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Everything that Rises Must Converge...or the Incident - more thoughts on "Lost"
I've fallen head over heels in love with Lost the last two seasons. Particularly this one, outside of maybe one episode, all of them have been really good, and last night's episode was beyond awesome. Best season finale to date. Much better in some respects than BSG's and Sarah Connor, both of which I was sort of meh (ambivalent) about.
Rewatching it now.
Oh great line:
John Locke to Benjamin Linus: Mind if I ask you a question?
Benjamin Linus: I'm a Piceses.
In the Incident, the season finale of Lost, which refers to the unexplained "Incident" that caused the deaths of most of the Dharma Initiative, and turned the island into an electro-magnetic energy trap. We are never told what caused the Incident, except that it had something to do with scientific experiments being conducted by the Dharma Initiative relating to electromagnetism. We also are told that the electromagnetic accident that occurred - is the reason Desmond had to push a button, and the plane crashed.
Daniel Faraday believes if you blow up a hydrogen bomb at the center of the electromagnetic bubble the Incident won't happen and time will be changed. We, Faraday states, are the variables - our choices, our free will - we can change what happens, because we aren't part of this time and we can die. Of course Faraday in his attempt to change the future, ends up ironically enough dead at his own mother's hands.
During this episode, there are series of flashbacks - featuring the notorious Jacob, who allegedly runs the island but we have yet to meet until now. Jacob we meet at the very beginning of the episode, spinning a tapestry, then eating fish on the beach with another man, who wants to kill him. Their discussion is reminiscent of God and the Devils' in the Book of Job, also God and Devil's in Neil Gaiman/Terry Prachett's Good Omens (which is a much funnier/punnier version of the same tale). The guy asks Jacob why he brought yet another ship here? Are you still trying to prove me wrong? They just do the same thing over and over - come, fight, destroy, corrupt. Jacob responds, no, what is is, what is completed, is progress. OR something along those lines. The other guy states: Do you know how much I want to kill you? And I will once I find the loophole. To which Jacob states: And I'll be here.
The first flashback is with Kate - Jacob saves Kate, when she is caught shoplifting as a small child at a conveince store, on a dare. He tells her not to steal any more. She agrees not to. Of course we know she will.
The second is with Sawyer/James Ford...who Jacob, apologizes to, says he is sorry for his loss. The event, or turning point, is a funeral, James Ford is writing a letter to the man he holds responsible for his father's suicide and mother's death. Jacob gives him a pen and says I'm sorry about your parents. After Jacob leaves, another man arrives, James' uncle, who takes the letter from James - now partially written with Jacob's pen - and the line he states is "What is done is done."
This line shows up again later in a discussion between Jack and Sawyer, which derails into a violent fight. Sawyer tells Jack about what happened to his parents...and says even though he could have gone back and stopped it, since it happened in this time period, just a year ago, he chose not to. "What's done is done."
But Jack disagrees, stating, "What will be, will be." In the flashback with Jacob, Jack is arguing with his father. His father helped him finish the critical surgery on the woman who is paralyzed, or would be if his father didn't intervene. Jack is embarrassed by his father's intervention. And states that his father doesn't believe in him, that everyone there knows he's only at the hospital because of his father. His father responds that he's not the one who doesn't believe in Jack, indicating it is Jack who doesn't believe in Jack. Before the argument, Jack had tried to get a candy bar but the machine wouldn't let it slide through.
After the argument, Jacob hands Jack a candy bar - stating two had come out, one is his. Guess, the machine, just had to give it a push. (the words if you think about it fit Jack to a "t" - Lock pushes Jack to go back to the island, Kate pushes Jack to act as a doctor on the island, Juliet and Kate push Jack to operate on Ben the adult, Michael pushes Jack to go after his son...and now, Faraday, pushes Jack to change time. Jack the Shepard is pushed into action. He doesn't come up with it on his own. And in most cases what he does - has weird consequences. The last time Jack was pushed, he ended up giving Charles Widmore's group access to the island and set the events in motion that resulted in everyone getting flipped back into time.
The other flashbacks concern Sayid, Jin/Sun, Hurley, Juliet and finally Locke. Each one says something pithy about each character and their motivation.
Sayid's is about the death of his wife/lover - Nadia, the reason he ended up on the island to begin with, the reason he was desperate to get off, and her death - the reason he aids Ben Linus and kills people. Her death pushes him to do despicable things. Does Jacob instigate it?
