A chance to kill or capture the Locke-ness Monster! by cabinboy

LOST: a chance to kill or capture the Locke-ness Monster!

There's a specific window of opportunity when the Locke-ness Monster will be vulnerable and WE already know about it (it will take a meeting of a couple of particular minds to put it together in the show, tho)—the outrigger canoe chase! I've been waiting to see it happen (again), from the other boat's occupants' perspective, since the season 5 time skipping stopped. Alas, we have yet to see the proper set-up for it.

In case you don't remember the scenario, the proper set-up would be two of the Other outriggers beached at the Lostaways' old camp, which has been ransacked and left beerless, by the way. That's how Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte find the camp when they're searching for the Zodiac to make their way around the Island to the Orchid to stop the time skips. The Zodiac is gone (lost in time, I suspect), so they take one of the canoes, which has an Ajira airlines water bottle in it. Once out at sea, they are set upon by unknown pursuers in the other outrigger, who fire on them. They return fire, apparently injuring someone in the other boat. At this point, Sawyer and co are flashed away into the past.

Okay, so, the events of this time skip, relative to the passage of time on the Island that we're now watching, has yet to take place. And, given the details of the scenario—the Ajira water bottle, the ransacked-but-still-standing camp, and the familiar canoes (and, OK, the fact that we have only a few hours of show left)—it's going to happen in the near future.

This means that for a certain amount of time, the duration of that time skip, between flashes, there will be a genuine, living, breathing, Monster-less John Locke walking around on the Island and paddling in a canoe. The Rules as we've come to understand them allow the Monster to take on the form of any human whose dead body is on the Island, and we know that since Jacob's death, he's "stuck"—the only form he can take is that of John Locke. Now, what happens when John Locke's real live living self blips back into the pocket dimension of the snowglobe? I'd wager that it will wreak havoc with the Monster's substance, nervous system, coherence, y'know, his general health. It will short circuit him, leaving him vulnerable in some way to attack or capture, in a spastic in-between state of shape shifting, or perhaps as a black puddle, in Rule-restricted jeopardy on Hydra Island or in waterborne tra! nsit, off the Island. If that's where he is, and if his smokey form is a discrete and distinct body, as I believe it is (my theory is that the Circle of Ash around Jacob's Cabin was made to keep Esau's consciousness trapped inside, and separated from the smoke monster construct or creature that he can use as a host), restricted to the main Island, then being trapped in a form wracked with existential seizures is gonna be pretty tough on him.

Maybe someone will have the opportunity to put the Monster out of his misery when he's in this weakened state, but y'know what? I'm betting he or she will hesitate just long enough for Esau to regain his strength, when Locke and the others time-skip away and into the past. Perhaps due to some silver-tongued promise, threat, or taunt, but I'm darkly hoping it will be because of a Reed Richards-saves-Galactus decision or revelation that the Monster, Evil Incarnate tho he may be, is an integral part of the cosmos, and destroying him would result in an imbalance just as cataclysmic as releasing him into the larger world.

And events and strategies will continue to play out on the Island, resulting in Esau's apparent victory in LOST1, which will lead to the seeding of LOST2 with his survivors, and the unforeseen love-and-death-inspired endgame of the alterna-Losties in LOST2, which will retroactively undo (non-do? never-do?), Esau's win in LOST1, and roll back LOST1's reality to a time in 2004 before Naomi arrives on the Island and Penny's people can effect a rescue of Desmond and all the 815 survivors, including Claire and baby Aaron together.

Done and done! =)

(If any of this resonates for you, you can scan more of my LOST rambling here. Thanks for reading!)

[ A summary of some of my jargon (more details here)... LOST1 is the original show reality. LOST2 is the new, season 6, alternate reality. The snowglobe is the pocket dimension of the Island and as far as we know, all the people we've met on the Island have their origins and histories in LOST1.]