Jacob
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- This is an article about the Other named "Jacob". For other uses of "Jacob" see Jacob (disambiguation).
Portrayed by [[{{{Actor}}}]]
[[:Category:{{{Images}}}|Images]]
Jacob, previously known only as "Him", is said to be the leader of the Others and the person from whom Ben receives his orders. According to Ben, no one else speaks to Jacob and no one knows where Jacob is. He lives in a dilapidated-looking cabin deep in the jungle, which is surrounded by a perimeter of ash. Many details about Jacob are currently unknown.
According to Ben, Jacob can cure cancer. ("One of Us")
Contents |
On the Island
Ben said that Jacob would heal Rachel's cancer if Juliet agreed to stay on the Island. ("One of Us")
Ben told Juliet that Jacob wanted Walt to be brought to Room 23.("Room 23")
The first mention of "him," possibly Jacob seen on the show, came when Tom said "You know what he'll do when he finds out," implying that "he" is above both Tom and Ethan Rom in the Others' hierarchy. ("Maternity Leave") Later, Ben stated, "If I tell you about them, you don't know what he'll do!" and when threatened by Sayid, says "He'll kill me!" to which Sayid responds, "I'll kill you!" Since Ben still doesn't give an answer, it most likely means that he would rather die than disappoint "him." Ben also says that "the man with the beard" is "no one," implying that "he" is much higher in the Others' hierarchy. ("Dave")* Soon after, Ben says that "he" is "a great man, a brilliant man, but not a forgiving man", and would kill him for failing his mission. ("Two for the Road")
He was first mentioned by name by Danny Pickett. According to Danny, Jack "wasn't even on Jacob's list." ("I Do") The name Jacob is also visible in the Room 23 video watched by Karl, where a title says "God loves you as He loved Jacob". ("Not in Portland") He was also mentioned by Mikhail Bakunin, who said, "The man who brought me here, who brought all of my people here—He is a magnificent man." ("Par Avion")
On day 89, Ben took Locke to see Jacob in a dilapidated-looking cabin deep in the jungle. Ben is at first hesitant to do this, saying that Jacob is not someone one visits; one is summoned by him instead. Just before entering the cabin, Ben tells Locke to turn off his flashlight even though it is dark in the cabin. Locke asks why and Ben replies that Jacob hates technology. Ben then lights an oil lantern before entering. Inside the cabin they find a seemingly empty rocking chair next to a table. Ben introduces the chair's invisible occupant as Jacob. Locke does not believe there is anyone there, even though Ben appears to have an animated conversation with Jacob. Ben insists that Jacob is there, but that Locke is "too limited to see."
Locke attempts to leave, but he hears a voice -- much lower and different then Ben's-- say "Help me." Locke turns back around and asks Ben what he said, but Ben denies having said anything. Locke insists further and turns on the flashlight, pointing it at Ben. The cabin starts to tremor; Jacob's chair rocks violently, the lantern falls causing a small fire, and Locke ducks as a glass bottle is propelled towards his head. Ben tells Jacob to stop, but he is forcibly thrown against a wall. In the midst of this, there is a very brief image of Jacob sitting in the chair as well as a close-up of Jacob's eye.
