parasite. It comes with certain gifts and abilities, and with certain burdens. And it may have some other state in which it is not entwined with a specific individual. Maybe that’s the burden, to prevent it from becoming autonomously eskatologically evil.
I want to develope this more fully, but for now let me pose that even if “mother” had smokey attached to her,
1) it seems that the rules imply that her original human body is dead
2) her mind, spirit, consciousness is completely intact
3) the relationship with smokey (whatever that is and however it came to be) allows her to continue to interact with the world through a physical body
4) the conscious entity “mother” raises her two boys, even though the attachment with smokey has occured
5) “mother” uses some of the abilities of smokey to serve HER purpose in filling in the well and destroying the Outsiders
—–a) have no evidence that the woman could have done this [a weak statement, this is LOST]
—–b) the destruction has the classic signature of smokey’s work
but smokey is used by the human to do what she wants done.
When Jacob kills his brother and throws him in the river-light-tunnel, smokey now gets attached to Jacob’s brother. Let’s still call him MIB, but MIB does not mean some Smoke Monster using the human body, it is as with “mother”
1) Jacob’s brother’s original human body is dead
2) his mind, etc., is completely intact
3) he continues to interact with the world with a physical body, due to the relationship/attachment with smokey
4) what we call MIB is Jacob’s brother, conciously in control, with the added burdens and abilities of smokey
5) MIB sometimes uses the smokey ability to serve his own ends
We seem to have evidence that the individual who is attached to smokey has the memories of those who have previously had smokey attached. The current body (Locke) associated with smokey, seems to predominantly demonstrate the conciousness of Jacob’s brother (knowledge of and plotting to get free of Jacob) but we also see John Locke ( DON’T tell me what I can’t do!) They use smokey to serve their purpose, there is no “Smoke Monster” entity that uses them.
More development to come. For now this is my story and I’m sticking to it like Velcro to Teflon.
about 3 years ago
RANDY — Great post. You explained things much better than I tried to do in my last post. What you stated there is exactly what I was trying to put together about the relationship of the “Smoke Monster” to “Mother” and MiB.
After reading your post, a thought occurred…
Assuming that “Mother” was the consciousness of “Mother” using “Mother”‘s body, it would follow that “Mother” is physically dead. Her consciousness, however, lives on through “Smoke Monster” and uses her old body. (Actually though, this human form might not even be the original “Mother”, as the man we see now as Locke was not the original MiB human form.)
Recall the scene when “Mother” prepared Jacob to be the next protector of the Island/Light. She explained all the great things about the Light, that a small part of it is inside all people, but that some people always want more and that is why it is to be protected from them. Jacob then asks if one dies if they go into the Light. “Mother” says “no, it’s worse than death”.
Now, what if the “worse than death” statement is an allusion to losing one’s humanity and one’s conscious living on through the Smoke Monster? In other words, prior to MiB “becoming” the Smoke Monster, “Mother” was the Smoke Monster. And she became that way, because she went into the Light. That’s why she knew that it was the “brightest and warmest” Light ever. She experienced it herself, but paid the price.
Could the theme here be something along the lines that power corrupts? Or too much power corrupts? Recall Rose and her husband (I can’t remember his name at the moment). They decided to just live on their own and be happy with what they had, instead of going with the other survivors to try to change everything. Is there a message in the show to be content with what we have and not try for too much power, for that power will come with dire consequences and can corrupt?
about 3 years ago
OK a crazy thought just occurred to me…
The ceremony where Mother passed on her mantle to Jacob involved the now famous ‘bottle’ and pouring a drink. Isn’t this what happened between Richard and Jacob on the beach? Hmmm…
Just a thought
about 3 years ago
AARON — I remember that too. Instead of making Richard the new Jacob, though, Jacob may have just made him immortal like Jacob. Recall that after Jacob drank the cup of wine from “Mother”, she told him now you’re “just like me”. I took that to mean he was immortal like her.
Then, Richard asks to be immortal and Jacob says he can do that for him and Richard drinks the wine.
This then brings up the symbolism of MiB (when he was still in the human form of Jacob’s brother) breaking the bottle over the log. We can probably deduce now that that action meant that from that point on, Jacob could no longer pass on the ‘gift’ of immortality to anyone, since the wine was gone.
Also, recall the scene of the Island at the bottom of the ocean. Since that occurs, unless the Island has some other power which turns humans into fish, there is no need for there to be anyone else to be the “next Jacob” to protect the Island, since it’s going to eventually end up at the bottom of the ocean anyway.
So we’ve all been trying to figure out who will be the “next Jacob”, but it seems to me that there does not need to be, since the Island will soon no longer exist (at least not above water anyway).
Of course, I am assuming that the end reality will be the Sideways Reality with the Island at the bottom of the ocean. If that is not the case, then that blows my whole reasoning.
about 3 years ago
Michael – good thoughts about the power thing
I dont think I can recall a situation where power made someone worse. Of course there’s Radzinsky, but he was probably a jerk before he was boss. (a little tongue in cheek here, I know thats not what you meant.)
As the LOVE of money is the root of evil (not money) perhaps we have more examples of a life spent in the seeking of power, which is the waste of a life, a failure, and a worse failure if attained.
I dont yet have a clue about the light-tunnel. I do agree that the “worse than death” is the gift/curse of eternal life on earth, especially if attached to a smokey. And I agree that the experience of the purest light (pure love) followed by existence on earth a punishment worse than death. Again, touching on the Garden of Eden theme as you pointed out earlier. (Was pleased to see your note, I had thought of it too.) We try to fit things into a Judeo-Christian mold, but intentionally things never completely fit. Of course, the supreme being is love and comfort, but also created death, and as God is to be feared. But here the writers have described an all over the map “source,” opting instead for the Cosmic muffin. This is the source, but when you die you don’t go there. If you go there living you get attached to a smoke thing.
I had always thought there was no physical ceremony that conferred the role of the new protector, but your observations are interesting. Also, the island underwater might just be a teaser. But if it is not, then there are some other ties to Judeo-Christian history which I will post in a day or two.
About the symbollism of the bottle, (getting a bit literal here) if the island was the cork, then what was the bottle? If it contained absolute evil, then why drink it? But of course it was only a symbol when they wanted it to be a symbol. Another reference to communion/eucharist but incomplete, spread all over the map, leading to thought but don’t try to get too much meaning out of it.
Talk to you Wednesday.