Lost: Across the Sea

Before I say anything else, kudos to Lost on having the gumption to air the third to last episode of the entire series and not have a single new scene with a series regular character in the entire episode.

For the most part the bold move worked out masterfully. Alison Janning did strong work as the pre-Jacob, Jacob. However, the child actors who played Jacob and the Man in Black simply stole the show. The Boy/Man in Black was such a fully realized character that I began to feel sympathy for him by the time his "mother" slammed his head into the walls of the well. That in itself is an amazing bit of emotional manipulation considering one week ago he was responsible for the deaths of four beloved characters.

I will now eat crow for emphatically stating that the Man in Black is Jacob. He is not, but he is about as near to Jacob as any one person can be considering they are twin brothers. It is curious that Jacob was not the distinguished sibling. In every respect, the Boy in Black is superior to Jacob. He more inquisitive, has a natural understanding of the island, and things in general come easily to him. To perfectly punctuate The Boy in Black's superiority, in Jacob's strongest scene, possibly ever, he has to ask his mother "why do you love him more than me?" To which she cannot deny that her love for not-Jacob is stronger.

Yet when she explains to mopey adult Jacob that he is the one to replace her, I believe her. She said it was always supposed to be him, she just did not know it at the time. It would seem that the innate goodness in Jacob is what the island was craving in a custodian. The Man in Black was the first person to exploit the power of the island and it would seem that the "light" of the island could see that coming.

Who dug the wells and built the wheel which moves the island? The Man in Black did because he understood that the "light" of the island could warp him somewhere else, he completed it after he was made into Smokey. Whose bodies were "Adam and Eve's"? They belonged to the Man in Black and his mother and they were placed there by Jacob. How did Jacob come to be on the island and how did he get his power? His pregnant mother was ship wrecked there centuries ago and after 43 (give or take) years on the island he took over for what I can only imagine is a long line of island protectors. How was the Smoke Monster created? The Man in Black was sent into the light as punishment by Jacob after murdering his mother, this was a fate worse than death and turned him into Smokey. Why could The Man in Black not kill Jacob? Because their mother put the hex on them, which incidentally is probably what Jacob did to Ben and Widmore.

Did anyone else find it odd that after Claudia drank the liquid "mother" gave her she instantly began speaking English? How much easier for Jin would this whole series have been if Jacob gave him a glass of that magic juice? Claudia only picked one name, seriously? Is there any chance The Man in Black's name is actually "Brother"?

Speaking of long shots, it is worth noting that the only regular characters to appear in this episode are Locke, Jack, and Kate. We already know the significance of Locke and it certainly seems like Jack is the Jacob replacement, but what if it is Kate. The previous custodian of the island was a female and it stands to reason that a gender rotation is not altogether out of the question. It just seems so purposeful that only those three characters are depicted in this episode. Kate's "who are they, where did they come from" could have easily been cut from this episode, so why make the point to include her if she was not extremely important to this part of the story?