Outside the cabin, Locke asks Ben what happened. Ben replies "That was Jacob." Ben later shot Locke in an attempt to find out what Jacob said. ("The Man Behind the Curtain") Ben, returning to the Others, claims that Jacob changed the plan, and they are to attack the beach and kidnap the pregnant women a night early ("Greatest Hits") Ben then told Mikhail that Jacob told him to shut off all communication off of the Island. Bonnie tells Mikhail that she trusts Jacob, and if she didn't it would all fall apart. ("Through the Looking Glass")
On Day 91, Hurley becomes lost in the jungle and comes across Jacob's cabin. ("The Beginning of the End") He walks up to the cabin and peers in through a broken window. Sitting in the same rocking chair as in "The Man Behind the Curtain" is Christian Shephard. An unidentified eye then suddenly is visible through the window, frightening Hurley who runs away. When he turns back toward the cabin it is not there anymore. It is now in front of him instead. Hurley closes his eyes and counts to five, telling himself that there is nothing there, there is nothing to be afraid of. Once again, when he opens his eyes, the cabin is gone. Hurley then falls over backwards and is scared by Locke standing over him. ("The Beginning of the End")
Locke then attempts to find the cabin, but it is not in the same place. ("The Economist") Later, after Keamy and his men attack the barracks, Locke again decides to go ask Jacob for advice. Ben and Hurley accompany him. ("The Shape of Things to Come") Along the way Locke has a vision of Horace Goodspeed. Horace tells Locke that he needs to find "me" in order to find Jacob. They go to Horace's corpse in the mass grave. Inside his shirt pocket is a map which leads to Jacob's cabin. Once there, Locke enters alone. Inside, Locke encounters Christian Shephard, who claims to be speaking on behalf of Jacob. Locke exits the cabin and tells Hurley and Ben that Jacob's instructions are to "move the island". ("Cabin Fever")
Images and voice of Jacob
- If you slow down the section, you can clearly see the image of Jacob and his eye. (Jacob in Slow Motion)
- The eye is brown, not the color of Ben's or Locke's.
- The eye appears to be wide open, as in a state of surprise or terror.
- The eye appears to be conveying a sense of rage.
- Jacob was portrayed by prop master Rob Kyker for the filming of this particular episode. [source needed] Kyker is the property master for the production crew. It isn't unheard-of for production staff to play small background roles; examples Archie Ahuna and Michael Gilday.
- On the audio commentary of the Season 3 DVD, the producers refuse to identify who plays the role.
- Jacob's initial portrayal by Kyker is also quite similar to prop master and set dresser Frank Silva portraying the mysterious BOB on the David Lynch TV series 'Twin Peaks'.[1] The series has previously been noted by the writers as an influence on Lost.
- The voice is confirmed as Carlton Cuse.[source needed]
- The phrase "God loves you as He loved Jacob" is in the past tense, meaning Jacob is either dead or believed to be dead, or that God no longer loves Jacob.
- In an early episode Ben tells John "god cant see this island."
- In "Stranger in a Strange Land", when Sawyer and Kate are discussing returning to Hydra Island, Karl says "He'll kill you. God loves you as he loved Jacob."
- Jacob was confirmed to be "him" In the 3/20/07 Official Lost Podcast.
Note that there are no official images of Jacob yet. According to an interview on May 23rd 2007 (E! online) Damon Lindelof stated "False" to the question if the role of Jacob had already been cast. And: "You do see a guy, but...I'm still sticking to my false."
The same is for the "eye" (though confirmed to belong to Jacob) that has been broadcast before the role itself had been cast. (If it ever will be...)
- In the credits for the episode "Cabin Fever" on IMDB the actor Doug Hutchison (who introduces himself as Horace to Locke in his dream) is listed as "Jacob." Horace may become Jacob in the future.
Relationship with Ben
On the DVD commentary track for "The Man Behind the Curtain" Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse describe an interesting relationship between Jacob and Ben, which is more of a symbiosis than a master/servant role. The ash surrounding the cabin is described as a controlling mechanism such as a magic circle.
Biblically Ben is Jacob's youngest son.
Name
- Jacob is of Hebrew origin and means Holder of the heels, or supplanter. The English rendering Jacob comes from the Latin Jacobus, which was from the Greek Ιακωβος (Iakobos), which comes from the Hebrew name יַעֲקֹב (Ya'aqov).[2] The English name "James" also comes from Iakobos; thus it has the same meaning, and can be considered an alternate translation of the same name.[3] After wrestling an angel, the Jacob of the Torah changed his name to יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra'el) or "Israel" which means "Striven with God."
