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I was wrong about Adam & Eve possibly being Rose & Bernard.

On the one hand I'm glad about that, because it's a feather in the cap of those who believed and defended the producers having had a good idea from the beginning of where this was all headed. Being "Raised by Another" and The Bad Twin manuscript are other great examples.

I also like it because now it opens up a different ending for Rose and Bernard (and Vincent). I want to know - if that's not Rose & Bernard in those caves, then what happened to them? Did they get flashed from 1977 into late 2007 when Juliet detonated the bomb, just like everyone else? If so, might they yet show up? Maybe even save the day?

It's also kinda cool because it validates all the references we've been getting to ancient history (although, sorry Hurley, "dinosaur times" is pushing it).

On the other hand, I did notice how the flashback scene at the end of this episode just happened to leave out Jack's line where he estimated the bodies had been there for "forty to fifty years." Forgive me for having trusted the decompository science of good Dr. Shephard in formulating my theories. I know the bodies have been largely protected from the elements inside the cave, but for there to still be clothing after more like 2,000 years? That's a bit of a stretch. Then again, so is a story about a magic waterfall and a big plume of menacing black smoke. But you won't hear me complaining (not yet anyway. Not very loudly).

What you will hear is me most likely being wrong again. But I don't know any other way to write this week's recap than to pull a Jurassic Park and make every attempt to "fill in the gene sequence gaps." So, as is probably appropriate with an episode that focused solely on Island mythology, I'll be doing a lot of theorizing and interpreting. The biggest danger of this method is that we strike off in one direction, follow it, and end up completely and totally off course. But that also feels apropos to the show, the way "the game" is played, and the way our characters have always interacted with the Island, so off we go. Besides, "one day you can make up your own game and everyone will have to follow your rules."

What Just Happened?

I'm starting at the end of the episode because much of what you will read in the rest of the recap is explained through the paradigm I have of what happened when Jacob pushed his brother into 'the Source' inside the waterfall. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to take you through the Instant Message conversation I had with my friend Travis Terral on Wednesday:

TT: So, any thoughts on how we transition from Jacob saying tearful goodbyes at the cave to sitting there, all content and happy on the beach, obviously knowing what his relationship is with oh-he's-not-dead-and-can't-die-by-his-hand No Name? That's one of my biggest puzzlers at this point, trying to see how that all came about in between them.

SM: Well, first off, I'm undecided on whether the Dark Kid was ever bad, or merely special (smart, inquisitive, "capable of lying and seeing dead people," then?). Both kids (and I think this is a big point of the show) struck me more as Innocents than good/bad. I am leaning towards his having washed into the cave releasing the black smoke as opposed to the black smoke having been his evil spirit/soul or whatever. But I'm still working through this.

TT: Not sure I follow you. We have ample evidence, plenty of scenes, showing Flocke essentially turning into Smokey and back. He's not summoning it, he is it. How did he appear to Richard and to Jacob in his original form if he died in the light cave? Disagreeing with you on that. Apparently that is him, his essence, being released from the now dead shell of his body that Jacob finds elsewhere. In that cave is "life, death...rebirth" says mom. Jacob is NOT to go in there.

SM: Yep, which is definitely one way to view it. The model I'm working over in my mind, however, goes like this:

I think the man who went IN died. Jacob's brother is dead (and "dead is dead"), as we know from the final scene. I think his GOING IN released an evil Monster, who took his form. I think it's a strong possibility that the Smokey we know has all the memories - even some of the same goals - of No-Name but isn't really "him." It's what the smoke does. Which is why he can also be "Locke" but also clearly NOT Locke, who is dead and buried on the beach.

TT: Hmmm.

SM: I think that cave of light, whatever else is it, was also some kind of prison for "evil." It's now out on the Island, hence the MiB we know REALLY IS "evil/bad" and can't be allowed to get off the Island.

TT: I can see that. That makes sense, actually. Explains how he takes the form of the dead person on the island, as he continues to do in the future.

SM: Right. And it also explains to me how the Kid-in-Black really didn't seem all that "evil" at all. Quite simply, he wasn't.

TT: But what is it about sending him into the cave that released Smokey?

