Interesting.... - Edit 3
Before modification by DomA at 18/05/2010 10:42:45 PM
CTV has pulled down that episode from their online line-up so I can't re watch it.
In the scene toward the end when Jacob and Ricardo have their discussion, does anyone remember if Jacob casually gave wine to Richard on-screen or if they were shown sharing a drink? Was the bottle he used in his explanation that the Island was like a cork stopping wine from spilling out of the bottle Mom's bottle of elixir of eternal life? I vaguely recall it was the same bottle and had more or less the same amount of wine in it, but I'm not sure.
That would open all sort of questions if he made Ricardo eternal and ageless by giving him some of the wine instead of through some other mean... (or perhaps Jacob just brought out the bottle because he was toying with the idea of making Ricardo his heir, before changing his mind?)
In the scene toward the end when Jacob and Ricardo have their discussion, does anyone remember if Jacob casually gave wine to Richard on-screen or if they were shown sharing a drink? Was the bottle he used in his explanation that the Island was like a cork stopping wine from spilling out of the bottle Mom's bottle of elixir of eternal life? I vaguely recall it was the same bottle and had more or less the same amount of wine in it, but I'm not sure.
That would open all sort of questions if he made Ricardo eternal and ageless by giving him some of the wine instead of through some other mean... (or perhaps Jacob just brought out the bottle because he was toying with the idea of making Ricardo his heir, before changing his mind?)
I just rewatched that part: First of all, they sit outside the foot of the statue and Ricardo nods at it, asking what's inside. Jacob answers: "No one comes in unless I invite them in".
They then share wine from said bottle in cups and Jacob explains that if the wine is hell, evil, darkness, then the cork is this island, keeping darkness where it belongs. He also explains why he doesn't help people he brings here: It's all meaningless if he has to force them, if they can't tell good from bad by themselves. Then he decides that maybe Richard can step in for him from now on. Richard wants forgiveness for his sins and when Jacob replies that he can't give him that, Richard says he wants to live forever. Then Jacob touches his shoulder and says: "That I can do."
Now, did it already happen through the drink? Or with the touch? What does that mean for the touch he gave the candidates?
I have no idea if this is the drink, or the touch, or perhaps it was just agreeing to "a bargain" with the guardian, similar to how MIB makes his bargains. Maybe what mom did wasn't meaningless to her, but it may be that the "magic ritual" to use their power is personal to each guardian: mom was a lot into incantations and wine sharing, for Jacob it may be by touch or even by will, and sharing some wine over a conversation with the person he appears to is just a kind of nod to "mother's memory".
Mind you, if mother is to be believed, she had already made it so Jacob and his brother couldn't kill one another, and for that there was no little cheers over wine. Perhaps that involved more magic with formulas in latin pronounced over the babies at night, though.
An interesting bit is the stuff about it being meaningless if Jacob has to force them. It sounds like the reason for that could be that he wasn't given a choice himself, ressents it still and he insists on giving that choice now to his candidates (might be why he still hasn't find a replacement after 2000 years...)
I'm curious to know how much was the same under mom's guardianship and how much has evolved under Jacob. It seems that a guardian can "see" the candidates, that there is something special about them. They're not just any people, but I'm not quite sure the guardian has any say in who they are. I think he choose among the candidates, but not the candidates themselves, that that is out of his hands. Mother killed the babies's mom and didn't care one bit for the other survivors either. It's the babies she wanted (I can't help but wonder what's the big deal with adoptive parents and children on Lost and if it's important. First there was Michael, separated from his kid Walt who was "special" and whom some other guy had adopted but rejected when the mom died... and this ended with Michael dooming himself for Walt, and then Claire who was told it was important she raised Aaron and didn't give him up for adoption - the crash changed that, but in the end Kate got him and Claire went mad and fell into MIB's lap, and there was Alex stolen from Danielle, who also went mad while the adoptive dad ended up sacrificing Alex in his "game" with Widmore.. And of course, before them all was Jacob and Bro who were stolen from their real mom at birth, one becoming the guardian and killing his brother, the other killing his adoptive mother.
The Lighthouse apparently let Jacob see the candidates from afar, or perhaps even showed him who those future candidates are, the moment they are born. Did mom have that lighthouse or is this Jacob's creation (in the sense of was mom forced to spot them by sight on the island, while Jacob made that lighthouse and the next guardian might use satellites and GPS)?
I still don't think Jacob "arranged the crash" of 815 or pulls all the strings. I suspect a lot he rather foresaw the crash many years before it happened and arranged to meet in person or through his followers the folks he saw appearing in his lighthouse as the new candidates. That would explain Richard going to interview young Locke as well as those early meetings between Jacob and Sawyer, Jack, Hurley, the Kwons...
Or does the guardian become a "puppet master", who weaves the future to make certain events happen and draw people to the island top become candidates? That fits with the symbolism of Jacob and Mom as weavers, though the weaving symbolism also fits characters who see the future and weave what's going to happen into their tapestry. It's also some time used for spider-type characters who traps people into their webs.
I'm also wondering more and more if Jacob left the island for real, or if he did so by projecting himself into one of his followers who can leave the island, a power that could be seen as the reverse of what MIB can do by creating a body out of the mind and soul of a dead person on the island.
There's still a lot of Jacob questions... we got the far past and the Black Rock era, hopefully tonight will have a few of those answers about Jacob and MIB in the series's timeline and won't be all about setting up the action of the finale on the island. *fingers crossed* for "Why they died" being another double-meaning title and referring in part to people who have been crossed out by Jacob and who died... from the pilot to the Marshall to Boone, his sister and in particular Mr. Eko, and now Sun and Jin...