Lost: The Definitive and Unified Explanation by That John Locke!

Hey everyone! I have not posted in a long while, but that is because I have been working on my Ultimate Lost Explanation. I will acknowledge, the writers probably didn't plan all of this, but it makes me feel a lot better to know it all CAN be explained It is written in a similar format to Doc Jenson things.

THE DEFINITIVE AND UNIFIED EXPLANATION

Many people are torn about the Lost finale. Some feel it was a cop out. Some feel that the writers took the easy way out. Some do not like it because they wanted all the answers handed to them on a silver platter. Below you will find a total explanation of the show that sufficiently answers every aspect (of course, I may have forgot some. There is a lot of stuff). This is a combination of several different theories, and ideas of my own. We will go through the mysteries of the show one by one, so all of you feeling conned by the finale can hopefully get some closure and better understand things. Once again, these are not all of MY ideas. Many are borrowed, and put together in ONE UNIFYING EXPLANATION.



1) THE ISLAND

What was the Island? Why was it there? Did it have a purpose? Yes. It is believed by many that the Island was in fact the MAIN CHARACTER of the show. Stop for a minute and consider this: What if the entire show was not told through the characters perspective, but from the Island's?
 In order to understand, let us examine what the Island actually is, specifically, what the light was in the center of the Island. In the episode "Across the Sea" Jacob and the Smoke Monster's mother shows them the light, and says a little bit of this light is inside every man, but no matter how much they have, they always want more. I believe that the light in the center of the Island... is TIME. Yes, I did say time. Here are some reasons for this:

1) You see the light each instance that there is a TIME jump in Season Five
2) Every man has a little bit of time (our lives) but we always want more, just like Jacob's mother said.
3) Jacob's mother goes on to say that the light is a physical manifestation of "Life, death, and rebirth." If this is true, then time fits the description almost perfectly.



So if the light is time, then what does that mean?

If the light is time, then it means that it contains the past, present, and future. This means that the light in the center of the Island holds the memories of all of those ever to come to the Island.



The Island gets the memories of those who go there?

Yes. What if flashbacks and flashforwards aren't JUST a storytelling device? What if the Island is able to GAIN ACCESS to someone's memories when they come to the Island? If the Light is a physical manifestation of time, then anything that comes to the Island instantly becomes part of its history. Thus, the Island stores the memories of its inhabitants. The flashbacks in seasons 1-3 aren't JUST a way of showing the character's history. They are representing the Island getting the memories.

From here, I want you to start thinking of the Island as a person. A living conscious being that has goals.

So what is the 'Island's goal'?

Its goal is to escape. You see, it is trapped, and cannot escape...from the future.

Could you explain that a little more please?

Sure. In Season Five, a multitude of characters are exposed to time shifts that move them along the Island's history. Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Faraday, Jin, and Juliet are sent back in time. These time jumps land them in many different eras. Pay special attention to one of the jumps, where the characters find the well. John Locke climbs down inside to adjust the wheel, hoping to end the time jumps.

Let us quickly go through the history of this well:

1) It is built by the settlers who are searching for the core of the Island, and is used by the Smoke Monster to build the wheel.
2) Jacob's mother fills in the well in attempts to stop him.
3) Our losties jump back in time to somewhere in between numbers 1 and 2. John goes down the well.
4) There is another time jump, and the well vanishes.

This means that at the time of Number 4, they are BEFORE the settlers came. Before the Man in Black and Jacob were there. And at this moment, the Island gets the memories of Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Faraday, Jin, and Juliet. All of the things these people have seen and done in seasons 1-4, the Island now knows.

So what does this mean?

Basically, the Island now knows what is going to happen in the future. It has the memories of Juliet, Sawyer, Faraday, Miles, and Locke. This means it knows what will happen for the next TWO THOUSAND YEARS. And because of the rules of "Whatever Happened Happened" it has no choice but to carry these things out.

How is it supposed to carry out the future? It's an Island.

 That's the thing. It can't on its own. The Island itself cannot make all of these events occur out of thin air. It needs someone to help. And that's where Jacob and the Man in Black come in. Now remember, in the center of the Island is Time itself. The Light. And within this light, the past, present, and future of the Island is stored in memories. As we see in the show, the Island (if it wishes) can piece together memories into dreams, or visions, which it will then show the characters. Remember, it is depending on these people to free it in the end.
 
