Rob has a Podcast - Jacob, The Man in Black - Across the Sea

Mommy and Me with Jacob and Smokey

LOST 21 Comments

Mom, Are you trying to get me drunk?

This week on LOST, we got he backstory of Jacob and the man in black in the episode entitled “Across the Sea”. Rob Cesternino is back with a LOST edition of Rob Has a Podcast and is joined by special guest John Norton, host of “The Tribe” and “Zero Hour” podcasts. On this episode we’ll discuss everything from this weeks LOST including:

Hello. My name is _______________.

- What exactly did we learn from the hour long episode about Jacob and his nameless and evil twin brother?

- What is the nature of Allison Janney’s character and what supernatural abilities does she possess (if any)?

- How exactly does the man in black know that if he sticks a wooden wheel into a bright yellow light that he can leave the island?

- When the hell did this episode take place?

We’ll try to figure everything out that took place in “Across the Sea” and guess how this episode is going to affect the final three and a half hours on LOST. It’s a LOST podcast that is more fun than playing with black and white rocks… it’s Rob Has A Podcast!

And as always, we love to hear your comments, so join the conversation and let us know what you think below or connect with Rob directly via twitter: @robcesternino

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http://twitter.com/K_nguyen93 Khoa Nguyen

Haven't listened yet but here are my questions from last night:
-How does Jacob get off the island to find the candidates?
-How is the MIB able to retain his “body” when Richard comes to the island? He definitely has a body because he can be seen freeing Richard, breaking the bottle of wine, etc.
-Why did their real mom appear to MIB?
-Where did crazy woman come from?
-What was the significance of Jacob drinking the wine and becoming one with his “mother?”
-How do the rules that prevent MIB and Jacob from killing each other work? They seem to be able to hurt each other at least.
Oatestache

You want Jacob and MiB to be put in red and blue shirts? So are you saying they would be against each other on the Apprentice: Heroes versus Villains? All your current/future podcasts are coming together now. Jacob was Big Brother. Is there maybe a Snooki on Lost? Would Sawyer be The Situation?

I thought the boar killers were wearing necklaces similar to “other Russell” and Mick for being leaders on last season Survivor.

Statutory Rape podcast? Don't you still owe us a Willy Wonka podcast?

As for the show itself, perhaps “Mother” was the smoke monster or something like that before which is why she was able to kill those people and fill in the well. That would explain how she knows what it's like to go down into the shiny cave. I still don't know how that would tie into the magical wine thing. MiB did kill her the same way that Dogen told Sayid to kill MiB.

Jacob must use Clint Black's detergent to keep his clothes so clean.
poodz

I'm calling it. The smoke monster's name is going to be Esau. Biblical twin brother to Jacob.
swan108

Hi Rob (umm it's Across the Sea =)

So, I was gonna tell you about the D&C interview that was done today in response to the negative comments to last nights episode but I guess you don't want to hear about it haha. The Official Lost Podcasts are really not to be taken seriously, agreed.

-Jacob, also agreed OY please!
-”Mother” wasn't born on the Island, she said that; Claudia (real mother) & the people who MIB joined all came to the Island via shipwreck
-Can we say the only people who were actually born on Island that we know of are Jacob, MIB, Ethan & Aaron? hmm
-Can't we say that the fact that MIB & Hurley can see & speak to the dead is significant?
-Possible suggestions that this was around 23AD
-The game is Senet, an ancient Egyptian form of Backgammon.
-The answer to “why John Locke” was told in “The Candidate”
-I hope your theory about “happily ever after” in the sideways is wrong, no offense
-A 3rd timeline seems highly possible but way too much to wrap my head around
-There's gonna be a lot of unanswered mysteries IMHO (you might want to read the interview from today).

Yup, I think they'll go look for Desmond if Charles didn't find him first. Ben, Richard & Miles will find them IMO (if it wasn't Ben, Richard & Miles who wired the Ajira plane). Desmond is fine. It's just a well; we saw that. Thoughts on Charles bringing Desmond to the Island having something to do with the electromagnestism from the bright light? Also, you didn't mention anything about when John Locke said “I looked into the eye of the Island and what I saw was beautiful” in Walkabout. Thought that was a pretty cool shout back to season 1.

