The Source of Evil
The nameless lady that raised MIB and Jacob had a motive that wasn’t entirely clear in “Across the Sea”. I’m attempting at making some sense of all this. Some of it is just recapping, some of it may be obvious, so please bare with me….
I’m assuming that she brought the group of people that included Claudia to the island, much like what Jacob does to people in the present. She somehow knew that one of the boys was going to be special enough to take her place as protector of the island.
We witness what we could consider to be a Hurley moment, or better yet, a young Ben Linus moment. MIB sees an apparition of his real mother, Claudia, when young Jacob could not. She leads MIB to a group of people that turn out to be the same group that Claudia came to the island with. MIB immediately wants to reunite with them. So he decides to run off with them at a later date.
Years later, we see the same group of people completely wiped out. Any idea how an older lady could wipe out a small colony herself, where many of the men looked like warriors to begin with? I think “mother” was also a smoke monster.
We know MIB once played a trick on Richard by portraying Isabelle while he was chained up. We could easily assume that “mother” played a cruel trick on MIB by portraying Claudia. The question is, why would she do that? My guess is that she wanted to fill MIB’s heart with temptation. Much like how MIB purposely filled Ben’s heart with it by showing him Emily, which led him to Richard’s group of the others. The similarities don’t stop there though.
MIB wanted Ben’s heart filled with anger so that he could eventually kill Jacob, the protector of the island. I believe “mother” wanted MIB’s heart filled with anger so that he would one day kill her, the protector of the island. She noticeably said “thank you” when MIB thrusted the knife into her. Unless she was being sarcastic, I’d say she wanted to die.
We could probably say that “mother” wasn’t able to kill herself, just like everyone else we’ve seen in this show. But why would she want to die? Whether or not she was the smoke monster, it’s obvious that she was severely infected. I’m guessing this infection might make life a living hell of sorts…… If she WAS the smoke monster, than that would mean she’s been to the light. Perhaps the light is not only the source of the infection, but it also has a will of it’s own.
It seems as though there’s more to the reason that mother brought them to the light as children then just showing them “why they are there”. She brought them there so that they’d know how to find it when the time came for one of them to take over as Smokie. MIB clearly stated that his entire group was having a hard time finding it. She made sure Jacob knew the way for when the time came that she’d no longer be around.
From the beginning of the episode we were seeing similarities between “mother”‘s view and MIB’s view on humanity, both have stated how people fight and corrupt when they reach the island. That way of thinking might have something to do with coming in contact with the light. So what is the light? No idea. I’d say a meteor is still a guess. Unfortunately, I’d even say a spaceship still isn’t COMPLETELY thrown out as a ridiculous, and unwanted possibilty. I’m more interested in what this light does though. Does it truly have a mind of its own? Is it evil incarnate?
A final thought on this one – Anyone ever see “The Gods Must Be Crazy”? I’m seeing some similarities between the light and the coke bottle. In both, a simple mystery becomes the source of man’s greed, and it tears civilization apart from the inside. Pretty nuts.
Very good points on “mother” being the smoke monster. Now that you mentioned it, it was as if she was expecting MIB to kill her, just like Jacob was expecting Ben (and Locke) in The Incident.
Besides, it was pretty obvious after showing old Jacob the cave that she wanted to finish her task and pass it to Jacob. Then it makes good sense that she wanted MIB to kill her because she can’t do it herself…in the light of all the Jack/Jacob/candidates can’t kill themselves stuff.
What I found interesting is that the adoptive mother (I will call her MAMA) was not expecting MIB’s birth. MAMA was surprised (disappointed?) when the second baby (MIB) popped out. I think MAMA brought Claudia to the island on that ship because she needed (wanted?) to find a replacement for herself. She wanted to die. She couldn’t die until the torch of the “protector” was passed onto her replacement. She knew that Claudia was carrying her replacement, but when the second baby was born, she was set out to find which one was going to be the Island protector. I think the test that Jacob passed, and MIB did not pass, was the fact that the true protector of the Island does not want to leave the Island. Just like Jacob, Jack has now had a revelation that he must stay on the Island. When given the opportunity by the MIB to leave, he has stood his ground and stated that he does not want to leave. MIB wanted to leave, and that’s when MAMA realized that he was not the protector. MAMA had the ability to kill his people, all along, but set up MIB for a test to see whether, despite his knowledge about the ability to leave, he would choose to leave the Island. Expressing his choice to do so was MAMA’s realization that he was not the chosen one.
