Lost 6x15: "Across the Sea"

[sidious618]

Great episode. I gave it an Excellent. Let's review what we learned.

-Jacob and MIB are brothers.
-Jacob was not the first protector of the Island. He was appointed there by his mother who gave him immortality via the wine (as Jacob did to Richard).
-The knife is apparently powerful and can kill the protectors as it did Allsion Janney and later Jacob.
-The electromagnetic energy comes from the heart of the Island and if harnassed can move the Island. If you are directly exposed to it you are turned into something else. I'm not ready to say that everyone would necessarily turn into a smoke monster. This does, however, explain why the Others were furious about DHARMA digging around.
-MIB hatred of Locke seems to really be a hatred of himself as his mother told him he was special and had a destiny which was the same things that Locke was told.
-We found out who Adam and Eve were.

The big question that I have is if anyone else went down into the light in the past. What happened to them?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I wonder if The Brother With No name is 'special' the same way Desmond is 'special'?

Y'know, I'm gonna miss not having any more questions within questions when it's over.

There truly is no other show like Lost.

You'll probably have lots of questions within questions when it's over.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Another thing I forgot to mention... I thought the woman in the water at the beginning was Ilana.

Perhaps Jacob picked her because he found out somehow she was his mother's descendant?

 

[sidious618]

And the smoke monster isn't Jacob's brother, it just took his form.

No, it's Jacob's brother. In "The Incident" MIB came down to Jacob and talked about the loophole and how he couldn't kill him. In this season bad Locke talked about how he had a crazy mother and how Jacob took his mortal body.

 

[Agent Richard07]

And the smoke monster isn't Jacob's brother, it just took his form.

No, it's Jacob's brother. In "The Incident" MIB came down to Jacob and talked about the loophole and how he couldn't kill him. In this season bad Locke talked about how he had a crazy mother and how Jacob took his mortal body.

Yeah, I was rethinking that before you posted. They made it look like his brother died and something was released when he went down the drain.

 

[Mr Light]

That was him being reborn as the smoke monster.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Another thing I forgot to mention... I thought the woman in the water at the beginning was Ilana.

Perhaps Jacob picked her because he found out somehow she was his mother's descendant?

I hope we get more on Ilana before the end. A lot about her is still a mystery.

 

[RoJoHen]

Another thing I forgot to mention... I thought the woman in the water at the beginning was Ilana.

Perhaps Jacob picked her because he found out somehow she was his mother's descendant?

I hope we get more on Ilana before the end. A lot about her is still a mystery.

Meh, she's dead. I don't care about her anymore.

 

[D Man]

This season has scored consistent Above Averages and Excellents from me, but unfortunately "Across the Sea" was Below Average at best.

Way too much time was spent with Jacob and his Still Unnamed Brother in Black as kids instead of with their far superior and far more interesting (not to mention better performed) adult forms. Even as adults though, there was way too much weeping over family drama stuff...I did not want to see the crux of the epic mythology whittled down to two brothers mad about which of them their mother loved more.

Speaking of the "adoptive" mother, the woman playing her was a terrible actress and brought down almost every scene she was in. For an episode that consisted entirely of guest stars, they REALLY needed to find actors up to Lost's usual standards. When Pellegrino and Welliver finally showed up, it was like a sigh of relief. Too bad the story they were telling didn't give them worthy material.

There was a light cave (I assume the actual nature of the light is being held off til the finale, but as presented here it was hugely underwhelming,) and places where "metal acts strangely." Whee...strange magnetism has been a factor on this show since Locke gave Sayid the wacky compass in season 1. Some ancient dudes figuring out magnets isn't interesting.

The MiB built the Frozen Donkey Wheel, but then he was then knocked out by his mom (not killed? apparently she rammed his head into the rock then pulled him up the ladder and left him near the burning village.) She then killed all the shipwreckees, so who re-dug the well and finished the wheel?

I liked the Backgammon symbolism, the two babies being wrapped in black & white, and Jacob pushing his brother into the cave, causing him to turn into the Smoke Monster. But these few isolated incidents (no pun intended) wasn't nearly interesting enough to redeem the rest of the dull stuff.

Obviously the Adam/Eve skeletons are much more than 50 years old. I wonder why they seemed to decompose so little. Special properties conveyed by the island?

The Adam & Eve reveal was pretty underwhelming, but at least it's another question answered.

That was the number one lamest thing in this episode. It could have worked as a really nice close to an otherwise bad episode, showing us who "Adam and Eve" were in an interesting and unexpected way. Instead, they showed us who they were, then played season 1 clips of Jack, Kate, & Locke finding them. That played to me as "Hey audience, bet you don't remember THIS! See, we had it planned out all along!" Really, really, really stupid. Take out those clips and the ending becomes infinitely better. As it is, a lame ending to a lame episode.

My snap judgment when I saw it was a Below Average, but I've got to go with Poor on this one. Just a very disappointing effort from Lost. Have to blame myself a little, though...my expectations were ridiculously high for the big "Jacob and MiB's backstory revealed!" episode . Of course, they were for Richard's ep too, and that one was amazing.

P.S. They missed an ENORMOUS opportunity when young MiB asked his mother "What's dead?" She should have responded "Dead is dead." That was a given...come on!

 

[WeAreTheBorg]

I wonder if The Brother With No name is 'special' the same way Desmond is 'special'?

Y'know, I'm gonna miss not having any more questions within questions when it's over.

There truly is no other show like Lost.

