Let me start off by saying this: I’d be one of the first people to admit that I was totally excited for a Jacob/MIB-centric episode. With that, I expected—as did millions other viewers—some concrete answers and explanations. Much like Ab Aeterno though, Across the Sea primarily focused on the lives of the two characters on the Island during a short period of time. Yes, short. When you’re immortal and your brother’s a smoke monster, a couple decades is small potatoes.
I’ve noticed that the majority of viewers either loved or hated this one, and I can see why: a) there are 2 more Lost episodes left and b) it’s a Jacob/MIB-centricity. With those two facts, expecting answers wasn’t an outlandish expectation. And we did get some answers, although those answers branch out into more questions, whose level of importance and answers will hopefully not go ignored.
Encompassing the majority of the plotlines throughout Across the Sea, the episode raises the question of: what do crazy mothers, frozen donkey wheels, and mystical caves of illumination all have in common? Well, let’s find out as we take a look back Across the Sea…
During some point in the past (some sources are claiming between 450 BC and 900 AD) a pregnant woman shipwrecks on the Island separated from her crew. Upon her brief exploration, she comes across another woman who gives her food and healing while the woman, Claudia, speaks in Latin saying that she arrived “by accident”.
Though, are we to believe that Claudia and her people are the first people to come to the Island? I mean, this episode is the farthest back we’ve seen chronologically, right? But if this is the case, how would the Egyptian references and hieroglyphics be explained? The Romans had nothing to do with hieroglyphics and statues of fertility, so I’m going to say that the Island’s population history goes even farther back than we’ve seen.
Suddenly, Claudia goes into labor (revealing to be in the latter portions of her pregnancy) and gives birth to a boy who she names Jacob. She relaxes for a moment before realizing that she is giving birth to yet another child; unlike Jacob, the other child is whiney and obviously irritated. Claudia says that she was only expecting one child and therefore picked out one name, leaving the second child nameless, and when she asks to see the child, the woman who initially cared for her upon her arrival heaves a rock, killing her with it.
After this scene, we can safely infer that we viewed the birth of Jacob and MIB, our thoughts accompanied by visual symbolization of good and evil: Jacob born silent and content, while MIB was crying; Jacob wrapped in a white blanket, with MIB in a dark one. Also, MIB in the guise of Locke appeared to be telling the truth saying that he “had a crazy mother too”. Oh, and she was one crazy mother, continuing the trend and joining Claire and Rousseau.
On the beach, the BIB (Boy in Black) and Jacob find an old Egyptian game on the beach which BIB “just knows” how to play. How? I have no idea. Jacob is worried that Mother will take the game away, but plays anyway.
Now we get some interesting character development and insight into both brothers. Jacob seems to be worried, unsure, and always balancing the advantages and consequences of a decision. His remarks about Mother taking the game away shows this, and it seems as if young Jacob totally contrasts from his 2007 confident, knowledgeable self.
Later, Mother gets Jacob to tell her about the game, commenting that he cannot lie and further showing his place as the “good” and responsible child. On the beach, she tells BIB of their conversation and that he is “special”, though we’re not clear on the meaning of this yet. Could it possibly be the same “special” that Locke was constantly referred to as? Sure sounds like it, as both had an opportunity as Candidates to protect the Island.
Then we get insight into the deceiving, protective nature of Mother. She states that there is nowhere but the Island (which later plays a large part into their futures), nothing "somewhere else, across the sea." She also talks about death, but BIB has no knowledge of it, further showing Mother’s desire for both boys to live a sheltered life.
Both boys later find out that they are not the only people on the Island and demand an explanation from Mother. She says that they are different from the other men because "we are here for a reason". Blindfolding them and leading them through the jungle, Mother takes them to see the “reason” for their existence which turns out to be a cave with a running stream and light emanating from it. Though it is a beautiful sight, Mother firmly states that they must never enter the cave.
Okay, here’s where it gets a little strange (but this is Lost, right?):
Apparently, a little bit of the light is inside each person but everyone is greedy and wants more. Foreshadowing MIB’s beach chat with Jacob in the season 5 finale, Mother says, “they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt and it always ends the same.”
Although it seems like the light cannot be taken from the Island, if it goes out, it goes out everywhere. Apparently, the Island does need a protector, as Jacob’s reason for the Candidates was revealed a couple episodes ago.