Hard to tell. It can be interpreted two ways - Sayid and Nadia are about to cross the street when Jacob stops Sayid, Nadia continues to cross oblivious, then stops in the middle of the street to tell Sayid something - when a van barrels into her and kills her instantly. Jacob saved Sayid's life, but not Nadia's. And what Jacob was asking for - was directions. He was Lost. Sayid was directing him.
Juliet's is the only one that does not contain Jacob. In her's she is a small child and her parents are telling her they are getting a divorce - that sometimes two people who seem like soul meets - aren't meant to be together. That it doesn't work out. She stomps off and we see her later, having a similar conversation with JAmes, fearful he'll leave her for Kate. She states - "If this works, if we change time, then I'll never have met
you and I won't have to deal with the pain of losing you."
Which brings me to the love relationships depicted in this episode - we get five, two that end in tragedy. The first is Sayid/Nadia - who is the desperate love that finally reaches fruitation and is the salvation/redemption of a doomed man...it ends tragically and the doomed man seeks vengeance and destruction as a result. The second is Sun/Jin - where Jin states that they will never be apart, to be apart would be the earth being unable to look at the sky...but of course they are apart, separated by time, in the same space, but not the same time. Unable to glimspe each other. And struggling to reunite.
Then there is the middle couple Rose/Bernard - who we meet again living in a shack near the beach, retired. We just want to be together they tell Kate/Sawyer and Juliet. That's all that is important - to love one another and be at peace together. Sawyer and Juliet looking on, seem to get it, and they glance at each other...but Juliet is fearful of a repeat of her past, and Sawyer's unrequited past feelings for Kate. I saw how you looked at her, she tells him, this is why she changes her mind more than once and goes back to the island, and aids JAck. She fears the loss of the love she had. A man who trusted her, who had her back and she had his. It was enough - to not leave the island, even when she had the chance. Juliet of course is ripped from Sawyers hand and falls tragically down the well, where she proceeds to set off the bomb. In contrast, Kate and Jack who are together, but not. Judging one another still. Unable to trust or back each other up. Always turning on each other. Jack turning on Kate away from the island. Kate turning on Jack back on it. Neither trusts the other, because neither trusts themselves. Each relationship is stacked up against the other...the romantic (sun/jin, sayid/nadia in contrast) to the stable and comfortable companionship of Rose/Bernard, to the comradship, loyalty and trust of Sawyer/Juliet and finally the doomed tension of Kate/Jack.
Hurley's flashback fittingly is about how he got out of jail and boarded the plane. Jacob asks him why he won't go. Hurley states because he is cursed and believes he is crazy and caused the crash. No, Jacob, states you didn't. And no, you aren't. Demonstrating that the jail cell Hurley is locked inside is one of his own creation. He is convinced that he is the cause and has been punishing himself ever since. Jacob leaves the guitare with Hurely, stating it isn't his, indicating it is Hurley's and tells Hurley how to get back to the island, the right plane to board.
Sun/Jin's flashback seen through Sun's eyes, is their wedding and Jacob wishes them well in Korean, stating their love is a special thing.
Finally, there's John Locke. It is during this flash back that we see Jacob reading the book "Everything that Rises Must Converge" - we get a closeup of the cover, with the bird flying above the words. I googled the book summary and here it is:
The story is told from the perspective of Julian, a recent college graduate who appears to be waiting for employment commensurate with his education; he lives at home with his solicitous widowed mother. The setting is the recently integrated South of the 1960’s. Events unfold during a ride on an integrated bus, in which all of the story’s complex relationships are played out: the vindictive, self-deluding dependency of Julian on his mother; the insightless yet well-intentioned doting of his mother, who is tied to the societal conventions in which she was raised; the condescension of "enlightened" whites toward blacks; the resentment of blacks toward well-meaning whites- all depicted with great skill and humor.
The crisis occurs in a confrontation between Julian’s mother and a black woman wearing the same hat, when the mother tries to give a penny to her counterpart’s child. In the incident, Julian’s mother suffers a stroke to which Julian is at first oblivious, being so consumed with fury at his mother’s (to him inappropriate) gesture to the child. When he realizes how disabled his mother is, Julian is overwhelmed with grief and fear; the extent of his self-deception is fully confirmed.