Trivia
- The filming location for Jacob's cabin in "The Man Behind the Curtain" was also used for Eko's grave. [4]
- Jacob is the middle name of Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (J.J. Abrams).
- The Jacobin Club was a political organization during the French Revolution.
- The Jacobite movement was dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland.
- Jacob Roggeveen was a Dutch explorer who discovered Easter Island in the south Pacific.
- Jacob's mysterious introduction as an invisible character with an other-worldly voice was a mindf*ck. Although strange things had been seen on the island before (e.g. the Monster), the idea of an invisible, poltergeist-like character was new, and changed the concept of reality on the show, which has both disappointed and intrigued fans.
- Jacob's ability to heal cancer resembles the situation with Isaac of Uluru and Rose's cancer.
- Jacob's Hands is a book by Aldous Huxley about a man called Jacob who can heal animals and humans with his hands. NB: Aldous Huxley worked with the real Richard Alpert at Harvard University studying psychedelic drugs.
- Aldous Huxley also wrote a book called "Island," where its protagonist (Will Farnaby) shipwrecked in an Island and encountered its inhabitants. An analysis of this book can be found at [5]
- In the NIV Bible it states the Hebrew meaning of Jacob as: "he grasps the heel (figuratively, he deceives)."
- In Adrian Lynes' Jacob's Ladder Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam veteran in a purgatory- like state.
- In Marvel Comics Benjamin Jacob Grimm aka the Thing was raised by his uncle Jacob Grimm who is a doctor.
- Jakob Böhme (1575 – November 17, 1624) was a German Christian mystic. Böhme had mystical experiences throughout his youth, culminating in a vision in 1600 that he received through observing the exquisite beauty of a beam of sunlight reflected in a pewter dish. He believed this vision revealed to him the spiritual structure of the world, as well as the relationship between God and man, and good and evil.
- Jacob bears some similarities to the character of Management from the HBO series Carnivale.
In both cases the character in question lives in one place which he rarely leaves. Both characters are believed to be mythical by some people. Both have the ability to make themselves invisible. Both have supernatural powers. Both need someone from the outside to continue their work. Both are somehow imprisoned, desperated for someone who'd help. Both work primarily through one other character, who is played by an actor named Michael.
- In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost carries a heavy fetter, or chain, and explains to Scrooge that he (Marley) is doomed to walk the earth for eternity as a punishment for his avaricious and incurious life. He tells Scrooge that he (Scrooge) has a chance to escape the same fate, and that he must expect to be visited by three spirits over the coming nights.
Biblical references
- On the special features disc there is a Dharma Training Video. If you pause, play the video you will see two pictures. One of the UN building and another, that is very hard to catch, which reads, "God Loves you as He Loved Jacob".
- When "God Loves you as He Loved Jacob" is superimposed on a staircase in the Room 23 video it is a direct reference to "Jacob's Stairway to Heaven" Genesis 28:10-15 [6]
- Jacob is literally translated in Hebrew as "holds the heel," and is a play on words that means "trickster" or "deceiver." His mother Rebekah named him thus because while his twin brother Esau was firstborn, Jacob came out of the womb hanging on to his heel.
- Esau was favored by their father Isaac but Jacob was favored by their mother.
- Esau was the firstborn, but Jacob conned him into selling his birthright.
- Jacob impersonated Esau in order to gain a blessing from his father Isaac meant for Esau.
- Esau was an outdoorsman/hunter while Jacob was studious, reserved, and "dwelled in tents".
- Jacob had twelve sons, the youngest of whom was named Benjamin. Jacob was the patriarch of what became the 12 Tribes of Israel, people chosen by God to be "set apart" and special.
- Esau married outside his people and founded the kingdom of Edom in what is now southwestern Israel.
