Just got done watching the final episode of last season again and I wanted to share an observation I had. In the beginning of the episode ("The Incident"), Jacob and the "Man in Black" are seen on a beach looking at a large sailing ship (the Black Rock) in the distance when we hear the following exchange:
JACOB: I take it you're here because of the ship.
Man in Black: I am. How did they find the Island?
JACOB: You'll have to ask them when they get here.
Man in Black: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
JACOB: You are wrong.
Man in Black: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
Man in Black: Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
JACOB: Yes.
Man in Black: One of these days, sooner or later... I'm going to find a loophole, my friend.
JACOB: Well, when you do, I'll be right here.
During the course of the episode, we are shown a series of flashbacks where Jacob encounters each of the Flight 815 survivors. During these flashbacks, Jacob touches each survivor. According to the commentary at the bottom, the touch is very important. Everyone he touches survives the crash.
The man in black on the other hand always assumes the body of a dead man. First he was Christian Shepard (At least that's my theory). Then he was Locke.
This made me think back to different events during the series. Ben's life was saved by "the island" as a child. Locke was healed twice by "the island." Many people have been saved by the island and many have been killed by it (Ecko, Boone, Claire?). Some people (Richard) have been granted eternal life.
The island represents a perfect balance between life and death. Jacob representing life, and the man in black representing death. This is why there had to be a loophole to kill Jacob.. because you cant kill something that represents eternal life. Why Ben is that loophole remains a mystery..
The message of the series is that people can't accept the perfect balance that the island offers. They always end up using the island's unique powers to their own ends.. But in the exchange above, Jacob expresses his faith in people's power to overcome their desire for power and to live in complete balance,... like Rose and Bernard.
4 comments:
Something else just occurred to me. The man in black could be the smoke monster. The smoke monster and Ben had an encounter in the temple before Ben killed Locke, right? Maybe this is where the smoke monster (aka the man in black) told Ben to kill Locke.
Yeah, people in general have a hard time dealing with death and even harder time living in the moment.
When I saw the scene w/Rose & Bernard, it occurred to me that some of the peeps are spending so much time & energy into trying NOT to die, that they aren't even living..
Did some research and now I remember what happened when Ben went into the temple and encountered the smoke monster. It took the form of Alex and told Ben to listen to every word Locke speaks or she would find him and destroy him... That certainly fits with my theory of the man in black and the "new" Locke being manifestations of the smoke monster.
Yes. I am psychic.
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