My first thought, after watching the season finale, was "Great, lots more information, but no answers" ... except, having digested it for a couple of days, I think they may have answered everything regarding Jacob, the island, the eternal conflict, etc.
First, who is Jacob? Jacob from the Old Testament and his rival is Esau. That's why they're bound together and, as you may recall, after Isaac dies and Jacob takes over the family, Esau vows to kill Jacob (Gen. 27:41). Sound familiar?
At this point, Jacob flees for his life and goes to Laban. In his travels, he has the Jacob's Ladder experience, which establishes him as someone with a definite religious/mythical destiny, and then he moved around quite a bit with his marriages and so forth, ending up in Canaan, etc. Note that all of this was taking place fairly close to Egypt -- his son, Joseph, was sold into slavery to the Egyptians, after all. Oh, and before I go on: Jacob's ladder, he falls down a hole in the ground: We've seen this with Locke falling into the well, and now Juliet, too.
Why do I want the Egyptian connection? Well, obviously, we've seen the heiroglyphs before (noting that the bird, shown prominently, is the symbol for Horus) and now we've seen the statue. Crocodile face is Sobek, who protected the Nile. Sobek symbolized the produce and fertility of the Nile region, and what's more fertile than our very own island?
We've seen the island heal mysteriously. Well, Sobek's ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part.
Even more important: In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus in a net, as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom.
The four sons of Horus were a group of four gods in Egyptian religion, who were essentially the personifications of the four canopic jars, which accompanied mummified bodies. The classic depiction of the four sons of Horus on Middle Kingdom coffins show Imsety and Duamutef on the eastern side of the coffin and Hapi and Qebehsenuef on the western side. Because the eastern side is decorated with a pair of eyes and the mummy was turned on its side to face the east and the rising sun, this side is sometimes referred to as the front. The sons of Horus also became associated with the cardinal compass points, so that Hapi was the North, Imsety the south, Duamutef the east and Qebehsenuef the west. What's been passed around and talked about this season? A compass. John Locke's/Richard's compass. Also, as Sawyer and Kate were on the raft floating back to the island in the finale, yet another compass reference.
Now, this doesn't answer everything -- it doesn't even come close -- but it does explain who these beings are. Maybe.
As for pure speculation: For whatever reason, Esau isn't allowed to directly kill Jacob, so the loophole is finding the right "candidate" for that. "Not Locke"/Esau tempts Ben (Benjamin, another of Jacob's sons in the bible, incidentally) into killing Jacob, just like the tempting serpent/Satan in the Garden of Eden ... and if we want to go one further with the Garden of Eden, the island certainly fits that bill, and the electromagnetic energy they tapped is a pretty good substitute for the forbidden fruit.
As for why Frank is a "candidate", I'm guessing he's the new vessel for Jacob ... and Richard? Well, since we're going biblical, he's the Wandering Jew, destined to wander the earth forever.
And since is the internet and I'm obligated to nit-pick ... Sayid was a torturer for the Republican Guard in Iraq. I can buy that he was a communications officer, too, so he knows about radio equipment, but how does he also have the knowledge/skill to "rig" the fission trigger of the H-bomb to blow up on contact? Is Daniel's journal really so detailed that it explains all of that? Not to mention that Sayid has 80's and 90's circuitry skill -- would he know what to do with a vacuum tube if he saw one?
First, who is Jacob? Jacob from the Old Testament and his rival is Esau. That's why they're bound together and, as you may recall, after Isaac dies and Jacob takes over the family, Esau vows to kill Jacob (Gen. 27:41). Sound familiar?
At this point, Jacob flees for his life and goes to Laban. In his travels, he has the Jacob's Ladder experience, which establishes him as someone with a definite religious/mythical destiny, and then he moved around quite a bit with his marriages and so forth, ending up in Canaan, etc. Note that all of this was taking place fairly close to Egypt -- his son, Joseph, was sold into slavery to the Egyptians, after all. Oh, and before I go on: Jacob's ladder, he falls down a hole in the ground: We've seen this with Locke falling into the well, and now Juliet, too.
Why do I want the Egyptian connection? Well, obviously, we've seen the heiroglyphs before (noting that the bird, shown prominently, is the symbol for Horus) and now we've seen the statue. Crocodile face is Sobek, who protected the Nile. Sobek symbolized the produce and fertility of the Nile region, and what's more fertile than our very own island?
We've seen the island heal mysteriously. Well, Sobek's ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part.
Even more important: In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus in a net, as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom.
The four sons of Horus were a group of four gods in Egyptian religion, who were essentially the personifications of the four canopic jars, which accompanied mummified bodies. The classic depiction of the four sons of Horus on Middle Kingdom coffins show Imsety and Duamutef on the eastern side of the coffin and Hapi and Qebehsenuef on the western side. Because the eastern side is decorated with a pair of eyes and the mummy was turned on its side to face the east and the rising sun, this side is sometimes referred to as the front. The sons of Horus also became associated with the cardinal compass points, so that Hapi was the North, Imsety the south, Duamutef the east and Qebehsenuef the west. What's been passed around and talked about this season? A compass. John Locke's/Richard's compass. Also, as Sawyer and Kate were on the raft floating back to the island in the finale, yet another compass reference.
Now, this doesn't answer everything -- it doesn't even come close -- but it does explain who these beings are. Maybe.
As for pure speculation: For whatever reason, Esau isn't allowed to directly kill Jacob, so the loophole is finding the right "candidate" for that. "Not Locke"/Esau tempts Ben (Benjamin, another of Jacob's sons in the bible, incidentally) into killing Jacob, just like the tempting serpent/Satan in the Garden of Eden ... and if we want to go one further with the Garden of Eden, the island certainly fits that bill, and the electromagnetic energy they tapped is a pretty good substitute for the forbidden fruit.
As for why Frank is a "candidate", I'm guessing he's the new vessel for Jacob ... and Richard? Well, since we're going biblical, he's the Wandering Jew, destined to wander the earth forever.
And since is the internet and I'm obligated to nit-pick ... Sayid was a torturer for the Republican Guard in Iraq. I can buy that he was a communications officer, too, so he knows about radio equipment, but how does he also have the knowledge/skill to "rig" the fission trigger of the H-bomb to blow up on contact? Is Daniel's journal really so detailed that it explains all of that? Not to mention that Sayid has 80's and 90's circuitry skill -- would he know what to do with a vacuum tube if he saw one?