So Jacob is the one appointed by the Island to bring people there to play out the pre-set future?

Yes. And Jacob's mother was the one before him.

Then what is the Smoke Monster?

There is a perfectly logical explanation for the Smoke Monster, I assure you, and all of its rules and properties. However, first I'd like to cover the history of the Island so you have some background.

Alright. Explain the history, then lets get back to that Smoke Monster.

I'll try to make it quick.
Several thousand years ago, the Island was not an Island at all. It was just a piece of land, in Tunisia to be exact. Ancient inhabitants lived here, Egyptian in descent. At some point in time they discovered the cave, and the light within. They built several structures around the area, including a statue of Tawaret, a temple, and series of waterways and tunnels underneath the ground.

How did it become an Island? What were these waterways for?

The Egyptians discovered the cave, and began to manipulate the light within. We know this because the last episode "The End" we see a large Egyptian structure built over the light. It is submerged in a pool of water, with a stone pillar blocking the opening.

What was that structure doing?

Well, In the Episode "Across the Sea" the Man in Black says that he is using the donkey wheel to manipulate water and light, which in turn moves the Island. We can assume that the Egyptians were doing the same thing.

So what does that mean? Manipulating the water and the light? Was was the stone pillar and the wheel doing this?

Well, before the Egyptians found it, the light/time moved freely, slowly draining from the reservoir. However, the Egyptians designed a system where the light is covered in a pool of water.
When light passes through water, it is refracted, and bent back to the medium. This means that the light (or time in this instance) will be turned around, and sent backward to where it came from. We know from Season Four that the electromagnetism within the Island forms a field around it.
So, when the light in the cave is refracted back by the pool of water, the land caught in the electromagnetic field is moved to previous times and spaces that it has been. And since throughout the Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic era the continents were constantly shifting, it is very possible that the land had been on many different places on the Earth's surface. Submerging the light in water is what causes the Island to move, by refracting it backwards, and in turn, sending the Island to previous locations and times in its past.
Today, there is about a two mile wide crater in Tunisia. Is it possible that this area was the Island? And that 'crater' is where the Island once was?
I suspect that the Island continued to move through time and shift position after it had departed from Tunisia. It was moving constantly. However (as we know from season five) this has negative physical effects on people. In order to stop the jumps, the Egyptians placed a large stone pillar in the pool to stop the light from refracting back inwards. This effectively stopped the time and space jumps. However, the regular flow of time was now disrupted. The light was not coming out freely anymore. It was inhibited. The pillar began to slow down the Island’s time. I do not mean time slowed down for people, animals, and plants on the Island. I mean the original land. The stone and earth and rock's aging is near stopped.
Before continue, I would like to make distinctions between different pockets, or ‘reservoirs’ of the light/time around the Island.
The Source/Heart of the Island: Located just beyond the bamboo forest where Jack wakes up. It is the largest pocket on the Island, and is the central holding place for the majority of the energy. Since Egyptian times, this pocket has been flooded in water and then plugged. It’s release of energy is minimal
The Swan Station: Also called ‘the hatch’. This pocket is buried deep underneath the ground as a reservoir of light. It was inactive until the DHARMA Initiative discovered it, and began to drill into the ground. In 1977, a nuclear blast from Jughead opened the pocket, and it was nearly all released. We will get to more on the hatch later.
The Orchid: Discovered by Roman settlers, after the Egyptians, but before DHARMA. A well was built over it, as well as a wheel. When the wheel is turned, it will open a waterway that allows the pocket to be flooded, which in turn causes light refractions and the Island moving. Theoretically, the water should drain out after the wheel has been turned. However, it is very old, and was jolted from its axis when Benjamin Linus turned it. It is hypothesized that the water drained out, but the light was not effectively plugged afterwards and continued to sporatically release causing time jumps.

Here is a review of some of the basic concepts:
1) The water refracts the light, bending it back to the medium. This causes the Island to move back to places it had been in the past.
To stop the Island moving, the Egyptians place a stone pillar in the pool. This pillar effectively blocks the light from refracting, but slows down the flow of the light itself, causing the time of the the Island to SLOW DOWN.
The Swan and Orchid station are reservoirs of time that were inactive until discovered by DHARMA, and the Settlers.