And the commentary:
The crisis occurs in a confrontation between Julian’s mother and a black woman wearing the same hat, when the mother tries to give a penny to her counterpart’s child. In the incident, Julian’s mother suffers a stroke to which Julian is at first oblivious, being so consumed with fury at his mother’s (to him inappropriate) gesture to the child. When he realizes how disabled his mother is, Julian is overwhelmed with grief and fear; the extent of his self-deception is fully confirmed.
An interesting analysis of the tension between authorial and narrative stance in this story may be found in Robert H. Brinkmeyer’s critical work, The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1989, pp. 67-73). In Brinkmeyer’s view, the surprising ending of the story reveals O’Connor’s position that the narrator is just as judgmental as Julian; the narrative stance collapses at the end, just as Julian’s does.
Go here:http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=86
Jacob is reading the book, when Lock is pushed by his father out a window and is paralyzed as a result. Jacob touches Lock's shoulder, brings him either back to life or consciousness, and states - I'm sorry this had to happen to you. In the future, we learn Lock is dead, and the man we saw in the beginning of the episode, the other guy, has taken on Locke's form. Is now or appears to be Locke. The other passengers have come forward with a casket that contains the real Lock.
All of these events are converging at the same time. The actions of the characters are rising to meet one another head on - both the past and future. In the future, other guy/Not!Lock has managed to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, whom Ben believes has been pushing him all these years. Yet Ben has never met Jacob, and as far as he knows could very well have been talking to Conrad all these years - the man manipulating him now. But he does not know that.
He thinks Conrad is Lock. It never occurs to him that it isn't Lock. And so he asks Jacob, why he chose to see Lock but never Ben. "What about me," Ben asks. And Jacob retorts:"what about you?" And that's when Ben kills him. Ben, Jacob has said, has a choice. All the characters do. But here for reasons set far in the past, the divining ones we see in the flashbacks - Sun/Jin's devotion, James-Sawyer's desire to move on from the past, yet inability to completely let go of it, Kate's theivery and wanting that which isn't hers, and JAck's desperate need for something outside himself to believe in him - converge along with
the needs and desires of those in the present, to cause the bomb to go off, and potentially bring about the very events they wish to change.
As Miles states - has it occurred to any of you that your actions might actually cause the incident that you are trying to avoide? The incident which provides Not!Lock with his loop hole, although as he tells Jacob - you have no idea what I have gone through in order to be here, I had to jump through to get to this point.
But...if we go back to the book, Everything that Rises Must Converge...perhaps we are being far too judgemental of these characters. We see them through a limited perspective or point of view. Not!Lock sees these people as nasty, unlikable, doomed souls, unworthy - Kate is a theif, Jack an alcoholic doc with a god complex, Sawyer a bad boy conmen with daddy issues, Juliet a manipulative little girl/who wants a family, Sayid - a ruthless killer.. but if seen through Jacob's eyes, we see something different.
Ben is much like Julian in O'Connor's work - oblivious to what is real, so furious with Jacob for not recognizing him, with the parental figure, that he can't see what is actually occuring. He's obsessed with being ignored, that he never sees. He hates his biological father - but never sees the concern and fear in that father's eyes or the grief and shame. He's so jealous of Locke...he can't see anything else. And it is relatively easy to paint Ben as the villian in this peice, but is he? Is he evil? Or merely human? Struggling to make the right choices, doomed like the others to make the wrong ones due to his own essential nature?
Can he choose? Jacob says he can. And he is right, but Ben's own emotions, own issues get in the way. I lie, he tells Not!Lock, that is what I do. But to whom - if not himself. We see many Ben's in this season - Sayid's Ben, and Sawyer/Kate and Juliet's - the little boy they risk their lives to save.
So Jacob dies and as he does, he says "they're coming". Who he is referring to isn't clear. Is it those lost in time or those standing beside the statue? I'm guessing the former.
It takes a very long time when you are making the thread, but I suppose that is the point, isn't it? - Jacob states, reminding me of a writer discussing his story arc. The thread of the tale he is weaving. Each character with a different role. The themes may be the same, but the changes, slight as they are demonstrate progress.
Flannery O'Connor's novel shows how the narrative collasps in on itself, sunk under the weight of the narrator and protagonists criticism and judgement. Here, similarily, we have two narrators - two writers of the tale, Jacob and the other guy...one threads it, one manipulates it. Both are telling it.
