Let's just get this out of the way: I did not enjoy last night's episode. After the insanity that was "The Candidate", this just seemed like a poor follow up. It's not that I was expecting explosions and non-stop action, I knew what the episode was about going in, I just felt it was executed poorly. To begin with: Allison Janney? Really? I love Allison Janney on the West Wing. I loved her in Drop Dead Gorgeous. I think she's a great actress. But not for this role. She completely took me out of it.
Allison played the fake mother to our Jacob and Smokey. She had been living alone on The Island for, what I assume are many many years when a pregnant woman washed ashore. Allison brought her back to her camp and helped her birth her two children. The first born, Jacob, was named by his birth mother. Smokey was a surprise and the mother was not prepared to name a second child, so she didn't. Allison saw the opportunity to have these heirs to her title of Island Protector and promptly smashed their birth mother in the head with a rock.
She raised the two boys to believe there is nothing beyond The Island and to fear any other people that might show up. She tells Smokey he is very special, but doesn't say why. While chasing a boar through the jungle one day, the boys stumbled upon other people. A group of men, They hid and watched as the men killed the boar. They ran back to tell Allison. She decided it was time to tell them the "truth". She brought them, blindfolded, to a mysterious cavern on The Island. On the way, she tells them that they are meant to be there and that the people will hurt them. She tells them she has made it so Jacob and Smokey can never hurt each other. They get to the cavern, It is surrounded by a pool of water. Inside it glowed bright yellow. She called it The Light. And there was a piece of the Light in every man. But most men are evil and want more Light than they can have. So she has to protect it. And now, so do the boys. The men on The Island will try to get to The Light and take it and if they do, very bad things will happen.
At one point, young Smokey (he hasn't actually become Smokey yet, but since he doesn't have a name, I have nothing to call him but Smokey) stumbles upon a game on the beach. It is a box with squares on it. Inside are black and white rocks. He shows it to Jacob and they begin to play. Jacob says Smokey is making up the rules. He says he just knows what they are because he is special. While playing, Smokey sees a woman. He gets up to follow her. She leads him to the other side of The Island where the men who killed the boar live. She tells him that she is his mother and that Allison killed her after she gave birth. She tells him that the people at the camp are his people and he belongs with them. He asks her why Jacob can't see her and she says it's because she is dead. Smokey takes that explanation as is and decides to leave Jacob and Allison and join his people. He tries to get Jacob to come along with him, but Jacob doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to hear bad things about Allison and starts to beat up Smokey. Allison breaks them up and begs Smokey not to leave, but he still does.
Flash forward 30 years later. Smokey is still living amongst his people on The Island trying to find a way off of it. Jacob is still living with his fake mother. They meet regularly to play their game of Backgammon. Smokey tells Jacob he's found a way to leave. Jacob, who is now the whiniest 30 something I've ever seen, still believes there is nothing beyond The Island and that he has to protect the glowing cave of Light. He runs home to tell Allison the Smokey is getting off The Island. He cries to her about she always loved Smokey more. She says that's not true, then runs off to find Smokey. She finds him in a well. The same well the holds - what will become - the Frozen Donkey Wheel. The FDW is not yet complete or frozen. But Smokey has somehow figured out, with the help of his people, that if he creates some sort of friction with The Light, it will transport him out of there. He said he has been searching for The Light and has ran all over The Island but could not find it. That is when he decided to go underneath The Island and that is when he found it and now he is going to leave. She goes to give him one last hug goodbye and then smashes his head against the wall. He passes out.
She runs to Jacob and tells him it's time. She brings him back to The Light and tells him it's now his turn to be The Island Protector. He tells her he doesn't want to, but she says he has no choice. She pulls out a bottle of "wine" and pours a glass. This is the same bottle Jacob has Richard drink from much later. She tells Jacob to drink from the glass. She tells him to never enter The Light. He asks if he will die if he does? She said no, but he will become something much worse than dead. He drinks from the glass. She says they are now one.
Jacob runs off to get firewood for the night and Allison heads back to camp. Smokey sneaks up on her and stabs her from behind. She says she's sorry and then she thanks him for killing her.
