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As I finished up last week's recap, I was afraid I'd gone soft. I was afraid that because I'm so in love with this show, and this season -- because this is this show's last season -- I'd never again assign it a grade lower than an A+. Whew! Glad that's no longer a problem. "Across The Sea" isn't much ado about nothing, but it is little ado about little, and so this recaplet will follow suit.
A pregnant woman in a red gown (i.e. a very long red shirt) is shipwrecked and washes up on the shore of Craphole Island. She travels inland to the creek and, while she's drinking, she meets up with CJ Fricking Cregg. CJ brings her back to her rape cave. Although we never learn CJ's name, we do learn the pregnant woman's name: Claudia. Claudia gives birth to a son, and names him Jacob. CJ obviously wants to take the baby, but is interrupted when Claudia gives birth to another son. She doesn't get the chance to name him, on account of the fact that CJ Fricking Cregg bashes Claudia in the head with a rock and kills her. Maternal mortality sure was a bitch back in the day -- like this episode. We never do learn "Esau"/The Man-In-Black's name. There are all sorts of supernatural genre reasons why that's awesome, but there are more long-suffering-Lost-fan reasons why that sucks.
The babies grow and grow, as babies do. Adolescent Jacob is played by Kenton Duty (a.k.a. "Boy" in earlier recaps from this season). Adolescent "Esau" is played by Ryan Hanson Bradford, who (in this episode), is more a looker than an actor. CJ keeps a tight rein on her boys. They're even afraid to let her know they're playing a game (Backgammon) that "Esau" found on the beach.
One day, the boys run across other men on the island. When they tell "Mom" about it, she says that men "come, fight, destroy, corrupt; it always ends the same," and the boys should totally stay away from them. This is what I shall tell my daughter. At some point in there, CJ shows them a magical passage from which emanates a beautiful golden light. Every man has a bit of this beautiful light in him, but they always want more, and that's a bad thing, because... something. Men cannot take the light, but they can try, and if they try they can put it out. If the light goes out on the island, it goes out everywhere. Isn't everything much clearer, now? CJ has protected this place, but can't do so forever. One of the boys will have to take over for her.
Soon thereafter, the ghost of Claudia appears while Jacob and "Esau" are playing Backgammon. But only "Esau" can see her, because he's "special." He follows her to a camp where her people are -- the men CJ said were bad -- the people who were on Claudia's ship. Once "Esau" understands that the island isn't all there is to the world, he wants to return from whence he came. "Esau" tries to get Jacob to leave with him and join the proto-Others, but Jacob is pure, good, and short-bus stupid. CJ tells "Esau" he'll never be able to leave the island, but "Esau" says that's bull, and he'll prove it one day. And somewhere in there, CJ reveals she's given the boys the gift of immortality. Also, she reveals they'll never be able to hurt one another.
When "Esau" grows into Titus Welliver, he and his "people" start building the magic donkey wheel. This displeases CJ, so she bashes "Esau's" head against the cave wall, but he doesn't die, because she made him immortal. When he wakes, his whole village has been burnt down and everyone's dead. Soon thereafter, "Esau" kills his mother, like you do, which leads to a fight between him and Mark Pellegrino's Jacob. Jacob thrashes the shit out of "Esau" and sends him down the river into the beautiful golden light. "Esau" emerges as Smokey. Jacob finds his human corpse, brings it back to his "mother's" rape cave and lays them side by side. He tucks the white and black stones from the Backgammon set in with his dead family, for good measure. CJ and "Esau" are Adam and Eve. Expect me to call all sorts of shenanigans in the recap.
This all leads to a flashback-forward-back. Remember, yonks ago, when Charlie stepped on a beehive? Locke told him to stay still; Charlie failed; the bees went bonkers -- all in order to get Jack and Kate to rip off their shirts? Remember how they then found the Adam and Eve skeletons? Well, the writers think we're taking a bus even shorter than Jacob's, so they show us the whole thing again, just in case we didn't get that CJ and "Esau" are our Adam and Eve.
And? That's pretty much it. Somewhere in there -- somewhere before her death -- CJ gives Jacob a drink, and by doing so, she establishes him as Island Protector -- at least until his replacement arrives. I'm sure there are other things too -- other things which (at the moment) interest me far less than a good night's sleep. The whole episode left me feeling like there was no episode this week. I'll think on it long and hard before the recap, but right now, my reaction is a decided Meh.
I'm starting the full recap, now. Until then, please grade the episode in the "forums, where we'd never leave corpses lying around to rot in our rape caves.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome to a very "special" episode of Lost -- special as in Special Education. You probably don't require it, but for those of you who are slow, like Jacob (and me), I'll sum up the moral first. As the episode progresses, follow along closely and see if you too can pick it out of the story. You ready? Okay.
Moral: There's this tantalizing glow. Its name and origin are both a big question mark, so I'll call it XX. Now there's some of this inside of man (let's call man XY), but once man is exposed to the glowing, warm, wet passageway leading to the XX source, he loses all restraint. Armed with only his tiny but mighty X, he tries to take the glowing, warm, wet XX and... I'd tell you more, but this is no XXX website. The point is -- the good, pure man must stay away from the glowing, warm, wet XX, for to do otherwise would be a fate worse than death! Who will protect the good, pure man and his tiny but mighty X from the glowing, warm, wet XX? Why, Mother -- of course. Merda, Show. Your five and a half years of Daddy Issues appear but a molehill when viewed alongside Mount Mommy Issues for a mere 42 minutes. I don't know whether to congratulate you for coming to terms with your misogyny; curse you for reminding me how inadequate I've found your treatment of our female characters; or just burn my bra and be done with it, but I'm going bra so I can get on with the recap.
