Lost retconned the answer to its own Adam and Eve mystery in season 6. Nicknamed “Adam” and “Eve” by Locke, the male and female skeletons were the subject of a relatively minor, but old mystery on the show. After discovering them in the cave where Jack found water, the main characters speculated on who these people were and how they died. It wasn’t until late in Lost season 6 that this question was finally answered.
It’s now understood that “Adam” was the original human form of the smoke monster and “Eve” was his mother and the caretaker of the island who preceded Jacob. Interestingly, though, a season 1 detail contradicts their backstory. Judging by the deterioration of their clothing and the condition of the skeletons, Jack said that they had been dead between 40 and 50 years, when in fact they actually died thousands of years ago. One could argue that Jack was simply wrong, but considering that he’s a doctor, it’s hard to imagine him making such a massive miscalculation.
Lost’s Adam & Eve Skeleton Mystery Explained
While some may have thought that this Lost season 1 mystery would fall through the cracks, the show ended up revisiting it and providing a thorough explanation through the origin story of the conflict between Jacob and the Man in Black in “Across the Sea.” It was revealed in the episode that their adoptive mother was murdered by the Man in Black for stopping him from leaving the island. This culminated in Jacob beating him in a fight and tossing him into the Heart of the Island, where the energy source is located. Though he survived and became a smoke monster, a body was still left behind.
In the aftermath of it all, Jacob put his body and the corpse of their mother in the cave, where they remained for centuries until Jack and the others found them in season 1’s “House of the Rising Sun.” As for the pouch of black and white stones found on one of the bodies, Lost had an answer for that question as well. The Man in Black and Jacob were seen playing an ancient board game with them earlier in the episode. Jacob ended up leaving the stones with the bodies.
Adam & Eve Proves Jacob’s Origin Wasn’t Planned
The series set up “Adam” and “Eve” to have lived and died sometime in the 20th century, but ultimately moved their backstory back by several centuries in the Lost timeline. Admittedly, there were signs that some of Lost’s biggest twists were always meant to happen ( i.e. time travel occurring on the island), but the answer to the Adam and Eve mystery certainly wasn’t one of them. Jack’s observation failing to line up with what Lost revealed in “Across the Sea” serves as proof of that. But even though the explanation came in the form of a retcon, it felt necessary for Lost to end with all its mysteries properly resolved.
