Jacob's Touch
I rewatched the Lost season 5 finale, and there's no question, not only does Jacob touch every castaway he meets, the show practically makes a point of it. Why?
We still don't know the situation or purpose of Jacob, or his nemesis (whom I'll call, as others are, Bocaj), but we can gather a few things. They've been around a long time and seem to have an ongoing debate, if that's the word. Jacob believes in progress, and that things can change. Bocaj sees the same pattern happening over and over. He wants to get out of it, it appears, by killing Jacob, but he can't do it straightforwardly, he needs a loophole.
What the island is and what these two can do is still mostly unknown. But apparently Bocaj had some complex, long-range plan that gave him the loophole, he believes, to kill Jacob. Part of it involved, through pretense, convincing Locke he needed to do quite a few things, then presenting himself as "Locke," and getting Ben in Jacb's chamber with "Locke."
The question now is what did Jacob do to respond? This central battle (central in that it's behind everything--it's been out of view for most of the series) will be resolved, but it has to involve the main Lost character to be settled.
Jacob met every major original castaway who was on the Ajira flight, and touched them. It's not clear if he found out about Bocaj's plan, including who the Ajira Losties were, and went back in time to meet them, or was aware of their importance all along and, instead of time traveling, simply met them at these times in their lives. Also, it's not clear if Bocaj thought these characters were particularly important, or if it's only Jacob who knew these were the ones that counted.
Jacob does seem to have a plan. (But then, so did the Cylons.) It's hard to believe season 5 ended with Bocaj getting the better of him. It would appear, whether he's alive or not, the Losties will come back (probably in the "present") and do what they have to do.
What did he do when he met them? With most of them, not much. He gave Sawyer a pen, Jack a chocolate bar, and Sun and Jin advice. The advice he gave may have been helpful, but wasn't deep. Was he just there to touch them? With Hurley, the most recent meeting, he convinced him to get on the Ajira flight, which suggests he's the one behind the Losties being there, which is interesting, since "Locke" tells Richard to talk to Locke and get the Losties on that flight. Why would Jacob be interested in this as well?
The two most memorable meetings were with Locke and Sayid.
Locke is probably about to die (dead already?) after being pushed out of a high-rise, but Jacob's touch revivies him. (I find it impossible the real Locke won't be back in Season 6. If we only have "Locke," Terry O'Quinn's agent might be satisfied, but the fans won't. Everyone's been going on so long about how central Locke is, and how he has a destiny, but it now looks like he was simply a chump, to be discarded when he's been of use. Why would Jacob even bother to revive him if he didn't have bigger plans?)
The meeting with Sayid is even more problematic. We know Jacob believes in free will--he tells both Hurley and Ben that they have to make a choice. But is he a positive force for the Losties, or is he merely using them? It's arguable he helps the others (though getting Kate out of trouble and making it easier for Sawyer to write his letter puts them both on questionable paths--paths that might be good for Jacob, but not necessarily them), but what about Sayid? He stops him on the street while his love Nadia gets hit by a car. Did Jacob know this was going to happen? Does Nadia's fate not matter to him? Was he, in fact, responsible for Nadia's death, knowing it would help him? If it wasn't him, who was responsible for Nadia's death? (Ben said Widmore was behind it, but he might have been manipulating Sayid.) The main thing is the Sayid meeting makes it tough to understand Jacob's motives.
A further question is what is the importance of all the Losties who have died along the way. Did Bocaj, or Jacob, set them up either? And all these meetings they've had in the pre-Island past, were those just coincidences?
What did the touch do to them? Was it some form of magic dust, guaranteeing they'll survive the "Incident" (which doesn't bode well for Juliet--wearing red--or Miles), and maybe give Locke a chance to revive? Will they alone be able to remember the previous timeline when the new one kicks in? Did he do a Spock and leave a bit of himself in them so he can be reconstituted? For that matter, did he arrange it for time be rewound and everyone (including Jacob) comes back?
The final season is about "Destiny Found," so it's clear that someone, or something, whether Jacob or not, had plans for the Losties (though if there's free will they can still choose to fulfill this destiny or not).
