Mommy Monster

Usually, during my weekly LOST class, we discuss things.

We talk about good vs. evil, and how Jacob and Man-In-Black (MIB) aren't necessarily so black and white. We talk about how Linus and Widmore are similarly gray; they're each cast in half-shadow during the wonderful scene where Ben vows to murder Charles' daughter in retribution. Sayid kills people, but is it for a good reason? Does that matter? Is there free will? Is Locke's faith more valid that Jack's skepticism, or vice versa? Locke dies; was he wrong? Jack ends up sacrificing himself, but for what?

Which is more valid, Jacob's view that man is good, but that it is okay to crash an entire plane to bring in "candidates," or MIB's view that man is corrupt, but that their fake "mother" was wrong, and that leaving the island would be a good idea? Is the "source light" worth dying for? Is it okay, the way Jacob manipulates people, like the way he agrees to save Dogen's son in exchange for Dogen's eternal servitude? Doesn't that sound like a pact with the devil?

The list goes on. Our classes are thematic, involve required episodes, readings, and writings, and include 2.5 hours of discussion and analysis.

I bring you, now, not answers, nor all of the interesting things we have examined, but one simple revelation from tonight. I support the following theory, which we deduced in passing, in a brief moment of tonight's discussion:

Jacob and MIB's foster mother is a protector, but also a smoke monster.

Foster mom with newborns Jacob and the Man in Black

Say what? Let's examine some supporting evidence:

1. When the woman first appears (behind the real mother), she is seen in the reflection of the river, much in the same way that we are often introduced to smoke-incarnations through reflections.
I think that's completely coincidental. But let's continue.

2. She doesn't age, indicating that her body is less so a body and more so an image.
Very interesting. Her boys grow up; she doesn't seem to, much the same way that Jacob stops growing once he becomes the protector, and MIB once he becomes the smoke monster.

3. She kills the entire human village and sets it aflame, getting MIB mad.
Thoughts: Good point; how can she kill all those people? She's just an old woman.

4. She buries an entire well with dirt and rocks, keeping MIB from leaving.
That's even harder than the slaughter; how could a single person do that?

5. She tells her boys never to go down to the light, because that would be "much worse" than death.
She knows this, how? Because she has experienced it? If so, we know that going down there turns MIB into smokey; if foster mom went down there, and knows what it's like to be worse than dead, then she must be smoke, too.

6. Upon being killed, foster mother says, "thank you."
Of course she does. She's living a fate worse than death, as smoke. She wants it to end. And now that she had Jacob being a protector, it can end.

Foster mom making Jacob the new protector

 My challenge(s) to you:

1. Agree or disagree.
• Support your argument, either with more evidence in favor, or new evidence against.
2. Fuzzy memory? Go watch (or read) Season 6, Episode 15 "Across the Sea"
• If you have not seen LOST, go watch all of it.
3. Feel free to pose other LOST questions, thoughts, or answers.