'Lost': Getting to the core of the Island's power

Deep stuff, Ryan. I like it.

Trying to decipher the role of Jacob, the Man in Black, and the Island itself leads me to think about just what the Island "is", and why these two entities not only fight each other over it but use it as the chessboard to conduct their endless game.

I think the problem is, they are stuck in a repeating cycle; whether they choose to live on the Island or are forced to by cir***stances, the fact remains that they decided to use it as their staging ground, and their "players" come to the Island by either man's will. The players meet, fight, corrupt, gain enlightenment or die and then the whole process begins again, because neither side can admit defeat. Jacob won't stop bringing in new players to prove the Man in Black wrong anymore than the Man in Black will admit that there's potential for good in everyone and that Jacob is perhaps right.

So it's only by finding a loophole that the cycle can be broken; the Man in Black thinks he has found that loophole by becoming Locke and murdering his foe, but Jacob's still-unknown countermove will either perpetuate the cycle yet again OR it will be an even bigger break than the Man in Black presented.

So what's this have to do with the Island? Well, it's debatable whether the Island is truly sentient to some degree (though the Others seem to think it's possibly true). If anything, the Island is a living, breathing organism in the same way a plant is; it functions, but probably doesn't have intelligence. However, it has power in spades, and that power is what allows Jacob and MiB to do what they want. Yet I think that same power is what is going to cause their endless cycle to finally be broken, the most recent example of this being the release of the electromagnetism potentially catapulting the Oceanic 6 + Sawyer & Miles forward in time and space.

To paraphrase from Freud, sometimes a cave in is just a cave in, and sometimes an island is just an island. It's obvious that there are tunnels in parts of the Island which date back to ancient Egyptian civilizations. The electromagnetic anomaly found when Dharma dug to create the Swan station could also be from that time or even further back then that. We know that there is power in the Island and that Jacob and his adversary appear to be fighting over it. We know there's something we call a smoke monster which makes click clacking sounds like a subway train or a roller coaster track. Many people want to ***ume this is magic. They want the Island itself to be some kind of powerful sentient being that is controlling everything. What makes more sense is that the Island is just an Island, and that the manipulations have been done by humanoid entities. I think Jacob & Blackie are temporal anomalies, and everything that's happened is because of their tinkering with other people's destinies for their own twisted ends. The Island doesn't have to be sentient for any of this to have happened.

I gotta say, Ryan, it takes a lot of guts to jettison 5 years of theory based on a single episode (even one like "The Incident", which is growing on me with repeated viewings). There's been a lot written (both by you and us) of the "balance" that the Island is supposedly seeking, between good and evil, faith and science, PC and Mac...

If Jacob and MiB are individuals, or creations of the humans inhabiting the Island, then the balance theory is gone, and we are left with the archetypical good/evil struggle, with evil appearing to be on the verge of winning, and the good cavalry swooping in at the end to save the day ("they're coming..."). A cl***ic theme, to be sure, but one that could use a twist that the "balance" theory could provide. I see two ways they can get there from here...

1. Both Jacob and MiB could be incarnations of different aspects of a single entity, be it the Island or humanity as a whole, with the ultimate outcome that neither can fully defeat the other, but must strike a balance to make "progress" towards an ideal stste (a Buddhist parable, perhaps?).

2. The show may avoid the good v. evil dichotomy altogether, by focusing on the "fate" v. "free will" argument. Jacob has already shown some morally ambiguous aspects (just ask Nadia); maybe we will see some "good" aspects in MiB as well. The final question would be whether humanity is capable of finding its own way forward, without the interference of higher beings - kind of a moral SAT exam to graduate!

I love these kind of in-depth posts, Ryan - bet you don't see these type of comments on your "Japanese Game Show" recaps!!

I'd say the word "jettison" is a bit strong. I'd say "adjust." Ignoring elements as they appear in the mystery seems sort of foolhearty, no? For years we've heard, especially from Locke's lips, about what the "Island" wants. In "The Incident," we see Locke as a pawn in TMiB's long con and Jacob literally touching various major players in the show's universe. How can that NOT alter how we look at the Island in and of itself as a major player?

