A case for Across the Sea being a brilliant figurative episode by BensEye

Get it...mirror??

I think this episode works on a more figurative level than a literal one. OK, it LITERALLY sucked (I've never said that about an episode of LOST in my entire life and me uttering those words is like a devout Christian saying Jesus was a dickwad). But figuratively, it works. Bear with me.

1.) If we thought this episode sucked we have no one to blame but ourselves and our insatiability for the unanswerable.

"What is the Smoke Monster and how did it come to exist?"

"Why are Jacob and MIB so important?"

"What is the island?"

These are all metaphysical and almost spiritual answers that were better left unanswered. Imagine if the bible literally answered questions like "How was Jesus resurrected?" "How was it possible to change Water into Wine?" "Why was Jesus special?"...and you might be saying "Well, duh, Jesus was special because he was born to the Virgin Mary and the son of God"...but if this was LOST fans, they would be asking "OMG, just new questions...How was someone born to a virgin??" "Why is GOD so important??" (and you don't believe me, check out all the threads saying "OMG, Where did Jacob's mother come from and why was she the protector??" "What is the LIGHT in the CAVE!?!" Would they REALLY be satisfied if they delved into a whole episode trying to explain that?? I think not.

Getting a satisfying explanation of what the island is, is like getting a satisfying answer to "Who created God"...it would just be a convoluted stretch that would no doubt be not as satisfying as an answer you created in your own mind or the answer "It just is".

We got our first taste of this bitterness when the whispers were explained. After years of people complaining "OMG, they better explain the whispers or this show sucks", we get Michael saying "Yeah man, we're the whispers". Not only was it a disappointing and an anti-climatic reveal, it was basically what most people THOUGHT the whispers were anyway, and leaving it as a mystery would have been 100 times more satisfying than explicitly explaining it to us like we weren't the smart, insightful fans that have followed and suspended our beliefs in the sake of good storytelling for the past 5 seasons.

and then this brings me to my second point...


2.) It is testing our faith, just like Jack and Locke were tested. Darlton supplied us with a sub-par episode without any of our core characters that we've come to love, in favor of a "mythology" (this episode proves that we never liked LOST for the mythology or the mysteries...it was ALWAYS about the characters). In my opinion, Darlton probably never wanted to make this episode but felt it necessary because a lot of fans wanted closure on mysteries that a lot of fans would have been fine skipping over, like the ones I've listed above (I wouldn't even say MOST fans at this point since most seem to be reasonably understanding that, even if this wasn't the best episode and even if it is the WORST, it doesn't take away from the show as a whole since it's never been about the mythology but rather the journey).

So now that this episode is out of the way, Darlton has weeded out the mythology/mystery complainers and we can get onto the REAL business of our character arcs (the only answers that ever really mattered). And when all the complainers who are convinced that this episode "ruined LOST for them" realize how much they like the next two episodes because it revolves around the core of the show and not the outskirts, they will go into radio silence with one last quote..."I wish you believed me".