Lost: Across the Sea
In the beginning… there was a crazy woman.
SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read this if you haven’t watched the May 11, 2010, episode of Lost.
Finally, it seems that the Lost writers have switched gears. They have stopped jumping through time and creating questions. They started at the beginning and they are telling us the whole story. Yes, we still have many unanswered questions, but we also got lots of answers last night.
But my biggest revelation from the episode is simply that I need to accept the fact that I am watching a myth, an allegory or a fairy tale. I thought I was watching a show about a plane crash and trying to survive on a deserted island. Then, I thought perhaps it was science fiction. Maybe the story was a modern-day mystery, drama, whatever.
Now, I have to accept that the show itself has no rules. It isn’t about what might happen in real life. And all of my questions won’t be answered.
And that is probably a good thing because sometimes their answers come in the form of: “In the beginning there was a crazy woman living on an island, guarding a river of light, which represents the good that is in all of us, but don’t be tempted to touch it because your body will be spit out and you will become a big shaft of black smoke.”
So what did we learn last night?
Jacob and Man in Black are twin brothers. I think most of us called this one. I still go back to my earlier post that Man in Black’s name is probably Esau. Don’t you love how they were even dressed in light and dark blankets when they were born? Did Esau ever ask his mother if maybe HE could wear the light outfit for a change?
Remember when FLocke told Kate he had a crazy mother? Boy, he was not kidding.
Man in Black was the special one. He was the one his killer adoptive mother loved most. He was the one she wanted to guard the island.
Jacob, on the other hand, has always been a follower. He never did really know WHY he is guarding the island. He is just blindly following the instructions of a woman who killed his real mother in cold blood and refused to answer any of his questions.
I have to say that I have a lot more respect for Man in Black after this episode. At least he had the moral conscience to leave Crazy Woman when he learned she had murdered his real mother. He is the thinker. He is the one who asked questions and refused to just go along with her games when she wouldn’t even explain why.
Both boys learned Mother was a liar when she told the boys they were the only ones who exist, and yet Jacob was too weak to leave her. Reminding me of Ben Linus, Jacob was so desperate for his mother’s love and approval that he would rather stay with her and be manipulated by her than seek the truth.
We found out how the smoke monster came into existence. But I still don’t understand what happened to his body. We know it decayed and became the skeleton of the island’s “Adam”. But then at the same time, he (or someone else) was able to continue living in that body.
We also found out that once Jacob drank the wine, he and his mother were “the same” or did she say they were “one”. I can’t remember. Whatever the case, it seemed that Jacob took on her belief system after he drank it. Now that Man in Black shattered that bottle of wine, does that mean Jacob’s replacement won’t be able to drink from it?
We learned, as suspected, that the boy who appeared to FLocke in the jungle was the young Jacob. And we found out that only “special” people can see the dead on the island. If that is the case, we know that Locke was special, and so was Hurley, Sawyer and Walt. Who else?
We still have so many other huge questions to answer.
Who is Mother? Has she always been on the island? Is she the beginning of all people? Or, as she said, did she have a mother?
When was the big Egyptian statue built? I’m assuming Jacob’s temple will be built on the river of light? And did someone else come along and complete the donkey wheel, which by the way, made PERFECT sense, huh? I mean just channel light and water with a donkey wheel and you should be able to leave the island, right?
How did Jacob get off the island to go on his recruiting missions (maybe the donkey wheel)? And why couldn’t his brother leave? Esau tells Jacob that eventually he would be able to create his own game and make up his own rules. Was Jacob’s “game” to bring real people to the island and play with their lives, rather than pieces on a game board?
Finally, I have given up on trying to determine good and evil in this show. I don’t think it’s about good and evil. I think it’s making a bigger point about the nature of people. Inside all of us is both good and evil. We decide which to follow.
Likewise, some of us will be followers and others will be leaders. Sometimes we will follow people who are actually followers themselves and don’t really know where they are going. Those people might lead us by not giving us a choice (like Mother did with Jacob and Jacob did with Ben).
Other people lead by giving us information. They think about things and try to figure things out. Does that make them bad? Does it make them good?
And, finally, when we follow, sometimes it’s after carefully thinking things through… And other times it’s by blind faith. Is one way better than the other?
What did you think about last night’s episode? I would love to hear your thoughts. And for more Lost recaps, check out Rocks in My Dryer.
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I am so with you & over trying to assign good/evil. I think the writers are tired of all the good/evil talk from us fans so decided to put an end to it by showing that nobody's truly good.I liked your point about blind followers. We had a lot of the same opinions on this episode.
Great recap. I, too, think it would be helpful to understand more about Crazy Mom–where did she come from, and who appointed her Guardian of the Island in the first place?
Great insights. I am thinking that the MIB and Locke are the same person. Special. Knowing that there is something out there beyond the sea. Forever searching for it.