Part of analyzing a show like this for me is 1) incorporating new elements to reshape one's view of the show as a whole, and 2) admitting when things you once believed no longer hold water. I usually don't mind having old theories debunked, as long as the previous view held water given the information at that time. Read pre-Season 4 entries here when I started here: they are borderline hysterical in terms of how wrong I was. Who cares? Not me. They were worth reading at the time, hopefully as much as my current entries are worth reading now.

I'm as guilty as any as holding onto personal favorite theories long past their expiration date, but I'd be remiss if I didn't take into account every available aspect of canon-related material in looking at the show as a whole as it heads into the final season.

I have ***erted before that there is a higher being controlling or overseeing both Jacob and MIB. As Benjamin Freakin' Linus put it, "everyone answers to someone." That higher power may be God or, as Ryan is making me believe, The Island, itself.

Both Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse have both said that the greatest mystery of the show comes from Charlie's line in the very first episode: "Where are we?". So I think that the island still plays a very important role in the end-game of the series.

"Mythical archetypes often portray the forces of evil trying to possess an unlimited source of power, while the forces for good seek to either destroy said source or render it inert."

Then, considering this notion, you could actually make a case for the MIB, since he seems to be trying to protect the Island. That would certainly turn the tables on the so called "Light side" that Jacob seems to be responsible for. Wouldn't you say so?

Since I don't think the Man in Black cares about the Island, I wouldn't say so. He just wants Jacob to keeping beating what he feels to be a dead horse. But I see what you're getting at.

I think that you have made an excellent point about achetypes of evil attempting to exploit a power source for their own aggrandizement, amusement, etc - because, if you look at the game that Jacob has been (seemingly for quite a long time) perpetuating, then it is Jacob who is currently exploiting the island and its properties for his own amusement and means - and at quite an expense to the players. He tells Locke when he revives him after his fall from the window something along the lines of "I'm sorry this is happening to you," but we see a lot of terrible things happen to a lot of seemingly innocent people - Jacob does not appear so terribly sorry that he is willing to stop bringing these people to play his game.

I keep wondering, as I believe you posit here, if the island isn't a victim of two beings who have been exploiting its properties but also using those same properties like a dangled carrot before a group of humans. As much as I want to believe that the island is not helpless and that it can call players to act on its own behalf, it would seem more like the island is akin to a tree that has been engulfed by a Strangler Fig. I think I am disturbed by this notion because I don't like to imagine any helpless victim.

I think you are introducing a really excellent point about the archetypes of evil as an entity seeking to exploit a power for its own amusement or aggrandizement and good as the entity seeking to halt the exploitation.

If you view our players with these archetypes in mind, then it is Jacob who appears to be exploiting the island and its particular properties for his own amusement. If he and the Man in Black have been trying to settle their argument with the island as their rat maze, it is Jacob who commits the actual act of harvesting subjects and subjecting them to extreme cir***stances for his own anthropological curiosity. He and the Man in Black appear to use the island's special properties like a carrot dangled before their players - offering it as the same enticement that it apparently was to Jacob and the MIB when they began exploiting the island for their game. Jacob and the Man in Black are watching their pawns play out their own crime. This is a truly intriguing idea. When I think of Jacob reviving John after his fall from the window, he says to him something like "I'm sorry you have to go through this," but Jacob does not appear so very sorry as to prevent it. We have watched 5-years-worth of ghastly and sad events happen to players on all sides of this war, and Jacob is not so dreadfully "sorry" as to quit bringing players into his dog fighting ring.

I don't like to think of the island as a hapless victim to the whims of Jacob and the MIB. I want to believe that the island is able to call players, champions, to its own defense, but it does begin to look like the island is more akin to a jungle tree that has been engulfed by a Strangler Fig. I think this is right, but I find this uncomfortable. I don't like to think of anything as a helpless victim.

The only archetype we are missing at this point is "good." Who will actually cut Jacob and the MIB from their source of power and amusement. Is this the choice that must be made - for all sides to work in unison to stop Jacob and MIB? I include the MIB in the blame because even if this is a game he has wearied of, he still was there for the beginning. Because the MIB appears bored or exasperated does not excuse his having set the field for the game.

I'm sorry if this is twice posted. I typed something akin to this, but when it posted - it never appeared. I have had to recreate my thoughts from memory. Hope it's not a double.