Everything that FALLS must converge

(Response to the Lost Season Five Finale)

Very interesting and suspicious to me that there was no
Desmond in this finale.

Richard's answer to Ilana's what lies in the shadow of the statue
was Latin: ille qui nos omnis servabit which means he who will save
us all.

While waiting on Locke to take his fall, Jacob was reading
Flannery O'Connor's Everything that Rises Must Converge.
That title (of her collection and her short story of the same name)
was taken from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. An
eminent scientist and cosmic mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardine
(1881 - 1955) presented a dynamic worldview in which he argued that
our species does occupy a special place within a spiritual universe
and that it is evolving toward an Omega point as the end-goal
of humankind on this planet.

That wasn't the only book in view last night. While Juliet's
parents were giving Rachel and Juliet the bad news,
the book on the coffee table between them was titled:
Mysteries(?) of the Americas. And did you notice how modern
Juliet's parents and their house looked? That scene / house
didn't look 70s or 80s to me. Is it possible (and it's Lost
so it is) that Richard brought her from even further in the future?
Lost is too good with sets and props so this wasn't a slip.
Juliet's folks home looked that modern for a reason. It looked
present day.

Images of black and white were all over the place from the
clothing of Jacob (white) vs Beach Guy (black) to the bitter
end with the 2010 Lost logo inverted to white background
and black letters. But I really have a hard time embracing
Jacob as all good and Beach Guy as all bad. Jacob, asking
Sayid for directions, caused Nadia to be killed. I find it
hard to believe that wasn't on purpose. Now was Nadia evil?
Working for Beach Guy? Or was Jacob there because he knew
Nadia was going to be killed regardless of his presence?
Black and white has been used in the series since season
one when Locke explained the game of backgammon to
Walt.

So Beach Guy is a shape-shifter? That's how he embodies
Locke? Does he embody Christian and everyone else who's
dead as well? Is he Smokey? Is it Smokey vs. Jacob -
and that's why the ash is around Jacob's cabin - to keep
Smokey out?

Now we know why Locke looked different to Richard - as Richard
said to Locke in last week's Follow the Leader. Because it's not
Locke. And Richard told Jack he'd been off the island three times
to visit Locke and saw nothing special about him. Now Locke appears
to be really dead in the cargo box, so is this true, is there nothing
really special about Locke - his body just a shell, a host for
the shape-shifting beach guy?

Poor Locke can't escape boxes. As a baby, he was in the incubator
box, then he worked for a box company. In the season four finale,
he was the mystery man in the box (coffin). And in this season five
finale, he was in the cargo box.

I got the eerie sense in the first scene with Beach Guy and
Jacob as they stared out at the Black Rock, that Richard was
indeed on that ship. This connected back to Richard building
a model of it in the Follow the Leader episode.

Each flashback, except for Juliet, contained Jacob interacting
with our Losties at a pivotal moment in their lives.
(Juliet didn't get a Jacob visit because why - she's not a flight 815-er?
That doesn't hold up because as far as we know Ilana wasn't
on flight 815 either and she got a visit.)

Jacob touched everyone of them during his visit - most of
them on the shoulder.
Locke - Jacob touched him on the shoulder and said "I'm sorry
this happened to you."
Kate - Jacob touched her nose, called her Katie and suggested
that she not steal anymore.
Ilana - in the hospital, at her bedside, asking her if she'll help him.
Sawyer - Jacob touched his hand when he gave little Sawyer
the pen, telling him to keep it.
Sayid - Jacob touched his shoulder right after Nadia was hit by car.
Jack - Jacob touched his hand when he gave him the Apollo bar.
(love the Apollo bar reference and that we got to see Jack learn
how to get rid of fear by counting to five - a reference to the pilot
episode.)
Sun & Jin - Jacob touched their arms while telling them in perfect
Korean not to take their love for granted.
Hurley - Jacob touched him on the chest right before he got out
of the cab as he told Hurley it was his choice.

Interesting too that Jacob visited when each of them was
with the person they loved and whose death forever changed their lives:
Jack was with Christian, Kate was with her first love Toy-Airplane-boy,
Sayid with Nadia, Sun with Jin, Hurley with Charlie via the guitar case,
Sawyer at his parents funeral - just losing them, Locke with
his father pushing him out the window.

Jacob says to Ben too - you have a choice - right before Ben
kills him. Jacob represents free will / white and Beach Guy
(or Locke-as-Loophole) represents determinism / black. This
along with who is special and why will be two of the major
themes / debates next year.

I do have to say that I was disappointed that Phil did not
not die by Sawyer's own hand.

Another Narnia reference - Jacob reminded me of Aslan,
the great lion, inviting them one and all, to help save
Narnia...

Just before Juliet left Bernard and Rose, she had her hand on her
stomach. It was an odd gesture. This was the moment
when Bernard asked her if she wanted some tea. She said,
while holding her stomach, maybe another time. Was she
pregnant with Sawyer's baby? I can't get my mind off that or
the shots of her looking back at the submarine as it disappears
into the water, like she knew her fate. Or the irony of
her repeating Jack's live together / die alone. Because she
was very alone at the end.

So until season 6 - the battle of good vs evil:
Jacob: Mankind is basically good or at least capable of choosing good.
Beach Guy / Man-in-Black: Mankind is basically evil and that will
never change. (And he has Ben as evidence.)
Jacob / Obi-Wan Kenobi: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me
down, I shall become even more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

Does Jacob have a loophole as well? If the Losties did indeed
"reset" time? So until 2010 or 2007 or 2004 or....