So, that is the "secret" of the island? Light? This week's Lost (the second to last regular episode of the series) was, to me, more frustrating than enlightening. As the producers of the show revealed early in the season, one episode would feature none of the "main" characters (the original castaways from Oceanic 815), and this was it. In "Across the Sea," we learn the origins of Jacob and the Man in Black (aka Smoke Monster aka Locke). But, we don't really learn the "truth" about the island, just more vague references to good and evil, dark and light.
So, it turns out the two are brothers - fraternal twins - whose mother came to the island after her ship wrecked. She was already very pregnant. After landing on the island, she was met by a woman who helped her deliver the babies. She was unaware that she was having twins (this was hundreds of years ago, so no ultrasound), and she said she only thought of one name...Jacob. After delivering the second baby - MIB - the woman from the island kills the mother and keeps the babies as her own.
This woman raises the boys to be very fearful of outsiders, and tells them there is no other place on earth but this island - and they can never leave. When the boys discover other people on the island, she tells them they are bad and to stay away. This isolationist view works for Jacob, who believes everything his mother tells him, but not for MIB who is, apparently, more curious and less trusting. At one point, the boys' mother takes them to a special place where the island's "light" is, and explains that this light must be protected from outsiders who will exploit it or extinguish it. One of the boys, she says, will have to protect it when she dies.
Eventually, MIB learns the truth about what happened to his bio-Mom when she appears to him (a pre-cursor to MIB seeing - and becoming - dead people). He leaves Jacob and his Mother and joins the group of the remaining survivors of his real mother's shipwreck. Though Jacob is forbidden from contact with his brother, the two remain close, and secretly meet up to play a game that looked like an ancient form of backgammon.
Thirty years later, as adults, Jacob and MIB meet up and MIB shows Jacob what his people have discovered - the unique electromagnetism on the island. This is, of course, the same light the boys' mother showed them as children. But MIB and his people are attempting to use the energy to create a way to leave the island. They have dug a number of wells, and have figured out another way to access the energy since none can find the place MIB was shown as a boy.
In short order, the Mom finds out about this, knocks out MIB, and kills all of his people. She then destroys the wells. MIB then kills her. When Jacob sees what his brother has done, he kills MIB by throwing him into the light. This, then, transforms him into the smoke monster that we know and love today.
While there was a lot of good information in that story (Jacob and MIB are brothers, they were born - but not conceived - on the island, etc.), there were still many things that remained unanswered. For example, how long was the woman who raised Jacob and MIB on the island? How did she get there? Who made her the protector? Did she know the boys would be coming to the island (similar to how Jacob created candidates and knew that Jack, Sawyer, etc were coming)? If Jacob could essentially live forever, why couldn't she? She claims she killed the boys' bio-mom so they would remain good. But how can murder achieve that result? Is this why Jacob has been so violent (i.e. authorizing the killing of the Dharma people and the military)? If Jacob and MIB are on opposite sides, why then could Ben "summon" the smoke monster when he needed it for protection? Why couldn't Jacob protect them? What is the "light"? If their Mother told them they could not leave the island, why did Jacob leave to "touch" the candidates? How did he get off the island? While he was gone, couldn't MIB have escaped somehow? I could think of a hundred more.
So, while some things about Jacob and his brother were revealed/explained, there is still much that needs further explanation. With two more episodes to go, that doesn't leave much time. I'd imagine, though, that not much more explanation of Jacob will be offered. But the identity of the final candidate is yet to be revealed (Jack? Hurley?), as well as what Widmore and his team are up to. Add to that, the seeming intersection between the original lives of the castaways and their "flash sideways" lives, and there is still a lot to be explained.
So, it turns out the two are brothers - fraternal twins - whose mother came to the island after her ship wrecked. She was already very pregnant. After landing on the island, she was met by a woman who helped her deliver the babies. She was unaware that she was having twins (this was hundreds of years ago, so no ultrasound), and she said she only thought of one name...Jacob. After delivering the second baby - MIB - the woman from the island kills the mother and keeps the babies as her own.
This woman raises the boys to be very fearful of outsiders, and tells them there is no other place on earth but this island - and they can never leave. When the boys discover other people on the island, she tells them they are bad and to stay away. This isolationist view works for Jacob, who believes everything his mother tells him, but not for MIB who is, apparently, more curious and less trusting. At one point, the boys' mother takes them to a special place where the island's "light" is, and explains that this light must be protected from outsiders who will exploit it or extinguish it. One of the boys, she says, will have to protect it when she dies.
Eventually, MIB learns the truth about what happened to his bio-Mom when she appears to him (a pre-cursor to MIB seeing - and becoming - dead people). He leaves Jacob and his Mother and joins the group of the remaining survivors of his real mother's shipwreck. Though Jacob is forbidden from contact with his brother, the two remain close, and secretly meet up to play a game that looked like an ancient form of backgammon.
Thirty years later, as adults, Jacob and MIB meet up and MIB shows Jacob what his people have discovered - the unique electromagnetism on the island. This is, of course, the same light the boys' mother showed them as children. But MIB and his people are attempting to use the energy to create a way to leave the island. They have dug a number of wells, and have figured out another way to access the energy since none can find the place MIB was shown as a boy.
In short order, the Mom finds out about this, knocks out MIB, and kills all of his people. She then destroys the wells. MIB then kills her. When Jacob sees what his brother has done, he kills MIB by throwing him into the light. This, then, transforms him into the smoke monster that we know and love today.
While there was a lot of good information in that story (Jacob and MIB are brothers, they were born - but not conceived - on the island, etc.), there were still many things that remained unanswered. For example, how long was the woman who raised Jacob and MIB on the island? How did she get there? Who made her the protector? Did she know the boys would be coming to the island (similar to how Jacob created candidates and knew that Jack, Sawyer, etc were coming)? If Jacob could essentially live forever, why couldn't she? She claims she killed the boys' bio-mom so they would remain good. But how can murder achieve that result? Is this why Jacob has been so violent (i.e. authorizing the killing of the Dharma people and the military)? If Jacob and MIB are on opposite sides, why then could Ben "summon" the smoke monster when he needed it for protection? Why couldn't Jacob protect them? What is the "light"? If their Mother told them they could not leave the island, why did Jacob leave to "touch" the candidates? How did he get off the island? While he was gone, couldn't MIB have escaped somehow? I could think of a hundred more.
So, while some things about Jacob and his brother were revealed/explained, there is still much that needs further explanation. With two more episodes to go, that doesn't leave much time. I'd imagine, though, that not much more explanation of Jacob will be offered. But the identity of the final candidate is yet to be revealed (Jack? Hurley?), as well as what Widmore and his team are up to. Add to that, the seeming intersection between the original lives of the castaways and their "flash sideways" lives, and there is still a lot to be explained.
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