Mother says that when her time is up, either Jacob or BIB will have to protect the Island, showing that Mother has influenced Jacob enough to believe that the Island needs protecting even in 2007.
The boys later play the Egyptian game again and BIB tells Jacob that one day he can have his own game and his own rules for others to follow. So here we go: the rules again. What are the rules? Something totally made up or metaphorical, or is there really a list of Rules that one has to follow?
Judging by Jacob and BIB’s previous lack of Island and world knowledge, I would guess that they have no further knowledge of the Rules than what they’re told. Would this mean that the Rules are real, or just set into motion by some unknown person or force as a means of control based on belief? Hopefully more of this to come in the remaining episodes.
As BIB is playing the game, he sees a woman who reveals herself as his real mother. Though, only he can see her, as she is dead (is that really a sufficient explanation?).
She takes him to the people who she first came to the Island with, who have built a little village and seem to be thriving. BIB learns that there are places across the sea and that he is from there. With that, Claudia leaves.
In the middle of the night, BIB wakes Jacob and tries to explain how Mother lied to them their whole lives and that the people in the village are their people. Not wanting to believe, Jacob strongly reacts to BIB’s comments and is beaten by Jacob. BIB says that he’s going to leave the Island to go “home”, across the sea, and wishes that Jacob would go with him. Jacob being sweet and obeying, stays with Mother. But she says that no matter how hard he tries, BIB can never leave the Island.
Here BIB mentions “home” much like he does on the Island in 2007. Are we to say that home isn’t actually a determined place, but just off the Island? Throughout his life, MIB never wanted to stay on the Island and just wanted to go to where he came from, “home”. Though unspecific, it’s quite possible that MIB doesn’t know where home is, just that it’s not the Island.
Later Mother admits to killing Jacob’s real mother because she would’ve taken them back to her people, “the bad people”, and she needed Jacob to “stay good”.
Wait! You’re saying, Stay good? What does that mean?
Assumingly, Mother needed someone to take care of the Island after she was gone and had her eyes set on Jacob as the eyes on favorite. But like she told BIB, she loves them for different reasons: BIB for being powerful and unrelenting; Jacob for being obedient and reliable. Though I guess the job of protecting magical light requires the latter.
BIB goes to the Roman settlement and Jacob agrees to stay with Mother. Little, snotty Jacob.
Some decades later, it appears as if MIB and Jacob still haven’t tired of playing their Egyptian game. MIB says Mother is insane but was right in that people are “greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy and selfish” and is only staying with them in hopes to find a way off the Island, and he did.
His idea involves a well (much like the Orchid well and the one MIB threw Desmond in) and explains to Jacob the strangeness of the metal-magnetism relationship on the Island.
Now of course Jacob has to run home and tell Mother about MIB’s plans; he’s the favorite after all. After, Mother goes down to MIB’s well where he states that he tried to find the cave that she brought him and Jacob to, but found another way to get access to the light: digging at different locations on the Island to locate the light, much like the Dharma Initiative digging around for electromagnetism. Ah, if only MIB had left a note so Dharma wouldn’t have to do all that work. It hasn’t been confirmed as far as I know, but I’m making an educated guess that the light is electromagnetism.
Then we see what MIB’s been working on: a giant, wooden (and unfrozen) wheel. According to him, he plans to harness the light and water and somehow…move the Island? No offence, MIB, but I’d love to know how you plan on doing that.
So is this wheel, the wheel? The Frozen Donkey Wheel under the Orchid station? I’d say yes and no. Yes, because he probably used a wheel and a well for his plans, but a different one which would explain why the setting was different than that below the Orchid station.
Mother looking strangely relaxed and subdued, approaches MIB to give him a goodbye hug before he leaves the Island, but hits his head against the stone wall instead. Yeah, quite a drastic change in actions.
Mother then goes back to her favorite, Jacob, and takes him to the Mystical Cave of Illumination and says that he’s going to protect it. Not asking if he wants to protect it, but telling. Ironically, Jacob is planned to protect something of which he hardly has any knowledge of.
Mother: "Life, death, rebirth; it's the source, the heart of the island."
Once again, weirdness alert! Mother pours some wine and starts muttering over it, the scene and ritual reeking of Biblical symbolism. In drinking the wine, Jacob accepts the role of the Island’s protector and to find a replacement when he can no longer keep up his duty. Ahem. Candidates.
