LOST in tranlsation (2)

[I wrote this a few weeks back but never posted. I hope to try to get one more post vefore the season starts next week. Then we'll have all NEW stuff to talk about.]


welcome back friends.
My mind has been twisting and turning trying to grab a hold of the ideas floating around in my head. The more i try to piece together what is happening the more I realize I have forgotten a lot of details from the show. None-the-less I finished rewatching the Incident and will try to recap some of the interesting elements.

In my last post I focused on The Enemy. I will do so again, here. There really aren't many scenes in the Incident with John Locke. The final one, I think, being the most revealing. In that final scene we learn that the John Locke we've been watching since his return to the island is actually The Enemy "in disguise"! wwWWWHHHHAAAAAAaaaa!!!!? I know, right? I haven't gone back to watch the whole rest of the season to really find out the earlier implications of that, but looking at THIS episode with that info in mind is interesting. Locke(as I still refer to him even though it's now NOT him) spends time talking to Ben. He works his way into Ben's mind and convinces him to kill Jacob. We know this is because, as The Enemy, he can't do it himself. In the final scene Jacob knows he is talking to The Enemy and admits that he must have found his "loophole". Indeed he did. The Enemy says that he's been through a lot to get to this point. This has great impact on previous things we thought we knew. I will discuss that in a minute. First, Here are some other things we learn in this episode:
-Ben has never seen Jacob before. Ben was only pretending to talk to him in the Cabin.
-Richard would bring lists and instructions to Ben, from Jacob.
-There can only be one leader on the Island at a time.
-Richard has never met Ilana before.
-Jacob went to visit Ilana off the island, asking for her help. (as if she already knew him)
-Ilana goes to the cabin to find Jacob. There, she claims he hasn't used it for a long time and someone else has been there in his place.

so what does all that mean. Although we are definitely missing some details it basically means that The Enemy has been running a very elaborate and deceptive scheme (or con) on the Losties. He's been manipulating them into position in order to seize physical control of the Leader (Locke) without raising suspicion from those around him. It was the true Locke that left the Island and the True Locke that thought he had to die in order to get everyone back to the island. But remember that it was Impostor Locke who told True Locke he had to die (through communication with Richard Alpert) as he was jumping thru time. Phew! this is confusing. So questions this raises...
-Does Richard even know of The Enemies existence? or power?
After all, Richard questions the ability for someone to come back from the dead, but had he
known fully of the enemy you think he would have called "shenanigans".
-Is Ilana (and Bram) a former Islander who was brought there by Jacob and that was sent back to the "real world" by Jacob, unknown to Richard. Are they returning to fight for their master Jacob?

So here's a possible breakdown of the history of the island.

-Jacob and The Enemy are on the island. (as well as a possible indigenous people that worship them as gods)
-They are caught in some unknown dilemma where they can't kill each other and are fighting over control of the island (let's say)
- Starting a long long long time ago, Jacob constantly brings people to the island (The Black Rock) in hopes of proving The Enemy wrong.
-It never goes right. the people are incapable of doing whatever it is Jacob is trying to prove and they fight and die (or the enemy kills them)
-This happens over and over again throughout time.
-In the mean time The Enemy is trying to find a loophole to this problem as well as working on his recruiting ability.
-The Enemy creates (or recruits) the Smoke monster and uses it as his minion. Capturing souls and taking their form.
-Jacob lives in the cabin.
-One day Jacob manages to trap The Enemy in his own cabin.
-Jacob secures The Enemy in there with a ring of volcanic ash. ( I believe The Enemy is somehow linked to the briefly mentioned volcanic eruption that happened on the Island a long time ago. Perhaps that was his release from a previous capture)
-Jacob moves out of the cabin and takes residence at the bottom of the four-toed statue.
-Richard Alpert shows up and is put in charge of Jacobs people and they act as the forces of good. Richard is a liaison between Jacob and each new leader. As a "tribe" they are working towards Jacobs goal.-Former leaders Charles Widmore and Eliose Hawking are both, in turn, forced to give up their command as Leader.
-There is no immediate leader to replace them.
-The DHARMA people manage to find the island on their own accord.
-Jacob is not happy with this, but they manage to negotiate a truce.
-Ben is appointed acting leader after the hostile attack on the DHARMA camp.
-Ben only pretends to be able to know what Jacob wants. He is likely being manipulated by The Enemy.
-Jacob begins to recruit the Losties to the Island.
-due to the time travel The Enemy knows what the future holds and sees his opportunity to manipulate the Losties as they first come onto the island the first time.
-The Enemy weaves an elaborate scheme to convince those Jacob wanted on the Island, to leave the island...and then to return with John Locke's then dead body.
-This allows the enemy to take over Locke's identity without the suspicion of others.
-This allows the Enemy direct access to Jacob so he can finally kill him.

this isn't a completely accurate timeline. there are still many questions. Like if Jacob lives under the statue then why does Ben ever go to the cabin? Did he just find it and coincidentally and thought it would be a good place to stage his lies. Did the Enemy lead him there so he could manipulate him to bring potential Leaders there.?
I think there may be something like that happening. But time will tell.


I'm not going to say much else here, except that at the end of the episode when Jacob is stabbed he says. "they're coming". The Enemy gets kind of a worried look on his face and kicks Jacob into the fire. Whoever THEY are, I don't think it's something The Enemy necessarily wanted to happen.
THEY may mean the outside world at large, or perhaps someone else seeking control of the island. In either case I think the Enemy probably just wanted control of the Island himself and thought killing Jacob would do the trick and that would be the end of it. So now we could possibly see a three way way between Richard Alpert and his crew fighting The Enemy as well as the new threat that is "coming". Intense.

Next time I want to try to take a brief look at the flashbacks where Jacob visited our Losties and see if there is a stronger connection to those people's destiny other than just ending up on the Island