The Jack Monster And The Smoke Mother
The Jack Monster and The Smoke Mother
In yesterday’s article, I mentioned in passing that Jack turns into the Smoke Monster. This bit didn’t seem to fit the conceit of the piece, but apparently I should have included it, because everyone’s asking about it. I’ve added it into the article in an addendum, and I’m putting it here as well. I’ll try to keep it “brief” and “simple”, citing only information we were given in the show.
The Mother was the Protector of the Island.
The Mother explained to her sons that going into The Source would result in a fate worse than death (i.e.- Becoming a Smoke Monster).
The Mother destroyed the Man in Black’s village in a most Smoke Monstery of ways, seen here:
What I’m getting at here is that, as Protector of the Island, Mother both had the powers of Jacob, and was a Smoke Monster. She split her duties and powers between her two sons, and made it so they could not kill each other. It would make sense that the Protector of Important Magic Island would be the incredibly powerful cloud of black smoke that can read people’s memories and kill them in seconds. Rousseau was right: The black smoke IS a security system. A very important one, meant to patrol the Island and protect it for as long as it can. Mother was this being, and she also had the power of Jacob: to make rules, to give others abilities, etc. Full-on Island Protector.
But she couldn’t decide which was deserving of the role. She loved them both. So she made it so each would get a part of her. The Gray Mother split herself into dark and light. The problem here is that The Man in Black became the Smoke Monster. He became a security system that wanted to leave its post. That was problem with the Broken Island for so long: One of its protectors had no interest in protecting anything. Both protectors wanted the other dead, but neither could kill the other. Thankfully, Oceanic 815 crashed and Jack was eventually all “Fine, I’ll save the world.”
So. How are Smoke Monsters made? They dip themselves into The Source. Into the Water and Light. Jacob tossed his Brother down and then his Brother cracked his skull, fell into The Source, and emerged as the new Smoke Monster. Later, Jacob found his body draped over a nearby rock and tree:
The Water and Light absorbs the essence of a person and turns them into a Smoke Monster. But they don’t need the person’s body. So The Source moved the body outside.
So what happened to Jack in the finale? He went down to The Source. Desmond unplugged the Island and was unaffected because of his Magic Time Brain. Jack had to plug it up again, though, and the Water and Light DID affect him. He sacrificed himself because he knew the Water and Light would kill him.
But the Water and Light doesn’t kill you. We’ve SEEN what it does. It turns someone into a Smoke Monster, into a Protector of The Island. The person needs to be dead, though, as The Man In Black was dead when he reached The Source. Then it spits out the body. So after Jack was consumed by Light and Water, where did we next see him?
The same place The Man In Black showed up. (Forgive the quality of the picture, I just screencapped an edited montage from YouTube).
The Source spit Jack out once it absorbed his essence for Smoke Monstering. But Jack wasn’t dead yet. He was stabbed and bleeding, but not dead yet. Not like the Man in Black already was when he fell into The Source. So Jack walked into the reeds, lied down with a dog, and died. His eye closed.
Then, however many yards away, a new Smoke Monster burst from The Source. And this time, it was a Security System thatwantedto stay. One that even needed to stay. Jack’s whole arc of the show ended with himneedingto stay on the Island and to do whatever he could to protect it. He believed in the Island, and he believed that he belonged there. Now he was even more correct than he thought. Jack could now happily float around in his new form, helping Hurley clean up Jacob’s mess, and protect the Island he loved, in the form of something he once feared. He did this for many many years, until Hurley’s reign ended and they could both pass off their power and position to Walt, the next true Protector of The Island.
Now let’s go to the Sideways, where Jack keptalmostremembering his life. Every other character had one moment when they remembered everything that ever happened to them. Jack, on the other hand, needed several. A moment with Locke, a moment with Kate. He kept not quite being able to remember. Now, one could argue that this is just because he’s Jack. He’s stubborn and resistant, and just needed a while. However, he wasn’t that way in the Sideways. That was one of the main points in that world. Everyone had evolved and grown in their lives, and they displayed the traits they’d developed in their time on the Island. Sideways Jack was not as stubborn as Real Life Jack.
SO. What’s my point? Jack spent we-don’t-know-how-long as a Smoke Monster on the Island. It could have been years or decades or centuries. Hurley lived a life just as long, but he never changed forms. Hurley remained himself. Jack, however, was Smoke Monster Jack. We saw what being a Smoke Monster can do to a person. As Mother said, it can be “worse than death”. You lose some of yourself. You take the form of other people, you float around asblack smoke. Yes, its essence is you, but much of you is lost over the years.
Jack needed those extra pushes in the Sideways world, because he was so far away from it. He spent his life as Jack, but then he spent X amount of years as another entity. He lost a bit of himself, and each time Locke or Kate touched him in the Sideways, he got a little closer to remembering his life before the Smoke. He needed a drastic wake-up call like his father explaining everything to him in order to truly wake up from his life.
