Jacob’s Cabin.
This is an excellent theory on Jacob/Esau’s cabin. If you are so inclined to read theories on plots of TV Shows while they are on hiatus. It’s the at the top of the page and at the top of the thread.
LOST Recap/Theories.
So we’re finally starting to see all the good vs. evil, white vs. black, light vs. darkness that Locke and Walt used to talk about in the very first season when they were playing backgammon. We saw it in the very scene of the finale with Jacob wearing all white talking to someone (Esau) wearing all black.
So as point of note, the Egyptian statue where Jacob lives is Sobek. As the all wise Wiki says,
“Sobek’s ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part.”
So if Jacob represents/is Sobek, that brings up an interesting question to who he was talking to in the first scene of the finale. Esau? To get even more interesting, Seth (Egyptian god) was always set against Sobek in classic Egyptian mythology and was originally seen as the god of darkness and chaos.
Sounds like we have a nice little juxtaposition going on between Jacob and his not so friendly nemesis. And it looks like that the opening scene of the finale gives us plenty of context for laying out the history of the island and the framework for which to build the last and final season of the show off of.
Whether the island serves as some type of perennial Garden of Eden, I think it DOES show that Jacob and Esau (that’s what I’ll call him for now) have been locked in a very long battle/debate about the nature of good and evil. Jacob keeps “nudging” people to the island in hopes of something (I’m still not exactly sure . . . to protect it, to hand over power to?) while Esau believes that humanity is ultimately corrupt and unable to take over the power on the island. This was his whole comment about how they continue to fight and war with each other and will never be able to get past that. Or more than likely, Esau just wants sole power on the island and wants to be in charge ala the whole Lucifer/God narrative where Lucifer attempts a coup to overthrow God.
Perhaps he then goes out and thwarts their attempts. I think Jacob is a sort of guardian of the island. I think there is still someone who we have yet to meet (maybe never will) but who left Jacob in charge of the island and Esau can’t go against him despite wanting to (perhaps playing off the whole birthright of Jacob and Esau). Thus finding a loophole via the tension storyline surrounding Ben Linus and John Locke. Esau manipulates Ben through a long series of circumstances in their relationship to eventually have a certain level of guilt/obligation to do what Locke asks of him. So when Locke (Esau possessing Locke’s body) ask’s Ben to kill Jacob for him since he can’t do it, Ben very kindly obliges him.
However, mark my words, Jacob was fully aware that this was going to happen. This did not blindside him nor did it surprise him when these 2 showed up. At the same time Esau was manipulating and plotting his master plan to exploit the loophole, Jacob was counter planning. I think this is why he originally “nudged” the original Losties in life was because he knew they would one day be here. When he is dieing and says “They are on their way” I think he is referring to the Losties flashing forward back to their present time.
Side Note: I do not think that when they detonated the hydrogen bomb that it through them back to LAX before their plane trip like they were planning. More on this later.
Now a couple of loose ends . . . the smoke monster, the ash and cabin, Richard, Walt, and the Others and Illana and the group with Locke’s casket.
Let’s start with the Others. I think the Others, a la Widmore (I don’t think Widmore classifies as an Other anymore), Eloise, Ben, (and more than likely Illana and the Locke’s casket group) and all those that Richard has been “shepherding” throughout the history of the island are a part of a much larger group spread throughout the world that are a part of a “tribe”. I want go so far as to say religious group or cult. But they are a part of a tribe that lives for the values of Jacob and answers to him. This is evident by them all speaking Latin (Juliet, Riccardos/Richard, Illana, Jacob, etc) and as evidenced by the time Juliet and Jack got “branded” when they disobeyed the “tribe” way back during the Ben’s cancer surgery fiasco.
