Lost 6x15: "Across the Sea"

[Brent]

and we know who put the Donkey Wheel there now.

No we don't.

The MIB never got a chance to build his Donkey Wheel contraption. His mom knocked him out and caved in the well and killed all of the remaining villagers before the donkey wheel could be built.

Someone else had to come along after and re-dig the well and build the contraption.

Maybe the MIB helped them do this, but we don't know for sure that he did and we don't know who it was that did the actual work.

What is also weird is that later on we see that the MIB hated jacob for bringing people to the Island, yet from this episode it appears that it should be jacob (like his mom) who would want to keep people away from the island to protect it since they are all "evil". And it would be the MIB who would want people to come to the island to help him (and re-dig the well, etc...).

I wonder what happened over the years that would make Jacob want to bring people to the Island and what would make the MIB want to keep them away. Especially since it appears that the MIB needed people to get his "loophole" while all the people coming to the Island ever did was to get Jacob killed. If Jacob never brought anyone to the Island then he might have lived forever. And kept the MIB prisoner forever.

That's a big question/flaw in what we have seen so far that really should be answered. Otherwise the two big powers that have been pulling all of the Losties strings for so long have plans/goals/ideas that make no sense.

Perhaps the MIB came back, after becoming smokey, and finished building the Donkey Wheel. He certainly had plenty of time to do it.

I don't think Jacob ever agreed with his mom about the people being evil. He didnt' want to leave the island, but I don't think he exaxctly agreed with his mom either.

 

[RoJoHen]

I've fully expected all along that this was going to end with some aspects that are just not rationally explainable. The creators have said so themselves for awhile. I don't know why some people feel like Lost is cheating by doing weird shit that's not being explained. That's what the show is and always has been.

At the end of the day, I don't think we need everything explained. This show should be, first and foremost, about the characters from Flight 815. Jacob, MiB, Richard Alpert, even Ben...these characters are not what the show is about. If at the end of the series Jack doesn't know everything about the Island, there's no reason we should either.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I know they don't have to explain everything. Just give some credence to certain other things, like Walt, how electromagnetic properties can be a resource for things like astral projection, time travel, flash sideways, hurley birds, healing properties, curing cancers, male impotence, deture pregnancies, curing para palegic old men by canno cure male pattern baldness among other things

 

[Hyperspace05]

So apparently nobody actually knows what's going on. I mean, we first thought that the Others knew what the Island was all about, but then it was "No, most of them don't know anything. It's Ben who has all the answers." Then we learned that Ben was just following orders indirectly from Jacob. Now I guess it turns out that Jacob only knows what the Island is and why it needs to be protected in a very vague sense. That is, he's protecting the glowing rocks because his mother told him to, and he blindly follows, but he doesn't really know specifically what the glow is, or what would happen if the glow ran out. He's just protecting it because he was told to, sort of like Desmond pressed the button because he was told it was important but never asked any questions.

THIS. Such a frustrating episode, such a missed oppertunity. So much could have cleared up, and setup a truly epic confrontation in the finale... But NO... it is all a family drama. "Mom loved you more!"...

Not a terrible episode, but it really didn't tell us anything NEW about the island.

 

[Dream]

THIS. Such a frustrating episode, such a missed oppertunity. So much could have cleared up, and setup a truly epic confrontation in the finale... But NO... it is all a family drama. "Mom loved you more!"...

We've been waiting for six years to find out what the monster is, only to find out in this episode that it was created in a glowing cave? What the hell?

This episode was so bad that I'm going to need to rewatch Ab Aeterno, just to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

It was a decent episode, but I agree very incomplete and not great. I don't even understand what happened at the end. "Esau" goes into the hole, black smoke comes out (created?), Esau's dead body pops out. What? How the hell does a guy become a scanner-like black smoke creature?

Who the f was the Mom exactly? How did she burn down a whole village? What would happen if he left the island? How did all these silly "rules" get set up in the first place?

While it was fascinating to get the backstory of Jacob and MiB, they glossed over the stuff we REALLY wanted answers to... what is the black smoke? What is the force setting up this game and these rules and all this nonsense? Why are they protecting? How the F does this donkey wheel work? Why or how does it send people through time? Did she cast a spell with the magic wine and verses?

The worst part... JACOB HIMSELF DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE DEAL IS. Nobody does. Everybody just...... does things, because someone tells them to, without real explanation. the Others. Ben. Richard. Now Jacob.

The story behind the "monster" is... a guy went into a glowing cave and came out a smoke monster who makes mechanical noises and scans people. Huh? THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXPLAIN ANYTHING! Now I know the real reason Carlton and Damon are "going dark" after the finale.

Seriously, NONE OF THIS SHIT MAKES ANY SENSE! ARRRGH!

 

[Dream]

How disappointing to find out that Jacob is such a pussy momma's boy.

Yeah, that's the other major thing I hated about this episode.

Instead of being the mysterious man with plans that stretched for hundreds of years as implied by the conversation that he had with Richard in Ab Aeterno, they turned Jacob into a mama's boy that was forced into his duty as protector of the island.

The writers tried to show how evil MIB was since he caused deaths of almost half the cast in the previous episode. But now, for some reason, they want us to feel sorry for MIB with this episode? Not going to work.

 

[Yoda]

why do you keep calling him Cerebus? I don't get it... are you trying to call him the three-headed dog thing, and if so, isn't that Cerberus? Did I miss something?

Way back when, in season two, when the blast door inside the swan station came down and Locke saw the "invisible" writing on it there was a bunch of weird stuff and "clues" on the map that it displayed.

"Cerebus" was written on there. People got the idea (still might be true) that this was the name that the Dharma people gave the Smoke Monster since Danielle had recently called the Smoke Monster a "security system". "Cerebus" being a possible misspelling of the "Cerberus" the three headed dog that guarded the entrance to the afterlife.

