Didn’t watch? Get the frak outta here!
OK, so this episode answered soooooo many questions, even as it raised others. The biggest question it answered (and theory it put to rest) was the identity of the island’s “Adam and Eve” – Jacob’s adoptive mother and his brother, the actual MiB.
Loved that it flashed back to that scene from Season 1 where Jack and Kate found the skeletons in the caves and Locked dubbed them Adam and Eve, reminding anyone who may not be keeping detailed notes about the show (all five of you). The “Rose and Bernard are Adam and Eve” theory was shot to hell there. (Also, nice foreshadowing of Flocke; he was still the Locke we knew and loved at that point.)
No time warp, no one we knew – but extremely important to the history of the island.
By the way, remember when Locke was dragged into the ground by Smokey in Season 1 or 2, but was dragged back out and said he’d seen the heart of the island and it was beautiful? Yeah, he was doomed all the way back then.
Here’s what we learned and questions I have:
• What is MiB’s name? Drove me crazy that he was never named, but somehow appropriate. Obviously, he had a name. Wouldn’t have been raised for so many years without one. But in true Lost fashion, his name was never uttered. Even though, as I said, it drove me crazy, I loved that detail. His name isn’t important. He’s Smokey. He’s Flocke. He’s Smocke. He’s Christian Shepherd. He’s the Man in Black.
• MiB could see dead people. Jacob couldn’t. Does this mean, somehow, that Hurley is more like MiB? We saw from his background that he wasn’t a bad person/being. Didn’t start out that way, at least. He discovered the ultimate betrayal – that he’d been lied to his entire life about his parentage, about there being things in the world besides the island, about everything. But if he had been told the truth earlier, would he have tried to leave the island earlier? I think so.
• MiB instinctively knew how things worked. He knew how to play that game he found on the beach. He knew how to build the Frozen Donkey Wheel. He knew how to use the light – the source – for his own purposes. How did he know these things? Obviously, he had shared how to use the wheel with those he drew close to him – Ben, for example. Did Widmore use the wheel to get off the island before? And if so, how did he get back? I thought one of the side effects of using the wheel was that the island moved in time and space. And if he didn’t use the wheel, how, exactly, did he get off? The submarine? Was it that it was easier to leave through the correct coordinates underwater? And why? (Wow, this bullet point ended far from where it began.)
• MiB was far more intuitive and “special” than Jacob. Jacob had no guile, but didn’t seem particularly bright. He was totally an annoying mama’s boy. By the time he decided to rebel, it was too late, and he was the only option for protecting the island, so he did it. He never cared about leaving the island, had no natural curiousity. I found his talk with MiB about the people in the settlement interesting – MiB, having lived among them, found them deeply flawed. Jacob, by watching them only from afar, really saw nothing wrong with them. MiB’s knowledge of man comes from experience, while Jacob’s comes from ignorance. The problem is, MiB had a very small group to study, and was discounting the good things he found among them – all the clever men who helped him find the places on the island where metal acted funny. MiB so desperately wants to leave the island that he doesn’t care that it will eliminate all everything.
• MiB is not just some evil smoke monster. Smokey is not just a manifestation of evil, or the devil. MiB IS The Source. He went into the cave and came out as Smokey. His body died (which confused me, as I thought that the boys could not kill one another – interesting that MiB could not kill Jacob, but Jacob could kill MiB, or was that only because it was an accident that MiB died?), but his essence came out as Smokey. The crackling in the cloud is part of the Source light. Does some of The Source remain inside the island?
• The Island isn’t Purgatory or Hell. It is, in a sense, Eden – the Source of all life. To destroy the light is to destroy everything – it will all cease to exist. Jacob accepted that he had to keep MiB on the island in order to keep the Light from going out. MiB doesn’t even particularly care about that. He has always wanted to leave the island, to see what else is out there. He doesn’t seem to care/realize that if he were to leave the island, there would be nothing/nowhere to see. Why do I suspect that, in the end, he’s going to realize that and become the island’s protector – as he was meant to be all along?
I’m glad the show isn’t just a matter of good and evil. I suspected Team Darlton had some game-changer in their pockets, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what that is. Once again, they’ve shown that Good and Evil aren’t simply a matter of Good and Evil. Nothing (and no one) is pure good. Nothing (and no one) is pure evil. Jacob beat the crap out of his brother more than once; MiB never raised a hand at Jacob, even to protect himself.
This is my prediction: All our candidates are going to die, but MiB will realize that he truly needs to protect the island, or else he’ll have nowhere to go anyway. And so he’ll stay. And because he can see dead people, he’ll get to hang with Jacob and their “mom” and all the others who’ve died and run around on the island. It will be a sad ending, because these people we’ve followed and traveled with for so long will be gone, but a happy ending, because the world will be saved. (Also interesting: Locke was probably the best candidate for saving the island because he believed in it so strongly, so with MiB manifesting as Locke, how will that affect things?)