Once Upon A Time: A beautiful brunette woman (Lela Loren) is shipwrecked, and washes up on the sandy shores of A Mysterious Island. Her soaking wet long red gown (or as I like to think of it -- red shirt extreme) clings to her heavily pregnant form, even as it signals to us that she is not long for this world. The woman struggles inland until she finds a stream of potable water. As she sates her thirst she is startled to spot a reflection in the water. She screams when she looks up to find CJ Fricking Cregg (Allison Janney) looking, rough, tough, surly and downright scary (although to be fair, that homespun she's wearing looks itchy as Hell). The women converse in Latin because Esperanto doesn't exist yet. CJ offers a helping hand. Young Mother reluctantly accepts.
Ms. Janney's character is never named in this episode, but we can tell already that she's going to turn out to be a Child-Jacker, so CJ it is. Once they're back in the Rape Caves, Young Mother eats, while CJ dresses her wounds. Finally, CJ asks her guest's name. "Claudia." And then, twinkle twinkle twoo: A Musical Cue of Import. Although the characters will continue to converse in Latin, we -- thanks to the Magic of Television -- will hear their conversation in English. Thank you Magic of Television and your twinkle twinkle twoo. I don't know how the home audience feels, but this makes things much easier for me.
Claudia asks CJ where the rest of her people are. When CJ says she's alone, Claudia wants to know how she ended up on Craphole. CJ: "The same way you got here -- by accident." Claudia: "How long have you..." Two-Headed-Darlton-Beast-as-Channeled-by-CJ: "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question. You should rest. Just be grateful you're alive." Fandom: "Darlton fellat!"
Claudia doesn't know about the two-headed Darlton Beast, but she can sense the inherent creepiness of the Rape Caves and her hostess, so she starts to rise. "There were other people on my ship. I need to..." CJ shuts that right down. How can she steal your offspring if you leave, you silly goose? Speaking of offspring, Claudia immediately goes into labor. CJ: "The baby?" Claudia: "It's coming." Oh piffle, it's coming; he's coming; they're coming. Everyone is, except those of us watching at home. I'm sorry, I don't usually work all that blue, but this episode seems to be bringing it out in me. We cut to the...f
Rape Caves: Claudia's in the homestretch of labor, with CJ catching. Push. I can't. You can. AAAiiiiieeeeeeeeeee! CJ holds up the smiling babe. "It's a boy." Claudia: "His name is Jacob." CJ swaddles him in white, and rather than handing him to Claudia, she takes him a little bit away, strokes his face and looks lovingly at him. Claudia: "Can I -- AAAAAuggggh!" CJ realizes there's another baby on its way, and again catches as Claudia pushes. It's a boy. Claudia: "I only picked one name." This Player-To-Be-Named-Later is never named in this episode, so I shall call him -- as I always have -- Esau. Right now, he's no Man in Black, but just as CJ swaddled his twin in white, she swaddles this second, gooier, angrier newborn in black, and boy is he is pissed. Claudia's weak, but she holds up her head. "May I see him?" CJ moves in toward Claudia holding a black blanket, but when she says, "I'm sorry," it turns out that she's pulled the old baby-rock switcheroo, you know, like they do at carnivals. CJ then proceeds to bash Claudia's brains out with said rock. She's going to regret that when they need to feed, but oh well. Happy Birthday, Boys!
Haruspicy 101: People have been trying to fix this episode and its main players in time and space. Mark Pellegrino (Jacob) has cited 43 A.D. and in the episode, Titus Welliver's character mentions a 30 year period of his life. To reconcile these numbers with Jacob and "Esau's" ages throughout the episode, I'm assuming: In Act 1, Claudia washed up on the shores of Craphole circa 1 A.D.; Acts 2 and 3 of this episode are set around 13 or 14 A.D; Acts 4 and 5 are set in 43 A.D. As to Claudia's nation of origin: she speaks Latin -- the lingua franca of the western provinces of the Roman Empire. However, she chooses the Hebrew name Jacob for her firstborn. Judea was under Roman rule in the First Century A.D., but the lingua franca of the eastern provinces was Koine Greek. So, in my mind, Claudia might be a Jewish woman hailing from Rome (although sometimes I like to pretend she's Pontius Pilate's wife, which screws with everything, including my assumed time-table, so never mind about that; that's just my stuff).
Haruspicy 102: People are wondering when Lost abandoned Egyptians for Romans. And what about the Temple -- a site so central to the beginning of this season? Well, it's got a lot of hieroglyphic markings, but with the mikvah featuring so prominently, I can't help but think of the Temple at Jerusalem. When Rome sacked Jerusalem circa 70 A.D., perhaps some Jewish refugees set sail and wound up on Craphole. Egypt fell to Roman rule around 30 B.C. at Cleopatra's death, but it's not like Egypt disappeared or anything, so I'm just assuming that at some point, Egyptians were drawn to Craphole -- perhaps then, or perhaps in the late fourth century A.D., when Emperor Theodosius I banned non-Christian rites and closed pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire. Maybe some Ancient Egyptians set sail searching for a new, free land, and ended up on Craphole. Suckers.
