Written by My sincerest apologies for my absence last week. I was busy graduating! But no worries, I will continue my blog until the end, which, unfortunately, is coming sooner than we all would like! But no tears now. Now is the time to get hype over all of the good stuff we learned!
Episode recap in 150 words: Jacob and MIB born on the island to Claudia, who washed ashore after her ship wrecked. After seeing the twins, the woman who found Claudia kills her and raises the boys as her own. She makes it so that the two boys can not hurt each other. From the beginning, the boys have been different. When MIB sees his Claudia’s ghost and learns the truth, he desires to live among other people who have landed on the island, against his fake mom’s wishes. Jacob sticks with his fake mom and inherits the responsibility of guarding the island’s treasure, a cave of light. After moving into the other people’s camp, MIB builds the donkey wheel to harness light’s power but fake mom trashes it so he kills her. In retaliation, Jacob sends MIB into the light cave and out pops Smokey. He buries fake mom and MIB together with two stones.
BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Let’s talk about the differences between Jacob and MIB because the episode made a point of establishing them.
Jacob MIB
White/light Darkness
Named Unnamed
Believes in the goodness of people Believes people are greedy, selfish
Content staying on the island Has always wanted to leave island
Cannot lie Willing to lie
Retains his body Loses his body in light cave
Jealous of Jacob Apathetic after learning of fake mom’s lies
MIB remains nameless. Is this because he has no name (because Claudia did not know she was having twins she had only come up with one name), or because the creators want to keep us in the dark some more? I think his name will be revealed much later and will uncover something vital to the interpretation of the show.
The two boys were good friends, even after MIB left to live with Claudia’s people. Yes, Jacob threw his brother into the light cave, and true, MIB killed the woman Jacob loved as a mother, but Jacob still lovingly buried his brother. I think something else happened between the two men after MIB lost his body to cause the animosity we saw in season five’s season finale.
MIB presumably built the frozen donkey wheel that transported Ben and Locke off the island. Why can’t MIB use it? Perhaps Jacob has some power over MIB’s ability to use the wheel and that is why they are fighting?
Where is the light cave? Why has no one seen it? And how does it turn someone into smoke? Crazy!!! Sometimes I think the writers write each episode keeping a tally of everything they reveal versus every new mystery they create, making sure to keep the two in complete balance.
Where did fake mom come from? What is her name? She claims to come from her mother, so perhaps the island had some sort of matriarchical system with no males before Claudia crashed. What power does she have? Does saying that her two sons can not hurt each other make it true? Why is she different from other men and women? IS she different? I feel like I am writing more questions than sentences but that is kind of how I feel right now. My hypothesis: the island has given her some sort of power in return of her service in watching the cave and keeping everyone on the island. She just took her job really seriously.
Mother of the Year!
So it turns out I was right! There are some sort of rules in place so that Jacob and MIB can not hurt each other. I also think that the two men have some sort of connection (possibly they are related) to Widmore and Ben, which is why the two of them cannot kill each other themselves. Jacob is also connected to one of the people on the sub, so he forced them to kill each other.
What does the island’s light represent? Fake mom claimed there was a little bit in every person but they always want more. She said if the cave light goes out, the light in every person similarly extinguishes. Is it goodness? Soul? The essence of life itself? I am going to go with love (surprising, I’m sure). Without love, the world would be a sad place, so it makes sense that fake mom would want to keep it safe. Also an abundance of love, or misguided love, can also be a bad thing — such as the little girl who strangles her kitty cat because she loves it so much – just as going into the cave can overwhelm a someone so much that they lose their earthly body. I know it is all a little heady, and I’m not completely sold on it yet, but it kind of makes sense, right?
The Glory Hole?
Let us not forget the biggest piece of mystery solved this week – ADAM AND EVE = MIB and Fake Mom!! Perhaps those are their real names? Probs not but I am just glad that one of our oldest mysteries has been resolutely answered.
I also found the end of the episode extremely interesting. Jacob says goodbye to his brother, who moments before he was dragging around the island, but does not say goodbye to his mother, who he never showed much resentment towards. For some reason the scene reminded me of Jesus on the cross: “When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26-27). Of course the roles are reversed, instead of the son dying on the cross, the mother and other son are dead(-ish). Not sure if the parallel is intentional but the mother and two sons and death conflation brought it to mind for me.
So much background! I can not wait to see what the last two episodes have in store – well, actually, I guess I can because I do not want it to end.
Keep sending me your thoughts and theories!
See ya in another week, brotha!
All images via Lost Media.
