Uncharted Island

If you’re looking for some heavy reading during this seemingly endless hiatus, take a look at the theory Jacob’s Kin, written by Garden Mom at MyMedia.

It’s a very long theory, but well thought out and researched. It’s heavy on the Biblical history of Jacob. (It’s easier reading if you’re familiar with the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, because you’ll at least be familiar with the story when it comes around to Jacob’s son Joseph. But I digress.) The parallels she draws between Biblical Jacob and Island Jacob are great, especially when she compares Biblical Joseph with Island John Locke.

It’s not all about the Biblical story. It talks a lot about Locke’s visions, as well, and what makes him “special.” Want a sneak peek?

I’d like to explore the possible “family” more thoroughly in this theory. I have posted in other threads that I think many of the people we are seeing on the island are products of early genetic research experiments. I think it is possible that a native island inhabitant, perhaps Jacob, is the original donor of genetic material that has gone into these children. How the genetic material was transferred to the children is debatable; possibly through injections administered to pregnant women, or perhaps by altering the sperm of the men on the island. Perhaps they are all the progeny of just one man. What have the genetic alterations accomplished? I would speculate that each child has been blessed with a talent or ability that they would not have had otherwise. A few possibilities could be longevity of life, high intelligence, artistic abilities, or psychic abilities.

Even if you end up not agreeing with her theory, it’s a fascinating read. And how many months do we have left until Season 5? Yeah, you’ve got time to read it. Go and read it now: Jacob’s Kin.

Try to read through the comments, as well, as there is a very rich discussion. Garden Mom makes an extra summary in Post 35 of the thread, which I highly recommend.

“God loves you as he loved Jacob.”

That was one of the frames on the screen Karl was forced to watch in Room 23.

Jacob also had a list, and Jack was not on it. There has been much speculation about Jacob since he was first mentioned on LOST. There was speculation about him even before his name was first mentioned… more correctly, speculation about Him.

Did “The Man Behind the Curtain” really give us answers about Jacob?

Some people seem to think that everything witnessed in Jacob’s cabin was more of Ben’s smoke and mirrors, possibly assisted by Richard or someone else, since Ben made a big point of telling everyone where they were going. I’ll admit that I thought Ben was more than a little bit crazy talk to an empty chair for a while. But when Locke heard the voice, I did believe it to be Jacob’s voice. The fans who managed to grab a screencap of Jacob’s profile helped confirm that in my mind. I tried not to blink during the scene, but I certainly never saw Jacob in the chair until I signed on to read the fan forums.

So who - or what - is Jacob?

Some people believe that Jacob is a ghost or a spirit. The dust on the ground that Locke had stopped to check out may have been ash used as a binding circle to keep the ghost inside. I’m not sure I hold with this theory. My first thought was that the dust was powder from the dynamite that Danielle was swiping from the Black Rock. Ben could’ve been taking it as well. But I won’t completely count this out as a possibility. After all, Jacob was invisible to Locke and to us for all but a fraction of a second. Without TiVo, I don’t think any of us would’ve known he was there at all.

But does that hold with the interviews given by Damon and Carlton saying that the show would remain grounded in science and pseudoscience?

Ben’s original bit about how no one else had ever seen or spoken to Jacob did make him sound like his imaginary friend, but it became apparent that Jacob only reveals himself to those he chooses. How does he do this? He appears invisible somehow. Is this because he does not have substantial corporeal form, or because he is able to bend the light around himself so you can’t see him even if you’re looking right at him? He “speaks” to people telepathically. Is this a choice, or does he not have an audible voice? When Locke “heard” Jacob, I was reminded of reading the character of Death in Neil Gaiman’s books, where there aren’t any quotation marks to denote speech. He would’ve said HELP ME to Locke… in capital letters, denoting a voice that comes from everywhere and nowhere.

Whatever he is, it’s possible that Jacob is Ben’s prisoner. Perhaps that ash line really does confine him to the spooky hermit shack. Is that why he said HELP ME to Locke? Or was it, as I’ve seen suggested, an interrupted thought, such as HELP ME GET RID OF THIS ANNOYING LITTLE GNAT?

That line of dust does seem to me like it should have some significance, but it really opposes my own personal concept of Jacob. My first thought, which I admit is hard to shake, is that Jacob is what we’ve been referring to as Smokey. If the dust or ash keeps Jacob confined, then he cannot be Smokey. But I’m going to ignore the dust for now, and explain my line of thinking.

