Wednesday, May 12, 2010

LOST: Across the Sea

Before we get to it, I want to do some general comments about the episode. There hasn't been such a polarizing episode in a long time, and certainly not this season.  From what I gather there have been two main complaints. One is that it was too slow and one is that it was too mythology based and this close to the end of the season they want the Oceanic 815-ers. To the first complaint I say, well, they can't all be races through the jungle and submarines exploding (sniff). To the second, I don't know what to say. When episodes are too character driven I get a lot of "what about answering questions!" complaints. When it focuses on answer questions I get a lot of "what about the characters!" complaints.  Like life in general - with LOST you are never going to please everyone. How do I stay so happy with it all the time? I've resigned myself to the fact that Team Darlton are far more brilliant than I can ever hope to be and if this is the path they decided is the best way to tell the story, who am I to argue with that? Whatever the ending is, I don't see how I can be disappointed it. The show has been hands down the best that has ever hit the airwaves in my very humble opinion, so I take it as it comes to me. Do we question Shakespeare when he killed everyone in so many of his plays? Nope, because it was brilliance and so is this! :)

(By the way, that is in no way an attempt to say anyone else's opinion about this episode, or any other episode, is wrong. It is just my opinion on the matter. Who the hell am I to think that my opinion is better than anyone else's?!)

So on to the episode, which by the way was written by Team Darlton themselves, so it was chock full of information that only those two brains would know!

Trying to do a full recap would just enhance my already developing migraine this morning, so lets just discuss what we learned....

Jacob and MIB (who is this show's Mr. Big, as he has no apparent name!) are twins. Human twins, at least at first. Their mother was named Claudia and was part of a shipwreck from who knows when. A long long time ago I assume. CJ Cregg, I mean Allison Janney, played a woman on the island who seems to have been there since forever. Well, I guess not forever since she mentioned she had a mom, but who knows how long ago that was. I'm guessing a looooong time based on her final scene. But I'm jumping ahead. Ok... Jacob and MIB are born which seems to set off Mom's (this is what I'm calling Allison's character, it's easier) internal alarm. These boys are special, so Claudia gets a rock to the head.

We discover that Mom is the reason Jacob and MIB can not hurt each other. She is other-worldly in some way and has this power. She has also made them ageless. It's obviously not immortal, because we learned that all three of them can actually die. But when not being stabbed in the chest or something like that, they stay the same age, like Richard Alpert. Also, until the end, Jacob and MIB were friendly. They played a game together - with black and white rocks, natch. MIB can see dead-people a la Hurley. Which makes me a little nervous for Hurley, btw. MIB sees Claudia who shows him the "people from across the sea," and MIB chooses to go and live with them and find a way off the island.

Mom also shows the kids a cave of light. This is how it is described (Why try to top Darlton's words?), "A little bit of this very same light is inside every man, but they always want more. They can't take it but they would try. And if they tried, they could put it out. And if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere." I'm assuming here that the light is sort of the antithesis of the darkness that Jacob described to Richard. This light prevents the dark, so to speak. The light is life, darkness is death. Being that the light is so very important, Mom lets them know that one of them is going to have to protect it forever (or until a replacement is found). Eventually, as we know, this job lands on Jacob because MIB essentially turned it down by wanting to leave the island. Though Mom made Jacob feel better and told him it was always supposed to be him.  And then she shares some of that wine with him, and says they are now the same. What is that "same" I wonder, because something tells me it isn't exactly human, being Mom and the Jacob had the power to give agelessness over to someone else.

We also learned where the wheel came from - MIB discovered (in some unexplained way) that the light works as a way to travel from the island, and somehow putting a big wheel in the wall with water will transport him away (to Africa, it turns out!). Mom was not happy that he thought outside the box like that, so she hit his head against the rock and then killed all his people. Oh, Mom! MIB was mad, so he went back to their camp (which were the caves from Season 1 in case you hadn't noticed yet) and killed her. Her response to that: Thank you. I told you she must have been around for a loooooong time if death makes her give thanks. Jacob finds what MIB did and attacks him. Since they are unable to kill each other, Jacob decides to throw MIB in the light (Mom says it is a fate "worse than death"). It is - it turns MIB into Smokey. The body of MIB is dead, and what I can only assume is his soul turns into what I can only assume is pure evil. Jacob places MIB and Mom (holding a bag with a black and white rock in it) into the caves. They are "Adam and Eve." This was my number one question the entire series, so I was very happy to have it answered.


Ok..... now some analysis. I find it especially interesting that MIB has been dead this entire time and it is just his soul taking the shape of dead people. He obviously chooses those that are important to the people he needs to manipulate. Since most of the time it has been Jacob he is trying to mess with he has taken the form of MIB. But when he needed to manipulate Jack or Claire, it was Christian. When he needed to convince Richard it was Isabella. And now that he needs to manipulate (or was trying to anyway) the Oceanic 815-ers, he takes the form of John Locke. It's just creepy.

Then there is the issue of Jacob's replacement. Right now the island appears to be going unprotected leaving MIB to wreak havoc. Ilana mentioned there were 6 candidates left: Shephard, Kwon, Jarrah, Ford, and Reyes were who she named, but that is technically only 5, as it was only one Kwon that counted. So who is #6? Or should I say #108? Safe bet would be Aaron. He was born on the island and has been very important throughout the series. Plus he kinda looks Jacob-like, yes? There is also Desmond. It is obvious that our favorite Scotsman is important, and back in the sideways reality he has been out to "touch" the lives of each Oceanic 815-er, much like Jacob did.

Since so many of you seemed to be looking to me for some sort of insight I hope I provided at least a little. I have no idea what I am talking about, so don't give my thoughts too much weight. :)

What did you all think about the episode? There was so much information in there, that I am sure I missed some in this blog.

And now some sad realizations. There are only two official episodes left. Or 3 1/2 hours. I literally get knots in my stomach when I think about that. How sad am I?? Someone hold me.

1 comment:

Annette said...

I had a hunch that Jacob and MIB were brothers...twins is even cooler! I was happy to see that after birth, Jacob was wrapped in white cloth and MIB in black cloth. Even as they grew older, they both stuck to their white and black clothes.

I have to be honest, I am still really not sure what to make of the light in the cave. The explanation given by "Mom" was a little too "kiddie fantasy novel" for me. Aside from that, I think we needed this episode to explain Jacob and MIB history, but I would have liked to have seen it earlier in the season so that the last few episodes would have flowed better leading up to the finale. Just my two cents...

And the Adam & Eve reveal surprised me, because I thought I recalled Jack saying that the bodies looked like they had been there for 40 or 50 years. Hmm...guess he needs to brush up on his forensics?

So some questions I have now: Where did Allison Janney come from? Why doesn’t MIB have a name?!?! And if Jacob is "good" why does he always pull the first punch?

As far as the music, I thought Michael Giacchino really outdid himself this time…so much beautiful music this episode.

Wow, I can't believe it is all almost over. This is such a powerful show, even though I'm still not sure I get it all. I LOVE LOST!