My friend, Sam, came up with an interesting theory concerning Ben and Jacob's relationship that I found intriguing. After watching Lost Seasons 1-3 within a week, for the first time, his perspective was refreshing in that he hasn't had three years of speculations to cloud his judgement. He commented that it made no sense that Ben had a tumor on his spine when everybody else was living virtually disease-free. Now why, of all people, did Ben have cancer? His theory is that Jacob is a prisoner of Ben's in some capacity. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense as Jacob's only words to Locke were "help me". His theory is backed up with evidence. Ben's tumor first appeared before Flight 815 crashed and before Desmond failed to press the button. In other words, there were no changes in the control to effect the variable. For no apparent reason, whatsoever, Ben got cancer, when the rules of the island dictate that he shouldn't have.

The conclusion is simple. Jacob DOES have the power to cure diseases. Jacob DOES hate Ben and wants him destroyed. However, for one reason or another, he no longer yields the power to destroy Ben in a physical fashion. His only way to defeat Ben was to refuse to cure his disease. He almost succeeded, however "a surgeon fell from the sky".....

hey whats up? ramygras, reading your blog made me think of something that i cant believe i never thought of before. do you find it crazy that ben somehow cured juliets sisters cancer, than very shortly after developed an aggressive tumor on his spine? now also take into consideration that ben is a liar, and maybe her sisters cancer never came back. he could have just said that so juliet would believe in him. weird.

That really is a good theory...but the thing that gets me is they never say it was cancerous. It could have been benighn? (or however you spell it) Not argueing with you ramgras...I still think it could still be possible. Just thinking

I think the special mystical phenomenon of the island appears as different things to different people. I think that Ben sees it as Jacob and that maybe Locke was so in tune with the island that for a brief moment he could see what Ben saw. That may also explain why the Others couldn't believe that Ben was taking Locke to see Jacob. For example: Jack sees Christian, Kate sees a horse and everyone hears whispers. I bet everyone is hearing different whispers however. Maybe the only people who don't get influenced by the island are the ones who have taken the injections, like Desmond. I also think that maybe the smoke monster is some kind of manifestation created by DHARMA to get rid of the hostiles. You'll notice that when everyone was walking to the radio tower to call Naomi's ship (which I believe to be DHARMA) the smoke monster never once showed up.

Immalost-- I figured that when Jack told Ben about his tumor and then remarked "I didn't say I was going to do the surgery. I just wanted you to know how you're going to die", that the tumor was life-threatening. I'm under the assumption that the tumor was going to kill him.

Thom-- I like your theory, however I see a few problems. First of all, they mystical phenomenon for Locke would be his father. However, everybody could clearly see and speak to his father. All of "The Others" saw him, and Sawyer spoke and killed him. And, while you are right that only Jack saw Christian, I remember for a fact that Sawyer also saw Kate's horse. I think Jacob does exist. I think, up until recently, only Ben could see him. I think Locke is special in that he could also see him. And I agree with Sam in that Jacob is an enemy of Ben's but fears him for some reason.....