Wow, I enjoyed this episode. Maybe because I wasn’t expecting this season to answer every single mystery ever. It’s about the journey, not the destination.
The only theory I can come up with now is the Island is the “well of souls” where all humanity springs from?
Or a Wizard or a UFO did it.
No, I wouldn’t totally trust our instant reactions. I’d watch it yourself.
With two (if you’re counting by hours, it’s closer to three and a half) episodes left, I may be a bit premature with this, but…
I get the feeling that Lindelof and Cuse started creating this original, intricate mythos and it got away from them. Instead of creating something new, give us some twist on some existing fable, fairy tale, or whatever. But to spend six fuggin’ years weaving this elaborate tapestry of characters and history, and giving your viewers the feel of some unique, intellectual mystery, turns out it’s some “it is what it is” crap? Well he’s back nailed it on the head when he said this is coming off as self indulgence on the writers part here.
This is the network-televison equivalent of blue balls.
I have never been one to be concerned about finding the answers. I’m all about characters and story.
I’m disappointed because I see the answers now and don’t care for them at all. I’d rather have NOT had an answer than what I saw tonight because it’s all too obvious now it’s going to be a bunch of bullshit. Seriously, what was so good about this part of the journey? It’s all magical fairyland now, with a dozen new questions I know will have more magical fairyland answers.
I can’t believe I’m feeling such anger for a television show!
And they really twisted our collective nipples with that, too, didn’t they? 
I’m not talking about the light Locke saw coming from the hatch window. I meant the part where he tells Jack (or someone) “I looked into the heart of the Island, and what I saw was beautiful.” I think he even described it as a bright light. I guess that was the Well of Souls . . . er, Cave of . . . Brightness. Or something.
Yeah.
And another thought I just had about the episode in general what the hell was that??
I try to take that attitude too. But this episode was not about the journey. It was about the destination. I was disappointed for all the reasons already stated.
I know. I know! I started out this season jokingly telling my husband, “Boy, I hope it doesn’t all go to shit,” but not really thinking it would all go to shit. I figured that even if it wasn’t perfect, the show creators would have mapped out a pretty good plan for the ending, since they knew well in advance how much time they had left.
But no, we’re just getting a bunch of woo-woo “Oh, the island is magic” nonsense. And the thing is, I could even accept woo-woo stuff if it were internally consistent and made sense. None of this crap makes sense. It’s just, “Oh, it’s magic.” Why can’t MiB leave the island? It’s magic. Why can’t he kill Jacob? It’s magic. How did he turn into the smoke monster? It’s magic.
Feh.
It’s the Light of Zartha. And Jacob (J) has to keep it away from the Kylothians…
I both agree and disagree with this. I didn’t hate the episode, because I’m also not expecting the show to give all the answers (man, how boring would that be: the entire last episode would just be an hour-long dissertation read by Locke).
However, I also didn’t love the episode, because once you accept that they’re not going to tell us everything, the major points of tonight could’ve been covered in a ten-minute expository scene, set in the present, as part of an episode that dealt more immediately with all the castaways who I actually care about.
I’m only interested in the answers that directly influence Jack and the others, and I want to see those answers be revealed in dramatic ways that impact those characters. I haven’t spent six years following the Jacob Twins. I’m interested in them, but not invested. As far as I’m concerned, Damon and Carlton can be as vague as they want about what the island is, as long as they keep the dramatic momentum going for the characters who have been the focus of the show.
But, while I’m not totally satisfied, I’m also not too bummed about this episode, because we still have the equivalent of three full episodes left. Temporally, we’re close to the end of the season, but there’s a bit of an illusion there because it’s three eps sandwiched into a week. That’s still plenty of episode time to bring things to a compelling finish, now that they’ve gotten the Smokey exposition out of the way. I would’ve preferred that they do it in a different fashion, but hey. It’s their show and it’s entertained the hell out of me for more than half a decade, so I’ll let it slide.
I’ve loved this show for six years now and during that whole time I never labored under the impression that they had the whole thing mapped out in advance. I thought though that there was some general plan they were following and were filling out the ‘in between’ moments as they went along, and I accepted that. Still, perhaps naively, I thought we’d see something definitive near the end that would begin to tie things together. After this episode though, I’m beginning to think I was wrong.
So we know what Jacob and his brother are now, normal human beings caught up in the islands ‘mysteries’, and how MIB became Smokey. We also learned who Adam and Eve were, and the origins of the ‘mysterious dagger’ that’s been toted around this season. But all the answers were superficial and all they did was move the goal posts once again. What the hell is the light in the cave? (The source of 'life? What the fuck does that even mean?) Who was Jacob’s ‘mother’? Who were the others on the island that were apparently ‘evil’? What the hell is the smoke monster? Why should we even care?
