Photos
Video
RSS
Twitter'Lost': Cabin confusion comes to light, Part 2
Feeling "Lost" when it comes to the history of the cabin? You're easily forgiven. It's one of the more perplexing problems in the show. It's not up there in terms of seminal questions such as "What is the monster?" and "Bai Ling: WTF?" but it's nevertheless a question that is shrouded in acute mystery: why is this particular abode so central to the show?Yesterday, reader Heidi asked a question about the person seen peeking through the window while Hurley spotted a man we know as Christian Shephard in Season 4's first episode, "The Beginning of the End." Given Cabin Christian's role in maneuvering John Locke towards the point at which The Man in Black could assume his physical appearance, it's a pretty damn apt title in retrospect. Does that mean the Man in Black is the one peeking out of the cabin in this episode? Signs point to yes.
To me, though, it's not enough to simply say that and move on. We need to look at the cabin in the broader context of the show's history: its hopes, its dreams, its circle of ash, its ability to freakin' move to various points on the Island like a mobile home. We're led to believe that Horace Goodspeed built it at some point after the Incident and before The Purge, which gives us a 15-year window in which to guestimate its origin. But in true "Lost" fashion, we can't even trust that information.
Why? Because the dream in which Locke learned this information from Time Loop Horace wasn't sent by Jacob, but by the Man in Black. Yes, the dream led Locke to find blueprints for the cabin as advertised, but who the heck carries around blueprints for a finished cabin in their pockets? Seems a little odd, no? Given that said blueprint led Locke to an encounter with Cabin Christian, now known to be an agent of the Man in Black, we should take this prophetic dream with a silo of salt.
So does that mean Jacob has nothing to do with the cabin? Annoyingly, no. Ilana and the Order of the Statue's Shadow travel there in "The Incident," fully expecting to see their leader inside. Once there, they note that the circle of ash has been broken, and a piece of Jacob's tapestry attached via hunting knife to the wall. Ilana says that Jacob has not been there for "some time," which is like sooooo totally specific when uttered in a show that features time travel. Sigh. In any case, at one point Jacob set up shop, and then moved on up to the east side. Assuming the statue's on the east side of the Island, that is.
The fact that Ben didn't know about this move makes sense. He's never seen Jacob, and essentially is bluffing throughout "The Man Behind the Curtain" while taking Locke to see his (literally) unseen leader. I've covered this in depth already, but part of The Man in Black's master plan involves exploiting Ben's inability to see Jacob simultaneous with Locke's innate desire to serve to the Island in that episode. But what my theory never dealt with? How the Man in Black got in there in the first place.
We only have the flimsiest of evidence to suggest the following, but it's the best I have right now: at some point pre-Oceanic 815 crash, what was once a place for Jacob to feel closer to those he watched perpetually play out a human morality tale on the Island turned into the "Lost" equivalent of the Phantom Zone. Maybe living under the statue for a few millennia got old and he wanted a change of scenery. Maybe Horace meant to build the cabin but never did. On an Island in which dreams turn into physical reality, do you actually have to BUILD a cabin in order to inhabit one? Not necessarily. In any case, in the "some time" since Jacob lived there, The Man in Black was in fact trapped inside through a combination of Jacob's trickery, the circle of ash, and other events we'll see play out in Season 6.
Thus, The Man in Black is a type of Zod figure, trapped and looking for a way out, combined with a little Beetlejuice and a dash of "The Invisible Man." What I can't figure out for the LIFE of me is what Richard Alpert knew of this plan. He's theoretically an ageless Island consigliere, but Season 5 showed him generally clueless and looking like Lauren Conrad does after someone uses a word like "philology" around her. Did he know about the switcheroo? Looks like he did, in that he led NotLocke directly to the statue in Season 5. If so, why let Ben go to the cabin? If not, WHY NOT? Enquiring minds want to know. Richard's part in this makes little to no sense, which makes me sad.
In any case: the Phantom Zone Cabin trapped The Man in Black inside, either through Jacob's trickery or The Man in Black's inability to resist pressing the History Eraser button (the parallels from that clip with "Lost" are both accidentally and hysterical). What can break the ash? Turning the donkey wheel. The Phantom Zone Cabin moves because it's unstuck in time, just as those unhappy folks from the start of Season 5. The Man in Black is largely unseen because he's barely ever actually there, at least from the perspective of the person visiting it. He needs someone to turn the wheel and put his particular needle back on his particular record.
We'll get to this is greater detail when the "Light vs. Dark" series hits Season 4, but I think that's a pretty good primer for now. Your thoughts on this take? Leave 'em below!
