I've Said it Before and I'll Say it Again... Time is the Essence of LOST by MeAgain

So I've written this twice before, and I'm going to do it again. This theory keeps becoming more and more real to me as I watch Lost, and I think it makes more sense than any God/Alien/Jesus crap I've read here before. The island isn't a spaceship, it's not Eden, it's an ISLAND. The thing is, it's sitting in a peculiar spot- whether this spot is a black-hole or exotic matter, I'm not sure. This theory cannot explain what the island is, but rather who it's main inhabitants are. Jacob and MiB have obviously lived on this island for many, many years, and they've gained special traits because of it. I am going to try and prove just what they have become.

Think about all the talk about free will vs. destiny, good vs. evil, time travel, the past and the future, and now get this...

MiB has become the essence of the Past. Jacob is the embodiment of the Future.

Here's some facts to back this up. Number one has to be time travel. The island is practically a hole in time and space, some anomaly that is beyond natural explanation. It can move through time as if it were swinging on a pendulum, and it can bend light and space around it as well. It's obvious these properties are important, and most likely time itself is determined by the island. In the words of Faraday, despite all the moments of time and the alternate worlds and whatever other crazy shit the writers throw at us, this island is the entire WORLD'S Constant. All these variables coming from choice and consequence, but the island is always there. These two figures have lived so long on the island, they have practically become one with it- however, they both chose very different paths.

Think of what we've seen of Jacob so far. He is mysterious, certainly, but we know he does not age like Richard, and can bestow this agelessness onto others with a simple touch. He believes in the power of choice, of free will- the ability to change the future depending upon ourselves. He believes in progress, in moving forward. He understands the future is obscure and ever-changing... Just as people's choices cause it to constantly change and adapt, he knows he too must change, and his position adapted to another. Someone must come to take his place, to make the choice to continue with protecting the future.

Protecting it from what, you ask? Good old Smokey, MiB, Flocke, whatever you want to call him. The opposite to Jacob, he is the PAST. I don't know how much more obvious I can be with these examples. He imitates people's fears and past anxieties, he takes the shape of dead people, loved ones and enemies alike. He most likely appeared to Kate as the black horse, to Sawyer as the hog (and many other hog appearances). He is constantly reminding people of their pasts, of who they once were. He believes in destiny, in people being subjected to their fate, which is corruption. I do not consider him evil, per say, but he is certainly the antithesis to progression.

Now I'm not saying they were always this way. I follow the idea that Jacob and MiB were once humans like us, but the island made them into something more. Because of their differences in philosophy, they adopted different powers, as the island is magnetic in more ways than just metallic. It attracts PEOPLE, it pulls them together, it draws in all essences of time and space. Jacob and MiB attracted different powers from the island because of this property, and because of their own views. When they air the Jacob/MiB flashback, I hope to expand on this further, but for now this is all I got on that matter.

Further proof- the Dharma Initiative was studying the island's properties intently, and they claimed that if the powers ever escaped, they would cause the destruction of the world. Many of us see this as an apocalyptic ending, of warfare amongst humans, etc etc. However, with this theory in mind, I'm proposing a different kind of ending- the end of time itself. Now that Jacob is dead, the future is blank, and the past is ready to free itself of its bonds. This disruption would cause the very fabric of time to rip apart, and literally end the world and everything with it. No alternate timeline, no choices, no people- everything would be plunged into the darkness of the empty past.

I'll wrap this up with the most recent addition to my theory. With the last episode, Ab Aeterno, I was getting slightly disturbed by all the talk of hell and the devil. I was hoping the show wouldn't go on such a religious route, but in the end I was satisfied. It was all thanks to a single line by Jacob, as he explained why he brings people to the island. "I bring people here to prove him wrong, and when they get here... their past doesn't matter." Game, set, match.

This has always been the theme of the show. Free will vs. Predestination, Change vs. Continuity. These are mirrors of Future vs. Past, Light vs. Dark. Jacob and MiB have played this game forever, and now Jacob is dead- the war for time itself is coming to a close. We will see who gives in to their past, their darkness, and who is able to look forward towards the future, towards progress.

If I'm wrong about this, then let my next plane flight crash on a crazy island with polar bears and metal hatches and a Smoke Monster. Yeah, I'm that confident about it.