Jacob returns and freaks out. He attacks Smokey and drags him back to The Light. They fight and Jacob tosses him in the water. Smokey floats down stream and right into The Light. Then it gets quiet. Then it gets loud and out of The Light shoots the actual Smoke Monster - clicks, clacks, flashing lights and all. It shoots past Jacob and into the sky. Jacob pees his pants. Well, not really. But I bet he did. He's just so whiney.
On his way back to camp, he sees brother Smokey' s body in the trees, dead. He feels terrible and carries him back to camp. He places Smokey's body in the cave along with Allison's. He puts the black and white rocks from the game into a bag and places it into her hand. And now we know the origin of our Adam and Eve. And, just in case we completely forgot about this particular mystery, The Powers That Be decided to shove it in our face by cutting this scene with the scene from the first season where Jack and the gang discover the bodies. What they didn't show is Jack estimating the bodies to be at least 50 years old. A bit off there. Which brings me to the end of the episode and another question/issue I have with this particular episode: When the hell was it? There was zero reference to time in this episode and it really through me off, along with many other aspects. Let's take a look at those.
1. A clue as to the time period this episode landed in would have been helpful.
One thing of note is that there wasn't a single shot of the statue. Or any Egyptian like items anywhere. Yet, in modern times, we have this humongous statue with hieroglyphics lining the inside. We have the Temple with hieroglyphics inside. When did they get here? I have a theory about that, and I'll get to it soon.
2. Suddenly everyone speaks English.
I was completely taken out of this episode right from the start when out of nowhere Allison and Birth Mother switched to English. It made no sense. I tried to throw up some theory about how the mix Allison was making in the bowl and fed to Birth Mother is the same mix Locke gave to Boone and it made him hallucinate back in season 1 and that maybe it also made it so Birth Mother could speak English, but that was just me grasping at straws to try to make some sense of it. This show spent a whole episode just a few episodes ago entirely in Spanish. Subtitles are obviously not an issue. Why the change of heart?
3. Lowest Common Denominator
From the switching to English to that final cut scene, it really felt that the writers decided they had to cater to the lowest common denominator who watches the show. Why they felt, just three episodes from the end, that now is the time to do that, I'll never know. Everything was spoken so slowly and plainly (and in English). Shoving the "This is Adam and Eve!!!!OMG!!!!11111" scene in at the end just made me feel stupid. We all knew that. We figured that out. Hell, you just had a scene not a couple of episodes ago where Hurley was talking about them, so they were fresh in our minds. Why did they feel the need to shove it down our throats? It was like they were trying to prove a point about how they had it planned all along, even though there are inconsistencies with that story and they could have made Adam and Eve anyone and fit it into the story line at any point.
4. Smokey Is Evil. Don't Forget.
Last episode they made it very VERY clear that Smokey is an asshole. So, why this sudden turn around where they make you feel sorry for him? I suppose we are to say that Smokey is not Jacob's brother, he just lived in his form until recently when he took Locke's body. Sure, okay. I buy it. BUT, Jacob seems to communicate with him/it as his brother. And if Smokey is not actually his brother, but just looks like him, why couldn't Smokey just kill Jacob? Allison only made it so Jacob and his brother couldn't kill each other. So you'd think Smokey could do what it wanted.
AND, on a similar subject, we have always been told Dead is Dead. And just a few episodes ago, UnLocke/Smokey told Jack that he is the one who has appeared as all the walking/talking dead people on the show. Yet, this episode made it seem that Smokey had been trapped in that cave until Jacob went and screwed it up. So, how was it that Birth Mother appeared to Jacob's brother? That just doesn't make sense. Unless it's just that Jacob's brother is special like how Hurley is special. That I can also buy.
5. Jacob
Apparently Jacob is some stunted man child. Some 40 year old dork who would be equal to some freak who has lived in his mother's basement all his life. What an idiot. They basically made him just slightly above retarded. He was Forrest Gump. He is a disappointment.
Question and Theory Time!