MAMA could not be killed until the torch was passed on. She clearly made Jacob the protector and was then killed at the hands of MIB. This makes me think about Jacob. Jacob, as the current protector of the island, must have passed on the torch of the protector before he died. Who did he pass it to? Who was offered to drink from the infamous wine bottle before Jacob was killed by Ben? I think Jack is the obvious replacement for Jacob, but was he bestowed this opportunity prior to Jacob’s death?
Just by the way she told Jacob that getting to close to the source would be “worse than death” made me think that either she has seen someone go in there or experienced it herself. And then when I saw all the people dead, I thought like you did, that something was amiss. Thinking that she was a smoke monster to me only makes sense.
Richard may have been given the wine in the their big “cork” scene.
And knowing that their fake mom was the protector of the island, can she be a smoke monster too? It would appear so, unless she gave the villagers a little of the protector’s kung fu powers that we saw Jacob use on Richard.
MrsShephard – Good thoughts on MAMA’s surprise when MIB was born. Come to think of it, she did seem a little shocked at it all. Really hard to say what was going through her mind when all that played out.
greatforsaken – I hope we see the wine bottle “ceremony” again at some point. The fact that we haven’t seen anything like that before Jacob died does concern me a little. Perhaps their “mom” was just a complete nut, and thought it had to be done when it didn’t. Or maybe, Jacob wants this all to end. Maybe Jacob wants the island to be left alone by EVERYONE, and wants it sank to the bottom of the ocean floor.
Who really knows? These writers really know how to get us to tune in next week huh? Money grubbin’ assholes. I joke, they’re cool.
What bugs me is WHO’S IN THE WRONG HERE?
So what if MIB wants to go find his real self? So what if he wants to leave the island, and go back to whatever time/place they are originally from? I don’t see why he, or any of Claudia’s people need to suffer because they want to go back home.
It seemed like Jacob had good intentions as well though. He tried doing what was right. But in the process, he did what his insanely infected mother wanted done.
I don’t trust infected people. Jacob does. Therefore, I still don’t trust him.
I don’t think Mama was Claudia’s ghost. The difference between the ghosts and the smoke monster(s) is that only one person in a group can see ghosts. Notice that every time we were told the person was actually the smoke monster, there was nobody else around to see him, like the first Isabella “vision”, but the second time we see her, there are two people there and only one can see her, this time it’s not even the same person as before. I think MIB COULD see dead people, or at least he could see his dead mom. It’s possible that Mama was some kind of smokie or maybe like a roman goddess, but she probably wasn’t the ghost of Claudia, because Jacob couldn’t see her. Maybe the first time we see little Jacob, it was actually his ghost, since Richard couldn’t see him, but when James AND MIB were able to see him, maybe it was Mama in disguise?
I believe the Smoke Monster was there all along from the beginning, roaming the Island and conning and manipulating people… I believe he killed the villager’s and bottled up the well to con MIB. He saw his chance to kill “MAMA” by making MIB angry… he was playing another long con. Yet he didn’t count on “MAMA” passing the torch to Jacob.
Lets go back a bit, think of the hieroglyphics when Ben fell down the hole in the Temple… Now, the “MAMA” says to Jacob that she made him just like her – the guardian. She represents the statue Tawert, the protector of the Island – just like in the hieroglyphics – facing off against Smokie. She’s the one that was keeping Smokie at bay. She was there when the Temple & Statue were built… She had followers for many years, that probably worshipped her… probably a more peaceful time… but men kept coming upon the Island, eventually being felled by a sickness of curiosity and greed… and then the fighting began… She eventually grew tired, probably abandon all that was and eventually began her search for her replacement…
Smokie tempted MIB or should we call him Adam. It was Smokie that pretended to be Claudia, Adam’s real Mom. It’s Claudia that tempts Adam with her alluring red gown… Adam would be Smokie’s eventual loophole. Adam is “Special”, Smokie knew this but he also knew that he couldn’t be killed. In a sense Smokie played Jacob knowing how to push his buttons, and the fact that Jacob now has the knowledge of the light in the tunnel – that if you go in there its worse then death. Smokie used Jacobs “quick to react anger”, to force his hand. He knew if Adam killed his MAMA and Jacob found out that Jacob would walk Smokies loophole right to him. Could this be the break that Smokie was looking for? To be able to inhabit or become one with Adam, knowing Adam can’t be killed, knowing his passion to leave the Island and knowing that he is “Special”?