As to what will happen in eight months? I think the last line provides a clue..."they are coming". Who they are? We aren't told. Except that the statement happens at the same time as the bomb is about to go off and everything fades to white instead of black. Everything has converged...just the end result or configuration...remains to be seen.
Rewatching it now.
Oh great line:
John Locke to Benjamin Linus: Mind if I ask you a question?
Benjamin Linus: I'm a Piceses.
In the Incident, the season finale of Lost, which refers to the unexplained "Incident" that caused the deaths of most of the Dharma Initiative, and turned the island into an electro-magnetic energy trap. We are never told what caused the Incident, except that it had something to do with scientific experiments being conducted by the Dharma Initiative relating to electromagnetism. We also are told that the electromagnetic accident that occurred - is the reason Desmond had to push a button, and the plane crashed.
Daniel Faraday believes if you blow up a hydrogen bomb at the center of the electromagnetic bubble the Incident won't happen and time will be changed. We, Faraday states, are the variables - our choices, our free will - we can change what happens, because we aren't part of this time and we can die. Of course Faraday in his attempt to change the future, ends up ironically enough dead at his own mother's hands.
During this episode, there are series of flashbacks - featuring the notorious Jacob, who allegedly runs the island but we have yet to meet until now. Jacob we meet at the very beginning of the episode, spinning a tapestry, then eating fish on the beach with another man, who wants to kill him. Their discussion is reminiscent of God and the Devils' in the Book of Job, also God and Devil's in Neil Gaiman/Terry Prachett's Good Omens (which is a much funnier/punnier version of the same tale). The guy asks Jacob why he brought yet another ship here? Are you still trying to prove me wrong? They just do the same thing over and over - come, fight, destroy, corrupt. Jacob responds, no, what is is, what is completed, is progress. OR something along those lines. The other guy states: Do you know how much I want to kill you? And I will once I find the loophole. To which Jacob states: And I'll be here.
The first flashback is with Kate - Jacob saves Kate, when she is caught shoplifting as a small child at a conveince store, on a dare. He tells her not to steal any more. She agrees not to. Of course we know she will.
The second is with Sawyer/James Ford...who Jacob, apologizes to, says he is sorry for his loss. The event, or turning point, is a funeral, James Ford is writing a letter to the man he holds responsible for his father's suicide and mother's death. Jacob gives him a pen and says I'm sorry about your parents. After Jacob leaves, another man arrives, James' uncle, who takes the letter from James - now partially written with Jacob's pen - and the line he states is "What is done is done."
This line shows up again later in a discussion between Jack and Sawyer, which derails into a violent fight. Sawyer tells Jack about what happened to his parents...and says even though he could have gone back and stopped it, since it happened in this time period, just a year ago, he chose not to. "What's done is done."
But Jack disagrees, stating, "What will be, will be." In the flashback with Jacob, Jack is arguing with his father. His father helped him finish the critical surgery on the woman who is paralyzed, or would be if his father didn't intervene. Jack is embarrassed by his father's intervention. And states that his father doesn't believe in him, that everyone there knows he's only at the hospital because of his father. His father responds that he's not the one who doesn't believe in Jack, indicating it is Jack who doesn't believe in Jack. Before the argument, Jack had tried to get a candy bar but the machine wouldn't let it slide through.
After the argument, Jacob hands Jack a candy bar - stating two had come out, one is his. Guess, the machine, just had to give it a push. (the words if you think about it fit Jack to a "t" - Lock pushes Jack to go back to the island, Kate pushes Jack to act as a doctor on the island, Juliet and Kate push Jack to operate on Ben the adult, Michael pushes Jack to go after his son...and now, Faraday, pushes Jack to change time. Jack the Shepard is pushed into action. He doesn't come up with it on his own. And in most cases what he does - has weird consequences. The last time Jack was pushed, he ended up giving Charles Widmore's group access to the island and set the events in motion that resulted in everyone getting flipped back into time.
The other flashbacks concern Sayid, Jin/Sun, Hurley, Juliet and finally Locke. Each one says something pithy about each character and their motivation.
Sayid's is about the death of his wife/lover - Nadia, the reason he ended up on the island to begin with, the reason he was desperate to get off, and her death - the reason he aids Ben Linus and kills people. Her death pushes him to do despicable things. Does Jacob instigate it?