2. DESMOND AND THE FLASHSIDEWAYS

Now that the Island's history has been explained, we can move on to some of its bigger mysteries, such as Jacob and the Smoke Monster. However, first I would like to cite some information about Desmond Hume, and explain what the Flashsideways is that we see in Season Six.
Remember, the Island is trapped. It cannot change what it saw when the time travelers landed. It has to carry out the future. It is forced to bring people to the Island. It is forced to tear Desmond away from Penny and crash Oceanic 815. Basically, it is forced to pull these people away from their lives to fulfill their destinies on the Island. And many of them will die there.
Now we will take a look at the effect of the Island holding the memories of all the Island’s inhabitants.
Our personalities are made up from memories. They define who we are, and determine a large portion of your personality. The side-effect of the Island holding all of these people’s memories is that a sort of dream world is created. A world FULLY FORMED from the memories of those people on the Island. I believe that once someone has been on the Island, when they die, they will not REALLY fully die. This is because their memories still exist SOMEWHERE, which means that THEY still exist somewhere. This is the flash sideways. It is the dream world that they all created together, constructed from their memories by the Island.
Everything that happens in the flashsideways matters, because it shows us what the ultimate utopia is for our characters. In his dream world, Jack creates son for himself, to be the father he never had. John is finally able to be with Helen, and gets fixed so he can walk again. However, in the flashsideways Locke is CONTENT with not walking. He has made peace with it. Sawyer is a cop, making himself the leader and protector he always wanted to be. Ben is able to be the mentor for Alex that he always wanted to be. This property applies for all of our characters.
When you are in a dream, you do not tend to remember many things from real life. Your ability to remember is near gone. So, our characters in the flash sideways world, comprised from memories, do not know their past existence. That is, until they wake up.
All of the characters die at different times in the real world. Jack dies on the Island. Charlie dies long before that. We don’t know when Hurley and Ben die, or the people who leave the Island. But they all do sometime. When this occurs, the only part of them left is the memories they LEFT BEHIND ON THE ISLAND. That is where they go.
So what is happening in the flash sideways when people ‘awaken’ and realize who they are? Well, it is the time of their death in the real world, and then they transfer over.

Wow. So that’s what the flash sideways is in Season Six?

Yes. It is a dream world created by the Island from the characters memories, where they are able to have all the things they couldn’t in the real world. However, you are wrong in one aspect. That is not the flash sideways in JUST Season Six. We see the flash sideways before that.

Wait, what?! When?

Lost watchers, I urge you to go back to Season 3 and watch the seventh episode. It is called ‘Flashes Before Your Eyes.” Watch this episode, and it will become increasingly obvious that Desmond goes to the flash sideways here. For those who don’t remember, here is a slight recap:
Desmond is exposed the the blast in the hatch, but as we know, he is special, and this will not kill him. He is resistant. In fact, he wakes up naked in the jungle after the incident, his clothes even destroyed by the intense exposure. However, Desmond himself is able to resist the energy, and see what lies within. So what does lie within the energy in the hatch? Well, we know that the ‘energy’ is time in a physical form, which means it has the history of the Island running through it. Those very important memories! This causes Desmond to be sent to the flash sideways dream world. Don’t believe me? Well, you don’t have to just take my word for it. There is proof.
In Season Six, Charles Widmore exposes Desmond to the SAME ENERGY that exists within the Island, and this transports him to the parallel world. So we can safely assume that the same thing happens with the hatch.

So what did happen after the hatch imploded?

If you recall, Desmond wakes up on the floor of his apartment. He had been painting the walls of he and Penny’s house. For some reason he is living with Penny again, and off the Island. He lives in this utopian world for awhile, enjoying it. Having Penny is exactly what he wants. However, it cannot last forever. The Island still needs Desmond. It needs him to aid in the death of Charlie, which in turn helps the Oceanic Six leave the Island on that helicopter. Desmond still has work to do, and the Island has no choice but make him do it. As I have explained, it knows the future from the time traveling in Season Five.
It is no surprise that the Island pulls Desmond out of the dream world. The Island takes the appearance of Eloise Hawking and tells Desmond that his work is not done yet. Then, very curiously, she demonstrates the rules of “Whatever Happened, Happened” by showing Desmond the death of a man wearing red shoes. Desmond then remarks “You knew that was going to happen, didn’t you? Why didn’t you stop it?” Eloise tells him that she couldn’t, because it was destiny. It was already pre set to occur. IF THIS SCENE DOES NOT CONVINCE YOU OF MY EXPLANATION, THEN I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL! Eloise tells Desmond that the Island is not done with him yet, AND FURTHERMORE, her reason for this DIRECTLY AFTERWARDS is the rules of whatever happened, happened. This, in turn, proves that the Island has a pre-set path for a characters, and these destinies cannot be changed. Furthermore, the world Desmond goes to after the hatch implodes is clearly not real life, and shares all the same aspects of the flash sideways.
The lines of Christian Shepherd in the last episode really pull together all of these ideas. Listen to what he says in the church, and have all of this in mind. Furthemore, watch the episode “Happily Ever After” where Desmond is sent to the flash sideways by Widmore, where the events of the hatch implosion are mimicked inside the reactor.

