Jacob's Morality Lesson to MIB by eagles1405

I went back and re-listened to a lot of the important dialogue from last night's episode. Here's some interesting quotes, word for word, followed by my theory about what the dialogue reveals:

Conversation between Jacob and Richard:
JACOB - "That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter."
RICHARD - "Before you brought my ship, there were others?"
J - "Yes, many."
R - "What happened to them?"
J - "They're all dead."
R - "But if you brought them here, why didn't you help them?"
J - "Because I wanted them to help themselves. To know the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them. It's all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything. Why should I have to step in?"
R - "If you don't, he will!" (Looks like a lightbulb goes off in Jacob's head)
J - "Do you want a job?" (discussion the moves to the idea of Richard as an intermediary)

THEORY: It seems as if the "game" that MIB and Jacob are playing is more of a one way morality lesson. MIB is imprisoned, and Jacob is utilizing the time with him to try to teach him a lesson ("You're still trying to prove me wrong") about the nature of humans, that there is good in them, that there are at lease some who will not allow themselves to be corrupted. This is a lesson that is proving quite difficult, because MIB is having a lot of success influencing visitors and proving his own theory, that "they come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same."

Somewhere along the line MIB decided to utilize the fact that Jacob is bringing people to the island against him, by trying to find a loophole through which he can kill Jacob and be freed. It's possible that at this point Jacob realized (or foresaw...I'll get to this later) he would eventually be killed and would need to recruit a replacement for himself.

Also, it seems like Jacob had an epiphany during this conversation with Richard. By adhering to his hands off approach and not helping the people he brings to the island, he is leaving them defenseless against MIB's influence, which is not a fair fight. So he comes up with the idea of giving Richard the Job of intermediary, to help even the playing field. He still wants people to make good choices on their own, but recognizes that guidance on his part is necessary in order to hinder MIB's influence, and that this does not violate his rule against undermining people's free will.

Interestingly enough, I think we can all agree that Jacob somehow has the power to see the future. Among other things, the recruitment of Ilana as protector of the final 6 candidates proves this. All of this plays into how Jacob died. He foresaw that Ben would kill him, and up until the final moment he was hoping that he was wrong. This could've been the end that Jacob hoped for, to prove once for all to MIB that, despite his influence to the contrary, there is good at the core of some people. Unfortunately Jacob was right about Ben. However, possibly the main reason he didn't fight back was because he's found out a different way to prove to MIB that there is good in people as one of the final 6 candidates will replace Jacob in order to keep MIB on the island. I'm guessing that this will all come about through the willing sacrificial death of one of the candidates (my guess is Sawyer) on behalf of the one that replaces Jacob (my guess is Jack).

Here are some additional quotes from last night, and my theory on what they revealed:

Jacob talking to Richard:
"Think of this wine as what you keep calling 'hell.' There's many other names for it too...malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is...swirling around in the bottle unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork...is this island. And it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs."

THEORY: Here we see that the mythology behind LOST is likely not confined to any one religious point of view, but rather a blended religious worldview...maybe the common truth that all religions try to explain. Jacob carefully says, "What YOU KEEP CALLING hell," and gives it other names. I think people are thinking too literally abut hell as a place, and about the island as a cork, or gateway. Seems to me that the simplest explanation is that MIB is the spiritual personification of hell, malevolence, evil, darkness, etc. Call him satan, the devil, a demon, whatever, but he is literally trapped by the island, and Jacob.

Conversation between Jacob and MIB:
Jacob - "So you tried to kill me."
MIB - "You expect an apology?"
Jacob - "No. I guess I'm just wondering why you did it."
MIB - "Because I want to leave. Just let me leave Jacob. Jacob - As long as I'm alive you're not going anywhere."
MIB - "Well then, now you know why I want to kill you. And I will kill you Jacob."
Jacob - "Even if you do somebody else will take my place."
MIB - "Well, then I'll kill them too."

THOUGHTS: This conversation took place after the "do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you" conversation they had on the beach as Black Rock was approaching the island. Knowing that, it is a little surprising that Jacob would not know WHY MIB would want to try to kill him. But for our sakes, I guess it spells out the fact that killing Jacob was more than just a personal vendetta, but rather the key to his escape from the island.

Hurley to Richard:
"If you don't (stop MIB), todos nos vamos al infierno." (We all go to hell).

THOUGHTS: Again, I'm not sure that this so much means the place that we think of as hell. Going back to what Jacob said - that if the evil would get out, it would spread. So more like this is the consequence of MIB's escape, people would become more dark and corrupt, and it would in a sense be hell on earth.

New Question I was left with last night:
Taweret is the Egyptian Goddess of childbirth and fertility - did the Black Rock crashing into and destroying Taweret cause the island's issues with women dying in childbirth, or were they always there?