What the MIB did to find his loophole by Purple Walrus

What was the loophole that enabled the MIB to kill Jacob, and what did he have to go through to accomplish this?

Jacob could only be killed by one of his own, ‘willingly’. The MIB visited Ilana in the hospital, who was heavily bandaged, medicated, and could only see out of one eye. The MIB deceived her by taking the form of Jacob’s body, and asked her to make sure Sayid was aboard Ajira flight 316. He knew that this particular flight would put Sayid in contact with a Young Ben in 1977. Furthermore, he knew Sayid was, and has always been a killer, and he would inflict great bodily harm upon Ben, which would cause Ben to be taken to the Temple to be made one of them, thus enabling him to kill Jacob.

Before reading further, I suggest refreshing by reading the synopsis/review of these two episodes:

Episode 10, Season 5 - "He’s Our You"
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/He%27s_Our_You

Episode 11, Season 5 – What Ever Happened, Happened
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Whatever_Happened,_Happened


I. Jacob could only be killed by one of his own.

MIB: Do you have any idea how badly I wanna kill you?
JACOB: Yes.
MIB One of these days, sooner or later... I'm going to find a loophole, my friend.
JACOB: Well, when you do, I'll be right here.

A diamond is the hardest mineral to cut due to its intensely strong covalent bonding between its atoms. Under the rules of mineralogy, due to this remarkably strong bond between its atoms, only another diamond is capable of cutting a diamond. Likewise, due to the unity of bonding between Jacob and his People, under The Rules, Jacob could only be killed by one of his own. This is similar to Dogen explaining to Jack, that Sayid cannot take the pill, unless he takes it “willingly.” The type of ‘willingness’ here, is distinguishable from Absolute-willingness. Under The Rules, the requite level of willingness is satisfied even where a person makes a decision that is partly the result of being manipulated by another.

In 1977, Sayid attempts to kill, and shoots Young Benjamin Linus. As Young Ben bleeds profusely and is imminent of dying, Juliet, a former Other, knows that the only way to save Young Ben from dying. Juliet asks Richard and The Others to save him. Richard explains, “If I take him, he's not ever gonna be the same again….I mean is that, he'll forget this ever happened, and that...his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us.” Richard takes the dying young Ben to The Temple where he was healed and permanently became one of them.


II. What the MIB had to do to accomplish this

MIB: Hello Jacob.
JACOB: Well you found your loophole.
MIB: Indeed I did. And you have no idea what I've gone through to be here.

Between 2004 -2007, we might have seen the MIB off The Island. Jack saw his father, Hurley saw Charlie, and Kate saw Claire.

Pre-crash, we saw Jacob visit Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Locke, and Jin & Sun, off of The Island. In each of these instances, Jacob made physical contact by touching each one of them with his hand or finger.

Around 2007, Jacob visited Ilana in the hospital. At that point, there was already a pre-existing relationship between the two, as Jacob apologizes for not being able to visit earlier, and Ilana claimed she was happy to see him. Jacob asked her to help him with something, and she agreed, however the viewer was not privy to what exactly she agreed to. There was a striking difference between Jacob’s pre-crash visits to the 815ers, and his post-crash visit with Ilana. While Jacob touched the 815ers, he made it a point not to touch Ilana. In fact, he was wearing a black leather glove.

Perhaps the man with the ‘black’ and ‘leather’ glove who visited Ilana in the hospital, was really the MIB, asking her to get Sayid on the flight Ajira 316. His intent of having him on Ajira would not to have been to bring him back to The Island in general, but instead to bring him to The Island to 1977 to cause Ben to become one of Jacob’s own. Remember, it was Ilana, not Ben or Eloise Hawkins, who was responsible for having Sayid on Ajira. Ilana posed as a Marshall and escorted a handcuffed Sayid aboard Ajira. At one point in the flight, after hitting some turbulence and experiencing a white flash, Sayid, Jack, Kate, and Hurley, suddenly vanished from the flight, and were transported to The Island to 1977. The rest of the flight landed safely on Hydra’s runway in 2007.

Towards the beginning, in the Book of Genesis, Isaac loved his older son Esau more than he loved his younger son Jacob. During those times, when a man dies, his older son receives twice as much as the younger of what the father has owned. This was called his "birthright." So Esau, as the older, had a "birthright" to more of Isaac's possessions than Jacob.

Once, when Esau came home, hungry and saw that Jacob had a bowl of something that he had just cooked for dinner.” Give me some of that stuff in the dish. red [on LOST, Jacob was eating red herring] Jacob answered, "I will give it to you, if you will first of all sell to me your birthright." Esau agreed.

MIB: Morning.
JACOB: Mornin'.
MIB: Mind if I join you?
JACOB: [Shaking his head] Please. Want some fish?
MIB: Thank you. I just ate.

