Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Lost: The Final Season

I suspect we're going to see a bit of reversal as Good/evil gives way to Free Will vs. Fate, with the players changing, but it was still a frustrating episode.

Is the Smoke Monster Jacob's brother, or has he just been using his form all this time like he does other dead people (to torture/taunt Jacob)?

We still don't have an explanation of what it is, and why more than one character has definitively said his leaving the island is very bad.

It's like this episode went out of it's way to tell some of Jacob's/MiB's backstory but not answer any questions at all.

This would've been a fantastic episode if it were, say, at the beginning of the season. I agree that it seemed more frustrating than anything, as it seemed to raise more questions than it answered. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be given a definitive answer was the identity of Adam and Eve, and even that was mysterious, as it doesn't explain why the bodies had decayed so little.

Like many of you, I liked the episode but I'm frustrated that this close to the end, we're getting more questions than answers. I wanted a firm background on Jacob and the MiB and we didn't get that. I suspect we'll get the MiB's full origin in the finale (or least, I'm desperately hoping).

Like EDE said, this would have been a great first espisode of the season.

I guess the other thing that was kind of answered is what John Locke saw way back in the first season when he said that he looked into the "eye of the island". I wonder if there's some connection between the fact that he saw this and that he was later able to serve as "host" for the Smoke Monster?

Ooh, good call, EDE! I wonder if we'll see this sequence again at some point with the viewers actually seeing the whole thing?

It may put the whole hatch story in new perspective as well. Perhaps Locke thought that the hatch would gain him access to the light, something that was apparently confirmed that night he was hammering on it and light suddenly came out of it (though, in reality, that was Desmond's doing).

I'm wondering if it will turn out that the island isn't so much bottling up "evil", but bottling up the light, and the end of the series will be the light being unleashed all over the world?

Oh... another minor thing: Presumably the Others speak Latin because it was the language of Jacob?

Wow... I loved the episode.. great stuff. It answered some questions that I had.. but opened up more! If the light is the 'heart of the island' does that mean that it was evil because Smokey came out of it?

Did the light need someone to enter the cave to release the smoke monster?

Or was the smoke monster already out? Who killed the settlers? It seems improbable that Fake Mommy did all of that damage by herself (unless *she* was the smoke monster).

Well if Fake Mom can work mojo to prevent the boys from killing each other, she can pass strewardship onto Jacbo, she's bound to be capable of more. Removing MiB's villagers wouldn't be a big deal for her.

Seeing her pass stewardship on to Jacob makes me think there have been others holding that job before her even. (Jacob and MiB were born well after the statue was built, based on the knife MiB weilded all episode.) So even tho we've seen the boys origins, we don't have the island's origins.

I gotta say, Smokey seems almost sympathetic now. From birth, he's been controlled by FakeMom. He's not allowed off the island, been told there is nothing out there. All he wanted was to leave, and that's been denied to him for so long. Gotta say, I can't blame him for being cranky at this point.

And Jacob... less wise man and more momma's boy to me now.

Despite some frustrations for the viewers were a few great storytelling things about the episode.

MiB shows he dislikes and distrusts the humans, but he goes to live with them. Meanwhile, Jacob has a more optimistic attitude towards them, but he chooses to live apart, almost looking down upon them. Very ironic in Lost-fashion.

You can note the color scheme of fake-Mom was a blend of black & white, as if she was both parts of Jacob and MiB. So Jacob inherited her protector of the island role, while perhaps MiB inherited her murderous side? It's still so hard to say.

