REBOOT: EPISODES 109-112

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.


LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 109-112 (Days ????- - ????)

Dogen asks Sayid to make a decision, while Locke sends Claire to give the temple inhabitants a warning.

Sayid is faced with a difficult decision at the Temple when he meets Flocke, then MIB plays out his plan with help from Sayid and Claire.

Ben deals with Ilana’s consequences for an uncovered lie, about killing Jacob. Jack and Hurley follow Alpert to the Black Rock where Alpert asks them to help him kill himself.

Flocke takes Sawyer on a mission to investigate the plane on the Hydra island; and walks into the remains of the ambush of the survivors.

Richard Alpert’s back story is revealed, including how he changed his island allegiance before having an unexpected meeting.

Science:

Modern science still cannot fully explain life and death. We know it is a cycle. We have the knowledge of what begins life and what ends life. But we do not truly know what happens after death except for circumstantial evidence from “near death” experiences of patients or accident victims.

Life is defined as the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

In religion, life is any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated (as in Hinduism and some other religious traditions). Most religions have a concept of life after death, which means part of the intangible human spirit or soul journeys to another life in the heavens.

The cycle of life is the foundation for all human culture. The phrase “bring (or come ) to life” means to regain or cause to regain consciousness or return as if from death. The phrase “a matter of life and death” means a matter of vital importance. The search for the scientific answers to the questions of life and death have led to advances in medical science, human behavior and the quest for immortality.


Clues:

Dogen unearths a carved box from a plant pot which he cleans and opens, revealing a ceremonial  dagger. He explains to Sayid that Claire is a confused girl under the influence of an angry man, that this man has been trapped for years but is free now that Jacob is gone and that he will not stop until he has destroyed every living thing on the Island. He says that the man is "evil incarnate." Dogen gives Sayid the dagger warning him that this person is going to appear to him under the guise of someone Sayid knows and who died and that Sayid should stab him in the chest before giving him any chance to talk. As Sayid wonders why should he do all that for Dogen, Dogen tells him that it's his chance to prove that he is a "good person."

MIB gives newly arrived 1867 Alpert a dagger to kill The Devil, Jacob. MIB tells Alpert that he cannot allow him to speak. But Jacob attacks Alpert first, taking away the knife. Alpert tells him that this place is the devil, he has seen his dead wife, but Jacob says that was not her. It was an illusion cast by MIB after scanning Alpert in the ship hold as the smoke monster. Jacob attempts to “drown” Alpert to prove that he is alive. Jacob tells him he cannot bring back his wife, or absolve his sin of murder, but he can grant immortality with his touch.

Jacob explains to Alpert that he brought him to the island to prove MIB wrong. MIB believes that all humans are corrupt by their very nature. Jacob brings people to prove him “wrong.” Jacob tells Alpert that the wine in the bottle is not hell (per se), it is called many names not malfeasance, evil, darkness. The island is the cork that does not allow the evil to spread. However, this analogy confirms that the underside of the cork where the human souls are brought is hell.

Sayid was dead for two hours. Then came back to life. Is this because Sayid is one of the remaining “candidates?” Or was he possessed by the smoke monster? Dogen said the tests were to balance good and evil in a person, and Sayid failed the test. When Sayid goes to stab Flocke, is Sayid also a smoke monster?

Dogen classifies Flocke as the “evil incarnate.”  It means an evil deity or spirit embodied in flesh; in human form. But when the dagger is pulled from Flocke’s chest, there is no blood.

Sayid could never kill Flocke with a dagger; it is inferred that Dogen sent Sayid out to stab Flocke so in rage Sayid would be killed by the monster, thus destroying the darkness (evil) inside him.  But Sayid turns pure evil after killing Dogen and Lennon in the temple spring.

Sayid could not kill Flocke because Sayid was “infected” by the darkness, i.e. he was one of Flocke’s game pieces now and like colored pawns cannot capture (kill) their leader.

When the remaining Templetons leave with Flocke after the temple massacre by the smoke monster, Flocke gives Claire a knowing nod which she returns (possibly meaning that Claire killed Kate in the temple pit), but then Flocke gives Kate an odd look. Since she is traveling with Flocke’s group, is it possible that MIB believes that Kate is now infected with darkness like Claire? But later on, Claire attempts to kill Kate while Sayid watches in a trance. Flocke intervenes to save Kate from the attack. Kate is sobbing in a grove apart from the others. Flocke joins her and apologizes to Kate for Claire's attack, saying he has to take responsibility for Claire's behavior because he told Claire that the Others had her baby. Kate asks why he would say that and he tells her that Claire was devastated without Aaron, so he gave her something “to hate” in order to keep her going. He goes on to say that hearing the truth from Kate caused Claire to release all of the anger she had been holding on to for so long. Kate replies that his explanation is very insightful considering that he's a dead man. Flocke does not consider himself to be a dead man. He believes Jacob has stolen his humanity.
He claims he will protect her and the others. Key point: Flocke believes Kate is one of his followers now (and as a former candidate, she cannot kill the leader.)

“Sundown” reflects the passage of the Egyptian Day, which the good god, Ra, disappears and must make his dangerous way through the Night (underworld) of his evil brother, Seth, and his powers. The temple massacre in the sanctuary of the temple happens at night because it is protected during the day.

Hurley reveals that Jacob had implied to him earlier that it was unsafe to go to the Temple. Richard is surprised by this and says that whatever Jacob said should not be believed. Richard heads for the wreck, saying that there's something he needs to do: die. Richard leads them through the jungle, and Hurley asks him how it is possible that Richard looks the same as he did 30 years ago. Richard says it is not easy to explain, but that Jacob gave him a gift. Richard admits he lied about going to the Temple because everyone at the Temple is dead, but maybe their friends made it out alive. Alpert’s lie was in self-interest because he needs Jack or Hurley to kill him.

Inside the hull, Alpert informs Jack that this is the first time he has come back to the ship in all the long time he has been on the Island. Richard opens a box of dynamite sticks and fuse wire, and Hurley tells him it is unsafe and the dynamite is unstable. Richard states that he can't kill himself, even though he wants to (he demonstrates this by throwing a stick of dynamite across the room, which does not explode), which is why he wants Hurley or Jack to do it for him. Richard explains that Jacob touched him, which is thought to be a gift, but it is actually a curse. He says that he has devoted his life to Jacob, who claimed that everything was happening for a reason, that he had a plan, and that he would share the plan with Richard when the time was right. Richard reveals that, now that Jacob is dead, he believes that his entire life has had no purpose. He asks Jack to light a stick of dynamite for him, pointing out that he made the fuse long enough to give Jack time to get out. Jack immediately lights the fuse and sits down with Richard. Hurley is uncomfortable and decides to go, but Jack is calm and says he has to talk to Richard. The fuse on the dynamite goes out before it reaches the stick. It means the island would not kill Alpert or Jack. Jack now believes he has some sort of island destiny.

The series confirms a series of “hard bargains.” Both Jacob and MIB make “deals” with human souls for their service, their game. Alpert believes Jacob to be a liar and fraud; his gift of immortality served no purpose. Sayid tells Flocke that the only thing he loved died in his arms. MIB states that he could grant that wish if Sayid would follow him. Dogen previously told Sayid that he made a bargain with Jacob to save his son from Dogen’s drunken car accident. In order to save his son, Dogen could never see him again. (Does this mean his son died and went to heaven, and Dogen was sent to hell to serve Jacob?) Flocke tells his followers that he will get them all off the island if they do what he tells them to do.

Flocke  is annoyed at Sawyer’s interruption of his speech with his new followers (the remnants of the Others from the Temple) and suggests that they talk in private. Once aside, an angry MIB tells Sawyer that he wishes he hadn't interrupted him. Sawyer sarcastically apologizes and asks how "Locke" knew to rescue people from "that smoke thing." The Man in Black says he is the smoke thing. Sawyer is incredulous that all those people were killed and asks why. The MIB replies that he gave them the opportunity to leave peacefully, but they didn't take it. He explains that those people believed they were protecting the Island from him, whereas all he wants to do is leave. He says that it is either "kill or be killed," and he doesn't want to be killed.

MIB tells Kate that he is not a dead man. He says that he knows what Kate is feeling because his mother was crazy. He says that a long time ago, before he looked like he does now, he had a mother who was very disturbed and as a result of that he had some "growing pains," problems that he is still trying to work his way through and that he could have avoided had things been different. (This relates to Crazy Mother killing the Romans who were trying to leave the island with MIB; in anger, MIB killed his mother which resulted in Jacob killing him - - - and throwing him into the light cave to emerge as a smoke monster). Kate asks him why he told her this story and the MIB replies, "Because now Aaron has a crazy mother too."

When Alpert leaves the beach camp, he begs out loud to accept MIB’s offer. His ghost wife speaks to Hurley, who follows Alpert to the jungle bench. Alpert talks to his dead wife in Hurley’s presence, but in the distance after she is gone, we see Flocke with a slight grimace on his face. It is unclear whether Isabella as a ghost is a trapped soul on the island in her own form, or a manifestation of the smoke monster (MIB or possibly even Jacob). But it does give Flocke another follower.

Discussion:

“ A thousand may fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it will not come nigh thee. ”
— Psalm 91:7

“ Whenever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps, and whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. ”
— Bhagavad Gita

In this story arc, there are numerous, clear references by the characters that the island is Hell. If the Richard back story was put into the beginning of the series, so many viewers would not have been mislead by The End.

After the shipwreck, the survivors are killed by the mechanical clicking smoke monster. We hear a low guttural moan like a bass horn after the rampage. The sound is like a release. Next, the smoke monster returns and “scans” Alpert. Later, to  Richard's astonishment, he is roused by his “dead wife.”  She tells Richard that they are both dead and that they are in Hell. She says she looked the Devil in the eye and saw only evil, asking if Richard saw it too. Richard says that he thinks he did, and Isabella says she will free him before the Devil returns. As she unsuccessfully tries to free him the sounds and shadows of the Monster are heard and seen above deck. Richard pleads with Isabella to leave him and escape while she can. As soon as she has left, Richard hears the sounds of her screaming, accompanied by crashes and the Monster's exiting call. Richard is devastated.

