Lost: "Across the Sea"

Cain and Abel complex much?

"Across the Sea" - probably the greatest lore flashback "Lost" has ever produced, took us back to tell the strikingly complex origin story of both Jacob and his twin brother that no one planned on; of course, it should be no surprise to anyone that the moment where we thought we could tie the MIB up in a nice little bow and label him "evil incarnate," in typical Lost fashion, we are presented with the other side. Not to say that the creature that emerged from the golden cave of wonders isn't the sum of all evil, but the nameless and "special" brother that creature would eventually take the guise of was far from evil. Tragically, his "Adam and Eve" fate was just another in what was probably an already long line of sinister betrayals and literal backstabbing that make up the core of  the island's story. From god's to men, this place seems to bring out the worst.

Mother

• In the Claire vein of creepy, "Mother" (or "Eve") was the ancient soul that had been entrusted with the protection of not only the island, but more specifically the life/death/time-bending golden power that makes up it's core. Protecting this energy from man at large is so important that Mother's morality dictates it necessary to not only crash a ship (killing people), and isolate and murder a pregnant woman after taking her kids.
• The key question is why? This WHY is the center of most all conflict in Lost, and her two "sons" not only embody, but are the archetypal figures and thematic forebearers of every conflict that comes after. For Mother there are two apparent reasons - one quasi-noble and one selfish:

1. The noble reason can be based in the John Stuart Mill school of Utilitarianism, which dictates that the the most morally correct action is an action that benefits that greatest amount of people. So, murdering a mother for her children may seem sinister and evil, but raising a successor to watch over a golden light that, if extinguished, would extinguish all the light in the world is deemed morally correct because raising that one future protector benefits billions of people.
2. The selfish reason is that she simply wanted to orchestrate her own freedom from the island: death. Trapped for however many ages, the entity summons a pregnant mother in hopes to raise her child as her successor, while hoping to use either him or his brother a means to facilitate her own demise (since she presumably could not kill herself). After enraging the MIB enough, she thanks him upon receiving a knife in her back. This is the more sinister of the reasons, as Mother commits small-scale genocide (with a power left unseen- Smokey?), to further isolate and enrage the MIB enough so that she can die. These entities obviously don't value all lives as equal, as Jacob has clearly followed in his mother's footsteps in almost every way (crashing ships), including his own knifey escape from the land of the living. 

• The answer to the why is that like Jacob and the MIB, it's probably a lot of both. You get the feeling that Mother wishes that Jacob and the MIB were that perfect mixture of each, most notably from the scene where she tells Jacob that she loves each boy for their own reasons (rather than equally) when Jacob calls her out for appearing to like the MIB more. Truthfully, she probably did, as Mother was more noticeably open and "human-like" around the MIB, as his traits probably reminded her of the humanity she had lost so long before. It also made the MIB vulnerable to be the instrument of Mother's demise, while Jacob was being groomed to care-take.

 Twin "B": MIB

• The big shocker of the episode was that the MIB was Jacob's unlucky unplanned fraternal twin whom remained unnamed because his mother wasn't prepared. Yet, if you were expecting him to be dastardly evil from the get-go, you would be wrong, as actually he was a pretty likable kid and man. 
• The MIB plays the ancestral role that would later be famously filled by Jack as the "Man of Science." Of course, science was just getting off the ground in the ancient island times, but the MIB was at the forefront. As a kid, he was the rationalist and empiricist of the two twins, constantly questioning his "Mother" and his duty to her and the island, and even what lies beyond. He is the only one of the twins that takes affront to Mother's actions, and won't be part of her schemes. I actually felt pretty bad for the guy, as (like Jack) he exhibited the legitimate frustration of not having a choice - not having free will over his own life or circumstances.
• We also come to find out that the MIB also originally had a gift that has shown up a lot in Lost lore: seeing dead people. Jacob isn't able to see their murdered mother, Claudia, but perhaps that is the point. Following the line of thought that the two boys were means to Mother's end, what if Mother took the guise of Claudia, but selectively revealed herself to only the MIB; knowing the child's character and his probable reaction, her revelation to the MIB sets off a series of events that would divide and isolate the two boys in their respective worlds, and eventually trick the MIB into killing her.
• The MIB proves himself to be an apt scientist, as he figures out the alternate route to the hidden golden power (it's starting to sound like the Tri-Force), by digging wells over pockets of unique energy. Not only that, but the MIB reasons out the properties of the energy and engineers the now-famous donkey wheel to shoot himself across the sea. Mother couldn't have her "special" son leaving the island (before he could kill her), so she goes to her "sorry, but I have to rage on you" place and smashes the MIB into unconsciousness. When he awakes, the well is destroyed and his own "means to an end" folk are slain. Big question: does he eventually re-dig the well and finish the wheel?

