Beach; Day: CJ is sitting alone on the log she once shared with Esau and his newfound game of Senet, when Jacob joins her. "Do you think he'll come back?" CJ shakes her head as she fights her tears. "No." Jacob stares out at the ocean. "He said you killed our mother." He turns to the only mother he's ever known. "Is that true?" CJ considers this truthful boy before her. "Yes. If I had let her live, she would have taken you back to her people, and those people are bad, Jacob -- very bad. I couldn't let you become one of them. I needed you to stay good." The boy turns back to her. "Am I good, Mother?" CJ: "Yes, of course you are." Jacob: "Then why do you love him more than me?" CJ is visibly moved by this, but although she utters an oath sworn in truth by mothers since time immemorial, it's hard to believe her. "I love you -- in different ways." She sweeps a finger across his cheek and up to his earlobe. "Will you stay with me, Jacob? Please?" Jacob: "Yes." CJ laughs with relief and rests her head on her boy's shoulder. Jacob covers her hand with his. "For a while." Commercial.

Rape Caves; 43 A.D.: Adult Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) looks up from the tapestry he's working on to ask CJ: "What do you think?" She's half-heartedly grinding herbs. Her voice is as soft and weak as her movements. "It's very nice, Jacob." Jacob: "Are you all right?" She looks away from him. "I'm just tired." We cut to...

Camp Nameless: Adult Esau (Titus Welliver) is working with the Others, lowering a rope down a well, when he senses someone watching him. He turns to find Jacob, standing off at a distance. We cut to them playing Senet under a makeshift canopy reminiscent of our Losties' beach camp shelters. When Jacob makes his move, Esau says, "Does she know you visit me?" Jacob: "She never asks about you." Mom likes me best! A child in a man's body (and a nice one at that), Esau bleats, "Then, I'm sorry I asked about her." Nyah. He takes his turn at the game, and returns Jacob's smile. "Why do you watch us, Jacob?" Jacob takes the short bus, so his response is halting: "Mmm... I watch because... I want to know if Mother's right." Esau understands. "Oh, you mean my people?" I love it when phrasing is significant like that. "You wanna know if they're bad. That woman may be insane, but she's most definitely right about that." Jacob: "I don't know. They don't seem so bad to me." Esau: "That's easy for you to say -- looking down on us from above. Trust me, I've lived among them for 30 years. They're greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish." Man, this is so God and Satan in the Book of Job, isn't it? Except not.