Survivor Finale- That's The Way The Game Is Played

Tom Westman- "Whoever wins a season, deserves to win that season."

And that quote, in the end, is what makes the game of Survivor so good. There is probably no perfect way to play the game, and if there is it uses a lot of luck. I was pretty mad when Russell didn't win last season in Samoa. This year, not only did I begin to hate him as a player, but it became more and more evident that his style of play just isn't suited to win Survivor.

No matter how many times he states that he's the best player, or he should have won the game, or Parvati should have won over Sandra, it's not going to change the fact that Survivor doesn't work that way. As Tom so elegantly said, "whoever wins a season, deserves to win that season." Whether it is more luck or more planning, if you make it to the end and get the most votes from the jury, you played the best game that time around.

So how'd we get to the point where Sandra became the first ever two-time Survivor winner? Well let's start with the first immunity challenge of the episode where Colby finally came alive. It took him 37 days, but he finally started trying, both athletically and strategically. He barely lost to Parvati in the plates and bowls challenge and then decided to play the game for the first time in over a month. He claimed "I don't know how to quit. It's not in me," even though we've all witnessed him quitting this entire season. He finally made a move in trying to convince Russell to get rid of Sandra and keep him. A valiant effort, but an unsuccessful one as he went home that night.

Before the final immunity challenge, the final four went on the famous journey of fallen survivors. Although the contestants never have anything of substance to say about their comrades when they get to their stick, this is always a nice moment to relive all of the contestants in that given season.

The last challenge was a great one. A blindfolded maze which got me all nerved up as Parvati, Jerri and Russell all wondered towards the finish line at the same time. I was very surprised to see Russ grab the necklace first. Back during the Samoa Finale everyone said that Russell was so sad and emotional about losing because he had already filmed Heroes vs. Villains and had gotten out early enough to know he wasn't winning. Of course it ended up being that he was in the final three, but knew he had absolutely no chance of winning it.

When we get to the final elimination, I was absolutely thinking Parvati was going home. It was a great editing trick by them, because I usually can figure out who is going home before the vote. During the tribal council, we see that Russell is completely oblivious to what is actually going on in the game, because he thinks he "protected Parvati" and not the other way around. As Parvati so nicely put it, they "protected each other."

Anyway. Jerri went home. It's so hard to figure out who would vote for who if someone else was in the final three, but I think Parvati would have won if it were Russell, Parv and Jerri.

It's always interesting when we get to final council. This was the first time in four seasons that we had three players that all were strategic players and could easily make great cases for themselves. Parvati had the best opening statement by a mile and that wasn't even that great. "Russell was the dragon," she said. "And instead of slaying him, I kept him...as my pet." Just an epic line. Russell, for how great and long of a speech he made last season, it seemed like he didn't say a word this time around. He never even claimed that he had control of Parvati the entire time. Maybe because he knew how dumb that would be, given that she ruled this game. Sandra didn't make many good points either.

And in the end, Russell got shut out. Parvati got three votes, and Sandra got six for the win. Obviously Russell dominated the reunion show with many complaints about losing. Last season I was with him, and this year I wanted to slap him in the face. How dumb is this guy? Even when everyone on the stage is trying to explain it to him, he still keeps coming back to "I play as hard as I can." I know it's cliched, but it's not playing hard, but playing smart that's gets it done. Going all out with manipulation is a decent way to make it to the final three, but as we've seen, it's not a good way to win the game. To paraphrase Boston Rob, Russell doesn't play this game to win. I really don't think that is Russell's mindset, but it is absolutely the reality of it.

Russell thinks America needs a percent of the vote, but Probst shoots him down with the fact that Survivor is not that. Survivor is what it is. And if you're able to win the game of Survivor, you deserve to win Survivor. It doesn't matter if America likes that way you're playing or not. On a related note, how did this idiot win America's Player of the Season Award? I was one of the biggest Russell fans in Samoa, but I couldn't have disliked him more this season. He was just a complete idiot that was becoming played out because he did the same things over and over again. My favorites of the season were Boston Rob and Coach, but I think Parvati played the best overall game of the season. And Rupert was second in the voting? What a joke. This guy was the absolute worst.

Congratulations to Sandra for becoming the first person to win Survivor twice. I don't know if that makes her the best player ever, but it certainly could be. She definitely played a good game this time around. She was hindered by the fact that she was on the outs for most of the way, but she benefited from the fact that no one thought much about her. Always a bit of luck that comes from playing that type of game. But when you get to the end like that, you have a good chance at winning. And she is now two for two.

