Spoilery Lost Speculation post-"Sundown"

A long time ago, the producers of LOST talked about how Stephen King's THE STAND had influenced some elements of the show, most notably the character of fallen rock star Charlie, who they compared to King's Larry Underwood character in the behemoth-sized post-apocalyptic novel about a tussle between good and evil.

Such comparisons now look a lot more workable. In THE STAND, the 'leader' of the forces of good, Mother Abigail, dies with a fair bit of the book to go, leaving our merry band of good guys to figure out how to battle Satan-surrogate Randall Flagg by themselves. In LOST, Jacob is now dead (though remarkably loquacious, at least to Hurley), and the battle lines seem to be being drawn being a small band of good guys and a larger band of bad guys congregated around Not-Locke.

Like the stereotypical Devil, Not-Locke offers bargains that seem too good to be true, while Jacob's offers always involve some sort of sacrifice (as Dogen's monologue about his son highlights). Oh, that Devil!

Will this all turn out to be a battle between Good and Evil, or will some clever destabilizing of such a bipolarity occur a la BABYLON 5's undermining of the Vorlon/Shadow dichotomy during the climax of the Shadow War? I'm thinking a bit of both.

I'm also thinking that the Jacob/Not-Locke argument comes down to Parent/Child relations, if only because Parent/Child relations drive about 75% of the angst of all major LOST characters. Though it's entirely possible that Not-Locke is the parent and Jacob the child -- Not-Locke does bear more than a passing resemblance to the Old Testament Yahweh in that he's something of a murderous, manipulative jerk.

Poor Sayid! Though I assume he, like a few others, will have a chance at redemption before the story's through, a path the always annoying Benjamin Linus already seems to be walking. Though if I were to bet on someone running a long con on Not-Locke, it would be Sawyer.

Did Jacob know all this would happen once Sayid was raised from the dead? Destroying the Temple inhabitants changes the power dynamic on the Island, but that dynamic didn't seem all that healthy anyway -- Jack may be a jerk sometimes, but Dogen's manipulations and plots make Jack look like a saint.

Which may be the point.

Or not.