Kate is a real candidate by The Mother

I know it sound crazy but what if:

the most important character is a Jacob and MiB's mother.

Mother could be the living incarnation of Tawaret and the statue was built by the islanders to honor their goddess. I assume that the Mother is dead by now and Jacob tricks us all.

The Candidates (Jack, Hugo, James and others) are only the cards in his hands. They are all on the island to protect a woman and the woman is Kate. She is not a candidate because Jacob is doing everything he can to throw MiB off the scent. That is why only men are the remaining candidates. That is why the love thing is so important. And that is why Aaron was raised by Kate, she has already taken on the foster mother role with Claire's baby.

So my guess is that Jacob is misleading everyone. And maybe the all 6 candidates have a part to play too. Eg. Jack as a father. We saw in the ALT that he can be a good father after all.