Fantasy Results

Punch Face Champions

Russell (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Immunity (20)= 247
Danielle (Villains)
Sandra (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Votes (-4), Win (137)= 360
JT (Heroes)
Tom (Heroes)
This Week= 607 Total= 2,199

Redwood Original

Boston Rob (Villains)
Parvati (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Immunity (20), Votes (-4)= 243
Colby (Heroes)- Vots (-16)= -16
Sugar (Heroes)
Candice (Heroes)
This Week= 227 Total= 1,627

DJ Roomba

Tyson (Villains)
Randy (Villains)
Jerri (Villains)- W15 (106), Votes (-12)= 94
Rupert (Heroes)
Amanda (Heroes)
This Week 94= 94 Total= 1,221

Kick Puncher III

Coach (Villains)
Courtney (Villains)
James (Heroes)
Stephenie (Heroes)
Cirie (Heroes)
Total= 164

Lost- Changing the Rules

It has been three days since the airing of what I think was a fantastic episode of Lost. What made Across the Sea so good was that it was so very polarizing. So many people either really liked, or really hated this episode. Anything that is close enough to the median where the majority of people are thinking it's just okay, it obviously is the wrong thing. As James Poniewozik of Time said, "'Awesome' and 'awful' are actually closer to each other on the continuum of quality than either is to 'meh'." What an ep like this does is get people to talk about the show. For better or for worse, it was an epic episode.

A few more things about the substance of the episode. A question has been raised about whether the Fake Mother is actually the protector of the Island or actually a previous version of the Smoke Monster. Well first off, maybe she's both. But in the favor of protector are that she talks about it like she is (although we've seen what a liar she can be), we never saw her take the form of the smoke, and she accepted her death just as Jacob did in The Incident. Reasons she could be Smokey are that she destroyed the Roman Others and filled in the well so quickly and easily, she may have been using smokey to appear as dead Claudia, and she might have wanted to die to get out of the terror of being a monster.

Speaking of Smokey. Another question out there is about whether or not the Light went out once MIB was flushed down the chute and came out as Smokey. It is hard to tell if the Light actually went out when Smokey emerged from the cave. It most certainly could have been put out, but it also could have been that the smoke coming out of the tunnel was blocking our view of the Light. The Light shouldn't have been put out, because isn't the Light what helps turn the donkey wheel into a transporter? We've seen it get used for such a thing a long time after Smokey emerges. But if the Light did go out, does that mean that the Smoke Monster took all of its energy and now is the Light in which Jacob is protecting (hence why Jacob can't let him leave)?

So how about all of the rules? The Mother keeps talking about all the different rules she put in place. The fact that Jacob and MIB can't hurt each other or the fact that MIB can never leave the Island. Or even the idea of the Light and someone needing to protect it. Did we ever actually see either of them try to kill each other? Did MIB ever attempt to leave the Island and fail? We know that the Mother is a liar. What if she was lying about all these rules? And these two boys just never tried to disobey any of them, because they were continually looking for ways around them. This has really been a recurring theme in Lost. Whether it was Ben, Widmore, Locke or Jack, they've all used manipulation to get what they wanted.

So what's the end game gonna look like with Lost? Across the Sea showed us that the game has been played for a long, long time. Stealing babies, manipulating, trying to leave the Island, crazy mothers. In other words, "They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same." Well in Ryan McGee's Lost Podcast he thinks that it will either end with a new iteration of the game beginning, or the destruction of the game for all of time. Although the ending scene of Jack and Locke sitting on the beach talking about how much they want to kill each other would be great, I think I'd rather see our favorite characters be the reason this horrible game of senet came to an end.

You see as Jacob said, "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." I thought they were epic words at the time and I can't disagree with myself now. Just as Smokey has been spending an eternity manipulating people into getting what he needed to win the game versus Jacob and get off the Island, Jacob too has been structuring everything just right so that he can win and end this thing so that it never happens again. You see when MIB made up the rules to their game of senet, Jacob complained and was told by his brother that some day he'd be able to make up his own rules. I think he did.

Maybe MIB has been playing by an outdated set of rules this whole time, so killing Jacob and the rest of the candidates isn't really going to help him get off the Island. Jacob made his own set of rules and is making it so that whatever Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, etc. do in the next few hours will stop all of the horrible Island stuff from happening to anyone ever again. It will be very satisfying to see that our favorite characters are the ones that help save the day.

