Lost Question?

Question

Any theories on who or what jacob is and why he was asking Locke for help?

Wasn't Ben talking to Jacob though - so he can see and hear him right?

Answer 1

Jacob is not Richard Alpert (the guy who little Ben saw after getting past the perimeter, and who looks like he's only shaved and had a haircut).

If you look at Jacob closely, if you take off the hair, it looks an awful lot like Locke. that or he's Kris Kristofferson.

I think he's asking Locke for help because Ben is holding Jacob in that cabin. The ash/stuff that Locke was sniffing may have been some sort of stuff to help keep ghosts (Jacob) in.

Yeah Ben was talking to Jacob and Locke did not hear. BUT after the flashlight made Jacob go all poltergeist, Locke heard Jacob say "help me" while Ben did not hear that at all.

Answer 2

I was thinking that Jacob could be the man Ben met in the jungle. I know he's the same person that plays Richard, but if you think about it, how did Richard not age at all and everyone else on the island does? (The adult Ben looks much older than Richard.) I'm wondering if Jacob was Richard's father and is some sort of ghost now. Richard doesn't seem to care for Ben. Maybe Jacob is asking Locke for help to get rid of Ben. Ben is supposedly the only one of the Darma group left after the attack with the deadly gas. If that's the case, then why did they continue to do experiments using the Darma equipment?

Answer 3

First, Jacob is NOT the guy Ben met in the jungle as a kid; that was Richard, the guy who later helped Ben gas the villagers and, still later, furnished Locke with Sawyer's file as a suggestion for someone who could probably kill Locke's father.

Second, that's an interesting theory about parallel planes. I wondered about that a week or two ago when Sayid specifically asked the guys who were tending to Naomi (the parachute chick) if they actually SAW a helicopter. None did, though they all heard it.
That would answer why Ben shot Locke, explaining to him that it was because Locke heard Jacob. It's possible that while Ben could see Jacob, he couldn't hear him; opposite for Locke. Either way, Ben is clearly interested only in maintaining his own power grip, as he is the only one who can "see" Jacob.

Answer 4

I have many theories, but the one that's starting to make the most sense is that he's trapped on another plane due to the Island's electromagnetic field. For whatever reason, Ben can see him but not hear him. Locke could hear him but not see him.
If not that, then he's a poltergeist, or Ben's telekinetic and making everything happen himself. He was a real person, in fact he's the guy Ben met in the jungle when he was a kid.

Answer 5

Melissa has a good opinion, in my mind the island is a holding place for spirits until they go to heaven or hell, bens past friends kept jacob hostage and now he is doing it. He probly knows all about the island. he killed locke to keep power authority.

Answer 6

The one who Ben met as a child was there the day they gassed the compound, and is still there in present day....and hasn't aged...confusing.

I loved how Entertainment Weekly summed up the episode ..."We don't care about Jacob, start at what ate the pilot, and work forward"