Who Is Jacob In Lost

The Unabridged Lost Timeline Explained

It's been years since Lost aired its final flavor, and fans are nevertheless debating exactly what happened over the course of the testify'southward narrative-twisting, reality-bending, fourth dimension-hopping six seasons. Between all the flashbacks, flash-forwards, flash-sideways, moving islands, and time travel, the chronology of the show can be harder to follow than a fast-moving smoke monster in the jungle. Fifty-fifty if yous paid close attention through every single episode, it would exist understandable if y'all even so had a hard time keeping the order of events straight in your caput, especially considering the expansive ensemble cast that started with an intimidatingly large roster, then only grew from at that place.

Fortunately, we've fabricated our all-time endeavour to wrangle the major milestones of Lost into an easy-to-follow (more or less) timeline. Of class, including every twist and turn throughout the evidence's convoluted narrative would require a novel-length postal service, so we'll only be hitting the loftier points here. Think of this more as a bird's-eye (or peradventure we should say, Oceanic airline's center) overview rather than a beach-level deep dive.

The isle's first protectors

Several thousand years before Oceanic Flight 815 crashed onto the island that serves every bit the centerpiece for Lost's winding tale, at that place was the Heart of the Island — the mysterious, mayhap magical pool at the center of the island that glowed with a bright, seemingly supernatural light, and which possessed extreme electromagnetic properties. During this time, an unnamed adult female became the guardian of the Heart of the Island, which she considered the source of life, death, and rebirth. She said she came to the island the same way nigh people practice, by accident, although we never larn the precise circumstances that brought her there.

During the time that this adult female guarded the island, some sort of aboriginal civilization built a temple, a massive statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret, and a couple of other structures. And somewhen, a ship carrying a pregnant woman named Claudia wrecked on the island. Claudia gave birth to twin boys, and shortly thereafter, she was killed by the guardian of the island, who then raised the two brothers as her ain. One was named Jacob, and while we never learned the name of the other, he somewhen came to be known every bit the Man in Black. The guardian told Jacob and his brother that she killed Claudia considering she and the others on her ship were "bad," and she didn't want them raising the two boys.

A rift between brothers

Jacob and his brother were raised by the guardian until their teen years, when she finally took them to the Heart of the Island and explained her role in protecting information technology. At that place, the ghost of Claudia appeared to Jacob and told him the truth of what happened to her, which prompted a fight between the two brothers. Jacob's blood brother chose to get live with the survivors of Claudia's wreck for the side by side 30 years, while Jacob decided to remain with their adoptive mother, although the brothers stayed in contact.

Somewhen, Jacob was made the new protector of the island, and later, his adopted mother was killed past the Man in Blackness afterward she burned his village to the ground. Before her death, she mystically prevented the brothers from ever being able to impale one another personally, then as revenge, Jacob cast his brother into the Heart of the Isle. This transformed Jacob'southward brother into a column of black smoke, although he could still assume his human form when he wanted to. Jacob and the Man in Black (who nosotros're going to call "the MiB") would keep to run across throughout the coming centuries, but their opposing views of humanity — with Jacob believing humans were adept, and the MiB assertive they were evil — kept them constantly at odds. Jacob would depict people to the island to succeed him, and the MiB would endeavour to convince them to kill Jacob, which he believed would free him from the island and his altered form.

The Black Rock comes to the isle

In 1867, a slave ship called the Black Rock crashed on the island, after being summoned by Jacob. On the transport was a man named Ricardo, who'd been sold into slavery afterward stealing medicine for his dying wife and killing the physician in the process. At first, afterwards the Black Rock washed up on the isle, Ricardo was saved by the smoke monster (aka the MiB), who killed the rest of the coiffure but spared his life. The MiB told Ricardo that the isle was Hell, and that he had to kill Jacob, the devil. Withal, when Ricardo attempted to murder Jacob, the guardian won the old slave to his side, and granted him immortality in substitution for serving as an intermediary between Jacob and the people he would bring to the island.

Eventually, Ricardo changed his proper name to Richard Alpert, and he'd eventually go along to lead the Others, the group of people who would come up to alive on the isle equally followers of Jacob. Through Richard, Jacob would give instructions to the Others, which they would follow faithfully in order to protect the Heart of the Island and help Jacob in his search for a successor. Additionally, Richard would occasionally exit the island on Jacob'southward orders, sometimes accompanied by a called few Others, in guild to manipulate events to bring more potential "candidates" to the isle, in hopes that ane could take over for Jacob someday.