SM: Well, "Mom" told Jacob that going in there would be, essentially, a fate worse than death, which is the whole reason Jacob sent his Bro in there after seeing him knife their mother.

TT: Ah, yes, she did.

Yeah..."I'm not going to kill you... I'm going to make something ‘worse' happen to you."

SM: Right

TT: Only in doing so, it is worse for us all.

SM: Right, Jacob's hands ain't lily white.

Another reason I believe the Monster is merely in the MiB's form and not really "him" is that the hieroglyphs found by Ben pictured something looking a lot like the monster going way back to the days of Egyptian gods. I think he was imprisoned here.

TT: Maybe so. I'm liking your theory more as I think about it. Especially since we know that MiB can access the memories / feelings, etc. of those whose form he takes.

SM: Yes. I think that is a function less of who he was as a person and more of what entity took his form.

TT: The only thing is, he seems to only be able to take the form of dead people brought to the island... not those who die there.

SM: Maybe. Dead Boone did appear to Locke once when Locke lost his voice and built a sweat lodge to find out what the island wanted him to do. And I have read several theories that believe Michael appearing to Hurley a few episodes ago was the MiB putting Hurley on task to bring the group together.

TT: Well, either way, obviously we're not going to end with a "the end of the world" ending where Smokey gets off the island. But also, if he's the embodiment of existential evil, he can't really die. The "proper" ending would somehow involve him either being locked away, again, or back on the island in impotence with a new protector over him. Which makes me wonder about what Electro-Desmond's role will be. Because he can apparently interact with, or be in the presence of, all that intense electromagnetic energy the island's hot spots produce, is he somehow going to put the genie back in the bottle, as it were?

SM: That would be a great guess, and my guess as well.

With me? Or not? If not, no worries at all. There are plenty of arguments on the other side. Perhaps going into the cave merely took away the MiB's body but his quest for vengeance, for leaving the Island, and the experience forever changed his spirit and personality. There's also the fact that an evil Smoke Monster wouldn't have been bound by any rules of the game regardless of whose form he takes, and so why can't it just kill Jacob? (I think by this point Jacob, as the new Protector, has gotten to create his own rules, which was foreshadowed / alluded to in the episode). Just so happens that the Monster and Jacob's brother both shared the same goals of leaving. Later, in 2004, the Monster will find a new shape to take in the form of a guy whose only goal was staying.

You could also argue that the things we learn about the Light/Cave/Waterfall - that it's beautiful, that there's some of that light in every man, that people will greedily seek more of it, that it's the Source of death, yes, but also of life and re-birth - stand in contrast to there being an evil Monster down there. That may be entirely correct. However, I might make the case that…

• There's still a reason "Mom" warned Jacob NEVER to go in there.
• We know that going in risks putting out the light, which in turn risks putting out all light everywhere ("God help us all," anyone?)
• The 'light' could just as easily be metaphorical for the very "source" of the ongoing argument between Jacob and the MiB - original sin. Do we have it or not? Are people basically good, or basically evil? There's some of this essence in everyone, we're told. It can appear beautiful (as can Satan, himself once an angel of light, by the way). Once sampled we want more of it. Perhaps what is in The Source is more akin to the yin/yang of Eastern philosophies, and there is BOTH good and evil in that waterfall, and they must exist in harmony, just as life and death do, and putting out the light results in catastrophe and the unleashing of the dark half. Perhaps it's more of a New Age thing, and the "warmth" only comes from being in touch with all of it, and nothing is either good or bad as long as there is balance.

But what I was really reminded of as I gazed into that glowing cave was starlight. You know, as in "Catch a Falling Star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day"? The song that has popped up repeatedly in association with Claire and/or Aaron? We just heard it in the previous episode via the music box. It may be crazy, but it also fits here. Consider: might a fallen star/fallen angel have been caught? Placed in this 'pocket' on the Island? And ultimately released on a rainy day? (Don't forget that conversation Jacob had with Mother about how a storm was coming and he should gather firewood before the rains came; that day was a rainy day. On one level this conversation was a mirror to the weather predictions Locke has made. On another, could it a reference to the falling star being released on a rainy day? 

