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After conferring her guardian powers upon Jacob, Mother went back to camp. She found it trashed. She silently surveyed the scene and found something peculiar — MIB's Senet box. She opened it up and took out the black stone. She looked at it — and then MIB stabbed her in the back and through the chest. She fell to the ground and whispered a word: ''Nothing.'' She told her son that she couldn't let him leave because she loved him, and then she thanked him for killing her and died. Three things: 1. Notice I used the word ''silently.'' 2. Notice that Mother said ''Nothing.'' 3. Notice that MIB used the same knife to kill his mother that Dogen gave Sayid to kill MIB/Fake Locke. Remember Dogen's instructions? Sayid had to plunge the knife into The Monster's chest before The Monster said a word. Sayid failed to execute the execution before Fake Locke said, ''Hello,'' and in the aftermath, Sayid seemed to suffer from some kind of soul sleep, a state of emotional nothingness. Perhaps I'm not adding all of this up properly, but I find the link here irresistible. I go back to where I began — that there was something about the Mother/Jacob/MIB drama that cursed The Island and created a mythic template for future dramas to follow. (Unless, of course, their drama followed and reaffirmed an existing template.) Why did Sayid have to use that knife? Why did he have to do the stabbing before Fake Locke said a word? Why did he feel ''nothing'' afterward? It's not about rules. It's not about internal logic. It's about a story. And that's just the way the story goes. But can the story be changed? TBD.

Jacob found his brother standing over Mother with the bloody knife. Long story short, he got pissed, snapped, and tossed MIB down the Holy Wormhole chute. And out chugged Smokey, full of sound and fury, signifying what he had become: meaninglessness incarnate. Or maybe that was just his soul. Does everyone who goes down the hellhole get barfed up as smoke? I wonder. I also find myself wondering how ''Across The Sea'' affects or changes Jacob's metaphor of The Island as a cork holding in a toxic brew of malevolence. Can we officially declare Smokey that toxic brew? What would happen to the world if he ever escaped? Questions for Doc Jensen to ponder in his weekend column — and I swear, I will post one this weekend. All to say: to be continued. Do you have a question or theory? docjensenew@gmail.com is where you can find me. Do you want to see me destroy a picture of a polar bear? Check out the new episode of Totally Lost.

And the end approaches…