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.

JACOB AND THE MONSTER

In the pivot final scene of S5, Flocke (Fake Locke or Dead Locke) 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.