Haruspicy 103: Finally, people have also pointed out that Romans were largely land lubbers, and so they're wondering how either Claudia or CJ ended up washing up on our island in the first place. Remember though, the island can move through time and space. Maybe, at one point, it was smack dab in the Mediterranean. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm sticking to it, because as much as "Across the Sea" is a flashback and an origin tale, it's presented more like an origin myth (allegory, fable, parable or what have you) than a scientific account. It presents facts in story form. Whatever happened, happened -- those are the constants in our story. If a detail isn't covered, it doesn't matter. No matter how curious we are, our choice remains: like it or lump it. With little time left, yet much invested, there's no way I can lump it, so refill my wine glass, and let's put this bitch in the ground.
Craphole; Circa 13 A.D.: Adolescent-Angst Esau (Ryan Hanson Bradford) looks like every single boy I ever fell in love with, on the cover of Tiger Beat. But that's hardly here nor there. He finds a Senet game sticking out of the sand. I apologize for calling it Backgammon in the recaplet. Earlier this season, I was doing some research on Backgammon (for this show) and came across information on Senet, but after "Across the Sea" aired, I couldn't remember its name, so I just substituted Backgammon, because I wanted to go to bed. Too honest? Anyhow, Esau is setting his black rocks on the board when his fraternal twin Juvenile-Gem Jacob (Kenton Duty a.k.a. "Boy" in recaps) approaches. When Esau invites Jacob to play, Jacob wonders how Esau even knows how. Esau: "I just know." This is an important fact about Esau. He "just knows" a lot. Chew that over. Think about Smokey rigging (or double-rigging) that C4 to the watch. Heck, think about him even knowing he'd need the watch. Think about him anticipating the Losties' reaction to the C4. Think about all the things he's done in all his forms in all these years. He does just know, doesn't he? He just knows. Anyhow, Esau will show Jacob how to play if he'll promise not to tell "Mother" (CJ), "Because she'll take it away." Jacob examines the white game piece in his hand. Esau: "So -- do you want to play or don't you, Jacob?" It sounds weightier than it reads. It is. It's everything. Jacob thinks it over and then places his white rock on his end of the board. "Yes. I want to play." And there we have it. This whole thing -- birth, death, love, loss, injury, miraculous healing, black, white, cage sex, getting caught in a net, pushing buttons, blowing up hatches, fail safes, magical magnets, Dharma beer and magic boxes -- it all comes down to this: It's all in the game. It's fricking child's play, I tell you what. Need more wine. BRB.
Later, Jacob returns to the Rape Caves where CJ is weaving her tangled web a tapestry. She knows it's Jacob before she turns to look at him, because she's spooky like that. She also seems to know, immediately, that the boy is not telling her something. She asks him where his brother is and what he's doing. Jacob: "He's down at the beach, staring out at the ocean." Like Jack? WTF?! Gulp. As Jacob helps his mother sort thread, she guilts the full story out of her fair-haired boy. "Do you love me, Jacob?" Jacob: "Yes." CJ: "Then tell me what happened."
When CJ finds Esau down at the beach, he tries to stick the Senet game in the sand. She sits to him and smiles. Esau immediately knows the score. "Jacob told you what I found." CJ: "Of course he did. Jacob doesn't know how to lie... He's not like you." Or you, CJ! My youngest doesn't know how to lie, either. Speaking as a mother, I appreciate that a lot more than CJ seems to. Esau isn't sure if he's thrilled that his mother just basically called him a big fat liar. "Why? What am I like?" CJ: "You're special." I like Mr. Rogers' version of this song so much better, but Esau's brilliant smile indicates he's cool with CJ's. He grows more serious though, when he asks if he can keep the game. CJ: "Of course you can. That's why I left it for you." Esau: "It came from you?" CJ: "Of course it did. Where else would it come from?" Esau: "From somewhere else -- across the sea." CJ: "There is nowhere else. The island is all there is." Oh, her pants are so on fire right now. Esau wants to know where they came from. CJ lies that the boys came from her and adds that she came from her own mother. Esau asks where CJ's mother is. CJ: "She's dead." Esau: "What's dead?" CJ: "Something you will never have to worry about." She pulls him close and kisses his cheek. Oh, man. No, he won't have to worry about being dead, but everyone else will, and largely at his hands (or plumes or whatever). What did you do to these boys, you nutcake?
A boar races through the jungle. Esau and Jacob follow after it, spears in hand, ready to bring home the bacon. Mmm, bacon. Then there's a loud smack. They find their prey already dead. They have the good sense to hide in the brush and watch as men arrive to retrieve the boar. The men almost find the boys, but they're too distracted with their kill to look all that closely. We cut to...
CJ's Garden: The kids run back and tell CJ about the men and the boar. CJ is worried that her boys were spotted, but they're pretty sure they weren't. Jacob wonders of the men: "Where did they come from? They looked like us." CJ: "They're not like us. They don't belong here. We are here for a reason." And so it goes, this is how you get Others, Castaways, Hostiles, Survivors and so on. We were here first. It's our island. Don't cross that line. Don't tell me what I can't do. Same as it ever was. Esau wants to know their "reason" for being there -- their reason for being. CJ: "It's not time yet." Esau, clearly the favorite, gets stompy because he can get away with it: "Mother, what reason?" She strokes his cheek, and Jacob's shoulder, then tells the boys to come with her.