With only 3 hours left of Lost, one would believe that theories one might have would be correct. The show has given us so much already that we should be piecing it all together and these final hours will just exist to wrap it all up. But, somehow, I know this is not so. But let's try it anyway.
1. Babies
Is it possible that, due to the tragedy that befell their birth mother, that Jacob and Smokey have somehow made it impossible for women to give birth on The Island. Maybe they are concerned for the innocence of life - after what happened to them - and would not want to be tempted into taking those babies and making them their new heirs to The Island Protector throne. Maybe that's why Jacob keeps bringing other people to The Island to test them. But, I guess that wouldn't explain why he enters the lives of Kate and Sawyer when they are children.
2. Smokey's origins
It would seem that Smokey was unleashed when Jacob threw his brother into the cave. Allison seemed to know that something like this would happen. Why and How? Could it be that by throwing his brother into The Light while he was filled with anger it made Smokey evil? Is Smokey all the evilness of a soul? Obviously the Dark to The Light. The judgement center. The Light is maybe the belief in everyone's goodness, while Smokey is a judger who believes everyone has evil inside them that is stronger than The Light. And when Jacob and his NotBrother are sitting on the beach discussing their plans, that Jacob brings people to The Island to prove they are good and Smokey just proves that Jacob is wrong. Maybe Jacob needs to find a truly good soul because that will be what it takes to get rid of Smokey. And maybe that good soul is Desmond? Maybe Desmond can send Smokey back to The Light and then Jacob can finally hand the reigns of Protector over to Jack?
Also, who killed all those men from the Birth Mother's ship. It certainly looked like the job of Smokey. But if Smokey was locked away, then who did it? Was it really Allison? Is she that superhuman?
3. The Candidates
When Birth Mother first bore Jacob, Allison didn't seem too interested. But when the second one came, that was when something seemed to click. Could it be that not just one Candidate is needed, but two? One to take over the Protector role, and one to kill the former Protector? I don't know what the point of that would be, but it seems this show is all about pairs. Maybe Jacob wanted Walt and Aaron. Maybe that's why they don't mean anything anymore because they are no longer together. Maybe that's why there was Ben AND Richard. Jack AND Locke.
4. Time Travel/Egyptian References
So, as I said, my big beef with the episode was not having an established time frame to view it in. The only clue I could think of was the well. So let's start there.
-When Locke descended into the well to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel, it was during the The Island's time skipping days. It was fully formed and open. The Orchid Station was built, so we can assume it was post - Dharma. So sometime between the late 1970s and present day.
-During his descent, time shifts, and the well disappears completely. It's just ground. Sawyer is left holding a rope that is attached to the ground. After last night's episode, this would make me believe that they had skipped to a time pre-Jacob's Island birth.
-Then time shifts again. This time there is a well, but it is filled in with dirt. This makes me believe that they have shifted to a time post-Jacob becoming Island Protector, but pre-Dharma. We also see the fully formed statue for the first time.
So, What does it all mean? How the hell should I know? What I think happened is that at some point after Smokey is unleashed, someone gets that Frozen Donkey Wheel together and turns it. This causes The Island to begin its time travel. Maybe at some point it travels and lands somewhere near Egypt in ancient Egyptian times and they inhabit The Island and find it to be a sacred place. They live there and build statues and temples and then it flashes in time again and ends up somewhere else. Eventually, at some other point, someone had to go down and turn the FDW again to stop the time from skipping. And maybe at this point, they also froze it. Maybe that's when Jacob left The Island to go recruit Candidates. Because, how else does Jacob get on and off The Island?
I know in a recent post I couldn't come up with very many unanswered questions, but when you really start to think about it, there are so many left. But last night's episode did answer some of my requests:
1. Adam and Eve
2. Kind of answered what the Smoke Monster is
3. What Jacob is (but why did he turn to ash when he died? Wait. I know! Because his body is so old that that is all that is left!)
So, for now, I am going to rest with the notion that this will all make sense. Looking back on the final episodes of last season, I was so disappointed with the second to last episode that I almost quit the show. But the finale blew my mind.
I hope that happens again.
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