The man behind the curtain by Maik Lohse

I would say this is rather an observation than a theory.

But I find it very interesting and amazing to watch how Ben Linus - the man that for so many seasons we believed to be THE MAN on the island with ALL the answers to every single secret and mystery - pretty much has absolutely NO CLUE about almost anything that is going on on the island.

We KNOW he has never seen or spoken to Jacob. We KNOW he has no clue who or what the smoke monster is. He said so himself to John Locke last season ("We don't have a name for it - but I believe your people call it the smoke monster"). Only thing confusing is how he called the smoke monster "for help" when the marines were holding them up in the village - and I sure hope that will somehow be explained - but my feeling is it will not.

But in recent episodes he is just stumbling around BAFFLED by everything that is going on around him and we see that he has absolutely no grasp of what the hell is going on.

This made me remember the episode in season 3 titled "The man behind the curtain" which is obviously a reference to "The Wizard of OZ" - and JUST like the Wizard - who pretended to be an all powerful, all knowing being but in actuality was just a poor old man who happened to know how to USE the things around him - Ben managed to portray himself for years as the leader, the guy with all the answers, when in reality - he lnew nothing.