"The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting." Those words uttered by Mrs. Hawking in the episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" to Desmond, may be the key to the events we now see unfolding in the Season 4 finale.
Is the "universe" reconfiguring the major players who are associated with The Island? And how many times in "history" has this whole scenario happened before? Is it possible to connect these events to former events, ad infinitum.
I want to thank our contributor ErasedSlate for sparking this train of though in his blog entry "The ingredients for an explosive finale." It is something he mentioned about Sun and her takeover of Paik Industries that got me thinking about how our characters fit into a momentous course correction that appears to be in the process of talking place.
If you look at how our characters are being placed within the plot arcs, either presently or in the near future, you can see certain alignments.
Ben is the new Widmore. If he does leave the Island, is he not able to return because of the Island being moved by Locke. He seems to have both financial and personal resources off island that would enable him to search for it again. As Miles said - "Do not treat me like I'm one of them! Like I don't know who you are, or what you can do! " And as ErasedSlate theorized, in the future we see him and Sayid eliminating Widmore's associates.
Locke is the new Ben. Sometime in the future, will we hear Ben say to Locke "That island's mine, John. It always was. It will be again."
Sun and Paik are the new Hanso Corporation. At present, Paik is probably involved in many shady activities, just as Hanso was associated with weapon sales during the Second World War (non-canon - see The Lost Experience). Will Sun turn the company away from it's present course and use Paik Industries to try to harness the powers of the Island for the common good?
Is Keamy the leader of a new group of Island hostiles? Do we really know why the Others were at one time called "The Hostiles" by Dharma?
Jack is the new Magnus Hanso, searching for the Island. Currently, we only know that Magnus' ship, the Black Rock, did make it to the Island. Was it some sort of accident that his ship ended up grounded on the Island or was he searching for it?
Christian Shepherd is the new Jacob. We've seen him in the cabin, sans Jacob. What was Jacob's past connection with the Island and how does Christian fit into the current game?
Is Claire the new Rousseau and Aaron the new Alex? Rousseau was pregnant when she arrived on the Island, as Claire was. Did Alex leave the Island after her birth and then was returned to the Island as Ben's "adopted" daughter? And it seems that Alex was very important to Ben, for whatever reasons. Will Aaron return to the Island and Locke become his protective "parent?"
I am not suggesting that every character and every plot point has a corresponding "clone," but it does seem that we do have characters and motives that in some way reflect the older characters and motives. And certainly, when push comes to shove, the Island seems to have the final control.
How many times in the world of Lost has this played out? Who else could we associate as part of this "course correction" and what will be their role in the last two seasons?
WLN
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Interesting theory for sure. I can see most of the connects except for Keamy. I don't expect Keamy to live past the finale.
DI called them Hostiles because the Hostiles viewed DI as invaders and may have done things to sabotage the DI. I'm not convinced that the Hostiles attack on the DI that was portrayed in the episode where young Ben and Annie were in class really occurred. I think the DI staged that as a way to make a big impression on the kids that the Hostiles were their enemy. We never saw any real gunfighting, we only heard gunfire.
Of course the Purge was done by the Hostiles, but that was ordered by Ben/Jacob.
I think that one event in the island's history may come to play again eventually. That is of course that a volcano erupted in the island's past. This was discussed in the classroom scene during Ben's first flashback episode during season 3. Perhaps this is one way that the island will eventually learn to 'fight back'.
It is interesting that we are seeing a 'changing of the guard' so to speak.
However I disagree with the OP on some aspects. I believe that Christian Shepard is in fact dead and like Eko's brother, or Hurley's friend Dave, that the island is just using the visual image of Christian in order to communicate with the Losties. On top of that, when actors sign contracts sometimes they specify a number of episodes or an amount of airtime they expect to get. MY point is that the significance of Christian Shepard as Jacob really isnt so significant. I think the island is representing itself using the image of Christian Shepard mainly to open Claire to influence and suggestion. My overall point is that people are making too big of a deal out of Christian being Jacob. Its not really Christian.
Also, I disagree with the last commenter about DI faking the attack. I disagree with it only because of the fact that there is no reason to believe that the hostiles wouldn't attack them. If there were willing to approve a plan to use Sarin (or whatever) to kill every single person on the island then I dont see why they wouldn't have first tried with guns and explosives. Keep in mine that it was just guns and explosives when Ben was a boy. But, by the time Ben was a man they were willing to use chemical weapons. My guess is that the DI began seriously abusing the island's powers and probably got Annie killed in the process. I believe that it will be shown to be true that the death of Ben's girlfriend Annie was the straw that broke the camel's back and made Ben willing to help the hostiles murder all of the DI.
Steve said: "My overall point is that people are making too big of a deal out of Christian being Jacob. Its not really Christian."
And I agree, Christian is not Jacob. But the Island is using the dead Christian in a similar way in which it used Jacob in the past. Jacob spoke to Locke "Help me," which could indicate that Jacob was tired of being used as a pawn in the Island's plan and wanted to go on to his destiny. It was not my intention in this theory to equate a character with their actual match, but more so to show how a character has a like purpose and motive.
Certainly an "undead" Christian could be used to relate to this "new" batch of players in the Island's history, more so than the older past player Jacob.
WLN
Steve, you said: "If there (they-the hostiles) were willing to approve a plan to use Sarin (or whatever) to kill every single person on the island then I dont see why they wouldn't have first tried with guns and explosives. Keep in mine that it was just guns and explosives when Ben was a boy. But, by the time Ben was a man they were willing to use chemical weapons."
Dharma created the chemical weapons and the means for disbursing them in the Tempest. The Hostiles must have somehow gained control of the Tempest and used Dharma's own weapons to destroy them.
WLN: Excellent theory! All I have to add is that Richard Alpert is the island's CONSTANT throughout the changes you describe...and possibly others before.
that's pretty good. where's hurley play into all of this? his character is there for a reason as well. and sorry to be off topic, but remember that huge bird that screeched hurley's name? what was that about?
anyhow, great theory.
as for the jacob/claire/christian thing, i think jacob is stuck in ghost form and needs a new body, and perhaps that's why aaron is so important. but i'm crazy.