I’m still trying to digest the finale. Aren’t we all? Before I really dig deep into it, I wanted to go back and look at the opening scene of last week’s double episode, as I think there is a lot of information that can be gleaned from it.
The scene in question, of course, is the one between Jacob and Jacob’s as-of-yet-unnamed enemy, watching the Black Rock heading toward the island. The scene was cryptic, as only Lost can be, but I do think there are some things worth discussing.
The one passage that really interested me the most between Jacob and his buddy was the following in reference to Jacob bringing the Black Rock to the island:
“They come, fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.” – Jacob’s enemy
“But it only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.” – Jacob
It would seem that Jacob is speaking of some sort of predestined event, this “end.” I have to believe that this is the endgame of the whole show. What, exactly, will be ending is still a big question, however. Is it the end of the island? The end of the world? The end of fighting, and evil in the world? Time will tell.
What’s clear is that Jacob and his enemy seem to have very different beliefs about this issue. It seems that Jacob is naturally optimistic, believing in the honest, good nature of man. His enemy believes the opposite. He may not be wrong, either, as we have seen his prediction come true: people coming to the island, fighting, corrupting, participating in shenanigans of all types. We saw it with the Dharma Initiative, and we saw it with the Oceanic folks. Heck, we’ve even seen it already with the people from Ajira 316.
It would seem that some sort of cycle of events continues to occur on the island, or at least that’s my best guess. I think the end game will see the characters we have gotten to know so well end this cycle somehow. Rewatching the finale, I wonder if Jacob’s death is somehow key to the ending of these events. He certainly didn’t fight for his life very hard. I think he was even goading Ben a little bit into killing him, basically telling him that he wasn’t special at all. (“What about you?”). Perhaps Jacob knew that he had to die in order to change the outcome of things on the island.
As for the nature of Jacob and his friend, it would appear that they are slightly more than human, perhaps even deities. As I see it, they represent opposite ways of thought. It might be good and evil, though I hope not. I think those ideas are simplistic and too absolute. I would like to think that it is more of a yin and yang relationship, the light and the dark (as not so subtly illustrated by their white and black shirts). How that will play into the story moving forward, I’m not so sure.
What is clear is that the final season will be focusing on “destiny.” It’s only nine months, away right? That will come sooner than we think… right? Right???
Clacked by Bob Degon
on May 18, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
I saw someone mention that the fish Jacob was cooking up in the first scene was a red herring. Hmmmm…?
Maybe the island is sort of like Mount Olympyus. And Jacob and fake Locke are the two remaining rival Gods fighting for control of it. Jacob maybe wants to use it as a Garden of Eden like place and fake Locke wants the humans out.
*POST AUTHOR*
I really like this idea, particularly the garden of eden idea. It definitely seems like Jacob wants people there and his enemy does not.
Interesting thoughts about the true nature of Jacob and His Enemy. Maybe it’s the way I process things, but I do not find Jacob to be a benevolent being. As for his Enemy, I guess we’ll see. Who knows, perhaps Jack and Sawyer are the new Jacob and Enemy in the next cycle, destined to duke it out for the next thousand years….
I look forward to maybe some flash backs of that ship and it’s crew showing up on the island.
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks. Jack and Sawyer is an interesting thought, though I think Ben and Widmore is more likely, as they seem to be duking it out already.
But Ben is not important enough – and neither Ben nor Widmore are good looking enough to be island deities. ;)
*POST AUTHOR*
A point, I admit, that I did not consider.
A theory (which I reserve the right to be wrong about):
The arrival of the Black Rock was an event similar to that of the arrival of Oceanic 815. The crew from the ship became stranded on the island and found themselves embroiled in a struggle for survival that either ended very badly for all of them or, more or less, concluded with what remained of them becoming part of the group we know as the Others (which may or may not have existed prior to even the arrival of the Black Rock).
