I thought it was a collection of Grade A ideas in a Grade B package. – EW.com review
And that about perfectly sums up my thoughts on the episode. But nonetheless, isn’t it always the case that these episodes that seemingly don’t meet expectations get a lot of feedback, when episodes like “The Candidate” – which far surpassed any expectations – came up a bit short in the Revisited material. Not that I mind. Truth be told, there were a lot of nuggets I either forgot to mention or didn’t even notice in my initial column and viewing. So let’s take another look at last week’s episode, “Across the Sea.”
But FIRST! I encourage everybody to visit my blog to follow my ranking of the Top Ten Lost episodes of all time! It’s been quite an arduous task, and surely many people will disagree with my list, but I do hope everybody takes a moment to read them. I’m posting one a day until the big finale on May 23rd. Click here to follow the list!
Alright, now let’s jump in!
MOTHER KNOWS BEST
Perhaps the most discussed aspect of last week’s episode was the introduction of Jacob and Smokey’s “mother.” A great deal of emphasis was put on her, yet we learned very little about her. Sure, they mentioned that she arrived on the island “by accident,” but where did she come from? How long has she been there? And how did she earn the title of island protector? It is a bit perplexing that the show would introduce us to a seemingly significant character, just a few episodes before the end, without providing much – or any, really – backstory. But perhaps that was purposeful. Perhaps the message they were sending is that we don’t really need to know about these island protectors, just that they’re one in a long line of them. Nonetheless, let’s take a look at this enigmatic character.
What did she get out of the deal? Companionship. Motherhood. And perhaps… an ending to an eternal obligation? The Stork had dropped twin bundles on her dirty doorstep — but what may have dazzled her more was the prospect of a golden parachute offering an exit from an endless dead-end job. With her dying breath, she thanked the son she loved the most, the one that was most like her, the “special” one with the angry spirit – the dreamer, the gamer, the liar, the cynic — for stabbing her in the back and through the heart. Were the boys nothing but an escape plan for her? Did she raise one to take her job and the other to take her life? Is this the way The Island works? – EW.com review
This was an interesting observation, as the mother did seem less enthusiastic about her responsibilities than what we’ve seen from Jacob. The way her face lit up when Jacob was born, it really did seem like she had found an “out,” so to speak. And her utter disappointment when she discovered there was a second baby, it just seemed like her plot had hit a major complication. That she would now have to groom two potential successors, which could potentially delay her essential resignation.
I also like the idea of her raising one son to replace her, and the other one to kill her. I’m not necessarily sure I buy into that, but it’s an interesting concept. Why don’t I think it’s the case, then? Well, because I think a strong argument could be made that the mother raised both of her sons to replace her. Consider this:
Then, in a sequence not shown to us, the Man In Black’s frail and aging mother apparently threw her strapping adult son over her shoulder, carried him up a ladder, killed all the Roman Others, then filled in the donkey wheel well with rocks. Now, just how the hell did she accomplish that trick? Maybe super-strength is part of the Island guardian package. But is it possible Mother was something of a smoke monster, too? – EW.com review
I did notice the fact that we didn’t see the carnage of the mother killing all of the villagers, and to me it initially seemed a little lazy. Like, “hey, we don’t want to be bothered with explaining it, so let’s just show it after the fact.” I mean, how does a semi-elderly lady take out an entire army of people, many of which are skilled hunters? But I think there might be a reason why we didn’t see it. Perhaps they didn’t WANT us to see it. If you look at the carnage of the village, it reminded me of Sawyer’s discovery of the rest of the Ajira passengers. And who was likely responsible for that massacre? Locke, AKA the Smoke Monster. So maybe the mother was both the island protector and the island monster. And she raised each son to take one of her jobs. To me, she just seemed too knowing and aware of what would happen if you go into the light.
Another site I came across, titled Cultural Learnings, offered this perspective on the lack of backstory on the mother and how she came to be on the island:
However, I’m fine with the decision because it is another reminder that it doesn’t particularly matter what started this process, or what it is which lies at the heart of the island: the show isn’t about the island itself but rather the people who are drawn to it as part of this massive game of sorts, so it makes sense that the show would focus on how the island changed Jacob and Esau’s relationship rather than how this entire situation came to be. – Cultural Learnings
BROTHER’S KEEPER
I suppose the major revelation of this episode was that Jacob and the Smoke Monster are fraternal twins. Let’s take a look at this complicated relationship.
Liked the parallels between the child and adult struggles of Jacob and Esau, with Jacob attacking him in much the same way as an adult as he did when he was a child. It was a nice parallel, and interestingly depicts Jacob as the aggressor (when we’ve clearly, to this point, associated Esau with that role). – Cultural Learnings
Another interesting observation. Yes, up until this point it has seemed like the Smoke Monster has been the aggressive antagonist – killing islanders, looking for loopholes to kill Jacob, seeking means of escape – while Jacob has been the passive responder, merely acting in ways to prevent Smokey from taking these actions. Yet in this episode, the two times these two came into physical contact with each other, in almost identical scenes Jacob was the attacker.
