It Only Ends Once by thewhitehorse

As a result of nonstop analyzing and thinking about Lost lately, especially after the last episode, my original thinking about the relationship between Jacob and MIB has been TOTALLY reversed!!! Here's my new theory:

Good and evil. Black and white, etc. etc. I've always thought this referred to Jacob and MIB. Jacob being pure good, MIB pure evil. I thought the game that they were playing represented the innate nature of each of them, with one good,the other bad. But now I see that the "game" they are playing is really just a game between them, not necessarily referring to which of them is good or evil. The "good" and "evil" refer to the pieces of the game --otherwise known as our beloved Losties!

How many times have we seen the chess game with the black and white pieces being moved around the board... these pieces are the main characters we have come to know and love for 6 years on Lost, not Jacob and MIB. In Lost's purest form, the pieces, the characters, are the key to it all-- as has been said many times by the show's creators.

I think the game began when MIB was transformed into the Smoke Monster and Jacob became the new protector of the island. Jacob was able to make the rules in order to redeem himself for murdering his brother. The game was to see if mankind was evil or not. If humanity proves itself to be evil, then MIB's hypothesis is validated and he is perhaps never free to go "home" and must remain on the island. If humanity proves itself to be good, make good choices, demonstrate free will, then Jacob's hypothesis is validated, and maybe, just maybe, MIB will be free. I'm thinking that Jacob and Smokey's roles on the Island are dependent upon one another. You can't have Jacob without Smokey and you can't have Smokey without Jacob. (Even though Jacob supposedly "died," his influence still remains).

So with the whole notion of "they come, destroy, corrupt, it always ends the same," this means that the people, humans, upon being summoned to the island have in the past always proven themselves to be corrupt and tip the scale to the side of evil. Thereby proving MIB's theory-- man is not good, man is evil, etc. Jacob says that "it only ends once." Meaning it will just take the one time for the Losties to get it right for the situation to be reversed.

Somehow with these last candidates, the combination is just right. The Valenzzi Equation. The lottery numbers. The numbers of the final candidates represent the solution to it all. This combination of candidates exudes just the right amount of goodness and love because they all developed such emotional ties to each other. "Live together, die alone."

This combination of Losties will overcome the past mistakes and redeem themselves. Perhaps freeing the MIB for a rebirth as Aaron in the ALT timeline which is probably the original timeline and will be the timeline to ultimately prevail...