I'll come back after this Tuesday's episode and apologize to myself for how wrong all of this is.

Survivor Week 14- What Are The Chances?

Me- "What are the chances Colby makes it longer than a minute in this challenge?"

And 15 seconds later Colby dropped out of a contest that took 20 minutes to knock everyone else out. This has been the epitome of the highly touted Colby's season. He has either been giving absolutely no effort, or somehow became the worst competitor in the history of Survivor. This guy was my first pick on the Heroes side because of his reputation for winning challenges. Fortunately he is keeping me in the hunt because of his complete lack of effort. Nobody seems to have a need to get rid of him, because he's done absolutely nothing to make anyone afraid of him. Nice move Donaldson.

Nothing too exciting on the strategy side of things, except for the fact Russell continues to make himself out to be more of an idiot than I could have ever imagined. He was completely surprised to find out that Danielle was close with Parvati? You mean the fact that the three of you have been in an alliance for the past eight weeks didn't tip you off that they might like each other? Wow you are dense.

The most annoying aspect of Survivor? The fact that these people get so emotional when their relatives come to see them. Seriously people, you've been away from your families for a month. Did you all cry your eyes out when you came home on Thanksgiving break from college? What a joke.

Fantasy Results

Punch Face Champions

Russell (Villains)- W14 (92)= 92
Danielle (Villains)
Sandra (Villains)- W14 (92), Idol use on last day (-)= 92
JT (Heroes)
Tom (Heroes)
Weeks 14= 184 Total= 1,592

Redwood Original

Boston Rob (Villains)
Parvati (Villains)- W14 (92), Immunity (20)= 112
Colby (Heroes)- W14 (92)= 92
Sugar (Heroes)
Candice (Heroes)
Week 14= 204 Total= 1,400

DJ Roomba

Tyson (Villains)
Randy (Villains)
Jerri (Villains)- W14 (92), Reward (10)= 102
Rupert (Heroes)- Votes (-16)= -16
Amanda (Heroes)
Week 14= 86 Total= 1,127

Kick Puncher III

Coach (Villains)
Courtney (Villains)
James (Heroes)
Stephenie (Heroes)
Cirie (Heroes)
Total= 164

Modern Family- The Odd Couple

Manny Delgado- "Oh no, who will pee all over the floor?"

Luke Dunphy- "I was brushing my teeth at the same time...you try and do that."

Is it really worth continuing to read blogs and listen to podcasts by Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg if they continue to think that Parks and Recreation has had a better season than Modern Family? I love "Sep", as I call him on the streets, for his deconstruction of serialized dramas, and I'm starting to love Fienberg's Idol reviews, but these two obviously need some help on what is funny.

Don't get me wrong, Parks is having a much better second season and has taken a step ahead of 30 Rock for me, but to even compare it to Modern Family, and Community for that matter, is pretty ridiculous. The best comedy on television right now? Come on Sep! I guess you're asking for a lot from somebody who thinks Ron Swanson is the funniest character on tv even though he's not even in the top five funniest on his own show.

First post in which I talk about a completely different show for the first two paragraphs. This is a Modern Family post correct? Yes, it is. Last night's Hawaii episode was fantastic. Better than Come Fly With Me or Moon Landing? Probably not, but still one of the best of what has already been a fantastic first season.

What makes Modern Fam so good is the plethora of characters that bring it week in and week out. All three heads of each sub-family would be an unbelievable lead on another show. This ep we got Cam, Phil and Jay all tearing it up in their own special way.

Cam, as the big, obnoxious drama queen, had me cracking up as he ran down the hotel stairs screaming, "seal off the island!!" Phil, in all of his cluelessness, manages to throw in awkward one-liners no matter the situation. After he throws Haley's cell phone into the pool, "It's just the beginning. Buckle your seatbelt lady, you're being woo'ed." And then there's Jay, with that condescending nature of his killed me as he picked up his phone with, "What's up jackass?"

A couple of things made this episode stand out for me. The first was that even some of the characters that don't really do it for me managed to sneak in a few classic lines. Alex's pure younger sister hatred for Haley was hilariously epitomized by, "You're not going to like this as much as I do, but she's drunk." And Mitchell, who is the only one on the show that I could ever say I haven't enjoyed, was awesome inside the banana trees as he proclaimed Lilly is "gonna think she's back in Vietnam."

