MiB = Jacob’s first “disciple”

Something has been bugging me about the whole Flocke/Smoke Monster reveal to start this season and the penny dropped in the last episode with Richard’s revelation about the “gift” he received from Jacob. Apologies if this rambles a bit. It’s my first attempt to lay it out.

There seem to be 2 categories of people touched by Jacob: those like Ilana, Dogen, & Richard who made some kind of bargain with Jacob. I’m going to call these the “disciples”. The people charged with protecting the second group.

That second group has been named for us and are the “candidates” – all the Losties with names on the cave wall/lighthouse wheel, etc etc.

I think there is a third group important here with a member of one – Ben Linus. He never received a touch from Jacob. In fact, he never met him at all. I think this is why he was targeted by the MiB as the one to kill Jacob and this explains Jacob’s reaction to him right before he stabbed him (Ben:”What about me?! Jacob(sadly):”What about you?) as well as the emotions. Miles revealed last episode (Miles:”Right up until the end he was hoping he was wrong about you”)

Given the above, I think the MiB is actually Jacob’s first disciple, rather than some kind of nemesis on equal footing. Based on some of his comments, he likely made a bargain similar to Dogen’s and then down through hundreds of years became disillusioned just as Richard has.

Given THAT proposal, the MiB is following one of 2 paths. Either it is exactly as it seems: he is attempting to break the rules of Jacob/the Island and get out of his deal OR this is all a grand theater which is part of Jacob’s ultimate plan and the MiB is advancing his agenda as a disciple to find Jacob’s replacement.

I’m not 100% settled on which I think is right, but there are some things that lead me towards the latter:

– Jacob’s alert to Flocke that “They’re coming” as Flock gloated over him – even repeating it when Flocke didn’t hear it the first time.
– Jacob doesn’t seem particularly hampered by his death
– There’s something disjointed about the Flocke/Smoke Monster appearances. We never actually see the transformation – The very first one was completely dubious – Flocke ducks behind a column and then the Monster comes down from the temple entrance. Last episode Ben hears the noises then sees Flocke. The creators of the show seem to be going out of their way to show the Monster in close proximity to Flocke, but leave a plausible avenue that they are not one and the same.

I realize this means a lot of theater on the part of the characters (the scene with Flocke chasing the child with the bloody arms just for the benefit of Sawyer springs to mind).

What do people think about this? Are there any things that I’ve missed that make this implausible?