The Howling Man by Eric Knows it all

My theory is that the entire series of LOST has already been told.

If you are a fan of the 1960's tv show The Twilight Zone. There is a great episode of called "The Howling Man", and I recommend that all LOST fans find it and watch it.

The Howling Man is a story about a man who stumbles into a old European Castle during a bad rain storm. The castle is inhabited by a group of strange monks. Initially you are not sure if the monks are good or bad. The monk in charge tells the main character (David Ellington) that he is to leave immediately yet David collapses on the floor and therefore the monks take him in for the night. Later David awakes and is snooping around the castle and he hears an eerie howl, he searches for the source yet only finds a very normal looking and intelligent man locked up in a type of prison cell. David asks the man why he is there and the man tells David that the insane religious zealots (the monks) locked him up because he was caught kissing his own girlfriend. David finds the story odd yet also compelling, after all... these monks are kinda creepy. The monks see David talking with the prisoner and immediately escort him to the leader, Brother Jerome.

This is where it gets good.

Brother Jerome tells David that the man in the cell isn't a man at all but actual the Devil himself. Satan!! Jerome tells David that they captured the Devil and locked him up. They keep the Devil at bay in the cell which is closed by only one thing... the Staff of Truth. Jerome reminds David how the world has enjoyed a certain level of peace for several years, this peace explains Jerome, is because the Devil has been in their possession for the past 5 years. David does not believe Jerome, he thinks Jerome is insane, yet fearing for his own safety and the safety of others David pretends to believe Jerome to stay on his good graces. However Jerome is very wise, Jerome knows that David is lying to him and has David guarded by another monk.

Yet when the guard falls asleep David goes back to talk to the man in the cell and David asks him why he doesn't just remove the staff and leave the cell, yet the man in the cell persuades David to remove the staff and the prisoner walks out of the cell. At that point the man from the cell briefly takes the appearance of the Devil and then changes into a cloud of smoke and exits the castle. At this point David is devastated knowing that he has released the Devil from captivity, Jerome is compassionate and tells David that man's greatest weakness has always been the inability to recognize the devil.

There is a final twist to the episode but I will leave that for you to discover when you watch it.

So how does all of this relate to LOST??

Well, I believe that the smoke monster is essentially the Devil (or a similar evil force). And I believe that the island is a place where the devil has been captured and chained (so to speak). Something keeps the Devil from being able to leave on his own power (maybe the electromagnetic field? Maybe the moveable state of the island??). A group of "monks" have been placed on the island to guard against the Devil leaving (Jacob, Richard, etc.). While the Devil (i.e. Smoke Monster) attempts to manipulate people into helping him with his escape, the monks need to deal with the people showing up on the island and trying to make sure they don't release the devil. Jacob has been the "head monk" so to speak but has also been looking for a replacement i.e., a candidate to replace him.

Obviously, the episode of the Twilight Zone and the LOST series are not directly analogous because there appears to be other factors at play (time travel etc.) but I do believe there is an overall similarity in the notion of the island being a prison cell for the smoke monster. Keep in mind, LOST has the luxury of six 18-24 episode seasons to tell the detail and sub-plots of the story, while the Howling Man only had 25 minutes to tell the story.

Will Sawyer fall for the Devils trick as David Ellington did in the monks castle? Will Sawyer help the Devil escape and then need to recapture him as David Ellington had to do?? How will Jack, Kate and the other cast members fit into this grand scheme? Will they be the heroes that ultimately help recapture the loosened Devil? Maybe the cast members will only be pawns in the overall goal to get Aaron to be the successor to Jacob.

Will it turn out that the alternate timeline reality will be nothing more than a mirrored real-life scenario of all of us catching our own devils?? (maybe the Island is the spirtual battle that goes on unbeknown to us, while the alternate timeline will be the battle that we see on an every day basis)

Ancient folk saying: 'You can catch the Devil, but you can't hold him long.' Ask Brother Jerome. Ask David Ellington. They know, and they'll go on knowing to the end of their days and beyond...in the Twilight Zone.