Smoke and Mirrors by Louker

I won’t assume to explain what the smoke monster actually is beyond saying I believe MIB was affected by the electromagnetism beneath the island changing his form. Everything else in this theory is going towards his motives, his appearance as dead people and how he does it.

MIB cannot kill people Jacob has “touched.” But he CAN claim them if they die, but only IF THEY DIE.

The only people MIB can kill are the ones left untouched by Jacob. These are the ones Jacob does not consider candidates, or the ones that have already been crossed off the list.

I still believe that Jacob’s list was kept in The Lighthouse that Jack and Hurley visited and that MIB’s copied list was kept in the caves Flocke showed Sawyer around. He was more or less copying Jacob’s homework on the candidates making his own future plans to interfere.

But how?

Let’s break this down.

The Smoke Cloud and the dead people it imitates work in entirely different forms.

Remember in Ab Aerterno when Richard sees his wife on the shipwrecked Black Rock and then the Smoke Cloud shows up above on deck SEPERATE to her psychical appearance in front of Richard? You can even see her being lifted up by it as she runs away up top. Both Richard’s deceased love and the smoke are MIB. This moment is important because it shows you that the Smoke Monster/MIB projects itself as these dead people, they are not the actual SMOKE themselves.

Imagine MIB as a projectionist, The Smoke Monster as the projector, and the dead person he has copied as the image being projected on the screen.

This clarifies a lot of problems.

MIB can exist as the Smoke Monster cloud AND a dead person “copy” as different matter in different spaces at any one time. Probably why whenever we have seen the MIB as the black smoke in the past, we see it come together from three separate columns of smoke particles to form one BIG smoke cloud. He can seperate himself into pieces.

So...

We know MIB has appeared as Christian (by his own acknowledgement to Jack in The Last Recruit) and as Yemi (an obvious apparition of his) and more recently as Locke.

My guess is this.

MIB in Smoke Monster form obviously resides underground. Deep beneath the island. It has an aversion to water and electromagnetic fields and ash.

When Ben needs to “summon” it, he pulls the plug in a hidden chamber and allows water to filter down into the earth below.
That water most likely forces The Smoke Monster out from beneath the ground. Often, when he comes out to play, he explodes up from beneath trees.

Usually, this is to kill or chase or do the “heavy lifting.” MIB in Smoke form is brawn, not brains.

And underground is where the smoke is most of the time. Where the actual MIB really is. Flocke and all the dead people he has masqueraded as are psychical, tangible projections of something the smoke monster has touched that is no longer living.
The apparitions we see, such as Flocke at current, is being “projected.” Hence why stabbing, shooting and blowing up these walking dead people do no good whatsoever, because these apparitions aren’t really the vulnerable part of MIB’s form. They are more like phantoms. They can be seen and touched, but ultimately they are like a bending of light. Mirages.

Think back to Jacob’s “Crack Security Team” led by Bram in the temple. When they shoot at Flocke he hides behind a pillar, DISAPPEARS, and then The Smoke Monster enters FROM THE OUTSIDE. Because the smoke was not in the room actually as Locke, it was merely PROJECTING him.

Before Jacob died, it could only do so many psychical things as these apparitions like pick up a lantern as Christian in the FDW cavern, but NOT BE ABLE TO HELP LOCKE GET UP. Or it could hold Eko’s rosary as Yemi, but not actually TOUCH OR GRAB Eko himself.

Even in the last few episodes of Season Five when Flocke first shows up, we see him touch many inanimate objects, hold different things but I can’t think of one time when he hit or touched anyone around him. Even Caesar who was threatening him and telling him he couldn’t leave. You think old smokie would have just knocked him the fu
Smoke Monster’s projections could appear and disappear because ultimately, these dead people are not really there. Yes, they can touch inanimate objects and be touched themselves, but really they are not able to do much more than that. The MIB as the smoke (which he has been for a long time) was limited, until Jacob was killed. Then that gave him freedom to be more whole as Flocke, to be able to hit and move people about. But at the same time killing Jacob limited him in another way; trapping him from projecting himself as anything other than Flocke from now on.

Christian arrived in a coffin and that was good for MIB to take the body, copy it, and then wander round, trying to lead Jack off THE CLIFF EDGE, not to water, as he so kindly claimed was his intent.

Yemi, another dead guy with ties to an important figure on the island, Mr. Eko. Locke was at the stage where he was willing to listen to, and maybe even, follow Eko. And Eko may have led Locke off from the path MIB wanted him on. And since using Yemi to emotionally manipulate Eko was no longer working, he did away with our favourite drug running Priest. Permanently. Too much of a wild card in the mix there. Eko knew this hence why he told John, “YOU’RE NEXT.” Locke however, misinterpreted this.

I believe Smokie also appeared to Hurley as Dave. That was another attempt to lead a character to certain death. Yes, MIB cannot directly kill a candidate, or a chosen one, but he can mess with them, and perhaps lead them to their death by their own choice or mistake like going off a cliff or wandering into the path of another person or candidate’s bullet.

