LOST - KLUNK ... rattle ... rattle

Hmmm. Where to begin and how many words to waste on Across the Sea? We sadly got the Battlestar Galactica No Exit episode info-dump, albeit a bit more cleverly shown than told to us - but entirely unnecessary. There was no need for this episode of Jacob's and MIB's backstory at all. It served to diminish those two characters and make their former mystery mundane. And the Allison Janney Mother Earth woman - oh no you dint, and don't get me started!

Several LOST puzzle pieces were crudely hammered into place (the "Adam and Eve" skeletons, the dagger [and where did this finely-crafted piece of metal come from?], the origin of the Smoke Monster cave-sausage, the donkey-wheel) but so what? Again, the mystery of those elements were rendered mundane. The black rock and white rock have no deeper meaning other than they were play-pieces to a game MIB found as a child and Jacob was always white and MIB always black.

When you tell a story that has mystery, if you are going to reveal the mystery to your audience you want to wow them - give them goosebumps, not insult them or bore them.

We're supposed to believe that Jacob stayed loyal to this woman who murdered his real mother all those years yet never went over to the people where his brother MIB was living once he got old enough to find out about sex? So for 30 years he just helped Earth Mommie with her weaving? Dumb. Er, what about when Jacob was globe-trotting and lining up our LOST crash survivors for their big journey in all those sideways timelines? I guess time-travel to cover that will be explained in a future ep? Who was Earth Mommie? She got there "by accident" too, but seemed to have answers - who gave them to her? I like Allison Janney. I've met Allison Janney. But she is no Jack Kennedy and she was woefully miscast.

If they were going to commit to a character like this they needed someone who could convey a more sinister side.

This ep was a real let-down - just short of ridiculous I'm afraid. The mystery of the island turns out to be a surreal golden light that lies hidden deep inside ... kind of silly. Visually, we've seen it before

My version is way better (what I have so far is in the next post)