Some time later,  MIB comes to Richard, gives him water and says he is “a friend.”  He confirms Richard's assertion that they are in Hell, and when Richard realizes he was not on the ship, MIB discloses he has been on the Island a long time. Richard asks about Isabella and explains what happened and the MIB says that "he has her,” implying that she was captured by the Devil (Jacob). Richard begs to be freed so he can save her and MIB says he will help, as he also wants to be free. MIB has keys he obtained from the dead officers but makes Richard promise to do anything that he asks before he frees him (“a hard bargain”). MIB unlocks the chains and when Richard thanks him MIB says, "It's good to see you out of those chains." MIB carries Richard out of the ship hold as he explains that the only way to escape from Hell is to kill the Devil.

Richard eats a boar roasted on a spit by MIB. Alpert is directed to the statue, now broken into pieces after the collision with the Black Rock. This is where he will find the Devil. MIB gives him an ornate dagger, warning Richard that he has but one chance to stab the Devil, and that he must not hesitate or let him speak because he is “very persuasive.”  Richard wonders how he can kill the Devil if he is black smoke but the Man in Black admits that he, himself, is the black smoke. He claims that the Devil betrayed him and stole his body and his humanity. He explains that Isabella was not running from the black smoke but from the Devil. (This infers that both Jacob and MIB are smoke monsters; and in the scene we see a slight glimpse of the smoke and part of Isabella leaving the hold). He adds that he saw the Devil take Isabella but couldn't stop him. He deflects questions about murdering the ship's officers and requesting Richard commit murder, saying that if Richard wants to see his wife again he must hurry up. But Richard’s mission is a failure. As a result, Jacob gives him immortality in exchange for working as his representative on the island, to intervene and guide human souls during MIB-Jacob’s humanity experiment.

One of the differences in the grand back story of the island is that Jacob comes to an injured Ilana in a hospital bed, and asks her to “guard” the “six” remaining candidates. Now, this appears to be a request given “before” Jacob’s death since Ilana was on Ajira plane with her crew. But with the lighthouse and its 360 names mostly crossed off except for the six 815 survivors (five if you scratch off dead Locke as MIB did in the cave), it may mean that “the game” is running out of pieces. That is why there is more action and interaction between Jacob and MIB: time is literally running out.
Jacob “brings” people to the island - - - MIB helps “corrupt” them to prove a point: that human beings are not worthy of something (immortality? guardians of the universe? heaven?) But considering the long time frame of island visitors, Jacob and MIB have to have been at least equal in power and strength when they were adopted by Crazy Mother, and MIB slightly weakened by the loss of his “body.” But the Egyptian mural depicting the smoke monster and Anubis pre-dates Jacob and MIB coming to the island, so it is possible that both Jacob and MIB are immortal smoke monsters who were given their powers (and rules) from their Crazy Mother.

Are these truly "The Rules?"

Each man has a special dagger in which can kill the other. But the assailant must not talk or listen to the intended victim or the killing spell is released.

Candidates cannot kill themselves.

Being touched is not a gift, but a curse to remain forever on the island, trapped by Jacob.

Once Jacob is killed, MIB turns into a mortal form when not the smoke monster.

Once Jacob is killed, MIB can leave the island if he is accompanied by another candidate who is his follower.

Jacob is in control of everything; he was the leader of both Dharma (Horace) and the Others (Alpert) before and after the purge. He can only bring people to the island. Apparently, Jacob can leave to recruit new candidates, but MIB cannot. MIB can only recruit or “corrupt” candidates by infecting them with “darkness,” akin to an infection which takes over the person’s soul when it reaches his heart.

What is the end game? Jacob’s death which releases his hold on MIB’s soul so he can “go home” which would be heaven, as the island is his Hell and Jacob is his Devil.

Sacred ash is a barrier for MIB/smoke monster’s movements. He cannot cross it.
Jacob’s touch can give a person’s soul immortality or the appearance of immortality in the island realm.

Creation mythology:

Crazy Mother kidnaps Jacob and MIB and raises them as her own. She sets the rules. The children cannot harm each other.

MIB grows weary of the island and goes to live with the Others, who are tapping the EM Life Force in an attempt to “go home” or leave the island.

Crazy Mother is upset with MIB, and kills all the Others, which makes MIB mad with rage so he kills her. In his own rage over the death of his alleged mother, Jacob kills MIB (or destroys his soul) by throwing him into the Light Cave where MIB is transformed or released into the smoke monster. This transformation binds Jacob and MIB to eternity on the island, together.

Jacob views the island as home and needs to be protected; while MIB views the island as a prison. As the protector, the leader, Jacob sets “the rules” between themselves.

What did we learn from this week’s episode arc about the main characters?

1. Miles is a grave robber.
2. Richard stated that Jacob's "touch" was a curse, which led him from chains of slavery to endless servitude on the island.

3. Jack finally realized that you have to go crazy in order to keep your sanity.

4. Ilana apparently has the mother of all daddy issues if Jacob is the closest thing to a father she has had in her life.

5. Ben would give up the promise of power for the chance of having a single friend.

6. Sun's role is now that of show set decorator at the beach camp.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

Jacob’s touch will bring you or bind you to the island after your death.
Everyone brought to the island was a “candidate” to be Jacob’s replacement, but in Jacob’s own words, they were lab rats in an experiment on human corruption.

That an 1867 wooden ship would fly through a multi-story stone statue and land fairly intact several miles inland.

That a sonic fence would repel a smoke monster.

That a smoke monster can possibly split into multiple things, such as Isabella in the hold and as a smoke monster outside the ship hold.

That Hurley can have conversations with ghosts like Isabella, even though her body never made it to the island and he never met her before.


Last lines in episodes:

EP 109:

ILANA: Everybody inside, now.
[The smoke monster rushes past just as they escape.]

[Kate, Claire, and Sayid walk through the courtyard, which is littered with mangled corpses. Outside, they meet up with Locke, who has assembled a small group of Temple dwellers. They follow him into the darkness of the jungle.]

EP 110:

CREWMAN AT PERISCOPE: Yes sir, Mr. Widmore.

EP 111:

SAWYER: We ain't taking the plane, Freckles. Taking the sub.

EP 112:

MAN IN BLACK: Sooner than you think.
[The Man in Black raises the bottle of wine and turns it upside down. He smashes the bottle against the log, splashing wine everywhere.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

I continue to view the sideways story line like the vegetables on a high end steak house plate; you move it to the side and concentrate on the meat, the island story. 

Point One: When is Dead Dead on?

Both Jacob and MIB are liars and manipulators. Everything they say has to be taken with a grain, no, a bag of salt. The show has consistently used the game metaphor between light and dark, so why are we assuming that only Light Jacob moved game pieces off-island, and not Dark Smokey as well, such as Locke’s crazy mother being hit by a car driven by Anthony Cooper?

Or if MIB is confined to the island, he needed someone off-island to move the pieces for him such as Widmore. Method of game play? Car crashes. But it is more probable that the evil car crash method was employed by Jacob as a means of manipulating human souls to come to the island.

In the first few seasons, there were frequent, unexplained, game changing car crashes, in almost every case turning that character's life into a downward spiral.

* Michael is hit by a car just as he is trying to keep custody of Walt, putting him in a unhappy cycle not ended until his death
*Adam Rutherford and Sarah get into a serious car accident that will permanently warp Shannon (again, until her death), and maintain her unhealthy co-dependence with Boone.
* Sarah's car accident. No saving Sarah means no Jack marriage that ends in him destroying his relationship with his father and driving Christian to his death in Australia.
* Claire and her mother get into a car accident, depriving her of her mother's support, leading to her reliance on a psychic(?). In addition, this indirectly speeds up Christian's death, as Claire's aunt refuses his request to reconnect with Claire.

Further evidence here: Claire's mom miraculous recovery which allows her to take Aaron and send Kate back to the island.
*Kate has multiple car crashes- we knows she still ends up arrested in Australia, but perhaps Tom Brennan is never killed?
* If Dr. Burke is never hit by a bus, does Juliet ever end up on the island, underwater or not?
*Nadia is hit by a car, sending Sayid into a black spiral he will never full recover from. Jacob probably caused this accident, since he stopped Sayid from becoming a victim of the accident.
* The real game changer was Emily Locke is hit by a car, causing a premature Locke to “be born” with Alpert, Jacob’s representative, at the hospital.

Purgatory theorists have used this list of serious accidents as circumstantial evidence to conclude that the characters involved in those accidents were killed but their "dead" souls were hijacked to the island limbo by Jacob. It makes perfect sense when we learn that the sideways world is the afterlife holding pen for the island souls to reconnect with their dead spirits.

The implication to date is that getting "infected" is done by dying. i.e: Sayid died in the pool and the discussion has long been that Claire actually died in the cabin explosion. So, both of them are "infected", or perhaps "inhabited" because their bodies were available. This infers multiple smoke monsters, including Christian.

It is possible that Kate never got out of the temple pit alive. Claire was at full anger mode when Kate approached her. Nothing would have calmed that anger during the monster’s revenge strike. If anything, it would have enhanced Claire’s desire to kill Kate. I think the 180 degree out of character Claire hug was to accelerate the infection in Kate. So “dying” on the island is different than dying off-island when one’s soul departs the body for the afterlife.

As a very early adopter of "there all dead" theories of the show premise, the cork analogy fits nicely into my Nexus-Buffer theory that the island was a gate-portal between heaven and hell to stop Satan from attacking heaven.

