Smokey is a Window for the Dead by Locke4God

I started thinking of smokey differently last night, and see what you think of this.

So we saw MIB float down the stream and into the light, where he was sucked down into the ground, and POOOF, out came a billowing cloud of black smokey.

But MIB's body still existed seperately, and it was dead. We know it stays dead, because it becomes the body of Adam later.

So what's up with the smoke then?

I think now that since the rules state that MIB couldn't be killed by Jacob, then the smoke essentially preserved MIB's soul, allowing him a life after death without merely being a ghost.

Here's where I thought it got interesting.

The smoke isn't MIB, but rather some product of the island itself that allows souls to look through it. That's why the smoke can only form the images of dead people, and thusly why MIB/Smokey needs somebody to be dead in order to impersonate them.

So in short, smokey did exist seperate from MIB, but since MIB can't be killed by Jacob, they more or less merged.