Don't read this unless you have watched the season 5 finale! MAJOR spoiler alert if you haven't! (I'm not kidding.)
In this theory I'm pretty much going to explain the conversation taking place in the opening of the season 5 finale line by line. I'm going to explain who Jacob and
the man in black is, and also share a mini-theory on Richard. The theory is based on two assumptions - One of which requires that you read my previous post on the
man in black, which can be found in this thread. These two assumptions are;
The man in black is the smoke monster in it's
human form. Thus, he's the island's defence system in it's human form.
Jacob is the human form of the island itself.
Jacob: I take it you're here 'cause of the ship.
MIB: I am. How did they find the Island?
Jacob: You'll have to ask 'em when they get here.
MIB: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
Jacob: You are wrong.
These lines are pretty straight forward. We have yet to find out what they are discussing, and why Jacob would bring the ship to the island, but we will get the answer to that soon:
MIB: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
Now we begin to understand what they were arguing about. The
man in black does clearly not like outsiders - humans - coming to the island since he is the security system. It's his job to protect it, so he doesn't like how they act on the island, and how they "destroy" it. Jacob, however, thinks the humans will learn, eventually, to live in peace:
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
This is why jacob brought the ship to the island. He feels like the humans deserve a second chance. He wants the humans to be able to live in peace and harmony on the island.
The man in black, however, sees jacob's bringing people to the island as a threat. He doesn't want others to come here, and the only way to prevent them to do so, is to kill jacob, so that he can't bring more people.
MIB: Do you have any idea how badly I wanna kill you?
Jacob: Yes.
And there you have it. This is
why he wants to kill jacob. So why hasn't he done it yet?
MIB: One of these days, sooner or later... I'm going to find a loophole, my friend.
So it would seem the man in black can't kill Jacob. And when you think about it, it's pretty obvious why. The man in black - the security system of the island - can't kill jacob, because jacob, in a way,
is the island. Killing him would be destroying the island's human form, thus destroying part of the island. This would be going against the purpose of the security system, thus it is impossible.
We know from the scene in the end, where jacob is killed, that the "Reincarnated" Locke is actually the smoke monster. He found his loophole by having Ben kill Jacob -The man in black was only unable to kill jacob himself, so once he found someone to do it for him, jacob could be killed.
Now the question remains - what took him so long? there must have been other people who he could have convinced, be it others or Dharma people? As a matter of fact, he couldn't. This is explained by, believe it or not, Ilana. She and her team hiked to the cabin, only to find the ash circle around it broken - whoever was trapped in the cabin is now free. She then enters the cabin only to find out that Jacob isn't there:
Ilana: He isn't there, hasn't been in a long time. Someone else has been using it.
So if jacob hasn't been in the cabin for a long time, then who was trapped in the cabin? Who is this "someone else"? It would have to be someone with supernatural powers, and extensive knowledge of the island, seeing as theyre both invisible and knows how to move the island. And wait a minute, didn't we see Christian shephard in the cabin? And what did my previous theory say? That Christian Shephard is actually The man in black!
So it was not jacob who was trapped in the cabin; It was the man in black! And now he had finally been set free (the hole in the ash circle) and could finally set his plan in motion; to assume the body of someone, and then use that form to convince a living person to kill jacob. That someone's body ended up to be Locke's, and the person he convinced - using Lockes body - was Ben.
Also, I have a minor theory based on this one: Fed up with the people who came on the black rock, the man in black had a giant wave, a tsunami, flood the island. This wave washed the black rock up on the island, and at the same time knocked down the statue of Taweret, like so:
Couldn't be bothered downloading a gif creator, so I just used some freeware version of videomach. 8)
Anyway. This wave drowned all the people who were origianlly on the black rock - except for one; Richard Alpert. Jacob managed to save him, and for some reason made it so that he doen't age. This works well with what Richard says to Locke in the finale:
Locke: I've never seen anyone who doesn't age. Doesn't mean it can't happen.
Richard: I'm this way because of Jacob.
So there you have it! A theory on Jacob, The man in black, and a mini-theory on Richard. Hope there weren't too many typos and such - I really shouldn't be writing these at 6.30 AM.. :D