Now that we have met our major players, Jacob and "Esau" (I will refer to him as "Esau" as that is about as close to a name as we have for him"), we can start to make sense of the various characters that have appeared in the show, and other things that couldn't possibly have been seen.
I'm going to make an assumption here and say that Esau is the true human form of the smoke monster, but has the ability to shapeshift into people that have died (or presumably died). Jacob on the other hand, has the ability to appear in people's dreams. This gives him a much greater ability to make his message more vivid, but since it is a dream he has no direct power over the person's whereabouts, etc. Jacob could obviously leave the island as well, but I'm not sure his powers apply outside the island. I also think that Jacob can give visions outside of dreams, but they come out backwards, like when he appears as Walt. This ultimately makes them not as useful.
Since Lost, from the beginning, has been a show with unusual circumstances and coincidences, there are literally countless things that could apply to this. I won't go through the entire show again but since I am an avid Lost fan I will discuss the things that most stick out to me.
Christian - I believe that every time Christian talks on the island he is "Esau". Most recent example is getting Locke to leave the island. I think that when he doesn't talk, like when leading Jack to the water in Season 1, it was actually Jacob allowing them a means to survive with fresh water. He wants them to stay while "Esau" doesn't.
Dave - From Season 2, this was obviously "Esau", attempting to get the most pure soul on the island, Hurley, to commit the ultimate sin of suicide. This would get one of the strongest of Jacob's players out of the game. Hurley doesn't fall for it and "Esau" is foiled.
Boone - I'm not sure if we have seen Boone outside of a vision or dream, and if that is the case then it is clearly Jacob. I'm now thinking that Boone was on the plane as a sort of conduit for Jacob to reach Locke while not actually revealing himself. He leads Locke on the journey through the dream airport to show him that he needs to save Mr. Eko. I think Jacob had big plans for Eko but "Esau" was able to make him not accept his sins, therefore he was easy prey (btw, Mr. Eko DID have a bigger role but the actor hated living in Hawaii so they wrote him out).
Yemi - Obviously "Esau". He wanted to kill Mr. Eko because he was dangerous. He has the ability to read pasts (which is why he was so successful at playing Locke the whole season) and saw that Yemi was Eko's weakest point.
Alex - Also "Esau". Pretty easy to tell Ben to follow an entity that is also you. It read Ben's past and then saw his daughter, just like he did with Eko. He wasn't ready to kill Ben yet for his sins so instead used him as his pawn to kill Jacob.
I realize that a few of the off-island visions don't make sense, such as Hurley's visions. Perhaps in the real world both of them are omnipotent, but they choose to stay on the island because it is away from all the annoying people.
I know this is a limited list so if I left anything out please leave something about them in the comments!
I'm going to make an assumption here and say that Esau is the true human form of the smoke monster, but has the ability to shapeshift into people that have died (or presumably died). Jacob on the other hand, has the ability to appear in people's dreams. This gives him a much greater ability to make his message more vivid, but since it is a dream he has no direct power over the person's whereabouts, etc. Jacob could obviously leave the island as well, but I'm not sure his powers apply outside the island. I also think that Jacob can give visions outside of dreams, but they come out backwards, like when he appears as Walt. This ultimately makes them not as useful.
Since Lost, from the beginning, has been a show with unusual circumstances and coincidences, there are literally countless things that could apply to this. I won't go through the entire show again but since I am an avid Lost fan I will discuss the things that most stick out to me.
Christian - I believe that every time Christian talks on the island he is "Esau". Most recent example is getting Locke to leave the island. I think that when he doesn't talk, like when leading Jack to the water in Season 1, it was actually Jacob allowing them a means to survive with fresh water. He wants them to stay while "Esau" doesn't.
Dave - From Season 2, this was obviously "Esau", attempting to get the most pure soul on the island, Hurley, to commit the ultimate sin of suicide. This would get one of the strongest of Jacob's players out of the game. Hurley doesn't fall for it and "Esau" is foiled.
Boone - I'm not sure if we have seen Boone outside of a vision or dream, and if that is the case then it is clearly Jacob. I'm now thinking that Boone was on the plane as a sort of conduit for Jacob to reach Locke while not actually revealing himself. He leads Locke on the journey through the dream airport to show him that he needs to save Mr. Eko. I think Jacob had big plans for Eko but "Esau" was able to make him not accept his sins, therefore he was easy prey (btw, Mr. Eko DID have a bigger role but the actor hated living in Hawaii so they wrote him out).
Yemi - Obviously "Esau". He wanted to kill Mr. Eko because he was dangerous. He has the ability to read pasts (which is why he was so successful at playing Locke the whole season) and saw that Yemi was Eko's weakest point.
Alex - Also "Esau". Pretty easy to tell Ben to follow an entity that is also you. It read Ben's past and then saw his daughter, just like he did with Eko. He wasn't ready to kill Ben yet for his sins so instead used him as his pawn to kill Jacob.
I realize that a few of the off-island visions don't make sense, such as Hurley's visions. Perhaps in the real world both of them are omnipotent, but they choose to stay on the island because it is away from all the annoying people.
I know this is a limited list so if I left anything out please leave something about them in the comments!