Sorry Chiefy if I went off a little here but I know you like to debate.
I like the idea that there was a smoke monster already, and that he played the brothers against each other and against Fmom in order to obtain the form of the BiB. But the only thing that doesnt jive is, why would the smoke monster just happen to come out of the cove that held the source right when Noname’s body floated in there?
Great post Chief…
Ma bringing people to an island makes me think maybe she is a siren of sorts, maybe its the tapestry instead of the song…maybe it worked for jacob too…
Honestly, the only question I had after last night was what you ask…how did this woman wipe out a group of men like that…AND cave in the well?
Its a bit too early for dynamite…
Your comment on Ben seeing Emily is the only thing that was really keeping me from saying that the dead were just the dead for quite a while…
She is on the other side of the fence…I think its important to realize that in the scene.
Ok…I still cant help but feel that being killed on the island somehow connects people with the FSW…
SO Ma’ saying thanks after getting the knife in her back could be their way of showing us that this is the future, and not the past…because she thanks him for sending her to the FSW…
yeah…I dont care if its crazy…
MIB asks her Why wont he let her leave, and before replying thank you, she says “because I love you’…
I cant help but be thrown off slightly by that…
So here is what I really find interesting…
When MIB stabs her, he does it from behind.
He does it without letting her speak a word…just as he told Richard to do to Jacob, and Dogen told Sayid to do to MIB…
This is because they possess the same gift as their mother…and Ben Linus until everyone realized everything he says is a lie…
A very manipulative word…THAT is a true gift.
Being able to say ANYTHING almost, and having the people closest to you believe you…even after they know you are lying.
She says that the “others” are like that on the island…but she displayes manipulation through every scene she is in…right up until MIB calls her out for killing his and Jacobs mother.
Why give in then?
Because they had her!
If she keeps lying, the truth is out and she is a bad person to her “children”…by accepting responsibility, she STILL managed to keep Jacob on her side…without him having a clue of the truth to anything…
Jacob is a person who is LOST searching for the truth…
MIB is a soul, who knows the truth and searches for home…
He said he had a mother once, we doubted him, and he proved truth in his words…
Its really starting to get to the point where everything that MIB says is truth in terms of his past…
And everything Jacob says is word of his crazy (almost)mother…
Not that either of them are wrong, its just that NEITHER of them know the whole truth…
SOMEONE has to know both sides…
First of all, I’ve thought about this episode all day long. I’ve watched it twice more, and I’ve done some observing.
Watch the first minute of the episode once again if you can. There’s a lamp on the beach. If it’s not a lamp, it’s a hair dryer. It’s something plastic, and it’s teal.
If you wanna call me crazy, I’ll understand. I’m looking too much into it. For everyone else, I think this island takes place in the future, much like what AES stated in his “final” theory.
HansoHatori – I had to read that four times, but I finally see what you’re saying. I suppose what you’re saying is possible. But if the writers really expect us to try and decipher the separate apparition occasions, I’ll be pissed. I understand that only sometimes it’s smokie, and sometimes it’s actual dead people. But for them to expect us to find certain similarities on specific occasions as opposed to others, I’d say that’s asking a bit too much, even for the hardcore fans. In other words, I hope the ghosts are either ALWAYS smokie, or literally just ghosts. But then again, it’s Lost isn’t it? The fans don’t get their way.
ArdentKnight – Yes, I like to debate. I’m not gonna do that with you though, ’cause you make some solid points. I’m just glad someone’s trying to relate the hieroglyphics to what this episode showed us. I agree that this episode wasn’t the beginning of it all. We witnessed what was just another “changing of authority”. This part of the story is a loop. How else would she know the “wine ritual” that she had with Jacob? She learned it from someone right? Unless she was the original inhabitant of the island. Watch Aaron be her ex-husband, or Claudia’s ex-husband 🙂 I bet we learned Claudia’s name for a reason.
greatforsaken – Right. I’m not jivin’ it either. I’m thinking there’s a possibility that there can be more than one smokie at a time. I think anyone who comes in contact with the light becomes a smoke monster. I’m not gonna try to complicate that more than necessary right now.
AES – Man, who knows, right? This FSW has been a pain in the ass for us all. That’s why I loved this episode when few others did. It was a solid “On the island, here’s some ideas to ponder” episode. I’m with ya on the island taking place in the future though.