As CJ leads her now blindfolded boys through the jungle, they ask her questions which she answers as vaguely as possible. She knew about the other people, but she didn't tell them because the people are dangerous and she didn't want to frighten the kids. Jacob: "What makes them dangerous?" CJ: "The same thing that makes all men dangerous. They come; they fight; they destroy; they corrupt; and it always ends the same. Esau spots her lie and calls her on it, even as he memorizes her fabulous statement of misanthropy for future use. "They come? Come from where?" CJ fronts even better than Ben Linus. "Another part of the island, and you're never to go looking for them. If they found you they would hurt you." Jacob asks why. CJ: "Because they're people, Jacob, and that's what people do." Raise your hand if you'd rather be raised by an Anthony Cooper/Christian Shephard tag-team than by this hag? Thanks, Show. Thanks a lot. Women finally matter -- they finally matter, because it's their fault the men are all screwed up. [Spike: "Well, this is just...neat." Cindy: "Shut up, Spike." Spike: "What the bleeding Hell is wrong with you bloody women?" Cindy: "I said SHUT UP, SPIKE!"] Anyhow, Esau probes further: "But we're people. Does that mean we can hurt each other?" CJ removes their blindfolds. "I've made it so you can never hurt each other..." Yeah, just everyone else. This is Mommy's game. These are Mommy's rules. She then turns them 'round because she's ready to reveal her pink secrets.
A gentle stream flows toward lush thicket, dotted with red flowers. In the center, there is a tunnel -- a tunnel aglow with an alluring light. Georgia O'Keefe rolls over in her grave. Wide-eyed innocents, these pubescent boys don't realize they're looking at the Island's vagina, so Esau says, "What is this place?" CJ: "This is the reason we're here." CJ leads the boys for a closer look. The going is slow, in their bare feet. Jacob follows Esau right up to the vulva. They stop when CJ tells them not to enter it. Esau: "What's down there?" CJ: "The warmest, brightest light you've ever seen or felt, and we must make sure that no one ever finds it." When a captivated Esau proclaims it beautiful, CJ says, "Yes it is, and that's why they want it. Because a little bit of this very same light is inside of every man, but they always want more." Jacob: "Can they take it?" CJ: "No, but they would try. And if they tried, they could put it out. And if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere. And so I've protected this place, but I can't protect it forever." Esau: "Then who will?" CJ: "It will have to be one of you." Jacob, do you see the look on your brother's face? You'd better rig up the Island's chastity belt. Esau wants to pop its cherry. Commercial.
Sidebar: I walk a tightrope deciding how much of myself to bring to these recaps. Although I incorporate a good bit of criticism and analysis, this is primarily a recap -- a retelling of the story as I see it. When I share a little bit of my spirituality or politics, I do so gingerly, and only with the hope that it will help you understand what I'm seeing and possibly why. When you write back and share some of yourself and your understanding, it thrills me, even (and maybe especially) when our views differ. These recaps should always be about Lost, which spans eons, oceans, continents, world views and heck -- realities. My hope and belief is that you and I will meet somewhere in the story, even if we'd never meet in church, at the polls, or in the library. But I came to the show knowing a woman was supposed to be the lead, and the Jack character only survived and rose to prominence because the network thought a male lead would sell better. Now, admittedly, having Matthew Fox as that male lead distracted me just fine. But then I spent five and a half years watching Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Rousseau, Alex, Juliet and Sun die; Claire (like Rousseau before her) go crazy; Rose go missing (like Claire before her); and Kate go in circles. So now, to see five and a half years of Daddy Issues fade into nothingness, after only 40-something minutes of Mommy Issues -- A.K.A. THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL -- I'm feeling a little...prickly. So, while I'm sorry for hitting you over the head with the X(Y), the XX and the XXX, chastity belts and cherries, this is what comes naturally when I retell this episode. For a more serious, less naughty examination of these issues, please see Maureen Ryan's excellent analysis of "Across the Sea." Like Mo, I'm one of the few women included in Metacritic's Round-Up of Lost reviews, and this week I couldn't not let my sex inform this recap. Your mileage may vary, and if it does, you probably liked this episode a heck of a lot more than I did, which means you win. I'll try to behave myself like a good little girl, now. Let's get back to the show.
Jacob and Esau play Senet in a clearing. When Jacob moves his white piece both forward and SIDEWAYS, Esau moves it back, telling him he can't. Jacob: "Why?" Esau says it's against the rules. Jacob: "You made the rules." Esau says, "I found it. One day, you can make up your own game, and everyone else will have to follow your rules." YOU DIG IT? Esau's good-natured smile fades when he notices a beautiful young woman standing some distance behind his brother. It's Claudia. Has her gown faded over the years, or does it just look that way because she's dry? Anyhow, she's bathed in amber light. "It's all right. Don't be afraid." Some people think she's Smokey in smokin' form, but because "fear not" is how angels typically introduce themselves in Scripture, I think this is actually Claudia's spirit; Esau can see her because he's special. Anyhow, Jacob notices Esau's attention has been diverted, but he neither sees nor hears this apparition of his mother, so he says, "What? What's wrong?" Esau doesn't give a direct answer. Instead he rises. "I'm going for a walk to the beach. I'll meet you later."
Esau runs until he finds Claudia a bit away. Finally, she says, "Hello." Esau keeps his distance. "Why can't Jacob see you?" Claudia: "Because I'm dead." Because you're special. When Esau reels back slightly, she adds, "Will you come with me? I'd like to show you something [...] where you came from. It's across the island -- a place you've never seen."