I appreciate the humor in your podcasts, funny Survivor tie-ins BTW, Russell Hantz lol. I've already ordered The Lost Encylopedia, should make a great “coffee table book”. I wonder if it will have legs that unfold to make it into an actual coffee table? haha

P.S. I will never forgive David Chase for the ending of The Sopranos. =)

Oh & congrats on the upcoming wedding to both you & Nicole.
http://www.robHASaWEBSITE.com/ Rob Cesternino

Thanks for the great post, Swan. Now let me ask you a question. The stuff that you bullet pointed, is that what D&C talked about on the podcast or is that information that you put together.

Oops, sorry about the wrong title. Anyway, I think my title is catchier. I really liked how they put that song at the end of Finding Nemo.
http://twitter.com/aforstenhausler Alex Forstenhausler

I love the Goonies reference, but what I love even more is your laugh when you realize John Norton didn't get it.
poodz

Listening to your podcast, made it about halfway through so I paused to make a point. I was at the part where you were disappointed in finding out that all the research that went into the Dharma initiative was really irrelevant to the overall scheme.

A friend of mine kinda explained it to me… the show has been progressively “zooming out” At first we thought the show was going to be all about these people who were stranded, then we discovered there were other people on the island. Then we found out about the dharma initiative. Then we found out that there were other people invading and the dharma was dead. Then we discovered there were two men fighting over the island (ben and penny's dad whose name escapes me) now we finally see that the whole show is about these two entities, these two men, jacob and smokey. So basically, just like the dharma initiative, every single part of the show thus far has proven to be worthless in the big scheme of things. I wonder if we're going to zoom out further in the finale to something that makes jacob and the man in black seem irrelevant.
http://twitter.com/nobtruth Matt Noble

G'Day Rob, one of the best Lost podcasts yet!

Surprised you didn't comment on the opening scene where Claudia (which happened to be Allison Janney's character's name on the West Wing) is grilling Allison Janney and then Allison says something along the lines of “don't bother asking questions it will just lead to more questions”. Seemed to me like a lttle bit of a passive agressive comment from Damon and Carlton to the fans.

With this being a Jocob/Smoky episode I was fully expecting to discover the origin of the rules and to finally find out what the stakes are if Smokey gets off the island. It seems like the closest we got was that Smokey wasn't thinking long term and decided the thing he wanted to make the rules about was the board game leaving Jacob free to make rules up about the island?
George

I think when Desmond is in the well with all the coins, he's probably spending all his time searching for the Pennies. Heyyyooooooo!

Seriously though, great stuff as usual, keep up the good work.
http://www.robHASaWEBSITE.com/ Rob Cesternino

Well played, George. Well Played.
http://www.robHASaWEBSITE.com/ Rob Cesternino

Hey guys,

Here are some interesting LOST related things I tweeted about today. One serious the other is kind of funny.

1 Darlton talks to Alan Sepinwall about “Across the Sea” – http://bit.ly/9CPRDY

I thought that Damon and Carlton are ridiculously defensive about the show this week and I think they come off really poorly. These guys are not handling the criticism well at all in my mind. I think they need to be one of two ways (A) This is how we're ending the show and deal with it. Tough luck if you don't like it (This is pretty much the David Chase approach) or (B) We hear you guys and if you don't understand or like what we did, we'll be happy to explain/clarify whatever you want us to talk about. To me, they're sounding a lot like Amanda at a final tribal council trying to justify this final season.

2. 11 Ways LOST Could End – http://news.tubefilter.tv/2010/05/12/11-ways-th…

These are really short parody videos showing famous endings of things acted out by the LOST characters. Some are dumb, but a couple are really funny. I liked the SNL the best.
ToledoDave

Finally it comes out, Jacob Bad Smoke Monster Good.
sshaaz

Chris Hansen? Carrie Ann? Rube Goldberg? Ninja Turtles? Screw Damon and Carlton, you aren't going to hear genius like this from those dolts.

