Good Wednesday to you all,

It was good to see a complete backstory sans flashways episode last night in “Across the Sea.” Much like Richard’s “Ab Aeterno,” the result of seeing a world that once was – as opposed to a world that could quite possibly be, is currently being, or will currently become – is that we are left more informed than questioned… well, kinda. Jacob and Nemesis’ history was finally explained, the mysterious kid we’ve been seeing around the Original Timeline has been identified as Jacob (or at least an apparition of him), and last but certainly not least: we now know who Adam and Eve are. In spite of the overly blatant use of recycled season one footage to let the most obtuse of L O S T fans know that a major question was being answered, I’m happy with who it turned out to be and how it became.

On a story level, I thought this episode was great in detailing the emotional struggle between the two brothers and their masterfully guileful False Mother. It definitely put an entirely new spin on my perception of Nemesis in that towards the middle end of the show, I had completely changed my opinion of him and actually felt as if everything he had done (horrible and ruthless as it may be) was warranted. The only question I have for all of you though, is do you think Nemesis as we know him is Jacob’s brother as we were shown? Or is Nemesis the manifestation of the Smoke Monster who was released upon Titus Welliver’s unconscious descent towards a fate worse than death? The Smoke Monster not being Jacob’s actual brother theories are already pulverizing the world wide web, and doing so in a very compelling fashion.

The gist of the Smokey-is-not-JB-argument is that Jacob sending his brother’s unconscious body down the river broke some sort of seal that released the Smoke Monster, who, judging by the hieroglyphic images we saw in the temple a few seasons back, has
been there for many moons before. Popular speculation is pinpointing the occurrence of this episode to have taken place around 41 AD – 54 AD, which would place this story after Egyptian times (which would make the erection of Tawaret and hieroglyphic writings unpractical and unlikely). My feeling, though, is that the explanation of the hieroglyphs will either be pawned off as a result of time travel, or will never be addressed and is a red herring. The result, then, is that I’m going to take the episode at face value – as the beginning of Smokey. Being dragged into the depths of the light transformed his mortal physical self into something supernatural, but still confined to the rules and regulations of the Island. There was far too much story line detailing a reason JB would want to go home, a reason why he would hate Jacob, and a far-fetched-but-I-guess-I’ll-deal-with-explanation as to how he kinda got super powers for him NOT to be Smokey.

We still have no clue why JB and Jacob can’t kill each other (aside from their False Mother simply saying she made it that way) and we still have no idea what the “magical life force light” is. Out of curiousity, how many of you were thinking thoughts along the lines of “Are you kidding me?””C’mmmmon…,” or “This is in no way cool, creative, or interesting,” when False Mother took the boys to the cave possessing a “light that is in every one of us?” For me, this is EXTREMELY disappointing, because it reinforces very strongly the non-scientific based direction the writers are heading towards as the show’s meaning. Nothing against anyone if they thought it was sweet, I was just curious how everyone else was feeling.

All fantasy squabbles aside, this show was good to me in that it gave us the story behind the Jacob vs. Nemesis debacle. Based on that story, as I said earlier, it made me feel sympathetic towards Nemesis and currently, as the story goes, I don’t blame him one bit for anything he’s done. One interesting note, though, is that as the Smoke Monster, he assumed the role of the Island’s protector very much in the vain of his mother. Throughout the story as we’ve seen it the past six seasons, he was the one killing people immediately as well as the one who looked at non-Islanders as people who “come, fight, destroy, and corrupt…” Who he became it seems, is EXACTLY who False Mother wanted him to be: a gnarly version of herself. From her introduction of the black and white game on the beach, her favoritism of one over the other, then the manipulation of her own death; the rivalry seems her scheme from the beginning. My only guess as to why she said “Thank You” after being dealt a deadly stab, is because in doing so Nemesis sealed a fate for himself that she had chosen for him all along.

There’s tons of stuff that can be taken all sorts of ways with this one, I’m pumped to hear what you all made of it!

-NH

As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, is out now on Metal Blade! Why not get L O S T on AILD’s MySpace page?