The good thing is that it doesn’t costar Lindsay Lohan… the bad news is that it does not costar Jodie Foster. Damn she was funny in that movie.
But wait, what do I mean? How could Lost be a Freaky Friday remix? Well, we know that in Freaky Friday (the 1976 version) a mother and daughter switched places because they make a wish to switch bodies for just one day. I find it interesting that we found out that Jacob seems to be able to grant wishes by touching them, last night giving Ricardo the gift to live forever. This got me thinking about my old theory.
It was shortly after The Incident, Part 1 and 2 that I remarked in the comments on John Cabrera’s Blog (in this post) under the name Pauline. saying:
“Still not abandoning my Switcheroo Theory (that is my official theory name cause it sounds very Scooby Doo-esque), because I feel like it would be a very Stephen King style thing to happen and I know how much the writers love him.”
I’m not sure when I formulated this theory that somehow Jacob and the Man In Black had switched places somewhere down the line. I think it was when we first got more of a glimpse of Jacob and began to wonder who his character was based on from mythology or history. I started looking at Jacob and Esau where Jacob steals his older brother’s birthright. Then I started looking at the Aztec Gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca (the god with the smoking mirror.) Tez at a certain point, tricks Qetz, using his magic mirror, to think that he has become the hideous shapeshifter Tez. Could this have happened to the MIB?
After this episode my theory was revived! We had MIB telling Ricardo that he was in fact dead and they were in hell. That Jacob was the devil and to escape hell he had to kill the devil. I took this as less truthy and more an way to frame the situation in a way that Richard could understand. But then, something I found most interesting, MIB says, “The devil betrayed me. He took my body.” As soon as I heard this it was as if the needle on the record player screeched across the record and then all was still. I had to pause my recording and collect myself before I could return to the very special Richard episode.
I have to say that all the stuff about the island being a cork to hell and sh*t… I don’t know. For some reason I’m never able to accept the things that this show tells me. I feel like last night we being told a story of the island in a context that a Catholic man from 1867 would understand. Do I think that Jacob or MIB is the devil? No. Do I think that the island is corking Hell? Not so much. But I do think there is something that the smoke monster is guarding (perhaps a huge mass of electromagnetic energy that if set into the atmosphere could knock the earth off it’s axis and cause total destruction?) and that something cataclysmic could happen if the island got in the wrong hands.
But in the context of mythology… lets talk about the smoke monster, shall we? This monster has been referred to as the Cerebus as seen on the Blast Map Door. Cerebus was the three headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades. Hades was split into two regions and is the area closest the surface and known as Erebus the home of primordial darkness (a darkness Jakey described last night so eloquently while swinging around a jug of wine) which the dead have to pass shortly after they have died. Cerebus’ job was to kill living people who tried to enter and allow the dead to drift pass so they could cross the river Styx. (I wouldn’t mind crossing that river if it is true that on the other side there exists the original line-up of the band STYX playing all their original tunes for eternity.)
Okay, so… We know that Jacob is the “protector of the island” and we’ve heard the smoke monster referred to as a security system charged with guarding the Temple (as told by Robert of the French Science Expedition). But what do these two things have to do with the other?
It is my belief that Jacob, as protector of the island, was once in smoke form and could shapeshift. But mainly it was his job to do exactly what we see Smokey do know, run around and kill people on the island and let others live or something like that. And this leads me to my theory on what happened.
Sometime, back in the history of the island, Jacob got tired of being in this state, which appears to be a man who when angered or threatened turns into a monster and beats the crap out of people, much like Dr. Bruce Banner. And I’m sure after this happened a few times in front of the people he let live, he was less able to manipulate people, which is something we know he quite likes. Or maybe he just didn’t want to be a monster anymore… Like how Vampires nowadays want to be human again? Who knows?
But I digress…
When the Man in Black arrived on the island I believe he could have been some kind of religious man… or at least he was a hella cool dude. Perhaps he came with the people who built the statues and/or the temple? These people of course were pulled to the island by Jacob, whom at this time, was getting his security on cruising around the island as the smoke monster since he was protector of the island and that was his job: keeping it safe from wine drinkers or cork poppers or what-have-you. But like I said above, Jakey had gotten bored with his job as island muscle and wanted to be more a part of the world. But how could he possibly do that if he was continually turning into smoke? I mean, I think we all saw how hard it was to live in the world for The Hulk. I’m sure it was just as hard to explain turning to angry smoke as it was turing into a Green Lou Ferrigno shaped giant. I also think that in order for Jacob to frolic about the planet on his off island adventures, he needed someone to take his place as guard, like an assistant manager or Dwight Schrute: Assistant to the Manager.
