LOST Explained - The Theory of Everything: Part Three (The Rules, The Others & The Candidates)

[Music] thank you welcome back to Lost explained in this part we are exploring the game at the heart of the series and the various players who participated in it for more context on the origins of the island and its various Powers see part one and for more background on the ancient history and civilizations that lived and died on it see part two now let's dive into the meat of the series and the numerous conflicts that make up the dramatic core of the mythology so what exactly is this game that Jacob and the Man in Black were playing well Jacob was trying to prove his brother wrong about Humanity he wants to build a peaceful Society on the island that will live harmoniously together and help him protect the light he wants his brother to see and understand that the island is an important part of their existence and the existence of all things if Jacob can pull off this plan and prove the man in Black wrong about the essential nature of man and the Divinity of the island itself then maybe just maybe the remnants of the Man in Black Soul could be saved too if the worst of us can be redeemed then anyone can be redeemed so winning this game isn't necessarily about personal victory for Jacob it's about securing the future of humanity however whatever good that was once in the man in Black has long since been taken away and returned to the source all that was left of him was the darkness and he could not understand nor abide by Jacob's faith he thought that if he could undermine subvert or corrupt the societies that Jacob was trying to build he could make his brother lose that faith and break his spirit if Jacob was without hope or faith or followers then the man in Black just might be able to escape this prison so for centuries the two brothers played out their game using the island as their Battleground one makes a move then the other makes a move and their centuries-long conflict becomes ever more complex as greater numbers of people become embroiled in this battle for the fate of the island and indeed existence itself but there are rules to this game as we discover throughout the series firstly there are the human rules of the others which we shall explore a bit later in this video since they serve their own purpose a purpose that is separate from the bigger picture the rules of Jacob and the man in Black's Grand game however are entirely Supernatural in nature as previously established a protector is the human conduit for the source and they are imbued with certain abilities in order to serve the island effectively unlike the human rules of the others the rules of protector maintains are unbreakable laws they are enforced by the will of the source itself at least until the next person takes over the role and becomes the new Guardian however a protector does not have absolute power we see that Jacob is limited in what he can and cannot do for instance he cannot resurrect the dead because the light inside that person has returned to the source it appears that only the island itself can choose who comes back and it has to be for a reason what Jacob can do is harness some of the powers at the heart of the island and manipulate The Light Within a person if they are still living let's rewind back to across the sea for a moment back when mother was making the rules she tells the brothers that she made it so they can never hurt each other yet lo and behold we see the boys fight without anything stopping them young Jacob beats up his brother pretty severely then does it again when they are grown men so what does mother really mean by hurt maybe she means that she has made it so that Jacob and the Man in Black cannot kill one another you can't kill me Jacob just made it that way you can't don't worry brother I'm not going to kill you the reason why this rule exists is because the brothers were both candidates for the role of protector people often forget that the same rules that apply to our losties also apply to the two brothers back when they were both mere mortal men therefore they could not be killed until their purpose had been served essentially a candidate cannot die without the Island's permission this is a very crucial detail to make notes of think of Michael Dawson when he tries to kill himself several times in season 4 episode meet Kevin Johnson we see that the island does not allow him to succeed he survives a head-on collision with a wall he tries to shoot himself in an alley he then tries to shoot himself again in his apartment but the gun jams when he goes in for one more try fate intercedes again with the news report even other people tried to do it for him and fail that's because Michael is a candidate and being a candidate isn't simply about being in contention for the role of Island Guardian it's also about serving a specific purpose in the grand tapestry of time we shall explore the nature of the candidates in Greater detail later in this very video the important point to take away from this discussion right now is that Jacob and the Man in Black are candidates protected by the source until they have fulfilled their respective destinies fans often question the enforceability of these rules and how unbreakable they truly are after all we do see them supposedly broken in across the sea and Jacob does inadvertently kill his own brother at least physically firstly I would like to play a deleted scene from the show where are we going your friends are on the other Island we're going we're going what why would I do that so that we can leave the island so that you can go home and be Aaron's mother isn't that what you want I don't understand why can't we just leave because of Jacob's precious candidates he touched them I can't leave the island while they're alive those are the rules I just break the rules do you think if I could break the rules I would still be here now this scene was deleted for a reason and therefore it cannot be considered officially Canon but it most certainly helps to illustrate the thought process behind the rules in the writer's room the rules are not simply part of a voluntary game between players they are enforced by the island and they cannot be broken think of them in the same way that we understand the natural order of our world we can't break the laws of physics the rules of the island are much like the rules of gravity they are baked into physical reality so how did Jacob technically kill his brother if mother's rules made that impossible it's actually pretty simple to untangle this mother's rule stopped applying the moment Jacob took over the role and she was killed a new protector means new rules and as with any new management coming in to take over things it usually signifies a new way of doing business too while it's true that protectors can inherit and pass on certain tenets of guardianship it remains their choice which rules they continue for example once the new person takes over the old rules seemingly begin to fade unless reinforced by the successor hence why after Jacob's ashes burn out from the living world and Jack officially takes over Richard Alpert starts aging again and the cave in the bamboo forest can now be found and why after mother dies Jacob can actually harm his brother to the extent that he does he effectively Hurts The Man in Black to the point where he literally kills his mortal body sure we can debate the semantics of whether or not he directly kills him in that scene but he certainly irreparably harms him even Hurley proclaims to Ben in the end but how people can't leave the island that's how Jacob ran things maybe there's another way a better way new protectors create new rules and it's their choice whether or not they continue the ways of the old or try to create something new now we don't know how long it took for Jacob to decide his new rules but we know what some of them were a lot is left open to interpretation I think it would have taken some time for Jacob and the Man in Black to reckon with one another in their new forms and their new roles there would have been a lot of soul-searching and confusion and guilt and anger before Jacob could start working things out for himself nevertheless it is clearly demonstrated that protectors carried on traditions and rules from their predecessors if they so chose we see both Jacob and Jack do this both men keep the wine in the bottle however the key rule that Jacob and the Man in Black cannot kill one another goes beyond just mother's wishes because this particular rule is rooted in determinism they literally cannot kill one another because they are inextricably tied to the time Loop that starts in 2004 if Jacob had killed the man in Black in say the year 1055 the world would have ended because the man in Black is the only reason that Ben pushes the donkey wheel in the future which instigates the time Loop if the man in Black could have killed Jacob in 1867 via proxy then the world would have ended then too because Jacob needs to touch and draw the candidates to the island so that they can follow their predestined paths paths which include saving the island from destruction so both men are trapped within a bootstrap Paradox that spans centuries a bootstrap Paradox that takes nearly two Millennia to be fulfilled it's possible that Jacob didn't even need to reinforce mother's rule at all and for all we know it was never truly mother's rule to begin with it was the Island's Rule and the Island's will the only reason why Jacob's rules outlived him after his death in the season 5 finale is because no one had filled his vacant position for almost a week and change there is a power vacuum on the island and until the penultimate episode of season six most of Jacob's rules revolve around preventing the man in Black from harming him or his chosen people and from leaving the island but let's get specific here how does creating rules actually work how can Jacob physically stop the man in Black from leaving to understand this we have to Circle back to the Notions explored in part one on how the source is the prime mover of everything that we see happening on the show we know that the man in Black is Tethered to the light at the heart of the island much like a vending machine that is being powered from its connection to a plug socket to escape this tether between machine and power source it has to be unplugged but that does mean that the vending machine will be left without power we also know that Jacob is an extension of the source as well he is the battery through which the power flows this gives him a degree of control over what the smoke monster can and cannot do and this is how he wields a controlling influence over the man in Black in the same way he can exert influence over the candidates he has touched by activating their Inner Light and drawing them back to the source it all comes down to the transfer distribution and harnessing of energy the rest of Jacob's specific rules are ultimately bound to fulfilling the causal time Loop that we see take place in season five hence why key characters cannot die until they have completed their role in destined to take place events and why certain people cannot find nor leave the island until the time is right it's not simply that Jacob clicks his fingers and a new rule exists the island has to be able to enforce it just like how the rules of gravity are predicated on fundamental principles we can't all decide to fly off the planet like Superman because there are rules to our reality what's more interesting to consider is just exactly when Jacob became aware of this time Loop he certainly demonstrates an awareness of its existence by the time we meet him in the season 5 finale when he says he is of course referring to the candidates returning to the present day from the past and it's as if he could feel their final time Jump coming his awareness of the time travel Shenanigans is evidence further when he later tells Hurley the temple I'm supposed to know what that is Jen knows tell him to take you to the hole in the wall where he was with the French team now if you recall Jennings encounter with the