LOST Theory # 1

The steps of the Man In Black and the events of the series to try and figure what the he wanted where he may have intervened. Bear with me....

So the Man in Black's (MIB) big plan was to get Ben to plunge a knife into Jacob's chest. In order for this to happen, a multitude of dominoes had to fall into place. MIB had to establish himself as a leader of the Others, and beyond that, the most important of the Other's leaders. He did this by assuming the resurrected identity of John Locke. Dead is dead, we were reminded by the episode of same name. But by ‘John Locke’ seemingly breaking this island rule, he was catapulted to the high rank of the Others. Not to mention the fact that his coming was prophesized 60 years earlier.

The MIB needed Locke to die, in order to be ‘resurrected,’ so the MIB wanted John to leave the island, be killed and be brought back. So the MIB needed John to want to leave the island. We know this because we saw the MIB imitating Locke, instructing Alpert to tell the REAL John Locke that he would have to leave the island and he would have to die. The MIB wanted time skipping around and the O6 to leave the island so Locke had a reason to leave and be killed. He also had Alpert give the Locke the compass to give back to Alpert in the past to further solidify him as the leader of the Others. Locke followed instructions, but the Richard Alpert was still skeptical and checked in on Locke throughout his life, testing him to see if he was, in fact, destined to lead them. This is a test that John Locke failed because he never was meant to lead the Others, it was all a set up by the MIB and Alpert knew it, but didn’t listen to his own nagging feelings.

So the MIB needed Locke to leave the island and die, so he needed a situation where Locke would be willing to do this. This means that the MIB wanted Ben to turn the FDW because that is what caused time to skip and for the Castaways and left over Freighter people to begin to have nose bleeds and Minkowsky out on us. Ben turned the wheel in order to hide the island from Widmore and his men. This means that MIB wanted Widmore to find the island, because without finding the island, the FDW would never have been turned. This means that MIB wanted Charlie to turn off the Looking Glass and wanted Jack to answer the phone.

This is interesting because, Ben was warning against answering the phone. Knowing that it was the wrong move, but not fully understanding what would happen if the call was answered. After all, Ben was reduced to a pawn of the MIB.

Ben followed the MIB because the Smoke Monster came to him in the shape of his dead daughter, Alex. If Alex hadn’t died, then Ben wouldn’t have followed the MIB as Locke. So the MIB wanted Keamy to kill Alex in order to influence Ben later.

On the other hand, Ben may have been a pawn the entire time. The way he ran the Others and their torment of the 815ers is what led to Jack’s insatiable desire to get everyone off the Island. Thoughts?