3. THE SMOKE MONSTER


To understand Jacob and the Smoke Monster, we need to first start with the Mother. I do not mean their REAL MOTHER. I mean their adoptive mother who raised them on the Island. It is strongly suggested that this woman has been living for a long time, and is of Egyptian descent (she is weaving the Egyptian tapestry). If we assume that she is one of the original Egyptians from long ago, then how did she stayed alive this long?
It all goes back to the Island history that we covered previously. The Egyptians submerged the light in a pool of water, and the Island began to jump erratically. In order to stop the jumps, SOMEONE had to go into the cave and place the stone pillar there to stop the refractions. I believe that the Mother was the person who was given the task of doing this. She went down into the cave and waded through the pool to place the stone, but this has grave consequences. As we know, the light within the water holds the memories of all who had ever been on the Island. Unless someone is special like Desmond, when you make contact with it you are killed. But, a side effect also occurs. The person’s mind merges with the memories, becoming a physical manifestation of the past. This is a Smoke Monster. Here is some proof of this:
1) In Lost, when the frames are slowed down, you can actually see images and flashes of the character's PASTS within the smoke.
2) The Smoke Monster makes the ticking and winding sounds of a grandfather clock resetting, signifying its existence as a moving living version of time.
3) The Smoke Monster is able to take the form of dead people. Since it is a physical manifestation of the PAST.
The Smoke Monster cannot die from physical harm, because he is comprised of events that already occurred. You cannot 'change' the past so to speak, so you cannot kill the Smoke Monster (since he is comprised of the past).

I believe that when the Mother went down into the Source and placed the pillar, she became the first smoke monster. In this incident, she gains the memories within the Island, absorbs part of the Source and gains eternal life, and also becomes impervious to harm.

So...that woman was a Smoke Monster too?

She must have been. How else would she know SO MUCH about what the light? She says that the Heart of the Island is a physical manifestation of "life, death, [and] rebirth". According to her, humans covet it because a portion of the light is inside every living thing (time)—"but they always want more". Mother forbade her twin sons to enter the light because it causes a fate "worse than death".
A fate like losing your body? Being cursed with living forever and not being able to leave the Island?
There is further proof of the Mother being a Smoke Monster.
After she meets with her son in the chamber of the Wheel, she attacks his camp and fills in the well. Tell me this: How is an old woman supposed to murder a whole camp of able-bodied men with weapons, and furthermore, fill in a stone well?
The aftermath clearly looks like a Smoke Monster attack.
Let’s go back and examine the events we saw in the episode “Across the Sea.”
Settlers sail to the Island, and one of them is a pregnant woman carrying twins. After the settlers arrive, the Island has its current protector (the Mother) to kill the woman and raise the children. She begins to rear Jacob and the Boy in Black (keep in mind, he is not the Smoke Monster yet).
It’s not long before the settlers have discovered the SAME THING the Egyptians did (using water to refract the light). The Man in Black actually says in the episode “Across the Sea” that they are "Building a mechanism that funnels the water and light that will allow me to leave the Island."
The person turning the wheel is exposed to the light (we see this happen to Ben and Locke when they move the Island) and are ALSO sent back to the original location of the Island (Tunisia).
The Mother stops her son from doing this, kills the settlers, and fills in the well.
She is killed shortly afterward, and is grateful. Then, in an act of revenge, Jacob throws his brother into the cave. The Man in Black then is submerged in the light, where all of the memories are held. He is not special like Desmond, so exposure to the energy/light kills him. (Jacob finds his body later in the river). However, the Man in Black is not REALLY dead. His mind absorbs all of the memories the Island has stored there, just like Mother did.
The Island tells Jacob that the Smoke Monster is evil, and must be destroyed. Why? Because the Smoke Monster has obviously become a threat. It wants to destroy the Island, and leave at all costs.