I'm not sure if Bocaj is a separate character who's trying to fight Jacob's plans, or some spirit going against him. It seems that he pretended he was Jacob to move his plan along. But a lot of fans think he was the Smoke Monster as well. I wonder. "Locke" seemed surprised that smoke-Alex told Ben to follow "Locke." He could have been lying, but why bother? It suggests that the Smoke Monster could be a separate entity from Jacob and Bocaj, working on destiny its own way. Or perhaps it was even Jacob, who wanted Bocaj's plans to go forward, to fulfill his own plan.
We still don't know the situation or purpose of Jacob, or his nemesis (whom I'll call, as others are, Bocaj), but we can gather a few things. They've been around a long time and seem to have an ongoing debate, if that's the word. Jacob believes in progress, and that things can change. Bocaj sees the same pattern happening over and over. He wants to get out of it, it appears, by killing Jacob, but he can't do it straightforwardly, he needs a loophole.
What the island is and what these two can do is still mostly unknown. But apparently Bocaj had some complex, long-range plan that gave him the loophole, he believes, to kill Jacob. Part of it involved, through pretense, convincing Locke he needed to do quite a few things, then presenting himself as "Locke," and getting Ben in Jacb's chamber with "Locke."
The question now is what did Jacob do to respond? This central battle (central in that it's behind everything--it's been out of view for most of the series) will be resolved, but it has to involve the main Lost character to be settled.
Jacob met every major original castaway who was on the Ajira flight, and touched them. It's not clear if he found out about Bocaj's plan, including who the Ajira Losties were, and went back in time to meet them, or was aware of their importance all along and, instead of time traveling, simply met them at these times in their lives. Also, it's not clear if Bocaj thought these characters were particularly important, or if it's only Jacob who knew these were the ones that counted.
Jacob does seem to have a plan. (But then, so did the Cylons.) It's hard to believe season 5 ended with Bocaj getting the better of him. It would appear, whether he's alive or not, the Losties will come back (probably in the "present") and do what they have to do.
What did he do when he met them? With most of them, not much. He gave Sawyer a pen, Jack a chocolate bar, and Sun and Jin advice. The advice he gave may have been helpful, but wasn't deep. Was he just there to touch them? With Hurley, the most recent meeting, he convinced him to get on the Ajira flight, which suggests he's the one behind the Losties being there, which is interesting, since "Locke" tells Richard to talk to Locke and get the Losties on that flight. Why would Jacob be interested in this as well?
The two most memorable meetings were with Locke and Sayid.
Locke is probably about to die (dead already?) after being pushed out of a high-rise, but Jacob's touch revivies him. (I find it impossible the real Locke won't be back in Season 6. If we only have "Locke," Terry O'Quinn's agent might be satisfied, but the fans won't. Everyone's been going on so long about how central Locke is, and how he has a destiny, but it now looks like he was simply a chump, to be discarded when he's been of use. Why would Jacob even bother to revive him if he didn't have bigger plans?)
The meeting with Sayid is even more problematic. We know Jacob believes in free will--he tells both Hurley and Ben that they have to make a choice. But is he a positive force for the Losties, or is he merely using them? It's arguable he helps the others (though getting Kate out of trouble and making it easier for Sawyer to write his letter puts them both on questionable paths--paths that might be good for Jacob, but not necessarily them), but what about Sayid? He stops him on the street while his love Nadia gets hit by a car. Did Jacob know this was going to happen? Does Nadia's fate not matter to him? Was he, in fact, responsible for Nadia's death, knowing it would help him? If it wasn't him, who was responsible for Nadia's death? (Ben said Widmore was behind it, but he might have been manipulating Sayid.) The main thing is the Sayid meeting makes it tough to understand Jacob's motives.
A further question is what is the importance of all the Losties who have died along the way. Did Bocaj, or Jacob, set them up either? And all these meetings they've had in the pre-Island past, were those just coincidences?
What did the touch do to them? Was it some form of magic dust, guaranteeing they'll survive the "Incident" (which doesn't bode well for Juliet--wearing red--or Miles), and maybe give Locke a chance to revive? Will they alone be able to remember the previous timeline when the new one kicks in? Did he do a Spock and leave a bit of himself in them so he can be reconstituted? For that matter, did he arrange it for time be rewound and everyone (including Jacob) comes back?