- The story of Benjamin and Jacob in Lost is an allegory about morality and faith, reflected in the Book of Job. Thought by many scholars to be a descendant of Esau (i.e. synonymous with Jobab from Gen 36:33), Job is a man who loses everything and thereby struggles with faith in benevolence. Job's symbolic father-son relationship with God is one where he feels abandoned and that God no longer watches over him, so why believe in being good when your father isn't? This is the same tale of morality displayed in Lord of the Flies where the faith in being rescued symbolizes mankind's faith in being rescued by a higher power. If that faith is lost, if we feel as if no one is watching us, then why not give in to the temptation of utter selfishness and evil?
- Jacob envisioned a "Ladder to Heaven" (described in the Book of Genesis 28:11-19) during his flight from his brother Esau.
- According to the Jewish teachings in the Midrash, the ladder signified the exiles which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Messiah. The top step on the ladder is supposedly guarded by a vision of Esau and represents Edom which God assures Jacob will be brought down at the End of Days.
- According to the Book of Malachi, God "loved Jacob but hated his brother Esau" (Malachi 1:1-3). This is the only time God specifically says he "loves" an individual in the Hebrew books.
- Romans 9:13 also says "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Furthermore, the verses before and after 9:13 deal predominantly with fertility. For instance, 9:9 says "For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son," which could refer to the pregnancy of Sarah.
- Jacob was later given the name "Israel," which means "Struggled with God," with an implication of prevailing.
- Jacob, in the Torah, literally fought an Angel and prevailed, thus giving him the name Israel.
- In Contemporary Christian circles, this "angel" is often seen as a pre-incarnate form of Jesus Christ.
- Jacob, in the Torah, literally fought an Angel and prevailed, thus giving him the name Israel.
- Jacob was led to believe that his favorite son Joseph was dead after Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. After the brothers went to Egypt during a famine, Joseph set up his brother Benjamin for a crime he did not commit, then revealed his true identity to his brothers and demanded that the brothers bring Jacob to Egypt. Only then did Jacob learn that Joseph was still alive.
- Jacob became the "father of a nation" through his 12 sons—he was clearly a very fertile man. (The Others and Mittelos Bioscience seem to be doing research connected with fertility. Alvar Hanso states on www.TheHansoFoundation.org that the foundation's goal is to "bring rebirth to a dying land and a dying people")
- Jacob is a great-great-grandfather of Aaron (elder brother of Moses) via Levi, Kohath and Amram.
- Jacob is the first person in the Bible to refer to God as a shepherd.
- Jacob loved Rachel, daughter of Laban.
- He worked seven years to earn her hand in marriage, but Laban conned Jacob actually making him marry Rachel's sister Leah (whom he disguised) and forcing Jacob to work another seven years for the right of marrying Rachel.
- Rachel was apparently barren, but later amazingly gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin after failing to become pregnant for years. She died whilst giving birth to Benjamin
- Benjamin had 11 brothers but only one full brother, Joseph, who also was Jacob's favorite.
- In Jewish history, the tribe of Benjamin's women and children were all killed, and the remaining members of the tribe could not longer proliferate. The historical solution they came up with was to kill the men from another sub-tribe and take their women and children. Women are unable to carry to term on the island, and the Others have been taking women and children from Flight 815.
- Another name for Tribulation is "The Time of Jacob's Trouble" Jeremiah 30:5-7
Unanswered questions
| Unanswered questions |
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- For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Jacob/Theories
- What exactly is the nature of Jacob?
- How did Jacob come to be on the island?
- Is Ben the only Other who can talk to him?
- Why does he live so far removed from the rest of the island?
- Why does Jacob dislike technology?
- How can Jacob move objects?
- What did Jacob have to do with Rachel's cancer?
- Why was Jacob invisible to Locke?
- Why was Jacob visible to Hurley?
- When Jacob said "Help me", why could Locke hear it, but Ben couldn't?
- Why are all of the Others so genuinely in awe of Jacob if they've never seen or talked to him?
- How does Jacob "summon" Ben?
- Why didn't Jacob cure Ben's cancer?
- Why does he live in Horace Goodspeed's cabin?