French team took place seemingly without Jacob physically present to witness any of it which means Jacob has been aware of the time Loop and the time travelers for some time at least as late as 1988 but possibly earlier now Jacob didn't seem cognizant of the time traveling back when he first meets Richard Alpert in 1867. we don't get any sense that he knows about the bootstrap Paradox yet perhaps it would have taken a key event in the timeline to activate his knowledge of all of this perhaps it was the arrival of John Locke at the others camp in 1954. Richard Alpert almost certainly would have told Jacob about this very strange very convincing meeting with a man claiming to be from the future and then the permanent appearance of Time Travelers in 1974 would have surely gotten Jacob's full attention who are these strange people who just showed up on the island and joined Dharma Jacob didn't select them they weren't on his list at any point or were they then surely the incident in 1977 would have cracked open the whole time Loop equation for Jacob somewhat like an old man finally figuring out the answer to a riddle told to them as a child anyway the point is many of Jacob's specific rules are inextricably tied to the outcomes of this time loop as are a majority of the decisions he makes throughout the latter half of the 20th century The Source was moving our characters through time and because Jacob is deeply connected to this power he begins to help weave these threads towards the future so his version of the rules are rooted in determinism which basically means that all events including human agency are ultimately determined by causes external to an individual's will that external cause is the source so the rules that protector creates and maintains must be based upon what the source dictates that it can or cannot control this is why the internal logic going on in the show particularly in season five isn't wishy-washy mysticism its causal determinism the writers effectively explain how the rules work to us in the opening scenes of season five okay so one we're gonna go back and kill Hitler don't be absurd no rules rules that can't be broken the rules govern the reality of the island and determine the trajectory of characters if you still have work to do or a purpose to serve in the grand scheme then the island will ensure that you live long enough to complete that work rules are made up by the various communities on the island with varying degrees of enforceability over the centuries the others have their laws just as Dharma have their own laws the truce between the two tribes is a perfect example of this but as we see these laws can and are frequently broken but the protector's rules go beyond this they are tied to the nature of time and fate and they determine who lives who dies who can leave the island and who must stay these rules become the foundations of gameplay for everyone none more so than the man in Black much to his child grid and frustration and after nearly 2 000 years of rules and Games The Man in Black eventually has had enough and finally decides to pull the trigger on his final solution kill the Jailer but the only way to do that is to cheat and to get someone else to do the one thing that he himself can never do it's unclear exactly when the man in Black started killing indiscriminately we see that by the 19th century he is already at the peak of his frustration it's been demonstrated that he used people before this to help him such as the Egyptians and that there were warring ideologies on the island for possibly Centuries with groups split between Jacob and the Man in Black nail the man in Black has come to understand that every new arrival would mean the cycle of the game starting all over again he also knows his previous attempts to escape have failed so he's full of anger now and rather than allowing a new community to form and trying to corrupt or coerce them into doing his bidding he simply starts punishing and executing New Island arrivals on site simply to get back at his brother however the arrival of the Black Rock in 1867 signified a turning point in the game because the man in Black had formulated a new plan as previously discussed in part one Richard Alpert was a perfect stooge for both brothers he was a devil-fearing man of Faith with a tragic past that was ripe for manipulation we see that the man in Black scans poor Richard whilst he is chained up in the belly of the Black Rock he sees the darkest part of Richard's soul and his pain over losing Isabella a man who's deeply held religious beliefs make him amenable for coercion and that makes Richard the perfect anti-candidate the man in Black uses Isabella's image to play into Richard's inner fears of hell and the devil and eternal damnation and he leaves Richard for a long time to absorb this narrative to become desperate and on the Edge of Insanity and then he strikes again appearing as The Friendly Stranger who reinforces the lie that they are in hell but he offers Richard the hope that the devil can be beaten and that both Richard and Isabella's Souls can be freed and that's all it takes he now has a motivated Jacob Killer richer carries out the task and fails perhaps because his heart isn't really in it he is driven by love not hate his inner light is still intact however Richard's presence and actions changed the trajectory of absolutely everything abaterno is a Cornerstone episode in the mythology it is in this moment of Confrontation that Jacob finally realizes something several important realities that he had not yet come to terms with the first is that the man in Black is serious about trying to kill him it wasn't an empty threat there is no ambiguity anymore his soul cannot be saved the second reality is that one day the man in Black will eventually succeed in this and Jacob recognizes this might be the beginning of the end and the third realization is that Jacob needs to start actively looking for Replacements to succeed him up to this point it's safe to assume that Jacob had not been searching he had only been drawing people to the island for the purposes of the game a key floor in Jacob's philosophy was that he didn't want to interfere in the matters of the island colonies he didn't want to tell people what to do or how to live he needed them to work that out for themselves he tells Richard as much in abaterno she brought them here why didn't you help them 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 him to do anything why should I have to step in if you don't he wouldn't however as Richard points out this only leaves them with the man in Black's influence and the Man in Black would almost certainly destroy these communities from within and Jacob knows this to be true he'd seen it happen it happened to the Egyptians his adopted culture and people and it would keep happening the cycle would never end until either he or his brother were dead so Richard becomes the middle man the advisor the link between Jacob and the island civilization that they would build together soon after the events of abaterno Jacob goes into hiding so that the man in Black cannot find him he takes Refuge inside the Statue and begins weaving his tapestry both literally and metaphorically fans do question how the man in Black did not know where Jacob was when we clearly see him visiting Jacob at the statue in the incident it appears that all the man in Black knew was that this was a spot in which Jacob liked to spend his time and catch fish but it is later made clear that the man in Black did not know that there was a secret chamber inside the Statue itself fake lock seems genuinely surprised to see Richard open that hidden chamber much like the cave of light Jacob can control who finds him anyone can find the full-toed Statue but only those Jacob has allowed can come inside he lets both Ben and fake lock inside in 2007 because he's playing into the end game in which he knows he may have to die in order to move the chain of events forward after the attempt on his life in 1867 Jacob stopped making his presence findable to his brother he essentially disappears meaning the man in Black cannot keep sending people to kill him and this is why the man in Black needs to formulate a longer more involved plan firstly to gain access to Jacob's whereabouts and secondly to find a truly motivated Jacob Killer to carry out the job Jacob would start giving written instructions or lists to Richard when needed but his whole philosophy largely remained the same to let people make their own choices and for the island to guide them to their Destinies the next batch of people coming to the island after this appear to be hand-picked exclusively they are Jacob diehards people who the man in Black would struggle to coerce or corrupt he certainly wouldn't be able to get these devout followers to turn against their guard very easily it would take a lot more convincing to turn someone to his side and once the candidates are created and start arriving the man in Black can't physically kill them so if he comes across people who aren't protected by Jacob's touch on the island he either kills them or assesses if they could be useful to him in some way such as we see with Mr Echo there were surely many people amongst the others that were candidates we see some familiar names on the lighthouse dial 306 60 candidates over 140 years some would have been others some would have been Dharma and so on in the 20th century the game gets more complicated for both players and thus begins a new era in the Island's history the search for candidates and the birth of the others now the only reason that we call the others the others is because of Danielle Russo that was how she referred to them and our Oceanic survivors simply adopted her terminology but the others frequently question this phrasing they think I'm one of these others otherwise please stop talking in reality the others are really Richard alpert's group many of whom are chosen by Jacob who uses his proxy to recruit them as Richard takes on the role of advisor Jacob goes into hiding and begins weaving a thread towards the future he intends to find his replacement and figure out a way to destroy the smoke monster that he created as established Richard was the very first official other and formed the original group that eventually turns into what we see in the series their mission for all intents and purposes is to help Jacob protect the island from both internal and external enemies and to create a society that will be loyal to Jacob and his philosophy they create a set of rules for this group to adhere to tenets of belief sort of like Commandments as we all know Commandments can be broken because humans have free will and free choice only true believers Will Follow The Commandments to the letter the others are very much representative of fundamentalist belief and there are many comparisons that can be made between their way of life and how various Cults operate in the real world over the years Richard's group receive instructions and a guiding hand from Jacob he gives them certain tasks that need to be fulfilled or new people that need to be recruited the others develop their own code of ethics it's established in the series that the others follow lots of laws and rituals that they don't always fully understand it's much like a religion there are customs and rules that people abide by and enforce even when some of those customs and rules seem archaic and strange people do as they are told out of faith remember the book of laws that Richard includes in his test to the young John Lark well that book is the foundation of the other Society it's their code of conduct their Bible some of the known rules that we discover throughout the series include the following abiding by Jacob's instructions to the letter if he passes on orders to Richard then those orders must be executed no matter how unusual or bizarre we'll get more into these instructions later in this segment a clear rule that we see demonstrated is conflict resolution and Punishment in the simplest terms the others are not allowed to kill one another and this is why Ben blames Charles