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remember that time i listened to pol-pot’s pleasure penthouse and was momentarily taken to a higher place within the universe
i think i've just transcended to another level of consciousness. i have reached heights no other human has ever. in fact, i think i have acquired the ego death. it's like i'm on lsd without actually being on lsd. a truly unique experience. i may, perhaps, begin crying from the sheer beauty of this music i am listening to. i hope to die to this album or else there's no other reason for me to even continue living. send help because i may be a corpse by morningtime
music ask game but it came straight out of my caffeinated brain on a wednesday morning
there’s just one rule : send some into me before you reblog!!
1. what is your favorite song. right now. tell me.
2. what is your favorite album. tell me rn.
3. who is your favorite artist or band? if you’re like me, just give your top 3 or 5.
4. what band started it all for you?
5. shuffle your playlist!!! what’s the first song that plays?
6. what bands/artists do you want to see in concert?
7. what bands/artists have you seen in concert?
8. tell me about your favorite band. go on infodump for me.
9. what’s an album that JUST came out and it’s been on repeat for like 6 days +?
10. what’s a song that literally just came out and you’ve had it on repeat forever?
11. tell me about your least favorite band or artist. go on scream about why you hate them.
12. what is one song that has irreparably damaged your social skills?
13. what is one album that has irreparably damaged your social skills?
14. what is one artist that has irreparably damaged your social skills?
15. what is one band/artist you listen to and everybody knows you listen to them but no one would expect them to have THAT genre?
16. what is one band/artist you listen to that everyone knows you for?
17. what song in your playlist sounds like this 💖❤️🥰🤩💘💕 but the lyrics are 🖤🩸⛓💣🗡🪨
18. what song in your playlist sounds like this 🖤🩸⛓💣🗡🪨 but the lyrics are 💖❤️🥰🤩💘💕
19. what is your favorite album art from one of your favorite artists?
20. SHOW ME A PICTURE OF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS. RIGHT NOW. I NEED TO SEE THEM.
21. what’s the weirdest song title you can think of right now.
22. i just saw the prettiest motorcycle on the way to school tell me one song you’d blast on a motorcycle while driving one
23. what’s a song that makes you feel like a hot badass?
24. what’s a song you cry to?
25. show me your favorite playlist!!!!! what are some songs on it?????
26. show me two songs with the same title!!! same genre?? different genre??
27. if you can play any instrument, what’s your favorite song to jam to??
28. DO YOU LIKE SHOWTUNES???(((
29. WHATS YOUR FAVORITE MUSICAL)?????
30. describe your music taste in one word
31. are you a lyric analyzer or do you just listen for fun. 🫣
32. pretty vinyls or 180 gram vinyls?
33. DO YOU COLLECT CDS????
34. DO YOU COLLECT VINYLS??(((
35. show me your prettiest vinyl🥰
36. show me your favorite cd case or booklet :)
37. DO U HAVE ANY NEAT RECORD COVERS??
38. did one of your favorite bands/artists do a cover???? tell me about it!!!
39. how much do you love music? describe to me in one image.
40. shuffle your playlist and the fifth song—describe it in one image.
do you ever become obsessed with a character and you just go "of fucking course its that one" at yourself because you are so incredibly predictable
reading all of this umbrella academy s4 hate and criticism is so surreal … what happened to this show.. s1 stays one of my fav seasons of a show of all time but it got this bad ??? really?? i watched most of s2 and did NOT vibe so stopped watching long ago. now i just want to know wtf happened
Can I ask you something, Kittridge? If you’re dealing with a man who has crushed, shot, stabbed, and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated do you think you’re gonna make him by hauling Mom and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse? Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible (1996–)
holy mother of god I FINALLY HAVE IN THE JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE. signed by joel himself, and i have a little mini dig poster too. when i tell you my bjm era is about to become full force again …
and if i make a mentalist sideblog where i ramble about patrick jane, my observations of him, my opinions of the show, my criticisms, etc…..? i might be healed
still thinking about marius and taylor …. the innate hopelessness of a relationship that was always doomed to fail… the way their dynamic could’ve been saved had marius just admitted what he did, but like the stubborn and distrustful asshole he is, he kept that info to himself! and look what happened! taylor honest to god tried to rectify things and was even willing to give marius a chance, was willing to forgive him, but marius continued to lie. i think it’s really interesting because it’s not something that marius would ever be used to…? like, this is a guy who lies to everyone and rarely reaps the consequences of doing so, even with his brother—who also lies straight to his face, multiple times throughout the show. marius doesn’t particularly care if people lie to him and isn’t accustomed to being around people who need him to admit he lied in order to forgive him. either the deed is forgiven/brushed off without another word (such as with marius and eddie), or the relationship is ruined because of the lie. i don’t think there’s ever been any in-between, wherein marius could save a relationship by admitting his wrongdoings. so when taylor offers that as an option, of course marius doesn’t take it! he isn’t used to that, and he’s a skeptic at heart. plus he kinda sorta despises taylor. why should he beg for forgiveness? but what i think he doesn’t realize is that you can’t escape from family, certainly not this one, and when those sorts of relationships are ruined, it ripples through everything and creates lots and LOTS of consequences. and unfortunately, having taylor as an enemy is not a good time!
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