The final season is about "Destiny Found," so it's clear that someone, or something, whether Jacob or not, had plans for the Losties (though if there's free will they can still choose to fulfill this destiny or not).
I'm not sure if Bocaj is a separate character who's trying to fight Jacob's plans, or some spirit going against him. It seems that he pretended he was Jacob to move his plan along. But a lot of fans think he was the Smoke Monster as well. I wonder. "Locke" seemed surprised that smoke-Alex told Ben to follow "Locke." He could have been lying, but why bother? It suggests that the Smoke Monster could be a separate entity from Jacob and Bocaj, working on destiny its own way. Or perhaps it was even Jacob, who wanted Bocaj's plans to go forward, to fulfill his own plan.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:10 AM
10 Comments:
Maybe Richard is the smoke monster. He could be playing the two off against each other hoping to break free.
I found Jacob's death scene a little too reminiscent of the death of Jesus (and Aslan). I'm hoping they don't go that way with it.
There were a number of Christ-elements in their presentation of Jacob. In fact, almost the first thing we see of Jacob is him cooking some fish on the shore, which is the last story about Jesus told in John's gospel.
The biggest problem I have with the season five finale is that they have two cliffhangers and one set of flashbacks, and no clues as to how they fit together. The Dharma-Losties had a plan to change history. We don't know what will result, but exactly two possible outcomes were mentioned by the characters: (1) Nothing changes, because the detonation was always part of the Incident. (2) The detonation prevents the Swan from crashing Oceanic 815. Note that they never made any comments about what all the other affects of changing history might be -- will Richard's Others survive? Will Ben survive? Will the Dharmas survive? (They injured Chang's arm, which was apparently injured in the original history.) There are all sorts of ways to assemble new histories (for example, Ben can't gas his father unless the Others, and Ben, and the Dharma folks all survive), and we have no clue what they could be. But the one thing we almost know is that if the detonation does change history, it means that Oceanic 815 won't crash... they said that over and over.
But in that case, I don't know what to make of Jacob's meeting the Oceanic folks. Jacob's meetings with them are prior to the Oceanic flight of course, but they are all post-1977. Most importantly, Jacob's meetings with them only makes sense if he has some vision of their future; he didn't raise Locke from (near?)-death and tell Katie not to steal just for the heck of it -- he must have had in mind some important destiny for them. So it becomes crucial for us to know whether he was thinking of their destiny in the original universe or in the revised universe.
(Notice that Katie's friend was holding the toy airplane. If everything is going to be retconned, could Jacob's warning to Kate mean that she will never become a criminal in the new timeline? I would not be amazed if season six begins with a new Oceanic 815 flight that includes a free Kate and a non-stressed Jack and a non-vengeful Sawyer.
The alternative is that we saw Jacob's actions in the old timeline. In that case, Jacob is singularly ineffective. He told Kate not to steal, and cheered up Jack, but they will just ignore him. And he raised Locke from the dead but he'll go and be killed anyway and become an unwitting tool of Bocaj's vengeance.
LAGuy wrote: With Hurley, the most recent meeting, he convinced him to get on the Ajira flight, which suggests he's the one behind the Losties being there, which is interesting, since "Locke" tells Richard to talk to Locke and get the Losties on that flight. Why would Jacob be interested in this as well?
Anything is possible, but my impression was that the big reunion of the Losties was engineered by Bocaj. Bocaj tells Richard to tell Locke to gather them, and Christian (who, like all ghosts on the Island, is a Bocaj tool) gives him a message that convinces Jack. Jack then brings Locke's body, which is key to Bocaj's plan. Also -- and this part may or may not be part of Bocaj's plan -- Jack then goes back in time from 2008 to 1977 and convinces Eloise that he knows destiny, so that she raises Daniel fatalistically, so that Daniel eventually goes back in time from 2008 to 1974 and joins Dharma and sets up the bomb detonation.
Jacob had nothing to do with any of this.
The only people who were there because of Jacob were Ilana (and her team), Hurley, and the guitar case. And all of these seem to be relatively insignificant, unable to hinder Bocaj's success at all.
But a lot of fans think he was the Smoke Monster as well. I wonder. "Locke" seemed surprised that smoke-Alex told Ben to follow "Locke." He could have been lying, but why bother?