One could argue that he DID appear as Walt to Shannon to lead her in front of Ana-Lucia’s gun. I know Walt wasn’t dead but it could be the exception that disproves the rule.

Anyways, now onto the cabin.

MIB was projecting himself there too. As Christian no less. To give Locke the right orders and to take Claire into his “fatherly” bosom.

Illana said someone else had been using it that was not Jacob. Now I don’t believe MIB was really living it, but merely using it whenever anyone dropped by. He waited for Locke and Ben to arrive right on cue to begin his chain of events leading to the endgame of Ben killing Locke. Maybe the cabin was moving constantly because Jacob was trying to keep Locke and Ben from ever finding it again to prevent this from happening. Or maybe that’s too much of a stretch, but hey, so is this whole theory!

Of course, there is another explanation there with the cabin, which while just as convoluted, may offer some semblance of sense.

The cabin was a prison within a prison. MIB was at some point trapped by the circle of ash in a projected form by Jacob. But he was still free to roam the island in true form as Smokie, but limited in his ability to manifest outside the cabin as a fully corporeal entity. Hence, why when as Christian, Dave and Yemi it could only do so much.

Once he had hold of Claire, I think Smokie, as Christian, told her to remove the ash to allow him to project himself fully. Which is why by the end of Season 4 he could go as far as the freighter to go and tell Michael his candidacy was over and

BOOM. One more down.

People have argued Freighter Christian, due to the fact his arrival was accompanied by the whispers, was really Ghost Christian, but if you look at his attire he is wearing, it is the same khaki-like gear MIB Christian was wearing in the cabin when he told Locke to move the island.

And one piece of dialogue in Everybody Loves Hugo eerily mirrored a line from Cabin Fever.

When Locke said to Christian, “I’m here, because I was chosen to be,” Christian smiles and says, “That’s absolutely right.”

In Everybody Loves Hugo, Flocke says that same line to Desmond out at the well in the same tone and voice, “That’s absolutely right.” Listen to the two deliveries. Exactly the same. Because it is the EXACT same man behind the two different voices. I’ll admit, could just be a coincidence there, but it registered with me because Cabin Fever is my most watched Lost episode, and possibly my favourite one ever.

Like I said, the Smoke Monster itself cannot travel over water, but it can PROJECT an entity/apparition as long as it is within the radius of the island’s electromagnetic “bubble.”

So, what happened with Hydra? Especially seeing as Flocke told
Sawyer he cannot travel over water?

Well, after Ajira landed and Frank and Sun showed up in New Otherton, The Smoke Monster was already waiting for them as Christian. This confirmed that the Oceanic Six had returned on schedule. He told them to wait for John Locke... and then he projected himself AS CHRISTIAN back over to Hydra island, found Locke’s coffin in the cargo hold, copied his body, hid him back away safely (though not safely enough) and went out to meet the new arrivals.

I know we have seen Flocke taking the outrigger to get to Hydra but he knows via Sawyer, that they have set up new PYLONS to keep him out. If he were to project himself over there now, he could end up in the middle of the field or worse: stuck INSIDE the pylon circle, unable to escape or project back over to the main island.

I believe we might see this happen in the next episode. Whatever happens, Flocke is not getting on a plane and flying away, that is not how The Smoke Monster plans to leave.

At no point has The Smoke Monster as the cloud EVER been on Hydra island itself. IT CANNOT LEAVE THE MAIN ISLAND BECAUSE IT CANNOT PASS OVER THE WATER. Perhaps this is related to electromagnetism’s reaction with water itself?

This whole season, and much of last, we have seen this Fake Locke. Assuming that beneath that flesh and smirk, there is the smoke, but really, Smokie as a black cloud is still beneath the island, only popping up when MIB absolutely has to.

So, I am guessing that once all the candidates are assembled on Hydra, Flocke will try to kill them all in one foul swoop. But I don’t think he can do it himself as we have been told by weird ghost kid; “You know the rules. You can’t kill them (as in candidates).” So, as he did with Jacob, he needs to find someone else to do it for him. Knowingly or unknowingly. Take your pick there. To me, Sayid seems like the guy he’s grooming for the job. Makes sense, but Sayid seems to be having second thoughts.

Once EVERYONE is dead there is no force, no power, and no more rules left to stop him. And deep from beneath the temple, Smokie aka MIB will rise. But by leaving the island, as I asserted in an earlier theory last month, his leaving will unleash the electromagnetism in which he is the cork to keeping at bay from spreading and reversing the poles of the Earth.

But hey, all of this is pretty elaborate. I don’t think the show will explain it like this, but this was just a way of clarifying perhaps why there seems to be inconsistencies with Smokie, his apparitions, his actions etc.

Hopefully, at least a small part of it makes sense.