Malkin Explained via Jacob & Esau by Mr. Jacob

One of the most puzzling mysteries of LOST also happens to be one its oldest. It was only 10 hours into Season One that we were intrigued by the mysterious powers and motives of Claire's psychic, Richard Malkin.

Here's what we know thus far: once pregnant, Claire went to get a psychic reading from Malkin to learn about her unborn child. Malkin became distressed by something he saw. Then, for four months, he continuously and obsessively told her not to give the baby up for adoption (as she had been planning to do). But the day before Oceanic 815 departed, he completely reversed his stance and instructed Claire to give the baby to a couple in Los Angeles, insisting that she had to take that particular flight.

Also, we know that Malkin had a daughter (Charlotte Malkin) who apparently came back to life after dying. After being visited by Mr. Eko, Malkin seemed oddly put-off and declared that the whole thing was a hoax, his own psychic abilities included. We know that this also happened shortly before 815 departed, as this was the reason Mr. Eko was on that flight.

Now, we can clearly tell that when convincing Claire to take 815 and telling Eko that no miracle had taken place with his daughter, something is amiss. Putting things into chronological order will start to hint towards a connection between these two situations.

Though it's difficult to say for sure without confirmation, we can gather that the series of events went like this:

1. Richard Malkin sees something disturbing in Claire's future (likely the crash of 815) and tells her he can't read her fortune.
1. He then decides to get involved and repeatedly tells a pregnant Claire that she must raise the child herself.
2. Charlotte Malkin dies in a tragic accident.
3. Somehow, Charlotte comes back to life.
4. Richard "changes his mind" tells Claire that she must take 815.
5. 815 crashes onto the island.

We can also note that Malkin tells Eko that no miracle has taken place shortly before or after step 4, though either way doesn't effect our theory.

If one is able to accept this series of events, then an immediate question arises: did Charlotte Malkin's resurrection have anything to do with Richard Malkin's changed instructions to Claire? With the highly inter-connected word of our LOST characters, this seems very likely.

An immediate theory that comes to mind is whether Malkin agreed to change his mind about Claire taking 815 in exchange for having his daughter brought back to life. And when talking about supernatural acts on LOST, one immediately thinks of the powers of Jacob. This is a man who apparently has the ability to bring people back from the dead (i.e. Locke, after being pushed out of a building by Anthony Cooper in "The Incident").

We also know that Jacob is involved in a heated conflict with Esau. Could Malkin's actions have been inspired by these two? Here is a hypothetical series of events:

1. Malkin sees a vision of a pregnant Claire on 815 crashing. He doesn't want to get involved, so he tells her he can't read her future.
2. Esau visits Malkin and instructs him to make sure that Claire is not on that plane (ALTERNATIVE: Malkin doesn't want Claire to be involved in a plane crash due to his own conscious).
3. Malkin repeatedly tells Claire to raise the baby on her own (i.e. not to get on the plane).
4. Charlotte Malkin dies in a tragic accident.
5. Jacob pays Richard Malkin a visit and agrees to bring Charlotte Malkin back to life under the condition that Richard instructs Claire to take Oceanic 815.
6. Malkin fulfills his deal with Jacob by telling Claire to take 815, which she does. Around the same time, Malkin wants no attention brought to this series of events, so he tells Eko that Charlotte's resurrection is a hoax.
7. 815 crashes. Jacob has successfully brought Claire to the island.

It's worth noting that the placement of Esau and Jacob in this theory could easily be swapped, as their actions are dependent on factors that we're not quite sure of yet. We know that Jacob wanted people on the island, but was having Claire present part of Jacob's wishes or was it a step in the scheme that led to Esau successfully exploiting the loophole?

Regardless, I find it highly plausible that either Jacob or Esau (likely both) were involved in this series of events.