Lost: Episode 6:15 Across The Sea
So, we finally get the story behind Jacob and Smokey...sort of! Click to hear my thoughts..
Well, first off I must say that I was very disappointed. The episode was a good one from a certain perspective(good performances, good story etc) but as for what the writers promised to reveal with this one..waaaaaay off.
It begins with a pregnant woman shipwrecked on the island. She is rescued by another woman who puts a halt to all of the questions the pregnant woman(and we) want to know by saying "every question will only lead to more". How true. The woman gives birth to twins. Jacob and...not Jacob! At this point the other chick caves her head in with a rock. Lovely. We see Jacob and his brother as children finding a back gammon type game on the beach, with black and white stones as playing pieces. It turns out their "mother" had left it for..lets just call him Esau as I'm sure it will turn out to be his name..to find. She seems to show more affection for Esau and puts a higher stake in him than in Jacob. While hunting one day the kids come across other people on the island. Their mother had always told them that there was no one else, and that the island was "all there is". When they question this she tells them that all other people are bad and will only hurt them. Esau asks that since they are people too, won't they also hurt each other. The woman says she has "made it so that can't happen". She then takes them to a magical cave. Yep. Thats what needs protecting on the island. The cave is full of light and would seem to represent life the universe and everything to coin a phrase from Douglas Adams. The woman tells the boys that one day one of them must take over from her and protect the cave at all costs, but they must never go into the cave because to do so would be a fate worse than death. One day while the boys are playing their stone game their real dead mother comes to visit but only Esau can see her. She brings him to another part of the island and shows him that there are other people there building settlements. She also tells him that they came from across the sea and that the woman they think is their mother killed her. Esau returns and packs a bag to leave, asking Jacob to join him. But the stronger, seemingly dumber Jacob reacts with violence when told the truth. Esau leaves saying he will find a way off the island. 30 years pass. Esau has made a home with the other group on the island and but Jacob still visits him to play. Esau tells him that he has found a way off the island and shows him the strange magnetic properties of the Well(Which Desmond now resides in!). He says there are pockets of this energy from the cave source all over the island and that he and his people are at work to tap into it. Jacob tells his mother about this and she visits Esau as he as at work building The Donkey Wheel that Ben used to leave the island. How did he know building a wheel and turning it in the light would transport him off the island? Don't ask me..or the show creators, he just did! Anyway, she knocks him out and massacres his entire settlement, destroying any work he has done too. This is quite silly. The woman obviously has some sort of power but to just show the after effects is ridiculous. After this, the woman brings Jacob back to the light cave and tells him that he is now the one that must protect it. She gives him wine and tells him he is now like her(Why?..) Esau wakes up and driven mad by grief and frustration murders the woman who raised him. Jacob beats Esau and flings him into the light cave. As he does so Smokey flies out of it. Jacob then find Esau's body and places him along with his mother in a cave with two stones, one black one white. They are Adam and Eve and we get a flash back of Kate and Jack finding them back in season 1.
So yeah, we get that big revelation, whoopdy doo. Apparently the origin we have for Smokey is that he flies out of a magical cave if you happen to throw your matricidal brother in it. Its not clear if this entity is actually Esau's spirit combined with whatever malevolence was released from the cave when the light was disturbed, or an entirely new entity that can simply take his form along with any other deceased island resident. Since Un-Locke has alluded to his insane mother and said that Jacob destroyed his body and trapped him on the island I'm guessing its the former. So this woman whoever she is makes it so that Jacob and his brother can never kill each other..then Jacob kills Esau. Doesn't seem like too strict a rule to me. Certainly not one thats completely enforced. But then even in spirit form Esau couldn't directly kill Jacob nor can he know kill the candidates. And who is this woman? How did she get her powers? Don't the writers understand that they are the real answers we want. The source of the mystery not an origin for two characters that we already half guessed at anyway. And isn't it strange that Jacob brings people to this island to play a little game with his dead brother knowing the importance of keeping its power a mystery? Not a very good protector is he? This would have been a great episode to have back at the beginning of the season, book ending it with one now that fully explains things. Sure we are not at the end just yet, but next weeks is focusing on the aftermath of the sub explosion, and even with a 2 and a half hour finale, with all the flash sideways stuff to tie up I can't imagine they will be revisiting the events of this ep. But, who knows. I can live without knowing every detail of th island true origin, the statue, the magical cave etc as long as the show is true to its characters and we get a satisfying resolution. But in the grand scheme of things, I really think they should have used this ep as an opportunity to clear up a lot more than they did . Unless of course, they really are making it up as they go along!
Next weeks ep is called What They Died For and focuses on the aftermath of the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun. I have it on good(well, decent) authority that Frank Lapidus will live to wise crack another day:)
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Cassidy
5/13/2010
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