If Jacob brought the Black Rock to the island, did he not cause the destruction of the statue? Is this pointing to the fact at that moment, his micro-Egyptian island lab rats had been killed off, resetting the experiment?

And if the whole purpose of bringing souls to the island to see if they were good, bad or corrupt, Smokey-MIB did not waste a second in killing off the entire Black Rock crew (who never had a chance to even leave the ship after it crashed in the jungle). No test shown; pure violence.
In the hold, when it looks like Alpert is dead on the floor, we see a butterfly pass through the scene. (This must be important symbol because it would be difficult to frame an insect in the set shot.)

What does the butterfly mean?
In some Japanese anime, it is used to represent a soul.

The Western view is that the butterfly is a carefree creature. The Dalai Lama explains that, rather than carefree, it is uncaring:

"The butterfly never meets its mother. It must survive independently and remains a stranger to affection. An animal nurtured by mother's milk, however, is dependent on another for its basic survival. A child who grows up in a cold and detached home environment is similar to the butterfly, in that kindness is sparing. Once an adult, it will be very difficult for that person to show compassion."



In other cultures, the butterfly is symbolic of rebirth after death.

In the 1600s, in Ireland, killing a white butterfly was prohibited since it was believed to be the soul of a dead child.

For Christians, the butterfly's three steps of metamorphosis -- as caterpillar, pupa and then winged insect -- are reminiscent of spiritual transformation.

The caterpillar's incessant crawling and chewing reminds us of normal earthly life where people are often wholly preoccupied with physical needs. The chrysalis (cocoon) resembles a tomb and empty, can suggest the empty shroud left behind by Jesus. Therefore, a butterfly represents the resurrection into a new condition of life that is free of any material concerns.

In images of the Garden of Eden, Adam's soul is symbolized by a butterfly, or drawn with butterfly wings. In paintings of Mary and her Child, the presence of butterflies stands for their care for human souls. The Gnostics depicted the Angel of Death by showing a winged foot stepping on a butterfly.

Others have stated that since the insect is so fragile it can be torn apart by a hard rain, the butterfly stands for human frailty, both moral and physical. Also, as its life is not a long one, it is also a symbol of the ephemeral nature of physical existence.

In America among the Aztec and Maya, the god of cosmic fire is symbolized by a butterfly. Fire is considered the element of transformation, as in cookery and the smelting of metals.
The ancient Greeks depicted the spirit of a person as a winged stick figure. Interpretation of that symbol gave rise to the idea of the "soul" as a butterfly.

The ancient Romans associated the butterfly with the wandering consciousness that seems to occur during the dream state.

In science, there is The Butterfly Effect.

This is an aspect of chaos theory: the way a seeming insignificant event can cause dramatic consequences.

From wikipedia: The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.

The butterfly effect is a common method in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with "what if" scenarios where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes.

Some theorists believed that is what TPTB were attempting by putting in the sideways world in Season 6.

Point Two: What are Jacob and his brother?

Clearly, they are powerful beings. They get knowledge in different ways: Jacob spies on people from the light house, while MIB scans their minds while a smoke monster. Both have the power to manipulate time, space and matter.

For example, MIB is not trapped in Locke's body. Locke's real body is now buried on Boone Hill.  MIB is using a duplicate "body." And he is not trapped inside the duplicate, because he can continue to transform into Smokey after Locke is buried. And it is not human, because when Sayid stabbed him, no blood was on the dagger.

There is an interesting question that was rarely asked when the series first ran. "Could Jacob have manifested himself as smokey or as dead people?"

Yes, and here is a wild tangent explanation: Jacob is MIB. Or more exact, MIB is to Jacob as Dave is to Hurley: an imaginary friend, his conscious incarnate, or his split personality. It is possible that MIB’s resentment of Jacob is that MIB is trapped inside Jacob’s mind (“the island”).

It's possible that Jacob made MIB who/what he is, thus the reason for his resentment towards him. Even if Jacob wasn't the one that made him who/what he is, he certainly is the reason he cannot escape. He knew that as long as Jacob was alive he was trapped on the island and that he could not kill Jacob himself, thus the whole "loophole" storyline.

All evidence points to smoke monsters on the island prior to Jacob and his brother’s arrival. Since they would look the same, we do not know what physical human form is any one smoke creature. (Side tangent: some believe that the mechanical noises, electromagnetic flashes, and swarm like movement of the smoke creature infers that the monster may be a nano-like machine powered by the unique physics properties of the island. And as a machine, it cannot be “killed” in the sense of a human being dying from a mortal wound.)

As a result, I did not buy into Sawyer's "triple cross." First, Flocke already knew what was going on at Hydra (he was heading his recruits there). The Ajira victims appeared to be mowed down like the Temple people, which looks like Smokey’s work. Which would negate one of the viewer assumptions, that the monster could not cross water.  Second, Widmore was too quick to "deal" with Sawyer (besides if both know Flocke is Smokey, no one said they know how or if Smokey can be killed). Third, Flocke expected Sawyer to lie to him, and when he did not, Smokey's plan self-executed; the war with Widmore would go forth.  Fourth, when Sawyer told Kate he is going after the sub, he was in essence telling Smokey because after Claire's "hug" I believe Kate may have "infected" her, giving partial control of her mind to Flocke. Fifth, even though we hear MIB wanting to “leave” the island, he never says how that is possible for him, as a smoke monster.

If MIB is truly “trapped” on the island, who did it to him? If he was dead, why is his soul fused to the island life force as a smoke creature?

Some viewers  think it's a prison. MIB is the prisoner and Jacob is the guard. Woe be to the world if that angry prisoner escapes.

Most believe MIB is trapped on the island. If the cosmic prison is the final premise of the show, that does not explain why the main characters were brought to the island by Jacob. For recreation for MIB? You would think a guard would want to encourage less violence in his prisoner.

We know that Jacob wanted to retire and brought in candidates for his job, but it still might be that bringing those people in was a form of passing the time while trying to prove a point and find a replacement. And it might be the reason for those damned "rules".

Unless MIB represents something eternal, while the Jacob role is only temporary, requiring periodic replacements? That's more of an idea than a conviction, btw, but how else to explain the whole candidate business?

There is a simple explanation for what could be happening on the island. In a Death Note vibe, Jacob and MIB could have the same job, as Gatekeepers to Hell of the Afterlife. The island is the gate. What do gatekeepers do? Allow people to pass through or hold them up for interrogation or inspection. That may be why both the lighthouse and the cave have the same list of names, which each striking out names who they have allowed to pass through the gate.

Just as a cork keeps liquid in a bottle, a cork also acts as a stopper so more liquid cannot get into the bottle (for example, to make it overflow). Every person brought to the island had some form of sin in their heart; a few truly evil. As a result, to keep the bottle from bursting, the gatekeepers must “test” these souls and release those who have had a worthy redemption, asked for true forgiveness, and accepted their fate, to move on and leave the place of ultimate judgment.

We know that an ancient civilizations, first the Sumerians in 5000 BC, then the Egyptians in 2500 BC, then the  Romans in 500 BC, then Dharma in the 1970s,  were brought to the island and stayed long enough to construct the statue, temple, stations and villages - - - which meant that there had to be a long standing peace between Jacob and MIB to allow all this construction to happen.

Apparently, Smokey left them alone while they did this- he was clearly there, as pictured on the temple walls.

Did they pacify Smokey by worshiping him? Was he not aware/conscious that he was trapped at that time?

We will probably never know what happened between the time of the Egyptians and the arrival of the Black Rock. But when the Black Rock arrived, Smokey was in all-kill mode, as he immediately wiped out the crew- no hesitation, no scanning.

Jacob tells Richard he is the only man alive on the island and then makes Richard immortal. This may have made Richard immune to being killed by Smokey, who may have wanted to keep Richard around anyway for his own future potential use.

Does that mean that between the Black Rock and the US Army encounter in 1954, that there was a gradually growing community of Others, with Richard as the representative to the god, Jacob? Did Richard watch them arrive on the island, live their lives there, have children, and then eventually die after a normal life - - - one which he himself lost? In that vain, Richard’s life on the island would have been agonizing and mental suffering like being in a living hell, trapped there by his bargain with Jacob.

Until Jacob's “death,”  the Others showed no fear or concern re: Smokey, freely walking through the underground passages of the temple, going about their business in the jungle. Smokey lived in the temple wall!

So for 140 years Smokey bided his time, searching for the appropriate "candidates" to corrupt for his plan to kill Jacob? Periodically killing those who he did not find useful, but essentially laying low?

When Richard describes the arrival of the US Army, he says he gave them an opportunity to withdraw in peace- he doesn't say "and then they landed with their bomb, and Smokey immediately tore them to shreds..."

So was MIB more fascinated by the new technologies of the people brought to the island as a means of escape? If that is true, why could he have gone into a human form and turned the FDW and escaped to North Africa?! It seems no matter what Jacob or MIB wanted, they could never have: both were/are trapped on the island forever. And it seems that the candidates were not ever going to “replace” Jacob, but to appease the brother’s boredom.

Point Three: What is the final conflict?

The consensus was that the final battle will be good vs. evil. But what is the the actual battlefield for this conflict?

Author Joyce Meyer said the mind is the battlefield for good and evil.

With Jacob’s alleged demise at the hands of Ben, it would seem that the final showdown for the island is Widmore vs. Flocke. Widmore wants the island because it contains what he must believe is the fountain of youth, the life source that could grant immortality. He must have learned that from Alpert.

We have seen symbols of good (light) and evil (darkness). Jacob appeared to represent the light (the lighthouse) and MIB the dark (smoke monster). But it is now more likely that they are both shades of gray. It was telling that the knife into Flocke came out with no blood. There are no traits of a human body just the mere illusion of one. It infers that there are multiple Flockes (one with Sawyer in the cave, and one at the temple) The most important clue on the night was when Dogen said Flocke/MIB was "evil incarnate," which means an evil deity or spirit embodied in flesh (human form).