Whitmore for the murder of Alex while Kimi may have pulled the trigger he was working for Whitmore and so Ben holds Whitmore accountable for betraying their code and that's why Ben says he changed the rules what who what rules I suppose Ben's indignation is a bit Rich coming from him at this point because only one season and a handful of episodes earlier he ordered Mikhail to execute Bonnie and Greta down in the Looking Glass station the point is if you kill one of your own then you have to face the consequences Stranger in a Strange Land first explores this notion when Juliet is punished for killing Danny Pickett who was one of their own she is put on trial and an execution is an option that is on the table if she is found guilty of the crime there is a scene in that episode after Ben commutes Juliet's sentence in which Isabelle says Ben has commuted Juliet's sentence execution is off the table he says the rules don't apply this is surely proof enough that the others have their own internal legal system they even have their own Sheriff who enforces the book of laws further rules appear to include not leaving the island without permission or unless absolutely essential this is Jacob's requirement for them to become others if you're one of us then you have to stay on the island this comes from his ongoing need to create a dedicated society that will serve the island in the same way that he does and this also leads to another rule no unauthorized contact with the outside world to protect the location of the island and to fully give yourself to your new family your past no longer matters every recruit must demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice something a show of commitment to the group and the island even if it means never being able to see their loved ones again we see this is the case with both Dogan and Juliet this is also why ban and lock are respectively expected to make a show of commitment Through Blood Sacrifice because they were already on the island not so much out of choice but Circumstance the others required them to make a different kind of sacrifice Ben demonstrated his commitment by killing his own abusive father a very literal way of sacrificing one's past while luck was expected to do the same thing with his father but we see that he can't go through with it because at this point he hasn't become a True Believer he has yet to kill someone in Cold Blood and Ben Lords this fact over Lark because the others know that Ben was willing to kill his own father earning him the right to eventually become their leader whereas Locke doesn't seem able to do the same thing but we see that John Locke finds a way to cheat these rules With a Little Help from Richard we also see that there are specific rules that revolve around what is required from being another during the day-to-day such as learning Jacob's original language of Latin first of all Latin is useful for maintaining a secret coded language this helps with internal group Communications particularly when under duress or capture by this point in time Latin was a long dead language so now Outsiders coming to the island would be able to understand what was being said and it also helps to keep Jacob's language and Heritage alive perhaps the most controversial rule surely is the one that requires a willingness to self-sacrifice the island needs you to be so committed to its cause that you would be willing to give your life for it and this need could arise for a number of reasons for example if another is under threat of capture or interrogation by perceived enemies of the island or even to protect the temple and sacred places from being discovered this rule also seems to lend itself to the idea of being willing to kill for the island as well but it's hard to know if that is an actual rule from the book of laws or if it is merely something that the others started to adopt for themselves after prior experiences after all these people are zealots and like any zala they are willing to both kill and die for their beliefs it is understandable in a way because every other eventually experiences miracles for themselves the Island's ability to heal being one of the biggest they know that this place is special and are therefore motivated to protect it even with their own lives they have seen its magic for themselves however the others do have more compassionate and humanistic rules too it is clear that they take in Strays anyone that they deem to be good or worthy of their Island Paradise this includes all babies and children that come to the island through the machinations of Fate whether it be a shipwreck plane crash or something else Nathan was not a good person that's why he wasn't on the list I will try to make this as simple as I can you are not on the list because you are flawed because you are angry and weak and frightened what about the kids did you kill them too children are fine you're better off now and what did you do with the people that you took the kids we give them a better life better than what better than yours children are protected and eventually children are coveted due to the Pregnancy Crisis whether or not this was a rule that Ben introduced after he became leader or was a rule that always existed is open to debate all of these rules can be stretched or even broken as we see on various occasions throughout the show once Whitmore and Ben come to power they frequently bend the rules to suit their own ends particularly Ben who has his own people executed in order to cover up his own secrets that's because the rules of the others are human rules and they can be broken and manipulated as Richard Broughton gathered more people into this newly evolving Island Society they were on track to become the peaceful Utopia that Jacob had always hoped for hopefully immune from the smoke Monster's attempts to corrupt but they did begin to face threats from the external World throughout the 20th century perhaps this was expected by Jacob and certainly embraced by The Man in Black a key turning point would have come in the 1950s it is this Channel's belief that the U.S military invasion of the 1950s is where the antagonistic attitude of the others first originated there is a supplementary material to the show called The Lost experience which was an alternate reality game designed by the writing team from the show that helps to fill in some of the blanks the Lost experience suggests that the Dharma initiatives founder Alvar Hanzo knew of the island because of his ancestral connection we discover that Magnus Hanzo was the captain of the Black Rock in abaterno this man is now the property of Captain Magnus handsome in his early days Alvar was a Munitions magnet who made a fortune during World War II selling weapons and working with the US Military and it is implied that the U.S military found the island through Alvar and wanted to test Atomic weapons on it like they did on many islands throughout the early Cold War period so from the point of view of the others their Island Home the place where miracles happen has just been invaded by armies with guns and hydrogen bombs and these military men plan to detonate their bombs here this left them no choice but to take up arms against the Invaders it's a story as old as time really a more primitive tribal group fighting back against an advanced invading Force it is clear that this war between the US Army and the others changed the whole dynamics of the group it's quite possible that before this the others accepted outsiders with open arms after all Jacob wants people to come here but after this war and loss of life in the 1950s it becomes clear that the others are now deeply paranoid about the arrival of any Outsiders and immediately assume bad intentions hence why they preemptively attack our Oceanic survivors on the beach with flaming arrows in fact the young Eloise makes it clear that she believes Faraday and his friends to be working for the Army and that they have returned for their bomb we just couldn't stay away could you the way that the others behave in the season five episodes the lie and Jughead make it seem like many of them are suffering from post-traumatic stress many of them are young people who have been thrown into conflict and violence and have killed and seen their friends killed it has irreversibly changed them as War tends to do when the show explores this time period the one notable thing that we see about the others Camp is that there is no official leader in place the closest they have to one is Richard who has taken charge in the interim they are between leaders at this moment in time now we can't be sure how many leaders came before this period of conflict on the island or what happened to them but surely after this great upheaval it must have become more imperative than ever that the others needed to have a more proactive leader to make day-to-day decisions Jacob still doesn't want to Puppeteer their lives whilst they're on the island he wants them to make their own choices and Richard had to maintain his role as an impartial advisor who could relay and communicate Jacob's wishes when John Locke marches into their camp and claims to be their leader from the future Richard is initially skeptical and quite rightly so but Locke's disappearance before Richard's eyes might have made him realize that he could have been telling the truth about the future and it was a reminder that the leadership role needs to be maintained if for no other reason then so John Locke could one day fill that position we come to learn that there is a selection process that had been developed for choosing the leader of the group a process that is overseen by Richard and no doubt approved of by Jacob behind the scenes and this leads us nicely to John Locke's test the test that Richard Alpert conducts with the young John Lark is very similar to the ritual carried out by Buddhist monks when they search for the reincarnated Spirit of the Dalai Lama the monks present objects that the Dalai Lama used in his past life in order to ascertain If the child they're speaking with is in fact his Holiness reborn so the objects that Richard presents to Young luck are the objects that old Lark will possess in the future first of all there is the compass which represents the time travel this is an object that Richard knows luck will physically possess in many years time then there is the vial of sand which represents the island itself and finally there is the book of laws which represents the laws of the island society as established by Jacob and Richard in other words it is the symbol of leadership the baseball glove the comic book and the knife are simply there for misdirection purposes because an ordinary child might actually be distracted and Drawn to those items on Instinct Richard Alpert is conducting this test for two very specific reasons the first is to see if the bold man that walked into his Camp several years prior was indeed telling the truth the man who called himself John Locke made wild claims about being the leader of the others in the future and that he was sent back through Time by Jacob remember Loch tells Richard this all right what year is it right now it's 1954. all right May 30th 1956 two years from now that's the day I'm born Tustin California and if you don't believe me I suggest you come and visit me and so Richard does just that this newborn baby is now on Richard's radar and he keeps watch over the development of the young John for the next few years as he stated to time traveling Lark the recruitment process for an island leader tends to start at an early age we can presume that this is because the island knows who it wants leaders are preordained so therefore a child would demonstrate some indication of being wanted by the island or at the very least of being special this is also why Richard takes an interest in Benjamin Linus because young Ben claims to have seen the ghost of his mother on the island psychic children are of great interest to the others as we see with Walt in 2004 but first Richard Alpert needs to make sure that the man who claimed to be the future leader of his people is indeed the very same