Cut from the same cloth

I have been thinking about this for a while and tonight’s episode pretty much sealed the deal for me. Apologies if anyone has talked about this before. I’m sure it should have been discussed by now because to me it is logical but alternatively no one might have discussed it because I could be totally off on the wrong track! 😛

As long as Jacob or any of his candidates are alive – MIB is “alive”.

MIB wants to go home – home is not home as we know it. It either is after-death, hell, another dimension, another planet? Or even into his original body, as we know that Jacob took it. Whatever it is, it is not anywhere on earth, in this time, or normal in any sense of the word “home” and whatever it is – MIB needs to have the state he is currently in to cease to exist (calling it “dying” as it’s easier). And I don’t necessarily mean his “Locke” state, I just think that his consciousness has been stuck on the island this whole time and that’s what is trying to leave.

I don’t think MIB can die, be killed, or can kill himself. This is a part of the “rules”.

As long as Jacob was alive – MIB couldn’t die. As long as Jacob kept bringing people to the island to try and prove his point to MIB – there was always a risk of Jacob dying if MIB was to find his loophole. Jacob realised this when Richard tried to kill him. To circumvent this, Jacob chose candidates for his own replacement in the event of his death.

As a part of the rules, MIB couldn’t kill Jacob or his replacements. The final candidates couldn’t kill themselves or die as the result of anything BUT the candidates can die if another candidate kills them.

This is why the final 6 were chosen, because Jacob had faith that this was THE combination of people that would not purposely kill each other, but had the power to kill each other. The power to kill each other was required if one of the candidates got infected. It’s kinda nice knowing though that they didn’t kill Sayid, and essentially he got to redeem himself by his final act.

This is why Sayid didn’t die back in the temple and why Dogen kept asking how he was shot. Jack took responsibility for Sayid’s shooting. But it was actually Roger that shot Sayid. If Jack was actually the person that shot Sayid – he would have died. As strange as this is going to sound, I think Jack’s “belief” that he got Sayid shot was so strong, that this is why Sayid was near-death and actually died for a little while. This “effect” (Jack’s “belief”) did not last, being that it wasn’t actually Jack that shot Sayid, and why Sayid eventually came back to life.

Jack was right, if Sawyer left the bomb alone, by some freak of nature – they would have survived (well, at least the candidates). Sawyer’s action of pulling out the wires, killed Sun and Jin. ;(

MIB tells Claire that they’re not all dead yet after the sub sinks – not because he can feel/sense them and just “knows”, it’s because he is still on the island, not dead. He is still alive, well, and mighty pissed.

I think that Jacob, MIB and the candidates are more than just connected, they are a part of each other. Bullets fly off MIB because there are candidates running around alive and well and keeping him alive. The cork is the island, MIB was the wine and the bottle was Jacob and the candidates (I am aware that someone else posted that once so totally not stealing your idea, so a shout-out to you whoever it was!).

Jacob had candidates, MIB had recruits. I think recruits also fall under a “rules” system like the candidates do, not necessarily all or the same rules. Notice that it was Ben that killed Locke, and stabbed Jacob? Ben and Locke were recruits of MIB. Just as the candidates can kill each other, I think the recruits can kill each other too. This is how Ben was able to kill Locke. I don’t think Locke would have died any other way, he had to be killed either by a recruit or a candidate as he was chosen by both MIB and Jacob for their “teams”.

I was thinking about the the significance of MIB cutting/ripping off the piece of rug in Jacob’s statue and wiping his knife clean of blood after Jacob died. Cutting the rug (“cloth”) symbolised a “score” for MIB. Jacob was hoping that he was wrong about Ben, but unfortunately for him, he was right. In Ben committing this deed, he is cut from the same cloth as everyone else that came, fought, destroyed, corrupted. John Locke was also another point on the board, the moment that he manipulated Sawyer into killing his father.

I suspect that MIB killed his own father, but that is pure speculation based on what I mentioned above. My guess is that he never redeemed himself and he had no interest in ever doing so, this is why Jacob has kept him around for so long.

In regards to what I mentioned earlier about being a part of each other, I think Jacob/the candidates became “one” or a unit at some point, and I think that Jacob is “tidally locked” to MIB. I got this idea from a book by Roger Zelazny (posted this in a theory a while back) called “Jack of Shadows”. I was attracted to the idea of this story based on the plot summary in Wikipedia (go read it, the similiarities to Lost is kinda crazy), and it happened to mention tidal locking. I read a few definitions of tidal locking and applying it to Jacob and MIB the way that Zelazny applied it to his story – one side is always in light, one side is always in darkness, but they are two sides of the same entity. Jacob made the candidates a part of him, making them a part of MIB. This is why I mentioned earlier that I think they are all a part of each other, and MIB requires this entity to crumble within in order for him to “leave”.

I think I will stop here as it’s really late and there is no real structure to what I wrote above – I just wanted to get it out there while I still had all my jumbled thoughts fresh in my mind! Apologies for not un-jumbling it for you, but I hope it makes enough sense.

RIP Sayid, Sun and Jin *sigh* ;(