It's all about Time by 4815162346

This is something that has just occurred to me, and I believe it is viable enough to throw out to the internet. Read on, Lost fans, and tell me what you think.

Ever since the time-traveling plot began, people have been trying to explain it. How do actions in the past affect the future? Can you really change the past, or is the "What happened, happened" rule still in effect? How about the new alternate timeline, if things weren't confusing enough. The problem is, I can't answer all of that. But what I can answer is this- the identities of Jacob and the MiB.

The Island is sitting on top of a massive pocket of energy, some unexplainable scientific phenomenon. It's magnetic, electric, and can bend time and space. What this energy is might never be revealed in Lost, and I honestly hope it isn't. After five seasons of this amazing show, I would buy the vague idea that there's some hole in the fabric of reality, where all of time flows from. It's like the spool of thread from which the tapestry is sewed, beginning all our lives and the choices we make in them. So where is this going? Basically, our whole concept of free-will vs. fate ties in here. Each of those corresponds with the fighting factors of time- the future and the past. Our choices affect the future, and mold its outcome. Our fate is determined despite our choices, through our past actions and who we choose to become. We damn ourselves to our own fate, basically. There are some on this show who believe in free will- they are the ones who fight towards the future, who beli! eve they can make a difference. Then, there are some who are too caught up in their past, who feel as if they are destined or fated for something. This is because they have accepted who they are, and do not try to change themselves or their lives.

And this becomes the entire theme of the show, this destiny vs. choice, past vs. future struggle. And, of course, we can see these ideas dressed up in their physical manifestations on the show. What else could Jacob and his counterpart be? Gods, maybe. Aliens, probably not. The energies surrounding the Island, taking the forms of people who have visited there? Most likely!

How many times have we seen the Smoke Monster mimic something? How often has that been a relative from the past, or an animal that reminds a character of some grudge? Christian, Eko's Brother, the black horse Kate sees, the hog that attacks Sawyer's tent. We saw much more of the monster than we realized in Season 1, because he was constantly trying to remind our characters of their fate, of what they are destined to be. Yet Jacob was protecting them too, and hoping that their choices wouldn't be made in vain. Those who could think for themselves managed to help the overall picture, or die at the hands of Smokey- he didn't like people who thought for themselves. Hence, he used Ben and Locke to do his work, because they would be slaves to their fates.

This is a very rough outline, but if anyone looks back through the past seasons, I'm sure there's an endless amount of examples. Everything on Lost is connected, and I'm convinced it has to do with the flow of time and existence itself. Why is the Island so important? It is the heart of this world, its very soul. All the energies and forces that work on our planet Earth stem from this pocket of power, where twin forces beyond our understanding have been caught in a constant struggle that mirrors all of life. Good, bad, past, future, choice, fate... they're all there, and Jacob and the MiB are simply faces to put on these powers that be. I'm a fan of the theory that they really don't have true faces, that the ones we see are people being used, just as Locke currently is. Smokey is the true face of the past, a roiling sea of memories and regrets. Jacob's true face is yet to be shown, but I'd be willing to bet it's similar to a certain flash of white. The future, choice, is cle! ar and unclouded, open to any number of possibilities.

Anyways, let me know what you guys think about all this.