'Lost': The man (in black) with the plan, Part 2

Yesterday, I started my week-long look at how The Man in Black sought to slowly achieve power throughout the past five seasons of "Lost." Today, I'm going to look at his involvement in the lives of Ben and Locke, from their births through Desmond turning the failsafe key at the end of Season 2. Sound good? Good.

In the wake of Season 5's finale, it's tempting to think that Ben and Locke are two sides of the same, pathetic coin. The former titans of the "Lost" world were revealed to be sad, confused shells of men. Jacob's line, "What about you?" to Ben signaled to many that this man was as unimportant as the corpse lying a few hundred yards away next to Ilana's metal box. But I suggest we look at these two men another way: as men potentially important to Jacob but ultimately unusable, corrupted by The Man in Black.

If "Lost" made anything important in "The Incident," it's that neither Jacob nor The Man in Black can MAKE anyone do anything. They lead people to a certain point at which there is a branching path. At that crossroads, a person needs to make a decision. Being both mythology freaks and "Star Wars" fans, Darlton are combining age-old notions of good versus evil alongside the Dark and Light sides of the Force to produce moral dilemmas for its characters. The dark side is seductive not only for its power, but its ease. It's EASY to make the incorrect choice, because it usually requires less effort, feeds on fear, and appeals to man's sense of self. And let's face it: we like our own individual selves a lot. Unless we're in an emo band.

I bring all this up because rather than look at Ben and Locke as mere byproducts of The Man in Black's influence, it's important to recognize two things. One, Jacob has been aware of both men all along. Asking Ben, "What about you?" isn't a statement of Ben's unimportance so much as his unachieved potential. This unachieved potential leads to the second important point: Jacob's lack of interference in The Man in Black's plans is intentional. The fact that he's waiting for Ben to kill him points not to indifference but an understanding that human choice is paramount in this universe.

Two primary things keep Ben from being Island Leader, and both have everything to do with The Man in Black. First thing? Sayid shoots a young Ben. Doing so leads Kate to take him to Richard, who takes him to the Temple. Taking him to the Temple essentially disqualifies Ben from ever being the true leader of the Others. But that doesn't mean he was never destined to be the leader. Visions of his dead mother convince Richard that he's indeed special, but more importantly, convince The Man in Black.

So, does that mean The Man in Black was behind Ajira 316? Yes and no. A fun answer, I know, and very "Lost" of me to say. Personally, I'd love a scene in Season 6 where The Man in Black talks to an off-Island Eloise Hawking while a young Daniel Faraday plays the piano, convincing her to push Daniel into a life of mathematics and physics to find his way out of the timeloop in which he's destined to die. But with Jacob's final line, "They're coming," The Man in Black realizes that while Sayid was his man on the plane, Jacob had a few of his own as well.

But that's all for another time. We're focused on Ben for now. With Sayid's shooting, The Man in Black ensured that Ben would never have a close relationship with Jacob. But he didn't stop him from becoming the leader of the Others anyways, albeit one with a second-hand relationship with Jacob. So what to do? Give him cancer. What better way to help break the spirit of the leader of a people on an Island that heals than to give him a fatal disease? (One could make a compelling argument that Jack Shephard's arrival is PROOF that Jacob felt for Ben, itself a counterbalance to The Man in Black's influence.)

When Locke appeared on the Island, and could suddenly walk, The Man in Black realized there was a new sheriff in town, so to speak. When Locke saw the white light in "Walkabout," that cemented The Man in Black's worries. And again, I'd like to stress the following: Locke might have been a pathetic man through most of his life and during the hour of his death, but this white light would not have appeared to Locke had he not meant something to Jacob. Without The Man in Black's influence, both Ben and Locke could have grown up to be fine, well-adjusted, fair rulers of The Others. It's not a definite, but it's a possibility.

What happened? The Man in Black tempted, cajoled, and put obstacles in the way of these two that led them off the path by exploiting inherent weaknesses. As a man who felt keenly responsible for his mother's death, The Man in Black engendered a situation in which mothers died left and right around him before giving him cancer. Locke's initial distraction? The hatch. The hatch represents human corruption of the Island, and The Man in Black led him right to it. If you look back at Lock on the Island, he's supremely confident and instinctually correct when in its wilderness. But stick him in front of a computer or in a bungalow, and he was as lost as he was before coming to the Island.

One of the most delicious aspects of Season 1, in retrospect, is Locke's prophetic dream about the beechcraft coupled with the gradual loss of his legs in "Deus ex Machina." Was this Jacob's work, protecting the Island Savior? Or the Man in Black's work, protecting his future vessel? I'm leaning towards The Man in Black as the cause, but can easily see persuadable arguments pushing Jacob's involvement as well. In either case, it's questions like that which thrill me to no end, and confirm "Lost" as an extremely unique and important work of long-form storytelling.

It was of course in the hatch that Locke and Ben first came face to face. I would personally love to see, come Season 6, a flashback in which we finally learn why Ben ended up in Rousseau's trap. Did Jacob tell Richard to fetch Locke from the metallic prison of the Swan? If you believe this dialogue from "Two on the Road," courtesy of Lostpedia, the answer is yes.

Course, believing anything Ben says is probably a bad idea. In any case, Ben left without Locke, just a bloody trail of bodies. Jacob's counter? Mr. Eko, the other man of faith. He gave Eko a vision that led him and Locke to the Pearl, where the video there shook Locke's faith to his core. A harsh lesson? Absolutely, but it freed Locke from the prison of the Swan station. Unfortunately for Jacob, The Man in Black had another trap waiting for Locke and Ben. And that trap was in the cabin.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the cabin, who was really inside, and start to bring Cabin Christian into the fold.

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.