You know.... Jack as Jacob... Desmond as "Brother".... I think that's on to something.

 

[RoJoHen]

I wonder if The Brother With No name is 'special' the same way Desmond is 'special'?

Y'know, I'm gonna miss not having any more questions within questions when it's over.

There truly is no other show like Lost.

You know.... Jack as Jacob... Desmond as "Brother".... I think that's on to something.

Talk about seeing him in another life.

 

[WeAreTheBorg]

Instead, they showed us who they were, then played season 1 clips of Jack, Kate, & Locke finding them. That played to me as "Hey audience, bet you don't remember THIS! See, we had it planned out all along!" Really, really, really stupid. Take out those clips and the ending becomes infinitely better. As it is, a lame ending to a lame episode.

I had forgotten about that scene and the ending was amazing because of that reveal for that reason. I'm a pretty loyal follower so my reaction is no doubt pretty typical (maybe not among forum goers, but among the general audience). If they didn't play those clips I wouldn't have even realized that at all.

Speaking of the "adoptive" mother, the woman playing her was a terrible actress and brought down almost every scene she was in. For an episode that consisted entirely of guest stars, they REALLY needed to find actors up to Lost's usual standards.

Do you not know who Allison Janney is? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005049/awards

I'd say a 16 time award winning actress is up to their standards.

 

[Capn Flukie]

I didn't even think of Desmond's catchphrase.

 

[D Man]

Speaking of the "adoptive" mother, the woman playing her was a terrible actress and brought down almost every scene she was in. For an episode that consisted entirely of guest stars, they REALLY needed to find actors up to Lost's usual standards.

Do you not know who Allison Janney is? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005049/awards

I'd say a 16 time award winning actress is up to their standards.

Whoa, nope, didn't know who she was. I guess it was just this individual performance that somehow rubbed me the wrong way, I can't really say what it was exactly. For whatever reason I just didn't buy her as the island's protector or as an authority figure.

 

[RoJoHen]

For whatever reason I just didn't buy her as the island's protector or as an authority figure.

I don't think we were supposed to. I'm pretty sure we were supposed to question why she was the protector at all considering she seems to be a nutjob.

 

[Capn Flukie]

The Island of Misfit Toys needs a protector.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I had to watch this twice since after the first viewing I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Once again, I have to say good but just good isn't good enough for what I've come to expect out of LOST. It is an Above Average episode definitely but like most of this season I can't help but feel that it should be so much more.

This was the Last Great Tease for the series--taking us almost all the way there but pulling back and withholding the few remaining questions for presumably the big series finale.

We got some gaps filled in and questions answered giving us a better understanding of the Jacob/Man in Black relationship.
We learned the significance of the backgammon game, the stones found in the pouch in the cave, who built the wheel from the season four finale, learned why he needed Ben to kill Jacob, got a tad bit better idea of how he became a smoke monster(I'll reserve judgment on how I feel about this until the series ends but for now I'm leaning towards not being too impressed by how it occurred), that we still haven't gotten to the top of the food chain in terms of the force guiding all this since this episode showed Jacob and Smokey were pawns themselves(guess we'll meet the Force hopefully over the next 3 episodes unless the island/Source itself is it and not the original inhabitants), who dug the wells which nicely shines new light on how Smokey knew so much about them to tell Desmond a few episodes back, learned where the term Others came from, learned who Adam and Eve(did like the show used old scenes to refresh the audience's memories of that scene from season one with Jack/Kate/Locke in the cave) were--again not a knock your socks off revelation worth waiting 6 years for but it provided a nicely poignant moment but Jacob has to realize at a later date that his brother's soul is the smoke monster--this could suggest that what Locke saw all the way back in season one sincehe described it as the most beautiful thing he ever saw wasn't Smokey or it might even have been the Light Source entrance.

The Light Source--hmmm--what do I have to say about that. I know the writers were going for a wondrous spectacle but it didn't quite get there for me. And I hope it doesn't turn out the secret of the island and why everyone is sacrificing everything including loved ones is because of some feel good spiritual mumbo jumbo about it being the source of all goodness in creation. I don't think I'd be crazy about that.

The episode seemed not to go out of its way to provide Big Shocking "Wow-worthy" revelations--it mainly felt like it was there to answer questions we had but in very low-key mundane ways--which isn't a necessary criticism--so that's why I wanted to watch it a second time through that lens without expecting which used to be standard for LOST more satisfying neat revelations. So then you are left with a character story. Does it work? Answer--reasonably well but nothing groundbreaking.

I wasn't particularly impressed by Allison Janney. We didn't really learn much about his people. Still would like to find out about the people who built everything on the island, like for Dharmo/Hanso to com back into the story asap. When do the Others come into play chronologically on the island. How did Widmore find the island. Why was he bidding on Black Rock Journal? Is Widmore working with Jacob? I did enjoy the scene where we learn about how the wheel came to be but I'm curious about how he knew all that. I liked the way the reveal of wheel was executed with the beam of brilliant light falling on it when MIB removed the rock.

The way Jacob became the Protector and immortal was a bit bargain basement but maybe they'll be more to it--we'll see.

Above average. I always find with LOST a little time let's me appreciate it more once I really get to step back and just take it all in.

 

[DarthPipes]

Wish we could have seen MIB interact with the villagers.

Detail...when Dead Mom visits MIB and says to follow him, you can see spit flying out of her mouth.

 

[auntiehill]

Damn it, what is that dude's name!

 

[RoJoHen]

I am calling him Voldemort until someone decides to give him a name.