This is not an island... by Monika

The island is the reason I watch Lost. I love the island. And that is why John Locke is my favorite character. Because he understands the island. He sees beyond.

What is the island? That is the question I asked myself many times.
Never got an answer. Maybe never will. But we know that a lot of them refer to the island as a being of some sort.
"The island told me" (Locke knows that the island is form of life)
"We need to protect the island" (Ben and Locke know that the island needs protection because it is not an island..)
"It wants us to come back" (Hurley knows that the island wants them to come back..it needs them)
"I need to speak to the island"
"It will do anything it can to get us back"
"The island will do the rest" (Richard knows what power island posses)

These are just few..but we are overlooking these comments. They are not so rare but also they don't mean a thing. How can someone talk to the island? John must be crazy. So we are Jack. But when you look at these comments you see they came from Locke, Hurley, Ben and Richard.
Hurley thinks they are the craziest, him and John. I think they are the only ones who truly understand the island and who are truly special.
Ben and Richard, they know what island is.

The island is alive. It is not human but it is some kind of a life form. It exist somewhere out of time. On the other side of universe and it is connected with Earth via wormhole. Why else would there be windows? This island is "special" of course..because it is not an island. It is a state of your mind. And all of them together, the beings on this island are creating the reality.

Each human has its inner dark and light side. I have it. You have it. And we all struggle. We are making choices. I can easily be rude to people on this site but I choose not to. That's not who I am. I don't hide behind my alias and a fake photo. I don't call people names. But I could. If I wanted. So that is a choice. Each character on this show has a choice. IT'S ALL ABOUT CHARACTERS is what they said. Choice who they want to be.
On the other hand They didn't have a choice when it comes to the island. They were brought there. Sayid was handcuffed. But apart from that he had a choice when it came to little Ben. He should've become his friend instead of killing him. Yes I believe he killed him. And if Ben was not brought to the Temple where they healed him and took his innocence he would be dead.

"The Island healed me"

He was brought to the Temple where the island healed him. This concept is kind of vague. Locke was healed on the beach. Rose too. Locke was healed in the woods. Ben wasn't. He was brought to the Temple and healed by someone inside the Temple.

Dark and Light Side

I believe that MiB and Jacob are the island. The island needs to communicate with people living on it. It communicates via dreams and via visions. "The one in charge of the island" is Jacob. Jacob talks to Richard who then talks to leader of the people living on the island. Invaders are clueless.
This is the general plot of Lost so far. But who is above Jacob?
"You answer to someone?" Richard Alpert to Faraday.
So Richard answers to Jacob. But if everyone answers to someone then who is above Jacob? None. Jacob is top. Richard answers to the island. Jacob is in charge of the island because he is the island.

The island has its dark and light side. We have seen both. It is quite generous to some people. It gave Locke his legs back. It also wanted to take them back..which is the dark side that sort of blackmails you with your worst fear and hope..Rose got her body. Jin baby. Shanon became important to someone besides Boone. Michael got his son. Hurley his numbers. Charlie got Claire and got rid of drugs. Sawyer got Sawyer. And so on.
But Jack almost got killed by his dead father who haunts him. Ben got cancer. Eko was haunted by his dead brother and was killed in horrific way. Danielle lost her husband who got infected and then she lost her only child.

These dark and light sides of the island are MiB and Jacob. But the question is: Who is dark and who is light?

First thought that comes to my mind is Jacob light, MiB dark. But I am not so sure. And there is no way to ever be sure, at least until we meet them..who they are. What they want? And why they can't kill each other?

The only thing I am sure is this. Richard Alpert has its own agenda. He is not who he seems to be. Richard Alpert gives orders to his current leader. He also advises his current leader and he protects his current leader. Or let me rephrase this. He is suppose to do all these things but he doesn't.

He is looking for something or someone. And my guess is that he is looking for a loophole.