little boy that sits before him the second reason for this test is to see if the little boy demonstrates being special in some way does he demonstrate a communion with the island does he have some kind of an awareness of his own predestination nation in some form one early indicator that the boy does have some psychic sensitivity can be seen in the picture he has drawn it is an eerily prescient image of his own future of his fate being inextricably linked to the Smoke monster so the test proceeds and young luck chooses two items correctly the compass and the vial of sand but then he chooses an old knife over the book of laws for Richard this does cast out upon whether or not the boy is really the child version of the John Locke encountered in 1954 but even if it is the same person it then calls into question whether or not Locke was special at all hence Richard's disappointment and frustration it's worth noting that young luck choosing wrongly was just a sign that he simply wasn't ready to come to the island yet not for many more decades when Locker rise on the island as an older man he finally demonstrates signs of being special after being paralyzed for four years he can now walk again and news of this miraculous healing travels to the others and gains Richard's attentions once again he already suspects that Ben's time as leader is over hence why the island allowed cancer to form on Ben's spine the time traveling lock of 1954 was right it is his Destiny to take over the position as leader of the others his self-fulfilling prophecy is now undeniable so Richard helps Locke to prove his worthiness to the others and demonstrate his commitment to the island essentially by helping the man of Faith cheat the process Richard now believes enough in the myth of John Locke that he will not question Locke's specialness again even to the detriment of his own instincts and people Jacob seems to understand that whoever leads the others is the person who was always predestined to do so he understands that what is happening in the 20th century is part of something bigger than simply his game with the man in Black he uses the recruitment of both new members and potential leaders as a vetting process for the candidacy of Island protector this is his own personal mission one that Richard is not aware of the earliest leaders that we know of are Eloise Hawking and Charles Whitmore Eloise might have taken on the role in the 1960s with Whitmore taking over in the late 1970s we know Whitmore was later usurped and replaced by Benjamin Linus in the late 1980s or the early 1990s depending on which Purge date you subscribe to and then John took over briefly in 2004 before being substituted by The Man in Black in 2007. the leader of the others is the second most powerful individual within the hierarchy on the island Jacob is for all intents and purposes God and the leader of the others becomes his sort of prophet and there can only be one leader at any given time there is no power sharing or dual leadership you can't bring him in why not because only our leader can request an audience with Jacob and there could only be one leader on the island at a time the GT's of a leader include ensuring the Safety and Security of their people protecting the island against threats from the outside world recruiting new members who meet a certain moral or spiritual standard those that are likely to become true believers who would be willing to fight and die for the island but most importantly of all a leader must carry out the orders of Jacob without question we see that this process does become diluted and corrupted over time The Well of leadership is essentially poisoned under Charles whitmore's tyrannical Reign then poisoned further under Benjamin Linus who uses the island to push his own agenda and finally the leadership chain is broken entirely by The Man in Black himself once he infiltrates the group to destroy it from within we can assume that the man in Black did everything he could to upset the balance of the others over the years since they were Jacob's acolytes his interference manipulations and attacks no doubt played a heavy hand in the slow Corruption of their ultimate purpose which was Jacob's hopes for peace and prosperity when Charles whitmore's Reign Over the others resulted in nothing short of an island genocide and the purging of Dharma it might have been around this time that Jacob would have begun to form a group within a group let's try not to call them other others and instead let's refer to them as Temple dwellers Jacob could most likely see that Richard's group was sliding into darkness under the rule of corrupted men so he personally selected and recruited people like Dogan Lennon Alana and Bram to form Splinter factions he told these people about the man in Black how to fight him and the importance of candidates he installed many of them at the temple where they were instructed to remain over the years until the time came for them to play their role as we see in season six light Richard dogen worked directly for Jacob and fell outside of the normal leadership hierarchy Dogan was specifically recruited to run the temple to keep the mysticism of the others intact because that was slowly being eradicated by Ben's push towards a more science-based leadership Jacob installed Dogan to keep the temple running and to prepare for the day if or when the smoke monster gained an upper hand in the game at the same time just like everyone else Dogan was only ever told what he needed to know in order for events to happen the way that they do it's not about trust per se it's about who needs to know what and when they need to know it Dogan has many beliefs that turn out to be rather inaccurate just like Ben and Richard and everyone else each one of them has different pieces of the truth and they fill in the blanks with their own beliefs and choices because Jacob does not interfere in their choices unless required now we don't know how many times Richard encountered the man in Black after their first meeting if ever again the island is a big place and Richard became a Jacob Acolyte and therefore no longer an easy target so Richard ceased to be of use now that he had planted his white flag in the sand we can presume many of the others over the years were candidates too similarly protected by Jacob's touch and it's likely the man in Black did try manipulating different people and played them off against one another there was over A Century of unseen events between alpert's arrival and the arrival of our lostes so there was bound to have been some other conflicts manipulations and Corruptions the others had a layer of protection against the man in Black but were ultimately vulnerable because they did not know nor fully understand what they were dealing with former leaders like Benjamin Linus and Charles Whitmore were never told about the man in Black beyond the ghost stories and the Legends because Jacob did not allow them to know they were both deeply corrupted men the scales within them were most certainly tilting towards the darkness so therefore they were not privy to many details of Jacob's past or his future plans quite simply because they could not be trusted which is a key reason why Jacob never met with Ben it's clear that he didn't approve of Ben's leadership or his actions over time Ben had become just as bad as Whitmore and just as power hungry Ben represented everything that the man in Black had been claiming about Mankind for centuries Ben was the living proof that Jacob was wrong about humanity and I think Jacob presented this fact in across the sea the man in Black claims they're greedy manipulative untrustworthy and selfish that could easily be a description of Ben don't you think now imagine being Jacob and hearing Ben say these words to you what about me what about you but Jacob had also vowed not to interfere as discussed Jacob understood that the island chooses who it chooses for a reason when Ben takes over as leader he decides to move the others out from the jungle and into the Dharma Barracks he channels their energies into curing the pregnancy issues on the island which is something that has great personal resonance to him since his mother died giving birth to him I discussed the whole Pregnancy Crisis in a separate video which I recommend you add to your watch list what is worth noting here is how Jacob Splinter faction of Temple dwellers appears to remain outside of Ben's sphere of influence they seem to answer directly to Jacob so there is this clear split between the others that formed one group Embraces the science and comfort of the Modern Age essentially becoming a new Evolution of Dharma in many ways while the other group retains the mysticism and mythology of the Island's past and reside in the temple they appear to have shunned technology embracing Jacob's more ancient way of living this might also be why Ben is so reluctant to go to the temple and send his people there why he deems it only as a place to go in case of emergencies because he's not as powerful there he does not have full control and I can imagine Ben and Logan not getting on at all there is no way that these two men sit down and share knowledge unless absolutely necessary it's also possible that when Ekko and Jin see the others moving through the jungle in season 2 episode and found that they are really seeing Temple dwelling others leaving the temple with Cindy Zach and Emma after all new recruits would be required to visit the sacred sites and get a sense of what they were joining maybe they would even witness a healing ceremony so by the time Jack meets them on Hydra Island they have already seen a miracle or two for themselves hence why Cindy seems so committed to the group so quickly many fans often wonder where all the money and resources for the others come from well their accumulated wealth no doubt started with harvesting resources from the island whether that be natural minerals to sell on the mainland or old Antiquities from previous Island inhabitants remember there were lots of ancient artifacts that they could sell from the Greeks to the Romans to the Egyptians and more by the 20th century they could easily have accumulated a decent level of wealth and we see that they have set up various business interests run by loyal members a key Outpost for the others in the real world includes a front company called metallos bioscience now this company was most likely established by Richard Alpert sometime in the mid-20th century as a way for recruiting people from the outside world such as we see with Juliet Burke this company and others like it helped to generate ongoing Revenue that most likely allows them to fund various projects both on and off the island we see that Ben has people placed in strategic Industries around the world to provide research support and intelligence especially counter-intelligence against Charles Whitmore who had become dead set on finding the island again this also helps to explain how the others learn so much about the Oceanic 815 survivors external agents gathered the data and reported it back to Mikhail in the flame station to disseminate as time goes on Ben begins recruiting people who are less than suitable for Island residents such as those with military and mercenary backgrounds many of whom make up the clandestine teams that move around the island abducting any desirable new arrivals and carrying out tactical operations in order to muddy the waters and retain more influence and control Ben begins making lists and writing instructions of his own many of the others never quite know where a list might be coming from one list could be from Ben another list could be from Jacob only Richard and a few Key Personnel will ever know in a way I find that Ben doing this was a way to try and get the attention of his new absent Father Figure could he annoy Jacob enough that it would force Jacob to meet with him Ben is a man who gave up one father for a substitute father only to find himself feeling just as ignored and just as unwanted as he did before it's a tragic irony for this character meanwhile when encountering any new island arrivals then