Okay, hold on a minute. What about all those weird rules with the Smoke Monster? Why can't Jacob and the Smoke Monster harm eachother? What about the stupid prayer the Mother does to make Jacob the new Protector?

Jacob cannot harm the Smoke Monster because the Smoke Monster is impervious to physical harm (as he is not technically human). You cannot change the past, and these same rules apply with the Smoke Monster.
The Smoke Monster cannot kill Jacob because Jacob is STILL ALIVE in the future. It's like the Island being stuck carrying out its destiny.
Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Faraday, Jin, and Juliet are in the time jump that lands them way back, causing the Island to do whatever their memories reveal. A short time after this, the Man in Black becomes the Smoke Monster, and now HE has to follow everything that is seen in the memories as well. Why? Because Sawyer and Locke AND Jin were all visited by Jacob when they were younger.
1) Sawyer, at his parents funeral. Jacob gives him a pen to write the letter
2) Locke, after he was pushed out the window
At Jin and Sun's wedding

This is one reason Jacob cannot be killed. Another is that Jacob was given immortality (or more time). I will return to this later to explain.

Now, let us move on to the next mystery: the ritual that Mother does to initiate Jacob as Protector of the Island, and later, the ritual Jack uses on Hurley.
Back in the era of Egyptians, people would often pray to the gods when someone was on their deathbed, hoping they would be given more time to live. This ritual was also accompanied by the drinking of wine, to cleanse the spirit and body. It is very possible that the mother uses this SAME ritual and prayer, asking the Island to make Jacob immortal. The Island does this, funneling more time into Jacob and making him the new protector.

Ah, so the ritual was something the Mother just carried on from the Egypt time period as a tradition. I see. So what about the fence that could keep the Smoke Monster out?

It is clear what the fence is. If the Smoke Monster is literally a manifestation of memories, which exist in time, then it physically exists as an electromagnetic being (just like the light). You can see this from the flashes of electricity visible inside the cloud. Electromagnetic deflection fences do exist in the real world by using a magnetic beam moved across four coils to move from pylon to pylon.

One more question: How does the Smoke Monster take the form of people, and what are the rules regarding that?

I believe that in order for the Smoke Monster to impersonate someone completely, it needs to have a memory of that person, and a body. For example, in order for it to impersonate Christian Shepherd, he needs to have an intact body of Christian, and a memory of him in order to effectively portray every aspect of him. This applies for all people he impersonates. In the episode “The Last Recruit” the Smoke Monster tells Jack that he needed John’s body in order to look like him.

Let's make a list of all the people the Smoke Monster took the form of:

1) Christian Shepherd: Throughout the series. Jack follows him into the jungle in "White Rabbit". He also instructs Locke to turn the wheel.
2) Yemi: Eko's brother. The Smoke Monster manifests itself as Yemi before killing Eko in Season 3.
3) Alex: Rousseu's daughter, impersonated by the Smoke Monster in the episode "Dead is Dead".
John Locke: Impersonated from half of season five onward.
His Previous Body: Found dead by Jacob and laid to rest in the caves. Later dubbed “Adam and Eve” by Locke.

These are the six occurences of the Smoke Monster taking someone's appearance throughout the show. Do my rules apply for all of them? Does the Smoke Monster have both a memory and body of these six people?

Yes, I believe that he certainly does. Christian Shepherd’s body was in the coffin, and probably taken by the Smoke Monster to avoid Jack cremating it upon discovery. Yemi’s body was inside the drug plane. Alex’s body was left in the Barracks after the episode “The Shape of Things to Come”. Locke’s body was brought back on the Ajira flight. The Man in Black’s previous body was laid to rest in the caves.
Now for the memories. Many people believe that the Smoke Monster can ‘scan’ someone and become anyone in their memory. I do not think this is true. It may be able to scan someone and SEE their memories, but I do not believe that it can use them. This is because the memories are not a part of it. They are in the mind of someone else. However, there are SOME memories he CAN use. The ones that he absorbed when he was thrown into the light. These memories include the memories from our time travelers. I think that the Smoke Monster can ONLY BECOME memories that were in the minds of Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Faraday, Jin, and Juliet at the point of the time jump.