Immediately after watching Tuesday’s show, I was so upset with Jacob, and felt so awful for MIB. I had invested so much in Jacob being all good; How could Jacob be so naive and trusting with Mother? I must admit, I was furious at the writer’s. ( wasn’t he just a wee bit angry at Mother, for killing his real one? )
I have looked at the comments, (not all, b/c they just keep on coming. lol ) sat back and had more time to think about this last episode.
I just have to keep in mind, that MIB is dead. ( I liked his role in this episode…just a curious guy, angry at Mother for killing his real mother. He loved his brother Jacob. And he just wanted off the darn Island. )
I wish the writer’s had given MIB a woman to care for, or just a casual fling…he spent 30 yrs. at that camp. ( come on, he’s a guy, for crying out loud.)
Jacob was protrayed as a jealous, goody two shoes. (that… I really didn’t like.) Then, the nice Jacob, has a hissy fit, and even tho he didn’t actually kill his brother…he did something much worse; had a big hand in making him the Smoke Monster..
I’m sure Jacob had centuries, to regret what he did to his brother. I just wish they wouldn’t make him so smug.
I have plenty more to mull over, but as long as I can keep telling myself…MIB is dead, and I am looking/listening to Smokey…I’ll be fine.
Sorry for being so long winded. – EW.com comments section
To be honest, for the most part, I don’t agree with this assessment. I find that the poster is overly harsh with his critique of Jacob, while glossing over anything that the Man in Black might have done. I mean, Smokey is loyal for wanting to stick with his brother, but Jacob is naïve for wanting to do the same with his mother? And I wouldn’t say that Jacob was jealous as much as he was vulnerable. He realized he was the silver medal, yet he still stuck by the woman and he still took the job.
Perhaps the writers didn’t get these themes across as successfully as they had hoped – and, again, assuming these are the messages they wanted to send. In a way, it almost felt like Jacob had the attitude of doing what’s best for the world/island, while his brother was more concerned with doing what’s best for him.
SEEING THE LIGHT
We learned that The Island sits on a whirlpool of ethereal life-giving energy — a wellspring of eternal life, a wormhole into the afterlife, a weird-ass well of holy moley whatchamacallit. We learned that if you get tossed into this warm and fuzzy mystic maelstrom, your immortal soul gets severed from your mortal body. – EW.com review
“Your immortal soul gets severed from your mortal body.” I think that sums up what happened quite well. At least, that’s the way many people interpret it. But what if the Man in Black isn’t actually the Smoke Monster? What if the MIB is merely one of the many manifestations of the Smoke Monster, simply used to torture and manipulate Jacob? Here’s another interpretation:
Smokey, the light on Golden Pond, and the electromagnetic energy are all one and the same. The real entity trying to escape from the island is the electromagnetic energy that is “bottled up” under The Swan. Smokey and the pretty golden stream are merely manifestations of the true being lying trapped under the island – whatever that is. This is how all of the Lost mythology will be brought together in the end. Quantum physics, time travel, constants and variables, frozen donkey wheels, button-pushing Dharma experiments, and now Widmore’s search for pockets of the energy and his use of Desmond for a final sacrifice, are all attempts to either contain or release this energy. Jacob and MIB’s tragic struggle, seemingly disconnected from all this, has actually been all about manipulating the many players in this game to either help contain or help release the energy. – EW.com comments section
Part of me really likes this idea – that Jacob is getting manipulated just like everybody else – but another part of me doesn’t. My biggest problem with this theory is that we seemingly just received the backstory of the Smoke Monster’s origins. This concept seemingly negates that whole thing, and we’re now back to square one.
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
I think a lot of people held out hope that this episode would answer a few questions about these “rules” that have been mentioned since the end of last season. And I think this is one area in which the episode fell short. Are these rules all powerful restrictions, or are they self made and able to be broken?
I got a feeling that when it comes to “The Rules”, they will ultimately be arbitrary in the grand scheme of things(i.e. the brothers beating on each other). – Ninja Raiden, my blog
I sorta felt this way as well. I was a little disappointed when nothing seemed to have happened when Jacob attacked his brother. And their mother’s declaration that she “made it” so that they can’t harm each other was frustratingly vague and unsubstantiated. She mentioned it more than once, and yet on more than one occasion Jacob attacked his brother and didn’t seem to face any repercussions. He didn’t even get grounded.
Still, I think ”Across The Sea” offered a revelation about ”the rules” that’s just as important if not more so than the rules themselves: they are entirely subjective. I think many fans have assumed that ”the rules” exist as external truths that regulate all life on The Island, mortal or immortal, human or god-like. And maybe some of them are. I think fans have assumed that The Island possesses an orderly if complex internal logic that can be puzzled out. And to some degree, maybe it does. But I think Lost was telling us something when they had Jacob and Boy In Black arguing over the proper way to play Senet. BIB said: ”One day, you can make up your own game and everyone else will have to follow your rules.” – EW.com review
Yeah, what he said.
