Did "Lost" just jump the shark?

So last night's episode of Lost... It was interesting. Well, was. The more I think about it the more it simply doesn't work. I understand that when you have a show with devoted fans and years of build up to a finale you're going to run into problems pleasing people with your story. Look at Battlestar Galactica. But Lost is different. It is its own special case in a lot of ways. The manner in which the world-building was done is, well, unique. Lost spent seasons building up mysteries with barely any reveals. And that's why this episode doesn't work.

The fans came to Lost for the mysteries. It was a puzzle and really drew the viewer in. You'd watch and try to work out what the hidden black light map meant in the hatch. You'd wonder about the polar bear. You'd try to figure out why Walt had magic powers or Locke couldn't die. But then they announced the final season and things started to get answered. And the answers were mundane. I don't think Walt was ever really explained. The polar bear was part of an experiment. Alpert didn't know as much as people thought. The mysteries of the show turned out not to be that interesting. Instead, the focus went from “what's going on with the island” to “we have to protect/leave the island”. No one cared about the why and because of that gave up a lot of motivation.

So in last night's episode we get a whole lot of back story on Jacob and The Man In Black (the baby that no one bothered to name). They're brothers. New information but not shocking. Same age, same period of time on the island... and it's simply not a big deal. Their mother? Some random woman. We learn that they were raised by a white woman (good thing they don't look remotely like their mother of darker coloring). The immortality thing? She did “something”. And apparently that “something” was a lot more effective than the “thing” she did so they couldn't hurt each other. Something else we learned is that this whole struggle to keep safe/escape the island is really nothing more than Jacob having nothing else to do and The Man In Black having a desire to go “home”, somewhere he's never been or heard of. That seems like pretty weak motivation on both their parts to keep pushing them for centuries. In fact, the thing that Jacob is protecting has been changed from “the island” to “the special light in the island”. While this may have some metaphysical value it has no story value as of yet. That's not a reveal or an explanation; it's just a diversion. “You were looking here. Now look here!” and nothing is told to us about it. The only thing of any consequence that was show was Jacob killed TMIB. Great! We see how he used to be angry and violent while TMIB was impetuous but more even tempered. Other than that one fact this episode was weak reveals and constant runaround. At the very end we see that the non-mother and TMIB are Adam and Eve. At this point is it even important to know that? We have multiple universes, a time traveling island and immortals locked in an eternal struggle. We need to have every small mystery explained? We don't need to know everything so make sure what we do learn is important!

I was also a little put off that the flashback pointed to a lot of things being magic. The island has the spark of life within it. TMIB was suddenly turned into the smoke monster after his death by floating through this spark. Up until now we've had a the strangeness based on science-fiction: Desmond has some effect when it comes to electromagnetic fields, the core of the island was held in check with computers and magnetic machinery, Faraday worked out the mathematics of the time travel effect for frak's sake! Hell, even the smoke monster is held at bay with electronic pylons. Suddenly we have sparks of life, “things” done to create immortality, bodily transformations. The most science-fiction consistent point in the episode was when TMIB explained he was going to install a wheel inside the spark of life “with a system” he and his people worked out. A system? We get magnetic fields, quantum theory, branching universes, genetic research and suddenly it comes down to the spark of life and a wooden “system”? I always say it's important to know which side of the sci-fi/fantasy line you're on. Lost started out in a place where it could have been anything. Science-fiction, fantasy, religious afterlife, mental psychosis. I do realize that recently there have been a number of characters using fantasy buzzwords but these people were mainly getting it from Jacob and TMIB. If they want to turn on some fantasy aspects then at least weave it into the established sci-fi. Battlestar Galactica had mythology and gods from the get-go. Star Wars is based on the Force. 9 (with Elijah wood) starts with machines that can transfers parts of the soul. Focusing on time travel and quantum physics has, over the seasons, dug Lost itself deeper and deeper into science-fiction territory. It's too late to switch sides without loosing a lot of good will from followers.

So, what wasn't explained? How the two are immortal, exactly what's important about this life light, why does the spark of life make time travel possible... It's not that these weren't really touched on but rather that they were poorly explained elements in the story. Lost used to be impressive because, even if they were making it up as they were going along the details of different stories weaving together into something larger was impressive and fulfilling. This felt like filler and that's a problem since it was most of the origin story of the two eternal characters who seem to be the point of the show. If TMIB is immortal, invulnerable and can fly why doesn't he swim/fly from the island? He has the time. Is Jacob really destroying hundreds of lives just because the woman that killed his mother told him that this light was important? If the spark of life is extinguished everywhere if something happens to that cave of light then why is everyone fine in the alternate world where the island sank? I could understand it if the writers created a world that was falling apart due to issues brought about on the island but it just seems like the script is what's crumbling. If this whole thing has just been a Cain and Abel/Jacob and Esau retelling with the island used as a MacGuffin I will be royally pissed.