What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue? - part 1

What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue - part 1

After five years of speculation we were finally introduced to the island’s coveted Jacob. But who is Jacob? Or what is Jacob? He seems like a pretty simple man. He obviously admires Rumpelstiltskin as we first see him weaving his own thread and looming a gigantic Egyptian tapestry. As Jacob is casually going about his day on the beach we quickly learn that he is not the lone inhabitant of the 1800s version of the island. A man who remains nameless approaches Jacob to take in the sight of the Black Rock heading towards the island. Since he has not been given a name thus far, we will affectionately refer to as The Man in Black (TMIB). TMIB strolls out of the jungle and takes a seat on a rock near the shore. It becomes obvious to us that these two men are in a bit of a disagreement as they banter back and forth ending with TMIB stating that “They come, they fight, they destroy, and they corrupt. It always ends the same.” To this sentiment Jacob replies by saying, “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.” They only thing that we can deduct from this conversation is that these two men are debating the innate level of goodness in the human race. TMIB seems to think that humans are evil while Jacob is in the process of proving that there is good within the heart of man. This leads us to believe that even though these men are of human form, they are not necessarily human and as we learn more about them, this becomes a fairly obvious fact. TMIB closes this conversation by telling Jacob that he wants to kill him and that someday he will find a loophole that will allow him to do so.

Other Occurrences of Jacob…

As the episode continues we learn more about Jacob and what he has been up to since we last saw him guiding the Black Rock to shore. I’m going to display these chronologically in time, not necessarily as they were seen on the show. For our first occurrence of “Off-Island Jacob” we see a young James Ford (Sawyer) at the funeral of his parents in 1976. As the procession begins to take off we see Sawyer sitting on the steps of the church writing on a sheet of paper. The camera cuts and we see that he is writing his “Dear Mr. Sawyer” letter but his pen runs out of ink. Interestingly enough, Jacob approaches young Sawyer and asks him if he needs a pen. As Jacob is handing young Sawyer the pen the camera zooms in on the transaction and we see that Jacob’s finger comes in contact with young Sawyer’s and they pause one second longer than the transfer would have called for (note this). Jacob gives the kid his condolences and takes off. James’ uncle rolls over and catches him writing the letter and the producers seemed to stress this line from Uncle to James, “What’s done is done.”

We then jump ahead to 1980 and see a young Kate Austen and her childhood friend Tom Brennan as they are plotting to hoist a New Kid’s on the Block lunchbox from a convenience store. This turns out to be the same lunchbox that they use as a time capsule later in life. Kate gets caught by the store clerk who threatens to call her mother and the police when a man interrupts and says “no need to do that. I’ll pay for it. I hope this is enough.” The man, Jacob bends down and asks Kate is she is going to steal anymore and then taps her on the nose before he walks away.

Jumping ahead to somewhere in the late 90s we see Jack and Christian in the middle of surgery. Jack makes a mistake and begins to panic as he realizes that the patient may become paralyzed. At this moment we see Christian teach Jack the “Count to 5” technique to remain composed, a technique that Jack taught to Kate as she was helping sew him back up. After fixing the surgical error, Jack storms out to grab a candy bar from the vending machine. His Apollo bar (the same type of candy that the Dharma Initiative had) gets stuck in the machine and Jack’s frustration boils over as he begins to argue with his father. As Christian says, “Are you sure I’m the one that doesn’t believe in you Jack?” we hear the vending machine kick into gear again. A man sticks his head around the corner and asks Jack if one of the two Apollo bars that came out were his. As Jack claims his bar Jacob’s finger touches Jack’s, similar to the pen exchange with young Sawyer. At this point Jacob delivers another note worthy line regarding the stuck candy bar, “I guess it just needed a little push.”

Early 2000s we see the end of the wedding ceremony of Sun and Jin. We start by hearing the vows between Sun and Jin and then roll over to the reception line where we see one of Sun's Aunts come up and ask them questions regarding the future of their family and their honeymoon. Behind her we see Jacob come up and “give his blessing” to them and tells them to never take their love for granted, all in Korean. While doing this Jacob touches both of them on the arm. Interesting line here came from Jin when he commented on how Jacob’s Korean was excellent.

Again early 2000s we see Jacob sitting on a bench reading Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge ironically as John Locke comes flying out a window and into the ground behind him. Remember, Locke was pushed out the window by his deranged father causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down. As Jacob calmly strolls over to where Locke’s body landed we quickly realize that the current state of John Locke seems to be far beyond paralyzation, his body is completely lifeless as a body that had just fallen eight stories should be. Jacob bends over and touches Locke’s dead body on the shoulder which appears to breathe life back into his body. Locke opens his and eyes Jacob says to him, “I’m sorry this happened to you” and walks away.

Ahead again to 2005 we see Sayid with his wife Nadia as they are out on the town. Discussing where they might go on some sort of trip Nadia looks down into her purse as she is trying to locate her sunglasses. As they begin crossing the street a man summons Sayid back to the corner to help him with directions. Nadia continues digging in her purse and begins to cross the street. This man, Jacob, touches Sayid on the shoulder right as Nadia gets hit by a car and dies. The key line in this scene came from Nadia as she told Sayid to “take [her] home” to be buried.

In 2008 after Hurley was arrested for supposedly murdering 3 people he was acquitted and released from jail. As Hurley crawled into a cab on the corner he realized that that cab was already occupied by a man. That man, Jacob, stuck his head out and offered to share the cab with Hurley as he wasn’t going that far. Hurley soon learns that Jacob was not coming out of jail and is there to see him. Hurley thinks that Jacob is dead and a figment of his imagination again. Hurley tells Jacob that he is cursed, and to this Jacob delivers a key line in this scene. He leans over to touch Hurley on the chest and tells him that he is “blessed” and “not crazy.” Jacob tells Hurley about Ajira flight 316 and reminds him that it is his “choice and he doesn’t have to do anything that he doesn’t want to.” Jacob leaves the guitar with Hurley and dips.

Other Occurrences of TMIB…

Since his conversation at the beginning of the show with Jacob we didn’t see TMIB until the very end of the show, or so we thought…

When John Locke and Ben Linus made their way into the foot of the statue we hear Jacob say, “I see you’ve found your loophole” to Locke. After Jacob is killed we see Ilana and Bram roll up to Richard and they open the crate that they have been carrying around. Out rolls John Locke’s dead body that they claim they have found in a coffin in the plane. As our brains are pumping a mile a minute, one by one the viewers realize that the living a breathing version of John Locke is actually TMIB reincarnating Locke’s body. He has been posing as John Locke and manipulating people in order to fulfill his loophole and kill Jacob.

This post is too long already so I will break the rest of this up into daily pieces. In the coming days I will discuss possible theories regarding Jacob and TMIB and look at how this might relate to the big mystery that is behind the island and the entire show. Stay Tuned!

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