The Island: I am Everybody by Marioninnyc

I keep trying to reconcile two seemingly opposing ideas: (1) The island must be protected because it is the source of the great light and if the light goes out the consequences will be terrible. (2) The island is a cork and the world must be protected from "evil" which is contained therein. Should the evil escape the consequences will be terrible.

Which is it?

Is Flocke the corporeal form of the Smoke Monster and therefore as Dogen said, "Evil incarnate?" Or is the smoke monster simply "the Island's security system" or the beautiful thing that Locke first saw?

Is it both -- Ying/yang. Twins. Duality.


Whatever it is, presumably the writers knew from the beginning and the answer is in front of us. My theory is that we have been given "Easter eggs" little bits of the puzzle all along. Everything we are told is significant, but none of it is the whole truth.

And what about all those dead people?

There's been a lot of speculation that Mother was Smokey, another Flocke. Certainly she couldn't have killed all those Romans alone. I find it interesting that she knocks MIB out inside by the wheel, but he wakes up outside in the middle of the carnage. Is it possible he took part in the massacre? I also find it interesting that once Mom is killed, her body remains in appearance fully human and decays like a normal corpse, which makes me wonder whether she was in fact Smokey or like Jacob, a human protector albeit one perhaps with the power to bring forth the destructive power of the island.

But here's the thing I've noticed about Flocke. It's not just John Locke bleeding through. It's MIB's desire to leave. And MIB repeated Mother's line about people. Yes, MIB also said in answer to Jacob that people were corrupt, but he said it as one of them -- a realist. He said it almost casually. Mother was the one who said it with anger and bitterness, as Faux-MIB/Smokey said it years later. We also see Faux-Locke acting father-like to Claire and even Jack because he's taken on some of Christian.

But what about the "ghosts?" Are they different? Was Alex, also Smokey? This seems likely, as we didn't see Alex and Flocke together. Was Michael, Smokey? Again, quite possibly. What about Richard's wife? What about Claudia? So what are the rules with ghosts? We assume the first time we see Richard's dead wife on the boat it's Smokey playing with him. Her body isn't on the island just her cross, but she appears corporeal. The second time when only Hurley can see her we assume it's really her. What if both times it was a projection of her energy created by the island? And because she never set foot on the island, what if both times she was based on Richard's memories and ideas of her (even if Richard couldn't see her?) Ben's mother as well though all he had of her was photograph. Claudia too. She actually died on the island so the Island would have her consciousness. What if the consciousness containing all these different desires is not unified? Flocke is one representation of it containing the ability to turn into the black smoke -- a split in the energy, but the other apparitions may be another part of the Island's consciousness? Or the energy of the dead each with it's own agenda? Maybe,if there's no body on the island, you can still be a "ghost" but you can't be the embodiment of the Smokey consciousness. Jacob's ghost can appear to Hurley and young Jacob can appear to Flocke and be seen by at least one of the candidates -- Sawyer. My guess is that he's appearing as a boy because that's where Flocke's memories which include MIB's are the most vivid.

The whispers also would be as Michael said the dead of the island whom the island wasn't done with yet. They would be contained within the island's consciousness and it would be worse than hell. The island is haunted in a very real way.

The island is everybody. Hence Drive Shaft's signature song title: "I am everybody."

I'm not sure how it gets resolved or even exactly how this relates to the alt verse, but I think something has to happen at the end to free the consciousness of the dead from this purgatory like state. I also think that it will be the humanity bleeding through either dictating Smokey's action or causing an alternative force that somehow causes it to end, and the ending will be final because it only ends once.