I found it rather striking that though the opening scene must have taken place in the past, with the arrival of the archaic Black Rock and the statue in its original form, that Jacob and Esau seemed so modern. I would expect them to look more of the part, with much longer hair, beards, and their speech was quite modern as well. Loophole itself is sort of newer (in the last couple hundred years)...I would have expected more use of "thee," "thou," "ye" etc. for the period that corresponds with the arrival of a slaving ship.

I think the show has taken pains in the past too dress characters per the era (think of Jack's scary mullet and Boone's retro hair...) so I would think this disconnect was on purpose...

So, are they time travelers? Do they transcend our concept of time, and jump from time to time with the island??

I agree. It struck me as odd, too, but perhaps it was simply one of those things that really doesn't matter, like the fact that every alien race on Stargate speaks perfect American English. It might be implied that they were speaking their own language, but they just used the modern dialect so the viewer would understand the conversation. But at the same time. they have plenty of other scenes where other languages are spoken and they use subtitles.

I think it would have been cooler if they spoke Latin in that scene.

I think that there is a real possibility that Jacob and Esau are from the future in some regard. I thought we would definitley see the temple in this epi, but I presume will see it next season. I've always thought that the temple will be a huge reveal and that's why there has been so much mention of it, but no sightings yet on the show.

Maybe next season, the temple will be revealed to be something futuristic in some way and not ancient at all. Hence, maybe the same could be said for Jacob and his nemesis.

Maybe Jacob and Esau are actually amongst the last traces of human life due to the human race wiping themselves out through not being able to live in harmony with one another. Maybe this is why Jacob is constantly trying to bring people to the Island to show that the human race can live with one another in peace. He has faith. However, Esau, believes that just like before, humans will just shoot themselves in the foot by constantly being at war with one another.

This also resembles something that Rose mentioned in the epi, where she was saying can you not just go one day without shooting one another. It looks as if it might be a recurring theme.

Maybe Jacob is actually a grown up Aaron. They went out of their way to make him blond. But that would make the story into more of a Moebius strip.

Jack had a mullet?

Maybe Jacob is actually a grown up Aaron. They went out of their way to make him blond. But that would make the story into more of a Moebius strip.


oooooh- me likey! He's got the blue eyes and everything...maybe "Esau" could then be the son of Jack and Kate....the dark hair and all. ;)

Considering how painful Jacob's Russian was, I think I appreciate characters speaking in modern english for clarity's sake :D I can understand that in retrospect it might have made more sense for them to do this or that, but casual viewers were clearly intended to wonder about who these persons in the first scene were, and while the clues were there, the writers did the clever thing and didn't tip in too many of them to keep the suspense.

Yeah, I was a bit confused at first as their idioms were very contemporary. But I think it was just sloppy writing.

They seem to have been around a very very long time. Black-beard said it always ends the same way, they fight, destroy, corrupt. Well, this latest iteration, the bringing of the Black rock, apparently lead to both the Others, the DI, the Losties, 316, all going there, fighting, and everyone getting any power, (Widmore and Ben) becoming corrupt. But it's still going on. So they're talking about "every time" something happens, and those "somethings" take at least a couple hundred years each. So speaking English with "thees" and "thous" isn't going to do it, as far as conveying how old they are, and probably the same might go for Latin too. I suppose Jacob was weaving in Greek though, quoting Homer. I suppose you're right, it would have added more of the right flavor if it wasn't modern English.

Also, short hair definitely isn't a modern innovation, but perfectly-trimmed 5-day scruff might just be. I thought the clothes were pretty good though.