To borrow an analogy from a former professor of mine, last night's episode of LOST was like Damon and Carlton (a.k.a Darlton) held a handful of Lego out to us and said "there you go, you build it." I have very mixed feelings about "Across the Sea". The acting left something to be desired, the dialogue was not what we would expect from a Damon and Carlton penned episode, and the answers we got--in true LOST fashion--raised more questions.

"Any answers I give you will only result in more questions." So said Allison Janney's character, aka Mystery Mom; the writers way of telling us, don't expect to get every single question answered because it's not going to happen. In a way this is fair, there are a lot of things on the show that don't need answering or really aren't mysteries (the Hurley Bird for example), but it's also kind of a cheap shot. It's the writers who have chosen to present us with a mythology that raises an endless strain of questions that are impossible to answer satisfactorily, and this attitude has led to some serious problems that were inherent and blatant in last night's episode. But then again, I sympathize with the writers when they say they want the show to speak for itself, the answers are there you just have to look, and the reason they do this is because having Michael come out and directly say what the whispers are feels forced and makes for awful writing and storytelling.

Ultimately, I do believe it answered a lot of important questions, but it does take a lot of work on part of the viewer to piece it together, and plays upon a lot of mythology that we've gradually learned from the last six seasons.

Of course, I must warn you that below are some spoilers from last night's episode but I don't expect anyone has taken the time to read this if they haven't already watched it.

Answers We Got

The Essence of the Island

We know from two previous episodes (S.O.S. and 316) that there exists all over the world unique geological pockets of energy, one being the most important--the Island. The Island seems to rest on an almost limitless amount of energy. If such a thing existed it would be a monumental discovery and extremely important. For centuries, perhaps even millennia, humanity has searched for a way to get free energy. The first law of thermodynamics tells us you can't get something from nothing, you can convert mass to energy and energy to mass, but you can never create new energy or new mass. There is always waste. So much energy would also allow for some awesome science. If you have enough energy you can tare open the fabric of space-time and travel through wormholes, thus going forward or backward in time. This explains why the Dharma Initiative wanted to be on the Island so badly. It is also fitting that Janney's character would treat it as pure gold that would incite greed among men.

The energy pocket explains the healing and miracle powers of the island. We noticed that Mystery Mom and Jacob never aged. We also know from the episode "S.O.S" in Season 2 that pockets of energy can be harnessed correctly to heal the sick. This would stand to reason that the pocket of energy is the source of the Island's healing powers, and the water that flowed through it, is the spring in the temple that healed Ben and Sayid. As Mystery Mom said: "it's life, death, rebirth..." I think the reason why Jacob and Mystery Mom never aged was because they were constantly visiting this source of energy and perhaps drinking from its waters (the wine perhaps?). It would also explain why Jacob can heal those around him and make Richard unageable as well, he has harnessed this energy. Clearly this is an important power that could be used for both good and bad, and I could see why some people would want to protect it from the greedy--or perhaps the Mother and Jacob themselves are the greedy ones, they don‘t want to share this awesome power.

It should now be very clear from this point on why Jacob, despite the fact that he seems like such a nice guy, would instruct someone (whether it be Ben or Widmore) to kill the Dharma Initiative. From the time of Ab Aeterno I could not understand why, if Jacob brings people to the Island to prove MIB wrong about humanity, did the Others hate the Dharma Initiative so much and actually resort to killing them all. I now understand. Their goal was to tap these sources of energy, which is something that Jacob does not want. As we saw with MIB's adopted people, those who get to close to the Island's heart become dangerous in the mind of the Island's protector and therefore need to go. This makes sense, just look at how dangerous the Swan station became, if someone didn't push the button it could subsequently destroy the entire planet. Dharma was just getting too close for comfort.

The Smoke Monster

We've seen through Desmond, what the effect of coming into contact with electromagnetism and huge pockets of energy will do to one's mind. It can travel them through the past, future and into parallel universes. Makes sense. Now consider the fact that MIB gets thrown right into the biggest pocket of energy in the world. My theory is that this created some entity that was relative to space-time. If there are any fans of Watchmen you'll know what I am talking about--a Dr. Manhattan. The Smoke Monster is able to manipulate space and the world around him as we saw in "Dr. Linus" when he releases the chain around Ben's leg. If he is relative to time he should also have knowledge of the past and future to some degree. Recall in previous episodes the smoke monster's ability to peer into people's consciousness: Locke, Eko, Kate, Juliet, Ben and Richard are the ones I can remember. What if each time he does this he is obtaining all their information from their minds, both past and present. This gives the Smoke Monster the knowledge necessary to manipulate the characters. Because Smokey is relative to time, he's always known these things since he first became smoke. So even before Ben was born he knew everything about him because at some point in time he will get that information. If you're confused think about the episode "The Constant", when Faraday's mouse runs the maze. What was incredible about this feat was that the maze had just been built and Faraday wasn't going to teach the mouse how to do it for another hour. At some point in time those characters were destined to meet the Smoke Monster.