Esau follows Claudia until they reach the outskirts of Camp Nameless. The campers there are busy little bees, bustling in and out of their straw huts that look so familiar -- to us, if not to Esau. He asks his guide who those people are. Claudia: "They came here 13 years ago -- the day before you were born. Their ship was wrecked in a storm." Esau: "Ship? What's that?" Good thing he's cute. Claudia explains that a ship is a form of water transportation. "It's how we came across the sea." Esau protests: "There's nothing across the sea." Claudia: "There are many things across the sea. You come from across the sea, too." And you knew that, Esau, because you just know things. Esau seems to fight back tears. "No. That's not true. That's not what my mother told me." Claudia smiles. "She's not your mother; I am." He swallows hard and looks away. Esau has two mommies! CJ manipulated him, lied to him, and messed with his head. Now Claudia is leading him further astray. Mommies rule; Daddies drool...so yay, or um...something.
Rape Caves; Night: As CJ sleeps, Esau packs a bag and wakes his brother, telling him to come with him. In the jungle, while Esau and his torch take the lead, Jacob asks why he has all his things. Esau: "They're our things. I took them because we're leaving, and we're never coming back." Jacob doesn't understand. Esau tells him they're going to join the Others. "They're our people, Jacob, and we're going to live with them." Jacob: "No. Mother said..." Esau raises his voice. "She lied. She lied about everything -- all of it. I know you don't understand, but you have to come with me. I don't want to go by myself." Interesting. Jacob objects: Mother loves them. Esau says she doesn't, but as he continues to make his case, Jacob's protests grow louder and more furious. Esau: "It was all a lie. [...] She's not even our mother!" Finally, Jacob screams "STOP," and tackles his brother. Once Esau is down, Jacob thrashes the hell out of him, like he'll one day thrash Richard.
Finally, CJ appears, drags Jacob off Esau, and puts an end to the beating. Still in a tizzy, Jacob tries to explain himself as CJ ministers to a bloody Esau. "He's leaving. He's going to them -- to the Other people." Esau rises, spits blood and glares at CJ. "I know, now. There is another place across the sea. It's where I'm from, and I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna go home." CJ wants to know who told him this. Esau is defiant. "My mother!" When CJ says she's his mother, Esau calls her on her lies. "You killed my mother." He trains his gaze on his brother. "Jacob, she was your mother, too. We don't belong here. We don't belong with her. Come with me." Jacob looks from Esau, to CJ and back to Esau. "No." As Esau wipes the blood from his mouth, CJ grabs him by the shoulders. "My love, you need to know this: whatever you have been told, you will never be able to leave this island." Very interesting. Esau pushes her off. "That's not true. One day, I can prove it." Don't tell me what I can't do. And with that, he picks up his bag and walks off, leaving CJ and Jacob staring after him.
Beach; Day: CJ is sitting alone on the log she once shared with Esau and his newfound game of Senet, when Jacob joins her. "Do you think he'll come back?" CJ shakes her head as she fights her tears. "No." Jacob stares out at the ocean. "He said you killed our mother." He turns to the only mother he's ever known. "Is that true?" CJ considers this truthful boy before her. "Yes. If I had let her live, she would have taken you back to her people, and those people are bad, Jacob -- very bad. I couldn't let you become one of them. I needed you to stay good." The boy turns back to her. "Am I good, Mother?" CJ: "Yes, of course you are." Jacob: "Then why do you love him more than me?" CJ is visibly moved by this, but although she utters an oath sworn in truth by mothers since time immemorial, it's hard to believe her. "I love you -- in different ways." She sweeps a finger across his cheek and up to his earlobe. "Will you stay with me, Jacob? Please?" Jacob: "Yes." CJ laughs with relief and rests her head on her boy's shoulder. Jacob covers her hand with his. "For a while." Commercial.
Rape Caves; 43 A.D.: Adult Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) looks up from the tapestry he's working on to ask CJ: "What do you think?" She's half-heartedly grinding herbs. Her voice is as soft and weak as her movements. "It's very nice, Jacob." Jacob: "Are you all right?" She looks away from him. "I'm just tired." We cut to...
Camp Nameless: Adult Esau (Titus Welliver) is working with the Others, lowering a rope down a well, when he senses someone watching him. He turns to find Jacob, standing off at a distance. We cut to them playing Senet under a makeshift canopy reminiscent of our Losties' beach camp shelters. When Jacob makes his move, Esau says, "Does she know you visit me?" Jacob: "She never asks about you." Mom likes me best! A child in a man's body (and a nice one at that), Esau bleats, "Then, I'm sorry I asked about her." Nyah. He takes his turn at the game, and returns Jacob's smile. "Why do you watch us, Jacob?" Jacob takes the short bus, so his response is halting: "Mmm... I watch because... I want to know if Mother's right." Esau understands. "Oh, you mean my people?" I love it when phrasing is significant like that. "You wanna know if they're bad. That woman may be insane, but she's most definitely right about that." Jacob: "I don't know. They don't seem so bad to me." Esau: "That's easy for you to say -- looking down on us from above. Trust me, I've lived among them for 30 years. They're greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish." Man, this is so God and Satan in the Book of Job, isn't it? Except not.
