Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Jacob's Moving Castle...

A recent discussion by SKID and others of Jacob's disappearing cabin reminds me of a speculation that I've been meaning to share for some time. As suggested in Chorus of the Dead, I believe that Ben keeps Jacob's ghost trapped in the circle of volcanic ash -- and that Jacob periodically escapes by possessing the Cerberus Smoke Monster. So what if Jacob's cabin is itself a manifestation of Cerberus? Maybe its disappearance is indication that Jacob has escaped...

I like this speculation because it fits with SKID's main insight that the Swan Mural depicts the same black and white house in multiple locations. Let's say that house is indeed Jacob's cabin, which moves around the Island when not confined by the binding circle. What else do we know moves around the Island? Cerberus! Maybe Jacob and his cabin manifest periodically near the various Cerberus Vents...

Anyway, the writers have signaled that they won't be revisiting the cabin in the near future. And I'm working on a longer post about Jacob that will touch upon these possibilities again, so there's plenty of time to ponder. Just wanted to get the ball rolling, the juices flowing, and whatever other lame creative metaphors apply...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Big

Did you catch the look on Ben's face when john asked what the smoke monster was. Maybe Ben has never seen it in that form. Maybe it has always appeared to him in human form.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Well, we've seen the smoke monster in various forms, from Eko's throw down to the still baffling pilot episode with the,ah, pilot being eviscerated and stuck in the high branches of the tree. (Was the Smoke Monster/Jacob/Island pissed off at the pilot for crashing the plane on sacred ground?) And I actually started looking at that mural again. There's Desmond's sailboat. What's with the green hand, does it correspond with the four-toed statue? And what's with the arrow, which makes me think of the cabin because of the arrow's tip? Did Radzinsky (or whomever) see the cabin levitate or move? Again, my head hurts.

Barry Wallace said...

I keep going back to the myth of Baba Yaga and her chicken-leg-walking hut...

Bigmouth said...

Me: I forgot about Ben's comment re the Smoke Monster -- thanks for the reminder! But didn't Juliet say something similar when asked about Smokey by Kate? And I could swear that Darlton suggested in a podcast thereafter that Juliet knew more than she was saying. Maybe the same is true of Ben -- I wouldn't believe his lies.

Wayne: I'm glad you mentioned the encounter with the pilot in the Pilot. One possibility is that he was killed as a kind of warning to the rest of the crash survivors not to explore the jungle. Perhaps Jacob was protecting them Ben, whose betrayal was apparent. In view of this theory, however, I wonder how much of that scene was actually manifestations of Smokey. The pilot's body could have been snatched to discourage hopes of rescue. Even the cockpit could be a manifestation like the cabin, though I admittedly find that less likely.

Regarding the Mural, I'm pretty sure Des painted it. So, he either saw the cabin on one of his limited excursions or dreamed about it. Either way, this implies a connection between Des and Jacob as well. That's important because I think Jacob inspired Des to follow Kelvin that day, thereby causing the crash of Oceanic 815.

Barry: That's an interesting analogy! The title of this thread is actually a reference to Howl's Moving Castle, which is about a castle with legs a lot like the Baba Yaga legend...

Lolagrrl said...

Hmmmm... Your comment about the Pilot (in the pilot) got me thinking... I could be waaaay off base but what if the smoke Monster got him b/c the pilot is one of the people who Ben doesn't want to find the Island? I mean, we know now that the Helicopter pilot knew him and he's with the "Not Penny's Boat" people. Maybe the pilot was in w/that group too?
... Or maybe I'm grasping at straws again... =)

Anonymous said...

Big

Ohh! thanks I had forgot about that.
How you keep all these things in your head is amazing. I think it just leeks out my ears LOL

Lola
Great thought!

SKID said...

Wow, imagine my surprise at the shout out in the blog! I am honored. I check this blog multiple times weekly, and each time I check the mural for new stuff. So try this: What if that "arrow" looking thing is not an arrow, but a PRISM and it is refracting light in a wierd way (a la Faraday's comments about light acting wierd on the island)

I may be way off and reading too much but i just wondered about that.

. . . and if the houses ARE Jacob's cabin, then it is proof that the writers knew where they were going at least from season two . . . or they might have thrown a lot of random things in and thought, "We will work all this in somehow as we go along." ???

. . . or this is why they blew up the hatch . . . hoping we would just forget about the mural . . .

Who knows . . . but think of the arrow as a prism perhaps?

Well, I am just honored to be on your "list" . . . oh wait, does this mean that I am about to be abducted and hauled off to a bear cage . . . or that I am going to be shot on the golf course??

Keep up the great blogging.

SKID said...

Okay, I just posted that last comment and just started watching the new episode "The Constant." I quickly revised my theory . . .

The arrow in the mural (the one I thought might be a prism about 10 minutes ago) looks amazingly like the SAME arrow on Lapides little map (the one drawn on the yellow paper). If I am not mistaken, they are drawn in the exact same direction and they made a fairly overt effort to show it.

The mural "arrow" even appears to have the word "OUT" written beside it. Maybe the hatch artist "remembered" the map and wanted to remember (or was leaving a clue for himself maybe)as to the way "out".

Sorry to abandon one theory so quickly but after the zoom in on the map in the copter, it seemed way too similar.

Okay, I'll shut up now before I get a grenade stuck in my mouth.

Capcom said...

Barry said: "I keep going back to the myth of Baba Yaga and her chicken-leg-walking hut..." WOW!! That brought back memories! LOL! :-D And "Howl's Moving Castle"...awesome also!

Good point about the arrows Skid!