Jacob was first name dropped in season three by one of The Others (“Ben just put his life in the hands of one of them! Shephard wasn’t on Jacob’s list”) but hints were dropped to his existence in season two, with Ben referring to his leader as a “brilliant man” but not a forgiving man. Mikhail also refers to Jacob in this way. Jacob is mentioned many times throughout season three, but his existence is doubted by Locke after Ben tells him that he is the only one who speaks to Jacob and is the only one who knows where he lives. Ben is reluctantly persuaded to take Locke to see Jacob, after Locke beats Mikhail senseless to prove a point.

Ben leads Locke to a cabin in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by a circle of ash, which Ben steps over with care, but not mentioning its purpose. He advises Locke to turn off his flashlight, claiming Jacob does not like technology. Inside the cabin, Ben proceeds to have a conversation with “Jacob”, in reality, an empty chair. Locke believes either Ben is trying to trick him, or he’s genuinely deluded, and tries to leave. As Locke opens the cabin door, a low voice pleads, “Help me”.

Locke is convinced it’s another ploy by Ben, and turns on his flashlight. The cabin begins to shake violently and objects are thrown across the room by an invisible force. A figure suddenly materialises in the chair and Locke flees. Ben follows shortly after and simply says, “That was Jacob.”

The next day, Ben demands to know what Jacob said to Locke. When Locke is still in doubt over what actually happened in the cabin, Ben shoots him. Locke then tells him what Jacob said, and Ben looks panicked and walks off, leaving Locke to die.

As season four begins, Locke seems to have opened his eyes and is a believer of Jacob. Whilst Hurley strays from the group wandering in the jungle, he sees the cabin. When he peers through the window, he sees Christian Shephard sitting in the chair, as another face from inside pops up at Hurley. Hurley turns and runs but finds the cabin now in the other direction. Thinking it a hallucination, it disappears.

Locke later tries to find the cabin, but finds only the circle of ash. After the mercenaries from the freighter destroy the barracks, Locke, Ben and Hurley set off to find the cabin again, this time successful thanks to a dream that Locke has whilst lost and camped out for the night.

Locke enters the cabin alone and spies a figure in the chair. He asks, “Are you Jacob?” to which he receives a negative response. The figure is Christian Shephard, “But I can speak to his behalf.” Christian tells Locke to move the island in order to save it from the mercenary group before they initiate the mysterious “secondary protocol”.

Jacob is mentioned frequently throughout season five but it isn’t until the season finale, we actually see him in a flashback to the nineteenth century. He’s on the beach beside the statue of Tawaret, enjoying a fish when MIB arrives for a chat. He isn’t happy about the arrival of the Black Rock, asking if Jacob brought them here. MIB claims Jacob is still trying to prove him wrong, to which Jacob replies that he is wrong.

MIB: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.

MIB then proceeds to tell Jacob how bad he wants to kill him, and one day, he’ll find a loophole to do so and walks off. Throughout the season finale, flashbacks reveal how Jacob has travelled off island and visited the survivors at pivotal roles in their lives; Sawyer’s parents funeral, Jack’s botched surgery on a young girl, Locke’s eight storey fall that paralysed him, etc. An important feature of these flashbacks is touch. When communicating with each of the Losties, he touches him (noticeably, it seems to be his touch that brings Locke back to life after the fall).

Meanwhile, on island in 2007, Locke is leading The Others across the island under Richard’s guidance to meet Jacob. Locke is actually planning to kill Jacob, more specifically, planning for Ben to kill Jacob. Ben admits to Locke that he’s never seen Jacob, that the first trip to the cabin was a charade, and that he was extremely shocked when objects started flying across the room. Eventually the group reach their destination; the destroyed statue of Tawaret. Ben and Locke go inside and there’s Jacob.

Meanwhile, Ilana and the Ajira 316 survivors make contact with Richard outside, showing him Locke’s dead body in the box they’re carrying.

SUN: I don’t understand. If this is Locke…then who’s in there?

Jacob greets “Locke” with, “I see you found your loophole.” Loophole? That sounds familiar. Cast your memory back to Jacob and MIB’s conversation on the beach. Ohhhh. Hi MIB. It appears you’ve been a naughty boy and have taken over Locke’s body. You scallywag. Ben doesn’t know this, and in a selfish rage, stabs Jacob. Jacob breathes his last words, “They’re coming” and is kicked into the chamber’s fire.

So, MIB. Clearly he can take on the forms of others. That sounds familiar…Smoke Monster, anyone? Just a thought. Anyway, more importantly, and more relevant to this blog anyway; Christian Shephard in the cabin. That had to be have been MIB. He’s been there since day one, manipulating everything in the background, tweaking minor and major events in order to get the Oceanic Six back on the island with Locke’s body, so he can finally kill Jacob.

But notice how Jacob didn’t seem overly bothered about being stabbed? I suspect Jacob has been secretly working on a loophole of his own.

JACOB: They’re…coming.

Who? I think he means the Losties stuck in 1977 who are seconds away from causing The Incident, possibly realigning the split timelines, meaning Jacob may end up being very much alive after this. I hope so anyway, because after two seasons of build up, we finally see his character, only for him to be killed off major cop-out!

More to follow…

The “monster” made its first appearance on the survivor’s first night on the island, moving through the jungle cutting down trees whilst making its characteristic howls. The next day, it appears again as Jack, Kate and Charlie trek through the jungle to Oceanic 815′s cockpit where it pulls out pilot Seth Norris, mauls him, and leaves his bloodied body high up in a tree. It then proceeds to chase the survivors through the jungle, seemingly warded away from Kate by her hiding in a banyan tree, and disappears as the rainstorm stops.