UPDATE: Since posting my take earlier this morning, I've been descended upon by several of you who either came up with this yourselves or after reading the much-more-talented-than-me Vozzek's recap - the idea that Mother is the Smoke Monster at first. This theory isn't any worse than mine, and might even be superior. I just don't buy it is all. Or can't buy it is probably more accurate. Just doesn't feel right to me. The idea is based mostly upon things I also noticed (Smokey almost surely pre-dates Jacob/MiB; Mother couldn't have destroyed that village and that well as a mere mortal woman), but I think it's just as logical to assume that the resident Protector of the Island has some powers of his/her own to call upon when need be.

 

Another argument for Mother-as-OriginalSmokey is the way she knows what happens to a person ("it's worse than dying") if they go into the Flaming Golden Waterfall. It may be that's because she's personally done it. Eh, maybe. I just never saw very much that seemed Smokey-ish (more like Rousseau-ish) in Allison Janney's character, or any reason why this would need to be the case. I also think if she were Smokey, her body wouldn't have been her original body (can you even kill a smoke monster? Would it leave a body? I don't think it would).

 

Now, there is something to be said that Mother was killed in the manner in which Dogen explained: use the sacred knife before it can speak. But to never see her go Smokey on anyone, to assume that once she died Smokey went back to the cave to wait until Jacob threw his brother down there as part of her master-plan-all-along long con, well, it just seems like too much to assume with so little time left, especially when I am not sure what the point would be. No, I'm not really able to make my head or heart go there. But if you would like to follow that rabbit hole, please do check it out here!

Smoke by Any Other Name Would Smell as Dangerous

There's also the not-so-small matter of the MiB still not having a name.

As I see it, there are two logical, potential reasons for this: 1) His name itself is some kind of game changer that is so huge even the third-to-last episode can't reveal it, or 2) He truly never had a name since his birth mother didn't know she was carrying him and so he remained unnamed. I don't really believe 1 is the case, and 2 disappoints me, feels lame.

Or is there a third way of looking at this? Like maybe his name just isn't important? Surely Mother gave him one. But as this character died, was replaced by the malevolent black smoke, and has since schemed for centuries toward loopholes that would allow it to be unleashed on the earth, any name the producers were to give the character would only humanize him. But if I am correct and there is nothing human about the Monster other than the form he sometimes takes, then this is a good and workable choice. Jacob's brother surely had a name. The entity that now stalks the Island, however, is not him, and is a nameless evil. In the end, I think the fact a name has not yet been revealed adds credence to the theories expressed above.

One thing I will say - no matter what his name turns out to be, I don't think the story will be changed. Not even if, as speculated, the twins turn out to be called "Jacob and Esau." The story has clearly not gone in the direction of the Old Testament narrative, even if we do get one final Exodus from the Island (which I'm not certain we'll get, considering the ominous "What They Died For" is the title of next week's episode).

La Mer

Speaking of episode titles, and of songs that have appeared in previous episodes for that matter, "Across the Sea" most definitely reminded me of the song "Beyond the Sea," the French version of which is "La Mer." This is the song Shannon sang after Sayid has noticed the lyrics scrawled madly over Danielle Rousseau's maps. Among the words of the song, translated into English, are these: "The sea… has silver reflections… changing reflections Under the rain… Its white sheep With such pure angels… Infinite… The sea Has rocked them… with a song of love."

Our very first shot this episode was of the sea, and the remains of a shipwreck. Meanwhile, our preview for next week showed plenty of mirrored reflections. Does it mean anything? Or is it just another cool example of how there's been a plan since the beginning? Was Rousseau on to something with her obsession?

The idea of having come from "Across the Sea" is also the thing, ultimately, that moves the younger Twin from accepting the indoctrination of the world his Mother preached to him, and opening his eyes to awakening but also to rebellion. I don't really want to get into it, but this being a Christian website we will - there was a clear message in this episode about innocence, the world we're shown, the way of the world we're told about, and parents inculcating a faith into children, especially if that faith involves lies, half-truths, or versions of truth. One child, Jacob, still clings to the beliefs preached to him even when confronted with other truths, because he either can't accept his Mother was wrong, or doesn't accept that these new truths necessarily cancel out the ones he was told, or both. However, for the other child, all he can see is that he was lied to, and therefore anything else his Mother tells him is a manipulation, a lie, even when it's an honest warning or a word of love.