The final conflict is not about Widmore, the 815 survivors, the Ajira people, or the remaining Others. The conflict remains Jacob vs. his brother.

But Widmore is a powerful piece in the game, what is his true relationship with the brothers?
This could be the explanation, using word clues, to try to find out who is good and who is bad in the show's current "team building" story lines.

Widmore returns to the Island, presumably for revenge. In looking for the root origin of "Widmore," one can trace a branch to wider, a Scottish term for "against." There is another old Scottish term called widdershins, which means "in a direction contrary to the course of the sun."

In ancient Egyptian myth, the "sun god," Ra was one of the most important gods. In later kingdoms, the merger of gods found Horus, the son of Osiris, taking on the role of sun god after defeating his uncle Seth for control of the kingdom. Horus is known as the god and protector of the monarchy. One of the traits of the protector, was the Eye of Horus, a scar below his eye, similar to the one on John Locke's face.

One could make the connection that Widmore is on the side opposing the sun god, or ruler of the living kingdom. One could presume that if Jacob is light, Widmore is an agent for darkness, MIB.

The name "Jacob" means "the supplanter." To supplant means to supercede or replace. One seeks to supercede the throne by overthrowing its current king. In its Latin origins, supplant means "to trip up from below." We learned when Desmond failed to enter the code in the Hatch computer, that the warning signal sounded that spelled out "He escapes place of death." This incident caused Flight 815 to crash on the Island. We never saw Jacob before this incident. However, the Hatch occupants were quite familiar with Smokey as he/it is described in detail on the blast door map.

Once Horus defeated Seth, Seth was relegated to the underworld to serve his brother, Osiris and to help protect the sun god on the nightly journey through the underworld. Later cults deemed that the nightly journey had already stopped since Horus defeated all his enemies, so the sun would always rise.

But most believe Seth, a master of trickery and evil, would not sit idle in the underworld. He was once called the god of chaos. One would think that he would mark his time and seek his revenge against Horus and retake the throne in the living world. For that reason, Horus would have imprisoned him in the underworld.

In trying to tie the wordsmith's art into character associations, those who intend on upsetting the current order are Widmore and Jacob, in the role of Seth. Once Seth was able to reach the Island, it was like letting a genie out of a bottle. He "trapped" Horus on the island, and through magic was able to leave the island in search for the pieces to solidify his plan to overthrow the kingdom. (This is very similar to the notion that Satan builds an army to retake the heavens from God.)

That leaves Flocke in the Horus role. He wants "to go home," a place where he permanently lives, which would mean to his kingdom. It appears that the only way to do that is not to physically leave the island, but to defeat Seth (Jacob). For those who believe that Flocke was surprised by Sawyer's intel in the Recon episode, this would be consistent with Flocke's perception that Jacob and his men are out to kill him. And recall, there are (unknown) ways for which a god can be killed, as Seth butchered Osiris and scattered his remains across the desert, as the means to claim the throne. However, we have seen the two supernatural beings stabbed with two different results: Jacob bled out and was burned to ash; Flocke was stabbed with no blood. Maybe that battle has already taken place, and Horus is being kept alive in a spirit form (as Jacob is now) with the help of other underworld gods, like Anubis and Thoth.

I originally thought that Jacob "touching" the characters was a means of putting part of himself in them in case he was killed, so he could be reincarnated like Osiris in the underworld. But now, we are learning from Richard the "touch" is a curse. The touch was a marker for candidates to "replace" Jacob. None of these candidates was given a job application to become the next Jacob. But since we don't know whether Jacob even has a job or Island purpose, we can only assume that Jacob's motivations are self-serving.

Now that both Jacob and MIB appear to be trapped in a ghost-spirit hybrid, they are both recruiting human souls to fight their final battle. In backgammon, the goal is to remove all your pieces in order to win. Maybe Flocke was upset because he thought none of the Temple residents would take his offer so he could mow them all down and have less pieces aligned with him to dispose of; and knowing that, Jacob is actually blocking the removal of those aligned with his enemy because in this game you cannot kill your own followers. That is a twisted rule: to win the game your enemy has to wipe out all your pawns!

On the flip side,  there is evidence that MIB/Smokey could be aligned with Widmore. Widmore was once the (co) leader of the Others before he was banished by Ben after the Dharma purge. It is clear that the Others did not put up any sonic fences to keep Smokey out of their camps. There had to be some clear understanding that Smokey would not harm the Others.

That may have been the presence of Jacob. The Others followed the indirect directions of Jacob. And for some reason, Smokey could not directly kill Jacob. This check and balance system was not totally wiped out with Ben's stabbing of Jacob: Jacob's "presence" is still on the island, and he is still giving directions to the characters.

Widmore has been shown as a evil guy; he sent mercenaries to wipe out everyone on the island. His man killed Alex, which was alleged as a violation of the rules. Flocke as Smokey clearly had an evil intent when it wiped out the temple dwellers. So there is plenty of blood on their hands to have a solid evil alliance.

When Widmore was co-leader of the Others, he was a follower of Jacob. But MIB did not disturb that clan, or wipe them out. When Dharma joined the island, they followed Jacob but were opposed by MIB. Is this the time when Widmore turned away from Jacob’s control and toward MIB? It would seem that this is the time where there are two equal sides or “teams” occupying the island - - - the perfect situation for the brothers to battle their pawns to the death. And it was the “corruption” of young Ben at the temple waters that turned Ben into evil to wipe out Dharma and exile Widmore.

From an earlier theory of mine: Touched by an Angel Devil:

There is a growing debate on whether Jacob is good or bad.

We saw Jacob touch many people off-island. I theorized that it was to put a piece of himself in these vessels to be reincarnated if killed on the Island (the Osiris story).

That may come to be true, but looking at things now from the Lighthouse spy glass into the lives of the 815ers, Jacob may be darker than we have imagined:

Every person we have seen Jacob "touch" has had their lives torn a part on an emotional roller coaster: Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Jin, Sun, Locke, Ilana, Sayid and Hurley.

Sawyer was touched at his parents funeral. He needed a pen to write down his vengeful thoughts. Jacob enabled him to do so with a pen. That letter caused Sawyer to turn down the dark path of conning people to murder.

Kate was touched in the midst of a shop lifting caper. Jacob's intervention with the shop keeper actually rewarded Kate for her bad behavior. This led her down the path of self-destruction including murder because she was ingrained at an early age that she could get away with things.

Jack was touched by Jacob in the hospital. He gave the candy machine "a little push," but in reality pushed Jack to stand up to his father, which led to his paranoia and failed relationships, to the betrayal of his father (and malpractice induced alcoholism that killed Christian). In other words, Jack's turn from being afraid of his father to turning in his father screwed up his life.

Jin and Sun were touched by Jacob at their wedding. As Jacob reached out to them, he brought them together. In one respect, Jacob's touch may have solidified Sun "staying with" Jin even though she wanted out of her subservient marriage. It also put pressure on Jin to be his father-in-law's muscle in the dirty family business. They both wound up doing shameful things during their marriage.

Locke was touched by Jacob after Cooper tossed his son eight stories to his perceived death. Jacob's touch brought Locke back to life, with an apology. From that point forward, Locke would have been better off dead. His life was a crippling failure, leading to an unseemly death at the hands of Ben after failing in his one faithful mission to return to save the island and his friends.

We think Jacob touched Ilana in the Russian hospital bed. Jacob needed her help "again." It is not clear that her current injuries were a result of helping Jacob in the past, but her life turned into a bloody mess with four of her comrades killed by the Smoke monster, and she is on the run for her life on the island.

Sayid was touched just before crossing the street - - - which saved him but killed his Nadia. As a direct result of that touch, Sayid could not be a happily married man. His life reverted back to a cold blooded killer and a dark soul.

And finally, Hurley was touched in the back of a cab. Jacob convinced Hurley he was not cursed, so Hurley made the decision to go back to the island. If he did not go back, he would have lived the life of leisure with his parents as a millionaire. Instead, his life is on the edge in a supernatural war zone hell, created in part, by Jacob.

One could say the worst thing that happened to the touched characters was Jacob's intervention in their lives.

In the pivot final scene of  Season 5, Flocke  is recognized by Jacob as the MIB from the beach scene. Flocke acknowledges that he (MIB) had found the loophole to kill Jacob. The only motivation we know of is that MIB did not want Jacob to continually bring human (souls) to the Island. All they do, MIB insisted, was fight, kill and make a mess of things. This is the Conflict. The loophole the apparent solution to the Conflict.

Some comments on the relationship between Jacob and MIB. Both are apparently equals in some regard. They must have equal status or equal powers on or through the Island. The balance of power may be as simple as one controlling above ground and the other controlling above ground. They cannot directly kill each other, otherwise MIB would have killed Jacob on the beach. However, one can apparently get a human soul to do the evil deed under the right circumstances (the loophole).

Since we are fairly certain that MIB can manifest himself as Smokey, there is an open question on how Jacob can manifest himself.

It may get down to contact or touch.

We have seen Jacob "touch" the following characters: Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Jin, Sun, Locke, Ilana, Sayid and Hurley. All those contacts occurred off-island in public places.

We have seen MIB, as Smokey, have contact with the following characters: Seth the Pilot, Locke, Eko, Kate (scanned), Juliet (scanned), Nikki & Paulo (spiders), Ben (as shot boy taken to the underground chamber), and Alpert (? who took Ben into the underground chamber).

We can also suspect that since MIB is Flocke, that he can reincarnate the Dead who arrive on the Island: Christian and Locke. We have also seen MIB ghost in contact with Claire and Aaron (though Christian).

When we compare the Lists, we find that only one character was physically touched by both Jacob and MIB: Locke. And the tipping point in MIB's favor was bringing Dead Locke to the Island so MIB could reincarnate into Flocke, to lead follower Ben into a treasonous rage which results in Ben killing Jacob (the loophole) for MIB.

