Across the Sea Unraveled by dc

I wanted to 'unravel' some key points in Across the Sea. This is on the long side, but I hope it's helpful.

1. The Fake-Mother is repeatedly shown weaving; we all know Jacob is a weaver as well. In many myths, the Fates or Gods weave our individual fates--each 'thread' is a life and the idea is that the whole thing, woven together, creates a patter. In the opening of the season, Jacob is shown weaving something in his 'home' under the statue--it looks like a bird or Phoenix, but it's hard to say; certainly it's a coherent pattern. Remember when Jacob drank the wine Fake-Mom gave him, she said, "Now you're like me." My theory is that this refers to her weaving. What she means is that now Jacob has the power to weave people's lives, to change their fate. I think we've seen the effects of this power all this time.

2. Many people have asked about the mother. I'm not sure how much they'll answer. Remember she says, "Every answer will lead to another question." I think this implies that the Island/Light has been around since the dawn of time or maybe before. She herself is Guardian of the Island, and has been for a long time; she doesn't age at all in the 40 years her fake-sons age. Clearly, she is a Goddess or Power of some sort. She may have started off human, but she isn't anymore; but I don't think she's even human (she talks of the Romans who were shipwrecked as 'evil,' and acts as though they are foreign monsters; but they are just human beings. When MIB goes to live with them, he lists their 'evils' as normal human weaknesses--manipulation, backstabbing etc.) It's possible the Egyptian Goddess statue if of her. (Egyptians pre-dated the Romans who were shown on the Island, as we can see from all the hieroglyphics, the state, etc.) I don't know if we will learn anything else about her specifically; it's not really important (unless we learn she's actually Smokey, which is possible).

3. This leads me to my main point. To me, this episode was critical because it revealed several very important things:
a) MIB is not evil at all (we don't know yet about Smokey, although the producers have told us he is evil; however, the producers have mislead us before). The source of the conflict between the two brothers and the 'game' they've been playing - probably Jacob's game - is from rage, jealousy and weakness, all mostly on Jacob's side. In other words, the 'game' arose from an evil act-- Jacob's murder of his brother (or worse-than-murder) and Jacob's desire to finally invent a game in which HE could establish the Rules. WE DON'T KNOW yet whether Jacob has become good and whether Smokey is evil. I believe the producers have intentionally mislead us (maybe told part of the truth) and the answer is more complex, but we'll see.

b) Most of what we have seen these past six years has been some sort of elaborate Game Jacob is running; I think Smokey is also running his (her?) own game with his own rules; each Game has a goal and so both Jacob and Smokey will manipulate their game pieces - our Losties - in order to achieve their goals. The imagery over the past six years fits very well with the game idea--not just Backgammon, but Connect Four (repeatedly shown at the mental hospital in both realities), Risk, golf, even ping pong. What we don't know yet, but I believe we will, are the Rules and the End--what the goal is. It's possible that the title, Lost, also refers to the game, as in "We've lost the game." We don't know yet whether the game has any deeper meaning (I hope so) and just what Jacob and Smokey are up to. I believe we will find out. I'm hoping for a big reveal and a big twist.

c) Tied to the above, we still don't know whether Fake-Mother was telling the truth or was even sane when she said that they needed to protect the light. I'm thinking the 'solution' is to quench the light - the island sinks. I am hoping that Smokey, or at least MIB, does get off this island; I felt bad for him.

d) It's clear that MIB represents Free Will (he doesn't buy the 'you can't get off this island because I said so or because you HAVE to stay here; he wants to go to be with his people and because it's a big world out there and because he was lied to; he didn't choose to stay there). Jacob represents Fate. Fate versus free will has been a MAJOR theme throughout Lost. I don't know how this will be resolved.

e) The MAIN POINT to me is that this episode demonstrated that it DOESN'T MATTER WHO the candidate is. What matters is ENDING THE GAME. I think both Jacob and MIB/Smokey want to end the game; they just have different rules. Just as in a game, each side wants to win. I believe that Jack and John Locke are both critical for ending the game, as is Desmond (among other "Players"). It's also possible that Jacob & MIB are now working together and have the same rules and both just want to end the game. it's possible Jacob wanted to be killed by Ben. I don't know. And again, it's possible that Smokey is NOT MIB; that MIB was actually killed and Smokey just keeps taking his form and others. This would explain why Smokey is Evil Incarnate. As chaos and swirling, noisy dark smoke, it is the opposite of the Light (pure, still).