THE MAKE-BELIEVE THEORY

As you can recall, I have been caught up with two "new" children who recently popped up on the show: the blond jungle boy who told Flocke he could not kill him (presumably Sawyer as they trekked through the jungle), and the dark haired boy in the Temple during the Sayid messenger speech. After some consideration (and if the whole show is not about the dead and afterlife), I think the blond boy is "Jacob" and the dark haired boy is "MIB."

And I think those are the actual representation of those two supernatural, childlike beings. It opens up a gamut of answers to the huge mountain of unanswer(able) questions. This is what I call my "Make Believe" Theory:

Two supernatural childlike beings are playing "make believe" on the Island. Instead of dolls, they can trap human beings (or souls) or reconstruct matter into the forms of people's memories as sets and props during their play time.

When you get to analyzing the structure of the show, the dialog and dynamic between Jacob and MIB, it gets down to child like behavior. When MIB claimed that Jacob "stole his body, his humanity," it sounded like a little boy whose toy was taken by his older sibling. The other kid-like behavior: spying on people, playing games like combat/war, touting the "rules" to one's opponent, manipulating adults (parents), capturing a prize and "claiming" a piece in a game, going on hikes/missions, sending people on wild goose chases and their viewpoint on adult behavior. Why there were no babies born on the island is because existing children are jealous of new siblings. Why did MIB call his mother "crazy?" Maybe, because she was a strict parent who wanted to him to follow rules he did not understand. And not understanding humanity is the key to understanding why the characters have been not asking each other questions, not demanding answers, running around in teams, getting hurt then healed . . . because the island is a playground of illusion.

The literary concept has roots in the Star Trek pilot, The Cage, where the supernatural beings trapped the Enterprise captain on a planet filled with illusions created from human memories in order for the aliens to study humanity. The LOST twist could be that two supernatural children use humans, their memories, fears and emotions to pit themselves against each other for their own childlike (and repetitive) amusement.

The children's minds recreate their characters and send them off through their island maze
of traps, dangers, and battles like little bands of soldiers. The children watch like they are viewing a SimPlanet simulation.

In a stretch, the "sideways" world is the actual reality of the main characters lives, but there is a thread from the island still tapping them for more memories for more game play. That could explain the strange use of multiple mirror deja vu symbolism this season.

If this theory holds water, it really dilutes the original character based premise of the show: survival and the goal of leaving the island. And the final looming battle has nothing to do with the main characters of the show but a tug-0f-war between two supernatural siblings?