make sure that all they might ever see of the others are Robinson Crusoe like Savages living wild almost like an ironic critique of his Temple dwelling counterparts whom he has very little power over this Rift within the others hierarchy rears its head on more than one occasion throughout the series whether it is Juliet trying to Stage a coup by asking Jack to kill Ben during his surgery or Ben appealing to mikhail's loyalist sensibilities to stay on his side but Ben's influence only reaches so far some of the traditions of the others clearly come from Jacob's instruction and influence the others are required to richly burn their dead and send the remains out to sea this is another rule or law that they must follow and it is certainly related to Jacob not wanting his people to leave behind bodies on the island itself because he knows that the man in Black could infiltrate the group by taking on the form of a dead other and sowing chaos from within I don't think it's a coincidence that in the same episode that we see this ritual performed we also see the first implied Revelation that the smoke monster can become dead people and manipulate Island residents while Ben's faction might not have this specific knowledge about the man in Black they carry out these Customs dutifully because these are the rules that they were introduced to when they first arrived all they know is that this is what Jacob wants they follow orders they are true believers elsewhere at the temple where knowledge of the Man in Black and his abilities is more widely understood by the top ranking members we see they actually have special methods intended to root out man in Black infiltrations the test that we see Dogan put Saeed through in season six appears to be the only way of detecting a smoke monster Apparition he uses three methods of detection the first involves a form of electroshock therapy and we already know that the smoke monster can be affected by certain frequencies and charges next Dogan blows the volcanic ash across Saeed to see how his body reacts to it again we have seen the ash repel the smoke monster and finally Dogan uses a hot iron to Scorch side skin If This Were a smoke monster Apparition then side skin would not burn or scar Dogan is using all of these methods to see if Syed is really human or if he is an imposter who has infiltrated their Temple of course many of the others don't realize that their practices stem from archaic or Supernatural places like this they operate on a mix of belief tradition myth and half truths ultimately the others are always a reflection of whoever holds the rain on their leadership if the leader is violent and vengeful then the others will be violent and vengeful too if the leader is compassionate and forgiving then the others will be compassionate and forgiving too under Charles Whitmore they went to war with Dharma and slaughtered them under Ben Linus they were deceptive and manipulative playing mind games and taking what they wanted whenever they wanted it the remnants of the others left over at the end of the island war of 2007 will no doubt undergo another change because the new leadership of Hugo Reyes will finally reconcile the Jacob role with the Ben role and be both an island protector and the proactive leader of its people finally bringing the two roles together and bringing a balance to the island after centuries of turmoil Hurley is the true leader that the others needed the storm has passed and the others can now finally join with him to usher in an era of peace from being one of them to being one of us but the others weren't the only ones occupying the island during the 20th century and there is another group that needs to be discussed since they had arguably an even bigger impact on events than the others overall but we shall explore their purpose in the story in the next part of this series both the others and the initiative shared one major thing in common something that none of them ever knew about both groups shared candidates amongst the warring groups fighting over territory and truces there were chosen people all throughout the 20th century Jacob had been continuing his search for his own Replacements and he had been sourcing the names of these candidates with guidance and instruction from the island itself let's talk about the candidates [Music] we've talked about how a protector is an expression of the Island's will and that they perform tasks that helped to give the island what it needs but Jacob claims that he selects candidates based on the fact that they are flawed people who are lost in their lives and alone in some way because they remind him of his own existence and experiences however what he neglects to mention is how his selection process actually worked did he really choose these people independently or did the island guide him to make those choices this dichotomy is heavily implied in season six when we see how the lighthouse and its mirrors work think of it like this all of the time traveling created a causality loop Paradox also known as a bootstrap Paradox which is something that we shall explore in more detail in the next video from their appearances in Egyptian times to Dharma times and Beyond the actions of our losties have been weaved into the fabric of the Island's history they cannot be unweaved whatever happened happened which means long before Jacob ever chose our losties as his candidates they had already been on the island and affected the outcomes of History so when Jacob activates Kate and Sawyer as children their adult future selves have already popped up in the Island's past so what Jacob sees in those Lighthouse mirrors is not necessarily of his own choosing per se it's the island guiding him telling him where to look and who to Target and this is what makes Jacob go out into the world to hand pick these specific people to come to the island so they can fulfill their predestined paths some of which will follow non-linear timelines it is predetermined that Jacob will select these people he has no objective choice in this yet he still sees their selection as candidates being somehow his own decision and I think this is because he cannot or does not distinguish between his own intuition and the Island's will following the events of abaterno Jacob would have started planning for the future in a way he had not done before he knows that the man in Black Will one day be successful in trying to kill him so he needs to find this replacement let's look very closely at the Lighthouse which is a structure that appears to be built by the Egyptians we can assume that it was originally built simply to act as a normal Lighthouse guiding in ships sort of like an ancient Looking Glass station many centuries later Jacob appropriates this Lighthouse tower for his own purposes or he may have even instructed the Egyptians to build it originally specifically for helping him to bring more people to the island but how and why it was originally built doesn't really matter what matters is how it was eventually used almost 2 000 years later the stone structure and hieroglyphs imply that this structure is fairly ancient the central Bowl was perhaps originally used for lighting fires that would guide in ships but the mirrors and the camper style have been retrofitted the dial itself is operated by a system of gears and pulleys and it appears to be 19th century in its origin and this would align closely with the arrival of Richard Alpert in 1867. the compass style might even have been constructed by Jacob himself shortly after he hired Richard for the job of intermediary it appears that Jacob was building an Alid Aid also known as a turning board this is a device that allows a person to cite a distant object think of this system as a really really long telescope only instead of citing distant ships the mirrors helped to cite people in distant lands remember the light beneath the island can Channel and refract time itself and the island exists within this electromagnetic bubble the lighthouse mirrors Channel and refract this very same light so that the source can show Jacob where he needs to look the mirrors provide Windows into the lives of the people who are predestined to come to its Shores this channel also posits the idea that the mirrors become a targeting system that helped Jacob to project or teleport himself off the island to go through the Looking Glass as it were and on the other side of the mirrors he can activate his candidates this I believe is how Jacob left the island he was essentially traveling on a beam of light hence how he could travel all over the world without limitations or the apparent need for transportation for example he visits Hurley in Los Angeles and within several days he is back on the island in the four-toed statue awaiting the arrival of the Man in Black now we know he didn't take a plane and it's unlikely that he sailed Back to the Island in that time it doesn't appear that he is using conventional means of travel is it possible that the mirrors were doorways to his candidates let's explore the lighthouse mirrors more closely let's imagine Jacob's very first time using and operating the newly installed Compass style in the lighthouse he uses the pulleys to revolve it around until the mirror reflected something other than its physical environment in the tower and that's when Jacob would have seen his very first candidate reflected in the mirror as shown to him by the island this reflection would have corresponded to a specific degree on the compass dial and so Jacob would then associate this first candidate with the degree number they aligned with on the dial the clarity may be the first candidate he ever saw in the mirror and watched was a person named Wallace who could be seen at degree 108 therefore Wallace's name would be associated with 108. this is why candidate names and numbers do not appear in a consecutive order their number assignments are based on when they appeared in the mirror and where they correspond to on the dial Jacob would watch a candidate and learn about who they were then write their name down on the dial next to the degree that they aligned with he came to understand that these were people that the island needed people who had crucial Destinies to fulfill the very nature of the lighthouse strongly implies that the island was literally guiding Jacob in who he would watch and who he would select for candidacy now let's look at the cave in the Cliffside filled with candidate names a case could be made for one of two possibilities here the first is that the cave was really the man in Black's Outpost as a location it suits his modus operandi pretty well it's incredibly hard to access it's Subterranean underground very dark almost the opposite of the lighthouse which is a high tower easily accessible and open and the Very definition of light could it be that the man in Black was also keeping score of the candidates essentially copying Jacob's homework to keep track of all the people he needed to Target and keep an eye on it's entirely possible we see the man in Black seem very at home there treating the cave as if it were his own however the other possibility is that Jacob simply duplicated his list of names inside the cave specifically so that the man in Black would find them for all we know the lighthouse was simply not findable to the Man in Black we also see that there is a ladder descending down to the opening which the smoke monster would not have needed we also know that Jacob was sowing the seeds of the man in Black's Destruction for many decades and this list in the cave may have been part of that plan there is a key line of dialogue in the episode what they died for in which Jacob tells Kate it was just a line of chalk in a cave the job is yours if you want it Kate which implies that Crossing off names from the wall doesn't actually stop someone from being a candidate it's only if they die and their light returns to the souls that they cease to be in contention for the job so Kate's name being crossed off in the cave made the man in Black underestimate her importance and we know that she is the one who ultimately delivers the