DHARMA arrives

A number of significant events took place toward the middle of the 1900s. In 1954, the U.S. Army planted a hydrogen bomb called "Jughead" on the island and built a test camp nearby. Nevertheless, before they could conduct their nuclear test, the Army base was wiped out by Richard and the Others, leaving the bomb undetonated.

Also effectually this time, Jacob began pulling the strings that would bring his particularly selected candidates to the island aboard Oceanic 815 about fifty years later. Jacob'southward influence went far beyond merely getting his candidates on the plane. In some cases, he was involved in the lives of the Oceanic survivors earlier they were even born.

Afterward, in the early 1970s, the first DHARMA personnel (including a immature Ben Linus and his father) arrived on the island and began constructing their facilities, hoping to harness the island'south unique electromagnetic backdrop in order to change the factors of the Valenzetti Equation — 4, 8, xv, 16, 23 and 42, known to the Oceanic survivors as merely "the Numbers" — which were supposedly tied into the terminate of humanity. DHARMA conducted lots of experiments on the island, including some involving polar bears, and the group built a number of subterranean research stations all over the island, naming them Hydra, Arrow, Swan, Flame, Pearl, Orchid, Staff, Looking Glass, and Tempest. After clashing with the Others for several years, the 2 groups eventually signed a truce in 1973.

Lost and the tragedy of Danielle Rousseau

In November 1987, the Bésixdouze shipwrecked on the island with its crew of six scientists, including the seven-months pregnant Danielle Rousseau and Robert, the begetter of her unborn child. Over the adjacent few months, Rousseau'due south crew began to suffer a "sickness" inflicted past the Human being in Black that caused them to act differently, and eventually, Rousseau killed them all, with Robert being the concluding to dice.

After killing her team, Rousseau traveled to the DHARMA radio tower and recorded a distress phone call, which would play on a loop for the next 16 years. Three days after, she gave nativity to her daughter, Alex, who was taken from her by Ben Linus, who was by then allied with the Others. Ben warned Rousseau that if she always heard the "whispers" — indicating that the Others were nearby — she should run the other way.

Rousseau lived lone on the island until 2004, when she would encounter the survivors of Oceanic 815. After 16 years of solitude and paranoia, her explanations were hard to follow, merely they ultimately wound upwards helping the survivors and providing them with valuable data, although Rousseau even so had her own agenda. At one bespeak, she kidnapped Claire Littleton'due south baby, Aaron, thinking she could merchandise him to the Others in substitution for Alex, only ultimately, she returned the infant to his mother. Eventually, Rousseau would be shot and killed while attempting to save Alex from the Others.

The purging of the DHARMA Initiative

Although precisely which year "the Purge" took place is a thing up for some fence, what's articulate is that after an extended period of uneasy peace between DHARMA and the Others, the latter group released a poisonous gas in the DHARMA army camp on December xix of either 1987 or 1992 that killed near every person on the island associated with the DHARMA Initiative. Prior to the Purge, Ben Linus, along with several other unidentified members of DHARMA, defected to the Others, which helped facilitate the attack.

At the time of the Purge, the leader of the Others was Charles Widmore, although Richard Alpert was even so acting as an intermediary between the grouping and Jacob. Despite the truce between DHARMA and the Others, DHARMA had been in violation of the terms of the agreement for years leading up to the Purge. The truce had included stipulations on how many DHARMA personnel could be on the island, how long they could stay, and how deep they could drill into the island, all of which DHARMA ignored. Additionally, DHARMA stockpiled weapons and constructed a defensive perimeter, which didn't lend itself to peaceful coexistence. While not every member of DHARMA was killed in the Purge, the event effectively put a halt to DHARMA'south research and experimentation on the island, and those who remained lived in isolation.

All the paths in Lost lead to Oceanic 815

In the years leading up to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, which departed from Australia in 2004, circumstances conspired to bring the survivors together in surprising ways, thanks to the influence of Jacob and the island's mystical powers. Jack Shepherd boarded the flight to transport the body of his father, Christian, dorsum from Australia, merely to discover later that another survivor, Claire, was also Christian'southward child. James "Sawyer" Ford dedicated his life to seeking revenge on the homo he blamed for his parents' death, who turned out to be the father of fellow crash survivor, John Locke.

