Across the Sea

Hi, all. I’m Nicole, and I am one of a two-member specially trained team that has been standing by in case of a “Defcon 4 Alert.” Today, our team was summoned to duty.

OK, in plain English: our beloved author has been with child. Children, actually. And those children made an early entrance into this world this week. My cohort, Brian, who you will meet in a post very soon to come, and I have been the back-up bloggers should this very event occur. Our heartfelt congratulations, Carol, and we hope to do your blog justice in these final three weeks!

Getting to “Across the Sea…”

MOTHER AND CLAUDIA

I’m sure most of us immediately guessed when we saw an expectant Claudia wash up on the shore that she was pregnant with Jacob and, potentially, the Man in Black (MIB). Claudia was promptly “rescued” by former White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Mother). The internet tells me they were speaking Latin. I wonder if we were meant to believe that they were speaking Latin the entire episode, but they switched to English for our (and the actors’) convenience. I guess yes. We learn some things about Mother: she is the only one on the island, she arrived there by accident, and that she doesn’t want to answer all the questions that we wish she would (“every question I answer will only lead to another question”).We later learn that Mother does not age ala Richard Alpert and that she has some control over the island (if there are people, SHE will find them!).

Of course, Claudia goes into labor and Mother helps deliver the twin boys. Then, Mother kills Claudia. The first Other doing the first crazy thing to procure someone else’s child. Children, actually.

CHILDHOOD

Boy Jacob’s and the Boy in Black’s (BIB!) childhood interactions seem much like the adult interactions we had previously seen between the two. Very pensive. Every word they say to each other, every glance, every far-off look seems chock-full of meaning. These boys raised major nature vs. nurture questions: their adoptive mother seems to be a deity type and raising them as though they were the same despite their human biology. Did she do this through spells cast on them?

The game that BIB “found” showed us the beginning of the white vs. black seemingly-eternal conflict between Jacob and BIB. The game brought back the Egyptian imagery that has weaved its way though this entire show (there were hieroglyphs on the gameboard). I can’t even attempt to theorize on the Egyptian lore that might be connected to these symbols.

The most important thing we learned about these boys, I thought, was that Jacob was incapable of deceit and wrongdoing. BIB, on the other hand, is not like Jacob. BIB is also the one that questions what’s out there. And I doubt, even before he saw the people, that he bought Mother’s story that there was nothing out there.

THE PEOPLE

The people that Jacob and BIB see are presumably Claudia’s people. Seeing the people is the catalyst in Jacob’s and BIB’s lives --- causing BIB to rebel and Jacob to have to step up his loyalty to Mother. They learn that they are there for a reason, while the people are not. They are there to corrupt, destroy, etc. But, didn’t Jacob and BIB come with those people?!?

To prove their purpose to her boys, Mother has to take Jacob and BIB to THE LIGHT before she was otherwise planning to do so. We are supposedly given the answer to the biggest question out there in the entire history of the show: what the heck IS the island? The island is an encasement to this precious light. The warmest, brightest light that is inside every man (probably women too). We learn later that it is life, death, rebirth… sounds to me like it is the soul of the world. Which makes sense, considering that it needs to be protected at all costs.

THE RULES

While Mother is taking the boys to THE LIGHT, we learn what we’d already assumed from references in past episodes to the Rules: that Jacob and BIB/MIB can’t “hurt” each other. Since we see Jacob twice beat BIB/MIB to a pulp, I think we can interpret “hurt” to mean “kill.”

The Rules leave a lot of questions for me. Who makes the Rules? It appears there were some rules that Mother made (e.g. Jacob and MIB can’t kill each other). Were some Rules made by THE LIGHT / Island (e.g. needing a protector)? I also assume that some Rules are Jacob’s as the protector of the Island; MIB told us that Jacob would someday get to make up his own Rules to his own game. Are the Rules that apply to the candidates, Jack et al, Jacob’s rules for that game?

THE DONKEY WHEEL

Adult MIB does not lose any of the curiosity that had been his as a child about what else is out there. It still seems that Jacob couldn’t care less. MIB becomes convinced that THE LIGHT is his ticket off the island. He helps the people whom he had joined as a child try to find the source of THE LIGHT. He does exactly that which notLocke (presumably the same being as MIB) explained to Desmond that the confused, curious people did: find the spots where their compasses spin, where metal behaves strangely, and dig. Finally, the digging pays off and MIB finds THE LIGHT underground. He plans to rig a donkey wheel to some kind of mechanism to harness the water and THE LIGHT on the island.

What makes MIB think that THE LIGHT will get him off the island? I’m not so sure it does. THE LIGHT looks to me very similar to the light that flashes during time travel. Ben Linus turned a donkey wheel in a well that was engulfed in light to spark the island’s time travel. I have no doubt the two lights are connected, if not the same. MIB wasn’t looking to travel around in time, which seems to me to be what happens if you harness and use THE LIGHT.

THE PROTECTOR

After Mother learns of MIB’s quest, and knocks him out to prevent it, she realizes that any hope of him being her replacement really is gone. She has to go to her back-up replacement plan, Jacob, and in a hurry because she knows that MIB will be coming for her. She casts a spell on the wine, convinces Jacob to drink it, and, voila, Jacob is now the protector. Why did she have to officially make him protector in such a hurry? Wasn’t the fact that a candidate for replacement was out there enough? Jacob dies without officially having his replacement in place, but all is not lost as long as candidates are out there. Oh, and how will the chosen candidate now become the protector? We saw MIB break that wine bottle… maybe there’s a new Rule in place?

We all saw it coming that Mother was not long for this earth after handing power over to Jacob. Sure enough, she is stabbed in the back with a familiar dagger. And, note that she was stabbed before speaking. Seems to be important in killing these folks, except that Ben did kill Jacob after speaking.

THE SMOKE MONSTER

To avenge Mother’s death, Jacob does the one thing to MIB that Mother had told him was worse than death --- sends him into THE LIGHT cave. By doing so, I believe Jacob condemned his brother's soul into the form of smoke for all eternity. The smoke can take on different forms (his original body form, Christian, Alex, Locke, etc). I think the soul of the smoke monster is still MIB’s. But it’s interesting that the current notLocke has seemed at times to possess some of real Locke’s memories. Does the smoke monster take on a little bit of the soul of the people whose form he takes?

ADAM AND EVE

So, we finally know who our “Adam and Eve” skeletons are. I have a theory that Adam & Eve, including referencing the Bible, are literally MIB’s and Mother’s names. Why keep MIB’s and Mother’s names secret unless they were also LITERALLY named Adam and Eve? They had to keep the names a secret, because if they had told us back in the finale of Season 5 when we first met MIB that his name was literally Adam, it would have given too much of the Jacob back-story away. I.e., we would have immediately assumed MIB was one of the skeletons. The writers wanted to withhold from us that MIB was one of the skeletons, so they also withheld his name from us. I believe the flashback with just Jack and Kate talking would have been enough to remind us of the skeletons. But including Locke in the flashback included the revelation of the names. Including Locke in the flashback added nothing more than this, which I believe supports my theory. But it won't be my first LOST theory to go down the tubes if I'm wrong!

Well, looking forward to your thoughts in the comments, and looking forward to Brian’s response in a future post. Namaste!