Lost- I Wanna Go Home

Mother- "A little bit of this very same light is inside of every man, but they always want more."

Jacob- "Can they take it?"

Mother- "No, but they'll try. And if they try, they could put it out. If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere."

I've watched Across the Sea twice already, have four pages of notes, and had two long gchat convos, but I think I'm just gonna start wingin' it here. According to Jaydon some people didn't like this episode and in his words, "that's poppycock."  The only thing I can say to that is, what are you nuts? This episode in and of itself was pure entertainment. As it pertained to the five and half seasons we've watched before, it was magical. The slight problem with it was how it may have fit with the series pacing. A lot of mythological background was shoved into one episode. I might have liked to have seen this play out through three or four episodes throughout seasons five and six. Having said that, all of the mythology involving Jacob, the Man In Black and their mother is merely background to showcase the characters (Jack, Sawyer, Hurley) that we've grown to love over the years.

How good were all four of these actors during this 45 minutes. I was captivated the entire time. As Jaydon remarked to me, "The casting of the kids was on point. Were they the children of the actors?" Not only did they resemble the Jacob and Man In Black that we know, but they managed to make me love the both of them. Why would the Lost people want me to feel so sympathetic for the Boy In Black at this point? They've spent the entire season gearing up to last episode where we have grown to hate him for killing all of our favorite characters, and being basically pure evil. Now they come up with this back story episode and I fall completely in love the original Man In Black.

Before his twin brother* shoved him down into the warmest and brightest light you'll ever see, the Boy In Black was just a normal kid who wanted to go to his real home. Sure he had a few anger issues, but rightfully so once he found out that his adopted mother killed his birth mother seconds after being born. All he wanted to do was go home, and once his fake mother knocked him unconscious, filled up the donkey wheel well, and killed all of his people, I have no problem with him mirking her.

*my reaction when the pregnant lady washed up on the beach, "Twins! I knew it!"

Both twins had good and evil in them. Jacob pummeled the Boy in Black to a pulp early on and then did it again once he saw that his brother killed their pseudo mother. The future protector of the light was so angry that he threw MIB down the light hole and turned him into the smoke monster (something he knew was much worse than death). Which one of these brothers was the evil one before that event? They both had their moments of weakness, but you could make a case for either one. Now there's almost a part of me that is rooting for UnLocke so that he could somehow turn back into his normal self and return home. I don't know if that's a good thing.

The fact of the matter is that this episode may have brought up more questions than answers for some people. Not me. I'm accepting all of this stuff at face value. The twins' fake mom has a huge amount of power as the protector of the Island? She can make rules like Jacob and MIB can't kill each other...MIB can't leave the Island? Yes. That is what it is. Whether she is some type of god or supernatural being, I'm fine with it. Let's use that information to form the rest of the story with our characters.

The same thing goes for the all powerful light. It has some serious magic. It is "life, death, rebirth...It's the source, the heart of the Island." It's all that is good (and normal) about the world as we know it. As opposed to the Smoke Monster you become from trying to go down into it (which is evil, eternal life of smoke and deception). It is very spiritual and very magical and I'm accepting it for what it is. I don't need any more explanation. Let's just see how it affects Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and the rest of our friends as they learn about the light in the hours to come.

Some Other Thoughts

-MIB can see dead people. Jacob can't. Or is the dead mother just a manifestation from a previous Smokey? Is there any connection in this to the fact that Hugo can see dead people?

-MIB will never be able to leave the Island. Is this just one of the mom's rules we need to accept? When did the rule become Smokey has to kill Jacob/candidates in order to leave? Because before he turned into Smokey he seemed to have figured out that turning the donkey wheel was a way to leave the Island (which we saw happen with Locke and Ben earlier in the series).

-Love that the baby, the kid, and the adult versions of Jacob and MIB all wear white and black, respectively.

-Mom, "Jacob doesn't know how to lie. He's not like you." Isn't lying bad? So that would make MIB bad right? Or is lying smart? And Jacob is just a dumb trustworthy guy who follows his mothers orders? MIB's intelligence was what made him the SPECIAL one?

-If Jack is the incumbent candidate to take the role of protector, who is going to feed him the wine and show him the light? Case the Base seems to think Hugo will be put through the paces by Jacob and I like that idea.

-I guess MIB was talking about his fake mother when he told Kate that he had a crazy mother too. That whole conversation seems much easier to sympathize with now that we've seen this episode. Maybe things would've been different...

UnLocke: "Because... my mother was crazy. Long time ago, before I... looked like this... I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And, as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different."

-And we got an unbelievable flashback to the sixth episode of the entire series! "Our very own Adam and Eve" It's awesome that they found a way to work that broad theming into a specific event having to do with mythology that we all know they hadn't even thought of yet.

-Jacob- "You wanted it to be him, but now I'm all you have." I really felt for him here.
-Mom- "It was always supposed to be you Jacob."  Why don't I believe her?

What did you think?