Maybe it's just because my expectations for what must be the last myth-centric episode of the show couldn't have been higher, but I was a little disappointed with Across the Sea, although it illuminated, in a roundabout way, Lost's policy on answers. You’ll get them, but not necessarily explanations for them. As C.J. Cregg briefed on behalf of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, "Every question I answer will only lead to another question.” "No shit, Lost," replied ten million people all at once.
We did learn what the deal was with Jacob and MIB, where the donkey wheel came from, and who Adam and Eve were, but the show didn't really explain any of it. We still don't know the exact nature of The Source, or the powers of its guardian, or where they come from, or how they're transferred - all points which seem really fucking salient for our castaways in the present. I’m mostly fine with this nebulous approach to storytelling, and more than fine with the idea that the Lost finale will be about what’s going to happen to our characters, rather than wrapping up mythology. I’m assuming that at this point, we’re pretty much done with “answers” except to the question: “So now what happens?” Given that, this episode worked as an MIB/Jacob flashback, but, especially given the last two episodes, there wasn't enough urgency or umph behind the narrative to make it emotionally satisfying in the same way that Richard's flashback, even laden with the worst kind of telenovella melodrama, was. 
I’m pleased that while Fake!Locke has pretty much been established as evil, we’re allowed to see his is not a predisposed, Voldemort kind of evil, but arose from his own choices; I also loved turning Jacob, the benevolent, if passive, Jedi master of the island, into a total pokey rube of a mama’s-boy wuss; and the dichotomy show's been working so hard to sell us — the destructive, ignorant anarchy of Smokey/Free Will or the soul-crushing machinations of Jacob/Fate — looks increasingly false. I hope that in the end the remaining castaways are able to find a third, unexpected solution. The prevalence of the color red this season seems to hint that it's not just white and black in the game anymore. My wishes for the remaining three (and a half) hours:
Jules and Jim. We all know that Juliet and Sawyer are going out for coffee, right? Deliver on that scene in the sweetest, fangirliest way possible, please. I need some Elizabeth Mitchell not tainted by V, and I absolutely love Giachinno's theme for the two of them.
See John Locke. See John Locke Walk. It seems to be what the sideways is building towards, after The Candidate, and think about the kind of pathos involved in this moment. John Locke the badass island mystic was very cruelly taken away from us, and it would be good to reconnect with that character.
What About Walt? Remember when Walt was mysterious and special and seemed to be key? What's the deal with all these children in general? I don't expect to get any answers on this subject, and I certainly don't Walt and Aaron to go the way of Hera Agathon, and I know the actor's like two hundred years too old for the part now; but still, through the magic of CGI or whatever, the show owes us something of him.
YOU BETTER NOT HURT PENNY OR DESMOND, YOU ASSHOLES. I mean it, show. For serious. I was sad when Sun and Jin died, but please, by all means, if one star-crossed couple has to go, let it be them. Leave Desmond and Penny alone.
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