Huh. My brain asplode. Lost must be on.
I wanted to post about the finale last night, but all that came out was *flail!* and *flail!* and then more *FLAIL!*
So we now know via flashback that Jacob met with eight (and there's one of the Numbers) of the Lostaways: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Jin. Of that eight, five of those meetings (since he met Sun and Jin at the same time) were pre-Island, while his meetings with Hurley and Sayid and basically why they're back on the Island in the first place --- Hurley because Jacob persuades him, and Sayid because Nadia's death is what led him into the path of being Ben's minion and those assassinations were Ilana's excuse to get him onto the plane. (more on her later)
During each of these meetings, Jacob gives a gift or otherwise provides a service: he buys Kate the lunchbox to keep her out of trouble (and I think I owned that lunchbox. Oh the memories), he gives Sawyer the pen, he gives Jack the candy bar (and makes a cryptic comment that sometimes things just need a little push), he gives Sun & Jin advice ("Don't take your love for granted"), Hurley gets Charlie's guitar, and Locke gets freaking life (he looked very convincingly dead before Jacob intervened). Sayid is a little more ambiguous; it certainly looks like Jacob saved him from the car, but if he hadn't delayed them they both might have made it across --- she was coming back when the car hit. And then he just left; no words of comfort, not healing, nada.
I have no idea if any of this means anything, by the way.:) I just needed to unscramble it from my brain.
Now, let's get to the speculation on who or what Jacob really is --- and just as importantly, who or what Not!Locke really is (I did a full, hand-to-mouth gasp at that reveal). Jacob lives in a ruined statue of Sobek and is old enough that he predates the Black Rock (and is implied to have call it there in the first place). Does this mean he is Sobek? Sobek was a kind of violent protector god; at first he was the god of "Please don't let me get eaten by crocodiles" and later became the patron of the army and was seen as a purifier of evil. So I suppose that's possible, but at the same time we see him dealing in fate and healing. And then there's the beach conversation, where his friend pretty much tells him, "Look, you keep pulling crap like this and they're going to try to kill you" and implies that Jacob has tried pulling people to the Island before with poor results --- and that muddies things up for me, because the figure that all brings to mind isn't Egyptian at all: it reminds me of Prometheus, who gave the gift of fire to humanity and was punished dearly for it.
And then there's Not!Locke. The loophole comment links him the Jacob's friend the beach; now the easy bet would seem to be that he's Set, the scheming trickster. The other clear alternative is that he's Smokey wearing a human face; remember that since the "resurrection" Locke and Smokey have never been in the same place, and that in fact Locke was conveniently gone when Ben was being judged. Smokey has already been linked with Anubis, and just because the temple artwork showed them side by side doesn't mean they're not one and the same. Anubis was the judge of the dead who weighed your heart against a feather, and the two things Smokey has always been linked with is judgement and the dead.
And then there's who or what Ilana is. She also gets a visit, but it's clear that she knows Jacob on sight. And he doesn't give her a gift; he asks her for a favor. So here's the ting: in the myths, Set murders Osiris, dismembers him and scatters the remains. The body is gathered back together by Isis, who brings Osiris back to life and conceives Horus by him, who them goes and kicks the crap out of Set. It think it's entirely possible that Ilana is Isis, and that Jacob knew he was going to be killed. She's there to make sure he doesn't stay that way very long.
So we now know via flashback that Jacob met with eight (and there's one of the Numbers) of the Lostaways: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Jin. Of that eight, five of those meetings (since he met Sun and Jin at the same time) were pre-Island, while his meetings with Hurley and Sayid and basically why they're back on the Island in the first place --- Hurley because Jacob persuades him, and Sayid because Nadia's death is what led him into the path of being Ben's minion and those assassinations were Ilana's excuse to get him onto the plane. (more on her later)
During each of these meetings, Jacob gives a gift or otherwise provides a service: he buys Kate the lunchbox to keep her out of trouble (and I think I owned that lunchbox. Oh the memories), he gives Sawyer the pen, he gives Jack the candy bar (and makes a cryptic comment that sometimes things just need a little push), he gives Sun & Jin advice ("Don't take your love for granted"), Hurley gets Charlie's guitar, and Locke gets freaking life (he looked very convincingly dead before Jacob intervened). Sayid is a little more ambiguous; it certainly looks like Jacob saved him from the car, but if he hadn't delayed them they both might have made it across --- she was coming back when the car hit. And then he just left; no words of comfort, not healing, nada.
I have no idea if any of this means anything, by the way.:) I just needed to unscramble it from my brain.
Now, let's get to the speculation on who or what Jacob really is --- and just as importantly, who or what Not!Locke really is (I did a full, hand-to-mouth gasp at that reveal). Jacob lives in a ruined statue of Sobek and is old enough that he predates the Black Rock (and is implied to have call it there in the first place). Does this mean he is Sobek? Sobek was a kind of violent protector god; at first he was the god of "Please don't let me get eaten by crocodiles" and later became the patron of the army and was seen as a purifier of evil. So I suppose that's possible, but at the same time we see him dealing in fate and healing. And then there's the beach conversation, where his friend pretty much tells him, "Look, you keep pulling crap like this and they're going to try to kill you" and implies that Jacob has tried pulling people to the Island before with poor results --- and that muddies things up for me, because the figure that all brings to mind isn't Egyptian at all: it reminds me of Prometheus, who gave the gift of fire to humanity and was punished dearly for it.
And then there's Not!Locke. The loophole comment links him the Jacob's friend the beach; now the easy bet would seem to be that he's Set, the scheming trickster. The other clear alternative is that he's Smokey wearing a human face; remember that since the "resurrection" Locke and Smokey have never been in the same place, and that in fact Locke was conveniently gone when Ben was being judged. Smokey has already been linked with Anubis, and just because the temple artwork showed them side by side doesn't mean they're not one and the same. Anubis was the judge of the dead who weighed your heart against a feather, and the two things Smokey has always been linked with is judgement and the dead.
And then there's who or what Ilana is. She also gets a visit, but it's clear that she knows Jacob on sight. And he doesn't give her a gift; he asks her for a favor. So here's the ting: in the myths, Set murders Osiris, dismembers him and scatters the remains. The body is gathered back together by Isis, who brings Osiris back to life and conceives Horus by him, who them goes and kicks the crap out of Set. It think it's entirely possible that Ilana is Isis, and that Jacob knew he was going to be killed. She's there to make sure he doesn't stay that way very long.