This episode was amazing!
In a flashback, we learn that Kate and Jack literally ran into each other as kids when they were 9 or 10 at an amusement park (you can see Jacob observing them in the background), and that Hurley had actually met Jacob twice... the other time, Jacob appeared at the chicken restaurant Hurley worked at and ordered a meal. Then in a flashfoward, we learn that Walt returns to the island, with the help of Eloise, and takes over Jacob's role as the island's protector.
In the normal timeline, Jack and the other survivors of the sub find Desmond. Desmond tells them he knows how destroy Fake Locke, or at least permanently trap him on the island. He also hints at the existence of a flash-sideways timeline.
And finally, a flash-sideways revealed that Desmond helps Charlotte and Daniel meet. When Daniel and Charlotte shake hands, they both fully remember events from the "normal time" on the island. The episode ends with the flash-sideways Daniel looking at Desmond and announcing he now knows how to merge the timelines.
Okay... I made all that up. Ha ha! But it seemed like it could be true, right? Right? Heh.
Here's what really happened in "Across the Sea".
Introduction
Other than a few scenes near the end, the entire episode takes place in the past. Various clues indicate this to be the distant past, possibly as far as 2,000 years ago. For example, at the beginning of the episode people were conversing in Latin. There's no hint of the existence of the Egyptian structures that later appear on the island (e.g. the Temple and the statue of Taweret). And all the other survivors of the shipwreck that brought those people to the island seemed to be dressed in styles that might have been common around 500 A.D.
This episode, while of course not answering every question that it could have, does answer some big questions. It depicts:
- origins of both Jacob and the still unnamed Man in Black
- origin of the Smoke Monster
- how Jacob became the island's protector, and what he's actually protecting (kind of)
- source (kind of) of the island's weird electromagnetic properties
- origin of the large underground wheel later used separately by Ben (moving the island) and John (leaving the island and stopping the time jumps)... though not why that chamber is so cold
- origin and purpose of all the wells to nowhere around the island
- reason the Man in Black could not himself ever kill Jacob
- reason the Others liked to converse in Latin
- identities of "Adam" & "Eve"
- significance of white & black stones/game pieces
Jacob and the Man in Black are twin brothers, with Jacob being the firstborn. Their biological mother (Claudia) was a shipwreck survivor and is very close to giving birth. She was found on shore by another woman who apparently had been living on the island a long time, possibly her entire life. The women initially speak to each other in Latin before their universal translators kick in and they begin using English. Claudia goes into labor and the other assists with the birthing. To the surprise of both women, Claudia gives birth to two sons (the firstborn is wrapped in a light-colored cloth, the second-born in a dark cloth). Claudia names her elder son as "Jacob" but says she doesn't have a name picked for her younger son.The woman than murders Claudia, and raises the boys as if they were her own children, teaching them to be distrustful of other people.
The episode's title, "Across the Sea", refers to a conversation between Jacob and his mother. She's raised both boys to believe there is nothing across the sea... that all there is to the world is the island.
While hunting one day, the boys (now approximately 13) discover that there are other people on the island. Their mother tells them that she'd wanted to keep that secret from them in order to protect them because, according to her, other people are dangerous, inherently bad, and cannot be trusted.
She then blindfolds them and takes them to a cave/tunnel. A stream flows into the tunnel, while a warm golden light shines out from it. She explains that that light is life, there's some of it in all people, but people are greedy and would want more of it if they knew of it. If the island's light were taken or snuffed out, all life everywhere would perish. Her job is to protect the island and its light, and one day one of the boys will take over that role from her, just as she took it over from her mother. She also informs the boys that through unspecified means she has prevented them from ever being able to kill each other.
Later while playing, the Boy in Black sees his biological mother's spirit (Jacob does not see her). Claudia's spirit tells the Boy in Black the truth about his birth, her death, the world across the sea, and how the other people arrived on the island (they were fellow survivors of the shipwreck that had brought her to the island). After confronting his mother about all this, he decides to go live with his own people, while Jacob decides to remain.
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| senet game board |
Jacob informs his mother of all this. She returns him to the tunnel of golden light, warns him that entering it would lead to a fate worse than death, and informs him that it is time for him to take over her role as the island's guardian. She pours a glass of wine, mutters something in Latin, and hands the cup to Jacob to drink. He drinks and is now the guardian. He obviously is not happy about that.
She then visits the Man in Black, who is working in an underground man-made cavern. He tells her that he could never find that tunnel of light, but decided he might get to that energy another way... by digging wherever an electromagnetic anomaly was found. He tells her finally succeeded. He removed a stone from another wall, allowing golden light to shine into the cavern. She then notices the large wheel on a side wall. The Man in Black tells her that he and the other men have devised a plan to make the hole in the bigger, install that giant wheel and some other equipment they've made, and that they'll be able to then use the island's energy to leave the island when they turn that wheel. She knocks him unconscious while pretending to say goodbye to him, and then apparently kills everyone else in the village, fills in the cavern, and destroys their equipment.
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| Ben turning the big wheel |
When the Man in Black wakes up, he goes to the cave she and Jacob live in and kills her. Jacob retaliates by beating his brother, dragging him to the tunnel of golden light, and dropping him in the stream that flows into it. Soon after the Man in Black floats into the tunnel, the ground rumbles and the Smoke Monster streams out of the tunnel.
Jacob finds his brother's physical body, drags it back to where his mother's body was left in their cave. He places both bodies next to each other, and lays next to them a pouch the game pieces from the game he and his brother used to play. Scenes from the first season episode in which two skeletons (named Adam & Eve by John) were found in a cave laying side-by-side with a nearby game pouch by Jack and Kate are then shown.
Comments
A recurring theme in the episode is that Jacob believes his mother favors his brother over him, even after his brother leaves to live with the other shipwreck survivors. She never denies this. However, she does admit at the end that Jacob was all along destined to be her replacement, even though she'd only just then realized that.
Another recurring theme is that the Boy in Black, as well as his adult version, have a "knack" for understanding how things work. For example, he knew the rules for playing the game he found on the beach. And he knew how to construct a device that would allow someone to leave the island without a boat.
Why didn't the shipwreck survivors ever build a boat? Perhaps they ran into the same kind of problem that Desmond encountered when he tried to sail away.
Why did Claudia's spirit only appear to the Boy in Black? Why couldn't Jacob see her? Is it related to his ability to understand how things work?
Interesting tidbits from Wikipedia...
Claudia, in Roman Mythology, is the mother of Romulus and Remus (and the names of the Romulan homeworlds in Star Trek). Claudia is also the name of the character played by Allison Janney (who played the unnamed woman who murdered Claudia and raised the twins) on The West Wing.
Next week's episode is "What They Died For". It is the final episode before the finale on May 23, 2010. It looks like Fake Locke changes plans while Jack and company free Desmond from the well. Still don't know what's been going on with Richard, Ben and Miles.