Three days later, Locke encounters it in the jungle. To be honest, he really didn’t seem that bothered and was left completely unharmed. Locke later claims that he saw a bright white light and it was beautiful.

Monster activity is quiet until the first season finale, when we catch a glimpse of what it actually looks like; a small wisp of black smoke, seemingly getting larger as it grabs Locke by the leg and attempts to pull him through a hole in the ground. It only realises it’s grip when Kate throws a stick of dynamite at it, causing it to disperse.

So at the end of season one, we know fuck all really; it’s a cloud of black smoke, seemingly relative in size, and comes from the ground. Fair enough.

Smokey (as I’ll lovingly refer to it from now on) makes only one appearance in season two whilst Charlie and Eko are searching for the fallen beechcraft. Smokey appears as a small wisp of black smoke, then gradually increases in size. Charlie insists Eko run (from the safety of a tall tree) but he decides to stand his ground and stare it out. Several images of Eko’s past flash inside the smoke, and Smokey slowly retreats back into the ground.

So at the end of season two, the only new piece of information we have is that somehow Smokey “scans” people and can feed the images back to them.

Smokey’s next appearance came in season three, manifesting itself as Yemi, Eko’s deceased brother as well as several other characters from his past telling him he was being judged, before appearing as its usual black smoke form, disappearing when Locke appears. It later returns when Eko is alone, appearing as Yemi again. Yemi demands Eko confesses for his sins but Eko relents and says he is not sorry for the things he has done, as he did them to survive. Yemi responds, “You speak to me as if I were your brother” and walks off, returning as Smokey (noticeably now over 40 feet in height), before killing Eko.

Smokey appears a little while later as a manifestation of one of the island’s Medusa spiders, indirectly killing Nikki. The next day, Kate and Juliet encountered it in the middle of the jungle. Again, whilst hidden in the safety of a banyan tree, Smokey couldn’t harm them but instead hovered over them and flashed white several times before disappearing. It reappeared to the two women the next day as three small wisps of smoke, joining together to create one big cloud but was repelled by the sonic fence, splitting back into three separate wisps.

So, by the end of season three we know: Smokey is a series of, or one giant black cloud, can scan people’s memories and relay the images back to them, can manifest into different forms, and doesn’t like the sonic fence.

Smokey only makes one appearance in season four. After Keamy and his team of mercenaries attack the Barracks and kill Alex, Ben disappears into a secret room in his house and Smokey appears outside, attacking the mercenaries in a giant swirling black vortex. So apparently, Ben has the means to summon Smokey, but not necessarily control it, as he’s pretty intent on fleeing as soon as Smokey’s done with Keamy’s team.

Smokey makes frequent appearances in season five. The first is during the island’s jumps through time, attacking the French Science team in 1988, killing Nadine and then dragging Montand through the jungle into the hole at the base of the Temple wall, right after ripping off his arm. However, it doesn’t kill Montand. He seems fine to be honest, but panicking about not being able to get out. Robert, Lacombe and Brennan follow to retrieve him but only Robert survives, seemingly possessed by Smokey. He refers to Smokey not as a monster, but as a security system for the Temple. He tries to kill Danielle, but she gets the upper hand (albeit by removing the firing pin from his rifle) and kills him.

Cut to present time, 2007, when Frank and Sun arrive at the main island from the Hydra island after the Ajira 316 crash. Smokey is heard, but not seen. Until Frank and Sun meet Christian Shephard and a wisp of black smoke is seen around him. How curious…

Ben later journeys to the Temple wall in order to be judged by Smokey, after summoning it fails to work. In an ancient room full of hieroglyphics, an engraving of Smokey and the Egyptian god Anubis stood above a grate from which Smokey slowly emerges. It surrounds Ben and shows him images of his late daughter and when it appears Ben is truly sorry for letting Alex die, Smokey retreats, manifesting as Alex. “Alex” warns Ben to follow Locke’s every word, and if he doesn’t, he will be killed. When Ben agrees, the manifestation disappears.

So that’s all of Smokey’s appearances in chronological order. What do we know? Well, season five revealed Smokey is tied in to the island’s ancient past, and lives underneath the Temple wall. How about some theories?

This will tie in better when I’ve written a few more entries over the next few days, so bear with it for now. My main theory is that Smokey is linked directly to Jacob’s Adversary. Smokey can manifest into forms from people’s memories and/or from the deceased. Jacob’s Adversary can also do this. Smokey is apparently a security system for the Temple. Jacob’s Adversary certainly seems intent on protecting the island from intruders, as demonstrated when the Black Rock arrives in the 1800s.

When Ben summoned Smokey for the second time, Locke (or rather Jacob’s Adversary in his form) was “on an errand”. Very convenient, seeing as how as soon as Ben summons Smokey, Locke appears. When Smokey doesn’t appear to show up, Locke orders Ben to the Temple Wall, knowing Smokey resides there. Ben falls down a hole, Locke goes to find a rope to pull him out, Smokey appears. Smokey disappears, Locke comes back again. It’s all far too convenient, right? Maybe Smokey and Jacob’s Adversary are one and the same. Or perhaps they are very closely linked.

So what is it? A god? A spirit, or a collection of spirits? We know it pre-dates Dharma by a few thousand years, so that rules out it being an experiment by them. This is what season six really needs to clarify. We know its purpose; to protect and to judge. We know it’s ancient. We just need to know what exactly it is.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading, next entry on Jacob and his Adversary tomorrow!

First topic to come in the next few hours when I think of something I can write about in shocking detail :p