kill shot Jacob also held back on activating both Hurley and Saeed until very late in the game too which caused them to stay below the man in Black's radar for a long time and we know that Saeed is the only reason that the rest of the candidates survived to the end game and that Hurley is the one the island ultimately needed to take over the role two key players kept hidden in plain sight the lighthouse only ever showed Jacob who the island needed at a specific time in other words back in the early 20th century when Jacob was first searching for his candidates the degrees on the dial were not all actively showing Reflections yet degree 23 is Jack's number but it had yet to appear in the mirror because he hadn't been born yet notice how the only images we actually see depicted in the mirrors by the time Jack and Hurley used the lighthouse are of active candidates while the other notches of long dead candidates reflect nothing at all which means the mirrors only ever reflected relevant active candidates at the time any which way we slice it Jacob's selection of his 2004 candidates was entirely predetermined at some point in the timeline he becomes aware of the time travelers but he only fully understands their purpose in the larger tapestry of time once they appear in the mirrors for example Sawyer appears throughout the history of the island more specifically he will appear in 1974 and start to live out a life with the Dharma initiative on the island and let's say Jacob observes this between 1974 and 1975. at some point during that time Sawyer appears as a child in the lighthouse mirror which corresponds to degree number 15. Jacob makes a note of this then uses the mirror to visit young Sawyer as a child during the lowest point in the boy's life he touches and activates young James as a candidate and now finally understands the purpose of James Ford in the grander scheme I've always maintained that knowledge doesn't come to a protector fully formed I like to think of it like this Jacob is piecing together a very large puzzle over a fairly long period of time he receives different non-consecutive pieces at different points and connects them together to create an overall picture of the future the lighthouse mirrors and the corresponding numbers and his candidates are those puzzle pieces and the picture will become clear to him when the time comes a protector holds a puzzle piece in their hand but they only understand the full picture once the right piece slots into place this is why Jacob is selective in what he says and what he does sometimes he needs to tell people what to do other times he gives them a nudge but most of the time he lets the Island's influence over the world do its thing and gives people the space to find their own Destinies in their own time because that is how it is supposed to be now while we're on the subject of candidates I would really like to discuss Mr Echo because this has been a major point of contention within the fandom for many years now we know Mr Echo was killed off in last for reasons Beyond The Writer's control his original Arc was mapped out for several seasons but when the actor playing Echo wanted to lead the show for personal reasons the writers had to pass off elements of his storyline to new series regulars Desmond and Ben as his character Arc now stands within the show Mr echo's death can be explained within the canon in fairly simple terms we know that the man in Black has spent years searching for the right candidate which he can become but also he's been set matching for the right anti-candidate that he can groom to kill Jacob John Locke and Benjamin Linus were certainly on his radar at this point but Mr Echo was also a person of interest he comes across echo in the jungle in season 2 episode the 23rd psalm and in a now iconic confrontation the smoke monster scans Mr Echo downloading snapshots from echo's life all of his weakest moments and darkest Deeds the man in Black instantly sees that this former warlord turned man of Faith ticked all of the necessary boxes not only did Echo have a connection to the Nigerian plane on the island which had his brother's body stashed aboard but his blood soaked past an overwhelming guilt complex over yemi's death provided plenty of ammunition for future manipulations plus Mr echo's spiritual desire for Redemption was also strong and if yemi's body was brought here then perhaps Jacob and the island had grander plans for Echo so he was definitely a man to watch it appears that the man in Black tables his encounter with Echo highly interested in the man's potential use to him now here's the thing Jacob had yet to make Echo a candidate at this point in time much like Harley and Saeed Echo was only a potential candidate as already discussed it wasn't until after the oceanic six left the island that Hurley and Saeed would be anointed by Jacob's touch the same is true for the Island's resident priest so why do so many people frequently claim that Echo was a candidate well I think this misconception is partly based on echo's popularity as a character rather than any Canon proof within or outside of the actual show Los peda is a fantastic resource for lost fans and under its page on the candidates they have included a picture that shows a very very low res image of the lighthouse style allegedly this was the real prop used in the show now I don't know how anyone makes out any names on that particular picture due to the bad quality barely any of those names are legible at least to my eye that being said let's just assume that this photo is legit and displays the real prop from the actual Lighthouse episode in its current quality I can see how one might read the name listed alongside 76 as being Echo since it appears to be a short name beginning with e although it looks a bit more like Elmo to me regardless the problem with assuming this reads as Echo is that Jacob wrote candidate names on the dial by their surname not their first name yes yes I know he calls himself Mr Echo but this is based on his warlord name back in Nigeria tundi was echo's real name as tundi was yemi's surname and Echo goes by father Tindy once he becomes a priest good morning Father Tommy good morning whatever the word is scrolled at 76 it does not look like tundi but let's ignore the photo from Los pedia and look at the actual show itself people have painstakingly gone through the screen caps of both the cave wall and the lighthouse style from the show frame by frame and Mr echo's name is nowhere to be seen on either now this is very interesting because it means that his name was omitted by the writers intentionally they must have known that we would have all studied the names in the cave in the lighthouse with eagle eyes looking for specific names especially Mr Echo because he had a very specific relationship with the monster and was killed by the monster so why don't we see his name there in the actual show well his name isn't shown or highlighted so it doesn't contradict the fact that the man in Black could kill him and the Man in Black could kill Mr Echo because he was not a Camden at eight remember once someone is ordained as a candidate they stay a candidate until either they die or someone takes over the island protector role what matters is Jacob's touch that's the protection against the man in Black and Echo had not been blessed with that touch yet some fans argue that Echo was a candidate but somehow became invalidated as the result of his confession to fake yemi the argument goes that because echo says he doesn't seek forgiveness that Jacob somehow heard or felt this and crossed echo's name off the list but this really doesn't make any sense firstly we see with Kate that being crossed off the wall means absolutely nothing she is still a candidate and can take the job also notice how her name is not crossed off from the lighthouse Style secondly and more crucially what echo says to fake yemi in this scene is exactly what Jacob wants and hopes from his candidates he doesn't care about their pasts remember that man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptable 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 when they get here their pasts don't matter Jacob isn't crossing candidates off the list for not showing Contrition for their past actions if that was true then James Sawyer Ford would have been crossed off the list sometime around season two back when he fell into his old habits by conning everyone in the camp to gain control over the guns and Saeed certainly would have been crossed off the list after going on a murderous Rampage following Nadia's death and how about Jin's Behavior throughout season one and how he treats sun he doesn't seem like he is the same man that he was when Jacob first activated him so this whole excuse the echo was crossed off the list because he rejected the manipulations of the man in black or showed no Contrition for his past actions simply doesn't add up in the grand scheme echo's purpose on the island was far greater than he's ever really given credit for his role was to save the world when no one else would because had he not taken over pushing the button from John Locke in the hatch at the end of season two then the pocket of electromagnetism beneath the swan station would almost certainly have built up to critical mass and destroyed the world this is why he's given the dream about the hatch in season two both men need to find the Pearl in order for specific Milestone events to play out down in that station John Locke loses his faith while Mr Echo regains his leads to Echo picking up where luck left off to continue inputting the numbers and pushing the button until Desmond's return and the Pearl visit also ensures that Locke will destroy that computer to test his own faith and that is what necessitates the need for Desmond to turn the Fail-Safe key and we all know what that does to Desmond and how crucial it is to the rest of the story but after serving this very specific purpose Echo was once again tested by The Man in Black to see just how amenable for coercion he could be using yemi as his guys the man in Black asks Echo to confess his sins to lay bare his guilt and to seek penance now had Echo done this it would no doubt made him a perfect Pawn in the plot to kill Jacob I mean fake yemi could have manipulated him into striking out at this false god Idol on the island we can only really imagine how Echo might have reacted to the existence of a Jacob considering his Catholic faith however Echo proved to be too strong-willed and too pragmatic he rejected the man in Black's manipulation and sought no forgiveness I asked for no forgiveness father for I have not seen I have only done what I needed to do to survive Echo didn't buy into the notion that he should be a prisoner of his past sins he rejects the guilt and this is actually what Jacob wanted from all of his people that came to the island remember Jacob doesn't think their past matters he wants them to begin Anew and use the island as a place of renewal an echo is ready to do that and I think what the man in Black sees in that moment is that Echo is now more appealing to be bestowed with Jacob's candidacy this makes Echo a threat the man in Black had to weigh the risk what if Jacob really does have bigger plans for Echo what if Echo did become a candidate and then became the next Island protector forget John Locke or Jack Shepard being in charge Mr racker would have been an immovable object to the Smoke Monster's Unstoppable Force so the man in Black makes a judgment call a literal judgment call Echo was better off dead and this leads to echo's demise in his final moments Echo tells John Locke that he saw the devil he then says you're next this line like so many other ambiguous lines in the show lends itself to interpretation lock interprets it as being directed at everyone as in we are all next but I think Echo specifically meant John because he knows that lock saw the monster too and it Let Him Live which means it might have plans for luck as well and as we see later on this turns out to be true after a life of violence and spiritual conflict Mr Echo finally dies in the