Lost Re-Up: Across the Sea
They’re brothers! In last night’s episode of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller Lost, Lindelof and Cuse finally pulled the curtain back on the Cain and Abel-like origins of Jacob and MIB. I really had to reflect and sleep on how satisfied I was with this. At first I wasn’t at all satisfied and thought it played out like a poor man’s myth that could have been written by a child. But the more I thought about it the more I saw how “Across the Sea” worked on a lot of levels – for me, at least. In a slightly humorous and clever way, Cuse and Lindelof addressed fans’ disgruntlement over the lack of answers during the final season (so far). As “mother” states to MIB:
“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.”
Thanks mom. In an unorthodox twist for Lost, turns out that this whole Jacob/MIB immortal beef stems from some serious mommy issues -rather than the show’s traditional daddy issue MO. The entire reason our major characters were brought to this Island is essentially because of these mommy issues. After MIB commits pseudo-matricide and kills the murderous, lying baby thief, Jacob snaps and starts the big conflict. Mark Pellegrino (Jacob) was pretty damn intense when he went off on his brother – great job! Titus Welliver (MIB) knocked it out of the fucking park too.
OK, so what did we learn (in no particular order): MIB built the donkey wheel. MIB wasn’t kidding Kate when he told her about his “crazy” mother earlier in the season. The Adam and Eve corpses from season 1 are “mother” and MIB. MIB wants to get off the Island strictly because he wishes to prove “mother” wrong (really? Kinda weak). Jacob gained his powers from drinking magic merlot, MIB gained his Smokey powers from the magic spring. I guess.
Plenty of people are upset over the lack of answers so far, but I’ve been content with the fact that we’re not going to have them dumped in our laps. Where’s the magical mystery in that? That’s what keeps people engaged and focused on the show this late in the game. I don’t even want to know “mother’s” backstory or why she thanked MIB for killing her.
The game MIB finds on the beach is senet, thought to be the oldest board game in the world. No one knows the actual rules. :(
Anyone else thinking the site of the spring is where the Temple is eventually built?
- Oh Mars
May 12th, 2010 at 9:36 am
That episode was fucking awful, not because of the lack of answers but rather because it was garbage and nothing made any sense.
*WHY did a ghost of his real mother appear to MIB? Think about it, like other then being a plot device how does that make sense at all?
*If MIB is dead then is the smoke monster actually him at all or just an unleashed evil?
*Why, if he is supposed to be protecting the Glowing from everyone does Jacob send his BROTHER into it? Doesn’t that mean he messed up on the first day of the job?
Some other shit:
*Terrible acting by those kids, jesus, at least pick some decent kid actors.
*OMG babies in black and white baby clothes, GET IT?! Give me a break dudes!
Basically they pretty much wasted a good opportunity for a great episode. You were right last night, it was a myth episode written by children. Think about it like this…if that episode did not exist would the show still make sense? Oh hell yes. We learned nothing of note and only became more confused….which is fine for lost but not fine for the THIRD TO LAST EPISODE OF THE SHOW! Garbage.
May 12th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Oh fuck, yeah those kids were SO bad.
May 12th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I have to agree, that was one of the worst episodes ad pretty pointless.
If that was what they were going to “reveal” I’d rather have just left not knowing the origins of the two and just tried to infer my own back story about their relationship.
May 12th, 2010 at 10:20 am
I am now bracing for disappointment that will rival, and probably eclipse that of the BSG series finale.
May 12th, 2010 at 11:28 am
@DocDino
- some people just see dead people.
- ( i believe) smoke monster is what the light and his evil ways created. pretty much allows him to shape shift to vessels that are dead, why not go back to your body? if that’s the case
-if i remember correctly, i think his mom says its worse than death to be in the light. maybe wanted to toss his brother in, for that reason. he was probably just pissed.
The kids suck. MiB broke the bottle of the magic-liquid-live-forever-protect-the-island-potion, so don’t know how jacob is going to get someone to take over that job, unless he has some special reserve somewhere. didn’t really care for all the other “answers”. I much rather see team Jack get back to team Richard and get to the well. But thank this episode for letting people to create this:
May 13th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
IN DEFENSE OF THIS EPISODE:
I was surprised to hear that people were disappointed by this episode. We got to see the origins of Jacob and the Man In Black. Did people not want this? And who was mad that they didn’t get absolutely everything spelled out for them? Why are those people watching this show? It’s a show about mysteries. The appeal is not knowing shit, not having your questions answered completely. I’d like to be satisfied with the show’s ending but I don’t watch each episode hoping for answers, I just want the story to move forward. People complained about the second season of Lost sucking and then other people who stuck around complained about the third season. The things that define the show and the reason I like it are that it is always introducing new storytelling devices and never letting you feel like you have a firm grasp on what’s going on.
I don’t think MIB wanted to get off the island to prove his mother wrong. He wants to be free.
The spring brings death and rebirth and shit so the temple’s pool probably stems from that cave but I don’t think that the main characters have ever been to that cave. Like the lighthouse and Jacob’s cabin these things cannot be found without being led to them.
The importance of us seeing that MIB’s mother was able to appear to him shows that all the dead people or animals who appeared on the island to the main characters weren’t necessarily just MIB impersonating them. MIB is not master of all the weirdness that is on the island.
The current MIB/Smoke Monster is probably not the same thing as the original guy. His experience was probably similar to what happened to Sayiid. He died and came back in some weird corrupted way. I assume this will be explored more.
Jacob’s tossing one guy into the magic cave probably wasn’t too bad. I think he’s supposed to protect it from people who would form cults around it or try to mine it and shit.
How many good child actors are there out there? Hardly any. This is a great TV show but it’s still a TV show. The only thing I’ve seen in this season that really, really bothered me was the shitty CGI submerged island which didn’t look remotely believable to me. Sure the kids weren’t great actors, the black and white clothes were laying it on too thick, the weird/evil Island mom was a little too American for me to believe her as an Island witch/God/spirit being.
When I saw this episode I was totally satisfied.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:48 am
Did anyone else have a problem with the fact that after ‘Mom’ cracks MIB in the head down in the hole next to light n’ wheel she manages to fill in the entire thing with dirt, rocks and shit, then kill and burn the entire camp of dudes before he wakes up?
May 14th, 2010 at 4:33 am
is the wheel how jacob gets off the island? MiB cant use it cause he needs a body? answers just make more questions…