Why Claudia?

What puts the young Kid-in-Black onto his journey of discovery is a visit from his birth mom's ghost (mirrors young Benjamin Linus's story to an extent). "Claudia" tells him she's his real mother, and shows him the village built by her fellow shipwreck survivors of 13 years prior. But her visit brings up several questions of motivation: 

• Why appear only to him and not to Jacob? Is it that only the Black twin is special enough to see ghosts? Or that she only wished to appear to the more questioning / truth-seeking lad?
• Why appear to him at all? Why does she care if anyone reunites with her people? If she cares so much about this, why not include both sons?
• Was this not Claudia at all, but some manifestation of the Monster, who does seem to have control over the Island's dead? It does seem like the Monster has a much greater motivation to put these wheels in motion than any true manifestation of Claudia would. The only snag I have here is: if the Monster is imprisoned, how does he accomplish this? Maybe he can appear as the dead without being fully released from his bonds. If so, the manipulative appearance of Dead Claudia actually helps the case that the Monster existed prior to Jacob's brother being killed, which is a fair assumption given that the Island's history and grand protective role clearly stretch back further than just the Jacob twins.

Speaking of Claudia, I loved her red dress when she arrived on the Island. Red joined black and white in our show's color palette quite some time ago. So for white (Jacob) and black (his twin) to have been birthed from red was a cool picture for me.

Claudia is clearly a Roman name, and she and the Mother have a conversation in Latin. We can infer that these events therefore take place around 2,000 years ago, give or take. The history of the Island, however, clearly goes back much further. "Mother" obviously arrived there sometime in the distant past, and we already have seen the statue and hieroglyphs that date to Egyptian times. It stands to reason that Mom is just one in a long succession of Protectors who are given long life when they drink the sacred wine and accept "the reason we're here," which is the Source/Waterfall. They must protect it, never enter it, prevent people from finding it, refrain from using it. She also explained to Claudia that they arrived there the same way - " by accident." I think the meaning is both figurative and literal. "Accident" refers to fate rather than their own intentions bringing them there, but it also is reference to how we've long noted that "accidents" like shipwreck, plane crash, boating accident, and "rough arrival you'll want to be knocked out for" are part of coming to this place.

Mother's Not Herself Today

We've got to get over the fact that we can't get every backstory on this show. No, we don't like being told that "every question I answer will only lead to another question," but that's the nature of storytelling. It's why J.R.R. Tolkien has more information in the indices to Lord of the Rings than in the story itself. You can keep going back, and back, and back, and sure some of that's interesting for true nerds who crave every element of the lore of a story, but is it necessary to driving home the section of the tale you are telling? Not really. It completely suffices that what is inferred about "Mother" - that she's been there a long time, protects the place, and saw the Twins as her chance to raise her own successors - is enough.

She explains to Jacob that she had to kill their mother lest Claudia take them back to her people and essentially spoil them, make them no longer good. Innocence kept, she implies, is good, considering the purpose I have for you. The problem, though, comes in what she will later tell Jacob that flies in the face of everything we've learned to date on the show: "You don't really have a choice." Ew. Not cool. Although, Jacob could have chosen to not drink, I suppose, and run for it, but I think he sensed his destiny and opted to accept it rather than fight it. Or at least he did after she admitted she was wrong, and that she should have seen that it was always going to be nerdy, emotional, violent, but more-truthful and more-believing Jacob rather than his cooler brother.

Did she really leave The Game for them to find, or did she just tell that story so they wouldn't question where else it came from, just as she has kept facts like "The Others" of the world, and even "death," from them? I suspect them finding the game gave her an excuse to say "all good and perfect gifts come from me… where else would they come from, there's nothing else out there." Then again, giving them the game to play as a way to pass the time and dream up rules for it fits into the idea of grooming her replacement.

