Have Knife, Will Travel

In Sunddown we learned that Locke 2.0 has no problem being stabbed with knifes in the chest, which makes sense because even old John Locke was pretty good handling them. And all the ash circles couldn't stop him from entering the temple in his smoke form, after Sayid got rid of Dogen. I wonder if we will see Ilana using Jacobs ash later in the season with more success. I wonder if Smokey and Jacob were influenced by the TV show Have Gun - Will Travel, which had it's own six season run on CBS from 1957 through 1963. Paladin, the otherwise nameless protagonist, lived as a smart man for hire in San Francisco. The gentleman gunfighter for hire was dressed in black and sported a thorough knowledge of ancient history and classical literature. Directors as Andrew McLaglen and Sam Peckinpah worked on the show, which featured Star Treks Gene Roddenberry as a writer.

The first episode of season 6 revealed Paladins backstory, not typical for 60s TV shows. In it Paladin was forced to hunt down and kill a mysterious gunman named Smoke, played by Boone himself without his trademark mustache and with grey-white hair. Smoke gave the Paladin character his nickname, facetiously calling him "a noble paladin." The question turned out to be doubly ironic, as Smoke revealed in his death scene that he was not evil incarnate, but the protector of a nearby town (from the man who had sent Paladin in the first place. Classical con) Paladin adopted Smoke's black costume and killed the real bad guy.

Now I don't say that Smokey and Jacob are beased on this in any way, but Have Gun - Will Travel was part of the american pop culture for six seasons, like Lost is today.