I hate to say this, but please don't expect a satisfying ending to this show. There is absolutely nothing that these writers could have come up with that not one single fan could have figured out by now. I truly believe they have been flying by the seat of their pants for 6 seasons. To be a fly on the wall during the writing of these last few hours would have been an exercise in agony, hilarity and disbelief. I picture a room full of idiots on the verge of killing each other over trying to reconcile the regrets of what were once considered bright ideas. Envision this, if you will: The glowing filter of a cigarette. The trembling fingers squeezing it almost in two. The fingers belonging to a man, who, according to his drivers license is a spry twenty-six year old. However, by the reflection in the window, even the best carnival guesser would swear he isn't a day under 45. His once, nicely trimmed goatee has become a disproportionate full beard. His forehead has begun to glow bright red, conveniently in the exact spot that has been propelled into the wall that he has been standing near for the last half hour. The not-so-faint sound of mumbling can be heard by those who are pretending to concentrate on the blank, yellow demon that we would normally refer to as a “legal pad.” Mumbling that sounds an awful lot like:

“Stupid…stupid…Walt can kill birds? Really?” *thump* *thump*
http://twitter.com/nobtruth Matt Noble

I really think Damon and Carlton are creative, smart and I am very thankful for their stewardship of Lost. “That being said” I've always found them grating (dare I say smug) when talking about the show. The answer to the question regarding the man in blacks name was “I think for us to explain why we're not giving him a name veers too far into the territory of explaining things that we don't feel the need to explain.” highlights my feelings about them very well.

Either the name is important and there is a reason he has no name or it is not important and they have spent time going out of their way not to give him one. It seems they just get off on being withholding. The fact that they can't even give a straight answer to whether there is a thematic reason they arn't naming him makes me question why they even give these interviews.

They also repeatedly said how after last weeks deaths and also because they want the final to be character based they purposly made this a mythology heavy episode. But then in defence to why they didn't answer particular questions they said they wanted this to be more about understanding the characters of Jacob and the Man in Black and see them grow up. So was it mythology or character driven? That disconnect that the episode didn't know what it want to be where they were in a position where they flirted around questions without explaining anything is probably what led to all the criticism of the episode.

To conclude, Damon and Carlton: great showrunners but I think they would make very annoying friends.
LockeNess

To your second question, I think we are to take that all the times MIB appeared in Titus Welliver form after this episode (the “Incident” beach conversation with Jacob, meeting Richard, etc.) was him using his Smokey powers to take on the form of dead people, and he simply took on the appearance of his own body. I thought that was kind of cool reveal, but I agree with your lingering questions and felt pretty underwhelmed on the whole.

I think what was wrong was that they answered some questions, but not the ones that really mattered. Honestly, I don't think knowing who Adam and Eve are is as important as getting an understanding of the rules that govern the “game,” how Jacob goes from following in lock-step with his people-hating, island-sheltering mom to leaving the island to bring people there and prove man's innate goodness, etc. There was too much missing and I feel even more confused about what the purpose of their feud is than before. What exactly are the stakes? Why is it terrible if MIB leaves the island? As a man his motives were perfectly innocuous and sympathetic. Did becoming the smoke monster actually make him evil incarnate and *now* he has to be stopped because he's pure evil? And with Jacob having no real ideological stake in the game, reluctant himself about protecting something he doesn't even understand why it needed to be protected, I came away with even less understanding of why this conflict is so vital for the characters.
Jeremy

I have to say that I've had some memorable days in my life (wedding, birth of kids, etc.), but having my Lost comment read on Robhasapodcast is definitely up there. Thanks.

I like your analogy of Lost to a mystery novel. No matter how great the story is, you can't help but judge it based on the ending – or the resolution of the mystery. I've been a devoted Lost follower, and I'm still holding out some hope that their resolution of the biggest mysteries will be fulfilling so that the overall series doesn't leave a bad taste. I'm not holding my breath though.

