WHAT HAPPENED
In Season 1 Locke taught Walt how to play backgammon:. ”Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark.”
THE MAN IN BLACK: ”Do you know how much I want to kill you?”
JACOB: ”Yes.”
THEORIES TO DISCUSS
Jacob Theories
1. Jacob willingly submitted himself to death. See Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also see Aslan.
2. Just before Jacob is kicked into the fire he chokes out ”They’re coming.” Jacob was referring to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the Losties. The Man In Black completely understood the significance of what Jacob was saying and it upset him (note scowl).
3. The significance of Jacob’s textile machinery and tapestries.
4. Man In Black: You’re trying to prove me wrong.
JACOB: You are wrong.
Man In Black: They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It can only end once. Everything before that is progress.
Discuss.
5. The flickering entity that we thought was Jacob in Jacob’s cabin was actually not Jacob at all. Many interpretations of the cabin, with its circle of occult ash, were that it was kind of a prison for the being inside of it. Note: During Jacob’s visit with Hurley, he specifically said he had never been in jail. Discuss.
OTHER THEORIES
6. Miles was correct when he suggested that Jack’s H-Bomb detonation would actually produce the very ”incident” they were trying to subvert — that they would be fulfilling history, not re-making it.
7. Daniel Faraday was correct with his ”human variable” theory. Juliet’s exercise of free will in last night’s episode actually made all the difference and history has been rebooted. The Swan will never be built; Oceanic 815 will never crash. The shape and form of the new timeline will be determined by now-former castaways, thanks to the two gifts given to them by Jacob in the finale: a second chance at life – and the free will to create their own destiny.
8. Rose and Bernard are the Adam and Eve skeletons.
FACTS CONFIRMED
1. Jacob
2. Resurrected John Locke wasn’t ”John Locke” at all, but rather Jacob’s enemy and philosophical adversary, the nameless Man in Black. Yes, resurrected Locke, was, in fact, false. After all, Dead is Dead, right?
3. We learned more about the Four-Toed Statue. And it appears that it was Jacob that lies in the shadow of the statue. The actual answer that Richard gives to the question asked by Ilana can be translated to “He who will save us all.” Study Apokatastasis and Omega Point.
4. It was speculated that the statue was Anubis, yet our statue had what looked to be the head of a crocodile not a jackal. See Sobek or possibly Set.
5. If that was the Black Rock in the opening sequence, it should date the discussion to 1845.
6. It’s confirmed that the original Losties are linked by a common denominator, Jacob. We saw Jacob paying quick visits to each of the characters at pivotal points in their pre- or post-Island lives.
7. Richard Alpert confirmed that he does not age and that it was a gift that Jacob gave him.
8. Some of our Losties (Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid) went back to 1977 because they weren’t able to exactly replicate flight 815 on flight 316.
9. We knew Faraday was in Ann Arbor at Dharma central, but what was he doing? He was studying his life’s work, his journal.
10. “The Incident” occurred in July 1977, which was the same time as the infamous NYC Blackout, check it out.
11. Finally, I’m going to paste (most of) the Doc’s thoughts on the love quadrangle here as they mirror mine pretty closely. Chime in with yours!
1. Rolled my eyes over Jack’s second chance yearning for Kate.
2. The Sawyer/Jack beat down was ok, necessary, but glad it’s out of the way…
3. However, I totally choked up over Juliet’s sacrifice and Sawyer’s grief, well done.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Did Juliet set off the bomb? Has Lost history been rebooted? Will all of the time-travelling Losties on the Island finally be reunited!? Was paradox produced? Did the timeline collapse? If so, to what extent will things be different, if at all?
2. Just before Ben knifed Jacob, he asked “What was it that was so wrong with me? What about me?, Jacob responded, “What about you?”. What do you think he meant?
3. Faux-Locke/Man In Black says to Jacob “And you have no idea what I’ve gone through to be here.” What exactly did he go through? What was the loophole?
4. Did Faux-Locke’s plan work — or did he play right into Jacob’s hands? Will Ben become Faux-Locke/Man In Black’s stooge — or does he have a separate arc?
5. Richard Alpert told Jack that he had traveled away from the Island three times in the 20 years between Jughead ’54 and Dharma ’77. He said two of those trips were to scout out John Locke; we saw both those trips last season in “Cabin Fever.” So, when was the third trip, and what was the purpose?
6. Looks to me like Ilana, Bram and crew were sent by Jacob, do you agree? Why did Ilana ask for ‘Ricardus’ rather than Richard? What is a candidate and why is Frank Lapidus a candidate?
7. What is in the guitar case that Jacob left with Hurley? Hurley has carried around with him everywhere. Is it Charlie’s?
FUN FACTS/TO DO UNTIL JANUARY 2010 LIST
1. Fun Fact!: Titus Welliver, who plays Jacob’s Enemy/Man in Black, is the FIFTH actor from HBO’s Deadwood series to appear in LOST.
2. Yes, I’m recommending that you watch Deadwood.
3. In fact, along with Battlestar Galactica it’s what my wife and I will be watching until LOST Season 6 comes back around!
4. The book Jacob was reading before Locke was pushed from the window by his father was, “Everything That Rises Must Converge“. Briefly, ”Author O’Connor…claims that it is her specific goal to offer a glimpse of God’s mystery and, thus, to lead readers – whom she sees as, for the most part, spiritually lost in the modern, secular world – back toward the path of redemption.”. Cool.
5. Finally you can review each contact Jacob had with each character here. It’s worth a read.
Finally, BIG thanks to all of you for making this column fun. Take Good Care, see you on the other side.
Post away!
[Note: In this column, many weeks I borrow from other LOST sites, primarily Doc Jensen and EW.com. I’ll try to put as much of myself in these as I can, but EW gets to screen the episodes in advance and I certainly don’t … so … much love to the Doc, we couldn’t dig in quite the same without you.]