arms of another man of faith and we get our very first glimpse of The Flash sideways as a young Echo reunites with his brother yemi this also explains why we don't see echo in the flash sideways with everyone else in season six he has already moved on with the most important person from his life the source is calling him home now the man in Black had studied the candidates with great interest over the years keeping school who is on the board and what recourse does he have for dealing with them well if the rules prevent him from killing candidates outright he had to find other ways to get to them so he would try to corrupt and Destroy them through exerting a coercive influence on their behavior and actions or even getting them to kill each other this leads us to the sickness now there are several types of sickness that we see demonstrated in last each one differs from the other and we will discuss the sickness as it relates to time displacement and electromagnetic fall layout in the next video here we are going to focus on the sickness as first described by Danielle Russo to Saeed in the season 1 episode solitary she speaks of an infection overtaking her team in 1988 after two months of them being there and she claims that one by one each of her friends fell victim to this sickness resize account of what happened 16 years prior has long since been muddied in her memories upon arriving on the island Danielle was subjected to a very sudden series of traumatic incidents that occur within the space of about 24 hours she is Shipwrecked during a storm and washed up on a beach her close friend Nadine is murdered and her mutilated corpse is dropped atop of the group Russo then sees an impossible sight in the Smoke monster as it pulls montand away into the jungle and rips off his arm then the Korean stranger that they rescued from the water disappears before her very eyes he simply blinks out of existence in front of her and this all takes place on day one and we thought our Oceanic survivors had it bad from the first day some Weeks Later Danielle has come to believe that members of her team are afflicted with a contagious and incurable sickness it's unclear exactly how she views the symptoms of this sickness but she feels completely justified in outright executing anybody she deems to be symptomatic jyn returns just in time to see that Robert is now next in Danielle's crosshairs she is ready and willing to shoot him after Danielle pulls a trigger and kills her lover she turns the gun on gin and attempts to kill him too it's really telling how she accuses Jin of also being sick because he had suddenly vanished In This Moment young Russo is convinced that her team's infection originated from interaction with the smoke monster yet 16 years later she tells Saeed that the others were the carriers of this sickness in other words the mysterious strangers who live on the island were the carriers now could it be that Russo believes the monster and its manifestations and the actual others Anjin himself are all one and the same thing that they are all somehow connected to the Smoke monster before we delve into that story let's first address what exactly being infected by The Man in Black really could mean Dogan claims that once a person has been infected by The Man in Black a Darkness grows within them and once that Darkness reaches the person's heart everything they once were will be gone it essentially robs people of their moral compass and Dogan claims that this infection is incurable it's forever yet there are inconsistencies with dogan's explanation that we see play out in season six first of all Saeed and Claire do not actually behave in the same way notice how Saeed says that he feels nothing at all he feels empty no emotion not even anger I don't feel anything excuse me and uh happiness pain I don't feel it anymore yet Claire is full of emotion she lashes out in anger at Kate and tries to kill her she later weeps and pleads for Kate's forgiveness Dogan says that both Saeed and Claire have been infected by the same disease so why aren't they reacting to this disease in the same way we literally see these differences contrasted within the same scene when Claire pulls a knife to Kate's throat so we can and should call into question dogan's understanding of both the infection and its curability or lack of another question we have to ask is how exactly the man in Black is able to claim people and turn them to his side there is a theory floating around in the fandom that the man in Black infects his victims when they are either near death or have died and been brought back to life the theory goes that because the man in Black has a certain dominion over the realm of the dead people become more susceptible to his influence there now it's a very interesting Theory we know that Saeed physically died and was resurrected by a mysterious force and some fans claim that Claire might have been near death when she was caught in the explosion at the Dharma Barracks she is most certainly concussed however it might be a stretch to argue that she died here near death maybe but certainly not dead but let's see if we can track this logic throughout the rest of the show we see Charlie begin his dark Arc after being brought back by Jack In the Jungle several episodes later he shoots an unarmed Ethan dead then by season 2 is committing some very morally dubious acts we also see Sawyer channeling really bad energy when he is Delirious from his infected gunshot wound in season 2. why did you kill me he's on the edge of death for sure and we see that he attacks Kate later he leads his Newfound friends on a long Kong and steals the guns to gain power Mr Echo is similarly more aggressive and paranoid after being pulled out of that polar bear cave after being on the verge of death himself he attacks Locke and is clearly on edge throughout the episode speaking of Lark we see John rise from the Dharma grave and he goes on to murder a woman he has never met before almost immediately and young Ben after his gunshot wound starts down his path to becoming the Ben we all know are these dark moments and behaviors the result of the man in Black's attempts to claim them in some way it's certainly a compelling theoretical narrative whether or not these behavioral changes can be attributed to the man in Black's Supernatural influence remains open to speculation these behaviors also seem a little bit inconsistent with what we see happen to Saeed and how he becomes Hollow and emotionless is it possible that the man in Black's infection varies from person to person there are of course other explanations for all of those behaviors and contradicting details Charlie was angry because of what Ethan had done to him and Claire and sought Revenge Sawyer was delirious with fever and for all we know he was hallucinating about the other who shot him on the raft and Kate simply projected Wayne onto him Mr Ecker was angry with John Locke for what happened in the hatch and understandably so lock almost got them all killed and lock rises from the pits of bodies because he was never going to die in there anyway due to the fact that his wound was not mortal he kills Naomi because he misinterprets Walt's warning and we see that Ben grows up after his near-death experience and demonstrates that he wasn't influenced by evil for a very long time since we see that he risks his own life to protect a baby's life he doesn't actually show signs of being entirely corrupted in 1988 and it's been 10 years since he was shot and healed how long does this infection take to work its evil magic with Saeed we see him acting Hollow almost immediately after his resurrection so there are two ways of looking at all of these examples you can believe that the man in Black exerts Supernatural influence over people who have experienced death or close to it or you can view these behaviors through the prism of character choices and the man in Black's occasional attempts to manipulate those choices now let's examine what happened to Russo and her team there are many many ways we can fill in the blanks of what happened in the two months between their arrival on the island and the team's untimely demise depending on how you choose to view what the infection is and how it works there are definitely signs that both Robert and Russo were suffering from Island Fever by the time we see their final confrontation the last we saw Robert and the other team members were going down into the hole in the wall to retrieve Montan he is calling to them for help the problem is we know that montan's body is still down there years later never having been moved which means he likely died of blood loss and shock shortly after his arm was ripped off which means the voice beckoning Robert and his friends downed is probably not really Montan and also means that the team probably never brought out the real montand the man in Black is primed to kill those who aren't protected by the rules if he comes across them but it's worth remembering that he is also always searching for potential Jacob killers and anti-candidates those that can be manipulated corrupted and turned to his side we see that the team does go down there but we never find out what happens after that some assume that the team go down into the passageway and are infected by old smokey how this infection happens is kind of unclear but we'll get into that soon this channel supposes a different series of events based on what Russo says and the fact that montan's body is never recovered and that the alleged infection itself takes time to work and does not immediately turn someone bad it's possible that Robert and the team never actually saw the real body of Montan down there but if he was already dead then that means the man in Black could appear as him therefore the person that the French team bring out from beneath the temple is fake montand think back to what Russo said about this day this is where it all began when my Dean got infected my mom lost his arm the day Montan lost his arm why would she phrase it that way if he had actually been killed after all losing one's life is a much bigger deal than losing one's arm surely she would say something like the dark territory is where montand was killed so it makes sense that the French team didn't realize that Montan was dead and this imposter this fake montand infiltrated this group of candidates much like we see in season five with fake Lark and he played the team off against each other making Russo suspicious and paranoid of who was really who Russo literally accuses Robert of not being Robert that he was changed by the monster seconds later she accuses gin of suffering from this very same infection because he disappeared before her very eyes no no what else do we know that disappears in the blink of an eye like that that's right the smoke monster his apparitions appear and disappear just like that to Russo being infected means being an imposter in some way that you have changed that you were dangerous we can read the confrontation on the beach in several different ways Robert could have been driven to pull the trigger on his pregnant girlfriend because she had recently gunned down the other members in Cold Blood or maybe he didn't think she was Danielle either an interesting line that is given more context in retrospect is when Russo first meets Saeed and tells him the following your people the ones you're determined to get back to them teach them closely sure at the time of fast writing this line was no doubt meant to be about the others but with the new context of Russo's backstory in season 5 we can interpret this line to also mean someone may look like a person that you crashed here with but they might actually be imposters like mumtand we can only really speculate on what happened during those two months of the French team being on the island between the temple incident and the beach Massacre if the man in Black's claiming is a literal infection then why does it take two months for Robert and the other team members to turn on Rousseau when we see that Saeed is seemingly turning to Darkness within one meeting and conversation with fake Lark in