Jacob Baptizing Richard

[nomteticus]

Do you think the writers wanted to make a subtle hint at baptism when Jacob was "drowning" Richard? He was basically "born again" after that gesture, and Jacob does seem like a Jesus/John the Baptist type of guy.

[RM]

Yeah.  I'll say that, since my mind doesn't dwell inside that framework, that it didn't actually occur to me at the time that Jacob was "baptizing" Richard.  But now that people have pointed it out, I'm quite sure TPTB intended for the audience to notice that as a symbolic baptism right before he literally gives Richard eternal life.

[Adriana]

WhatThe -- just one more nod in your direction.  The baptism and eternal life was incredibly apparent to me.

The other MAJOR Christian theme that was very apparent to me was free will vs. manipulation.  There is a difference between free will, making forced choices, and making choices while being manipulated.  When people making choices under manipulation, they THINK they are making choices of their own free will, but they are being unknowingly guided toward that very choice.  In Christianity, Jacob works much like Jesus/God does -- he shows us how it is, and gives us a choice to make.  The MIB works very much like Satan -- he tells us exactly what we want to hear to either stroke our ego, or feed our fears, to make us do exactly what he intended for us to do in the first place; he manipulates us to use us for his own purposes.

I absolutely LOVED this episode, and it actually made me appreciate and sincerely like Richard a lot; it's definitely my favorite this season.

[RM]

In Christianity, Jacob works much like Jesus/God does -- he shows us how it is, and gives us a choice to make.

I won't argue this depiction of Jesus/Christianity, but I don't think it's an accurate depiction of Jacob.  He is definitely not "showing people how it is".  He is providing weird clues, leaving people to guess what they are "supposed to" do.  The main Losties don't even know what they are "candidates" for.  It's hard to choose clearly when you don't even know what it is you're choosing.