I was awaiting this episode with some excitement thinking we’d receive some serious answers. A Jacob and Smokey centered episode! We’ll get to see why they’re on the island and why the island is so special! Heh…
There’s still time to save the show, but we’re into overtime here and they’re going to need a serious Hail Mary and hope someone comes down with the ball. This was a FAIL of EPIC proportions. At this point I’m halfway hoping Smokey escapes the island and murders humanity. I’m siding with him at this point because no one else seems to actually be interested in answers.
Smokey: What’s down in the cave?
Protector CJ: It’s complicated.
Ghost Mom: I’m your real Mother.
Smokey: Well maybe I’ll go with you guys instead cause you actually seem to be looking for answers… HEY MOM! Look what I found!..
Protector CJ: You shouldn’t have done that… bashes his head into a rock
Smokey: WTF!?! stabs CJ
Jacob: How dare you kill our mother who isn’t really our mother! bashes his head into a rock a second time and floats him down into the mysterious light
Smokey: You shouldn’t have done that…
Hell, I’d want Jacob dead to.
Meltdown opined:
Yeah. Oh yeah.
After six years, you’d think we deserve a bit of how and why. Mother (she didn’t get a name either, and it would have been so damn easy) seems as mortal as anyone but she was able to confer immortality on two random twins? What is the light that turns 43-year-olds into smoke? Titus Welliver’s form is back walking around in 2004/07 or whenever the hell we are, so did he re-possess his own dead body like Locke’s?
Now we have to worry about where the hell Mother came from and got HER powers. Reminds me of the old Indian legend about how the world’s on the back of a giant turtle who’s standing on another turtle and so on; a kid asks the elders what the first turtle of all is standing on, and is told it’s turtles all the way down.
That’s what I’m calling this episode in my head. My exasperated headachy head.
That would be awesome!
Just a bizarre episode. Once again the “Cave of Light” reminds us that the best show on television has worse special effects than Xena Warrior Princess. It’s embarrassing.
I agree with everyone else on this thread: I’d prefer no answers to stupid answers. They’ve known for quite some time that this was the last season. This was the best they could do? Or have they intentionally made this episode terrible and maddening in order to lower our expectations only to blow them out of the water in the 2.5 hour finale? Right? Right?!?
My main questions:
Who installed the donkey wheel if Esau was knocked out? His faux-mom? Why would she? Are we supposed to believe that Esau installed it at a later date with new castaways?
Why can Jacob visit all the candidates, but Esau can’t get off the damn island? How does Jacob get off the island? That stupid mirror lighthouse thing?
Are we still supposed to think Jacob is the good guy in this? Tonight he acted more like Lenny in Mice and Men. I’m with the MiB now. Fuck the world if it’s saved by a bunch of pregnant woman-murdering psychos.
Man. Smocke comes off as a flawed but reasonable man, while Jacob is just plain a dick. Poor brainwashed kid.
Back when Babylon 5 was in its first run, it was in syndication, meaning that it took some effort to follow the show as it jumped from Friday nights at 11:00pm to Saturday nights at 12:00am to Sunday afternoons at 2:00pm.
But follow it I did. It was a great show.
Imagine my frustration and anger when, for the next-to-last episode, the one where B5 was going to battle Earth, a climax to which the show seems to have been building to for four years* I feel asleep, waking up to see the credits rolling across the screen. In the days pre-TIVO, pre-broadband, this was unsalvageble, especially considering that I rarely tape anything either, especially not a TV show I was watching. I was devastated.
Tonight… tonight, I wish I had fallen asleep. 
*I think this was before the fifth season was announced - anyway, I didn’t really keep up on the show news and don’t know when the fifth season was announced in relation to the events of this tragic events within this post.
Absolutely loved the episode. absolutely loved that it pissed the people off who are pissed, for all the reasons they say they’re pissed. Absolutely Brilliant.
Maybe thats why MiB was starring at a turtle on the beach, with a rather dissatisfied look on his face.
Hell, I liked Xena. It was a great show that never threatened to leave us with the kind of blue balls Lost is hinting at. Xena’s ending actually fit it’s thematic arc. Lost is delving into complete random annoyance.
To be fair, (and I’m not feeling particulary generous right now), Esau is dead. He’s ‘Adam’ now. We only know that the Smoke Monster can’t leave the island without assistance.
Probably. And it’s stupid.
Fuck Jacob at this point. He’s a man child that hasn’t bothered looking for answers for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.
I liked Jacob. But they completely botched his characterization in this episode. As I said previously there’s still time to save the show, but right now, there going to need to pull a rabbit out their ass.