I want your body by Efren Salonga

Ok short but sweet theory, because I have to get back to my weekly gambling session with the guys.

I'm a believer that Jacob's touch brought a dead John Locke back to life when he was pushed out of the window by bad-daddy Cooper. I also think this touch allows Jack and co. to survive the Jughead blast, but that idea is shared by a lot of people so it's nothing new.

I think another necessity to MIB's loophole was Jacob's touch. MIB has the power to reanimate a dead body but he can't LIVE in that body. All he can do is temporarily inhabit it. Jacob touching a dead John Locke gave him the opportunity to actually LIVE in a new body now. It offered MIB a chance to resurrect himself, to come back to the land of the living. I think MIB died centuries ago by someone on the Black Rock and never got to finish his plan to kill Jacob and rule the island because Jacob or someone else killed him first. His power or communion with the island allowed him to still exist, albeit in spirit form only.

Locke being resurrected gave MIB a vessel that could be permanently inhabited because of whatever Jacob's magic touch does to human bodies. I don't know how this happens and since it's science-fiction you can plug in whatever cool idea you like. The point is that Jacob touching a dead body "blesses it" in a way that makes it possible for MIB to actually live in that body and become alive again. I also think this is why Locke could walk again on the island. It's because Jacob's blessing of his body allows the healing power of the island to work in a more concentrated form. The Smoke Monster almost "came-in-it's-pants" when it saw Locke because it realized this vessel is WAY more important then all the rest of vessels it had been scanning. Now I realize we saw two bodies so MIB didn't exactly possess Locke's body but instead he cloned him, but still I think the touch of a dead body blesses it and allows MIB to have greater access than just the reanimation's he's been doing. I ! think this is why MIB eats the mango Ilana gave him and said it was the best he'd ever tasted. It was because MIB was finally ALIVE again, in the corporeal sense and not just reanimating a dead corpse as a spirit that could disappear suddenly.

I'm confident that MIB wanted Locke's body because he also wanted to live again not JUST kill Jacob. If only a leader on the island can kill Jacob, why not get Widmore to do it? He seems like a much easier candidate to tempt into killing than Ben. Widmore was pissed-off and angry all the time, MIB could've easily used that anger to have him stab Jacob. I think it's because MIB needed or wanted to be alive when Jacob died and this could only happen by having Jacob touch/bless a dead body. Thus a body was needed that had been properly prepared.

Unfortunately for MIB, this makes him mortal and so he can be shot, stabbed, drowned or burned to death and be permanently exiled from the island. (Think Superman giving up his powers to be with Lois Lane) I think you can tie in all the theories that Jacob planned the loophole also with this idea. Jacob knew or realized that the only way to get rid of MIB would be to lure him into a body where he can be killed so he chose Locke to be the vessel. He knew a middle-aged bald guy would be irresistible to MIB. (Not that he's gay, and not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Ok, I'm off to my gambling game with the guys. I hear a scottish guy calling my name.