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes won the lottery by playing the mystical Numbers, only to endure one misfortune later on another, leading him to Australia to learn if the Numbers were cursed. Jin-Soo Kwon worked to make himself worthy for his fiancée, Lord's day-Hwa Paik, only to have the tasks he was given by her gangster father bulldoze them apart. In fact, things got and then bad that she learned English so that she could go out Jin in America, after a stop in Australia.

As for Kate Austen, she killed her abusive father, which led to her abort in Australia and extradition to the U.S. on 815. Stone star Charlie Stride got hooked on heroin, which caused his brother to refuse his request to get their band back together, sending a defeated Charlie home from Australia on 815. And Sayid Jarrah wound up on 815 largely due to the consequences of his acting every bit a torturer for the Iraqi Republican Guard.

What Desmond Hume did for love

While many of Lost's central players were moving along the paths that would lead them to Oceanic 815, Desmond Hume got to the island much earlier and through a unlike route. Afterwards failing to become a monk, Desmond met Penny Widmore, daughter of ex-Others leader Charles Widmore. Desmond and Penny fell in love, but they later broke up after Charles told Desmond he'd never exist worthy of her, and Desmond agreed.

Years afterwards, later on encountering a time-shifting Daniel Faraday (who was Penny'southward half-brother, although neither knew it), Desmond decided to seek out Penny again, and he entered an around-the-world sailing race run past Widmore in guild to prove himself worthy of her. On a boat that he acquired through a chance encounter with future Oceanic survivor Libby Smith, Desmond set up sail in 2001, only to crash on the island. He was found by a survivor of the DHARMA Purge, who took him to the Swan station (a.k.a. "the hatch") and convinced him to push a button every 108 minutes to discharge the electromagnetic buildup of the island.

After three years of faithfully pushing the push button, Desmond experienced significant doubts, which led to him accidentally killing his DHARMA companion and declining to printing the button in fourth dimension. Although he managed to diffuse the energy, the electromagnetic interference caused the crash of Oceanic 815. Exactly twoscore days afterwards, as Desmond was preparing to give up and kill himself, he heard John Locke pounding on the hatch above.

The crash of Oceanic 815

In the days following the crash of Oceanic 815 in September 2004, the passengers focused mainly on survival. Jack became the de facto leader, with Kate as his 2nd-in-command, although information technology wasn't long before Locke began pulling followers of his own. Several romantic relationships sprang up, including Sayid and Shannon Rutherford, Charlie and Claire, and a love triangle betwixt Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Some survivors stayed on the beach, while others moved to a series of caves further inland.

As Michael Dawson built a raft to escape the isle, the group had a series of increasingly alarming run-ins with the Others, who infiltrated their grouping from the first day and, at i point, abducted Claire and Charlie. Sayid met Rousseau, and the group worked to balance survival with solving the mysteries of the island, including the smoke monster, polar bears, the Others, and the hatch. Michael launched his raft about a month after the crash, but the Others intercepted him and kidnapped his son, leaving Michael, Sawyer, and Jin to drown. All the same, they made it back to the isle, encountering the survivors from the tail section, whom they'd presumed had died in the crash. After a catamenia of initial mistrust, the two groups of Oceanic survivors combined into one.

Alive together, die solitary

Over the first 4 seasons of Lost, only a little over 3 months went by, but enough happened to make it feel similar a much longer clamper of time had passed. Not but did new romances form, such equally the one betwixt Hurley and Libby, merely sometime relationships healed, including the complicated sibling human relationship between Shannon and Boone Carlyle and the marriage of Dominicus and Jin Kwon. A community was formed, Claire'south baby was born, and friendships solidified between many of the survivors, particularly between Charlie and Hurley. The group expanded with the additions of Desmond, the tail section survivors, and the freighter science team of Daniel Faraday, Frank Lapidus, Miles Straume, and Charlotte Lewis. Plus, Juliet Shush, a dr. for the Others, eventually defected to the Oceanic group. On acme of all that, tensions continued to rise between the growing grouping of survivors and the Others, led by Ben Linus.

Notwithstanding, the first few months on the island as well proved deadly for many. Boone died after a severe fall at the end of season 1. His sis Shannon died of an accidental gunshot wound in flavour two, and then Michael shot and killed Ana Lucia and Libby, survivors from the tail section. In season three, the mysterious Mr. Eko was killed by the smoke monster, and although Desmond spent the flavour trying to prevent Charlie'south expiry, the musician eventually drowned, saving Desmond in the process. Then season 4 brought the deaths of Rousseau and, shortly thereafter, her girl, Alex.

