The Game by Evan Fox

First off, this theory does not come close to solving every single ‘mystery’ of Lost. Nor does it come close to answering every single
question. What you are about to read is my idea of the basic plot of Lost . It tries to explain the basic ‘game’ being played between Jacob and The Dude (MIB). Personally, I think "the Dude" just rolls of the tongue so much better than MIB so I am sticking with it.

Two things to consider first: what I am about to present to you is very
simple. I am a firm believer that most often when it comes to Lost,
the simplest answer is usually the right one. I think that the writers
love the idea of toying with the fan base and feeding fuel to the fire. For example – the # 108. I don’t think it has any significance whatsoever. But the writers know the fan-base is enamored with it so they will continue to make it important. In Episode 5 when Jacob told Hurley to turn the wheel to 108, it was just so Jack would pass #23 on the wheel. The writer’s chose 108 because they knew it would drive the fans crazy. Jacob having Hurley take Jack to the lighthouse and do all those things was for no other reason than to open up Jack’s eyes. The writers saw an opportunity to use the #108 and ran with it.

Second, I have long believed two things about Jacob and the Dude.
Jacob is not the innocent hero the writers are making him out to be.
And the Dude is not the evil villain the writers are making him out to
be. They are both out for themselves. Don’t get me wrong- the Dude is
a bad guy. But he is a bad guy who was dealt a crappy hand and is just
trying to free himself. Compare him to someone who made a deal with
the devil. He is doing dirty work, but at this point, he just wants
out.

Ok, so here it is. At some point a very, very long time ago, Jacob and
the Dude got locked in a game. The object to the game is simple. The
game is all about who is going to ‘protect’ the island. Jacob
(somehow – and I assume we’ll find out shortly) got appointed to be the protector. Once the protector, it is in Jacob’s self-interest to find someone who will take Jacob’s spot – Jacob, like anyone else, wants to live his life and not have to be burdened with the job of protecting the island. So Jacob gets 360 chances to find someone to protect the island. I used the #360 since there are 360 degrees on the wheel. If you are one of the 360, then you are considered a candidate. The Dude has one goal: to get Jacob to use all 360 chances of his chances without finding someone to take the job. The end game: Jacob finds someone to voluntariy relieve Jacob of his duties (lets call him X), and now the Dude has to go through the game all over again with X. If Jacob uses all 360 of his chances without finding someone to take the protector gig, than the Dude is set free, and Jacob is stuck with the job forever. For rrrrr–evvvvvvvv- Errrrrrr.

Now so how does this affect the current characters of Lost? The 6
Candidates left are the final 6. If Jacob doesn’t get one of them to
take the job, then Dude wins. If Jacob gets someone to take it, the
Dude is back to square one with a new ‘Jacob.’


(It was pointed out to m by someone that if this is true, then Kate’s name should have been on the wall point. Very valid point. A variation of my theory would have the 360 degrees on the wheel divvied up between Jacob and the Dude. Maybe 300/60, 180/180, who knows. But the Dude also gets to bring people to the island – and these characters are the Dude’s pieces in the game to counter Jacob’s candidates. This might also explain why the temple-people were so quick to allow Kate and Jin to leave and find Sawyer. Sawyer was allowed to leave because he is a candidate – as we saw with Dogen and Hurley, candidates get to do whatever they want, when they want. But Kate and Jin were only allowed to leave with Dogen's approval – and why wouldn’t they say no? Kate doesn’t matter to them – she is on Team Jacob - and the note told Dogen so. And Jin – this theory assumes Sun, not Jin, is the candidate. If that’s true, who cares if he leaves. Best-case scenario, th! ey bring back Sawyer. Worst-case scenario, they both die and don’t bring back Sawyer.)


Now, a couple thoughts:

Free willis Rule #1 – whoever takes the job has to do it voluntarily. Also,
candidates cannot be forced to do anything by either Jacob or the
Dude. Nor can candidates be killed by the Dude – it would just make
the game unfair and tilted towards the Dude. However, it is in the
Dude’s best interest to ‘get rid’ of candidates. For example, Dude may have set in motion the events that ended up with Locke dead. Or (we haven’t seen this but I think we will) get Sawyer to voluntarily walk himself into a cage where is trapped and can’t do his part in Jacob’s master plan. Or possibly get him to voluntarily descend down a ladder that will break so he will fall to his death…

So is every candidate really a candidate? No. I think that candidates
can be used as pawns. So even though there are 6 candidates left, the
Dude can use 5 of them – even get them to put themselves in a
situation where they will die – in order to get the final candidate to
the end game. I think every candidate who died prior to Ben spinning the wheel (who was aided by Jack’s dad who I assume at this point was a reincarnation of smokey/Dude) was a candidate that Jacob put on a course to die in order to further Jacob’s end-game. (I also think that everything was going as planned for Jacob until Ben spun the wheel – once that happened, the momentum shifted to the Dude and has been there ever since.

I also think Locke was, for a lack of better words, Jacobs’
lock-pick to take the job. He was a believer. He loved the idea of
protecting the island. But since the Dude has made that not possible
– by somehow putting Ben on path where he kills Locke, Jacob is now
trying to figure out a way to get one of the remaining 6 to take the
gig. My prediction: Jack is the guy, and towards the end, the
remaining 5 will die off one by one doing ‘their’ part in Jacob’s
master plan until we are left with just Hurley and Jack. And before
Hurley sacrifices himself, Jack stops him, and Jacob loses the game.

Good vs. Evil – hopefully by now, you are realizing that good vs. evil
isn’t as simple as white vs. black. I think Jacob will be an
antagonist that you will want to kill in the end, and the Dude will be
someone who as much as you can’t stand the guy, you feel bad for him.
And we’ll realize that he wasn’t lying when he told Sawyer that he
“just wants to go home.”

Final thought 1: If you are one of 360 candidates, Locke is able to
just show up in your life and, by touching you, set you on a course
that will ensure you end up the island. These are all parts of the
rules to “the game.” Again, Jacob is only out for his own selfish
reasons – the guy does not want to protect the island a second longer.
(Don’t forget what I said about some candidates being pawns – someone
like Ben Linus was not brought over with the intention of Jacob
getting him to take the gig. He was brought in so we could be used to
get one of the final 6 to do the job. ) Also, I think the Dude can
also get off the island and try to stop the candidates from making it
there, in addition to possible brining his own people. But again, it all has to be done with free will – the key is changing their futures in a way where they voluntarily get on flight 815. The flash-sideways, then, is nothing more than what would have happened if Jacob never came into their lives. Some have lives for the better (Hurley) and others for the worse (Rose – who will probably die of cancer).

Final thought #2: this theory does not answer every single little
mystery. I am fully aware of that. I also think, however, that some
questions won’t be solved. For example, Myles and Hurley communicating
with the dead. We might just have to accept that they have the
ability, and that is that. What is important to my theory is that
Jacob knew of this ability (at least for Hurley) and thus chose
him/them as candidates. Orrrrrr (and now I am going extra crazy) what
if one the rules of the game allowed you to give this power to a
candidate. I know its crazy, but in this theory, everything comes down to the rules. If this is the game they are playing, then everything else is
answered by telling us what the rules to the game are. We already know
one: you can’t kill a candidate.

Thoughts?