Why did she take up residence in the valley at the caves? I would assume the statue is on the island at this time. Why not live there? Does Jacob go to live in the statue simply because he turned his former home into a mausoleum?

Early on, Mother told the dark twin that death was something he would never have to worry about. I think this is just because he was her intended choice to drink the wine and live a long, long time as her replacement. Things clearly changed, however. Once Jacob drank the wine, she informed him, "Now you and I are the same." I assume this passed the mantle of immortality and being able to create rules (such as those she created of the boys not being able to kill each other) to Jacob.

The rule that the boys can not harm each other would appear to be a thorn in the side of my belief that what came out of the cave was not Jacob's brother's dark soul. Because if all it was was the Monster in MiB's form, what rules bind the Monster from just smushing Jacob? Well, none, really, unless the rules applied to anything that takes the form of Jacob's brother, or unless Jacob, as Supreme High Protector, made his own rule that he was safe from Smokey.

Another question that must be asked is why Jacob can leave the Island if one of the things Mother said was "You will never be able to leave." Was she simply speaking out of love for her sons, as she admitted later with her last words? Or is this another rule Jacob reversed for himself so he could build himself a people and a group of candidates and see for himself what was across the sea?

There are even more oddites about Mother. After she stops MiB from his Donkey Wheel plans, she - one woman - apparently ransacked, killed, and burned an entire village, and filled in a very deep well. Huh? How? Is she / the Protector able to transform into something supernatural and powerful, too?

When she finally dies, she has only words of love and thanks. She is grateful for her long life to be taken. Life without death is an imbalanced life, not full life at all, just like it would be if Death Incarnate escaped the Island and life "just ceased to be," as Widmore once put it.

The Game

Lostpedia mentions the Game given to the boys as Egyptian in origin. This would seem to support it as having belonged to Mother (who quite possibly arrived in the time of the statue), who bequeathed it to them. The younger twin says he "just knows" how to play it. He is able to dive right in, or else he can create the rules as he goes. Jacob's somewhat puzzled by this, as is anyone who might come to the game Myst or to LOST for the first time. You arrive on an Island and… what? Where can you go? What can / can't you do? What will you find? Who will oppose you? If you can create a way to pass the time and have the ability to impose your own rules, your own will, then the possibilities are as limitless as your imagination.

"Two sides, one is light, one is dark" also harkens back to the Pilot episode. Folks, our producers have admitted they didn't know every twist and turn the story was going to take along the way to the finale, mostly because they didn't know how much time they had to tell it, but they also always said they had an outline for the whole thing. It's time we not only accepted this as quite obviously true, but applauded them.

Jacob and his brother continue to meet for game play into their 40s. That said, we never again see them play after the dark twin dies. For one thing, Jacob put two of the game pieces into the pouch. For another, whatever came out of that waterfall cave was not Jacob's brother. Instead, Jacob plays a new and ongoing game with the Monster, the one where he intends to prove humanity can get it right, the one with the scales balanced by black-and-white, good-and-evil keeping each other in check, the one where he hopes to prove his mother and brother wrong that "they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt, and it always ends the same." But his flaw at this young age is the same as the one he still has by the time he meets Richard - "looking down from above" doesn't give you a true picture of who these people are, not as much as one who has been there up to his elbows in the dirt with people since time began, and will always be more willing to play upon their desires, give them "answers," or twist their will because it's so easily done. The MiB knew from spending 30 years with humans that they are greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish. He is only with them as a means to an end, a way to leave. But would he have found anything different across the sea? No.

So from where does Jacob get his optimism? Is this why he turns his Island into a place where the lost can find redemption? Where the heart of the Island grants rebirth? Where healing is possible? Jacob also has several qualities in common with the Candidates he chose. Like Hurley, he just can't lie. Like Jack, he can heal, and "fix" things. He has killed. He is a "man of faith." He is broken.

He is also a voyeur. He has always watched people, and continues to do so through his Lighthouse mirrors, "because I want to know if Mother's right." Jacob, like his biblical counterpart, is not altogether what many of us would call a "good person." He schemes. He's overly emotional. He reacts violently. But one thing he does have - his redeeming quality - is an optimistic faith. And with so little time left in our story, my own faith is that this is going to be rewarded, and it truly will "only end once. Everything else was just progress."