It may be a simple as a game of tag: with MIB "tagging" Locke twice to Jacob's once in so far as MIB creating and controlling Flocke in the end.

Point Four: The Rules

The key episode, "Ab Aeterno," which means "from eternity" in Latin, the series may have found its mission statement that it is a character driven show about basic human behavior:  good, evil, temptation, redemption, life and death. Those are eternal struggles of mankind. The underlying hidden cake, the layers and layers of mystery, is the nature and purpose of the island.

From this episode, we can glean seven golden island rules:

Rule #1: No one comes to the island without Jacob’s permission. Except, Jacob himself was brought to the island by someone else. And "the island" had powers to control people off the island, such as Michael not killing himself in NYC.

Rule #2: MIB is trapped on the island because Jacob won’t let him leave. MIB cannot leave if Jacob (or his successor) is alive. We don't know if Jacob is telling the truth, or that MIB is merely gaining sympathy from his followers. Both brothers had the mantle of being immortal gods.

Rule #3: MIB cannot leave the island even by killing Jacob because someone will take his place. Again, we don't know if this is true or not. Jacob was given his powers from the island guardian, and there was no ceremony to pass it on to Jack.
Rule #4: Jacob can grant eternal life (with his touch to Richard), but he cannot give resurrect dead people or absolve people of their sins. Then why are so many ghosts and  trapped souls (whispers) on the island? Many believe that the whole island experience, its danger and tests, are all means to get to a final judgment on a character's soul: pass fail, heaven or eternal nothingness.

Rule #5: MIB believes that it is in all human nature to be bad, to sin, to corrupt or destroy, and Jacob brings people to the island to “prove him wrong.” All prior people brought to the island to prove MIB wrong are dead. Then what is the point of continuing this experiment in humanity unless there is a more important purpose: to judge souls.

Rule #6: The island is a gate or cap that stops evil, malevolence from spreading (to somewhere?) The fallen angels were set to work to manage hell, where evil souls were tormented for their sins. In some ancient writings, there is a possibility that souls in hell could be redeemed and sent to heaven.

Rule #7: Jacob does not intervene or interfere with people brought to the island (even though MIB can), so he appoints Richard to be his intermediary, to act on his behalf. But in reality, Jacob can intervene any time he wants to, including appearing to Hurley as a ghost within a hour of his "death" at the hands of Ben.

Rule #8: Escape from the island is difficult. MIB calls this place Hell, and tells Richard that Jacob is the devil. In order to escape Hell, one must kill the devil. Richard's attempt to kill Jacob was MIB's first attempt to kill Jacob. We can infer that MIB cannot directly "kill" Jacob. He needs to act through some one else. But the survivors do leave the island, to be awakened in the afterlife.

Point Five: The Loophole?

If one believes that the sum of the series is the butterfly effect of avalanche of unrelated events converging at the island's final conflict of MIB defeating Jacob for the first time, here are THE MOVES MIB HAD TO MAKE TO WIN:

What did MIB/Flocke have to “go through” in order to kill Jacob? What were the moves required to get the result he wanted? I have yet to see anyone try to piece together the Rube Goldberg/Mad, Mad, Mad World time line of interrelated events, but here is my an outline of what MIB may have meant:

1. MIB needed BEN to kill JACOB, which required
2. FLOCKE planting the seed/justification for killing in BEN, which needed
3. DEAD LOCKE in order to trick BEN on his island return, which meant
4. BEN killing LOCKE when he heard LOCKE was working with HAWKING to get back to the island (and thereby assuming the leadership role), which would not have happened without
5. WIDMORE and ABBADON helping LOCKE try to round up the O6 group for the return flight to the island, because

5 A. the O6 had a deal with RICHARD to leave the island for saving BEN from WIDMORE’S team, which BEN knew about by
5.B. placing his man MICHAEL on the freighter, as a result of
5 C. a deal to free MICHAEL and WALT in exchange for capturing JACK, KATE, SAWYER and HURLEY by the Others, which lead to
5 D. JACK, KATE, SAWYER escaping Otherville with ALEX, who
5 E. was caught by WIDMORE’s man and killed, causing
5 F. BEN turn the FDW to hide the island from WIDMORE, causing

6. HAWKING in her pendulum Dharma station to try to find the island, because
7. BEN’s FDW causing the island to time skip, requiring
8. LOCKE to turn the FDW to reset the island with the instructions of CHRISTIAN,

8 A. Whose past fathered CLAIRE in Australia, which led to
8.B. Daddy issues with his son JACK, which led to
8.C. JACK turning on CHRISTIAN, leading him back to drinking and
8.D. CHRISTIAN dying in Australia, which made
8.E. JACK fly to Sydney to claim CHRISTIAN’s body and get it on Flight 815, so,
8.F. when Flight 815 crashed on the Island, CHRISTIAN’s body could be used by MIB to influence JACK and LOCKE, since
8.G. DESMOND’s failure to input the Numbers in the Hatch caused 815 to crash,
8 H. since DESMOND’s need to prove his honor to WIDMORE caused him to enter a sail boat race after
8. I. a stranger named LIBBY gave him her deceased husband’s boat, since
8. J. DESMOND had no job since he was fired from the monastery vineyard by BROTHER CAMPBELL, (who was friends with HAWKING) but
8. K. as a result, DESMOND meets PENNY, who he falls for, but WIDMORE objects to the relationship, which leads
8. L. PENNY to search the globe for the lost DESMOND, which leads to
8.M. a listening station finding a signal in the Pacific, which leads both
8.N. WIDMORE’s freighter soldiers to the island and
8.O. PENNY’s boat finding the O6 survivors after LOCKE turns the FDW, taking,
8.P. The O6 back to their problems stateside, including:

KATE on trial for murder;
JACK finding out CLAIRE is his half sister;
SAYID’S wife NADIA being killed,
SUN taking over father’s company and seeking revenge on BEN;
HURLEY going back into mental institution; which leads

8.Q. BEN to scheme with HAWKING to get the O6 to re-create Flight 815, which includes killing LOCKE, who was suicidal because he had failed to convince anyone to return with him, which could be caused by
8.R. LOCKE’s pathetic life of personal failures, which may have influenced

9. The island splitting into two time frames when he turned the FDW,with

9.A. 1974 flash where SAWYER takes the lead with JULIET, MILES, and JIN, who
9.B. in order to survive and await LOCKE’s return, join Dharma by helping AMY who was attacked by the Others, and in turn
9.C. SAWYER telling RICHARD about time traveling LOCKE which creates a truce between Dharma and the Others, which
9.D. changes SAWYER and JULIET into a happy Dharma couple, until
9.E. Flight 316 crashes on the Island causing a time flashes to 1977 and 2007, which leads to,
9.F. KATE, JACK, SAYID meeting up with SAWYER’s Dharma group,
which causes,
9.G. JULIET to doubt her relationship with SAWYER because of KATE, but adds complication when
9.H. SAYID shoots young BEN in order to save SAYID from his future killings, which requires,
9.I. JACK and KATE to bring dying young BEN to RICHARD to be saved,
9.J. which creates BEN as an Other, which leads to
9.K. BEN banishing WIDMORE from the Island after Purging Dharma, including killing his own father ROGER,
9.L. who blamed BEN for killing his wife by being premature, but that lead to,
9.M. HORACE coming across ROGER and BEN at birth for later recruitment of ROGER to the Island, which led to
9.N. ROGER blaming BEN for his crappy life, which led BEN to seek a way out with the Others, who are

10. The island’s native population that needed outside leadership “candidates,” which led them to BEN, who recruited many off-islanders including,
11. JULIET, who was recruited to deal with the island’s fertility problems, for which,
12. RICHARD thought was unimportant to the Other’s prime mission, but which led to
13. JULIET being the lead scientist with the Hydra confinement and manipulation of JACK, SAWYER and KATE, which led to

13.A. JULIET joining the 815 survivors as a spy and as a way to get off the island, away from the captivity of BEN, which
13.B. put her in the position of the 815ers who time flashed back to 1974, which
13.C. led her to have a long term relationship with SAWYER, which caused her
13.D. sacrifice herself to detonate Jughead to bring the time lines together, which
13.E. brought ghost JACOB to HURLEY when SAYID was dying at the van,
13.F. making HURLEY leader to direct the group to take SAYID to the Temple, where,
13.G. Dogen and Lennon drowned SAYID as his friends watched in horror,
13.H. then learning JACOB was dead from HURLEY causing the Temple to be on guard from “him” and laying out ash to repel Smokey, who
13.I. was at the Tawaret foot in the form of FLOCKE, recognizing RICHARD as a man once in chains, and beating RICHARD unconscious while being extremely “disappointed” with the Others, which now makes

14. MIB/FLOCKE in position of power on the Island by killing JACOB.


There is no way that TPTB had this mapped out at the beginning of the show.

REBOOT EPISODES 105-108

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.
LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 105-108 (Days ????- - ????)

Many writers believe that the aftermath from Juliet's “detonation” of the hydrogen bomb is revealed as the sideways world, as her last thoughts were “it worked,” however, it is clear that the bomb did not explode because Sawyer finds Juliet alive in the Hatch site implosion debris.

Sawyer decides to leave the Temple and Kate follows him, while the  Temple leader, Dogen, tests with a resurrected Sayid and finds him “infected” with the darkness that will turn him into presumably a smoke monster when it reaches “his heart” just like Claire.

Flocke takes Sawyer through the jungle to find answers. Sawyer learns of Jacob’s candidates, including himself, and that the people brought to the island were for Jacob’s purposes.

Hurley convinces Jack to follow him to find Jacob. Jin is forced to watch mad Claire
interrogate an Other, Justin, about the whereabouts of Aaron. Jin lies about where Aaron is (with the Others at the Temple) in order to save his own life.