Hard to tell. It can be interpreted two ways - Sayid and Nadia are about to cross the street when Jacob stops Sayid, Nadia continues to cross oblivious, then stops in the middle of the street to tell Sayid something - when a van barrels into her and kills her instantly. Jacob saved Sayid's life, but not Nadia's. And what Jacob was asking for - was directions. He was Lost. Sayid was directing him.
Juliet's is the only one that does not contain Jacob. In her's she is a small child and her parents are telling her they are getting a divorce - that sometimes two people who seem like soul meets - aren't meant to be together. That it doesn't work out. She stomps off and we see her later, having a similar conversation with JAmes, fearful he'll leave her for Kate. She states - "If this works, if we change time, then I'll never have met
you and I won't have to deal with the pain of losing you."
Which brings me to the love relationships depicted in this episode - we get five, two that end in tragedy. The first is Sayid/Nadia - who is the desperate love that finally reaches fruitation and is the salvation/redemption of a doomed man...it ends tragically and the doomed man seeks vengeance and destruction as a result. The second is Sun/Jin - where Jin states that they will never be apart, to be apart would be the earth being unable to look at the sky...but of course they are apart, separated by time, in the same space, but not the same time. Unable to glimspe each other. And struggling to reunite.
Then there is the middle couple Rose/Bernard - who we meet again living in a shack near the beach, retired. We just want to be together they tell Kate/Sawyer and Juliet. That's all that is important - to love one another and be at peace together. Sawyer and Juliet looking on, seem to get it, and they glance at each other...but Juliet is fearful of a repeat of her past, and Sawyer's unrequited past feelings for Kate. I saw how you looked at her, she tells him, this is why she changes her mind more than once and goes back to the island, and aids JAck. She fears the loss of the love she had. A man who trusted her, who had her back and she had his. It was enough - to not leave the island, even when she had the chance. Juliet of course is ripped from Sawyers hand and falls tragically down the well, where she proceeds to set off the bomb. In contrast, Kate and Jack who are together, but not. Judging one another still. Unable to trust or back each other up. Always turning on each other. Jack turning on Kate away from the island. Kate turning on Jack back on it. Neither trusts the other, because neither trusts themselves. Each relationship is stacked up against the other...the romantic (sun/jin, sayid/nadia in contrast) to the stable and comfortable companionship of Rose/Bernard, to the comradship, loyalty and trust of Sawyer/Juliet and finally the doomed tension of Kate/Jack.
Hurley's flashback fittingly is about how he got out of jail and boarded the plane. Jacob asks him why he won't go. Hurley states because he is cursed and believes he is crazy and caused the crash. No, Jacob, states you didn't. And no, you aren't. Demonstrating that the jail cell Hurley is locked inside is one of his own creation. He is convinced that he is the cause and has been punishing himself ever since. Jacob leaves the guitare with Hurely, stating it isn't his, indicating it is Hurley's and tells Hurley how to get back to the island, the right plane to board.
Sun/Jin's flashback seen through Sun's eyes, is their wedding and Jacob wishes them well in Korean, stating their love is a special thing.
Finally, there's John Locke. It is during this flash back that we see Jacob reading the book "Everything that Rises Must Converge" - we get a closeup of the cover, with the bird flying above the words. I googled the book summary and here it is:
The story is told from the perspective of Julian, a recent college graduate who appears to be waiting for employment commensurate with his education; he lives at home with his solicitous widowed mother. The setting is the recently integrated South of the 1960’s. Events unfold during a ride on an integrated bus, in which all of the story’s complex relationships are played out: the vindictive, self-deluding dependency of Julian on his mother; the insightless yet well-intentioned doting of his mother, who is tied to the societal conventions in which she was raised; the condescension of "enlightened" whites toward blacks; the resentment of blacks toward well-meaning whites- all depicted with great skill and humor.
The crisis occurs in a confrontation between Julian’s mother and a black woman wearing the same hat, when the mother tries to give a penny to her counterpart’s child. In the incident, Julian’s mother suffers a stroke to which Julian is at first oblivious, being so consumed with fury at his mother’s (to him inappropriate) gesture to the child. When he realizes how disabled his mother is, Julian is overwhelmed with grief and fear; the extent of his self-deception is fully confirmed.
And the commentary:
The crisis occurs in a confrontation between Julian’s mother and a black woman wearing the same hat, when the mother tries to give a penny to her counterpart’s child. In the incident, Julian’s mother suffers a stroke to which Julian is at first oblivious, being so consumed with fury at his mother’s (to him inappropriate) gesture to the child. When he realizes how disabled his mother is, Julian is overwhelmed with grief and fear; the extent of his self-deception is fully confirmed.
