An Alternate Theory by WatchingPreacher

Wow. These five first episodes of LOST’s sixth and final season have all been filled to the brink with answers. The main problem as of now has been that these answers are coming from characters whose intentions aren’t exactly straight-forward. For all we know, all the answers we’ve been given may just be lies to manipulate both The Others and the Losties.

My theory will focus on the following things, and I will look closer at all of them.

The Smoke Monster = FLocke, Lockeness Monster, Locke, MiB or whatever you wish to call him
MiB wants to go home (wherever that is)
Jacob has «candidates»
The «inside joke»
The loophole
«Hell? Yes.»
The «Flash-sideways» and their purpose

Now, let’s begin with taking a closer look at The Smoke Monster and what we’ve learnt about him in the previous seasons. First of all, we’ve been hearing a long time that The Smoke Monster works as «some kind of security system» for the Island, something we’ve heard from the Others and Rousseau. Still; it seems as if the Others doesn’t exactly trust this being, as Richard is scared of it and they’ve lived in New Otherton for the last three years, protected by the sonic fence that Dharma made.

We’ve also learnt that the Others know about Jacob, and that he has been their leader for quite some time. These facts are supported by Richard Alpert, the mysterious man that never ages and who works as Jacob’s messenger or maybe a guide? Much is unknown as of now. Hopefully, we’ll know more in the upcoming episodes.

There is still a lot of things that we’re not entirely sure of when speaking of The Smoke Monster. We know now that it is this entity that has taken over Locke’s appearances, and that this is probably the same person as the mysterious Man in Black that we saw in The Incident on the beach with Jacob. Again, we have Richard to support this theory; he freaked when he finally connected the dots.

In summary; The Smoke Monster serves as Jacob’s security system. But he is tired and pissed off; he doesn’t want to be the security system anymore. He wants to free himself from Jacob’s control and the Island. Then he wants to go home. But we’ll get back to this.

In the last two episodes («The Substitute» and «Lighthouse») we’ve learnt about Jacob’s candidates, both from FLocke and Jacob himself. Although the major information dump came from FLocke, it was confirmed by Jacob in «Lighthouse». But what is the purpose of these «candidates»? From the information FLocke has given us, these characters that may continue Jacob’s work for him, and protect the Island. FLocke continues to baffle us with new information; he tells Sawyer in the caves that the Island doesn’t need protection - «it’s just a damn island!». Well, it isn’t. Donkey wheel, time-traveling, button-pushing - weird things are happening on this Island, and I think it is vital that someone protects it. Then again, this is just my take on it: maybe FLocke sees it differently?

Before telling us about the «candidates», FLocke takes a white stone lying on a scale and throws it out, leaving the black rock at the scale. When Sawyer asks about this, FLocke answers «Inside Joke». Well, I believe that this inside joke is actually just that - an inside joke. FLocke is the good one of the bunch, therefore he threw the white stone into the ocean. FLocke aka The Smoke Monster has been held captive on the Island to work as Jacob’s security system and now he wants to go home. Be free. Live his life. Whatever’s left of it anyway.

And now, the Loophole. This is the thing that has been really bugging people lately; there seems to be nothing short of impossible to find the true loophole. But it’s actually quite simple. I was baffled when this opportunity hit me this morning. Guess you could call me deeply shocked, all the way down to my core. Because people; we already know the loophole.

This loophole-thing, if true, is something that the writer’s have really done well and pulled off. If my theory is correct, the loophole works as the following;

Jacob has in all these years used The Smoke Monster as his security system. For a long time now, The Smoke Monster has wanted to kill Jacob, but there has always been rules to keep him from doing so. Still; recently, Jacob has truly and utterly bent said rules one time too many. Jacob has manipulated all of the Losties (the 815-ers) to get to the Island. He has even manipulated some of them twice. This, however, is probably not the Loophole. But it is very, very connected.

