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JACOB

The cosmic clash between these two very mean men of considerable means brings us to Jacob. And Esau, too. According to the Biblical story found in the Book of Genesis, shy-and-sly Jacob tricked his blind father, Isaac, into giving him the inheritance that rightfully belonged to his brother, Esau, a hairy, red-skinned hunter born a few minutes ahead of him, with his bratty little bro clutching his heel, no less. And so it went Jacob took the family fortune and leveraged it to become the figurative father of Israel. He also sired 12 sons, the youngest he named Benjamin. As for the birthright-screwed Esau, he was initially so furious that he swore to kill his brother, and the threat of much bloodshed seemed inevitable...but then something happened. This, too, at the end, when I explain why Lost = Pet Sematary. Seriously.

Where is all of this leading to on Lost? Perhaps Jacob will give us a few more hints tonight. I suspect he knows SOMETHING of altered realities. In this creepy entity, whose only line to date has been, ''Help me,'' I sense a trapped soul who has had something stripped from him, and I don't mean his body. I wonder if here, on an Island that seems to stand at the crossroads of All Possible Worlds, what/who we see trapped here inside this otherworldly outhouse is a man who never really was. In other words: Could Jacob be the version of Charles Widmore that somehow, some way got flushed out of existence? Maybe.

Or maybe it's just the soul of John Locke. Nobody on that plane yearned for an alternate reality for himself more than fate-whipped Locke. When the plane crashed, he died...and was born again by the power of his mind and Island magic. But the irony of this man of faith is that he has no soul — it's trapped in the Island's version of Purgatory, a small little shack in the woods. And that's no way for anyone to spend eternity. Locke, then, is both alive and dead, a paradox akin to the wave/particle duality of Niels Bohr. The only way for Locke's soul to pass on is for his mind to agree to come along for the ride. ''Help me,'' indeed.

CRASHING FOR ''CABIN FEVER''

As it turns out, Jacob isn't the only ghost of Lost past returning in tonight's episode. Based on ABC's promos and press release for tonight's episode, here are some things you need to know in preparation for ''Cabin Fever,'' plus a theory or two.

''THE PURGE''
What we know: Ominous term applied to the violent event that ended the conflict between the Dharma Initiative and Island dwellers dubbed ''The Hostiles.'' At 4 p.m. on December 19 of some unspecified year — all we know is that it was Ben's birthday — the Dharma barracks were filled with egghead-killing gas. Presumably, this vicious vapor was the same stuff Dharma itself was manufacturing at the Tempest. Ben played a crucial role in the Purge and even considers himself personally responsible for it. All the Dharma dead bodies were dumped in an open pit. The Purge is not an Island secret: Charlotte and Faraday know something of the event, as they had a secret agenda to neutralize the Tempest lest Exterminator Ben uses it again.
Doc Jensen Theory: The same data fits a radically different interpretation. My proposal: Dharma's leaders were secretly planning to use the gas against their own volunteers as part of the last phase of Dharma's Island excursion; the so-called ''Hostiles'' were keenly aware of these homicidal intentions and were trying to stymie them; and Ben, motivated by his own private agenda, facilitated this act of mass murder by basically allowing it to happen as scheduled. But why would Dharma pull a Jonestown? Here's an answer:

NEXT PAGE: An answer


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