The escape and return of the Oceanic Six

After betraying his friends in order to rescue his kidnapped son, Walt, from the Others, Michael was allowed to leave the island and render to the U.S. However, within weeks, a guilt-ridden Michael agreed to return to the island under an alias, as a spy for the Others. He got a task on Charles Widmore's freighter Kahana, which transported a team of mercenaries under orders to impale Ben and the Oceanic survivors.

Once the Kahana arrived at the island, many survivors headed to the freighter in an endeavor to escape, only Michael discovered the mercenaries had planted C-iv on the Kahana equally a failsafe. Michael froze the battery of the bomb long enough for Jack, Kate, Sayid, Dominicus, Hurley, and Aaron, along with Frank and Desmond, to escape on a helicopter. The helicopter crashed in the ocean, and the passengers were rescued by Penny's ship, the Searcher, on December 31, 2004.

The Oceanic survivors came to be known in the press equally "the Oceanic Vi," with Kate claiming Aaron equally her son. During their iii years abroad from the island, they all received large cash settlements from Oceanic Airlines, and Sun gave nativity to her and Jin's daughter, Ji Yeon. Notwithstanding, bad things kept happening to the group, and Ben Linus somewhen convinced Jack that they had to return to the isle in guild to make them terminate. The Six — minus Aaron, who stayed with his grandmother — boarded Ajira Airways flight 316 in October 2007, a flying chosen by Eloise Hawking and piloted by Frank Lapidus. The plane fabricated an emergency landing on Hydra Isle, just Jack, Sayid, Kate, and Hurley were mysteriously transported back to 1977.

Ben and Locke move the island

At the aforementioned time that the Oceanic Six were moving to the Kahana in the hopes of escaping the island, Jacob appeared to John Locke in the grade of Christian Shepherd and told him that he had to move the island. Locke conveyed this message to Ben, who and then surrendered to Widmore's mercenaries at the Orchid station in order to go inside. Later on getting revenge for his murdered "girl," Alex — an human action that triggered the failsafe bomb on the freighter — Ben descended into a frigid bedchamber beneath the Orchid station, where he plant a behemothic wheel. Ben turned the wheel, and the island began to skip through time, disappearing right as the Oceanic Six were on the helicopter, leading to their crash and rescue by Penny.

Equally for Ben, he woke upwardly in the Tunisian desert ten months in the time to come, in the fall of 2005. Meanwhile, during the 3 years the Oceanic Six were away, Locke and the others on the surface experienced time shifts, caused past the aforementioned wheel beingness off its axis, sending them to random different points in time. Somewhen, Locke returned to the subterranean chamber, and under the instruction of the Man in Black, he reset the bicycle, halting the fourth dimension shifts and transporting Locke to Tunisia in 2007. Unfortunately, he found himself paralyzed from the waist down once more, equally he was before the crash. And back on the island, the remaining fourth dimension-shifting survivors — like Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles — were transported to 1974.

Following Locke'south expulsion from the island, he was picked up by Charles Widmore'south people, and he later set out to convince the Oceanic 6 to return to the island, hoping to go back with them. When he failed in his task, Ben Linus killed him, and used his death to convince Jack and the others to render on Ajira 316 after that year.

The interference of Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking

While Jacob and Richard were pulling strings to bring new potential protectors to the island, in that location were others working to get back to the isle through their own means. Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking both lived on the island in their youth, serving equally leaders of the Others. Afterward unwittingly killing her and Widmore'southward future son, the time-traveling Daniel Faraday, Eloise eventually left the island to raise the younger version of her son in Massachusetts. From then on, Eloise dedicated her life to bringing about future events as she perceived they had to happen — including manipulating Ben and Locke to convince the Oceanic Six to return to the island — working out of a DHARMA station chosen the Lamp Mail service.

Meanwhile, later on Widmore left the island and became a successful entrepreneur, he grew obsessed with returning to the island. After the crash of Oceanic 815, Widmore staged a imitation plane wreck in the Sunda Trench, so anybody would presume the 815 survivors were dead, and no one would go looking for the island. He then hired mercenaries and sent them aboard the freighter Kahana, forth with the scientific team that included Daniel, to impale Ben and all the other people on the island. After that endeavor failed, Widmore returned to the island himself on a submarine, bringing an unconscious Desmond with him, ostensibly to test Desmond'southward resistance to electromagnetism. However, one time reaching the island, Widmore revealed to the Human in Black that he'd actually brought Desmond as Jacob's "last resort," in instance all of Jacob's other candidates died. Widmore was then shot and killed by Ben Linus.

