The Man Behind the Curtain

Okay, I am still shaking. WOW! Let me just say this now and then follow up later, LOCKE IS NOT DEAD! No spoiler, but I am one with this show and I KNOW he is not gone. By a LONG SHOT. Oh yeah…by the way….LOCKE IS JACOB! I don’t need to watch the show anymore! I got it. Wow!

Okay…I am going to gather my thoughts and then we will tackle this completely long blog. There is a nice trend that they are sharing information with each other. That was really starting to get annoying.

Summary
For starters, I forgot to blog last week. Blame it on my coworkers as we discuss LOST at work on Thursday and I forgot to write it up. I will touch on last week’s episode as it relates to this week. I want credit for the Wizard of Oz connection. I pointed it out to R.L. earlier today so I get credit. What I was saying is that Ben, formerly known as Henry Gale, got that name from the Wizard of Oz, I believe Dorothy’s uncle. The whole episode when he was caught was similar to Oz as he landed in a strange place in a hot air balloon, supposedly. I made the connection that like the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was asked to kill the Wicked Witch of the West so that she could go home which is similar to Locke having to bring his dead father to learn the secrets of the island. Now I have never seen the Wizard of Oz, only The Wiz. Chalk it up to cultural differences. This episode, The Man Behind the Curtain, again references more that movie as Richard Pryor as the Wiz was a fake. The answer to going home was that they had the power all along. I will take it a step further and say that you are the master of your own fate. And that is why I believe that Locke is Jacob. Now it may be that Jacob changes depending on who sees him, I’m not sure. But that was Locke in that chair. He’s appearance was older and a little altered, but the bump in the nose, balding hair underneath an old wig, that was Locke. He also used smoke and a booming voice to square the gang from getting closer and seeing behind the curtain. I believe what Jacob did in the cabin was meant to have the same effect.

I am going to be jumping all over the place so forgive me in advance. I believe Alex gave Locke the gun to protect him from Ben not Jacob. She knew that if he really was to be the new leader, he would need to protect himself from Ben. For a minute I thought it was going to be Walt. The painting of a golden retriever, then him speaking to him like he was a child, “Stop it, you’ve had your fun”. An interesting tone to take with an omnipotent being. There are also reasons to support that it was Locke. He told Locke that like him, Jacob doesn’t like technology such as batteries or electricity. It looked similar to Locke. My theory is of time shift so that it could be him from a different dimension. Richard Alpert isn’t aging so there is something definitely going on about that. Remember Echo telling Locke “Your Next”. Perhaps the next to be the new leader, not the next to die. Of course him lying in the pit definitely points to the latter. But Paolo and Nikkie were there too and they were next to die. The biggest thing that proves it wasn’t is a close up of Jacob’s eye. It had brown eyes and Locke’s are blue.

Some have theorized that it was the captain from the original Black Rock ship. Richard Alpert being an ageless pirate. They landed on the island and have adjusted to living forever. They don’t believe they are hostiles since they were on the island first. Perhaps that is why Ben is their leader. He has helped them evolve throughout the years, similar to Interview with the Vampire. Or perhaps because they were worshipping this entity that only Ben can see and communicate with.

Locke couldn’t see Jacob because he didn’t actually kill his father. He wasn’t ready to learn the truth. Ben didn’t expect for Locke to be able to hear him. I believe it was Locke, yet again, and the “help me” was not for Jacob, but what Locke would utter in the future after being shot. It did seem like Jacob was contained, but by what and why? What is the connection between Jacob and the smoke monster?

I do believe that Ben is lying. I think he tells the people what he wants them to hear, not what Jacob really wants. Jacob’s list is a lie and I believe who Ben wanted. In that sense, Ben is controlling things. Ben protects children since he had such a jerk for a father (daddy issues). And maybe his obsession with the mothers is so that no other child needs to go through what he went through, being led to believe they killed their mother by being born.

Let’s back up. They gave us so much this week. Let’s talk about all the connections. Just outside of Portland is where the recruiting takes place. This is where Ben’s father was recruited and where Juliet was as well. The mile sign added together equals the numbers. We see that Roger Workman is Ben’s dad. Three Dog Night's song "Shambala" was playing in the van when Ben and his dad went for a beer and when Hurley made it run again. Both of Ben’s parents died on his birthday. We see Ben’s fascination with the bunny. Also following the white rabbit is a reference to Alice in Wonderland. Noticeably not shown was the DeGroots or Mr. Wickman/Marvin Candle. They did explain Mikhail being alive. I loved the whole Planet of the Apes thing between Locke and him. Locke was right. He did have to beat up Mikhail to prove his was ready to take over. Naomi doesn’t seem like a plant and there has to be some sore sort of set-up going on. Either that or perhaps a parallel universe in which the plane did crash into the ocean. I wonder how the message birds will figure into all of this. The coordinates from last week that Naomi was following was, "Latitude 4.815, Longitude 162.342” the numbers. We know that the numbers also led Rousseau’s ship there. Ben and Locke have mothers named Emily. Emily=Em, Aunt Em and the wizard of Oz. Jin didn’t know he was sterile that is why he was shocked. I believe in Korean what he said was, “who’s else would it be?” After Juliet said she conceived it with her husband Jin. Remember the Sun said she had Endometriosis but it was Jin that was sterile.

Questions
Are you kidding?!? How is Richard Alpert the same age as he was when he first met Ben? The uterus x-ray that was brought to Juliet was presumed to be an old woman but in fact was very young. How can Richard Alpert move back and forth off of the island? .

The whispers were back. Is it just the Others or really a parallel universe? I read some transcripts of the whispers and it sounds like people watching and commenting on what they see. They may be of the dead.

Richard helps Locke because he feels the mission of the Others has been misdirected by Ben and fertility issues. Sawyer dealt with his dad issues by killing him. That was a pretty emotional moment. Watch out for Sawyer dealing with his issue and now possibly ready to die. I still am suspicious of Jack. This alliance with Juliet has hurt his credibility too much. Juliet wants to help herself, so she should still not be trusted. She KNOWS Jack and Claire are brother and sister. If she tells him, I may trust her more. But the more she keeps that quiet, the more I still think she is up to no good. She always knows what to say or do to create the illusion of trust.

Conclusion
I don’t know who or what Jacob is. He may or may not be Locke. But I do not Locke is not dead. And even though we got a huge piece of the puzzle, there is still a lot more to learn. I am having a LOST season finale party at my new digs. Food, drink, prizes and fun! Also no fast forwarding this time so that we don’t have another “incident”! And I don’t want to hear about how late it is….LOST will be gone until January!!! You will have plenty of time to catch up on your rest. I didn’t watch the preview because they are so misleading. But I still can’t wait to see what happens next. So until next week, c-ya!