Desmond's Mural in the Hatch and the First Scene of the "Incident" by Pleebloo

Ever since we first saw Desmond's mural back in season 2, I've been staring at it in fascination, with absolutely no clue as to what any of it meant. But I think we've seen enough now in the final season to decode quite a bit of it.

First, look at the two figures in the upper-right corner. People have noted for a long time that the figure with the black face seems to be wearing a mask, since his neck is a different color. But now I also notice that the Caucasian figure next to him has a neck with a slightly different color from the face. My conclusion is that they are both wearing masks, one dark and one light. The masks represent two necessary roles on the island, roles which can be passed from person to person like a mask. We know that Jacob is looking for a replacement, and that MIB was once a man like any other. So I would like to suggest that both of them are place-fillers. The island always needs one light figure and one dark figure. Jacob and MIB are the current people in those roles, but there was probably a different white figure before Jacob, and a different MIB before the current one. So the masks in the mural show us that they are each playing a certain prescribed role on the island! .

In the upper left corner, there is a scene that many have described as a leader addressing his followers on a beach. But now, I don’t think that’s what we’re seeing. What we thought was a beach is actually a wall with stick figures drawn on it. If you look closely at the man facing the wall, his head has been colored in with white. He’s the white figure, i.e. Jacob. So I think what we’re seeing in the upper-left corner is Jacob looking at his wall of candidates, which we have now seen on the show (the cave with the names).

The foreground represent the world outside the island, with the water in the middle separating the island from the rest of the world. In the foreground, we see three houses, and each one is marked with one of the numbers. The left-most house is marked with a 5, the middle house with 42, and the right-most house with an upside-down 13. So these are some of the many houses in the outside world Jacob has been viewing at the lighthouse, tracking his candidates.

The fishes in the foreground remind us that the foreground is actually a number of continents separated by water, but that this water is not as important as the blue water that separates the island from the rest of the world. On the blue water, there is a ship being attacked as it nears the island. This is probably the Black Rock. The attack is coming from a swirling smoke emanating from MIB, and as he attacks the ship, many of the passengers die in the water (the upside-down stick figures).

The smoke coming from MIB reaches beyond the ship to the yellow area with the word “sick.” This seems to be the sickness which comes from contact with MIB. And this sickness extends beyond the blue water to the mainland, since we know that the two sides are battling it out off-island as well (Ben vs. Widmore).

This doesn’t account for everything in the mural (or why Desmond was able to paint it in the first place), but it does account for quite a bit of it.

This might also shed some light on the opening scene of the Incident. Suppose the light and dark roles on the island are like masks that can be passed from person to person. But the new person must take on the role willingly, and cannot leave until someone replaces him, or until his opponent is dead. But both figures are immortal and not allowed to kill each other directly. Jacob and MIB both wanted to pass on their roles to someone else, so they continually brought candidates to the island to replace them. But no one would ever accept the task. So eventually MIB felt so trapped that he gave up on finding a replacement and decided the only way off was to get someone else to kill Jacob willingly.

This explains their argument at the beginning of the Incident. Jacob is bringing in the Black Rock, still trying to prove that someone will willingly replace each of them. But MIB doesn’t believe that anyone ever will, and this is why he is seeking to kill Jacob instead.

Feel free to leave me lots of compliments in the comments section. But sorry ladies, I’ve got a woman already. :)