Adam and Eve

It was neat to see the origin of the Adam and Eve skeletons, a nice throwback to the first season, although I doubt many people other than the hardcore fans remembered them. I don't think this was planned from the beginning, but that doesn't diminish the scene's value. Some have pointed out that Jack said in the original episode (House of the Rising Sun) , that it would take about 50 years for clothing to decay like those on the skeletons. This is not in my mind a continuity problem. Given the healing abilities of the Island, and the fact that Jacob's Mother and Brother were directly exposed to all that energy, it would be less realistic if they decayed at a normal rate. I think the exact identities of the bodies were not planned but I think they are proof that from season one the whole concept of Dark vs. Light was at the heart of the show.

Answers We Didn't Get

The Rules

As I said before the attitude that "Any answers I give you will only result in more questions" has led to a serious problem with a central mystery--the rules. The rules are now officially my most hated mystery on the show, simply because they make absolutely no sense. When I first heard Ben say "He changed the rules," I was pissed off. I thought long and hard about those lines between Ben and Widmore and concluded that whatever these rules are they either don't make any sense in empirical reality or are just lame rules that the Others are supposed to live by. To me it seemed, why even introduce them? Darlton better have a good explanation, or they better be important. Turns out they were important, VERY important. By now we know that the rules are really at the basis of this show; Man In Black/Smoke Monster/Flocke can't kill Jacob and he can't kill the candidates. Those are the rules. But why? The answer we were given last night: Mystery Mom tells the boys "I've made it so you can never hurt one another." Ooookaaaay, how exactly? Darlton is right, this answer only begets another question, but that's only because it isn't an answer, it explains absolutely nothing. We know nothing about this Mystery Mom, who she is, what kind of powers she has, where she came from. How exactly did she make it so they can't kill each other? To me it seems like a very lame cop-out and Darlton are hiding behind that excuse that they can never answer all questions. Not fair Darlton. And why can't the Smoke Monster change his form now that Jacob is dead? That doesn't make sense either. My guess: Darlton just wanted to keep Locke in the show, and for good reason, but that's a pretty lame explanation for why he can't change his physical form anymore.

Name Please

There is now a prominent theory running around the blogosphere that claims that Smokey and the Man In Black aren't the same person. I don't think this is the case, the evidence seems pretty clear. But I don't blame people for thinking it. This could have been easily avoided by giving MIB/Smokey/Flocke a name both before and during this episode. Say when he was talking to Kate about how he was once a man, perhaps with the name of.... And then have this name given to the MIB character this episode. This strange ‘mystery' of no name is the result of this ridiculous withholding of non-mysteries that led to mess that was last night's episode.

Another theory that I actually like is that they aren't the same, but Smokey has through time, appropriated all the characteristics of MIB by taking his form. When MIB was thrown into the energy he released the darkness form the light. This darkness is not supposed to leave the Island, but because he has taken MIB's form, he has gradually taken on his personality and characteristics, including his desire to get off the Island. If we consider the fact that MIB's ghost has walked around once, and Flocke once said "Don't tell me what I can't do" this theory actually makes a lot of sense. In that case maybe it's why we weren't given a name. Hopefully this will be cleared up as I think it is VERY important.

So He's Not Bad?

Just when you thought for sure Smokey was bad--he just killed three beloved characters--we get evidence that he's a victim. The poor guy lost his mother, was raised by a crazy women who wouldn't tell him the truth about anything, told him they were the only people out there, wouldn't let him witness and travel to the real world, and is now being held back by his mammas boy brother. Right now I'm rooting for MIB to get off the Island unless Darlton can explain to me just why it will be so bad if he leaves. This is the answer we should have gotten last night as it seems essential going into the finale, that we have a good guy and a bad guy and our good guy is the characters we've come to love. I get the shades of grey, but still, we need someone to root for and someone to hate. I went out of last week's episode hating Flocke, now I like him. Woops. Oh and he's suppose to be the one that thinks all men are corrupt and evil? Then why does he want to leave the Island? That makes no sense. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't he have sympathized with his mother?

Historical Inaccuracies

There was another major problem with last nights episode. The Donkey Wheel. The time-frame for last nights plot would have had to have been pre-Egyptian, or at least Egyptian era, as we know that the Egyptians create the tomb where Smokey comes out of. This would make the men building that wheel were from 3000-2000 years ago. The big problem: how exactly do ancient civilizations know that a pocket of energy will create a wormhole in time and space that will send them home? The donkey wheel, although it is purely fictional, makes theoretical sense. If you have enough energy you can tare a hole through space time in which you can travel not only in time but also in space. But we only figured this out in the latter half of the 20th century after Einstein's theory of relativity. Maybe if they stumbled upon it by accident, but as MIB made clear, they were looking for it!

Overall I liked this episode. Again, I think the answers were definitely there, but I can understand why most people hated it, or felt cheated by Darlton. I disagree that it was bad timing. To me it was nice to take a little break after last weeks shocking deaths and escape our characters to a little essential back story. It has raised several problems, but I trust the writers will clear this up in the next episode.