Fascinating: It was a daring experiment to do an episode without ANY of the series regulars at such a late point, but it mostly paid off. The stories and characters of the regulars are pretty much played out in most cases anyway, so it was fun to have a break from them for a while. This episode also pretty much squashes the "MIB=Evilllllll" theories; much like in chess, black & white are simply two different "colors", representing two opposing sides. If anything comes across as evil and repugnant in "Across The Sea", it's blind faith to a higher power. Killing for a "good" cause is how most people tried to justify their wars throughout history. The "Jacob + MIB = human brothers" revelation is fine.
Frustrating: The "mother", played (quite well) by Allison Janney, is the type of "mysterious" character that was more tolerable in the early seasons, but right now, with only 3 episodes remaining until the end, just makes you want to smash your screen in. Her origins are unexplained, her powers are unexplained, her blind faith is unexplained, she (of course) knows more than she's telling, and she always talks in riddles. Her brutal murder of the innocent woman who just gave birth to Jacob and MIB is yet another indication of the increasing reliance of "Lost" on cheap shock effects (I believe that trend started back in season 4, with the murder of Alex and several of the remaining background Losties, in the otherwise excellent "The Shape of Things to Come"; from then on, the writers started seeing all the characters as far more expendable). The Adam & Eve revelation is terrible, completely contradicting the clues presented to us in the original footage: Jack could have been 10, 20, 30 years wrong in his estimations about how old the skeletons in the cave were, but certainly NOT 150+ years wrong as it turns out!
Can they still come up with a satisfying ending to "Lost"? Time (less than 3 hours left) is working against them, but let's keep our faith - just not blindly! *** out of 4.
Frustrating: The "mother", played (quite well) by Allison Janney, is the type of "mysterious" character that was more tolerable in the early seasons, but right now, with only 3 episodes remaining until the end, just makes you want to smash your screen in. Her origins are unexplained, her powers are unexplained, her blind faith is unexplained, she (of course) knows more than she's telling, and she always talks in riddles. Her brutal murder of the innocent woman who just gave birth to Jacob and MIB is yet another indication of the increasing reliance of "Lost" on cheap shock effects (I believe that trend started back in season 4, with the murder of Alex and several of the remaining background Losties, in the otherwise excellent "The Shape of Things to Come"; from then on, the writers started seeing all the characters as far more expendable). The Adam & Eve revelation is terrible, completely contradicting the clues presented to us in the original footage: Jack could have been 10, 20, 30 years wrong in his estimations about how old the skeletons in the cave were, but certainly NOT 150+ years wrong as it turns out!
Can they still come up with a satisfying ending to "Lost"? Time (less than 3 hours left) is working against them, but let's keep our faith - just not blindly! *** out of 4.