The Requirements of the Loophole by JPfaff

In the finale of season 5, the MIB tells Jacob that he will find a loophole that will allow him to kill Jacob, and by the end of that episode, Jacob states that it seems that the MIB has found that loophole.

So what exactly is the loophole?

Well, it must refer to a loophole in some set of rules, and we can infer that at least one of those rules is that the MIB cannot directly kill Jacob, otherwise he wouldn’t need to find a loophole; he would just try to kill Jacob himself.

This leads to many different ideas of what this loophole is, but the one I find most appealing is the notion of free will. Whomever kills Jacob has to choose to kill Jacob, he can’t be compelled to do so. This means that Jacob can neither force someone to do it, nor can he possess someone to do it.

But free will alone isn’t enough to justify the notion of a loophole, nor does it explain the length of effort and time the MIB endures to kill Jacob. I mean, if it were enough that the person has to freely make the choice, Jacob could promise someone something really great (effectively hire someone) and that person would then choose to kill Jacob.

So what makes Ben different? Why does he fulfill the requirements of the loophole whereas a hired thug would not?

Simply put, Ben not only chooses to kill Jacob, he wants to do it. For him, it is a personal desire to kill Jacob. A mercenary may want to kill Jacob because the MIB pays him to, but there is nothing personal at stake (it is all for some kind of gain, and presumably, the mercenary wouldn’t care about Jacob, only what they were getting out of it).

This scenario (of both free will and personal desire to kill) creates a dilemma for the MIB; one that justifies years of planning to accomplish. I mean think about it: how easy would it be for you to convince someone else that they want to actually kill someone else (someone as well liked as Jacob to make it even harder). I mean, get them to kill Jacob as if the idea and desire were there own and not just because you told them to.

The more interesting question to me, however, is why the rules exist. Why can’t the MIB kill Jacob directly? I don’t have a good answer to that one yet.