Hands down, the best part of the episode was the prominence of my new favorite dynamic...Manny and Luke. These two are so perfectly opposite. They are roughly the same age, what 10? Manny acts like he's 60 and Luke acts like he's five. Their contrasting personalities made for some of my favorite moments of the season in the Hawaii hotel room.

As they start settling in, which in this case means Manny folding and ironing and Luke dumping his stuff on the bed, Manny comes up with a plan to meet some young ladies,

"I noticed some lovely tweens down by the kids' club. Maybe we can find a nice spot by them near the pool and send over a couple virgin mai tais. They may be interested in two sophisticated men like us."

And right on cue Luke, in all his glory, emerges from the bathroom with his shirt off, shower cap on, using the hair dryer as a gun claiming,

"I am a bathroom martian. Beep. Boop. Boop. I am from the nebula of the great toilet. Beep. Boop. Beep. Boop. Bop."

And this episode ended on an awesome note (I really wish this had been the season finale) with Phil and Claire re-marrying to the tunes of a reggae version of Eye of the Tiger. I've always liked the heartfelt endings on Modern Fam, and this one didn't have the famous ending voice over that some have felt had to much cheese for their liking.

Fantasy Idol Results- Keep 'Em Guessing

Couple things from last night's results show...

Fantasia has the whiniest, awful voice I've heard in a long time. Her performance last night wasn't quite as bad as her highly touted Summertime, but it was still pretty terrible. How did she wins this thing again?

Idol keeps coming up with new ways to keep me guessing. When they made Casey safe first, I thought 'why on Earth would you take all the surprise out of it?' Then I started thinking that the only reason to leave Crystal or Lee as one of the final two was if they were the one going home. So when it did end up being Big Mike getting eliminated I was a tiny bit shocked.

I guess my reverse jinx of saying Crystal was going home the entire episode worked.

Big Mike's farewell performance was one of his best. Although it didn't work last night, this I'm leaving tonight, goodbye everybody performance was pretty good. In this capacity his extra cheese factor worked and I'm glad to see him go out on a high note.

Fantasy Scores

The Rock Bodega
Casey James- Safe (67)= 67
Janell Wheeler
Tim Urban
Lee DeWyze- Safe (67)= 67
Week 12= 134 Total= 617

Splash Downs All Around
Todrick Hall
Crystal Bowersox- Safe (67)= 67
Tyler Grady
Michelle Delamor
Week 12= 67 Total= 290

Diabolical Haters
Didi Benami
Lilly Scott
Lacey Brown
Michael Lynche- Eliminated (-24)= -24
Week 12= -24 Total= 159

You're Coming With Me Leather
Andrew Garcia
Paige Miles
Aaron Kelly
John Park
Total= 150

The Curlgar
Ashley Rodriguez
Joe Muñoz
Haley Vaughn
Siobhan Magnus
Total= 92

HashTag Katie Stevens Is Only 16
Katie Stevens
Jermaine Sellers
Katelyn Epperly
Alex Lambert
Total= 19

Lost- I Wanna Go Home

Mother- "A little bit of this very same light is inside of every man, but they always want more."

Jacob- "Can they take it?"

Mother- "No, but they'll try. And if they try, they could put it out. If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere."

I've watched Across the Sea twice already, have four pages of notes, and had two long gchat convos, but I think I'm just gonna start wingin' it here. According to Jaydon some people didn't like this episode and in his words, "that's poppycock."  The only thing I can say to that is, what are you nuts? This episode in and of itself was pure entertainment. As it pertained to the five and half seasons we've watched before, it was magical. The slight problem with it was how it may have fit with the series pacing. A lot of mythological background was shoved into one episode. I might have liked to have seen this play out through three or four episodes throughout seasons five and six. Having said that, all of the mythology involving Jacob, the Man In Black and their mother is merely background to showcase the characters (Jack, Sawyer, Hurley) that we've grown to love over the years.

How good were all four of these actors during this 45 minutes. I was captivated the entire time. As Jaydon remarked to me, "The casting of the kids was on point. Were they the children of the actors?" Not only did they resemble the Jacob and Man In Black that we know, but they managed to make me love the both of them. Why would the Lost people want me to feel so sympathetic for the Boy In Black at this point? They've spent the entire season gearing up to last episode where we have grown to hate him for killing all of our favorite characters, and being basically pure evil. Now they come up with this back story episode and I fall completely in love the original Man In Black.

