Richard is part of (the infinitely better version of) Team Jacob, but Smokey doesn’t think he was there willingly, thus the chains remark AND the fact that he didn’t kill him right away.

I really need a new hobby, huh?

As far as Jacob goes, think about this for a second: He gave Hurley the guitar case containing the ankh before Hurley got on the Ajira flight, which means that he must have known that that they were going to get sent back to 1977, known that they were going to detonate a nuclear device that sends them back to the present. He must have known that Sayid was going to get shot in 1977 and must have known that he was going to need him/his body for some purpose. Which means that he must have known that Ben would kill Locke, that smokey would use Locke’s body as a vessel, and he must have known that he was going to “die”. Crazy

As far as the bible refs go, here’s some more: In the old testament, Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac and was the third patriarch of the Jewish people. He had a brother named Esau. When Isaac was old, blind and dying Jacob deceived him and stole Esau’s birthright. Could the MIB= Easu?

Benjamin, in the old testament, was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. In Greek mythology, Linus is any of the three sons of Apollo. Important? I think so.

Ajira 316= John 3:16?

The way that Jacob appears to have gone to great lengths to set up his OWN death, without actually trying to prevent it, kinda reminds me of the lengths that Jesus went to in order to ensure that his own death occurred as it was supposed to. I may be stretching that one a bit.

Don’t even get me started on the Egyptian mythology on this show.

I also saw the way they carried out Sayid’s body. Totally theological. That AND the last supper photo. What’s with all the Bible refs?

And did anyone else expect Locke to stand up and walk of the plane in the 2004 timeline? I thought for sure that was going to happen after he described the walkabout to Boone. That would have been in keeping with how the subtle differences between this plane and the old plane, although I guess that’s not very subtle now is it.
It would have been an awesome way to end the first hour though.

As far as Desmond is concerned I think there’s two possibilities:
1) Detonating Jughead in 1977 somehow “sunk” the island, therefore Desmond never crashed his boat there, somehow ended up on the same flight as Jack and the rest and Jack simply recognized him from their Stadium encounter. If this is the case however, why the disappearing act?
2) He’s now “The Variable” that Faraday was talking about. Free to travel between the two realities. Kind of like how he was somehow “unstuck” from time in both season 3 and season 4 episodes. Is he somehow going to be the catalyst that causes the two realities to converge? Will the two realities converge? So many questions.

Also, did anyone else notice that when Sayid was carried out of the pool in the temple that he was in a very Christ-like dead on the cross position?

Damn! Forget I mentioned the eyeliner, my bad.

I don’t think he’s Egyptian. I agree with people that say he’s from the Black Rock, and I think Jacob somehow bestowed upon him the gift of long life. In exchange for his service (i.e. the chains that were mentioned).

I think the Egyptian hieroglyphics, statues, etc. are just there to show that the island is really frakkin old. And that numerous cultures and ethnicities have been to it and shaped it. For instance, now there’s a Japanese guy?! Where the heck did he come from?