Science:

Infection and Darkness.

An infection the process of some foreign substance (virus, bacteria, fungal) infecting or attacking the person and his immune system. It can also mean in computing the presence of a virus in, or its introduction into, a computer system, which causes corruption and damage to system files and operations.

Sepsis is a serious medical condition caused by an overwhelming immune response to infection. Chemicals released into the blood o fight infection trigger widespread inflammation.
Inflammation may result in organ damage. Blood clotting during sepsis reduces blood flow to limbs and internal organs, depriving them of nutrients and oxygen. In severe cases, one or more organs fail. In the worst cases, infection leads to a life-threatening drop in blood pressure, called septic shock. This can quickly lead to the failure of several organs --lungs, kidneys and liver -- causing death.
Darkness is defined as:
1.     the partial or total absence of light: the office was in darkness.
• night: they began to make camp before darkness fell.
the quality of being dark in color: the darkness of his jacket.

2.     wickedness or evil: the forces of darkness.
• unhappiness, distress, or gloom: moments of darkness were rare.
• secrecy or mystery: they drew a veil of darkness across the proceedings.
• lack of spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; ignorance: his accomplishments shone in a world of darkness.

It would appear from the Temple explanations, that a person killed on the island may become “infected” by a substance that would turn them into a dark being, one who would lack spirituality or intellectual enlightenment.

Improbabilities:

The “immortal” Jacob being killed by Ben, and turning up to Hurley as a ghost.

A “smoke monster” that can recreate dead people can suddenly become “mortal” as Ilana says that Flocke is “stuck” in Locke’s body after Jacob’s death.

Jacob changing into a form a small child to haunt Flocke in the jungle, reminding Flocke that he cannot kill Sawyer because that would be against the rules.


Clues:

The hydrogen bomb did not explode, because the site wreckage was an implosion. Further, Juliet’s voice is heard by Sawyer and the crew trying to rescue her. Therefore, the Incident was not the bomb going off, but the catastrophic EM release.

The Incident EM release, like the FDW, turned the time travelers back to the present, which may be what Jacob referred to when he said dying, “they’re coming.” They, meaning the 815 “candidates” are the last of his pawn pieces in the game with MIB.

The large wooden ankh symbol in the guitar case represents LIFE in ancient Egyptian mythology. It is a key or passport in the after life journey.

Dead Sayid’s reincarnation at the temple into an evil spirit and follower of MIB may show how MIB acquires his game “pieces” against Jacob.

Jacob’s death somehow imparts “mortality” into the smoke monster that is inhabiting Locke’s body; the only means of leaving the island for the smoke monster is to be in mortal, human form.

Sideways Jack cannot remember his appendectomy that his mother says happened when he was 7 or 8 years old. If one links that information to the lighthouse where Jack says he has not been at since he was a young child and the school yard fight where Jack is severely beaten up, one could make the case that Jack is really just a soul of a 7 or 8 year old child.

Flocke tells Sawyer that everyone was brought to the island by Jacob when Sawyer is shown the cave with the names and numbers. Flocke tells him that Jacob believes himself to be the guardian of the island, but “the joke” is that the island does not need protection. All Flocke wants to do is to “go home.” He asks Sawyer to join him, and he responds “hell, yes.” One can deduce that one of the “rules” is that mortal MIB cannot leave the island “alone.”

Hurley remarks that it is “old school” to trek across the jungle on a mission that they do not understand. It may be a reference to an old school yard game, “follow the leader.” In that children’s game, one person is assigned  the role of leader and the rest are followers.  The leader starts to doing something. He can walk, run, dance, sing, talk or do any activity or combination of activities he wants to do, in any order he wants.

The rest of the players must follow the leader, doing whatever the leader does exactly the way she does it. Anyone who doesn't follow exactly is out of the game.The game ends when only person is left following the leader. That person then becomes the leader of the next game.

There are variations of the follow the leader game. In the relay version, a leader from chosen among the group. The rest of the group breaks into two teams and have each form a single-file line. The leader is sent to the other end of the room or playing field. He instructs the two teams that they are to follow the commands of the leader such as hop, run or skip. The first person in the each line follows the directions of the leader until they reach the leader. Once they reach the leader, they turn around and head back to their team while following the leader's instructions. The first team to have all the members complete the relay wins.

In the Blind Fold version, a simple obstacle course is created for the children to go through using pillows and other soft objects you have around the house. You can also play this outside with your children's toys as the obstacles. Blindfold each child and assign a leader to each kid. Have the leader (the person without the blindfold) guide the blindfolded child through the obstacle course. This game will challenge the children who are blindfolded to trust the leader and learn to listen more than see.

The versions of follow the leader are incorporated into the LOST Jacob and MIB dynamic: they are leaders who tell followers what to do, either directly like telling Hurley in a cab to get back to the island or showing Jack in the lighthouse that he has been spied on since he was a child in order to get him to act on Jacob’s behalf. It also appears that once MIB as Flocke “becomes the leader,” he is somehow fixed in a mortal form, even though he can still change into the smoke monster and attack people like Bram in the statue (which is a major inconsistency in MIB’s eventual demise).



Discussion:

“ The power of man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good. ”
— Thomas Hobbes

“ Travel makes a wise man better but a fool worse. ”
— Benjamin Franklin

“ The past cannot be changed, the future is still in your power. ”
— Hugh White

During the show’s initial run, I took a great deal of time attempting to translate the hieroglyphs in order to glean some premise and meaning in plain sight:

My translation of he glyphs on the pillars that face the spring in the Temple appears to form prayers like passages of a ceremony from a Book of the Dead:

1. In the name of Horus, alas spirit enter. Horus, sacred god father's duties.

2. Horus, enter father's gardens.

3. Stand for father's long past ideas of health (rebirth).

4. Lord father, patron of the Dead, heal for eternities.

5. Lord father.

6. Island Heaven (sacred/magical sign symbol).

7. Enter Horus (Ra).

8. Heaven conspire against evil fires. 

9. Stand Ra. (sacred/magical sign symbol).

My translations of the hieroglyphs in the temple hallway as Hurley searched for the secret passageway:

The first one on his left:
SON WHO MAKES OFFERS (TO) GOD HORUS
The first one on his right:
YOU SAID TO THE MAN: ETERNITY.
The second one on the left:
OSIRIS' YOUTH (SON) HORUS CONTROLS BIRTHS.
The third one on the left, where Hurley stopped and was ready to touch:
The symbol of a coiled rope means ETERNITY and PROTECTION.

In the Lighthouse, the hieroglyphs were hard to read but this my best translation:

I approach the Devine Spirit, Lady Nephthys.

Support the King.

Fetch your Father's (Geb) Support.

Give and justify that which binds the Two Lands after binding the dangerous under ruler scourge.

Destroy Hell's entrails (on the) Island, our Garden.

Nephthys is the patron of the dead, funerals and protector of the house. She is the sister of Osiris and wife of Seth. She helped put together Osiris after Seth's murdered him. She is often depicted on a boat riding with the dead toward the Blessed Land.

Her father, Geb, is the God of the Earth, and a member of the Ennead, the council of the founding gods.

What is the importance of all these translations? Because the show’s creators continually used them in various scenes and important moments of the characters, symbols to help explain (we hope) the action going on in the foreground (such as Ben’s judgment in the Temple wall, meeting the smoke monster, and then Dead Alex).

Clearly, the sets of the final run of LOST invoke and scream ancient Egyptian mythology and belief systems. Such ancient rituals are a mystery to modern Americans, but in many respects are the starting points for most modern religious philosophies.

In the Egyptian pantheon of the living and the dead, there are many characters who serve various purposes; gods who would help the living, and gods who would punish the dead. At some time in the island’s own time line, people brought to the island were deeply moved to build a large temple complex, a huge Tawaret statue and an ancient lighthouse to serve their god(s), which apparently consist of Jacob (as Anubis) and MIB (the smoke monster, as depicted in the mural).

But in this series arc, we see that in the forefront of the Egyptian mythology and magic of the underworld, we have a “contest” between Jacob and his brother. The end for MIB (Flocke) is clear: he wants to leave the island and “go home.” But what is home to a disembodied spirit? Heaven? Hell? Nothingness? So what game are the brothers playing? There are two choices: backgammon or its forerunner, Senet (which we will see them play in later episodes).

A lesson on backgammon (wikipedia):

Backgammon playing pieces are known variously as checkers, draughts, counters,  stones, men, pawns, discs, or chips.

The objective is to remove (bear off) all of one's own checkers from the board before one's opponent can do the same. The checkers are scattered at first and may be blocked or hit by the opponent. As the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points.

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. The points are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. Players begin with two checkers on their 24-point, three checkers on their 8-point, and five checkers each on their 13-point and their 6-point. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1-point.

Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the midpoint.

To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using both the numbers shown. If the players roll the same number, they must roll again as the first move can not be a doublet. Both dice must land completely flat on the right hand side of the game board. The players then alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.

After rolling the dice players must, if possible, move their checkers according to the number of pips shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (notated as "6-3"), that player must move one checker six points forward, and another or the same checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5-5 that player may move up to four separate checkers forward five spaces each. For any roll, if a player can move both dice, that player is compelled to do so. If players cannot move either die in a roll, given the position of their checkers, then that turn is over and the turn passes to the opponent. If either one die or the other but not both can be moved, the higher must be used. When removing checkers from the board ("bearing off"), the exact roll must be used unless a die is greater than any checker can use to bear off; in that case the die is played by taking a checker from the highest-numbered point off the board. If one die is unable to be moved, but such a move is made possible by the moving of the other die, that move is compulsory.

In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker, or "blot". In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously.

Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home board. A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.
When all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them; this is called bearing off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on. A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.