Jacob

• Jacob was the A-twin that always felt like "Twin B." His mother didn't seem to relate to him and his pure faith-driven and goody-goody nature, even though he did everything that she seemed to preach and want (he learned how to weave for Eve's-sake). Ultimately, he was the chosen one because he was truly the only one blindly good enough for the job. Yet for all his positive qualities, Jacob still comes off like one of those sheltered home-schooled kids. 
• Jacob, essentially, is the forebear for the original J-Locke; that is, he is purely faith and duty-driven to protecting the island. To me the development of Jack in the final season is sort of that perfect balance that has been absent from the island, and that the key to the endgame will be for the good doctor to reconcile these two conflicting Man of Science/Man of Faith shticks that were started by the two fraternal twins. 
• Jacob also has quite the mean streak, lashing out at his twin brother after the MIB murdered Mother, and knowingly condemning him to a "fate worse than death." 

Smokey's Origin

• The biggest room for debate is how to interpret the birth of Smokey. Like Christian and John Locke, Smokey assumes the guise of the MIB after his corporeal body is destroyed. Are we then to believe that like Fake-Locke now, the MIB in "Ab Aeterno" is Fake-MIB. It could be that upon being unleashed, Smokey latches onto the freshly dead body of a chosen and downloads all his memories, thus also downloading some of the MIBs mannerisms as well (like the infamous, "Don't tell me what I can't do (ghostboy)!). Why would the non-evil body of the MIB spawn an evil entity? More precisely: why would the golden power create the smoke monster?
• Or, is Smokey the soul of the MIB that is ripped out of his corporeal body and solely bent on revenge against his Mother and the caretaker of her ideals, Jacob, for condemning him to a fate worse than death (literally unable to die EVER). When and why does Smokey lose his first MIB avatar?

A ton of noodle-cookers in this one. I really hope it turns out to be Jack donning a green hat and finding pieces of tri-force - it's been so long since I have had Zelda in my life. 

Lost: "The Incident"

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Thanks to babelfish translations, Ricardo Alpert tells Illana, "He that will save us."

...

Long ago when I first saw the line of ash and then the cabin for the first time, I postulated that perhaps the island was an eternal prison for an evil being, or Jacob. The extreme version of this story would be the Lucifer one; the island was the place on Earth that the fallen angel Lucifer fell when he was cast out of Heaven.

In "The Incident," we got a new twist in the war between good and evil to control fate. It has long been established in Lost that there seemed to be two dueling sides vying for the island, and thus perhaps the world. Was it the Others vs. Dharma? Widmore vs. Ben?

Apparently this duel, this time loop has been in motion for much longer than any of us anticipated. Enjoying a fresh-fish taco, Jacob stares out into the Ocean and upon the incoming Black Rock and probably it's long expected cargo, Ricardo Alpert. And then he is joined by his opposite, the Man in Black.

You see, Jacob isn't the only powerful force on the island. As Locke once explained to Walt via backgammon, for every white piece - there is black. There is evil. The Man in Black (MIB lols) hates Jacob so much for his belief that humanity can be saved. All he sees out of men is their desire to control, destroy, and make war. Still, Jacob beckons more of his chosen few to the island.

For what? Well it seems that Jacob has been weaving a tapestry in the shadow of the statue; literally though, it seems the man in white has been carefully weaving certain events and people together. Jacob travels the world touching lost souls at their exact time of need, thus binding them to the island so that they may enact free will within the waves of time and change themselves, and maybe change the final outcome: humanity's destruction by their own hands.