Ok, I didn't realize it said that on the blast door... because I wasn't insane enough to try to read it

http://jamestomlinson.com/lostsite/images/Lost-BlastDoorMap-Enhanced.gif

But it looks like it says "Cerberus" not "Cerebus" to me, so I'll just conclude that Mr Light is nuts.

 

[Aragorn]

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

War.

 

[DeafPoet]

We've been waiting for six years to find out what the monster is, only to find out in this episode that it was created in a glowing cave? What the hell?
:

Well yeah, it's a little weird, but I'd love to know how you were expecting them to turn a regular guy into a smoke monster that scans the memories of the living and assumes the form of the dead.

You really thought there was going to be a cut and dried explanation for this? If so, I understand your frustration. I just don't think you've been watching the same show as I have.

 

[Checkmate]

We've been waiting for six years to find out what the monster is, only to find out in this episode that it was created in a glowing cave? What the hell?

Not only that, but I noticed they pretty much completely go rid of the mechanical clanking sound with the smoke monster this episode, replacing it entirely with an insectoid clicking sound.

Had it all planned out from the beginning my fat ass.

 

[Roshi]

WOW! Excellent! So many answers! Lost delivered!

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah, I always forget the proper spelling of Cerberus. I don't understand why people are saying they didn't explain the glowing cave. The Mother said there's a little bit of this light in every man and this is where it came from. So it's the source of life/souls for humanity/Earth. And they did explain the origin of Cerberus. The Mother earlier said if you went in the cave it would be a fate worse than death. When the Brother went in there he was given a fate worse than death; immortality as a blob of smoke (yet able to take the forms of the dead). His former body was spit out when the smoke shot out, that's what Jacob found in the river. He can continue to appear in that form because the original body is dead.

 

[Orac Zen]

Below average. I honestly spent most of the episode thinking how...lame it was. Sure, there were answers, but the whole thing seemed so pedestrian and dull. Jacob deciding to stick with his "mother" after everything she'd done makes him look like an idiot. They're protecting some magical light that makes people go nuts trying to get more of it (paraphrasing, I suppose, but that's what it boiled down to). The whole thing just fell completely flat for me, which isn't really what I'd expected the third-last episode of such a superior show to do. Most disappointing.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

WOW! Excellent! So many answers! Lost delivered!

Indeed. But more could be told about who the other humans were ... thinking about it now.

It's gonna be sad when it all over.

 

[propita]

I believe that when Smokey exited the Cave of Light, it wasn't so full of light anymore. That would mean that he/it IS the light--that's why he can't leave. "Taking the light will destroy it." Quasi-sense.

That said, eh. Nut!Mom says she was shipwrecked also. Nothing on whether she took over for someone else. Real!Mom was likely not going to be helpful to her, so WHACK! Nut!Mom did what she had to do to protect the Light.

"Brother" was supposed to be the next protector because he would do what he had to do, whereas Jacob seemed a bit too simple to do it. Reminded me of Good!Kirk/Bad!Kirk episode ("The Enemy Within"?), where "good" is pretty damn ineffectual.

Brother had a low opinion of humanity from his 30(!) years with them. He either got them--others who later came to the island--to help build his donkey wheel setup or was physical enough later to do it himself.

I hope we get some answers. Like, why is Jacob so intent on changing Brother's mind? Will he give up Smokey-persona and die, returning the light to the cave? If anything, he seems more pissed than ever. Oh, and nice acting job by Welliver. Still a great name, "Titus Welliver."

 

[Mr Awe]

Above average. Good solid episode. I was expecting this to be epic and it didn't reach that level. But, it was an interesting story with interesting characters. We got answers to questions. Big questions. Although they weren't as startling as I would've guessed. Like how MiB got smokey powers. Or, who the 2 bodies in the cave belonged too. Interesting to find out but not as shocking/meaningful as I had hoped. But, still good to know.

In terms of the cork/prison nature of the island. This episode shows that MiB really isn't intentionally a prisoner. The mother was more interested in protecting the island, keeping others out. But, out of love wanted to keep MiB on the island. Later on, it seems like MiB is stuck on the island more as a side effect of the island's protection than a desire to keep him on the island specifically.

Man, the mother has Lost's MO down pat! She didn't share squat with the 2 boys!!

They're obviously withholding MiB's name. Will the specific name have a ton of meaning? If it ends up just being a name from Egyptian mythology, well that won't be too shocking. Wonder if it'll be more shocking than that? Or is it a red herring?

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

Was anyone surprised that Jacob and Cerebus were literally brothers? "Ab Aeterno" gave me the impression that Jacob was an angel and Cerebus was the/a devil that he was tasked with keeping in prison. Of course it also implied that the purpose of the Island was a prison to keep evil from the world... rather than the source of all life.

I was a bit surprised. Not shocked but I wasn't thinking they were literally brothers. I thought it was possible that MiB was a prisoner or someone tasked with a job that required him to say. Instead, the purpose of the mother and Jacob is to protect the island, specifically the light from outsiders. One side effect of both this protection and the mother just not wanting MiB to leave was that he was stuck.

Mr Awe

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

fraternal twins.

 

[chrisspringob]

The obvious question now is that if Jacob's brother died then who or what is the man in black? If he isn't Jacob's brother anymore, then why do the rules still apply to him? I are confused on this point.

Smokey is Jacob's brother. Not his body, but his mind. In Ab Ataerno, he tells Richard that Jacob stole his body. In a subsequent ep, he mentions that he once had a psycho mother like Claire. It's pretty clear that Smokey and Jacob's brother are one in the same.