When I started thinking of this, I also thought of the scene where Jacob was killed. Three characters was present in this scene: Jacob, (F)Locke and Ben. I started thinking; what is it that Locke and Ben have in common? They are obviously a big part of the Loophole - so which part do they play? Then it hit me. Like a giant rock to the head; They both used the donkey wheel. Ben used it to move the Island, while Locke used it to fix the time-jumps.

There is, however, some important facts that comes into play with the Donkey Wheel & the Loophole - it was under Jacob’s orders that Ben had to move the Island, but it was under FLocke’s «orders» that Locke had to die. I also remember that Ben said that «Whoever moves the Island can never return», yet Jacob used his clever manipulating skills to get both Ben and Locke’s corpse back to the Island. I believe that this is the loophole - Jacob has broken the rules. And whose job is it to protect the Island? The Smoke Monster. This gave poor old Smokie his chance to kill Jacob, or, more precisely, make Ben kill him, then kick him into the fire.

I do, however, think that Jacob did most of this on purpose; he knew that FLocke would use all his mistakes to kill him. But he chose death over life, knowing that when he died he could do so much more - like, stalk Hurley and give him weird missions without letting on everything. He has so much more control over everything now. He is kind of an Obi Wan Kenobi. The only thing is we do not know who Darth Vader is.

Some people wondered if, at the end of «The Substitute», Sawyer answered FLocke’s question with «Hell? Yes.» leading us to believe that FLocke was Lucifer and he wanted to go back to Hell. I do not believe this. Still; there are many things one could say if this was true. It would then be like God keeping Lucifer as his «security system», which is just completely and utterly wrong. (And now, do correct me if I’m wrong) Still; in this case, I think we’re reading too much into a single line of dialogue.

In the most recent episode, «Lighthouse», a Jack-centric episode, we learnt more about the alternate timeline, or the «flash-sideways» if you’d like. Jack apparently has a kid here. Hmm. Interesting. Yet, as of now, these flash-sideways are only fun looks into a world without the Island. The writers are saying that they will eventually become something more, and that they have a purpose. Well; I believe that the mirrors in the flash-sideways and on the Island are vitally important for our story.

We’ve known for a long time that the sixth season is a «mirror» to the first season, but I think there’s more to this then we already know. In each flash-sideways, at least one character studies himself in the mirror. It was Jack in «Lighthouse» and Locke in «The Substitute». But in «Lighthouse», Locke stared into a mirror on the Island too. Yes, I’m referring to the mirrors in the lighthouse. And who led Jack and Hurley to the Lighthouse? Jacob. Why? They had to make the Island noticeable, because someone was coming. Still; he seemed a tad uncaring when Jack had destroyed his Lighthouse. «Well, I guess they have to find another way then». Like, no biggie. We’ll fix it. I think it was a very good reason that he did not care about the Lighthouse; I think he wanted it destroyed. But since Jacob believes heavily in Free Will (or does he?), he manipulated Jack to travel there, grow angry and destroy them. Why? Because the Lighthouse isn’t what it seems. It’! s not a lighthouse for getting to the Island from the outside world; it’s a means of traveling to the other timeline.

I guess you want some kind of proof for that last one. Well… There were mirrors in there; mirrors to another place. Mirrors to… a mirror world? Like, for instance, an alternate timeline? When you in addition to this think that the sixth season mirrors the first one, this all kind of makes sense.

But why is this important, you ask. Well… This is important because if FLocke had traveled to the Lighthouse and turned the wheel to 108 degrees, he would’ve been able to go home. Yes; I believe that the mirrors, when turned to 108 degrees, leads to a world where all of the candidates are currently alive, and that FLocke wants to get to this world because this is where he comes from. He wants to go home to the alternate timeline and live the life he always wanted.

Think about it for a minute. This would make Jacob and FLocke complete opposites - they believe in different things (fate vs. free will) and they come from different timelines!

Now, when you’re done thinking about it, tell me what you think!