 For example if a player rolls a 6 and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point, though 2 checkers remain on the 5-point, then the 6 and the 5 must be used to bear off the 2 checkers from the 5-point. When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means 'the full value of the higher die' is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly 1 checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker 1 place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that checker off the 5-point using the die roll of 6; this is sometimes useful tactically.

If one player has not borne off any checkers by the time that player's opponent has borne off all fifteen, then the player has lost a gammon, which counts for double a normal loss. If the losing player has not borne off any checkers and still has checkers on the bar or in the opponent's home board, then the player has lost a backgammon, which counts for triple a normal loss.

To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is usually used. The doubling cube is not a die to be rolled but rather a marker, in the form of a cube with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 inscribed on its sides, denoting the current stake. At the start of each game, the doubling cube is placed on the bar with the number 64 showing; the cube is then said to be "centered, on 1". When the cube is centered, the player about to roll may propose that the game be played for twice the current stakes. His opponent must either accept ("take") the doubled stakes or resign ("drop") the game immediately. If the opponent takes, the cube, now showing the doubled stake, is moved to the opponent's side of the board. This is done to indicate that the right to re-double belongs exclusively to the player who last accepted a double. Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is placed on his side of the board with the corresponding power of two facing upward. If the opponent drops the doubled stakes, he loses the game at the current value of the doubling cube. For instance, if the cube showed the number 2 and a player wanted to redouble the stakes to put it at 4, the opponent choosing to drop the redouble would lose two, or twice the original stake.

The game is rarely redoubled beyond four times the original stake, but there is no limit on the number of redoubles. Although 64 is the highest number depicted on the doubling cube, the stakes may rise to 128, 256, and so on. In money games, a player is often permitted to "beaver" when offered the cube, doubling the value of the game again, while retaining possession of the cube.

A variant of the doubling cube "beaver" is the "raccoon." Players who doubled their opponent, seeing the opponent beaver the cube, may in turn then double the stakes once again ("raccoon") as part of that cube phase before any dice are rolled. The opponent retains the doubling cube. E.g. White doubles Black to 2 points, Black accepts then beavers the cube to 4 points; White, confident of a win, raccoons the cube to 8 points, whilst Black retains the cube. Such a move adds greatly to the risk of having to face the doubling cube coming back at 8 times its original value when first doubling the opponent (offered at 2 points, counter offered at 16 points) should the luck of the dice change.
Some players may opt to invoke The Murphy rule or the "automatic double rule." If both opponents roll the same opening number, the doubling cube is incremented on each occasion yet remains in the middle of the board, available to either player. The Murphy rule may be invoked with a maximum number of automatic doubles allowed and that limit is agreed to prior to a game or match commencing. When a player decides to double the opponent, the value is then a double of whatever face value is shown (e.g. if two automatic doubles have occurred putting the cube up to 4, the first in-game double will be for 8 points). The Murphy rule is not an official rule in backgammon and is rarely, if ever, seen in use at officially sanctioned tournaments.

The Jacoby rule, named after Oswald Jacoby, allows gammons and backgammons to count for their respective double and triple values only if the cube has already been offered and accepted. This encourages a player with a large lead to double, possibly ending the game, rather than to play it to conclusion hoping for a gammon or backgammon. The Jacoby rule is widely used in money play but is not used in match play.

An ancient version of backgammon board game in Egypt was called SENET.

Senet is one of the oldest known board games in the world. It has been found in burial sites of Egypt around 3500 BC. It was one of the most popular games of Egypt. Senet  had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth and Osiris. Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife and the game is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead.

The Senet gameboard is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten. A Senet board has two sets of pawns (at least five of each and, in some sets, more, as well as shorter games with fewer). The actual rules of the game are a topic of some debate, although historians have made educated guesses. Senet historians Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell have each proposed their own sets of rules to play the game. These rules have been adopted by different companies which make Senet sets for sale today.
Senet is an Egyptian race game and may be the ancestor of our modern backgammon. We know of this game through ancient Egyption boards that have survived to this day. More than 40 have been discovered, some in very good condition with pawns, sticks or knucklebones still intact. The oldest known representation of Senet is in a painting from the tomb of Hesy (Third Dynasty circa 2686-2613 BCE).

The game board is composed of 30 squares: 3 rows of 10 squares each. If we number each square, the board can be represented like this:

 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

The path of the pawns probably followed a reversed S across the board.

Squares 26 to 30 have symbols on them. We will represent them in order by X, O, III, II and I. It seems that the square with an X, carrying the sign nfr, was beneficial, whereas the one with an O, associated with water, had a negative meaning. Square 15, also called the "square of Rebirth," might have been the starting square.

Other elements found with the game boards were pawns. The Hesy painting shows a game with seven pawns for each player. Then, some time after 1600 - 1500 BCE, the players were represented with seven or five pawns. Some games have even been found with ten pawns per player.

The movement of pawns was probably decided by the throw of four, two-sided sticks (as depicted in the Hesy painting) or, later, knucklebones might have been used to determine the moves.

What was the function of Senet? A game or something more? In his book, Lhôte notices that the first pictures show two human players whereas later the human player is depicted alone with an invisible opponent. It appears that Senet began as a simple game and later acquired a symbolic, ritual function.
Of course, the original rules of Senet are not known. No record of the rules on papyrus or tomb wall has ever been discovered. It is very difficult to reconstruct the game through the pieces and the tomb images.

A summary of Timothy Kendall's work on the reconstruction of the rules of Senet :

At the beginning of the game the seven pawns per player alternate along the 14 first squares. The starting square is counted as the 15th. In the oldest games this square featured an ankh, a "life" symbol. The pawns move according to the throw of four sticks or, later, one or two knucklebones. When using the sticks the points seemed to have been counted from 1 to 5: 1 point for each side without a mark and 5 points if the four marked sides were present together.

        When a pawn reached a square already occupied by an opponent pawn, they have to exchange their positions.

        The special squares have the following effects on play:

    15 : House of Rebirth, starting square and the return square for the pawns reaching square number 27.
    26 : House of Happiness, a mandatory square for all the pawns.
    27: House of Water, a square that can be reached by the pawns located on squares 28 to 30 which moved back when their throws did not allow them to exit the board. They have to restart from square 15.
    28 : House of the Three Truths, a pawn may only leave when a 3 is thrown.
    29 : House of the Re-Atoum, a pawn may only leave when a 2 is thrown.

        The winner is the first to move all of their pawns off the board.

Another version of the rules was proposed by RC Bell.

Each player has 10 pawns. Four two-sided sticks (one side painted) are thrown to determine movement.

When only one painted side is visible : 1 point.
With two : 2 points.
With three : 3 points.
With four : 4 points.
With none : 5 points.

        At the beginning of the game there are no pawns on the board.

        Each player in turn throws the sticks, and puts his pawns on the board on the squares with the symbols I, II, III, X, O according to the number of points thrown. Only one pawn may be present on each square. So if a pawn is already present the turn is lost.

        A player may either move one pawn or add a new pawn to the board, if possible, with each throw. The pawns located on the marked squares are in shelters.

        Pawns may not be stacked. When a pawn arrives on a square already occupied by an opponent pawn, the opponent is removed and must restart from the beginning. This rule does not apply for the marked squares which are shelters.

        The first pawn to reach square number 1 earns a bonus of five points and it fixes the goal of the game: that player's other pawns have to reach odd squares whereas the opponent must reach the even squares. The game ends when the pawns of the two players are alternately placed on the first and second rows.

        When a pawn has reached its last square, it cannot be attacked.
        The first player to have put all his pawns on his own squares wins the game and earns 10 points. He also gets one point for each move his opponent makes while placing all of his remaining pawns.

Senet is played in a LOST the episode in Season Six called “Across the Sea.”  It depicts the origins of the characters of  Jacob and his brother, MIB, and how they came to be on the island. It also reveals the identities of the corpses discovered in the cave in "House of the Rising Sun".

The backgammon game, referenced by Locke to Walt early in the show, as a struggle between black and white is reference to Jacob and MIB. And the roll of the dice (in some gambling parlance “bones”) moves men around the board. The basic doubling numbers include the Numbers 4, 8, 16, which correspond to Locke, Reyes and Sayid.

Other candidate numbers for the doubling cube (with names lined through meaning dead or taken out of the game):

2 - Lacombe, probably from Rousseau’s expedition
32- Rutherford, probably Shannon
64- Goldstein, unknown
128- Paddock, unknown
256- unknown

The other unlined or “live” game pieces are Reyes (8) Sawyer (15), Sayid (16), Jack (23), Jin (42), Kate (51). Sayid is infected and should be crossed off like Claire (313). Kate was crossed off by Jacob because “she was a mother” caring for Aaron, but on her return she could have been reinstated - - - possibly unknown to MIB who does not think she can kill him anymore - - - which is a fatal assumption (Jacob’s loophole, perhaps).

It could be as simple as the entire island game is merely a game of senet in the Underworld against Osiris's evil brother, Seth! If you win, your ba-spirit will attain immortality, as well as the ability to "go forth by day" and to take on any shape you desire. If you lose, your spirit will be swallowed up by Ammit, the Devourer-of-the-Dead. The 815 survivors and any other person brought to the island are the “game pieces” for this contest. Jacob and MIB must "claim" or "recruit" the people as their game pieces, and in a twist, must have the other brother kill off, or take off the island (board) the other person's people in order to win the contest. Example, infected Sayid (MIB's piece) will come to kill Dogen (a Jacob piece).


However, there is a twist to this gamesmanship. There may be another set of players than the basic brothers.

The "game" may be more complex if the goal is control of the island itself. It does seem at this junction, Jacob and MIB each have 5 living pawns, just like in a real game of Senet. However, it appears that each piece must square off against another one, to take out like in chess or checkers. Claire told Jin that if Kate took Aaron, she would kill her. Sayid will tangle with Dogen. Sawyer once sought revenge against Jack for Juliet's death. So each chip aligns with another one as the final clash is about to begin.  The wild card is Eloise. She is the outside variable, pulling the strings on Widmore and his men; she "recruited" Desmond to go to the island to stay there forever (so as not to awaken in the sideways dream world).