BIB is not allowed to leave, why? is it because he is evil because i never really got that, i found the mother to be slightly evil but nothing that BIB did was remotely evil. So why couldnt the writers just tell us why he cant leave instead of saying...is he evil? or is it jacob? or is it the island?
My understanding is that MIB is the smoke monster after going into the cave, even though he has appeared as himself to Richard in the past but since then he has appeared to no one but as a ghost of someone they knew, why? MIB apparantly wants to kill jacob back in the 1800's which is after the death of his mother and he is in his human form then so when did he lose the ability to change to himself?
What has MIB done to deserve being trapped on the island, thats my biggest question, jacob said he was evil and it cant be let out. When MIB went into the cave, he became the light and his body was killed, he lived but as "the source" and now if he gets off the island, that would mean the light goes out on the island, which means it goes out everywhere.
And what about the sideways universe, the island is underwater, are jacob and MIB off the island, old questions i know, but come on writers give some answers.

I loved the episode, mainly because of Alison Janney! Wow! And the guys who play the brothers were fantastic, too! I LOVE when Mother says "answering your questions will only lead to more questions." I'm glad that we get more mysteries, but they are deeper mysteries, for sure. The Island has a Source (Kirby!) that is "life, death, rebirth" and going into it will produce a fate "worse than death." The Source is present in every living thing, but it's heart is the heart of the Island. The Dharma folks described it as negative energy, which is a real thing and has esoteric, theoretical connections to wormholes and time travel. It's hard NOT to think of this Source as akin to Kirby's, and Lucas's Force. It is found in all life, it transcends good and evil (or encompasses them), it transcends time, it gives life and death, it utterly transforms those who seek it, it may be the primordial energy of the universe.

The mysteries I'm left wondering about are the things we DIDN'T see in this episode. Who finished the donkey wheel in MIB's pit of despair? Claudia and her "Others" were clearly Roman (or perhaps pre-Roman or Etruscan). If so, they would likely post-date the culture that would build an Egyptian statue. And the game the boys play is Senet, an ancient Egyptian game. So was Mother ancient Egyptian? How did she speak Latin? Where did the statue and the temple come from? I would love to know answers to these questions, but I have to say I enjoy thinking about more.

I thought this was the first dud episode of the season for me but since it's Lost there was still a lot to like about it.

One point though - everyone in this thread seems to be discussing the MIB that we saw in this episode and the MIB/Smoke Monster that we've seen in previous ones as if they were the same character.

I thought it was fairly obviously shown by the dead body at the end that Jacob's brother (the guy we were watching all episode) died in that cave and the Smoke Monster (which was somehow released by Jacob's brother entering the cave) later took his form post- the events of this episode.

Well, it's not clear. The MiB had said earlier in the season that Jacob "took away his body" or something like that, so one can interpret it as though the smoke monster is still the mind of Jacob's brother or something.

The producers seems a little cranky that people didn't like this episode:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-a...lof-and-carlton-cuse-talk-across-the-sea

Smockie was telling someone (Claire?) about his life before he was the Smoke Monster, in the context of his "Mom" issues. But it IS an intriguing question -- is the Smoke Monster really MIB transformed, or does it just THINK that, and is there a real difference?

I think the Smoke Monster just takes on some of the memories/personality traits of the people it assumes the form of.

Remember - it said 'Don't tell me what I can't do!' exactly like John Locke used to.

I will think a LOT less of this episode if my theory is not correct actually.

I thought the twist that Jacob's brother was dead all along and the Smoke Monster had just taken his form was about the only surprise this episode contained. Everything else was just stuff we already knew or yet more random weird stuff like 'Who the heck was Alison Janney's character?!?'

I still love you though Lost! Please don't end up being the bitter disappointment that Battlestar Galactica was!

My linguistic skills aren't great. But I thought Claudia was speaking Spanish, and that made me think they were post-Roman/Egyptian.

As for the wheel, I figure Smokey could have any of his Others complete the will in the years he's been trapped.

I had on the close captioning for the episode and it said they were speaking latin.

Yeah, that was not Spanish.

Definitely Latin. And classical Latin, not Medieval.

And I can't believe no one has commented on the greatest Lost mystery of them all:

Why did the Man in Black grow a goatee after his conversion to the Smoke Monster?

FYI, if you didn't read the interview linked above, they confirm they will not be showing the second half of the outrigger scene from Season 5. I know Lardy and some others were hoping we'd see that...