By the way, if you haven't seen this bit regarding the "Lost is a game" theory… check it out. Good laughs. Thanks to Scott Bartley for sending me the link.

The Mirrors

No direct mirror images this week (unless Claudia first saw Mother's reflection in the stream? I can't remember), but lots of items in this episode reflected events or discussions we've seen before, building more evidence for the cyclical pattern of the show, the "all of this has happened before" motif:

• Shipwreck
• One woman assisting another in childbirth
• Tapestry weaving
• Stolen babies raised by another
• A child designated as "special" with unique abilities
• Predicting weather
• Becoming "one of them"
• Needing to stay "good"
• A crazy woman living apart from "others"

The Answers

From now to the end of the series in this space, we'll be taking notes on how the show is doing in answering the questions we posed at the midpoint of Season Six in this blog, as well as those posed or expanded upon since then

Answered

The 'Adam & Eve' Skeletons

These turned out to be Jacob's unnamed twin brother (should we call him Adam, then?) and the woman who raised them (should we call her Eve?). Is this why we never got their names? Because Locke guessed right and their names REALLY WERE Adam and Eve? The black and white stones did not identify who the bodies were, but were symbolic of Jacob burying the other half of him, his twin, his gaming partner.

What is the relationship between Jacob and the MiB?

Twin brothers, as many suspected.

How long have games between black and white been going on?

At least 2,000 years, probably much, much longer.

Who was the 'Crazy Mother' the Monster once told Kate the MiB had?

It was C.J. from West Wing.

What people dug the wells?

Roman shipwreck survivors assisted by the MiB? In one spot (eventually the Orchid location) they found what they were looking for.

Partially Answered

Where did the donkey wheel come from? It was cool to see it under construction, but since Mother filled in and destroyed that well, and the MiB died, who later built "the system"? Did Smokey clue-in some later arrivers to the Island on what was down there and how to do it? Did some people find it on their own? What is the science behind "channeling the water and the light" that gets this to work? It sure didn't look icy or cold down there - when and how did those conditions occur?

I can assume the ice that we have seen down there is a result of whatever reaction occurs between the water and the light, but as to the rest of it? Your guess is as good as mine.

Expanded Upon

Who is the mysterious kid in the jungle?

Definitely young Jacob. Whether it's his ghost, or he's time traveling, or is about to be reborn, or who can / can't see him we aren't sure yet.

What's the story of 'the sacred knife'?

Jacob's brother used to carry it on his belt. Ironically, he was not the twin more prone to emotional or violent rage. He carried his weapon more in a smart, prepared way. But he did use it to kill the woman they knew as their mother.  It came into Jacob's hands after Smokey tried to get Richard to kill Jacob. The question is when Jacob gave it to the Temple Master, and why. It certainly doesn't seem like it would kill the Smoke Monster, even if Sayid had struck before it ever spoke to him.

What is the significance of Aaron not being "Raised by another"?

All I know is every major character we've seen born on the island or conceived on the island ends up being "raised by another." Jacob. MiB. Aaron (by Kate and Carole). Alex (by Ben). Ji Yeon (by Sun's mom). Ethan (by the Others at some point before the Purge).

Why is Latin the official language of the Others?

Maybe it has something to do with Jacob being of Roman descent, even though he never really knew this. Maybe it has something to do with Mother being able to speak it. Was the incantation she spoke before handing him the wine in Latin?

Posed

Wither Rose & Bernard now that we know they didn't lay down to die in the caves in 1977 or thereabouts?

Man, I'd love to see them show up and preach their little "all you need is love" sermon again and save the day.

What is "Mother's" backstory?

I don't think we're going to know. I like to think she's Egyptian, and dates to the days of Egypt's influence.

What came out of the waterfall cave? The angry/evil soul of Jacob's brother, or an unchained Smoke Monster than assumes his form and memories?

That's the question, isn't it. There's evidence for both ideas. You know now where I stand. And you know I've been wrong before.