Illana and the casket carrying group are a part of a group with allegiances to Jacob. I think this exchange here between Miles and Bram gives some context for the larger battle going on. The Others/Jacob’s group is scattered across the real world and not just on the island. They ask “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” as a way of identifying other members and they respond in Latin. This is how they know to ask for Ricardus/Richard. They are on the same team. I think Richard originally arrived on the Black Rock freighter (which I think is the same boat that we see in the opening scene of the finale) as Jacob and Esau chat. And is a type of guardian/shepherd for the island. Perhaps Jacob gave him some type of endless life or has prevented him from aging. My guess is that Richard is on the “good team” and made some kind of deal with Jacob.
As for the smoke monster. I’m undecided as to whether this is Esau’s pet, a manifestation of Esau’s spirit, or perhaps the neutral middle “deity” between Jacob and Esau. And a manifestation of whoever is “over them”. I think for whatever reason (we’ll find out in Season 6) that Esau was the one that was in the cabin. And not Jacob who we always assumed was there. This is why we see Christian Shepherd in the cabin. Because Esau was possessing his body in the same that he was possessing Locke’s body. So Esau was trapped in the cabin and the ash around the cabin was a way to keep him locked in. But someone let him out. Someone moved the ash. This to me is an intriguing question. It doesn’t make much sense for Jacob to do it, but yet I can’t explain why a piece of his tapestry would be pinned to the wall with the knife that he was using to fillet the fish (a red herring btw)? This almost makes me think that Alpert may have switched sides and let him out. But I think that is highly unlikely. A better theory would be that Esau has people on the island as well or people who have come to the island who are on his side. Or perhaps someone like Charles Widmore (no longer an Other) made a pact with Esau (sold his soul to the devil) and helped Esau escape. Or even John Locke did it.
This would support my theory that Locke was going to go take this evil direction from almost the beginning with his conversations with Walt. So Locke has almost always been Esau’s puppet. This is why Esau (we thought it was Jacob) whispered to Locke in the cabin to “help me”. Ben thought what they were seeing was Jacob, but in fact it was Esau in the cabin trapped. And he reached out to Locke to help him escape, to be freed.
As a side note I think Esau can possess the bodies of dead people. But I think all of the people who are just dead who appear off island or on island are manifestations of Jacob. Or are just truly spirits. When we see Libby, Charley, and all the other people that Hurley sees, they are indeed good guys and not Esau possessing them. Thus, I think it was Walt that Jacob was using to get Locke out of the mass grave after Ben shot him on the way home from the cabin. When an older Walt appeared, it was Jacob’s way of reminding Locke that he still had a choice. That he still could choose. Which is the same talk he gave Ben when he showed up to kill him in the finale, which btw I think will play a big role in Ben’s future reversal in helping to defeat Esau, ala Snape and Voldemort for all you Harry Potter people. He’ll look back to his conversation with Jacob about choosing and he will have another opportunity to choose.
Finally (for now) . . . Walt. I think Walt has always been the symbol of good and/or Jacob’s ace in the hole trump card. Locke has always been Esau’s trump card for the loophole. But Walt is Jacob’s. The writers have always professed their love of Stephen King’s The Stand. In The Stand, there is a main character on the side of good, Mother Abigail, and a main character on the side of evil, Randall Flagg. Flagg was a white dude and Mother Abigail was an older black woman. I know that’s a small thought and a bit of a leap. But I think from the very first season Walt and Locke were discussing these good vs. evil themes that are going to play into the last season.
Mark my words, we have not seen the last of Walt. We have not seen the last of Claire either. I think she is going to be the one who helps expose Esau for what he is later on. And I do think there is a war coming. Between Locke, Widmore, & Esau and Jacob, the Losties, and maybe Ben if he can sort his shit out.
Kind of long and random. But just unpacking my thoughts. Enjoy. Add to. Take away. Refute. Expound.
Yours truly. Josh Brown.
Our Apple Stock Hard At Work.
Pergect Night.
It’s been a perfect night. Anna made a delicious pot of tortilla soup. I worked in the garden thinning out cucumbers and composting grass clippings. Now I’m having a Sweetwater and listening to Robert Johnson sing the blues on vinyl and getting ready to head to our front porch. Sublime.
