Who is Jacob? We're getting closer...

Who is Jacob? Message boards are all abuzz because of the following screen capture - what Hurley saw when he peered into Jacob's cabin:

Complete with suit and tie, that looks a lot like one Mr. Christian Shephard, Jack's dad. Let's all remember that while he's confirmed dead - hm, that's the title of next week's episode - his body is completely unaccounted for. His coffin was on Flight 815, Jack saw visions of him on the island way back when the show first started, and then Jack found his coffin - without the body inside it.

Since Lost's writers love the biblical references, I should remind everyone that in the Old Testament, Jacob fathered twelve sons, the youngest of whom was named (pause for dramatic effect) Benjamin. He's also a direct ancestor of Aaron, Moses' brother. I don't have to remind you that on the show, Christian is Aaron's grandfather.

Then there's Lost: Missing Pieces, the series of two-minute "mobisodes" on the official Lost site that are supposed to "fill in the blanks" of things that happened on the show. The final, thirteenth episode has plenty of bearing on our discussion here:

The problem with the Christian-as-Jacob theory is that last year, I can't find a reference, but I'm fairly certain showrunners Lindelof and Cuse said that the role of Jacob hadn't actually been cast yet. That was after we see the first brief silhouette of him in "The Man Behind the Curtain":

When I originally saw that, I thought it looked like Locke, and there were some tricky things with time travel going on. Now, it looks like it could be Christian. Or, just to throw a monkey wrench into things, there could be this explanation: the guy in the rocking chair in the Season 4 premiere was Christian Shepherd, but wasn't Jacob. Jacob was the man who popped up in the window, scaring the crap out of Hurley. Initially, I thought that was Locke, since Locke then shows up a minute later, but it's too unclear to tell. If anyone can shed any light on the situation, let me know.

What do I think? I think ghosts exist on Lost. I think that's why Charlie showed up in Hurley's flashforward (which wasn't a hallucination since Hurley's friend saw him first) and I think that's why Jack saw his dad in the beginning of the series. Jacob is sort of the Head Ghost, if you will, or hey, better yet, maybe all of those ghosts are Jacob. In the same way the Smoke Monster made Eko's brother appear, Jacob can appear in whatever form he wants. Jacob is the lord of the island, and the Smoke Monster, the "security system," is essentially his pet.

Finally, it's worth noting that whoever Jacob was, Hurley saw him. Locke's encounter with Jacob last season was enough to prove to Ben that Locke needed to die. if someone else was capable of seeing and hearing Jacob, then that person was a threat to Ben's authority, and needed to be gotten rid of. Hurley saw him sitting there without even trying.

screencaps source

TAGS: Season4 Premiere Jacob
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