Ben Being the Manipulated One for Once by Melanie

I think that Man in Black is the good guy and that Jacob is the bad one. For one he really rubbed me the wrong way and was almost condescending when meeting our losties in the flashbacks. He may just creep me out because I know that he played the abusive and mysterious husband of Rita on Dexter.

Ben supposedly killed Locke because they needed someone to replace Christian as a dead guy on the plane (and because Ben couldn't stand Locke). I think the MIB worked something out with Faraday's mother to help with his loophole to kill Jacob. Faraday's mother enlisted the losties to help with this plan, although they don't know what's going on yet. Faraday's mother tricked Ben into killing Jacob for their own means. For once Ben is the one getting manipulated and in the dark. Ben never would have killed Locke originally if he knew it was so MIB could inhabit Locke.

I also believe that Jacob knew he was going to get killed so he enlisted Ilana and her crew to be his backup. He definitely didn't have a problem with getting killed and basically asked for it. This is because he has his backup plan in action. Then the final showdown is going to be Ilana's crew fighting for Jacob versus losties with MIB.