Ryan 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 and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.
Related
10 Comments
Zap2it Twitter Talk 
Why do I think in S6 we'll see Jacob tell Horace... "if you build it they will come."
Oh, and I like the idea of the cabin being unstuck in time also, but how does that explain how it's always in a different spot or how "special" people are still able to find it?
Two things: First, I don't think Richard ever let Ben go to the cabin. I believe Ben once said he never actually went in there; Richard was the messenger for him. And the one time Ben did go in there? Well, Locke forced Ben to when he brought his father's dead body to him.
Second, I truly believe the Monster is the MIB. And we know the Monster/MIB can take different human forms. But what if the MIB can take non-human forms, too? Like Kate's black horse, Sayid's cat (both of which were from their pasts, and we know the Monster can look into people's pasts), and maybe the Virgin Mary statues. If the MIB can do this, maybe he can change into the form of.. the cabin!? Maybe there's one true cabin out there, one in which only Jacob has been in, has a circle of ash around, and stays in one location. And then the MIB/Monster can take the form of a cabin to fool people, such as Locke and Hurley. I don't think the cabin had a circle of ash around it in Beginning of the End or Cabin Fever. And that would explain its ability to move, too.
What do you think? Too crazy?
I think Richard knew that Jacob had returned to living in the statue but I do NOT think that he knew the Man in Black had escaped the cabin or that he was using it to trick Ben and Locke. Richard seemed genuinely suprised to see Locke's body roll out of that box and in that moment, that one look he gave Ilana, I think he knew what had happened and his own role in it.
I have a perspective on what the cabin really is. Going off what Ryan said above, the cabin was Jacob's way to live more "down to earth", to relate more closely to his mortal followers. I don't think it's coincidence that Jacob took to living in a log cabin after the arrival of the Black Rock during the 1800's, a time when log cabins were commonplace. But either by choice or due to lack of another adequate place to put him, Jacob left the cabin and turned it into a prison to conatin his foe, in every way imaginable.
And that gets to the heart of the matter, I think. To use a nerdy analogy, the cabin was like the plastic prison that held Magneto in the first two X-Men movies; both prisons were set up to not only physically contain the prisoners but also to block their incredible powers.
Richard "let" Ben go to the cabin in "Man Behind the Curtain" because he knew that the Man in Black would be unable to pose a threat, perhaps so powerless that he would be unable to even physically manifest himself and make contact with Ben and Locke. As Locke is leaving the cabin, MiB was so weak he could barely muster his two-word plea. Sure, things started flying around after that but it was merely theatrics and probably took the last bit of energy he had left.
But sometime after that encounter, the line of ash got broken and the Man in Black got his power back, slowly but surely. He was probably the one that moved the cabin and caused it to appear to Hurley, hoping to lure him into his plan. And then he gained enough power to create/recruit Cabin Christian, to further his plan while he himself worked on a different part of it and made preparations to posess Locke in the near future.
Of course, Jacob had some su****ion that MiB was up to something; the knife used to tack the tapestry fragment inside the cabin was the EXACT knife he was using to cut fish centuries before, so it implied he had visited the cabin to confirm that his adversary had broken out.
I also think it is for this reason he personally recruited Ilana; so that she could help him when the time came that he would be unable to help himself. She was also there to supplement Richard because Jacob knew that A) in the absence of Ben and Locke, the Others would need a leader and he wouldn't have time to recieve orders and B) Richard would eventually be in the presence of the enemy and Jacob feared giving Richard to much insight to his knowledge in the event that he would become compromised.
Ryan- If the MiB is the monster, which many pose, how is it that the monster was out-and-aboot while MiB may have been imprisoned in the cabin, ey? I don't think there's been a show that poses so many questions!!
what if the island imprisoned both mib and jacob in the cabin
Ryan--I think you should blog about Persons Unknown, new to nbc!
www.personsunknown.com
Is it that the MiB can only inhabit dead bodies on the island- Christian (his body was on Oceanic 815), Locke (whose body was on Arija), Alex, and Eko's brother (who died on the plane with the drugs)?
Dear Carlton & Co.,
You? Take? Me? To? Jin? Now?
Love,
BOTN
Could there be two cabins? I just rewatched the start of season 4, where Hurley and Locke seem to think the cabin is in two different places.
I'm not sure Ben knew anyone, either MIB or Jacob, ever lived in the cabin. Maybe he just needed a spot to try to pull his con game on Locke (pretending to talk to Jacob) and he decided to use the cabin. If Horace actually built it, Ben would know where it was from his days with the Dharma Initiative...