Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.
For those just tuning in, I’ve been on this soap box before. But this is the writer’s telling all you answer checklist people that it’s a fools game, answers are never totally satisfying, much like the little bit of light in each of us is never enough, we’re a greedy species… we always want more.
That said, this episode wasn’t absent a midichlorian moment (or or the Matrix peeps a speech from the Architect.) But it wasn’t too heavy handed and, for me, it complemented nicely with other ‘island’ explanations. So again, Jon is happy!
Some things I see buzzing around on the twitter, that I feel a need to give my overbearing perspective about. So I’ll try to keep it brief, with luck you should be finished by next Tuesday. (just kidding, I’m no Doc Jensen)
I heard rumor that Carlton Cuse said in an interview that Across the Sea people will get answers LOST style, and I can’t argue with that. The thing about LOST answers though is that LOTS of people like to argue about the answers, so what follows is my perspective, and you can disagree, yell at me, unfollow me, use the F-word (grants Amy permission for a limited time) with my name as the object. It’s all fine. So hold on.
Say my name, say my name
Oft repeated throughout the episode during the in episode chat. Everyone was hoping to catch MiB’s name. Upon rewatch this snippet from my hail of bullets is just too funny not to promote to the top.
- The Latin to English transition was accompanied by the ‘pound on the podium’ bell, and the first English words were: That’s a lovely name. <—Bahahahahahah!
Yeah, we didn’t get an overt reference of the mom of teh crazee, nor of brother in black. But John Locke, the keeper of all LOST knowledge, granted them their names way back in House of the Rising Sun (which is now my FAVORITE episode title! I KNOW, right?!) when we flashed back into the cave scene where Jack found the black and white rocks. So for simplicity, I’m calling Jacob’s brother Adam and Jacob’s mother Eve.
And before you start complaining about biblical naming references, I’ll break the chain right here, these people aren’t modeled after the bible peeps, Jacob was second born, and came out grasping Esau’s (who was red, not white or black) heel. So banish the bible banter.
When the teacher pounds the podium, take note, it’s on the test.
one last little rant on the answers conundrum (for now), I’m a little irkified about the gentle chime that we’re supposed to pay attention to when an answer is dropped. I’m not a fan of the answer by exposition, but I understand the necessity at this point, but I still think the teacher’s is cutting the dumb kids a break when the podium gets pounded. Yeah yeah, I hear it all the time. ;)
Everything I learned about life I learned from my mother
But she didn’t grow up all alone on an island, she had a big family with two parents and five brothers and sisters. Add into that the echo from the Bible where God told us about the first “not good” thing in creation. It is not good for man to be alone. Probably not good for a woman to be alone either. We can go track down the lineage of Jacob’s adopted mother, and assume that her lineage is the same as Jacob, that he and his brother are really products of man. The same man that she describes with the dark cynicism that was breathed by smokey on the beach with Jacob, they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. Yet on the other hand a staunch defender of the source of inner light that is part of all men. Her philosophy is steeped in what I as a man of Christian faith see as the struggle of the flesh versus the spiritual. It’s a struggle that we see in our world sometimes as a withdrawl from the world so that we can be kept clear of it’s harmful influences. Yet we are called to be in the world, just not of the world. It’s a constant struggle in each of us, to see the light within people, but to also be repulsed by people’s dark sides.
It takes a village or at least a brother
Say what you will about crazy mother, but it was a blessing for her little family to have two sons (one tending towards material knowledge and the other that tended towards looking out at the ocean a bit) to play a balance against each other. She also allowed for their continued communication after Adam had his teenage rebellion and left the clan that lived in the house of the rising sun. But let’s frame this a bit finer, Adam was an answer seeker, he didn’t dwell in what John Yeats reckoned as negative capability, “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteryies, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. *” In fact, he was always a bit irritable in his answer seeking conquest, sure that if he couldn’t find it on the island he could find it somewhere. But he missed his mother’s wisdom (that Jacob seemed fine to dwell in) that every Answer would only lead to more questions. That is the futility and joy of knowledge seeking, it’s in exhaustible, but worthless in the end.
It’s the cork stupid
The simple conceit of the entire series is the cork in the bottle. The island sits atop it’s electromagnetic source of life, death and rebirth. Magnetism has polar opposites where energy flows from positive to negative in a loopity loop. Light (and electromagnetic wave/ray) can only be sensed when it’s opposite is present. Regeneration produces light as a byproduct of it’s process (i.e. the Sun). The island holds in this light, this source, that all humans have a bit of and, as a result of their greed only want more. To release that source, to uncork the bottle, to open pandora’s box, that would be bad, so the island needs a protector, to keep the balance intact. Or does it… That’s the question for the next two and a halff hours of LOST, and the answer… well it will only lead to more questions, like:
Zomg Smokey is Jacob’s brother, how does that work?
Sorry, through my LOST baked eyes, I don’t see the smokey darkness as Jacob’s brother, but just another victim of the malfeasance that the island keeps a cap on. Jacob messed up by tossing his brother down that well, releasing the darkness to do it’s bidding, and claim it’s first vicitm, Jacob’s brother. Jacob’s nameless brother is dead. Jacob’s mother is dead. It has always been Jacob’s job to keep the cork in the island. To the smokey darkness, Jacob’s brother, Christian Shephard, John Locke are all pawns to use in his game of light and dark. To remove all of his opponents pieces from the board, win the game and sink the island. So, for me, I’m fine with marking Jacob and his brother as both flawed humans, both prone to making mistakes, one a man of science, one a man of faith. Just like John and Jack played in the early days. And no… it’s never been easy. I’m gonna have to spend some more time just looking out across the sea.
Namaste.