I thought it was interesting when you pointed out the many things that we thought were such a big deal early on that have just sort of gone away – Dharma, the hatch, etc. Here are some of the questions I'm pretty sure will never be answered which now seem like pretty ridiculous plot points:

- What is the appeal of being an Other? What do they do all day? And how was anyone possibly sold on it? Was the pitch: “Okay everyone, gather 'round. We're going to sneak into the camp of these groups of people who just experienced a horrifying plane crash and who are really just happy to be alive right now. Then we're going to take a few of them while they sleep – especially kids. We'll just sort of terrorize the rest of them, maybe kidnap a pregnant woman… I don't know, take a small boy away from his father. Who's with me?”

- Was the fake 815 crash really a worthwhile investment by Widmore? How much does it cost to buy a huge passenger plane and then junk it so that it convincingly passes as having crashed into the ocean? And why do it? Just to prevent people from looking for the wreckage and finding the island? Isn’t this the same island for which Widmore had been searching for like 20 years with unlimited resources at his disposal and couldn’t find?

- How did Widmore accumulate his wealth if he was on the island for most of his life?

- How exactly did the Oceanic 6 lie about where they crashed “protect the island and everyone still on it”? If they revealed that they had been to the island, then Widmore would do what? Search for the island and try to kill everyone on it? Wasn’t he doing that anyway?

- What was with the Ajira flight having to recreate as closely as possible the conditions of Oceanic 815 down to Locke’s corpse having Christian Shephard’s shoes?

I'd love to hear your take on any of those or any others.

One last thing – I disagree that fans of a show will listen to and enjoy equally any podcast about that show. I listened to a couple other Survivor podcasts from random people that weren't nearly as interesting/entertaining/insightful as yours. Getting yours and other former contestants' perspectives has been great. And I love your take on the Lost stuff. I'm going to miss them after these seasons are over.
seasondays

ROB

the reason that the MIB killed JACOB in such a complicated-over-the-top manner was to get some more jury votes at the end for his aggresive game play

regarding the flashback [although actually a flashforward] in the beggining i felt insulted because you should remeber there's ADAM & EVE but when i found out CHARLIE was also in the scene but was edited out i think they are heavily hinting LOCKE = MIB / KATE = MOTHER / JACK = JACOB
Barbara

WOW.

That Q & A was incredibly enlightening into the ego of CC and DL.
I love the show (and your podcast even more!) but how many times do these guys have to state that they've done their best and audience-be-damned because we will weave the storytelling as we see fit and owe no answers to the mysteries we've created?

I have “lost” so much respect for CC and DL and now understand why they will be disappearing after the finale.

Such a shame.
http://www.facebook.com/ADM101010 Andrew MacAskill

I listened to “The Tribe” podcast for the first time this week & really enjoyed it so I was glad to see he was on this podcast. He sounded oddly like Stephen Fishbach on it though which I found odd because he doesn't on “The Tribe”.

I'm looking really forward to the last couple of eps. I don't mind if they don't answer everything. I've come to care about almost every character one way or another so I'm just interested to see how it plays out & how each character fares as we close in on the end.
karinatais

I think the Dharma Initiative could still be relevant because they were trying to find the Valenzetti equation, which could potentially be important soon since those numbers all relate to people. Personally I don't mind, I think it was interesting background information.

A lot of people think that the mother was the smoke monster before MiB, which is why she knows what happens when you go in there and why she was able to destroy the village and the well, which is what I found really odd, like you.
http://twitter.com/kosta_psaltis Kosta Psaltis

You're a funny guy Rob, but your reenactment of the “official” Lost podcast may have been your greatest moment yet! I had to pause the podcast I was laughing so hard. D+C have nothing on you in the humor department. These are the moments that keep me coming back!

P.S. you're Desmond impression is pretty good (mostly the brotha part), but the Russell Hantz one is my favorite.