Wednesday, May 12, 2010

6.14 Across the Sea

Summary and Spoilers

On the floating debris of a crude raft, a lone, injured, and pregnant woman clings to life and eventually drifts onto a beach. Limping and bleeding, she makes her way inland and drinks from a clear stream. She is startled by a female resident of the island who offers her shelter and food. They eat and converse; the driftwood woman is identified as Claudia. The other woman, played by surprise big name Allison Janney, is not identified, but her garb and manner are somehow reminiscent of either Jacob or the Smoke Monster.

Claudia is very close to full term, and shortly, she gives birth, painfully and vocally, to a boy she calls Jacob. But there is more to come – another boy. The island woman now beats Claudia to death with a rock, sparing her any post-partum depression.

Tween years later, and Smokey finds a board game on the beach. He lures Jacob into playing, making him promise not to tell their mother, because she would take the game away. While Smokey hangs on the beach staring out over the ocean, perhaps dreaming of getting off this god-forsaken rock, Jacob is a bit of a momma’s boy (at least, he thinks this is his momma). He tells Allison about the game. Soon, mom is on the beach too, taking credit for planting the game for Smokey. Mom tells the tale that the island is everything – that the boys came from her and she came from her mother. She also tells Smokey that he is immortal. Mom is apparently some kind of witch, alien, or superhero; as well as making the boys immortal, she has also ‘made it’ so they can never hurt each other. When a tribe who also shares the island is seen in their territory, mom blindfolds them and brings them to a place where a subterranean tunnel emits pure light – sort of the source, the heartbeat of all life. Their mission is to guard this place and stop the light from going out – if it goes out here, it goes out everywhere.

Claudia appears to Smokey (and not Jacob), leading him across the island to show him where he came from. They arrive at a tribal village where her shipwrecked friends crashed and settled. Claudia claims to be Smokey’s mother. He doesn’t know what to believe, but he now has doubts – and he knows his ‘mother’ lied to him. It’s no wonder Unlocke wants to leave the island – he is not from there. The boys are split, with Smokey leaving to be with the tribe, while Jacob stays with his ‘mother’.

Flash forward to Jacob as a young man. He has stayed with his mother as he promised. She grows old now, and her time is not long. For afar, Jacob watches his brother amongst the people, and visits him from time to time to play that board game. Smokey claims that the people of the tribe are ‘bad’: greedy and selfish. But Smokey stays because it is part of his plan to leave the island. He has discovered the magnetic power of the island. Jacob, always the tattletale, tells mom immediately. She goes to see for herself and visits Smokey, deep in a cave, where he is tending a coal fire. Smokey is building a system for channeling the water and the pure light as a means of escape off the island. Smokey says he is special and he must leave. But this woman is also special; she uses her guile to knock Smokey unconscious.

Mom returns to Jacob and says it is time. She leads him to the place of the light that she first shows to him years ago and tells him he must guard it now, and never go down there. She makes Jacob promise to protect this place forever.

Smokey awakens on the ground again, his hole filled in and his escape thwarted. He sees smokes in the distance and runs toward it. His village has been razed; he people murdered.

Mother knows she is about to be murdered for what she did. Smokey stabs her in the back. As she is dyeing, she explains that did not let Smokey leave because she loves him. Just before she dies, she thanks him for killing her. Jacob arrives too late and attacks his brother. He knows he cannot kill Smokey, so instead he sends him into the light. Moments later, a monster emerges and passes by him in a rush of sound and smoke. Jacob finds Smokey’s lifeless human body and carries him back to his campfire. He lays his mother and his brother side by side in the cave.

A massive flash forward shows Jack and Kate finding these very remains in the cave (as seen very early on in Lost).

Comments

I’m not confused. That made perfect sense. Now I understand! It’s so simple; I’m not going to insult your intelligence by repeating it here.

Just kidding. I really want to know why and what and who. What is this island, who was this woman – alien, god, whatever. How did Smokey re-inhabit a living body? We may find out the answer to that one next week.

Lost Quotes

Smokey: I have to go
Mom: Why?
Smokey: Because I don’t belong here!

Jacob: What’s down there?
Mom: Life, death, rebirth – it’s the source, the heart of the island.

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