Jacob asks Esau why he's with the people, then. Esau says they're a means to an end. "I'm leaving, Jacob. I've found a way off the island." Jacob says that's impossible; there is no way off. In answer, Esau throws the Dogen dagger across the way. It doesn't land on the ground. Instead, it sticks to the stone wall surrounding the well Esau and his people have been digging. Jacob goes to examine it. He reaches for the dagger, but pulls his hands away when he feels it vibrating. After deciding they're good vibrations, he grabs the dagger again, and pulls it off the well wall. The humming stops.
Esau approaches his confused brother. "There are very smart men among us -- men who are curious about how things work. Together we have discovered places all over this island where metal behaves strangely. When we find one of these sites, we dig. And this time we found something." Jacob's all huh, so Esau speaks plainly. "Come with me, Jacob. Please. What are you gonna do when she dies?" Jacob says she will never die. Esau: "Jacob, everything dies." Jacob doesn't care. He doesn't want to leave Craphole; it's his home. Esau: "Well, it's not mine."
Rape Caves: CJ is rubbing thread up and down her shin when Jacob returns. I wish he'd ask her what she's doing. Some people have proposed that she's threading as a means of hair removal. I don't think so. There's a dark stain on her leg. I think she's dyeing her thread or maybe even spinning fibers into thread. Why am I so broken? Why do I care? When CJ asks Jacob where he's been, he quips that he already knows the answer to that question. After she prods, Jacob confesses that Esau claims to have found a way to leave the island.
CJ makes her way to Camp Nameless. Spying on the Others from the tree line, she sees their well. She makes her way forward and we cut to...
Underground Chamber: Esau is standing with his back to a ladder, stoking the coals in his fire bowl, when he senses he's being watched. He draws his dagger as he spins around to face his stalker. Mommy's home! She holds her hands up as she asks, "May I join you?" Esau sheaths his dagger as he tells her she may and asks how she is. CJ says she's worried. Esau: "Well Mother, you should be. I spent 30 years searching for that place you brought me as a child -- that..." Vagina? Esau ignores my issues. "...Waterfall with that beautiful light. I've walked this island from end to end, not once coming close to finding it." CJ looks surprised at that, but Esau doesn't notice. "Then I began to think: what if the light underneath the island -- what if I could get to it from someplace else? Figuring out how to reach it took a very long time." That's 'cause you're special, Esau. We all are. CJ: "The people with you -- they saw this, too?" Esau says, "Yes. They have some very interesting ideas about what to do with it." CJ is agitated. "Do with it? You don't have any idea wha--" Esau: "I have no idea, because you wouldn't tell me, Mother!"
At that, he grabs his (I AM NOT BEING METAPHORICAL, M'KAY) tool and pokes at a triangular shaped rock, until he works it loose. The warm glow fills the cave. Stop it. I'm over it, okay. The light illuminates a giant wheel, resting against the wall of the chamber. CJ fingers it. "What is that?" Esau: "It's a wheel. We're going to make an opening -- one much bigger than this one. And then, I'm going to attach that wheel to a system we're building -- a system that channels the water and the light. And then I'm gonna turn it. And when I do? I'll finally be able to leave this place." CJ asks how he knows all this and knows that it will work. Esau: "I'm special, Mother." CJ begs him not to go, but Esau insists he must. "I don't belong here." CJ: "Then I suppose this is goodbye." She approaches him with baby steps and finally they embrace. Esau, as moved as CJ is, lays his head on her shoulder. "Goodbye, Mother." She sobs as she caresses the back of his neck, and then, after pulling back to get a good long look at his face, she holds it in her hands. "I am so sorry." Esau's confused -- that is he's confused until she screams and dashes his head against the rock wall. Unconscious, he slides to the chamber floor. A still tearful CJ looms over him. Commercial.
Rape Caves; Night: CJ returns home and wakes Jacob, telling him it's time. We cut to the jungle. She and her torch lead the way. Jacob: "Something happened, didn't it?" CJ: "Yes, I had to say goodbye to your brother." If we're ever at her house, let's slip out unnoticed, yeah? Jacob can't believe she's letting Esau go, but CJ says she doesn't have a choice. "It's what he wants." Mmm-hmm. He wanted to be knocked out, too? She leads him back to the Island's vagina. "Do you remember what I showed you, here?" Jacob: "The light." CJ: "You're going to protect it, now." She then LITERALLY passes the torch to him and takes a seat. Jacob asks, "What's down there?" The porn writes itself. CJ: "Life, death, rebirth. It's the source -- the heart of the island."
When Jacob sits to her, CJ asks, "Just promise me -- no matter what you do, you won't ever go down there." Jacob asks if he'd die. CJ says it would be a fate worse than death, being pussified like that. Okay, that might be a paraphrase. She then takes out a familiar-looking jug of wine, pops the cork, and as she pours some for him, she incants in Latin. The good people at Lostpedia.com have taken a stab at the Latin in the transcript. I'll touch on that more in the sidebar. CJ holds out the cup to Jacob: "Here, drink this." Jacob doesn't take it right away. "What happens if I do?" CJ: "You accept the responsibility that you will protect this place for as long as you can. And then -- you'll have to find your replacement." Jacob doesn't want to protect the island, but CJ insists that someone must. Jacob claims not to care, but CJ says her time is over. It has to be him. Jacob: "No, it doesn't. You wanted it to be him, but now I'm all you have." CJ: "It was always supposed to be you, Jacob. I see that, now. And one day, you'll see it, too. Until then, you don't really have a choice. Please, take the cup and drink." After Jacob has done her bidding, she grasps his hands. "Now you and I are the same."
