Smokie's Powers, Ghost/Dream Issues and Ghosts as Good/Evil by Adrian McDonald

Concerning Isabelle's "Ghost" in "Ab Aterno":

I don't understand the logistical problem people are having with Isabelle's appearence to Richard when he was trapped on the Black Rock. The problem people seem to be having is this: Isabelle could not have been the Smoke Monster because it "appeared" when she was still down in the ship. To be clear, we never actually saw it, the smoke, when she was down there. We only heard it and saw "it's" shadow, assuming that was its shadow. In short, because there seemed to be two "seperate" entities (Smokie and Isabelle), it could not have been just Smokie. Puh-Lease!

In "Expose", we saw Smokie take the form of dozens of entities at the same time when he manifested as the spiders that bit a paralyzed Nikki. Granted spiders are much much smaller than people, but if its a matter of the mass shifting problem (ala Transformers), lets bear in mind that Smokie is pretty damn large in smoke form. I'm thinking he could turn into a shadow and make noise while taking shape as Isabelle without breaking a sweat. And while I know it's not canon, the enhanced edition of that episode did tell us that it was Smokie taking her shape. Not only would they have to be "mistaken" to tell us this, they would also be telling us a huge lie that transcends a botched ABC interpretation. It was Smokie plain and simple breaking down Richard. Yes he messed up a little by making it look like the smoke killed his wife, but let's also remember that Richard didn't kill Jacob either. So the plan didn't work, perhaps because of that mistake at least in part.

What Else Can Smokie Do? Yemi & Horace in Dreams:

I do think, as I think most everyone does, that Smokie assumed the form of Yemi shortly before killing Ecko when he refused to repent for his past "sins." But, like Christian, was it really Smokie? In S2's "?" episode, Yemi appeared to Ecko in a dream. In that dream, "Yemi" and Ecko were in the Swan Station and Yemi told Ecko he needed to help Locke, who had lost his way. Looking back, that dream didn't really help because while Ecko did lead Locke to the Pearl Station, what Locke learned in that station only made him doubt the efficacy of pushing the button even more and he would later let it run out while a panic-stricken Desmond told him he was wrong and questioned what had made him lose faith. Or maybe that's what "dream Yemi" wanted. The question raised is this: can Smokie appear in another's dreams? If one "Yemi" was Smokie, why not both?

Because if Smokie can enter dreams (insert Freddy chuckle here), this explains Locke's dream in S4's "Cabin Fever." In order for Locke to find "Jacob", Locke was told in his dream by "Horace" that he first had to find him (Horace). And Locke did find Horace's remains and the map/blueprint for the cabin, which Locke was able to rediscover. If we assume that it was, in fact, Smokie's cabin, then the Horace in Locke's dream seemed to be helping MIB rather than Jacob. These two examples of "ghosts" in dreams raise the possibility that each was Smokie, performing an ability we had not "seen"--or considered--before. Or perhaps it always was Yemi's ghost, which leads me to Christian...

Concerning Smokie as Christian:

I think the Smokie as Christian concept has been discussed sufficiently elsewhere, and don't intend to repeat it here. What I mention here, however, I have not seen discussed elsewhere... At best, it was him on some occasions but likely not all of them. The Christian in the cabin seems most likely to have been Smokie. But what about the one in the FDW cave that spoke to a broken-legged Locke? It seems to me that Smokie's seemingly well planned loophole to kill Jacob really depended on Ben. So was it a problem of Locke not following his instructions to the letter the first time, "I said you [Locke] had to move it", or did Smokie know Ben would actually do it and was not explicit on who had to turn the wheel the first time for that reason? I don't know.

Christian as Jacob?:

Part of me thinks the Christian in the FDW cave was Jacob. Locke asked him if he could help him up, seeing that his leg was broken and all. What did "Christian" say? "No, I can't." Jacob has been the one that has said he cannot help, at least not in very direct ways--which may include not literally helping Locke get on his own two feet. But if it was Jacob, he did tell Locke what he needed to do. Richard did say Jacob never tells them what to do (when he was arguing with Hurley about getting more dynamite), but this ignores that Jacob (via Hurley) also told him to keep Smokie from leaving, but that message came from Isabella, didn't it? Putting this another way: Jacob can tell you what plane to get on, but he won't hand you the ticket. And that's exactly what he did with Hurley in the cab.

We have seen both Smokie and Jacob "touch" Locke before, so I don't think it was a matter of one or the other not being able to literally touch/help Locke up (Smokie dragged Locke in S1 and Jacob touched after Locke fell from the building).

The other reason I felt like it was Jacob taking Christian's form in that cave was because of what he said to Locke about pushing the wheel "all you gotta do is give it a little push." This is almost identical with what Jacob said to Jack, when handing the doc a candy bar from a stubborn vending machine. Like Jack, that machine just didn't want to let go. On the other hand, Dogen's instructions to Sayid about killing Smokie were the same as those Smokie gave to Richard about killing Jacob. In this sense, if Dogen served as Jacob's voice, then both Jacob and Smokie can sound alike.

Ghosts just being ghosts and whose "side" they are on:

What if it was never Smokie being Christian? Maybe it was always Christian, at least his ghost. Why not? Is there a rule I don't know about that says every single ghost has to be "good"? Miles raised this doubt when he questioned Hurley about seeing dead people, who always seemed to listen/rely on what they said. Maybe ghosts can be good and/or bad--tilt in one direction over the other. The Christian in the cabin with Claire told Locke he was not Jacob, but that he could "speak" for him. Maybe this was true to an extent, only he was actually speaking for Smokie. It's even possible ghost Christian was duped into helping Smokie because he really did think he was helping Jacob. But that's a leap.

The last wrinkle with the Smokie/Christian issue was how Claire spoke of him/them. Claire told Jin that she had not been alone on the Island. First she had her "father" (her word) then she had her "friend". Even though her "friend" looked and talked like Locke, she was able to make the distinction. Why couldn't she do this with her father? She even suggested she thought Jin was being silly when he thought "Flocke" was John and laughed before correcting him. Does she really think Smokie was pretending to be her father, or pretending by pretending?

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