Theories on The Substitute

Some great comments on my recap post for Tuesday's episode:

Richard said:

Maybe Kate was brought to the island not to replace Jacob, hence no number, but to manipulate Jack and/or Sawyer. She seems to have had a lot of power over both, though her influence has diminished as of late.

An interesting point. She was the reason Sawyer jumped off the helicopter and stayed on the Island. She was also the reason Jack went through with the plan to blow up the ocean Island. I bet we could find a few other ways she moved Jacob's plans along.

Anna said:

So i thought that the whole knowing the rules can't kill him thing may have been referring to Richard Alpert...because wasn't "Esau" going to try to kill him when he refused to join him and then that little boy appeared?

Excellent thought; I hadn't even considered the boy was talking about Richard. But it did seem like Esau was going to smack Richard around some, if not kill him outright, after Richard refused to go with him. The boy shows up, Esau's attention is diverted, and the boy says Esau cannot kill "him." Works for me.

Though why Esau would be allowed to kill Jacob and not Richard I don't know.

Some theories from the good folk who contribute to the Lostpedia:

1. Kwon is not Sun or Jin, it's Ji Yeon, their daughter. When Jacob touched them on their wedding day, it was at the moment that eventually led Sun and Jin to crash on the Island and Sun to become pregnant, as Jin was sterile off-Island.

2. The cave is not Jacob's, ergo the names are not Jacob's. We've seen where Jacob dwells: in the shadow of the statue. What if the cave is Esau's? What if he wrote those names, and he has plans for everyone?

3. Everyone who has a number but Sayid chose to return to and/or stay on the Island.

4-Locke, always very certain he was staying on the Island instead of going with Jack and other O6.

8-Reyes, Hugo decided after Jacob touched him in the taxi, saying "It's your choice Hugo", it could also be argued that he made a decision to stay when he didn't follow Dave off the cliff in Dave (episode) Season 2 and chose to stay with Libby on the Island

15-Ford, Sawyer chose to stay on the Island by jumping from the O6's helicopter.

16-Jarrah, Although Sayid did return to the Island with Ajira 316, this was not his own choice as he was being escorted by Ilana (Who we are now know was/is working for Jacob). In fact athough initially he appears to have been hell-bent on leaving the Island, he did have the opportunity to leave, but then returned voluntarily on the Kahuna dinghy to save others. Subsequently, when he returned to the island, he has been something of a martyr figure, atempting to change history by killing Ben, then dismantling the bomb, without any regard to his own safety. His motivation in dismantling the bomb for Jack was not to leave, but to save others, as he felt that he himself was not worth saving, and therefore it did not matter if he died.

23-Shephard, Jack decided a lot sooner than the other O6 that he wanted to return to the Island and played a fundamental part in bringing the O6 back to the Island. If Shephard refers to Claire (Which I doubt as she spent her whole life with the name Littleton) she still made a decision to stay on the Island and not search for rescue when she disappeared leaving Aaron, and when she was seen in Jacob's shack with Christian she seemed to be contentedly there by her own choosing.

42-Kwon, as stated above Jin made a conscious decision to stay on the Island when he didn't go with Locke but gave him his wedding ring, however Sun also decided to return to the Island herself to find Jin.

4. When Esau shouted after the boy "Don't tell me what I can't do!" exactly like Locke would do (and has done in the past), it may be evidence that Locke's persona still exists and is influencing Esau. For Esau to show such anger and fear is entirely out of character for him, in our experience, and for him to have the same neurosis as Locke by chance seems unlikely.

Anything else?