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Lighthouse where the names on the mirror gear magically opens a window into the lives of a person.

The Temple’s magic “healing” spring that first kills, then brings Sayid back to life.


Last lines in episodes:

EP 105:

SAYID: What happened?

EP 106:

JIN: Claire?

EP 107:

SAWYER: Hell yes.

EP 108:
CLAIRE: That's not John. This is my friend.

[Malevolent smile from Locke. Claire smiles at Jin.]


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Point One:

In a pseudo-scientific explanation of the Dogen analysis could follow the pattern of a supernatural staph infection:

Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected. Healthy people can be colonized and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others.

>>>> This is what could have happened to the 815ers. Once they were "brought" to the Island, they have been in contact with the Island bacteria and "colonized."

Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people.

>>>> More proof that you are safe unless you have an open portal for the Island bacteria to invade a body. Prime example: Sayid's gunshot wound in the belly.

A weakened individual can have the bacteria grow into a serious infection. The bacteria could be immune from antibiotics as over time the germs find a resistance to the drugs. Also, germ mutations can form making current antibiotics ineffective.

Using this foundational knowledge, we can transfer it to a sci-fi plane of existence:
Smokey can have the pattern of a mutant Island bacteria colony. It can infect human bodies when they are in a weakened state, such as just before death. Example, during the freighter fire-fight, Claire's cabin was blown up, and she came back to life in a groggy state (just like Sayid at the Temple). Dogen claims that Claire is like Sayid, infected by the darkness that will spread to their heart, obliterating that person as you would know them (like Flocke). Whether this Smokey bacteria can be a parasite and use dead bodies like Christian as a reanimated host is unclear. There may be two different minute cellular organisms at work.

The bacteria can only take hold with a weakened individual. In an Island sense, that may mean an individual whose mental or moral state has been weakened to a state of collapse and abandonment of hope. Sayid's conversation to Hurley at the van was a good example: Sayid was resigned to his fate because knew his time was up, and he knew he was going to hell ("an unpleasant place"). But little did he know, he would have a second chance on the Island to become a different kind of monster.
I think that since the Island is a spiritual place, elements such as free will and faith have more power than in a material world. A person who is in a weakened spiritual state would be in greater danger of being infected by then consumed by the dark side.

It would show that Jacob and MIB have a parasitic relationship with any humans or human souls brought to the island. Whether these souls bring life force, nourishment or entertainment is unclear.


Point Two:

Is Lost merely a game of revenge?

MIB, Jacob’s dead brother, was trapped by the island’s Life Force to continue to live on as smoke monster after Jacob violated “his mother’s rule” by killing his brother for killing Crazy Mother.

For some, both Jacob and his brother died when their Roman ship wrecked on the island. But, if their spirits (conscious) separated and were reincarnated by the powers of the Crazy Mother, then they would be living on the island as isolated children.

So to pass the time as an immortal being trapped on the island, MIB plots for a way to kill his brother. His brother, bored by the isolation of the guardianship of the Life Force, “brings” people to the island to play a game of chess-checkers-Senet with MIB. MIB complains that the game always ends the same: the people come, become corrupt and die (lose).

The goal of MIB is simple: his spirit wants to leave the island “and go home.” That may be a symbolic metaphor for leaving the island and move on in the after life. But so long as Jacob is alive, MIB is trapped with him on the island because Jacob will not leave because he made a promise to Crazy Mother to protect the island. That is why MIB deeply wants to kill Jacob; it is the only means for him to finish dying and to go home.

Throughout the centuries, MIB cannot kill Jacob himself. He needs a proxy, a substitute, a patsy, to do the actual deed. He finds an emotionally fragile and defeated Ben to do his dirty work. Ben knifes Jacob, and then MIB burns the body so he cannot come back to life (reincarnated by the life force). Now, MIB believes he is free to leave the island by
manipulating the remaining humans into getting the Ajira jet to take off.

It seems like a Rube Goldberg story line to get MIB in the position that he can leave the island by a round-about way of getting Locke to kill himself, have his body return to the island so he can reincarnate it, to have Ben believe dead Alex and do everything that Flocke tells him, to recruit crazed 815ers like Claire and Sayid to do his bidding and wage war against themselves, all to gain some form of mortality to leave his island prison.

How can a smoke monster, a shape shifter, turn mortal? That is not explained.
How can Jacob, an immortal being, be killed? That is not fully explained.
For if Jacob broke the “rule” in killing MIB in the first place, MIB is not his “brother” per se so why didn’t the smoke monster kill Jacob on the beach?
If Jacob is immortal, then why would he want or need candidates to replace himself?

Jacob death = mortality/human form for MIB
Locke death and return = vessel for MIB to take a human form
Jacob is only person who can “bring” people to the island.
Flocke instructs Alpert to tell time travel Locke to die to bring back 815ers.


Jacob & MIB “born” on island.
Jacob & MIB raised by Crazy Mother on island; her rules.
MIB decides to leave island and CM objects and kills survivors.
MIB gets mad and kills CM.
Jacob gets mad and kills MIB, throwing his body into the light cave to create smoke monster.
Jacob and MIB have a truce and reinstate rules about killing each other.
However, they devise a game of revenge to kill each off by using substitutes.
Jacob can bring people to the island for MIB to judge or recruit to try to kill Jacob.
Jacob counters by turning the Others into a cult like worship group.
MIB can take human souls and reincarnate dead bodies as vessels.
If MIB gets someone to “kill” Jacob, MIB “wins” mortality and an opportunity to leave its island prison.
If MIB gets mortality, Jacob’s substitute(s) can “kill” MIB forever.

But does that leave Jacob as ghost on the island?
Or if MIB mortally dies, their spirits both “let go” of the island and move on together? How?

If the plane crash caused death, but the dead's consciousness may live on (like in near death experience). A human conscious may be independent; it has no element of time or space - - - it takes personality, memory and emotions and goes to some unknown place (an island re-creation world) to play out the lost human life experiences until they awaken or they eventually die.

So the 815 survivors are actually in a sideways world #1, which upon their actual deaths
creates sideways world #2, a purgatory holding area, until the spirits in SW#1 “awaken” and “let go.”

Jacob and his brother may have been going through this same complex sideways world “life” until they found a way to kill off their faux lives. It brings into doubt whether the 815 survivors, Dharma or the Others are actual people, but spiritual recreations of the living consciousness of dead or dying people.

Whether the island rounds up the collective conscious of dead human souls to appease the island gods is unknown, but when the Lost game ends, there are still pieces are left on the board at the end of the game.

Why? Is it like chess, where once the king is captured or destroyed, the game ends?
Or in backgammon, when you take all your pieces off the board, you win?

If consciousness is an independent entity from the brain and human biologic life,
some consider it a “portal” to another dimension (after life, spirit world, etc.) So why do some consciousness leave forever, while other consciousness is trapped as a whisper on the island (Michael, others)?

Rose and Bernard apparently never leave the island. And what about Cindy and the children, Emma and Zach? In the End, the Others are in chaos, leaderless and torn a part by the smoke monster’s wrath. Do they go on in a feral existence for all time? And Hurley “shutting down” the island with Ben makes no sense either because the island itself is greater than one human being. How can Hurley change the life force and EM power of the island and take it away from Widmore, who also was left behind on the island?

The pure game explanation is “the” ending for the series, but who won? Jacob and MIB are gone.They do not appear in the sideways world.  The survivors whom Frank pilots out are returning to what? Nothing. Flocke told Sawyer that John Locke was the only person to “get it,” that all of the characters had nothing but miserable petty lives back home, which is not the sideways world because that is a soul fantasy world according to Christian.

And then, people who are aware of their own demise in the sideways world (Eloise, and later Ben) are allowed to stay in that fantasy purgatory and not forced to move on. That seems odd, that one can control their own spiritual progression.

Point Three:

The question becomes whether Jacob and MIB are actually two souls in their own sideways world, being trapped on the island because they died in their mother’s womb during her shipwreck. They need to somehow move on together, but for some reason Jacob is too scared to leave with MIB. So a complex game is devised in order for MIB to at least have a chance to go home, to rest in the after life.

In the same token, it is possible that the 815 characters sideways world is not the first fantasy soul land. The island may be sideways world number one and the sideways world being number two. As stated in earlier posts, it is possible that every major character on the island has a back story of being killed when they were a young child, and as such, their souls may have been given a chance to “experience” a life in the island realm. That may explain why Christian tells Jack in the church that these people present were the most important people in his life, a “life” which technically lasted less than four years in island linear time. So one conclusion could be that the island is a “life force nursery” for dead children’s souls.

the Lighthouse is a portal to find children; a spyglass to "touch" or claim children's souls by Jacob. He is told of manipulating all events in a person's life in order to get them to the island, seemingly by free choice. So every weird coincidence to get everyone on Flight 815 was done by Jacob's hand? So all the playing pieces are Jacob's at the beginning; only to be "corrupted" by MIB and killed off.

It is more probable that the island visitors are young dead children given a chance to "experience" a life. Sideways Jack does not remember his appendectomy at age 7 or 8; on the island, he has one. Which is real? If the Lighthouse is fixated on his house where he lived at age 7 or 8, is that when Jack died as a result of a school yard beating? That the island time and backstories are merely sideways world view number one and the Season 6 sideways world is after life realm number two.

If the island was created by the imagination of two still born children (Jacob and MIB) infused by the island (in the form of Crazy Mother) and its "life force" power (which must include the ability to give life and to take it away), who learn about their lost humanity by bringing other dead souls to their "play ground," that could be a simple explanation of the entire series.