Before his twin brother* shoved him down into the warmest and brightest light you'll ever see, the Boy In Black was just a normal kid who wanted to go to his real home. Sure he had a few anger issues, but rightfully so once he found out that his adopted mother killed his birth mother seconds after being born. All he wanted to do was go home, and once his fake mother knocked him unconscious, filled up the donkey wheel well, and killed all of his people, I have no problem with him mirking her.

*my reaction when the pregnant lady washed up on the beach, "Twins! I knew it!"

Both twins had good and evil in them. Jacob pummeled the Boy in Black to a pulp early on and then did it again once he saw that his brother killed their pseudo mother. The future protector of the light was so angry that he threw MIB down the light hole and turned him into the smoke monster (something he knew was much worse than death). Which one of these brothers was the evil one before that event? They both had their moments of weakness, but you could make a case for either one. Now there's almost a part of me that is rooting for UnLocke so that he could somehow turn back into his normal self and return home. I don't know if that's a good thing.

The fact of the matter is that this episode may have brought up more questions than answers for some people. Not me. I'm accepting all of this stuff at face value. The twins' fake mom has a huge amount of power as the protector of the Island? She can make rules like Jacob and MIB can't kill each other...MIB can't leave the Island? Yes. That is what it is. Whether she is some type of god or supernatural being, I'm fine with it. Let's use that information to form the rest of the story with our characters.

The same thing goes for the all powerful light. It has some serious magic. It is "life, death, rebirth...It's the source, the heart of the Island." It's all that is good (and normal) about the world as we know it. As opposed to the Smoke Monster you become from trying to go down into it (which is evil, eternal life of smoke and deception). It is very spiritual and very magical and I'm accepting it for what it is. I don't need any more explanation. Let's just see how it affects Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and the rest of our friends as they learn about the light in the hours to come.

Some Other Thoughts

-MIB can see dead people. Jacob can't. Or is the dead mother just a manifestation from a previous Smokey? Is there any connection in this to the fact that Hugo can see dead people?

-MIB will never be able to leave the Island. Is this just one of the mom's rules we need to accept? When did the rule become Smokey has to kill Jacob/candidates in order to leave? Because before he turned into Smokey he seemed to have figured out that turning the donkey wheel was a way to leave the Island (which we saw happen with Locke and Ben earlier in the series).

-Love that the baby, the kid, and the adult versions of Jacob and MIB all wear white and black, respectively.

-Mom, "Jacob doesn't know how to lie. He's not like you." Isn't lying bad? So that would make MIB bad right? Or is lying smart? And Jacob is just a dumb trustworthy guy who follows his mothers orders? MIB's intelligence was what made him the SPECIAL one?

-If Jack is the incumbent candidate to take the role of protector, who is going to feed him the wine and show him the light? Case the Base seems to think Hugo will be put through the paces by Jacob and I like that idea.

-I guess MIB was talking about his fake mother when he told Kate that he had a crazy mother too. That whole conversation seems much easier to sympathize with now that we've seen this episode. Maybe things would've been different...

UnLocke: "Because... my mother was crazy. Long time ago, before I... looked like this... I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And, as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different."

-And we got an unbelievable flashback to the sixth episode of the entire series! "Our very own Adam and Eve" It's awesome that they found a way to work that broad theming into a specific event having to do with mythology that we all know they hadn't even thought of yet.

-Jacob- "You wanted it to be him, but now I'm all you have." I really felt for him here.
-Mom- "It was always supposed to be you Jacob."  Why don't I believe her?

What did you think?

American Idol- Let's Duet

Ellen DeGeneres- "One of the classic, great movies of all time...Free Willy."

Yeah of course Idol was bad again last night. Was there a great performance in there? Yes. Crystal and Lee's Falling Slowly was fantastic. They paced the duet perfectly and their voices meshed together so well. In fact Casey and Mike's When a Man Loves a Woman wasn't half bad either. It was almost as if the contestants saw how terrible the duets were last year and decided to make a statement this season.

The downside of that is that it seems like the four finalists put no effort into their individual songs. Crystal moved back into first by default this week. Because everyone else was so bad, her so-so performance of Caddyshack's I'm Alright stood out as the one to beat.

I guess I'm stuck with Lee being the second best this week. I got excited real early when he didn't try to go falsetto in his Kiss From a Rose, but then in the second line he went to the falsetto and almost knocked my eardrums out. Brutal.