Perhaps, Richard was part of the crew of the Black Rock and for whatever reason Jacob found him worthy enough to imbue with immortality and appoint adviser to those who were deemed worthy of remaining on the island.
I’m not sure yet that Jacob is definitely dead and gone (never to return in any form). In which case, maybe the cycle hasn’t really been broken.
When the show ends maybe the events we’ve seen will just have been another iteration of the cycle, with some progress having been made but not enough to resolve whatever it is that Jacob wishes to achieve.
The crash survivors may end up being inducted into the Others and we might see one of them become a “new Richard” (assuming something happens to Richard next season) and be a new, non-aging adviser/overseer on the island awaiting the arrival of new people to be “tested” (maybe that’s what Jack was “meant to do”; or Hurley, and maybe Jacob was foreshadowing that by calling him blessed).
Again, I reserve the right to be wrong about all this :-).
Another thought: If Jacob is truely dead does that mean Richard will lose his immortality. Will he wither away like Sark did on Heroes (I know thats his name on Alias and not Heroes) after he lost his powers?
The scene between Jacob and his adversary reminds me of the Book of Job (the part where Satan and God talk about whether Job will turn evil if he faces suffering).
Regarding Ben killing Jacob – the Judas and Jesus imagery seemed pretty obvious to me, but I haven’t seen anyone else mention this. I don’t know what Jacob is, but the Christ-figure imagery is pervasive. In the gospels, Jesus is more than once portrayed as cooking fish for breakfast on the beach (e.g. John 21:1-14). Richard says the Latin phrase meaning “the one who will save us all” (sounds like a messiah). Jacob demonstrates the power to heal and even bring the dead back to life (like Jesus). Jacob is betrayed by a former follower (Ben) who was led to do it by Jacob’s Adversary (in the guise of Locke) – compare that to Jesus being betrayed by Judas, who is described in the gospels as being led by Satan to do it. Finally, Jacob allows himself to be killed without fighting back – almost as if it was his purpose to die – much the same as Jesus. I’m certainly not equating Jacob with Jesus – I’m just saying that I noticed a lot of obvious imagery, and yet I haven’t seen it mentioned on any discussion boards. But I think the parallels are strong enough that it’s worth pointing out for the sake of discussion.
I also think that the idea of perpetual struggle between good and evil is behind this. It’ll be interesting to see if the final revelation will satisfy most of the fans.
I just saw Kevin Pollack’s Chat Show with Matthew Perry and Perry said that “Lost” is the best entertainment on TV he ever saw – in his whole life. I think sometimes we lose focus when we try to dissect this show. We get unsatisfied, angry with what happens and it’s the same with me. I thought that the finale didn’t reveal anything new and was disappointed, but then again I have to remind myself that Lost is the best show that ever happened to grace my TV screen. I remember the feeling I had in Season 1 when I thought that THIS show is just like a new Movie every week – and I don’t mean a TV movie. I mean a cinema movie you’d pay 10 bucks to see (or 5 bucks because it’s only 40 minutes long) every week. That it grasps you almost every time, that when an episode is over you almost always are totally excited and even if it’s anger you are still questioning things up until a week later and that it fills your everyday thoughts so much that the weeks fly by when it airs.
Still I now need to stop thinking about this show and I hope you won’t post that much more about Lost here in the next coming months because I’m easing into this withdrawal I get every year when the finale aired and I’m trying really hard to not think about this anymore because I usually end up angry.
On top of that the last time when I was so involved in this even after the finale I started talking to my friends about it and they hadn’t seen the finale yet (being german and all you know – we get the show 6 months later earliest) and really spoiled their experience. I almost called all developments from season 4 to 5 (nobody believed me when I said Jin wasn’t dead *snicker*) and people kept coming up to me pissed every time a new episode aired on german TV.
Still a great show. Reminds me of the struggle between the machines and humans in “The Matrix”. I myself don’t think that Jakob is the good side. That would be too easy.