The MIB despises humanity, for he knows how this every loop ends in men destroying themselves. More importantly, he despises Jacob for his faith that men can break the cycle of destruction through their choices, through the illusion of free will. How many times has Jacob done his little experiments with incorrigible men? The MIB is sick of it. Endless loops - endless times having to go down to the wheel and reset it all before everything is destroyed.

"It can end only once. Everything up to that point is progress."

Progress? An eternity of living multiple lifetimes, watching the same events unfold. All the while Jacob weaves his timeline tapestry, ferrying his chosen saved to the island, while the MIB is forced to feed on the damned. A thousand lifetimes, and all MIB wants to do now is end it:

"You know how much I want to kill you right now?"

Ah, but there is a catch. It seems these two opposing demi-gods cannot directly slay each other. Disgusted, MIB returns into the jungle - returns to his cabin. His hatred festers. He begins to actively plot, so much so that Jacob is forced to bind him behind a wall of white ash so that he cannot spread his influence and discord.

"I will find a loophole."

...

The big revelation in Season 5's finale was that Darth Locke (as I have come to call him) actually is way more Darthy then we thought. In fact, he isn't even John Locke at all. It seems the Man in Black finally found his loophole. I am sure we will eventually find out how the MIB broke free of his cabin bondage - how the ash turned black. The important part is that he is free. Ben is just some sort of apprentice-level manipulator compared to his new master, easily falling under Darth Locke's spell and becoming the loophole by finally killing Jacob.

Yet the MIB should have known. Things seemed a little off when Ben told him that his dead daughter appeared to him and made him promise to do exactly what Darth Locke said. He was surprised - could it really be that easy? The MIB didn't even have to convince Ben to kill Jacob.

"They are coming."

From his dying lips, he sputtered the last words to his nemesis. Checkmate. Everything finally ended for Jacob; yet the chosen - the destined - were about to be summoned via an atomic bomb.

Jack the Shepherd and his tribe are coming.

Jacob had planned for this all along. He had been there in all their lives, touching them, binding them to the island and weaving their fates together. They were his ultimate end game in case the MIB had ever found his loophole. Disgusted by this realization, Darth Locke scowls and kicks Jacob's body into the fire.

...

Some people I have talked to said they were pretty upset that we didn't get our answer on whether or not Jack changed the future.

I think that we did though. I believe Faraday was ultimately right before that whatever happened, happened. Like Miles said, the castaways probably are the ones that caused the incident in the first place, because they had to. Akin to what happened to Desmond after the hatch imploded, I think through Jacob's grace (and Juliette exerting her free will), the castaways will be transported back to the present so that Jack and Locke (well the MIB) can have their ultimate showdown.

You see, I think the swerve is that the real game-changing "incident" wasn't in 1977. I believe the real incident was when the MIB finally broke the cycle and killed Jacob. Everything after that point is going to be different. It's funny, because it seemed destined from season 1 that Jack and Locke would ultimately be the driving opposing forces in Lost's conclusion. Locke the man of destiny against Jack the man of science.

Yet the real Locke is gone. Dead is dead. It sort of sucks, because you felt like the new Locke was a BAMF, that he had finally realized his potential. The only caveat to him maybe being REALLY dead is that Jacob not only touched him, but brought him back to life; we'll see.

No the real people of destiny appears to have been Kate, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Hurly with Jack probably assuming the leadership role of a lifetime.

Jacob's death has signaled the end of the eternal backgammon game with the MIB, as well as the end of the time loops. Lost can and will end only once. The tapestry is complete (can't wait to see the finished product) and Jacob's hand picked team will either exert free will and make the right choices that will save themselves and the world, or they fail before the MIB's hatred of humanity.

So how do you think it will end? Was Jack the destined one all along? Will Ben become Sith-apprentice to his new (or maybe destined) master? Is the real Locke truly gone forever? Is the monster and the MIB one and the same?

There is a war coming.