The way Ben first described Him when he was a prisoner in the Swan hatch made Him sound like a great and terrible man. Unforgiving. Harsh. The Others certainly seemed intimidated by Jacob even though they’d never met him. And what do we know about Smokey? We don’t know what Smokey physically is, but great and terrible certainly seems to fit the bill. It seems to have a consciousness. It came face to face with Locke, killed Mr. Eko, threatened Kate and Juliet… among many other incidents. I hate to take a comic book approach, but maybe Jacob was a man who came to draw too much of the island’s mysterious power, and now he can take on the form of this shape-shifting smoke creature. Or - and this could accommodate for the binding circle that keeps Jacob in - Smokey answers to Jacob, like a familiar, and serves as Jacob’s scout and servant while he is imprisoned.

Much more discussion is sure to come, as more fans come together to brainstorm, and more secrets are revealed.

After seeing the carnage of the orchestrated gas attack, it’s hard to see how Ben can possibly think that his group is really made up of the “good guys” he claims they are. The castaways versus Others fatality tally really doesn’t matter anymore. We know now that the Others brutally murdered a whole town full of hippies. Would the term genocide apply in this case? I’m not quite sure.

Ben was exposed as a liar from the moment we first met him. He had claimed to be Henry Gale; he had an elaborate backstory that was entirely believable until Sayid and company dug up the grave containing the body of the real Henry Gale. Now we know the extent and depth of his lies. Everyone he’s recruited believes he was born on the island. Why is that so important to him for them to believe that? What would happen if they knew the truth? And more importantly, why hasn’t Richard come out and exposed him for the fraud he is? He gave Locke a means to take Ben down, but he has some damning information of his own. Does he keep Ben’s secret because it would also expose him as a murderer?

I get that Ben was screwed up by his drunk father’s bitterness over his mother’s death and being pigeonholed as a janitor when he thought he was going to be doing something more glamorous on the island. But even that doesn’t explain why he became the monster he is now. Sawyer’s daddy issues are far worse, but he only wanted to kill one man because of it, not a whole village full of people. I wonder if the grown-up Annie had left the island at the time of the Purge, or if Ben allowed her to become a mere casualty.

I was right about one thing, Ben does believe, in some way, that he was reborn after the Purge. He told Locke that that’s where he came from. I guess it’s the truth… from a certain, rather twisted point of view.

And what about Ben’s connection with Jacob? Who or what Jacob is will be the subject of another entry. But Ben certainly looked like a raving lunatic talking to an invisible Jacob, from Locke’s perspective. But then Locke heard Jacob, too. And that’s when Ben lost it. Ben had told Locke that no one else has ever seen Jacob. Apparently that’s because Jacob had never wanted to show himself to anyone else. Ben jealously guarded that honor. I think he shot Locke because he couldn’t stand that Jacob had chosen to reveal himself to someone else. After Locke told him what Jacob had said, it looked as if Ben wondered if shooting Locke had been a mistake, but maybe it just confirmed his need to eliminate the competition.

I want to know why Richard and the other “Hostiles,” the island natives, allowed Ben to step into the role of leader. They had obviously been there for quite some time. It had to be more than just his help in the systematic extermination of Dharma from their island. Was it because of Jacob? I guess it’s with that question that I leave this Ben-centered piece to start working on some Jacob speculation.

Apparently, Jack wasn’t on Jacob’s list.

So who is this Jacob? And are we to assume that Jacob’s list was the one that Bea Klugh gave to Michael? And if Jack’s name wasn’t originally on that list, then what exactly is the point of keeping Kate and Sawyer in bear cages if Danny Pickett’s just going to haul off and kill Sawyer?

In my brief stint of perusing the LOST forums today, I’ve seen a few theories. One is that Ethan is Jacob, since he was supposed to make a list of the survivors near the fuselage. Whether they think Ethan’s alias is Jacob or his last name is Jacob, I don’t think this is very plausible. Jack would’ve been on Ethan’s list, because Ethan’s list was just a tally of the survivors.

Another theory is that Jacob was sent to the beach after Ethan because Ben knew Ethan would screw up somehow. I don’t think this was a serious suggestion, and I’m not taking it seriously.

Yet another theory is that Jacob is Him, the guy Ben and everyone else answers to. I like this idea. Even better yet, I read this by utterly_butterflies at LOST-TV:

Jacob has a pretty big role in the Old Testament, and considering there have been many religious references throughout the show, thought I would mention it… Also, just as an interesting aside to that, Benjamin was one of Jacob’s sons - his last born at that.

Ben said he’s lived on the island his whole life, so it would make sense that his parents were there. Is his father an important person? We shall see. Having had the religious reference pointed out to me, I’m trying very hard not to sing “Benjamin Calypso” from Joseph and the Amanzing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Which reminds me of another part of the Biblical story… has Ben been set up as the bad guy, when he’s really not?

Are there any other Jacob theories I’ve missed?