Good day all,

This evening, a new episode of L O S T awaits with intentions of confusing, bamboozling, and casting us further down the six-season-vortex-of-mystery we have known for too long. Mid-season theorizing tends to be laborious in that the writers’ method for answering one question is to pose several more, which as a result leads to an overwhelming amount of hazy supposition on all forms of LOST sites. If any of you check out DarkUFO, The Fuselage , 4815162342, or even LOSTPEDIA, I’m certain you’ve noticed how gnarly it is to navigate through and read any concise analysis of what’s going on. The good news, though, is that the seemingly eternal-end-in-sight is right around the corner, and gauging from a lot of the ideas being shared here, I think we’re heading down the right path!

Last weeks episode “The Substitute” not only affirmed that the conflict between Jacob and Nemesis Dude is within the confines of strict rules (much like a game) and a regulator, but also that our castaways have been the subjects of manipulation as determined by whomever – allegedly Jacob – listed their names upon the inner walls of the cave . False Locke expressed to Sawyer that every single one of them were pushed to the Island by Jacob’s puppeteering of their freewill; after which he presents Sawyer with three options to go from there. Sawyer opts to side with False Locke under the pretense that it will lead him home.

Here are a few squabbles I have with the “reality of the situation” as presented by False Locke: The cliffside cave list conflicts with the list the Others made in season one immediately after the crash. It’s been established since season one that the Others are agents of Jacob, subservient to his bidding and unwavering in their allegiance. “Jacob’s list,” which they used as a reference to abduct select survivors, consisted of only “good people.” Noteworthy characters excluded from this list were “Shepard,” Kate, Sayid, and Locke. In the episode “Par Avion” we learn from Mikhail that the latter three were not on the list because they are flawed, and thus can never truly understand the Island. He also alludes that the lists were created by the “same great man” who brought them there (i.e. Jacob). Here we have an obvious inconsistency with who the Other’s and Nemesis Dude says is on Jacob’s list. Its a no-brainer who to believe: I’d side with the obedient followers of the list-making-man-in-question over his extremely deceptive Nemesis any time (horrible pun intended). Assuming Nemesis Dude is lying, what, then, is this a list for? I haven’t formed a completely solid theory yet, but something interesting I’ve noticed between all identifiable crossed out names: 317 – Cunningham, 10 – Mattingly, 2 – Lacombe, 1 – Sullivan, and now 4 – Locke, are all characters who have been murdered/ended up dead on the Island. Knowing Nemesis has the ability to manifest himself into the likeness of the dead, and also that a sickness exists (which I presumed last week to be in accordance with his Anti-Jacob essence), there is a high probability that these names are all pawns he’d strategically played in hopes of finding his Jacob-murdering-loophole and home-returning end.

“You have no idea how long its taken me to get here,” he told Jacob; if this is his cave and the names written are all pieces in his loop-holing puzzle, then it looks like, at the very least, it’s been fifty years!

As for False Locke wanting to “just go home,” I sense that this, too, is a lie. I suggested in my first column that Smokey and False Metal Locke were one in the same: a security system of the Island with a profound disdain for mankind. Since it has been proven that they pulled the ole’ Finkel/Einhorn maneuver on us, and that Nemesis and Smokey ARE the same dude, its reasonable to conclude that the Island is the only place he ever wanted to be (sans humanity, of course). With Jacob presumably dead, my guess is that his remaining objective will be to eradicate everyone (whom Jacob brought) from the place he calls home so it can go back to it being just that. Richard knows False Locke’s angle is “to see everyone dead,” and implored Sawyer to return to the temple. Sawyer, desperate to find tangible answers, refused. This type of non-reasonable abandon makes him extremely malleable to the will of Nemesis Dude, and knowing that he has already chosen a side, implies a strong likelihood that he’s gonna be deceived into murking fools soon.

One final thought I have on the Cliffside Caves actually belonging to Nemesis Dude goes back to the first conversation we see him having with Jacob. After telling Jacob his plans to find a loophole and murder him, Jacob responds by saying “Well, when you do, I’ll be right here.” The “right here” he is referring to is the Statue of Tawaret, where the conversation takes place and where we come to find Jacob has been living the entire time. The idea of him having a secret cave in a remote part of the Island, while plausible, seems improbable.

With all of I have previously surmised, the biggest mystery for me (on this topic) is the significance of Jacob’s encounters with the remaining names on Nemesis Dude’s list. We were explicitly shown that Jacob physically touched Locke, Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Jin, Sun, Hurley, and Sayid, yet their names are written in a list not of his own (with the exception of Kate). I’m not sure if this is a strategy Jacob employed as a counter against the loophole exploits of his Nemesis, OR, if it THAT is what actually qualified them for selection in Nemesis Dude’s plot in the first place; either way I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

Tonight’s episode is going to take us back to the story line of Jack, Hurley, Jin, Temple people, and Crazy Claire. I’m pumped to find out more about the sickness, but more importantly, to get the lowdown on what Claire has been doing for the past couple of seasons! The preview looks pretty promising in that within thirty seconds we see an axe being welded as a potential weapon, a few hand gun flashes, and Jack getting aggro then smashing something! Hopefully Lindelof and crew set it off for us tonight!

-NH

As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, will be out this spring on Metal Blade. While you’re awaiting its release, why not get L O S T on AILD’s MySpace page?