MIB is the Island's protector by Jim Cobb

I had a thought while watching the rerun of Ab Aeterno this week. Watching the interactions between Jacob and MIB, and listening to MIB talk about his situation on the island, it occurred to me that perhaps they do not so much represent the "good" and "evil" forces on the island, but just two people who have very different views of their role on the island.

I believe that Jacob was telling the truth about the nature of the island. It is indeed the cork keeping hell where it needs to be. That said, we've seen the smoke monster referred to as Cerberus. I did a little wikipediaing and found that Cerberus was the guard dog that guarded the gates of Hades in Greek mythology. He granted access to the underworld, but more importantly and relevantly, he also kept the contents of Hades IN Hades.

In light of this, I'm thinking that MIB/Smokey is the true protector of the island. The reason he cannot leave is not so much that he's the evil we want to keep out of the world, but he's what's keeping that evil in place. This would also be in line with the description of Smokey as a "security system".

But why does he resent that position so much? Well he's said on numerous occasions that he used to be a man, but Jacob stole his humanity and his body. I'm guessing that Jacob accepted their position on the island on behalf of MIB and himself. Or perhaps Jacob sold MIB out into the position of Cerberus in exchange for his on-island powers and position.

So the main point of my theory is that MIB/Smokey is NOT evil, but rather the force that keeps the evil from escaping hell. The characters that seem to be "in the know" have all said that Smokey can't leave but we have not heard anyone say that it's because HE is the evil, the "wine" in the bottle. The island is the cork, not the bottle itself. Jacob's personal tiff with MIB is, again, a red herring, much in the same way the Ben/Widmore conflict masqueraded as the "big picture" on the island for a while. I think we'll soon see that their conflict is NOT the big picture, but a product of the way they both came to be on the island.

Now this is just speculation based on my own hopes for the show, but I think our remaining candidates, Jack in particular, will help Smokey get over his resentment towards Jacob and embrace the magnitude of his importance on the island. Perhaps they will even be united by a common goal to plug the hole in the cork that may have been opened by turning the donkey wheel? Now i'm just using my imagination, but to get back to the main point, my theory is that MIB is the actual protector and THAT'S why he cannot leave. This is my first theory here on DarkUFO so please go easy on me. :)