Episode 5-03, "Jughead," contains more of the island's mythology than previously thought. We know from Richard that most of the episode takes place in 1954, that the United States Military had come to the island, established a camp (the tents seen in the episode), brought and set up a hydrogen bomb, fought and been defeated/eliminated/integrated (Cunningham is Widmore's companion's real name, it appears, even though Widmore, Ellie and several other Others seem to be wearing portions of uniforms taken from the dead) by the Hostiles/Others, and have been presumed by the Hostiles/Others to have returned, hence the flaming arrow attack on the left-behinders and the treatment of Faraday & Co. as military personnel.
I believe the U.S. Military also encountered and neutralized the Smoke Monster as part of their securing the island for the hydrogen bomb. Near the beginning of Episode 5-03, Faraday, Miles, Charlotte and two male redshirts approach the creek to rend-ez-vous with the other left-behinders who had fled the flaming arrow attack. When the creek is first shown, the Smoke Monster can be seen loitering along the creek's bank in the lower right hand portion of the screen. At first, I was uncertain as to whether the darkness there was simply a shadow or actually Smokey, but upon closer examination, the darkness moves...and it moves slowly, but consistently, in a seeping, flowing motion, almost lethargic or in a state of relative rest.
Several people had theorized from the promos that what we later learned were the explosions of the claymores were Smoke Monster attacks. They're not, but the line between explosion and Smokey is somewhat blurred (deliberately, I believe) by the editing in the scene.
The claymore trap attracted my attention. Ellie insists "We didn't put them here. You did." So the U.S. Military, prior to being wiped out by Alpert's Hostiles, had set the claymores and tripwires. The placement of the claymores and tripwires also seemed of particular interest. The explosions seem to be go off in a roughly circular pattern, or at least to be enclosing a small area, rather than prohibiting travel over a large area, like the Sonic Fence, for example. I would imagine a creek to be a great location to set a trap: it forms a natural barrier; not every part of a creek is safe to cross, thus limiting the number of crossings to be booby-trapped; etc. But it seems as though a more logical placement of the traps would be in mid-stream, with the tripwires hidden beneath the surface, or entirely hidden in the foliage on one bank. The tripwires are not so distributed.
We learned in Season 1 that the Smoke Monster dislikes explosives, as the Losties used the dynamite from the Black Rock to force the Monster to release Locke and flee down one of the Cerberus Vents.
When the explosions of the claymores in 5-03 have subsided, it appears as the Smoke Monster slips below the surface of the creek with the debris. It's escape is less easily seen than it's initial presence, though. At five minutes into the episode, when the creek is first shown, the Monster is definitely on the creek's bank.
I think that the claymore attack serves a second purpose besides delivering Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte into the custody of Ellie. I think it shows that the U.S. Military had trapped the Smoke Monster in a ring of claymores and tripwires. Now, the first question that rose in my mind when I first postulated this was: The Smoke Monster doesn't have feet. Why can't it just slide above the tripwires without triggering them? The same issue, though, can be raised about the Sonic Fence. Why can't the Monster just go over the top of the Sonic Fence the way that the Losties have before? We don't know, but it doesn't seem to be able to.
I think it plausible to argue that the U.S. Miltary had encountered the Monster, learned of its aversion to explosives, and ringed it somehow in a trap of landmines and tripwires. This would have allowed the soldiers more free access to the island, especially for the arrival and deployment of a nuclear weapon.
Importantly, I think the inclusion of the Smoke Monster, however subtly, in 5-03, is also to show that the Smoke Monster also predates Dharma, or had some other means of creation or arrival on the island. It is not, I believe, a Dharma-constructed security system. Now whether the Smoke Monster is ancient or futuristic in origin, we still do not know, and won't, I suspect, until late in Season 6. But at least we can see other groups that had come to the island confront Smokey prior to our Losties' (mostly) unsuccessful attempts to confront and understand the Monster.Theory by monsterhunter
I believe the U.S. Military also encountered and neutralized the Smoke Monster as part of their securing the island for the hydrogen bomb. Near the beginning of Episode 5-03, Faraday, Miles, Charlotte and two male redshirts approach the creek to rend-ez-vous with the other left-behinders who had fled the flaming arrow attack. When the creek is first shown, the Smoke Monster can be seen loitering along the creek's bank in the lower right hand portion of the screen. At first, I was uncertain as to whether the darkness there was simply a shadow or actually Smokey, but upon closer examination, the darkness moves...and it moves slowly, but consistently, in a seeping, flowing motion, almost lethargic or in a state of relative rest.
Several people had theorized from the promos that what we later learned were the explosions of the claymores were Smoke Monster attacks. They're not, but the line between explosion and Smokey is somewhat blurred (deliberately, I believe) by the editing in the scene.
The claymore trap attracted my attention. Ellie insists "We didn't put them here. You did." So the U.S. Military, prior to being wiped out by Alpert's Hostiles, had set the claymores and tripwires. The placement of the claymores and tripwires also seemed of particular interest. The explosions seem to be go off in a roughly circular pattern, or at least to be enclosing a small area, rather than prohibiting travel over a large area, like the Sonic Fence, for example. I would imagine a creek to be a great location to set a trap: it forms a natural barrier; not every part of a creek is safe to cross, thus limiting the number of crossings to be booby-trapped; etc. But it seems as though a more logical placement of the traps would be in mid-stream, with the tripwires hidden beneath the surface, or entirely hidden in the foliage on one bank. The tripwires are not so distributed.
We learned in Season 1 that the Smoke Monster dislikes explosives, as the Losties used the dynamite from the Black Rock to force the Monster to release Locke and flee down one of the Cerberus Vents.
When the explosions of the claymores in 5-03 have subsided, it appears as the Smoke Monster slips below the surface of the creek with the debris. It's escape is less easily seen than it's initial presence, though. At five minutes into the episode, when the creek is first shown, the Monster is definitely on the creek's bank.
I think that the claymore attack serves a second purpose besides delivering Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte into the custody of Ellie. I think it shows that the U.S. Military had trapped the Smoke Monster in a ring of claymores and tripwires. Now, the first question that rose in my mind when I first postulated this was: The Smoke Monster doesn't have feet. Why can't it just slide above the tripwires without triggering them? The same issue, though, can be raised about the Sonic Fence. Why can't the Monster just go over the top of the Sonic Fence the way that the Losties have before? We don't know, but it doesn't seem to be able to.
I think it plausible to argue that the U.S. Miltary had encountered the Monster, learned of its aversion to explosives, and ringed it somehow in a trap of landmines and tripwires. This would have allowed the soldiers more free access to the island, especially for the arrival and deployment of a nuclear weapon.
Importantly, I think the inclusion of the Smoke Monster, however subtly, in 5-03, is also to show that the Smoke Monster also predates Dharma, or had some other means of creation or arrival on the island. It is not, I believe, a Dharma-constructed security system. Now whether the Smoke Monster is ancient or futuristic in origin, we still do not know, and won't, I suspect, until late in Season 6. But at least we can see other groups that had come to the island confront Smokey prior to our Losties' (mostly) unsuccessful attempts to confront and understand the Monster.Theory by monsterhunter
