By: mos jef
Excuse me for going a little Glenn Beck on your asses this morning, but I’d like to talk about yesteryear. I remember when life was good. My elementary school smelled like a mixture of Elmer’s Glue and cupcakes. My wardrobe consisted of No Fear t shirts, maybe some Stussy gear…definitely some Jnco jean shorts. My winter stress level would only be in danger during a vocab quiz or studying a unit on glaciers. Oh, and the most complicated tv show I watched was Ghost Writer. I cherish those days, friends. I cherish the days of simplicity — jean shorts and Ghost Writer.
“Every question I answer will only lead to another question.” — C.J. Craig (The West Wing) in her maternity role.
Wow, that kind of just put me in my place. That’s the total Arnold Schwarzenegger treatment. Despite my profound respect for Detective John Kimble, I need to whine. But first I need to get some clarity…So as I learned to do in my Native American unit in 4th grade…let’s make a timeline.
– Portuguese (I think?) woman lands on the island by accident, like the bi-lingual White House Press Secretary did way back when.
– Births twins – Jacob and someone who we still don’t know the name of, curiously. Also, let;s double stuff the symbolism by giving one blonde hair and one dark hair, one a light blanket and one a dark blanket.
– They grow up a bit and now it becomes obvious that the young man Ballsmell sees in the woods is in fact young Jacob.
– C.J. Craig claims to have left the game for her favorite son. He makes the rules in his game with Jacob, but she later reveals that she’s created the overall rules for the boys.
– Ballsmell sees his dead mother. Jacob does not.
– After confronting their mother on the issue, the boys are led to the light – which is life, death, rebirth. Obviously! It’s all of those things! Men have some of it but they always want more! I dug when the mother talked about how men come, fight, corrupt, etc.
– She admits, basically, to loving her other son more than Jacob. Tells Ballsmell he can never leave the island. Tells her sons she’s made it that they can never hurt each other. Asks Jacob to stay with her.
– Sons meet up to play every now and then
– Ballsmell discovers a way to get to the light…via the premature donkey wheel -which as we know took Ben straight off the island. Locke too.
– C.J. tries to kill or knocks out her son and destroys the well, the people.
– Jacob is woken up in the middle of the night, told he’s Color War general, and is brought to the light to drink wine. (Desmond’s whiskey drink comes to mind here. And now, Chumbawamba unfortunately comes to mind here)
– Ballsmell kills mother. Jacob launches Ballsmell down the Splash Mountain ride. Smoke Monster is born. Jacob places “Adam and Eve” in the caves. Ok, so who had the incestual relationship of Jacob’s mother and Jacob’s brother in the pool? Anyone? It was so obvious guys! We all knew it was going to be someone we didn’t meet until the second to last episode ever! (By the way — to all you out there who are going to say “original sin” multiple times this week, you’ve gotta stop that knob talk. Ballsmell bit into the “apple” of knowledge. I get it. But then where was he banished from? The island he wanted to get off of in the first place? And if he’s Eve, who’s Adam? Jacob? Because Adam wasn’t left to defend Eden. He was banished too.)
Did I miss anything? Probably. But let’s move on.
First off — Ballsmell can see dead people. This strictly goes against when he told Jack that he took the form of all dead people on the island.
But he wasn’t his Portuguese Mother that appeared, and we are led to believe that the black smoke wasn’t a presence on the island yet. How sure can we be that Ballsmell is the island’s first incarnation of the black smoke? How else would C.J. Craig know the effects of the light and warn Jacob about never going into it without see the black smoke first? Is it possible that C.J. Craig is in fact the smoke monster?
Her appearing — this was Ballsmell being presented a choice. There’s always a choice. Stay with your “mother” or come learn from the people who should have raised you.
Jacob’s choice came when his mother asked him to stay with her. He made that choice.
I’m still running circles around this idea of who can see dead people and who can’t. Because Ballsmell is special? Like Locke? Like Walt?
Miles and Hurley — one uses this gift for monetary gain. The other uses this gift to help his friends. They’re both given a choice and represent the dark and the light.
What is the light? Men have some of it but want more. I know that the general theory is that it’s “goodness of man” or “soul” or whatever — as made popular by Mr. Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase. I believe it to be understanding. Men want answers. Even in everyday life, people want fuel to fan on the social fire. Gossip, skepticism, conspiracies, Lost theories…people want to be in the know. It’s why the whole show draws back to religion — which is the ultimate and most ancient way for humans to seek answers. Ballsmell wanted to get off the island. He was curious. He wanted to know more about what was out there.
To me, when the mother said “There is only the island…” who’s to say she was talking about our little island of Lost? Why couldn’t she be talking bigger picture? Earth is just an island in the universe, isn’t it? Why must we seek answers beyond our own existence? The Dharma Initiative, Widmore…they all seek the light.
But this wasn’t good enough for Ballsmell. He sought the light, just like the Others did. He sought understanding. Instead of just accepting the task of protecting it, as Jacob did, he made it his goal to find it and use it to…grant him knowledge of the world around him. THIS IS RELIGION. Using God to explain that which is unexplainable.
I think it’s important to note the line “Jacob doesn’t know how to lie,” The Mother never did lie to her sons. Therefore they don’t know how to do it themselves (that is until Ballsmell learned from the evil tribe he aligned himself with.) Now, everything Jacob has ever said can be taken at face value.
While not much is clearer after last night’s episode, it is clear that Ballsmell is dead. He’s not the one trying to get off the island. He’s a skeleton in a cave. His body was taken from him, so to speak. I’m expecting another Jacob scene where he first encounters his brother after his death. “I thought you were dead, Brother?” And then Ballsmell tries to stab Jacob for the first time and realizes it’s futile. It’s not his brother. It’s evil incarnate. It’s the corrupted soul that has come to embody Ballsmell for the time being.
So think of it like this. Jacob is protecting the light.
Black is the most interesting color in the world because it is a combination of all colors. It absorbs all from the light spectrum. Therefore, the darkness, or black smoke, is part of the light that Jacob is protecting. He’s stopping outside forces from getting into the light, but he’s also stopping the dark from getting out.
When Ballsmell got sucked into the light tunnel, it looked a whole lot like the underground entrance to the temple didn’t it? And if that’s so, does that mean that there is no light left? Or so little light that it can’t be seen glowing like it once was?
The darkness is clearly the dominant force on the island. It’s taken over more people than not. That’s why there has been so much murder, corruption, power struggle…
I’m still confused. And I know it’s unpopular at this stage of the game to criticize, but honestly with less than 4 hours of this show left, are you truly happy with that episode?
– Mother can just make rules and they have to be so?
– Ballsmell can see dead people before the black smoke even existed and the whole Haley Joel Osment thing was in fashion?
– She loved the evil brother more because…she wanted to blow him?
– The donkey wheel eventually came to be…but Ballsmell couldn’t use it?
– Still don’t have a name for this dude.
– Oh and babies? BABIES! Ok — it’s a Greek Myth. It’s a story of how these two brothers’ feud began. Are our Survivors now playing by Jacob’s rules? Or the mother’s original rules?
But it only ends once. 2 episodes from now. Everything else is just slow, painstaking, infuriating progress.
“too many questions”
– mos jef
