15 Unanswered Lost Questions That Totally Have Explanations
9. What's Up With The Cabin?
In Season 3, Locke forces Ben to take him to see Jacob and Ben agrees, bringing Locke to a mysterious cabin. Jacob is apparently visible to Ben but invisible to Locke. Locke is convinced Ben is lying (and he's right), but then things start moving around the room. A mysterious voice also says "help me", something Ben's never come across before. What's going on? Is this really Jacob? Why does he need help?
The Explanation: There's a scene in Season 5 when Ilana and Bram visit the cabin and discover that the circle of ash around it has been broken. Remember: a completed circle of ash is what keeps the smoke monster out. Ilana says that Jacob hasn't used this cabin in a very long time; someone else has been using it.
The idea is that at one point, Jacob did use this cabin to communicate (with Richard, probably), and a circle of ash kept the Man in Black (the smoke monster) out. But at some point, that circle was broken. Since then, the Man in Black has been the one using the cabin to manipulate people, pretending to be Jacob.
Considering what's later revealed about the Man in Black - that he's desperately trying to escape the island but can't do it alone - him communicating only with Locke makes a lot of sense.