You remember what Jake offered Dogen, right? In exchange for Jacob restoring the life of his son, Dogen had to come to the Island to work for him and never see his son again. Agreeing, Dogen came to the island with only a baseball to remind him of his son.
Here is my big proposal:
Jacob approached the man we know as The MIB, who was in some kind of crisis and offerend him a similar faustian deal. When the man in black agreed to the deal, like Dogen did centuries later, The MIB took up his job on the island as temple master and had become the protector of the sacred water there. They must have known that it had curative properties or something. (We did see him bringing Richard water when he free’d him from his chains.) But perhaps there was more to their deal or a part that the MIB didn’t understand and soon after he took his post Jacob was able to switch places with MIB, permanently chaining him to the island as this smoke monster, taking over Jacob’s watchdog job. This of course would enable Jacob all the time in the world to go on trips off island and manipulate people to the island so he can get his kicks testing people and his free will theory.
I also propose that like Dogen, MIB had only one reminder of whatever it was that he gave up… perhaps a white rock the object that Jacob seemed to taunt him with throughout this episode.
After the switch… just like MIB is permanently inside of FLocke now and can’t get out, Jacob was firmly in the body he chose to be in after the change… perhaps someone he’d just killed on the island just before the swapping of job duties? So, when he dies, he dies dead. I’m still not sure why FLocke couldn’t die after being stabbed? Maybe the Smoke Monster can’t be killed? Maybe Jacob didn’t want to be THAT immortal? I’m not entirely certain of all of the details but I stand firmly behind my assertion that the two at one point in their history swapped places in some fashion and what we see now is MIB finally figuring out how to free himself. Maybe he knew how to do it from the moment Jacob handed him the jug of wine, smashing it and leaving only the jughead?
Some side notes about how “Good” people believe Jacob is… Jesus like and crap. So, he explains to Ricardo that he believes people, regardless of what they did in their past, are capable to make good decisions when challenged and that he just sits back and lets them use their free will to redeem themselves not guiding them at all. But THEN, he tells Ricardo that maybe Ricardo could be the one to intervene for him… WTF? What happened to free will, Buster!? He is acting more like a creepy cult leader than either Olympian God or the big guy up there of the Christians. He likes to toy in human affairs in cruel and unusual ways, not to mention Gas a group of people becuse they like the watchdog better than him. As Cerebus, he wasn’t able to really get in there and torture people for long amounts of time, it was just a quick get the job done kind of position. As the big three headed smoke dog, he had a calling to run around the island bashing people to death… As a magic man he’d have to ability to turn the strong and beautiful singer of Heart into a Mama defying woman who lived in sin… Shame on you Jacob!
Okay… on that note… END THEORY
Oh! But wait a minute. In mythology, Cerebus lets dead people pass right by him but kills living people? And we were told last night that Ricardo was dead and Jack was dead… they all were dead? And mythological Cerebus only kills living people? Though, Ricardo still has his 1867 belief system running so there is that. And Lindelof and Cuse said that the castaways weren’t dead!. They said that this wasn’t purgatory. Must be a red herring again. But still… why does Smokey let some live while killing others?
Oh… and lets talk about water shall we? As I mentioned before, MIB brings water to Ricardo. At the same time, he asks Ricardo to go and kill Jacob. I think it is important that MIB told Ricardo the SAME thing while handing him the knife that Dogen told Sayid when he asked him to go and kill FLocke. Dogen had been the guardian of the temple and in charge of the water. Just like I suspect MIB had once been. Perhaps he was able to tell the people in the temple how to kill Jacob and referred to him as being a bad guy but then as time went on people mistook Smokey as the bad guy?
Also, did the people in the temple witness the aftermath of one of their own, the Man in Black IE, their Temple Master, becoming the smoke monster, capable of killing others and that is how the notion of this sickness came about?
And while I’m wondering things… Jacob says to Richard that only those whom he invites in can go inside his foot statue. What the frap is in there? An entertainment system and DVD’s of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7?
I think that is all I’ve got for now. I hoped you enjoyed this, my craziest of Lost theories. It has been with me the longest and holds a special place in my heart.
Oh… and props to John who was insistent that Richard was a slave and that the Black Rock destroyed the statue. He proved me wrong… and to quote Dr. Houseman from Dirty Dancing, “When Im’ wrong, I say I’m wrong.” Nice work J!
I have errands and a meeting… photos will come later! 🙂
Holy Crap! I forgot to add… Nestor Carbonell is a god among men and watching his character’s story last night was the best hour of Lost that ever was. He was brilliant. Even if his crazy eyes did get a little CRAZY!
My Crazy Lost Theory 