Candidates and Their Gifts by John W

Hi, apologies if this idea has been done before, someone else actually started me off on this so some of the credit belongs to them. This is before tonights episode so this theory may be completely wrong in a few hours but i think its bang on the money.

We know Jacob can give people gifts and we also know how it works, he just touches them, like when he touched Richard to give him immortality. We saw Jacob in “The Incident” touch Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke and both of the Kwons so did he give them all gifts? We know Hurley has a gift as he can speak to the dead but what about the others and why would he give them gifts/powers?

Jacks Gift: This idea was not originally thought of by me but by another lost fan from “theories on lost”. Jack has the ability to never cause the death to any of the remaining candidates. The evidence for this is when he dropped the bomb in the incident and it didn’t go off, when the dynamite didn’t go off with Richard and why the bomb did go off when Sawyer tampered with it. My theory is that Jacob gave each of the candidates gifts so they can use them against MIB without him knowing (and in most cases even themselves knowing). By using these gifts they can defeat MIB because he will expect them to kill each other, but if Jack makes all the crazy decisions and becomes the leader none of them can be killed by his actions. This guy from “theories on lost” also said that MIB expected them all to die with the hydrogen bomb in the incident but when it went off it was Jack’s plan so they didn’t all die and were instead magically teleported to 2007 to finish Jacob’s plan.

Hurleys Gift: We all know this one; he can talk to dead people. Jacob gave this gift to Hurley so he could maintain communication with the losties once he died. This also means that he expected his death and that him dying was always going to be part of his plan not just MIB’s. Therefore what we may see in the final episodes is Jacob’s plan unfold as there has to be a relatively happy ending.

Kwons Gift: I’m nearly as sure about this one as Jack’s Gift; they both have a healing/life giving ability. The evidence for this is when Jin feeds Claire after she can’t feel the baby from the crash. Not long after she eats Jin’s tasty cuisine she feels the baby, almost like it comes to life. Sun also grows a garden to which flourishes and she manages to get pregnant even when Jin can’t have children. What’s also interesting is that they died together as if they can’t live without each other; they are bounded in some sort of way perhaps by their healing power. We know it’s both of them as Jacob touched them at the same time.

Sawyer: I think Sawyer’s gift is his ability to lie/con. I can’t think of anything else he is amazingly good at and we all know Sawyer can fool anyone even MIB, like when he stole the boat to go to Hydra island and join Widmore’s side. MIB is very clever and intuitive and will probably be able to defeat the losties by figuring out their plan; with Sawyer’s lying ability they can pull off a anything against MIB without him knowing.

Sayid: Sayid’s ability is the most interesting as Jacob touched him when he was with Nadia in the USA which means that this was after the crash. Therefore Sayid’s ability isn’t his torturing skill or being able to figure out if someone is lying, which are his notable talents as he had them before the crash. I think it’s something like he can never be completely corrupted by MIB which is evidenced by him not killing Desmond and sacrificing himself for the others on the sub. If you think about it Sayid hasn’t been too evil when he was following MIB; he killed Dogen and Lennon but they were suspicious people who tried to poison Sayid anyway. And it’s not like our losties havn’t killed any of the others before. We know that you can be completely corrupted/infected by MIB because Rousseau’s husband/boyfriend tried to kill her when she was pregnant after he’d been dragged under the temple by the smoke. He tried to kill her, would Sayid do that to Nadia? I doubt it. I believe that Jacob gave Sayid this ability of humanity so that when MIB infects him and thinks he will do anything he says, he actually wont i.e. he lies when he said he killed Desmond. This means that MIB’s plan isn’t working as for some reason he needs Desmond dead which is a whole other topic.

Other people’s Gifts: Locke was given a gift, remember when he fell from that 6 storey building? It seemed to me that this gift was the gift of life as he seemed to die until Jacob touched him. Perhaps he just healed him a bit because Jacob says he can’t bring people back from the dead. Whatever happened I think Locke was given a gift by Jacob anyhow. Mile’s has the ability to sense what the dead are thinking before they died. We haven’t seen Jacob touch Miles but as far as we know all abilities come from Jacob so they must have met at some point. We all know about Richard and how he got his ability. Walt also has powers too remember, which from what we have seen he has the ability to make things he wants to happen, happen. Polar bears appearing when he reads comics, birds crashing into windows when he reads about them and contacting Michael when he wants to leave via the numbers computer. I don’t think Walt sneaked into some facility when living with the others and then hacked into a pc then managed to figure out how to message his dad at the exact moment Michael is at the Swan’s pc. I think it’s his magic thought projection ability, call it whatever you want. I’m not sure why Jacob these people gifts as well, perhaps they were needed for Jacob’s plan in the long run to work even if they aren’t particularly important right now.

Perhaps MIB’s loophole is when he manifests himself as someone Jacob has given a gift to. Therefore MIB can use some of that Jacob magic to give himself the ability to have a permanent form i.e. Locke. Surely Jacob would know this was the loophole so when MIB exploited it he would have a backup plan like more people with abilities. MIB might have thought that Jacob’s No.1 candidate was Locke because he kept on talking about his connection with the island so by manifesting as this guise he thought it was his own idea and that he would completely thwart Jacob’s plan. In fact it was what Jacob wanted and I reckon that’s what we’ll see in the final episodes.

Anyways my theory is simple, Jacob gave these people random abilities so that his plan will work to defeat MIB. I think the final revelations will be Jacob telling our remaining candidates what abilities he gave them and how they can use them against MIB. He will tell them all of the other abilities he gave to other people which will help describe his grand master plan to beat MIB. What you think people?