>I remember him saying: "You want
>to leave this island, then
>go!" Should I watch again?

That's a basis for spec, not good enough to establish that his mother transferred her memory and knowledge to him. We need to separate spec from what can be proved by what was shown. He could have said that based on his own spec off the little Momster told him. Dying is a way of leaving, which is how I interpreted his line and act -- as an attempt to kill his brother.

>His mother never looked inside the cave so she wouldn't know about Smokey either. She only stood guard.

We have no idea whether this is true. We don't know her history, and will never know it. We also don't know if anything she said to the boys/men was true. What she did say is that something very bad would happen (or words to that effect), which leaves us to speculate what she knew and what she meant, and whether it had happened to her (as she is able to kill a village and fill a well).

Post-communion Jacob was not radiant with knowledge. Momster easily got him to go gather firewood so he would be out of the way when MIB showed up. If Jacob had accessed all of her knowledge, he would have been aware of her weariness of the job, which we deduce when she thanks MIB for killing her. He may even have understood. But he responded with youthful and unfiltered rage to what his brother did.

There is nothing to indicate that Jacob is now equal and privy to all of Momster's memories, which is what you are arguing.

If the writers wanted us to KNOW that J had access to Mom's knowledge, a few words would have sufficed. "There, now we are the same and you know what I know." Simple. But they didn't. Same when Jacob gave Jack the water. He said "Now you are like me." Jack will not die, we know that. What other powers come with the transfer are not clear.

However, we can reasonably infer that Jacob does not expect Jack to gain his knowledge of facts, his memories, with the drink. Because if the drink transfers memories, Jacob doesn't need to give Jack directions of any kind to the Light, because Jack will have it all in his head once he drinks. Totally superfluous to tell him to head out past the bamboo forest.

Jacob does tell Jack, now you'll be able to find it, and that would seem to be part of taking on the job -- whatever veil is camouflaging the Light gets lifted. We know that Brother searched the island for the place he was taken, and could not find it, even though he had been there before. That implies that the Caretaker of the Light can see it and maybe others cannot without help. (Which raises another question, why Smokey can attack the Light now, but hasn't been able to for two millenia just because Jacob was there. Why is Jacob's presence sufficient but Jack's is not? We don't know and we're not going to be told.)

This leads me back to my complaint that there's no discussion on the nature of Smokey and how he may or may not be killed, what he might do to the Light, whether Jacob's death empowers Smokey, all of that.

I understand that in the communion scene that Jack was in a spiritual state of submitting to his destiny, and didn't grill Jacob on the job. But the discussion of whether the monster could be killed came earlier, before Jack accepted. He asked if it was possible to kill Smokey and all Jacob said was "I hope so ..." because he sure is coming after you. Could have maybe seen a little stress from the group at that point? Smokey is after you, no more rules ... he can kill you now ... oh wait, why can he kill them now? We have to guess, the rules have changed again.

Even if you see this story as a fantasy genre instead of realism (which is the direction it's taken), typically, in any story of the quest genre, the person who inherits a certain task or responsibility ASKS what to do and how to do it -- especially knowing that the wise mentor figure is about to vanish. The response might be cryptic, might be a riddle to be solved, but this is just dodge the question that Jacob engages in.

Wouldn't this be a good time to ask about the Rules, what Jacob knows about what the monster is, but no, not even Sawyer asks. And the fire is burning, tick tock tick tock ... Jacob will be gone forever, and they're all just sitting there talking and pausing and it's all very sloooow ...

Notice that Jacob didn't divulge any information that the audience didn't see in Across the Sea. If ever there was to be anything more answered about the mythology, this was the time.

My frustration is that the writers choose to shackle the characters' natural curiosity, because the writers only intend to reveal so much. It's almost over; reveal something.

>Nope! I don't want any sneak
>peeks, I want the whole
>thing as fresh as possible.
>I had more than enough
>spoilers with Survivor. I'd rather
>be wrong with my guesses
>and theories than right because
>someone else spoon fed me
>the intel (remember where that
>comes from?!).

That's fine, it can wait ...
just know I wouldn't have suggested for you to look at a real spoiler. The one minute scene dances around what we're discussing, but doesn't give any answers. It is LOST after all.