AES, just read your last comment.
Very happy you said that. That’s why I’m questioning the light being evil. By the way, did you notice that the purge resembled what she did to the people’s camp in last night’s episode? I wonder if Dharma was getting too close to finding a way to manipulate the light like MIB was. I’m seeing more loops the more I think about it all.
Sorry, I meant “That’s why I THINK the light is evil.” not “questioning”
Is that a…turtle…?
As for the whole “island in the future”…
Is it not strange, that Lost gives us many dates, sometimes in captions, sometimes in the story…yet this episode had no date?
AES – I’m referring to the very beginning of the episode when Claudia’s still out in the water. The camera is panning left and there’s a weird little bluish thing chillin on the beach. It sure doesn’t look like something from the caveman era.
I think I know what you’re talking about. I couldn’t tell if that was a turtle or not. It seemed like it though. If it was, I bet it was symbolism. Tortoises live longer than anything else on this planet (just like island protectors such as Jacob). I’ve really reachin tonight.
I agree, the lack of dates is something I noticed. I mentioned it in a comment on “The Black Album”. I think it’s the first episode that the audience has been in the complete dark in terms of a time frame. The major reason I think the future is a possibility.
Youre not reaching…you are just starting to see the “light”…
sorry, had to take it…
Seriously though, little things like that are sometimes huge finds.
I havent rewatched yet, so Ill let you know what I think on that tomorrow…
On the future again…it leads me to the question of Claudias importance or possible bloodline.
Everyone assumed MIB was Aaron, so now that he isnt, and this could possibly be the future(or a part of it)…its hard for me to imagine the family ties being shallow at this point in the game…
Damn…you did say that first about the dates…
Good call on the tortoise too…long life huh…makes heaps of sense…that and maybe it was time for someone to come out of their shell…
Oh god…I can smell a TMNT joke from here…
MIB was the one looking at the tortoise too…..just as he was about to come out of his shell. This show’s exploding with symbolism. It’s making me kinda sick.
I really enjoyed reading your analysis, good post!!
Just to also ask for everyone’s forgiveness. I kept saying Jacob was Aaron, and so it proved wrong!! I really enoyed the episode, but still several stones unturned.
Thanks nacho,
Forgiveness? NEVER!….Well, okay. We’ve all been very wrong on too many occasions. I too figured Aaron’s character would serve a purpose by now. Still 3 and a half hours left though. Aaron might not be Jacob, but he might be Claudia’s husband at some point. No one ever said that “Across the Sea” took place in the past…..
Ill forgive you for the Aaron is MIB comment, but not the terrible, yet unintentional pun at the end of your last comment about unturning stones…Im stretching for entertainment right now…sorry…
Honestly, how could you not help but fall into an Aaron is MIB/Jacob hole…?
It was so easy, almost irresistible.
I think its possible that it technically occurred in the past, but the island itself is from the future. It could be contained in the bubble/radius, if does indeed exist before the incident…which wouldnt really matter becuase the incident occurs in the world past, but the island future…
The whole point is, that in the long run if the island is from the future…nothing ended, if you think about it. Making time almost worthless in terms of measurement.
It also adds two element that cannot be used in other shows, adaptation…and allowing a conclusion to actually occur before the calender time of the beginning…making it very interesting.
The beginning, can actually be the end, and vice versa…Making the island really become important again in the final season.
So much has occurred off island, that we tend to take some of the islands properties for granted. Im really hoping to see the island itself really play a vital role in the end…not just the people.
It circled back around to the past again, and picked up where they began.
Now thats rambling…
It may be mother who is actually the one from the future. She is the oldest person we know hwo has been on the island, making me think that she would be from the future.
The best possible scenario that I could play out, is to learn that MIB and Jacob (and Claudia obviously) did indeed come to the island just as everyone else.
Mother dearest, although she obviously lies to the boys, tells them that there is nothing across the sea.
When MIB asks her why she wouldnt let him leave, what does she say…”Because I love you.”
What happens when people leave the island after being there for a bit, or even just through the wrong coordinate…Regina, Minkowski, almost Desmond, and theoretically Eloise the Rat…?
They become riddled with a sickness of sorts…and THEY DIE of no constant…
She may have very well been protecting them as much as she was tricking them…
OMG…I just thought of something…