16 Days Of Lost – Jacob & His Adversary

Welcome to day two of my 16 Days Of Lost feature. Today, I’ll be covering the elusive Jacob, and his even more elusive adversary, who’ll I’ll be referring to as “MIB” (man in black) throughout this article.

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…

16 Days Of Lost - Jacob & His Adversary, 8.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings

Filed under: TV & Film by Tom Case
Tags: abc, lost, season6