After last night's show I couldn't help but think, okay, now the war has begun. I love it whenever the smoke monster makes an appearance, so last night was just freaking awesome!
We saw some new insights that highlighted the contrasts between Jacob and MiB last night, I thought. Each of them made a deal, Jacob with Dogen and MiB with Sayid, to "save" someone they loved, but Jacob was going to prevent Dogen's son from dying (Jacob = Life) whereas MiB was promising to at least show Sayid someone who was dead (MiB = Death).
And MiB is evil incarnate? Well, we'll see, but at this point I'm more inclined to believe Jacob & Dogen & friends than MiB. Notice MiB lied now to Ben, Sawyer and Claire, manipulating all of them. To date we've seen what could be construed as manipulation from Jacob, but I haven't seen him lie yet. Besides, looking at it from a writer's standpoint, they have to make it look like the bad guy is winning and will take over to keep up the suspense so we root for the good guy and he comes back for a more dramatic victory. I'm still rooting for Jacob.
And seeing Sayid happy with his evil, even enjoyng it, just sent shivers down my spine.
So we got the two sides of the war: Claire, Sayid, MiB, and the surviving Others on one side. Kate, Jin, and Sawyer are with them, too, but Kate was there by chance, Jin was more or left captive trying to save his own life from Claire and I'm holding out hoping Sawyer is playing a long con or keeping his options open. I can see them jumping over to the other side at some point. Then we have Jack, Hurley, Lapidus, Ilana and Sun on one side. I must have not been paying close enough attention, but I think Ben was with them, too, right?
Dogen's assistant's comment was interesting. After seeing Dogen dead he said "He was the only thing keeping him out! You just let him in!" So, it's not really the ash circles keeping the MiB at bay, but something about the person inside the ash circles.
Here's my theory, maybe a little crackpot, but we'll see: Dogen was "good". The "scale" at least tipped heavily on that side for him. It's the "good" that keeps the evil at bay. Maybe this is why he couldn't kill Sayid himself. He attacked Sayid in a fit of anger, but remembering his son stopped him. It think if he had given into the evil in himself and killed Sayid himself that he wouldn't be "good" enough to keep out MiB. MiB would have swooped in killing them all and Dogen didn't want that to happen because he wanted his son, still living off the island, to be safe from MiB.
Maybe this is why Jacob needed Ilana and Bram, too. The ash circle worked for Bram and, since we saw Ilana picking up the ash, I'm guessing it will work for her, too.
Or maybe not. But "good and evil" now seem to even be measurable. Can't wait to see more. Why did it have to stop last night? --Dretzle 14:51, March 3, 2010 (UTC)