Getting an invitation.
Re-watching The Incident, I noticed something. In the flashbacks, when Jacob comes to visit various Losties in their past, he gives them each an item or helps them to get that item… in each case those items are of deep symbolic importance to the character and story of each person. But what if it’s more than that? What if it’s a personal invitation to the island? I think in each case he also physically touched each person. In chronological order:
– He helps “Katey” to get the lunchbox which I think is the same lunch box she hides under the tree and puts the airplane in it. He pushed her little bunny nose.
– He gives Sawyer the pen he uses to write the death letter to Mr. Tom Sawyer, briefly touching his finger.
– He touched Sayid on the shoulder while saving his life as the car plowed into Nadia. This led him into the service of Ben and in the pursuit, back to the island.
– He visited Locke after he fell out of the window and saved his life touching him on the shoulder.
– He blessed Jin and Sun’s wedding and touched each on the arm. The gift was the reminder of how special their love was.
– After Jack almost botches the operation he gives him his Apollo bar and touches his finger.
– He taps Hugo on the shoulder in the cab trying to convince him to go back to the island. He gifts him with the guitar case. Charlies guitar case right?
Shoulder tapping specifically is associated both with Death and with an appointment to a job. It may or may not be significant that in each of these cases, Jacob touched the person with his finger tips. In Egyptian art, a hand of blessing is always shown with fingers out. Here’s King Tut getting blessed:
The Egyptian blessing hand may have been the prototype for early versions of the Hebrew letter Yod. Coincidentally, Yod (the hand of God) is the first letter of God’s name, Yahweh. I’m also showing the Arabic Hamsa, the Hand of Fatima a good luck charm supposed to ward off the Evil Eye, which is popular in Egypt to this day. From my sketchbook:
Oh yeah, and the Roman letters I and J evolved out of Iota. So the first letter of the name of the Christian God, Jesus, is still the Hand of God. How wild is that?
great research. awesome shoulder tapping connections. im not so sure about the invitation part, but perhaps he was blessing all of them and thats why they are the ones who survived the longest (or survived entirely, well find out about locke…)
great job in making a connection to Jacob’s touch and religion.
Maybe the Apollo bar had a golden ticket in it.
Jacob keeps bringing people to the island because he needs to find the right person to give it to when he retires. He presents them with tests – to reveal their true character – winner takes all.
Scroll, I think that’s part of it, but I think the battle royale is probably just as important… probably some mythic eternal struggle stuff.
Achalli, what’s funny is I was watching the episode and thinking about Fate and Jacob’s roll in terms of Destiny and all of that when I noticed the touch and the gift. I don’t know how all of that ties together but it’s interesting at least.
I was actually describing the plot of Willy Wonka – it’s just funny how many other amazing plots seem to fit somewhere into LOST.
LOL, yeah I got it the first time. 😉 I think LOST is purposefully written to be epic and mythic. Every season has had it’s own spin on the epic and mythic story lines… which makes it really fun to watch from that perspective. After all, before the show turned to sci-fi, it was an epic, with the forces of Destiny and Free-Will (Locke and Jack) hashing it out.