Episode 15 - Across the Sea

Verrrry interesting episode! A flashback to how Jacob and MIB started - something I think we've been wanting to know. Not sure anything really surprised me, except that Allison Janney was their mother, but I digress. On to the summary!

SUMMARY

Island

A woman washes ashore and is rescued by an island inhabitant (Mother). Mother helps the woman who has apparently ended up on the island by accident to deliver her baby. She urges Mother to let her find the rest of her people however Mother delivers the first baby who the woman names Jacob and is surprised when she delivers a twin whom she has no name picked out for. Mother places the babies aside and kills the woman with a rock. Years later the boys have grown into teens. Jacob and his brother live with Mother and one day while playing together the boys come across others on the island. They hide and then run to Mother to question her. She tells them it's too early for them to know but she blindfolds them and takes them to a special stream with an aura of light glowing from a cave. She tells them this is the life force of the island and all that exists and they are there to protect it from others. When they return to their home, Jacob and MIB are out playing when their actual mother appears to MIB and begs him to follow. MIB leaves Jacob behind and his mother tells him who she is and what happened. When MIB returns he tries to recruit Jacob to follow but Jacob decides to stay. Jacob and MIB stay in touch over the years without his mother's knowledge and one day MIB tells Jacob he found a way to leave the island. Jacob reports this back to his mother and she follows MIB. She confronts him about leaving telling him he can't, that he belongs on the island. He is distraught that she stole him from his people and he demonstrates the immense power the island has and how he searched the island for the life source and found an alternative way into it. They dug deep to find it and he plans on installing a wheel to help him access the source so he can leave the island. MIB decides to kill Mother and follows Jacob to the life source. Once there MIB tells Jacob he's leaving and they fight. In the midst of the fight MIB smashes his head on the rock and he dies. Jacob lets him flow down the river where he returns as a pillar of smoke. Jacob finds MIB's dead body on the other side of the cave and places his body along with Mothers, in the cave. He places 2 rocks inside their pockets and we have a flashback to when Kate and Jack discovered the bodies in the cave.

Okay so I hope I got the order right with my summary but basically it was a very linear plot with some answers and some more un-named new characters. awesome.

1. So basically, with only 3 1/2 more hours left of Lost, the creators decided to dedicate an entire episode to Jacob and Smokey's back story. I mean, it was certainly interesting, and explained a few things, but really, a whole episode without the entire main cast? At least they threw us a bone in the end and gave us a little Kate and Jack but still, die hard fans knew what the reference was with the bodies so they didn't need to insult us by giving us a flashback to say "remember this?". It was a risky plot decision but in the end I think it was necessary for us to see how it all began.

2. I did not have any idea that Allison Janney was being cast in this series! I'm not a huge fan of hers so I guess it was fitting since I didn't really love her character. What was interesting with how they portrayed her as the vessel for telling Jacob and Smokey's story but they conveniently left out telling us how she arrived at the island. We know she was Jacob's predecessor for protecting the island but that's about all we know of her history. Oh and she likes to murder people who wash ashore to have babies. Also she joins the rank of baby stealers.

3. The "life source" of not only the island but the world is located at the top of a river. I guess it makes sense with water always being associated with providing life but the graphics were mega-cheesy. Somehow the creators of Lost showed us what they were protecting it but still left it unexplained. It's getting too religious on me and I can't speculate what the source is other than God himself. She said they could never go in there and even when MIB did, he came out as Smokey and we never were told anything more about it.

4. Is it wrong to think that Smokey was a cute teenager? And that adult Jacob still creeps me out because he was Rita's abusive husband on Dexter? (Awesome show btw - if you haven't seen it you must must catch up for season 5!) Well it was probably creepy of me to say so but I don't blame MIB for being curious about what exists beyond the sea. And once he finds out that others (hey the original Others!) are on the island, I don't blame him for wondering more about it and defying Mother to get some answers. I feel like MIB is a Lost viewer - he needs answers and he needs them now!

5. When Mother died at the hands of Smokey, she whispered "Thank you" to him. She clearly was overwhelmed by the years she spent protecting the island and was grooming the boys to become her replacement. It was interesting how Jacob mentioned to her that it seemed like MIB was who she wanted to replace her all along but instead she has Jacob. I would have thought she would have seen how good Jacob was over the years and he would have been the obvious choice. Then again Mother isn't completely innocent either since she did murder the woman who washed ashore as well as MIB's entire camp. The lines between good and evil are still so blurred and I think in the finale we'll get the clear distinction as to who is good and who is evil - and who will win.

6. I really can't believe they actually revealed who the skeletons were in the cave. I thought for sure that was a mystery that was going to go unsolved. But if my memory serves me right, didn't Jack diagnose they as no major traumas and that it took 40-50 years for clothes to deteriorate like that? Clearly they both died traumatically and over 50 years ago. But I'll let that one slide Lost ...

7. Did Smokey exist before MIB died or was he created when MIB died? So Smokey could in fact not be MIB at all, he could be the actual counterpart to the life source and by Jacob sending MIB's body down the hole, he was able to release Smokey. But from the conversations MIB has had with Jacob post being Smokey, I have to think a part of him is still in there, that's why he has this vendetta against Jacob. I hope that was clear.

8. A parallel between Jacob and Mother is that it seemed like Mother knew she was going to die, so she said goodbye to Jacob and told him he was to take over, in not so many words. Also once MIB had killed her, it was like she expected it, but thanking him for releasing her. It also seemed like Jacob knew he was going to die as well, I wonder if this was part of the process?

9. Ok so whats with no one having names anymore on Lost? For what seemed like a show where names were super important - most of the new characters I find I'm having to invent something to call them!

10. MIB had some interesting things to say to Jacob in so far as the rules of the island. He gave Jacob the idea that he could make up his own rules - create his own destiny perhaps? But we all know that somehow the two of them, through Mother I assume, cannot hurt each other - until Jacob has died. I don't think it was every MIB's plan to be trapped on the island or fight with Jacob but that's what has happened and I think it was carefully orchestrated by Mother once she saw that MIB was not capable of leading the island ... is it because he always longed for more even though he lived in a veritable paradise? I think that too is the over-arching theme to Lost - anyone who isn't satisfied with the island, it usually doesn't end well for them.

Okay folks, only two more episodes to post your theories! The finale is next Sunday, May 23rd and it's 2 and a half hours long followed by a special with the entire cast on Jimmy Kimmel.

xo

B