"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" ~ C. S. Lewis

Monday, March 2, 2009

Not on Jacob's List?

While rewatching Season 3, in the episode "I Do" I caught a comment, that I didn't pick up on the first time. In light of all that has happened since that episode this little phrase has been bugging me to death.

As Danny runs out of the Hydra station to go after Sawyer he says, "Shepard wasn't even on Jacob's list."

My immediate reaction... "WHAAAAAAATTTT!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? (exactly like that)

So here are a few of my questions and ponderings about this statement...
  • How did Danny know about Jacob's list? We all know that Michael was given a list of people to bring back from the other side of the island. The list included Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. If this list was not Jacob's list, then whose list was it? The obvious answer is, it was Ben's list. However, Ben is the only one of the Others that we know is in contact with Jacob. If Ben changed the list, then why would anybody else know that Jacob's list was any different?
  • Why was the list changed? Again, the obvious answer is that Ben added, or replaced someone with, Jack. Jack is a spinal surgeon and Ben needed spinal surgery. Therefore it makes sense that Ben would want Jack to come and perform the surgery. This is what we are led to believe and this seems to be the whole point of Michael bringing the group to the other side of the island. Jack was brought to do the surgery, Kate was brought to keep Jack in line and Sawyer was brought to keep Kate in line and to add that third dimension that would make Jack want to do the surgery. It all centers around the surgery. BUT...if Jack was not on the original list, then this could all be Ben's agenda and not the original purpose of the group at all.
  • If Jack wasn't supposed to come who was? I wonder if Ben replaced Locke's name on Jacob's list with Jack's. Was Locke supposed to come instead? Was this supposed to be the beginning of Locke's journey into his role as the leader of the Others? Was Ben threatened by the fact that Jacob specifically asked for Locke and so he changed the list? What would have happened if Locke had been brought instead?
  • If Jack wasn't on the list, who else got added? Were Kate and Sawyer on the list originally? Was the list completely different? I doubt it, because Danny says nothing about Ford or Austen not being on the list (though he is strangely and excessively hostile against Sawyer).
  • And all of this brings me back to my original question... How did Danny know what Jacob's original list was!?
  • Or was the line added simply to introduce us to another leader, someone higher than Ben? Was this just a cop out to introduce Jacob's character? That would make me really mad, but there are just so many inconsistencies with this that I can't figure it out. I really hope that some of this gets resolved before the end of it all, but who knows
  • Maybe I'm just blowing one tiny little line all out of proportion. Lost does that to me :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts on this now with the benefit of seeing the whole series? I'm currently re-watching season 3 and had the same reaction you had (so googled that line, which brought me here).

Rebecca T. said...

Quite frankly I think it was just a cop out to introduce Jacob as a mysterious character. *sigh* I had forgotten about this until you commented :) I'm planning another rewatch soon, so maybe I'll ponder it as I watch. Thanks for stopping by!