She said ”that’s what people do” — they hurt each other. The Boy In Black — the more inquisitive of the two kids — asked: ”We’re people. Does that mean we can hurt each other?” Mother grabbed her kids and looked them in the eye replied, ”I’ve made it so you can never hurt each other.” This little line holds a lot of significance, I think. Besides explaining why the Man In Black had to use a proxy to slay Jacob, Mother’s line said something about the power that an Island guardian wields — including the ability to make ”the rules.” This might be the most important power of all. I know that Lost fans have been talking a lot about ”the rules” over the past week in the wake of the submarine bloodbath. Why can’t the Man In Black leave The Island? Can he or can’t he kill the candidates? Can or can’t the candidates kill each other? What’s the difference between the gift of agelessness that Jacob gave Richard and the protections (if any) he bestowed upon the castaways he touched? – EW.com review
So this leads to a question, are the rules something created by the island, or the island protector? Jacob has been portrayed as an all powerful entity, yet characters such as Ben will repeatedly say things like, “The island was done with them.” So when it comes to the rules, who’s the “power that be”? I had previously assumed the island. The reviewer at EW.com interpreted this episode as saying that it’s the island protector.
After conferring her guardian powers upon Jacob, Mother went back to camp. She found it trashed. She silently surveyed the scene and found something peculiar — MIB’s Senet box. She opened it up and took out the black stone. She looked at it — and then MIB stabbed her in the back and through the chest. She fell to the ground and whispered a word: ”Nothing.” She told her son that she couldn’t let him leave because she loved him, and then she thanked him for killing her and died. Three things: 1. Notice I used the word ”silently.” 2. Notice that Mother said ”Nothing.” 3. Notice that MIB used the same knife to kill his mother that Dogen gave Sayid to kill MIB/Fake Locke. Remember Dogen’s instructions? Sayid had to plunge the knife into The Monster’s chest before The Monster said a word. Sayid failed to execute the execution before Fake Locke said, ”Hello,” and in the aftermath, Sayid seemed to suffer from some kind of soul sleep, a state of emotional nothingness. Perhaps I’m not adding all of this up properly, but I find the link here irresistible. I go back to where I began — that there was something about the Mother/Jacob/MIB drama that cursed The Island and created a mythic template for future dramas to follow. (Unless, of course, their drama followed and reaffirmed an existing template.) Why did Sayid have to use that knife? Why did he have to do the stabbing before Fake Locke said a word? Why did he feel ”nothing” afterward? It’s not about rules. It’s not about internal logic. It’s about a story. And that’s just the way the story goes. But can the story be changed? TBD. – EW.com review
It was interesting to see one of the characters succeed in killing an island deity in this ritualistic manner. What I’m wondering is, did this specific manner of murder occur before or after Smokey plunged the sword into his mother back? Was the murder successful because he did it in this way, or was this the birth of this particular custom?
But great observation, with her not speaking before the deed, and with Smokey using the knife that Dogen bestowed upon Sayid. Perhaps this adds to the speculation that the mother was Smokey as well?
THE VICIOUS CYCLE
Over the past few weeks I’ve discussed how I am hopeful that the series doesn’t end with Jack or another character taking Jacob’s role. As I and others have noted, it would take a bit away from the series to learn that this entire time, our characters were just a handful of many, many people that have come to the island. They weren’t anything special, just the next line of pawns in a game between two seemingly omniscient entities.
And this episode seemed to add a little credibility to the idea that this is nothing more than a vicious cycle. We came to learn that Jacob wasn’t the first island protector, he was just the latest one.
Did the Mother/Jacob/Man In Black drama curse this world like the Biblical fall of man? Did this tragic trio doom future Island visitors to suffer through adaptations of their same sad story? So many shared elements. Shipwrecked castaways. A deadly first encounter with a supernatural Island entity. ”Special” children and child abduction. Ghosts. Suspicion and conflict with Others. Mystery boxes and games. The war between faith and reason. Betrayal and murder. Does the current iteration of this repeating myth involving Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and the rest of the surviving Oceanic 815 lot represent one more manifestation of the cycle that will continue forever and ever, Amen? Or is the great twist of the entire Lost saga is that everyone, friend or foe — from the castaways to Fake Locke to Dead Jacob — are actually striving toward the same end from different angles: reversing the curse; breaking the chain; cleaning the slate; reboot. – EW.com review
And this is what my hope is for the series – that it culminates with the conclusion of the cycle, not the next turn of it. If nothing else, this episode showed that the assignment of island protector can be a heavy cross to bear. The mother didn’t particularly seem to enjoy it. The only time the entire episode she seemed to show happiness was the elation when she realized that there would be an heir to take over for her. She otherwise seemed distant and dejected. She even thanked her murderer, possibly for releasing her of her duty. And Jacob didn’t seem particularly thrilled to get the job either. He more did it out of a sense of commitment and obligation. That’s why I have trouble seeing Jack alone on the island as the newest guardian and thinking to myself, this is a nice, happy, satisfying ending.
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, 24, Heroes, and Smallville. Be sure to visit his blog at [a case of the blog] and follow him on Twitter.