"My son, I am very old, and do not know how soon I must die. But before I die, I wish to give to you, as my older son, God's blessing upon you, and your children, and your descendants.” Now Esau ought to have told his father that the blessing did not belong to him, for he had sold it to his brother Jacob. But he did not tell his father. When Jacob learned of this, he dressed in Esau's clothes, and wore animal leather [the MIB(Fake Jacob wore a leather glove] on his neck and arm because Esau was hairy and approached his very sick almost blind father.” Here I am, my father.” And Isaac said, "Who are you, my son?" And Jacob answered, "I am Esau, your oldest son” and Issac felt his hairy arms and neck and gave Jacob his birthright and blessings, thinking he was Esau.

However, upon learning of this deceit, Issac said:
“You will not have the richness of the earth,
The dew from heaven won’t be given to you.
You will have to live by taking, [smoke-monster taking the form of others]
and you will serve your brother.
But one day you will break free.” [loophole]

There might be great irony if the MIB deceived a sick, heavily bandaged, and medicated Ilana [Issac] into thinking he was really Jacob. The irony would be that Jacob has previously deceived someone into giving him The Island and its blessings, when it rightfully belonged to the MIB.

After boarding Ajira flight Sayid asks Ilana if she works for Ben. When she denies this Sayid describes him as a liar, manipulator and a monster and when asked why anyone would work for someone like that, Sayid replies "I did." The irony of this conversation, is that Ilana questions why anybody would ever work for “a liar, manipulator and a monster,” when she was unknowingly working for the MIB by bringing Sayid to 1977 to shoot Young Ben in order for him to become one of them, making him capable of killing Jacob.

The writer’s lay this story out very well in sequence in these two episodes. It starts off by showing Sayid as a child voluntarily killing a chicken for his father, after his brother was two scared, demonstrating that Sayid has always possessed the archetype of being a killer. Later on, Sayid even declares that his one true destiny in life was to kill Ben. Due to its importance, this declaration was even reiterated on last night’s enhanced episode.

In regards to what ever happened, happened, Miles and Hurley have an interesting conversation about this. Keep in mind, that when Richard permanently mad Ben one of them, he said at, he'll forget this ever happened.

HURLEY: Let me get this straight. All this already happened.
MILES: Yes.
HURLEY: So this conversation we're having right now...we already had it.
MILES: [Claps his hands] Yes!
HURLEY: Then what am I gonna say next?
MILES: I don't know. [Shakes his head.]
HURLEY: Ha'! Then your theory is wrong!
MILES: For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it's happening right now.
HURLEY: Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then...why don't I remember any of it?
MILES: Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn't a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now.
HURLEY: Say that again.
MILES: [Pauses in exasperation and pulls out his gun and holds it out for Hurley to take.] Shoot me. Please. Please!
HURLEY: Aha! I can't shoot you. Because if you die in 1977, then you'll never come back to the island on the freighter 30 years from now.
MILES: I can die because I've already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present.
HURLEY: But you said Ben couldn't die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the Others.
MILES: Because this is his past.
HURLEY: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn't he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?
MILES: Huh. I hadn't thought of that.
HURLEY: Huh. [Crossing his arms.]

Clearly, this theory suggests that Sayid and Ilana were pawns for the MIB. But the greatest pawn was Ben. The end of “Whatever Happened, Happened,” ends with Ben waking up after having been knocked out by Sun, with the MIB (Fake Locke) looking at him. As Ben's eyes widen in surprise, John welcomes him back to "the land of the living."

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/thumb/d/d2/LivingAgain.jpg/180px-LivingAgain.jpg


II. Theory Flaws

The MIB has recently suggested that he wants off The Island. If he can’t get off, than how did he visit Ilana in the hospital? Remember, it is possible that he visited several people off The Island, Jack as Christian, Kate as Claire, and possibly Hurley as Charlie.

Perhaps the MIB was able to make appearances off The Island because he is really Aaron. In other words, just like the MIB is now in Locke’s body, he has taken Aaron’s along time ago. In the pilot episode, Claire told Jack that she thought that Aaron died on impact of the crash because she hadn’t felt him kick in a long time. Perhaps he did die and the MIB took his dead body. The psychic Malkin, after reading Claire returned her fee and hurried her out of his office, after having a disturbing vision concerning Aaron.

Also, perhaps The Others didn’t know the baby was dead, but was going to dye during child birth, making the dead baby capsule a good candidate to be claimed. Maybe that is why Aaron was administered shots. The shots could have simply been water from The Temple.

This still doesn’t answer the question, as to why the MIB needs Sawyer’s help to get off The Island, if he has already been, and is capable of accomplishing this on his own. Perhaps the MIB is conning a con, and is recruiting Sawyer by offering to help Sawyer with the one thing Sawyer truly wants… to get off of The Island. When the Smoke Monster first found Sawyer in New Otherton, “Search and Destroy” by The Stooges was playing in the background.