Sidebar 1 of 2: Per the Lostpedia episode transcript, CJ incants the following: "Nam non accipimus hoc quasi vulgarem potionem, sed ut ille sit quasi unus mecum." I pasted that into a Latin-to-English translator, here, and it spat back: "For not to consider oneself indebted this as if common to obtain, but when he he is as if one mecum." Clear as mud. I then separated the last word into "me cum" (rather than "mecum"), because I know "cum" can be rendered as "with" in English. The translator then spat back: "For not to consider oneself indebted this as if common to obtain, but when he he is as if one me when." So, here's my fanwank: "Surely you have not obtained this debt in an ordinary way, but because you and I are one." Confession: I keep trying to figure out if there's any way to render it such that it echoes the prayer in John 17 (particularly verse 11), but I can't get there from here, so there you go.
Sidebar 2 of 2: I've seen a lot of people comparing CJ's "Take the cup" to Jesus' words upon his institution of the Last Supper. The "drink this" certainly echoes the gospel accounts, but her "take the cup" does not. Jesus doesn't tell his disciples to "take" the cup. He takes the cup and tells them to drink (see Matthew; Mark; Luke; and I Corinthians There are references to Jesus asking someone to "take this cup," though. He does so when he is in prayer at Gethsemane and is asking the Father to spare him. I suspect Darlton was actually probably going for the Last Supper reference, but I like looking at it from the other angle. In the Lostiverse, Mother asks the Son to spare her, and in the Lostiverse, he does.
Well Site; Day: Esau is lying on the grass when he regains consciousness, only to find his well has been completely filled in. He sees smoke in the distance and runs to it. Camp Nameless has been burnt to the ground and the Others are dead. He finds his Senet board in the smoking embers, and holds it to his head as he cries in frustration. There's a lot of spinny camera work that makes me want to toss my cookies. Thank goodness it's COMMERCIAL time!
Commercial Comments: No, I have no idea if CJ is a Smoke Monster. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, given that later in the episode we see her corpse, but she is killed according to certain rules, so what do I know? Whatevs. Commercial over.
Thunder rumbles as CJ leads Jacob through the jungle. When he notes the coming storm, CJ tells him to go gather some firewood before the rain starts. As he walks off, she says, "Jacob -- be careful." He turns and smiles at her. "I'll see you back home."
Rape Caves: CJ arrives home to find a lit torch at her door, a fire burning in her fire pit, her tapestry destroyed and the place generally in shambles. As she surveys the damage, she spots the Senet board lying on the ground. Kneeling to examine it, she opens the little built-in drawer and removes two stones: one white; one black. It's the black one that catches her eye. She holds it up -- enchanted -- and is gazing at it still when it happens. Dogen's dagger is plunged into her back and straight through; the tip exits via her chest. As the camera pans back to reveal Esau, CJ rises to her feet, but cannot stand erect. When she falls, she lands on her back and tries to speak, but the words blur into nothingness. Esau is at her side in an instant. "Why wouldn't you let me leave, mother?" CJ: "Because I -- I love you." He's moved by this. CJ chokes out a soft laugh. "Thank you," and with that, she's dead. Esau dissolves into tears. He's still crying when Jacob returns. "What did you do?" Esau tries to explain himself, but Jacob's infamous temper flares. He rushes and tackles Esau, and proceeds to beat the tar out of him. Again.
Jacob drags his barely conscious brother to his feet and out into the jungle. Esau doesn't resist but he does plead his case. "Hey, don't do this. She burned them. She was crazy. She burned them all!" When that doesn't sway the angry young man, Esau morphs into a total rules lawyer. "You can't kill me, Jacob. She made it that way. You can't." Jacob says, "Don't worry brother, I'm not going to kill you," and with that, continues to march Esau's ass all the way to the Island's vagina. When they reach the mouth, he throws Esau in the stream. Once he realizes where they are, Esau says: "She brought you back here?" Jacob confirms this and explains that he now has to protect it. He then grabs Esau by the neck and drags him up to his feet again. "You want to find the light? You want to leave this place, brother? Then go." With that, Jacob casts his twin back into the water. Face down, Esau is caught up in the current, which carries him inside the cave. Somewhere, CJ's ghost sings: "Don't go chasing waterfalls; please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to," but it's too late. He crashes down and over the waterfall. On the banks, Jacob's ire turns to fear and then horror at what his temper hath wrought, but he ain't seen nothing yet. The light dims, goes out, or is at least obscured. It's obscured by the HUGE PLUME OF BLACK SMOKE that rushes out of the Island's lady parts -- knocking Jacob flat on his tantrum-prone tush. Smokey -- born, reborn or aroused -- rushes up to the sky, then disappears in the trees.
Jacob makes his way down a steep embankment until he reaches a creek -- perhaps the same one where his two mommies met, 43 years or so ago. He washes his face and hands, but cannot rid himself of the guilt -- especially not once he looks up to find his brother's body lying across the way. Jacob rushes to him, but Esau doesn't live there, anymore. Jacob untwists his brother's arm from a branch -- and crying, hugs the lifeless form.
