Inside Ben
Here's a theory on Lost that's as good as any other, I suppose. I have a few quibbles. For one thing, I'm not sure it's established Jacob's nemesis is also the Smoke Monster. It makes sense, and secrets on Lost are often fairly straightforward when revealed, but I think it would be cool if the Smoke Monster were a separate entity.
My bigger question is about this:
[After Ben says to Jacob "What about me?”] Jacob shoots him down with the simple question, “What about you?” Jacob’s point is that Ben is merely a thread in the tapestry of history - why does he think he’s so important? Again, this is the Hegelian motivation emerging. Ben’s response is to stab Jacob to death.
While there's no question Ben takes Jacob's response as a slight, and I'd guess Jacob figured he'd understand it as such, was Jacob intention to taunt him?
We don't really know Jacob yet, or his intent, but it's easy to read his question back to Ben as one seriously asked. He really does care about Ben, and, more important, wants Ben to care about himself. "What about you? Isn't that a question worth asking, Ben?"
The question is meant for Ben to take a look inside. When he does, though, all the hatred and resentment come out and he does exactly what body-Locke suggested.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:13 AM
2 Comments:
I agree that we don't know that the Nemesis is the smoke monster. For that matter, even if the Nemesis is all the dead people, that still doesn't prove it: Dead-Alex speaking to Ben and dead-Yemi speaking to Eko were momentarily associated with the smoke monster, but that hardly proves they are an identity.
I am leaning to the idea that we can rely on Lost's themes even more than on specific details to know what to rely on.
And one of those themes, from the dark vs light backgammon game to the clothes worn by Jacob and his nemesis, is a dualistic battle of some sort. My guess is that the division between the above-ground Temple and the pits under the Temple are a key part of this dualism.
The smoke monster is clearly associated with under the Temple, and with the tunnels under Ben's house where it is summoned by an underground toilet flush. Yet Rousseau's husband claimed it was a security system guarding "the Temple" -- which doesn't fit with my upper/lower Temple dichotomy.
What makes the whole thing so hard to figure out is that normally, when the detective learns that the villain performed action "X", he can usually figure that the things caused by X are part of the villain's plan.
But in this case, the key action X appears to be evilLocke telling Richard to tell wounded Locke to bring back the Oceanic Six. From this action flowed virtually all of seasons four and five! Locke turns the wheel (sending Sawyer and Daniel and co. to the 1970s), ends up in Tunisia (where he tells Widmore that the Oceanic Six need to return, and Widmore has Eloise plan the flight), and then Ben joins him and Ajira 316 sends many folks to the island, including Locke's body and an embittered Ben. And this also includes Jack, who convinces the 1977 Eloise that Daniel was her son.
This is where it gets confusing if they are going to revise history. In the "old" history, Eloise raises Daniel in a fatalistic way, directing him towards his predestined death on the island. But the Eloise who does this thing must logically be an Eloise who did kill Daniel and knows it, but who does NOT know anything about H-bombs changing the past. It's hard to see how such a universe could be consistent.
But somehow the "loophole" is probably in here.
On the other hand, maybe the Widmore/Ben fight really remains key. Keamy "broke the rules" and killed Alex, and that (plus his resentment of faux-Jacob talking to Locke) caused Ben to turn the wheel... could this "breaking of the rules" have been part of the loophole that let Ben kill Jacob?
Anyway, it's possible to see anti-Jacob's hand in all of this.
Meanwhile, the only recent developments that are from Jacob himself appear to be Ilana's team, Hurley's arrival, and the guitar case. So we'd better hope that Hurley learns to use the guitar case, or else Jacob's gonna lose!
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