Periodic Resupply Drop and Hurley's Dave Solved by Dirk Daniels

This past week I've re-watched every episode of lost twice up to the tantalizing Across the Sea where many on island mysteries have been solved. Knowing what we do now, I believe we finally have resolution to the on-going dispute as to the origin of the Periodic Resupply Drop (PRSD) as seen in season two's episode "Lockdown."

The Man in Black has shown the ability to take the guise of many forms. From individuals (Christian Shephard,) entire groups of men (Eko's former thugs,) and animals (Kate's horse, the cat in Further Instructions.) A creature with this power would not be limited to only living beings:

I propose after re-watching Lockdown that the MIB took the form of the Periodic Re-Supply Drop as part of his end-game goal. When Jack and Kate were trekking through the jungle at night, I suspect they were approaching the location of the "heart of the island" as seen in Across the Sea. Since the MIB could not harm these candidates, he distracted them by assuming the form of crates, parachutes, and flashing beacons.

Observe this picture found on Lostpedia:

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Drop.jpg

One can clearly see the black smoke haze in the upper right hand corner. The writers have planned this from the start. What else have we overlooked?

The Losties consumed the MIB in a food based form leading to MIB's corruption and manipulation of the camp. This is the reason Hurley hallucinated Dave and was nearly lead to his demise. Did you notice towards the end of Season 2 that in-camp fighting escalated? I hypothesize the main lost group was under the effects of MIB's negative exotic matter toxins.

The MIB's corruption forced Ben and the others to take our candidates out of the camp - hence, the separation of leadership seen at the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3.

It makes sense the writers would drop hints like this in season 2 - Greg Nations, script coordinator, began posting around this time that we had seen the smoke monster but did not realize it yet. We do now.