An interesting analysis of the tension between authorial and narrative stance in this story may be found in Robert H. Brinkmeyer’s critical work, The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1989, pp. 67-73). In Brinkmeyer’s view, the surprising ending of the story reveals O’Connor’s position that the narrator is just as judgmental as Julian; the narrative stance collapses at the end, just as Julian’s does.
Go here:http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=86
Jacob is reading the book, when Lock is pushed by his father out a window and is paralyzed as a result. Jacob touches Lock's shoulder, brings him either back to life or consciousness, and states - I'm sorry this had to happen to you. In the future, we learn Lock is dead, and the man we saw in the beginning of the episode, the other guy, has taken on Locke's form. Is now or appears to be Locke. The other passengers have come forward with a casket that contains the real Lock.
All of these events are converging at the same time. The actions of the characters are rising to meet one another head on - both the past and future. In the future, other guy/Not!Lock has managed to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, whom Ben believes has been pushing him all these years. Yet Ben has never met Jacob, and as far as he knows could very well have been talking to Conrad all these years - the man manipulating him now. But he does not know that.
He thinks Conrad is Lock. It never occurs to him that it isn't Lock. And so he asks Jacob, why he chose to see Lock but never Ben. "What about me," Ben asks. And Jacob retorts:"what about you?" And that's when Ben kills him. Ben, Jacob has said, has a choice. All the characters do. But here for reasons set far in the past, the divining ones we see in the flashbacks - Sun/Jin's devotion, James-Sawyer's desire to move on from the past, yet inability to completely let go of it, Kate's theivery and wanting that which isn't hers, and JAck's desperate need for something outside himself to believe in him - converge along with
the needs and desires of those in the present, to cause the bomb to go off, and potentially bring about the very events they wish to change.
As Miles states - has it occurred to any of you that your actions might actually cause the incident that you are trying to avoide? The incident which provides Not!Lock with his loop hole, although as he tells Jacob - you have no idea what I have gone through in order to be here, I had to jump through to get to this point.
But...if we go back to the book, Everything that Rises Must Converge...perhaps we are being far too judgemental of these characters. We see them through a limited perspective or point of view. Not!Lock sees these people as nasty, unlikable, doomed souls, unworthy - Kate is a theif, Jack an alcoholic doc with a god complex, Sawyer a bad boy conmen with daddy issues, Juliet a manipulative little girl/who wants a family, Sayid - a ruthless killer.. but if seen through Jacob's eyes, we see something different.
Ben is much like Julian in O'Connor's work - oblivious to what is real, so furious with Jacob for not recognizing him, with the parental figure, that he can't see what is actually occuring. He's obsessed with being ignored, that he never sees. He hates his biological father - but never sees the concern and fear in that father's eyes or the grief and shame. He's so jealous of Locke...he can't see anything else. And it is relatively easy to paint Ben as the villian in this peice, but is he? Is he evil? Or merely human? Struggling to make the right choices, doomed like the others to make the wrong ones due to his own essential nature?
Can he choose? Jacob says he can. And he is right, but Ben's own emotions, own issues get in the way. I lie, he tells Not!Lock, that is what I do. But to whom - if not himself. We see many Ben's in this season - Sayid's Ben, and Sawyer/Kate and Juliet's - the little boy they risk their lives to save.
So Jacob dies and as he does, he says "they're coming". Who he is referring to isn't clear. Is it those lost in time or those standing beside the statue? I'm guessing the former.
It takes a very long time when you are making the thread, but I suppose that is the point, isn't it? - Jacob states, reminding me of a writer discussing his story arc. The thread of the tale he is weaving. Each character with a different role. The themes may be the same, but the changes, slight as they are demonstrate progress.
Flannery O'Connor's novel shows how the narrative collasps in on itself, sunk under the weight of the narrator and protagonists criticism and judgement. Here, similarily, we have two narrators - two writers of the tale, Jacob and the other guy...one threads it, one manipulates it. Both are telling it.
As to what will happen in eight months? I think the last line provides a clue..."they are coming". Who they are? We aren't told. Except that the statement happens at the same time as the bomb is about to go off and everything fades to white instead of black. Everything has converged...just the end result or configuration...remains to be seen.