Category Archives: 6×15 Across the Sea

The Man in Black still doesn't have a name

Earlier this evening, before 6×15 Across the Sea came on, I took a look back at my Oedipus Lost theory.

How does it stand up after 6×15? (Warning: 6×15 spoilers ahead, so close your eyes if you haven’t seen the episode yet).

Like many other fans, I was right in thinking that Jacob and the MiB were brothers — twins, like the Biblical Jacob and Esau.

I was wrong in thinking that the Jacob-MiB saga would be rooted in patricide. This dysfunctional family had brother killing mother, and brother killing brother, but nobody killed a father because there were no fathers to be found.

I was right in originally thinking that Jacob was a prisoner, of sorts, of the Island, even though I later came to doubt that.

Well, enough about theories. Some random thoughts about the episode, along with some still-unanswered questions:

Amazing opening. When Mommy Dearest picked up the stone and attacked Birth Mother, I did not see that coming.

Quibble: Why was Mommy Dearest so surprised that there was a second baby? Did she not see Birth Mother’s belly?

Oh, and another quibble: Kid in Black said he didn’t know what death was, but then in the next scene he was running after a boar with a spear. What did he think he was going to do to the boar?

So Smokey will eventually inhabit his own dead body? Hmmm.

What gave Mommy Dearest, Jacob, and the MiB the ability to live so long? What gave Mommy Dearest the power to prevent Jacob and the MiB from hurting each other?

Who was the guardian of the light before Mommy Dearest?

If Mommy Dearest was the power behind Jacob and MiB, who was the power behind Mommy Dearest? Who started the chain of guardians of the light, and why?

And what is the light, anyway?

What was in that wine?

Who would have thought that Jacob could be so whiny and petulant! (“I don’t waaaaana guard the light.”)

Not sure how I feel about having the MiB revealed as a sympathetic character — not after what he did to Sun and Jin, and the 815 pilot, and the people in the Temple, and all the random strangers who got in his way.

How did the nice light turn him into such a mean monster?

When Mommy Dearest said “Thank you,” to the MiB, was she thanking him for killing her (thus ending the curse of immortality)?

The screenshot is from the Season 5 finale, from when the MiB asked Jacob, “Do you know how much I want to kill you?” Now we finally have some idea why he felt that way, and also why he needed a loophole.