I think he had good motive to lie in this scene. EvilLocke intends for Ben to kill Jacob. For this plan to succeed, Ben has to continue to believe that EvilLocke really is Locke, and has to continue to believe that Alex's ghost bore a message from the real Alex. Both of these beliefs could be compromised if EvilLocke admits that he knows a conversation between Ben and ghostAlex that occurred when he wasn't there.
Also, we already know that EvilLocke told some lies to Ben, since he initally told Ben that he himself would kill Jacob, and only later said that Ben would do it. But I think we can safely surmise that EvilLocke could not have himself killed Jacob (I guess the loophole required that someone else do it).
Hey, maybe the Christ allegory is key here. Jacob can only be killed by one of his own disciples. Normally that can't happen becuase disillusioned Others get killed or banished. Ben returning to the island -- a known violation of the "rules" -- allowed an embittered ex-follower to return. So then Bocaj plays the devil and Ben plays Judas... well, not exactly, but you see the point.
Of course, in addition to the Christ allegory, we also have the Egyptian gods involved.
See Statue of Tawaret on Lostpedia.
Some have argued that if Jacob hangs out in the statue, then Jacob himself is Tawaret, and Bocaj is Tawaret's evil husband Apep.
"Jacob's meetings with them are prior to the Oceanic flight of course, but they are all post-1977."
I assume you mean that they're all prior to the Ajira Flight. Of course, they'd pretty much have to be.
It's hard to believe they won't change things with the bomb, since otherwise the show sure wasted a lot of time for nothing. Also, it would probably mean half the stars of the show were killed. (Does this mean the new lead is Claire?)
To me the interesting question is still will they remember anything if they get a new timeline. If not, can someone else get to them, like Jacob or Desmond?
"The only people who were there because of Jacob were Ilana (and her team), Hurley, and the guitar case. And all of these seem to be relatively insignificant, unable to hinder Bocaj's success at all."
Jacob convinced Hurley to get on the Ajira flight. If Bocaj wanted Hurley on as well, what's the point? Is the guitar case the key? Or is it somehow Jacob knew this would mean certain people land in 1977 and they're all needed to change the timeline.
"For this plan to succeed, Ben has to continue to believe that EvilLocke really is Locke, and has to continue to believe that Alex's ghost bore a message from the real Alex."
I think Ben believes Alex's ghost was the Monster speaking to him, thought he has no idea that Locke had anything to do with it.
I think your loophole theory makes sense. Furthermore, it would seem that there have been others on the Island in the past and the same thing keeps happening--there's fighting and destruction, and then later more come. But that also would mean, if nothing else, that Bocaj, though he may have tried, never got the chance (until now) to bring another person to Jacob, or if he did, he couldn't convince this person to kill Jacob.
"Jacob's meetings with them are prior to the Oceanic flight of course, but they are all post-1977."
"I assume you mean that they're all prior to the Ajira Flight. Of course, they'd pretty much have to be."
No, I meant Oceanic. But I was being sloppy, since I was thinking specifically of his meetings with our characters in their developmental stages: Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Sun & Jin, and Jack.
It seems in these meetings that Jacob is setting each of them on some path. And so I think it's crucial to know if Jacob, in the original timeline, set them on the path that would lead them to be on Oceanic 815 -- because in that case, this whole thing may be irrelevant.
Or, given the retcons that appear to be looming, are we to see Jacob's appearances to them as part of the retcon: in other words, the Kate from seasons one through five was a Kate that did not encounter Jacob after shoplifting, and the Season Six Kate will be a new Kate because she encountered Jacob and because the Hatch didn't crash the plane?
His meetings with Ilana and Hurley were different, and his purpose in those was pretty clear (i.e., his short-term purpose). The Sayid one is hard to categorize. But if the Hatch never crashes the plane, then there never was a famous Oceanic Six, and the Sayid and Hurley meetings therefore would seem impossible.
I don't think there's any question Jacob wanted Hurley on the Ajira flight. The only question is why.
As for Sayid, some claim that Jacob saved Sayid's life. That, in fact, the Widmore people were planning to run over Sayid and maybe Nadia, but Jacob holding him back saved his life. Perhaps, but there's no way of knowing this right now.
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