If the wine was what makes Jacob immortal, why would Mother need to add in the clause of finding a replacement? In theory, Jacob should be able to protect and live on the Island forever now, right?
Jacob is visibly saddened by becoming protector of the Island as a second choice, but Mother admits that it should’ve been him all along. Hmm…why the sudden burst of enlightment, Mother? Does it factor into your evil plans?
Jacob drinks the wine with Mother commenting "now you and I are the same."
MIB wakes up some time later and finds that his village destroyed and his people dead, the remains of the Egyptian game nearby prompting the thought that it was all Jacob’s doing.
Back at the caves, Mother sends Jacob off for firewood saying that a storm is coming. As he leaves, Mother spots the Egyptian game on the floor as the audience chants together, Look out!
Sure enough, she’s stabbed by MIB who apparently discovered that she destroyed the village. Though, how in the world could she set fire to, destroy, and kill everything in the village, especially in her current physical state? Looks to me like the only thing that could do that kind of damage would be a smoke monster…but I’ll get to that in a bit.
Jacob sees what MIB did and attacks him (paralleling the same action years before). He drags him through the jungle, MIB claiming all the while that he cannot kill him, as Mother stated. Instead, Jacob has something else planned, something “worse than death” and throws him into the stream near the Mystical Caves of Illumination. He hits his head on a rock and is sucked into the mouth of the cave.
Seconds later, WHOOOOSH!! And the mouth of the cave projectile vomits smoke monster into the sky, and it disappears into the jungle. I’ve mentioned this in past blog entries (and I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but) the smoke monster has recently been gray rather than black, so I’m glad that the graphics department decided to change to back to the more intimidating dense black color. It may seem minor, but I’m picky about my smoke monster continuity!
I’m not sure why the color has been changed back to black after being gray for a season or two, or if it even has to do with the story, but if it does, could aging have to do something with it? Maybe weakening of some inner-Island force? Maybe it’s none of that and the graphics department just used a different program for smokey’s FX.
Anyway, I was totally confused and simultaneously amazed at the sudden appearance of the smoke monster. From that scene, I kind of inferred that the cave+light+human interference=smoke monster transformation. But was this the creation of the smoke monster or the monster merging with MIB? This is one that most definitely needs to be answered.
Weirdness Alert #3:
MIB’s body washes ashore! What’s up with that? We know that MIB was seen in MIB form after the incident, so there are some missing puzzle pieces that need to be filled in before we see the whole picture (is this what MIB referred to when saying that Jacob stole his body?).
Jacob then carries MIB’s body back to the caves and places it next to that of Mother, showing us a familiar yet unfamiliar set-up…Adam and Eve!! Finally we get the answer to one of the earliest and most theorized about mysteries of Lost. Adam and Eve are MIB (well, his body anyway) and Mother. I was thrilled with the explanation but I wasn’t in total shock and here’s why: for years we’ve been thinking it’s a couple, probably some of the Losties. Then there’s the even more weird theories like the Aaron-went-back-in-time-and-then-became-trapped-on-the-Island-and-became-“Adam” ones. For that reason and that reason only was I not shocked. I think we were all expecting something really out there and absurd, but I’m glad that shock value was, somewhat, sacrificed for a plausible, believable explanation. Though, I could’ve done without the flashbacks to season 1 of Jack, Kate, and Locke finding A&E. I mean, how long have we been watching and waiting for this answer again? 6 years? If you didn’t know that it was Adam and Eve by 10:02, then shame on you. Shame!
Well, so ends another episode of Lost. Has it sunk in for you that everything—all the theorizing, watching, re-watching, note taking, etc.—will be over in less than two weeks? Yeah, me either. Even scarier than not having our weekly fix of Lostification after season 6, is not having a good portion of answers after season 6. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Across the Sea, but think it’s just a bit too late to be introducing new mysteries that have a chance of not being resolved in the remaining 3.5 hours of the series.
I don’t know what to think—whether we’re getting answers or not, what the ending is, will I like it?—so I’m trying not to think anything. As you can probably judge by my almost 3,000-word blog entry, it’s not working. I just can’t help it! As much faith as I have in Damon and Carlton for providing a real kick-ass ending to the show, it would be naïve of me six years in to think that we’re going to have everything resolved because it’s just not going to happen.
So until next time for my penultimate Lost recap (sigh), enjoy absorbing the massive load of ponderings from this week’s episode, because everything is coming to an end…
Namaste
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