Jacob

* In "The Incident, Part 1", Jacob is seen reading Everything That Rises Must Converge before his first encounter with Locke off the island. The cover of this book illustrates a flying dove which is shot down by an arrow. A literal meaning would be that Jacob must die (converge) after his rule over the island (rise). It is his destiny to die, that is why he willingly accepts it and shows no opposition to Ben knifing him.
* He carried out an elaborate scheme to manipulate his nemesis into the act by providing him with the tools he needed: the body of a dead leader with which to infiltrate the...

* Jacob is not dead because of the actions of the losties in the 1970s. The bomb goes off in 1977 doing everything that Jack and Daniel predicted, in which Oceanic 815 never crashes. Even though Locke could still be on Ajira 316 and make it to the island, he would not have been the Others' leader and therefore would have had no power over Richard, the Others or anyone else.
o Jacob planned the events in 1977 so that he could prevent his own death in 2007. He's known about his enemy's plan to kill him, and has been trying to change the events in the past by manipulating the "Variables" (Jack,...

* In "The Incident, Part 1", Jacob's last words were "They are coming." He said this to the false Locke who is the Man in Black from the opening. Jacob knew of the loophole and "touched" the lives of the Oceanic survivors and specific others for them to play a key part in the coming war over the island. This war has been alluded to by Bram, "Jeremy Bentham" and Charles Widmore.
o When Jacob is talking with Nemesis, he states that "it only ends once". The coming war will be very big, something we haven't experienced in the series so far, and it will be a fateful battle. Every single conflict,...

The island is a symbolic reference to Paradise. There are many biblical and mythological beings that can be put on either side. The truth is probably that Jacob/MIB represent many of these archetypes put together, be it biblical, Egyptian, Greek or Chinese. Going back as far as possible in biblical terms leads us to Eden. MIB represents the snake around the Tree of Good and Evil. The original sin was that the human being listened to the promises of the snake (MIB) promising him and her knowledge, just as the smoke monster/snake does with the candidates. He promised Sayid to see Nadia, and Claire...

* Jacob was the thirtieth character to ever have a flashback.
* The translation for "Jacob" in Hebrew is "he who holds by the heels". Jacob lives inside the foot of a statue.
* In the Bible, Jacob is also known as Israel, which can be translated into "he who fights with God".
* As of the Across The Sea, Jacob has the biggest number of centric episodes among supporting characters. Moreover, he has more episodes centered around him than following main characters: Frank, Charlotte, Nikki, Paulo, Boone, Ilana, Richard, Daniel, Miles, Ana Lucia, Walt, Shannon, The Man in Black and as many as Mr....