Oh, and Desmond and Penny had BETTER be together, or else I’m gonna be really pissed. Not sure if I’ve mentioned that before. DO NOT KILL THEM OR KEEP THEM APART, DO YOU HEAR ME DARLTON? kthxbai.
Lost is starting to resemble Gilligan’s island. So MIB wanrs off the island. Hasn’t anyone heard of a BOAT?
Also, the conversation where Jacob and MIB are on the beach, and MIB says “do you know how much i want to kill you right now?” when did that happen? And if MIB couldn’t be killed, why is he dead? And if mom gave Jacob the “immortal drink” and said, “now we’re the same” why was she able to die. She said “thank you” when MIB killed her so she was thankful to be “released” i think.
I dunno, the whole episode just made me think Jacob was less a savior figure and more a shortbus figure.
Listen, I am happy for the whole origin of it all and such, but about halfway through I was pretty annoyed that I wasn’t gonna get my Lostie fix. And as much as I adore Allison Janney, I would have liked to have gotten this story in another way, and let us have more Desmond, Jack, Sawyer, etc. It just felt like another week without Lost to me by the end, because to me, Lost is the Losties.
Good news: the last bits of Lost will most likely be action packed and probably heart breaking, so there’s that to look forward to.
@Charlene – 1) getting off the island on a boat ain’t that easy, as we’ve seen. The island won’t let you just leave.
2) That conversation took place just before the Black Rock crashed, I believe.
3) She was able to die because she found her successor. Also, the immortality they have appears to be only the inability to die from natural causes – murder is unnatural.
4) I’m confused by how MiB was able to die. He can’t leave the island, though, I believe, because he is entwined with the Source and can only leave when the Source is unprotected. Which means all the candidates need to be off the island, too.
5) Yeah, honestly, Jacob wasn’t very bright.
@Erika – I felt that way at points, particularly in wanting to see what’s up with Desmond, but I thought if they’d broken it up over a period of weeks to give us bits and pieces of this story, we’d have been screaming bloody murder. However, I kept hoping we’d see how the statue was built. Dammit.
Also, I agree – there’s gonna be more heartbreak for us.
I don’t think MIB died, just his body no longer was a vessel. I am a little disappointed by Jacob’s ignorance, although the thousand or so years since this initial situation makes me hope that since Jacob did eventually leave the island, he would have become wizened, and I can imagine that MIB built up quite a grudge over the period of time to share with Jacob his wishes on him.
Still, to me, lots of character cramming without much fleshing out. We will still be left with more questions I fear than answers.
Thanks Amy. Great recap. Overall I was bored and annoyed by this episode, despite my love of Allison Janney.
And I hope it doesn’t make me any less of a person, but dammit I wanted his name. Was that too much to ask? And they went out of their way to avoid giving us his name even when it would have made perfect sense. Aaaargh.
Did you or anybody else notice that when Jacob came back to the cave, he was accompanied by the sound of the boar? So does that mean that when the boar shows up “today” that it’s actually Jacob? My head hurts.
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Ok, I’m going to venture something else here.
Remember when Jacob was born – mother looked at him happily. When MIB was born, she suddenly looked distraught. She recognized he was “special.” what if MIB was possessed by EVIL form the beginning? and she knew that she needed to keep evil on the island? What if MIB was smokey all along? and when Jacob put MIB into the light, smokey was released from the body? Also, i’m sure you all noticed that when MIB went into the light, the light went out.
Dammit. Just as I was posting my response, my server hiccuped and I lost my extremely erudite answers to Scott, Amanda & Charlene. Will rewrite soon, I promise.
Short version:
@Scott: I disagree with the first part and agree w/the second.
@Amanda: I liked it a lot; you’re not a bad person; did not notice, now I have a headache.
@Charlene: yes to the first part, but I don’t think so to the second. And yes but no on the third.
The writers purposefully hiding Esau’s name started off irritating in this episode, and got worse the longer it ran on. They referred to Jacob by name so frequently that it was just inconceivable that no one would do the same with his brother.
If it turns out that he has no name because his real mother hadn’t planned on twins I’m going to be very disappointed.
On the whole, I was annoyed and disappointed with this episode. I loves me some Esau though, that I enjoyed his origin story, no matter how silly it ended up being.
@Charlene – 1) getting off the island on a boat ain’t that easy, as we’ve seen. The island won’t let you just leave.
2) That conversation took place just before the Black Rock crashed, I believe.
3) She was able to die because she found her successor. Also, the immortality they have appears to be only the inability to die from natural causes – murder is unnatural.
4) I’m confused by how MiB was able to die. He can’t leave the island, though, I believe, because he is entwined with the Source and can only leave when the Source is unprotected. Which means all the candidates need to be off the island, too.
5) Yeah, honestly, Jacob wasn’t very bright.
@Erika – I felt that way at points, particularly in wanting to see what’s up with Desmond, but I thought if they’d broken it up over a period of weeks to give us bits and pieces of this story, we’d have been screaming bloody murder. However, I kept hoping we’d see how the statue was built. Dammit.
Also, I agree – there’s gonna be more heartbreak for us.