:::A Way Too Long Post About 'Across the Sea':::

I know everyone has been waiting for it, so here is my reaction to last week's episode of Lost --

Well, there you go.

It tried to have the gravitas of Ab Aeterno, but didn't quite get there.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love, love it.

I did love Allison Janney. Oh, CJ.

Child actors make things...difficult.


-- I laughed out loud when baby Jacob was born and he came out mugging for the camera. Hilarious.

-- I do think it's interesting that all young Smokey wanted was the ability to make his own choices, and now present Jacob is all about letting people make their own decisions. However, regardless of this, they are still both manipulators. Yeah, I do think Jacob is a manipulator. It breaks my heart to say it.

-- Jacob. Wow. So disappointing. So mamby pamby. So naive. So dim-witted. You might even call him weak. What the heck was up with that?! Play the man, Jacob!



-- I didn't think the light looked cheesy. I liked it. I really wanted someone to throw some random things down there just to see what would happen. What do you think is producing the light? I think it's one thousand little Hobbits with wee bitty flashlights.

-- The Source and the pool at the temple must be part of the same system.

-- Hey, maybe there's not something down there, but someone (besides the Hobbits with flashlights).

-- If the light is so good, why can't they go down there? Is it a timing or authority issue, like it was with the fruit in the Garden of Eden? How can something that makes you feel warm bring about a fate worse than death?

Or maybe Mother is lying.

Or maybe (probably) she's off her Lithium.


-- The most interesting subtext I saw during the episode was the tension between knowledge and experience vs. naivete and innocence (paging William Blake...). You can't stay in the Garden forever. Life with Mother wasn't going anywhere but straight to Crazy Town, Kathy Bates style.

-- Best line of the episode: "Jacob, everything dies!"

-- I enjoyed the break from the regular characters last week. I'm not really into the war games going on between Flocke, Widmore, and Jack and his posse. So much time wasted on their tactical maneuvering, it's real a shame.

-- In my opinion, Rose and Bernard have the right idea -- go off on your own and let everyone else play this 'game', or whatever it is that's going on. I do believe that the island only has as much power over you as you give it. I do believe that you can remove yourself from the arena, so to speak. It's like a Chinese finger trap -- as soon as you stop struggling, you're free.

-- From ABC's recap of the episode in reference to Mother's death, "There's no shock, no pain."

-- Remember when Ben was confronting Jacob in The Incident? It's seemed so rude that Jacob would say, 'What about you?', but now I'm wondering if Jacob might have wanted Ben to finish him off. I mean, it wasn't his first choice, but a turn of events made it unavoidable so he just decided to go with it. Kind of like Mother did.


And now, to wrap up my musings on 'Across the Sea', here are some general life lessons --

1. You never give Crazy any details
2. You never give Crazy any explanations
3. You never, ever let Crazy say goodbye!!!

For reals, dude? Are you that dumb? I don't care if she is your fake momma, you never let Crazy say goodbye!



If you care to, here are some quotes from a great review by Doc Jensen with EW:


"I do think becoming The Island's vanguard is a choice. I'm beginning to suspect that Fake Locke was right about at least one thing: The Island doesn't demand a guardian. It may seem like it needs one — but there's no charter that requires one."

"...the history of human catastrophe on The Island is comprised of eras of dogmatic, abusive interpretation run amok."

"I think many fans have assumed that ''the rules'' exist as external truths that regulate all life on The Island, mortal or immortal, human or god-like. And maybe some of them are. I think fans have assumed that The Island possesses an orderly if complex internal logic that can be puzzled out. And to some degree, maybe it does. But I think Lost was telling us something when they had Jacob and Boy In Black arguing over the proper way to play Senet. BIB said: ''One day, you can make up your own game and everyone else will have to follow your rules.'' (BIB took delight in his power... but in that moment, I was reminded of the scene in ''The Substitute,'' when Ghost Jacob stood over Fake Locke and reminded him of the rules of his game, and Fake Locke raged: ''Don't tell me what I can't do!'' Turnabout's a bitch, ain't it, Nameless?)"

"The rules are, for the most part, pure whimsy — an expression of the unique interests and will of The Island's guardian. They are arbitrary inventions of The Island's custodian. And I suspect he or she can reinvent them any time he or she wants."

"Jacob's touchy-feeling tampering and his idealistic redemption schemes have undermined castaway free will and kept them alive longer than what is right and proper. Seen from this point of view, MIB's assassinations are more like mercy killings and affirmations of the natural order of things. I'm not excusing MIB's actions. But if my assessment of Jacob is correct, I think MIB's critique is valid."

"And with his fire and his iron and his tools and his science, he found one, hidden behind an old stone wall. Was this a valid access point to the ''light under The Island'' — or was it unsanctioned and dangerous short cut? After suffering through the nose bleeds and time travel death of season 5, I would say the latter."

"Then, in a sequence not shown to us, the Man In Black's frail and aging mother apparently threw her strapping adult son over her shoulder, carried him up a ladder, killed all the Roman Others, then filled in the donkey wheel well with rocks. Now, just how the hell did she accomplish that trick? Maybe super-strength is part of the Island guardian package. But is it possible Mother was something of a smoke monster, too?"

"I think she always saw her boys as a means to an end; she just didn't know which one was going to play which part. I truly believe she wanted one of them to become The Island's guardian — but I also think she wanted one of them to put her out of her misery."