I'll now attempt not to make any comparisons between Big Mike and the whale named Willy that he was singing for. What a terrible Idol song. There are no lyrics to it. It's all "yeahs" and "ooohs." You can't grab a hold of anything in this, even though he should good vocals again.

And Casey James should now leave the stage. Quote from JJ on Casey's Mrs. Robinson, "Is he even trying?" Quote from Pops, "Is he drunk?" Two very good questions. This was a terribly uninspired performance full of top shelf vibrato.

Performance Rankings

1. Crystal and Lee
2. Crystal Bowersox
3. Casey and Mike
4. Lee DeWyze
5. Mike Lynche
6. Casey James

Lost- Becoming Jacob

There are only four and a half hours of new Lost left to air. In last week's post I went on and on about how Jack was becoming the new Jacob, but would they really be this obvious about something? Lost has made a habit out of making you think one thing and then going another way with it. Of course I personally still think that Jack is destined to become the new Jacob and rule the Island for another eternity, but there are plenty of other scenarios I can see coming in the near future.

Jack Becomes Jacob
I've been saying for a while that his new laissez faire attitude, and transition to the man of faith, has seemed very Jacob-esque. He wants to be on this Island because he knows it has a greater purpose for him. That being said, it is a bit of an obvious choice, right down to the point where Sayid flat out says, "it's going to be you Jack." Now sure there are only four episodes left, and maybe finding out who the new Jacob will be is not something to be saved for the final episode, but it still seems a little too perfect.
Odds: 2-1

Ben Becomes Jacob
So a theory that I think came from the mind of Doc Jensen is that Ben is destined to become the new Jacob. The point here is that Jacob has made up all of the candidates to fool everyone, including the Man In Black, to not worry about Benjamin Linus. This way he has an easy path to taking the throne. Jacob wasn't really testing all of the people on the Island by bringing them there, he was testing Ben. And although Ben did some bad things, he has also been heroic and good. His decision to go with Ilana instead of Smokey might have been the turn of the corner.
Odds: 5-1

Desmond Becomes Jacob
Now we all know that Desmond is special. He flashes the future, he can withstand electromagnetic energy, and now it seems he may have the ability to go back and forth between two parallel universes. Is he special enough to become the new Jacob? Maybe. The Man In Black did order Sayid to kill him after all. Many people are saying that the two universes will end in somebody or many people sacrificing one world for another. Now since Desmond is really the only one who has a better Island life (married to Penny, beautiful baby Charlie), what if he has to sacrifice that life by becoming the new Jacob in order to allow everyone else live happily ever after in the sideways world?
Odds: 6-1

Locke Becomes Jacob
Although he is dead in the Island universe, Locke is very much alive in the sideways world. When Jack told him that he was a "candidate" for spinal surgery, don't tell me you didn't have a few strange thoughts about that? In some sort of universe convergence theory, what if Locke was able to cross over to the Island world to become the new ruler? Highly unlikely, but if anybody deserved a chance to take charge over this magical place, it's John Locke.
Odds: 10-1

Nobody Becomes Jacob
There are too many scenarios to play out, in which nobody comes to take Jacob's place. Does the Island blow up? Does it disappear? Does the Man In Black die and therefore the Island needs no more protection? Did it never need protecting in the first place, hence he needs no replacement? A lot of different ways this could go, but it seems like one of these outcomes could be the most likely.
Odds: 3-1

Jacob Becomes Jacob
You know that little "Peter Pan" boy we met in the jungle back in The Substitute? And then saw in Everybody Loves Hugo, looking quite a bit older? This sure as heck should be Jacob right? He first tells Smokey that he can't kill Sawyer because he "knows the rules." This is very Jacob-esque. The theory here is that after Jacob died either he or a reincarnate of him is back to life on the Island and aging rapidly before our eyes. The Man In Black now has to kill all of the qualified candidates before Jacob returns to normal age, and then is allowed to take back his spot as ruler of the Island.
Odds: 8-1

Me and JJ were talking about the fact that at the end of the day a fantastic finish to the series would be if the final scene was two people sitting on the beach having the exact conversation Jacob and the Man In Black had at the beginning of the season five finale. Whether that is Jack and Locke, Jack and Sayid, Desmond and Ben, the new deities of good and evil discussing what continues to occur on this Island would be fantastic.

Man In Black: "They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same."
Jacob: "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress."