You want answers or do you want the truth? I'm sorry, you can only have one or the other, and in the final, two-part season finale you get neither and both. Who is Jacob? What does he do? Well, you will find out but not really find out. You do get a snarky Jack, a timid Kate, a snippety Sawyer, a defiant Locke and a long-overdue fist fight. Be warned, spoilers ahead!

The Incident

 You'll live far from Earth's bounty,
      remote from Heaven's dew.
   You'll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth,
      and you'll serve your brother.
   But when you can't take it any more
      you'll break loose and run free.

— Genesis 27: 39-40

What we Learned

I'm not sure why I'm drawn to the story of Jacob and Esau, something about birthright and the island, blessings and cursing, lying and trickery all seem to make sense to me and interconnectedness of all these characters. In this episode we see Jacob going about to all our favorite LOST'ies (but what aobut Shannon, Boone, Charlie, et al? Where they hand picked, touched by Jacob too or just causaulties of fate?) and specifically intruded beyond very poignant moments in their lives (and touching them) as if they are lost members of his tribe. His family. His stolen birth right. On the flipside we have Locke, who is Esau, the jilted brother who was tricked out of what was rightfully his and who know is coming to back to make it all right. It's a stretch, to be sure, but it still has something that melds together.

• Jacob has been around since at least the Black Rock (1800s?), and it seems that he has a friend (is it Locke, or whoever is Locke now?) who believes that eventually they will get it right, find a loophole, "You brought them here, you're trying to prove me wrong ... they come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt, its always ends the same -- if it only ends once, anything that happens before that is just progress".
• Throughout their respective lives we see Jacob coming into contact with our survivors at very key moments of their lives.
  
  • Kate starts her life of crime and lying by trying to steal a lunchbox, when she's caught Jacob is there to bail her out
  • A young James is at the funeral of his parents and retreats to the steps of the church to write his letter to Mr. Sawyer, and is given a pen by Jacob
  • Locke gets pushed out the window of an office buidling (by his father), Jacob comes by and says "I'm sorry this happened to you"
  • When Sayid is with his long lost love, Jacob asks him for directions, wherein he turns his back of Nadia could get ployed down (you think that driver was someone we know?)
  • Hurley is released from prison for killing 3 guys (which he loves to make sure we know), there's Jacob, waiting in a car, and tells Hurley that he doesn't have bad luck, but incredibly good luck.
  • Sun and Jin are getting married, and Jacob shows up to congratulate them; in perfect Korean
  • Jack is performing surgery and argues with his father about how he was treated like a child in front of his staff, and frustratedly attempts to get a candybar (which gets stuck); Jacob comes by, unsticking the candy and hands it to Jack.
• Back in the present(ish) Locke continues to take the people toward Jacob and tells Ben that he will have to kill Jacob for him; afterall, he's done so much for the man but never met him. Richard still doesn't know Locke's motives
• Meanwhile in 1977 Juliet, Kate and Sawyer get off the sub to help Jack detonate the bomb. Sayid takes about the bomb to make it smaller, and to detonate on impact. As Jack and Sayid attempt to "blend" in to get to the "hatch" they are spotted and Sayid is shot; Hurley, Miles and Jin appear to rescue them. They all meet up at the Swan.
• FINALLY Jack and Sawyer fight — man, has that been a LONG time coming.
• What's done is done.
• The new survivors take Frank to the cabin to see Jacob (who has moved on, leaving a piece of weaving showing the statue). They show Frank what they've been hauling around, but he's not too keen on what he sees.
• Radzinsky continues his mean streak and ignores Chang and drills toward the core; but guess who shows up? And bang bang, they shoot at each other. Jack dangles over the edge, drops the bomb aaaaaand ..... nothing.
• All hell breaks loose, metal starts flying down into the tunnel, a chain wraps around Juliet and pulls her in (after a sad exchange between her and Sawyer, she lets go and falls into the black).
• Back at the statue Locke and Ben go inside; while Richard waits outside with Sun and the others, the new survivors appear with the crate. They ask for Ricardos and ask "What lies in the shadow of the statue"?
• In Latin, Richard replies "Ille qui nos omnes servabit", which translates to: "He who will protect/save us all"
• Inside the crate? A dead JOHN LOCKE!
• In the statue pedastal Jacob and Locke have a familiar exchange (it must be the man from the beach, no?) and Ben asks "What about me?", Jacob replies "What about you?" which wasn't a good response because it made Ben stab him.
• "They're coming" (Jacob muttered before Locke or whoever pushes him into the fire)
  
• Juliet wakes up in the hole, bleeding and hurt only to see the bomb, she grabs a rock and smashes and smashes until.....

FADE TO WHITE

What We Don't Know

• Who is this new Locke? It has to be the man from the beach; who is either actually Locke or embodied into Locke (but that just begs the queston of how would he be able to do that?)
• Why does Jacob interviene in everyone's lives; are they merely wanders of the world, never meant to be there, but always meant ot be on the island (perhaps they came from the Black Rock?)
• What will setting off the bomb do? My guess -- reunite everyone into one place (thus the "They're coming" remark has double meaning, not just that the people outside the statue are coming, but everyone else is coming too) and everyone once dead will be alive and put back to the correct time, after a lovely battle between Esau and Jacob for their birthright.
• What about Christian? I'm still wanting to know who he is, what he is? And Claire? And all the other survivors who died, where they also visited by Jacob, or just collatoral damage?

Wherein we learned some things, we really learned nothing; other than what we always figured, that each person was picked to be there, on the island, for a reason; and that Jacob had something to do with it. We also figured that that wasn't Locke (unless since we're playing around with time, perhaps it is Locke). What did you think? There's just one season to go; can they wrap it all up and make sense of this mess?