Rape Caves: Jacob carries Esau's remains back home and lays him down in the back of the cave, on a natural rock shelf, then walks back to where his mother's corpse lies. He picks up the black and white Senet stones and places them in a pouch. This all leads to a flashback-forward-back. Remember, how in season 1, episode 6, "House of the Rising Sun" -- Charlie steps on the beehive? Locke tells him to stay still; Charlie fails; the bees go bonkers -- and this all happens in order to give Jack and Kate an excuse to rip off their shirts, after which they find the skeletons and Locke dubs them, "Our very own Adam and Eve." (Oh man, is that Jack and Kate's fate?) Yeah, well, the writers think we're stupid, so they show us the whole thing again, intercut with scenes of Jacob laying his dead mother to his sorta-dead brother, closing their eyes, joining their hands, kissing the pouch of stones and tucking it in Esau's free hand. But Jack still had his chest hair back then, and Kate was still getting beauty make-up, so it's kind of nice to see. It's also kind of nice to see the characters we actually care about. But then it's bad, because it reinforces the fact that we just spent a fricking hour on relative newbies and now there are only 3.5 hours of the entire series left. Ever. ARRRRRRRRRRGH! Jacob's all choked up. "Goodbye, brother." Tears stream down his cheek. "Goodbye." Dun. Title Card. Bad Robot!
A Blurt; Rules of the Game: The rules of Senet have been LOST to the sands of time. Scholars have come up with pretty convincing arguments for playing this way or that. You can buy Senet boards today, and the rules accompanying it vary from producer to producer. Ever since the Mr. Eko days, whenever we've seen Esau in his Smoke Monster form, my mind has gone right to Job 1:7. "The LORD said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it'." Like a Smoke Monster. Pop culture has cheapened our collective understanding of Satan -- painting him as a pitchfork wielding cartoon red devil with horns and a tail. Depending on the source material though, he is -- although fallen -- the most beautiful of all the angels: the angel of light, as well as mankind's adversary/accuser. In Job, think of him as the prosecuting attorney -- putting Job's faith on trial. At first, although God allows Satan to test Job by destroying his property and family, he doesn't let him lay a finger on Job. Adolescent-Angst Esau: "We're people. Does that mean we can hurt each other?" CJ: "I've made it so you can never hurt each other." Finally, Satan convinces God to let him attack Job's body. God allows it, but he has one rule for the Accuser: You can't kill him. Teen-Angst Esau: "What's dead?" CJ: "Something you will never have to worry about." The fellas are playing CJ's game until Esau plunges the dagger deep into her. Had she but spoken, it would have been too late. Once Jacob sends Esau down into ye olde tunnel of love, Jacob ascends; he claims his birthright: Gamemaster. But although it seems he must abide by his predecessor's rulings, he can -- as Adolescent-Angst Esau promised long ago and far away -- create rules of his own. CJ once told Jacob he had no choice. Jacob now staunchly insists on letting people choose for themselves.
The Name Game: We never do learn the canonical name of CJ or "Esau"/The Man In Black. There are all sorts of supernatural reasons (from Hashem to the tetragrammaton, from Rumpelstiltskin to Voldemort) why that's awesome, but there are more long-suffering-Lost-fan reasons why that sucks. That's sort of how I feel about this whole episode. There's a lot in it. We certainly get some answers -- but why this way, and why now? I'm not the first to say it, but that won't stop me: I don't like where this episode fell in the season. Put this after, say, "The Substitute" and I'm right with you. But putting it after "The Candidate" -- after we've lost Sun, Jin, Sayid and possibly Frank -- after it's clear that Smokey/Faucke is up to no good? It just undoes the pacing of the whole season. Now, it's not over yet. After the finale, I may well look back and decide this had to happen now. But I can't flash forward to after the finale, and in the now, "Across the Sea" is a letdown -- not a breather -- an actual letdown.
That said, I appreciate a few thing about it. I'm glad that some of the answers weren't provided -- that the facts were presented in mythic form. To me, this story of castaways and Others has been going on since there was an island, or that warm wet light, or whatever. All of this has happened before and it will all happen again. Was there a Smoke Monster before Esau? Probably. Was CJ one? Who knows? Maybe. It certainly explains how she made such quick work of Camp Nameless. I don't think it matters, though -- that is, it doesn't matter to me. The version of the Smoke Monster that matters to me is the one that took over John Locke's body, and he matters because he's been tormenting our Lostaways since 2004. I also appreciate that both Jacob and Esau are neither strictly white nor black. The shades of grey (Jacob's temper; Esau's hunger for freedom and truth and rebellion against a pack of lies and manipulation) -make them both more accessible and understandable.
In the end though, I was left feeling like we had another week off from Lost. Yes, I care about answers and mythology and all these frigging rules, but I care about them, because I care about the core characters who have suffered under them these five and a half long years. I want to be watching those people. I wish I could have gotten this information in another way -- one that involved the characters who have come to matter to me. I'm not in it for the science or the faith. I'm in it for the people and I have so little time left with them. I don't want to miss a thing, except the XXX action at the Island vagina. That -- I could have gone a lifetime without.
I'll see you first thing Wednesday morning with my recaplet of "What They Died For." Until then, please choose your answer to our Question of the Moment, over in the righthand sidebar, grade the episode in the "forums, where we'd never leave corpses lying around to rot in our rape caves.
Watch scenes from the episode here, then see what the cast of Lost should do !
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Cindy McLennan is sticking to the rivers and the lakes that she's used to. How about you? You can email her at CynthiaMcLennan[at]gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.