Lost takes us back to 1974

After Locke finally reset the wheel and the island settled back in fourth dimension, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Daniel, and Miles institute themselves stuck in 1974. Afterwards helping the DHARMA Initiative out of a gummy spot with the Others, they were granted permission to stay for a few weeks, which turned into a few years. During this fourth dimension, Juliet and Sawyer fell in love, Jin became fluent in English language, and Daniel departed the isle.

In 1977, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid arrived from the hereafter afterwards disappearing from Ajira 316. Later on being found by Jin, they too joined the DHARMA Initiative, except for Sayid, who was mistaken for 1 of the Others and arrested. This led to Sayid shooting a young Ben, who was then brought to the Others so they could save him, resulting in Ben's defection. Meanwhile, Daniel Faraday returned to the island with the theory that detonating the nuclear bomb Jughead might preclude Oceanic 815 from ever crashing, saving all those who would die in the future.

Unfortunately, Daniel was killed past Eloise earlier he could detonate the bomb, but the other fourth dimension travelers worked to carry out his plan, which was complicated when a drilling accident acquired an electromagnetic "incident," and Juliet was dragged into the Swan station shaft. Withal, Juliet lived long enough to detonate the flop before she died, and the group was flung dorsum to 2007.

The isle gets a new protector

In the final season of Lost, the centuries-long struggle between Jacob and the Man in Black finally came to a caput, as Jacob'south puddle of candidates narrowed to a final few, and the Human in Black grew increasingly bolder in his attempts to kill his brother and escape his smoke-bound existence. In the form of the deceased John Locke, the MiB convinced a bitter Ben to kill Jacob.

Meanwhile, Sawyer hatched a plan to hijack Widmore'southward submarine to transport him and the other survivors off the isle. Nonetheless, unbeknownst to any of them, the MiB hid a bomb in Jack'due south backpack, which they didn't discover until they were all on board. Sayid took the bomb, giving most of the group fourth dimension to escape, just he, Jin, and Sun were all killed.

Afterward, Jacob's spirit appeared to Jack and the others, and he explained why he'd brought them to the isle and that he needed 1 of them to be its new protector. Jack volunteered and was fabricated immortal. Seeking to defeat the MiB, Jack lowered Desmond into the Heart of the Island, where he drained the water from the mystical pool, leading to the MiB condign mortal. Jack took the opportunity to kill the MiB, merely he was mortally wounded himself in the fight, so he passed his protector duties on to Hurley, who in turn asked Ben to be his 2nd-in-control. As Jack Shepherd lay dying, Frank and Richard repaired the Ajira plane, and they escaped the island with Miles, Claire, Kate, and Sawyer.

Lost, the flash-sideways, and the church

While the first five seasons of Lost used flashbacks and, somewhen, flash-forwards to assist in their storytelling, the sixth season introduced a new narrative that appeared to be a flash-sideways, following the lives of the Oceanic survivors and their allies in an alternating reality where Oceanic 815 had never crashed. The flash-sideways started with the flight landing safely at LAX and connected from in that location, featuring the return of many characters who'd previously died on the show, including Charlie, Boone, and Shannon.

Starting with Desmond, the characters in the flash-sideways gradually began regaining their memories of their time on the island, typically afterward an emotionally resonant event that called back to their time in that location. Kate, Claire, and Charlie remembered the island after the delivery of Claire's baby, and Jin and Sun remembered after seeing an ultrasound of their daughter. Sawyer and Juliet remembered later touching one another, Hurley remembered after kissing Libby, and Sayid remembered after rescuing Shannon from an assail. Jack remembered last, later on touching his father's casket in the church where his funeral was supposed to be held.

It turned out that the flash-sideways was the afterlife, created past the survivors at some point post-obit their deaths both on and off the island in order to help them observe 1 another earlier passing on to the side by side plane of beingness. Evidently, fourth dimension works differently in the afterlife, so while some characters died over the form of the prove, and others died long after it ended, they all seemed to make it together. After regaining their memories of their time on the island, the deceased Oceanic survivors all gathered together in the church, "moving on" together into the brilliant white light that lay beyond its doors.