season six episode Sundown and aside and Claire could both fight and come back from their infection simply by making moral choices then doesn't that mean that Robert and his friends could have been saved too what makes her an even more interesting hypothetical is that the man in Black played the French team off against one another as fake montand that's what he does he uses his apparitions to lead people to their doom and he can do this through playing on their weaknesses their fears their guilt and their hate we see that 2004 Danielle Associates the others with the smoke monster infection and we know why she might make this connection because jyn was a mysterious stranger in their midst who blinked out of existence in front of her and to Danielle jyn became one of the others which might explain why she would later associate them with being carriers of this alleged sickness this is also why she accuses Ben of infecting her because in her warped mind she has become unable to distinguish between an actual other on the island like Ben a time traveler like Jen smoke monster manifestation like montand or her own manipulated lover Robert to her they are all infected and therefore they are all threats this leads us on to another less comfortable possibility that Danielle was the one who had really been infected either through the man in Black's manifestations and manipulations or simply because she suffered a psychological breakdown following the traumatic events of those first two months on the island there is some evidence that points us to this perhaps she murdered her friends in Cold Blood whilst laboring under the delusion that they were not really themselves anymore Robert saw what she had become capable of and understood that it was going to be either him or her in the end hence their standoff both parties look dehydrated and exhausted ready to kill one another based off fear and paranoia how exactly they got to this moment will always be open to Fan speculation but the one thing we can be sure of is that it is undoubtedly the handiwork of the Man in Black he successfully played the team off against each other doing what he has always done best deceive coerce exploit corrupt and kill as we see later Danielle Russo has a completely skewered memory and understanding of what the sickness actually was in season two when she suspects that baby Aaron might be infected with this disease of evil she tells Claire in a non-too subtle way that she will need to kill her own child now this indicates a clear and present psychosis in Russo she is telling a mother to kill her own baby based purely of the possibility that he might be infected this is pure Madness Russo never properly processed her own trauma her inaccurate diagnosis of Aaron is even more frightening when it turns out that he only ever had a fever that passes naturally anyway what this moment proves to us is that Russo is more than willing to kill an innocent person just because she believes they might be infected even if it is just a baby this is exactly how she Justified the slaughter of her own friends 16 years ago and it is a reminder that the smoke monster infecting people is not necessarily to be taken literally Danielle Russo has been alone on this island for far too long she is an unreliable narrator of her own story and a deeply tragic figure the sickness that claimed her team could be viewed less as a contagion of the body and more of a sickness of the soul the dimming of the light inside good people this channel supposes that the sickness is not a literal infection in other words I challenge the idea that the man in Black can turn good people evil through exerting Supernatural control over them if that were really true he would have no need to manipulate anyone in order to orchestrate his loophole to kill Jacob he could simply just infect Islanders on mass to make them do his bidding like zombies think about it how many people were near death that he could have brought back over the years it seems like he seldom ever used this ability and if he did it was a very hit and miss to me the infection makes less sense being metaphysical and more sense as being metaphorical he manipulates people just as we saw him do with Benjamin Linus in season five because despite your loyal service to this island you got cancer you had to watch your own daughter gunned down right in front of you and your reward for those sacrifices you were banished and you did all this in the name of a man you've never even met so the question is Ben why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob thank you [Music] describes the problem with Saeed and Japanese Lenin attempts to roughly translate it for us he says the closest term for what is happening to Saeed is an infection but really there is no easy English translation for what Dogan is describing we didn't do anything to him your friend is sick with what he's yeah it's not really it's not really a literal translation the closest thing would be infected infected dogen says that there is a scale inside every man with good on one side and Evil on the other the good can be represented by the Light while the evil can be represented by the darkness Jacob can activate the light in people whereas the man in Black can dim the light but what does this really mean lost takes great pains to show us that its characters operate within a gray area there is no such thing as ultimate good or ultimate bad in the show the white and black good and evil symbolism is nothing more than metaphor I think the show wanted to smash the binary nature of Good and Evil by showing that someone supposedly good like Jacob or even Jack Shepherd could lash out in anger and vengeance just as the man in black or Benjamin Linus could show compassion grief or regret for their actions mother and the Man in Black seem to agree that people are corrupt and bad yet Jacob actively tries to prove otherwise to prove that bad people can be redeemed and that morality is on a sliding scale and not simply binary he brings people to the island who are morally ambiguous and flawed and sometimes even outright murderers like Sawyer and Mr Echo yet he still finds the good in them or wants to see them seek Redemption for their mistakes by being part of something greater than themselves just as it happened to him so long ago Jacob is all about the gray area any single one of us can slip into darkness on that scale it happens to Sawyer when he shoots Frank Duckett an innocent man it happens to Juliet after she becomes another willing to kill on command it happens to Charlie when he shoots Ethan In Cold Blood it happens to Kate when she murders Wayne and it definitely happens to Saeed multiple times throughout his life he spent years as a torturer and then an assassin it didn't take a smoke monster to claim him for this to happen any of them for these things to happen it all comes down to their choices as human beings in my opinion the infection is simply the man in Black's way of getting people to believe a lie about themselves or the people in the world around them he talks them into doing things they might not have done otherwise he manipulates them into committing evil acts he knows exactly which buttons to press because of his accumulated knowledge on human experience and weakness he knows what they want because he is always reading them and he exploits their weaknesses and seduces them into darkness think about it this way the infection inside was growing long before his body was lowered into the temple Waters his true descent into darkness began after Shannon was shot in front of him we see it Hollow him out and how it makes him seek vengeance upon the others and any other will do and this Darkness finally metastasized after Nadia was killed it is here and not in the temple that his emptiness grew because we see that he repeats his mistakes of vengeful retribution by hunting and killing many of whitmore's people all of whom had nothing to do with Nadia's demise and this path ultimately leads him to committing his most evil act in the whole series shooting a child this is what made him vulnerable to coercion and manipulation It ultimately turns out that Dogan is actually wrong about the sickness he states that there is no cure to the Smoke Monster's infection yet we see both Syed and Claire come back from the darkness that consumes them Saeed makes the ultimate sacrifice for his friends and Claire chooses to let go of her anger and return home to her son which heavily indicates that this infection is not mystical in nature at all the scale within us is always sliding between light and dark it has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with the choices we make so what exactly did bring Syed back from the dead well we see the waters in the temple spring are no longer running clear Lenin points this out water isn't clear this clearly indicates that the waters usually run clear this is not how the spring normally functions hence why dogan's cut hand does not heal like he expects it to remember the island is alive the light is its life force and the water flowing out from the heart and around the Island's Rivers is its bloodstream Jacob was essentially the immune system protecting the island body from corruption or infection by killing a protector you destroy the immune system and the island becomes sick the man in Black is the infection spreading throughout the bloodstream he is now the closest entity connected to the heart of the island and the balance of power has shifted to him therefore the temple spring waters no longer run clear because the light has dimmed the bloodstream has slowed and a literal darkness is falling over the island we also see that muddy water is associated with the man in Black in the summoning chamber Outpost with this all said we know that the temple spring does still heal because it saves Saeed from his wounds now as far as we're aware the man in Black doesn't actually have the ability to physically heal fatal wounds in this way only the island or a protector can do that because they are connected to the power that gives life yet sides gunshot wound to the gut is gone as if it were never there he has stopped bleeding out is it possible that the island brought side back for a very specific purpose one that we see is crucial to help the final batch of candidates survive 5 for the end game with outside they would have all died in that submarine and the Man in Black would have claimed Victory but he has land over the centuries that this game between he and his brother is not so easily won it took a great deal of planning and improvising to get this far to find a loophole and to kill his Jailer and even after his death Jacob was still playing and putting his pieces in place the two men may have had their game and their own respective plans but the island itself had a master plan because Destiny itself had already made up its mind about the ultimate outcome of their game in the next video we shall explore the concept of Destiny and the science behind all of this examining what exactly the man in Black's loophole plan was how the time travel works and what the donkey wheel does and how the time Loop impacted upon the show's core mythology it's all about the compass thank you for watching please like share and subscribe to keep this channel alive consider donating to the patreon to help me make more videos just like this for links to all the other videos I have mentioned please see the video description and until the next time stay lost foreign foreign

Channel: LOST EXPLAINED

Views: 104,477

Keywords: Lost explained, lost mysteries explained, lost mythology explained, lost answers, lost tv show explained, lost, lost tv show, lost ending, lost ending explained, lost smoke monster, damon lindelof, lost tv show theory, Lost mysteries answered, the others lost, the candidates lost, the lighthouse explained lost, lighthouse lost, best tv shows, top tv shows, mystery, unsolved mystery, jj abrams, controversial tv shows, iconic tv shows, tv show explained, richard alpert

Id: _4afWwylWFE

Length: 102min 36sec (6156 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2023