Mommy Issues

Hello, everyone. This is Brian, checking into the lineup as the other pinch hitter for Carol, your loyal Lost blogger. I've been a reader and commenter since Carol began the blog. Like many of you, Carol has always pushed me to a deeper and fuller understanding of Lost. I hope it won't be long before she's able to weigh in with her thoughts on the final season. Until then, congratulations to Carol and her family on the new additions. And thanks to my co-blogger, Nicole, for her great work last week with this post.

Now, let's get to it:

Many Lost bloggers noted how Across the Sea was a polarizing episode. You can find three of my favorites here and here. Did it work for you? I think that's going to largely depend on whether you're a fan of deep background Lost mythology or whether you'd prefer to spend the final 4.5 hours of the show with your favorite characters. I'm guessing most viewers (myself included) fall into the latter category. If so, we just lost a critical hour.

I think this would have been a great, mind-blowing episode for earlier in the season or even last season. The same goes for the Richard Alpert episode, which I thought was better acted and better written. Still, LindCuse prepared us for this by showcasing Jacob and MIB in the season five finale. In the opening scene of last season's finale, Man in Black stared into the ocean and said, "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same."

Obviously MIB wasn't completely dismissive of C.J. Cregg if he was still willing to quote her verbatim.

I thought Allison Janney did some nice work as Jacob and MIB's homicidal, adoptive mother. When she told Boy in Black that she planted the game, I didn't believe her for a second. If she hadn't lied, she would have been forced into acknowledging that life existed beyond their corner of the island. She would have been forced to admit that there was a motorcycle gang slaughtering boars in the jungle.

The killing of Claudia was about as abrupt as Ben's killing of Locke. Is it just a coincidence that this episode aired two days after Mother's Day? Speaking of Ben, can we get some more Ben before this thing ends on Sunday? Ben's about as sweet as Rose and Bernard at this point.

What is certain about this episode is that the glowing cave will be always be a touchstone for the show. I found myself wondering whether Lost jumped the shark. It had something of a Lucky Charms feel to it. I was fully prepared for a leprechaun to jump out. Instead, Jacob eventually gave us Smokey. With all of the bodies on Smokey's rap sheet, I think that Jacob shares some responsibility. That said, Jacob seemed to realize his mistake when he said goodbye to MIB as he buried him; he didn't say goodbye to C.J. Cregg.

Maybe this is more obvious than I think it is, but my modest prediction is that Faraday's somehow mixed up in what MIB kept referring to as the very smart men with ideas of how to harness the island's energy.

One thing I'd like to challenge from Nicole's post is the theory that MIB and Janney's character were named Adam and Eve. Just because Locke said so doesn't make it so. I think this is going to be a loose end that remains loose. "Every answer leads to more questions."

Please add your two cents to the comments. Did you like the glowing cave? What is it? A very retro kind of spa treatment? Does the warm, glowing light = life = the fate of humankind? We were getting some heavy religious imagery ("Take this cup. Drink." I thought I was in church for a second). Or is it something else entirely?

Where would you like to go in the final 3.5 hours?