re: LOST "Across the Sea" S6.E15 (Jacob/MIB Centric)

The entire series has pretty much danced the "Hokey-Pokey" all over the place to explain the story lines. It has gone forward, backward and apparently sideways to explain what is going on. I think much of the disappointment that has been expressed in the explanation about the "light" or MIB's theory of the wheel to get off the island is understandable if you look at it from the point-of-view that you want it to provide detail about MIB or Jacob, however, I am holding out hope that it is laying the foundation as to why Desmond is so important to the island. His ability to survive the strong electromagnetism sources he is exposed to has to serve some purpose . . . and perhaps that purpose is to go into the cave of light and find out what is in there.

Thus, I think it is like reading the last chapter of a book and going back to find out why the characters do what they do.

I just copied and pasted this from another forum from a guy named madrileno23; to give him credit. Im gonna go with his explanation i think. Its kinda long, but well worth the read.

Jacob and MIB were not Gods or god-like. They were human. We sort of thought this, but now we have confirmation.

The island has always been the source of "life" and a balance between the forces of good and evil in the universe.

The energy of the Island, kind of like a "lifeforce" of the planet in a way, is "holy" and should never be disturbed, it is in harmony, in that the evil within is being kept neutral and at bay.

People are brought to the Island to be given a clean slate, there is always a guardian of the "lifeforce energy" and the guardian must have a successor before he/she can die.

The "evil" side of this lifeforce, which is imprisoned within the energy well source, is constantly trying to escape, because it is the very "nature of man to be evil".

We have two forces at work here, and they are two halves of the same "lifeforce".

The "Evil force" has the ability to take on the appearances of the dead on the Island. It takes on the appearance of the true mother, Claudia to manipulate the son, MIB, into its purposes to escape the prison. MIB listens to "Claudia" for 30 years and unearths another access point to the energy source, which he intended to enter, because he thought it would set him out of the Island, which is may have (tunisia?)

The "Mother" kills the real MIB, and his body is used by the "evil lifeforce" to pretend to be MIB, and he kills "Mother" and than sets up Jacob to toss MIB corpse into the Prison lifeforce well thing. This breaks the seal because "Mother" warned Jacob not to ever go down there, she said it three times, or let anyone else down there.

The "evil lifeforce" escapes the containment within the "good lifeforce" of the energy well. It appears as black smoke. The real corpse of MIB, who was killed a while ago is found by Jacob, he lays him and the "Mother" to rest.

The scales have tipped from good towards evil with evil lifeforce now free. Jacob has to contain it on the Island, as if it were ever to get off, it would spell the end of the world, it would corrupt everyone with the "claiming sickness" and engage the evils whims in their hearts.


I'm saying that the Monster existed before MIB and Jacob were born on the Island. It was trapped as part of the lifeforce. It needed to be in contact with a human, because its core belief is that "humans are corrruptible", to be set free, which explains why the "Mother" warned Jacob several times not to ever go down there.

This "evil half of the lifeforce" was able to use dead bodies as appearance and project itself as them. It manipulated the MIB/Jacob's brother into being killed so it could use his form to kill the "Mother" guardian, which is one of the two requirements to for the "evil lifeforce" to leave the Island.

1. Kill the Island Guardian and successor
2. Not be imprisoned

So it kills "Mother" guardian, and than has Jacob free itself from the "lifeforce energy well containment". It was tricking him.

Now it only needs to kill Jacob to be able to leave, unless Jacob could find a suitable candidate, which is what was basically happening for the next 2,000 years.

Now it has killed the guardian, Jacob, and it is not imprisoned, and it just needs to kills the true candidate to be able to leave and engage the evil in the hearts of men all over the world, and "claim them".

Basically, the MIB appearance we have seen in The Incident and Ab Aeterno was just this "Evil lifeforce" taking on the appearance of Jacob's brother, probably in order to piss Jacob off and try to get to him psychologically.

quote:

---

bigcobra

---

not to sound like an a-hole, but this is what I have been thinking since last night. imo, you could surmise all this from what we have seen.

You need to be pretty creative, but the fundamentals are all there.

It still leaves the "light" as somewhat MacGuffinish, but oh well. Answers just lead to more questions. Like Obama's birth certificate.

EXCELLENT find!

quote:

---

that is not what he said...i just watched it again this morning, he said that they have been here a long time, It takes 50-60 years for clothes to deteriorate like that, never implied anything about the bodies themselves.

---

Still, I have a feeling that was the timeframe the writers originally had in mind for Adam and Eve. And as it has been pointed out by many posters here, there would be a whole lot more decomposition than that.

quote:

---

i like the theory that MIB absorbed the light. this would be why Jacob didn't want to kill MIB, only MIB wanted to kill Jacob. Someone has to keep MIB on the island, but they can't kill him or there will be no more light and the light is what keeps the world going. i think the light = souls. which would explain the dead people being on the island

---

I agree. I also agree with the posters who said there is definitely still light below, as evidenced when one turns the donkey wheel.

quote:

---

After the rewatch I'm convinced that Mother was the same as MIB is now

---

Without a doubt in my mind. The only difference.... MIB wants no part of this and off the Island thus why she in the end knew that Jacob had to be part of the equation. The balance of MIB. He's faithful but couldnt fill the complete role as the protector. Together they are whole and together they protect the Island whether they like it or not.

I see the game as a compromise between the two. But until we know the game or the rules it still doesnt make sense.

quote:

---

And as Wiki pointed out: One MacGuffin is fine. 100 of them is not.

---

YES! Its not about necessarily having a plausible explanation for the science of exactly what the light was or the chemical reaction that made him turn to smoke. I was fine with the Force in Star Wars being some ambiguous nebulous thing without detailed explanation.

What is most disturbing is we still don't really understand the motivation of the characters. Other than MIB just wants to leave the island because he feels he doesn't belong, we have no clue what really motivated Jacob and Mother. The explanation of just protecting the light at all costs is weak, since the means by which she protected it were extremely questionable (murder, kidnapping, lying). And Jacob's character was just written into a black hole of suck in this episode.

I have no problems with the explanation of the wheel or the nebulous explanation of light. I have major problems with the way the characters were written and the horrendous performances by Janney and Pelligrino in this episode.