He went behind his current leader back (Widmore) and he "brought one of them" to their Temple. And that someone was none other than Ben Linus. If Richard is so generous and caring why would he kill 18 soldiers, the entire DI (not directly him but he participated willingly), why would he be ok with death of Danielle and her daughter Alex? But when it comes to Ben Linus he didn't consult anyone..he just took him to the Temple.
"Richard you should talk to Ellie..If Charles finds out"

I DON'T ANSWER TO EITHER OF THEM.

And he doesn't. He answers only to himself. Not Jacob. Himslef. Later on he lied to Charles. "Jacob wanted it done" he said. But we all know that he appeared out of nowhere "where the hell did you come from?", took Ben and went straight to the Temple..we followed him. There was no Jacob stop. Nothing.

And this is how Ben Linus was born.

When he realized that Ben Linus is not who he thought he was John Locke fell from the sky in 2004. The same John Locke who opened the box by saying "Jacob sent me" back in 1954.

So again, Richard went behind his current leader back (Ben) handing Locke file on Sawyer thus providing him opportunity of becoming a leader in the near future. He did this on his own. Behind Bens back.
"Ben if you are trying to put me in my place or embarrass me..."
"Where would you get a ridiculous idea like that?!"
He got it from Richard. And the writers made sure we notice that.

Richard never fails. He is patient. But what is it that he wants?

"I am this way because of Jacob"

He never said "Jacob made me this way"..It never crossed my mind that Jacob touched him thus making him ageless...My instant thought was he is pretending to be Richard and adviser just to manipulate certain events creating the environment good enough for taking Jacob down.

So what is my point? My point is this.
Once upon a time there was an island. The island summoned Black Rock (this is where our story begins) because it wants people, it needs them. This is not the first time it brought someone. The other side of the island thinks this is a mistake and just wants to be left alone because people are flawed and corrupted. It wants to stay hidden. Light side of the island wants to prove dark side wrong. Or vice versa. And both sides, the toy with people.
The island is guarded by a security system aka Smoke Monster. From the carving on the Temple wall it seems that this system answers to the keeper of the dead. This system was also called Cerberus, a 3headed dog that guards the underworld. 3 headed could mean it can exist as 3 entities at the same time, taking form of 3 entities. Who knows.
My conclusion would be at the end of this post that Jacob is light side (not necessarily good) and MiB is dark. My conclusion would be that after the crash of BR onto the island MiB found "Richard Alpert" (right after the opening scene of Incident) and sort of "took over" his body. So Richard Alpert we know was all along MiB. Looking for his loophole. This also fits good with the fact that he is the only one ageless (apart from Jacob who could be ageless or from the future and possibly MiB) with a linear float of time..(there is no way he is from the future..he came on Black Rock and possibly was a doctor on Black Rock like I said in my previous theories). My guess would be that Jacob was the one trapped in the cabin at the time Locke saw him communicating with the outside world (the island brought us for a purpose for a reason..each one us was brought here). Because that cabin is a form of portal to other worlds. My guess is that Jacob summoned Hurley in "The Beginning of t! he end" and that Hurley is the one who broke the circle..its not coincidence its Hurley..the lightest of them all. And since then the cabin was used by MiB through Christian and Claire. What happened to Jacob? God only knows.
The last dilemma would be if Richard is MiB then who is Locke? Locke could be form of Smoke Monster who answers to MiB. If Jacob could see beyond Locke (if Locke is MiB) and see not Locke but MiB he could also see Smoke Monster, right? The only thing I am sure is that Locke is not MiB. Locke is either dead and Smoke Monster or either a duplicate John or brought back to life by Jacob working for him on their greatest con. I have given a lot of thought on this one but still I am not sure...because from time to time I believe that Locke was implanted on that island..he knows stuff. And he started doing that since Walkabout and his encounter with the Smoke Monster. Is it possible that Locke got infected? Or that Locke saw his entire life flashing before his eyes..the event that gave him loads of self confidence and faith? This is the turning point when he realized that the island is not an island and that they were all brought here.

Lots of guesses I know. But at this point we don't have much on Jacob let alone MiB.

Thanks for reading.