Jin Is The Candidate/MIB Is Not Evil + More by iscorehoop

So I have a few ideas that I'd like to share and would love to hear feedback about.

First off, I have decided after The Package that Jin, not Sun, is the candidate. I always believed this, simply because Sun is too weak (and annoying, in my opinion) of a character to be considered a candidate--but that it neither here nor there. Point is, after this last episode, my prediction was confirmed in my mind. First off, note how much attention the writers/producers have given to Jin's leg injury. When it first occurred, it seemed like a pretty nasty injury that he could not walk on. Just a day or so after being sewed up, he was back on his feet (although still obviously limping). In one or two episodes since, he is now walking without a crutch and is pretty mobile. The point is, his injury has healed unusually quickly and I think it is the island healing him (as it has healed many times before...Locke's paralysis, Rose's cancer, etc...) Also, Flocke states near the end of the episode something to the extent of "some fresh air would be good for the wound." Again, t! his being the fresh air of the island.

Besides this, the alternate time-line is what sealed the deal for me in my mind. Note that in the alternate time line, Sun had retained her maiden name and Jin obviously had his last name of Kwan. The writers purposely included the hotel check-in scene where the characters had a chance to explicitly state that Sun's last name was Paik while Jin's was Kwan. In short, he is a KWAN and she is not--hence, he is the Kwan that is a candidate on the island, not her.

I would now like to briefly discuss something totally unrelated to that. I want to talk about the idea that MIB possibly is not evil as most of us have thought for so long. Lets start in recent episodes and work our way back. In Ab Aeterno, we learn directly from that "The devil betrayed me. He stole my body. He stole my humanity." First and foremost, it is interesting to note that the "he stole my humanity" can be taken to be meant figuratively, as if his civility was stolen. But on a deeper level, I think he literally mean that his humanity was actually stolen in that he really is no longer a human and his body really was in some sense stolen. Anyway, from what he tells Richard, he truly sounds as though Jacob betrayed him and screwed him over pretty good. We are not exactly sure how or why yet, but it is pretty safe to say that Jacob in some way betrayed him, in some way stole his body and has trapped him on this island ever since.

And if you are familiar with the biblical story of Jacob and Esau and you believe that the Jacob/MIB relationship is based on the biblical story, then it makes perfect sense. In the biblical story, Jacob betrays his older brother Esau by tricking their father and pretending to be Esau in order to receive the older brother blessing (when Esau was in fact the older brother). Once Jacob had received the blessing, it could not be undone and their father could only tell Esau (not an exact quote) "you shall serve your brother by the sword until the time comes that you may kill him." Obviously this quote could not be more fitting, as on the show, MIB was basically trapped and in that sense forced to serve Jacob, until the time came that he was able to find the loophole and kill Jacob. Anyway, this post is not about the Jacob/Esau theory, but the point is, in this biblical story, Jacob is really the evil one who tricks his father and betrays his brother, leaving his brother to serve! him for many many years. And I think that there is a similar premise here on the show.

Basically, it just seems as though MIB wants off the island. He does not seem to really want to harm or kill anybody that he does not have to. He has been trapped on this island for hundreds, maybe thousands of years--can you blame him for wanting to get off? And considering how long he has been trapped, it seems pretty humane that he has given everybody a chance to join him and has not immediately resorted to violence. If he was truly evil, he could have, and likely would have just killed everybody at the temple. But he gave everybody a chance to join his effort to get off the island. Those who did not, he basically had no choice but to kill if he wanted to get off this island.

Perhaps, MIB really is not evil, and Jacob just has the Losties as well as US tricked. MIB himself states many times that if you let him talk, it is already too late. Perhaps Jacob is incredibly persuasive and has everybody fooled that he is the wholesome and godly character. Now, going back further, to the beginning of the series, we have to consider what we've heard about Jacob and how we've heard it. We have only heard holy and godly things about Jacob as the protector of the island--but where did that come from? That came from 1 man, Richard. All Jacob really had to do was have one man fooled, Richard, who would disseminate everything else to the Others and everybody else on the island. In theory, this could have been why Jacob offered Richard the "job" in Ab Aeterno. Trick Richard into believing he was good and Jacob had the entire island (and viewers) tricked. For years as we have watched Lost, we have basically heard about Jacob whatever he wanted us to hear. We never! got to hear a single thing from the MIB, until recently, and we have to consider the credibility and validity of what he is saying.

Another thing that leads me to this belief is that when we see MIB in his true human form, he has always seemed like a very calm and mild-mannered person. He has never displayed the temperament of a dark or evil person. Even in his interactions with the person he hates most and wants to kill, Jacob, he has always been very calm and cool. In his interactions with Ricardo, he is the same way. You can assume he is this way with Richard because he is trying to persuade him to kill Jacob, but in reality, maybe this is the person he really is and maybe it is Jacob that has been doing all the persuading. After Ricardo returned to MIB after not having killed Jacob, I thought MIB would be very angry or perhaps even attempt to injure/kill Ricardo. Instead, he just displays a disappointed face, almost feeling bad that Richard was persuaded and tricked by Jacob. It was a face that almost said "Jeez, another person fooled into thinking Jacob is actually good." Going even further, he exte! nded his offer to Ricardo and told him it would always be on the table.

Lastly, the whole black/white thing throws me off a bit when I really think about. Lost is a very deep show as we all know. Names, numbers, dialogue--it all his immense significance. Would such a deep show really dress the godly figure in all white and the evil figure in all black--all the time? Isn't this a bit cliche and obvious? Upon thinking about it a little deeper, I think it may be to throw us all off into automatically assuming Jacob is good and MIB is evil.

If the show concludes and it is confirmed that Jacob was indeed good and MIB evil (assuming there is even a good an evil) I obviously will not be surprised in the slightest. If I had to put my money on one of them being good, it is obviously Jacob. However, I also think there is a real chance it could be the opposite. And again, I also think there is a very real possibility that it is not really about good verse evil but rather what they each represent and the balance of power/energy on the island which could/possibly will effect things off the island.

Unrelated, one final question which maybe somebody could shed some light on for me. I still think there is more about Richard. We obviously learned a ton in Ab Aeterno, but here is my question. We learned that he is Ricardo from the Canary Islands--but then why does Richard refer to him as Ricardus? There has to be some reason for this.

Let me know your thoughts.