But what about Yemi? Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Faraday, Jin, and Juliet never saw him!

Yes, Locke did see Yemi. If you recall, in Season One, he has a dream where Yemi tells him to climb up the cliff. I think you can figure out when the rest of the Smoke Monster’s forms were seen by the time travelers, since it is quite obvious.

In Season Six, Illana says that the Smoke Monster can only look like Locke now. Why is that?

In the Episode “Follow the Leader” of Season Five, this question is answered. Richard, the Smoke Monster, and Ben go to the drug plane, where the real John Locke lands from one of the time flashes. When they have arrived, The Smoke Monster tells Richard that he must treat a Locke’s wounds at the Beechcraft, and then tell him to bring everyone back to the Island, and to do this he has to die.
Why does the Smoke Monster have Richard do this? Well, he needs to. That way Locke will leave the Island, get killed by Ben, and then return for the Smoke Monster to use.
But this also has a side effect. By seeing Locke, it is now apparent that he is NOT DEAD AT THE CURRENT TIME. This means that the Smoke Monster (until he makes visual contact with Locke’s DEAD BODY again) is stuck as Locke from that point onward.
This is all very confusing I know. The best I can explain it is that the Smoke Monster needs to see someone’s corpse for confirmation that the person is indeed dead, and now a part of the past. Then their ‘memory’ is in his mind. This is what allows him to manifest himself as that person. But suddenly, he sees Locke alive, and this cancels out the previous memory of Locke being dead. So, the Smoke Monster is stuck in the body of Locke, no longer able to transform until it is resolved whether or not Locke is really dead or alive.

JACOB

All of the properties of the Smoke Monster have now been addressed, so we will move on to his counterpart, the mysterious Jacob.
Let us run through what happens to Jacob with his time on the Island. Before his Mother dies, she does an Egyptian ritual, and seemingly bestows upon him some kind of knowledge or power that makes him the new protector of the Island.
Here is how that works. As we have established, the mother was the first Smoke Monster. She contains both time, and the Island’s memories. By touching Jacob, she can safely channel more time into his life, as well as what she knows about the Island.
Unfortunately, the information Jacob recieves is rather outdated so to speak. The mother became a Smoke Monster thousands of years ago, during the Egyptian times. So, Jacob does not have the time traveler’s memories like the current Smoke Monster does. He has much much older ones. This can account for much of his strange behavior. Here are some practices carried over from Jacob:

The Knife: Jacob’s mother is killed by a seemingly special silver knife. Jacob believes that this knife will be able to kill the Smoke Monster, since it killed his mother (he knows she was smoke monster, since she gave him her memories). What he does not realize is that the reason his mother was killed by the knife is because she became mortal. As soon as she channeled her immortality into Jacob, and her memories, she ceased to be a living manifestation of the past. In other words, she is no longer a smoke monster. She becomes a mortal, stuck in her current form (we see this happen to Locke in “The End”. The sixth episode of Season Six, “Sundown” , confirms this theory about the dagger. Dogen gives Sayid this same dagger and tells him to stab Locke with it in order to kill him. This obviously does not work. It is clear that Jacob had Dogen keep the knife because he thought it could be used to kill the Smoke Monster. He is wrong.
Jacob somehow has knowledge of the position of the temple, the lighthouse, the statue, and many other Egyptian structures. He also is weaving an Egyptian tapestry.
He delivers a message to the temple in a large wooden ankh. The ankh, also known as key of life by the Egyptians, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph that meant eternal life. I believe that having the message delivered in an ankh signified to Dogen that it was definately from Jacob.

To sum all of this up, Jacob’s mother gave him her memories and eternal life, which made him the new protector of the Island. He carried with him all the old traditions of the Egyptians, since it was Egyptian times when his mother became a Smoke Monster. This is why his people (the Others) use all of the Egyptian structures, he knows hieroglyphs, weaves Egyptian tapestries, and believes an ancient dagger can kill Smoke Monsters.

Sounds like Jacob was kind of an idiot...

Well, Jacob is not a COMPLETE idiot. Remember, the Island is pulling strings here. It must have things play out as planned so it can go free. The Island is able to tell Jacob what to do. How? This mystery is answered in the episode “The Lighthouse.”
There was not much information regarding the lighthouse, but I think I have figured out fairly well what its purpose was. This giant stone structure has an orientation of mirrors, which are able to be moved by a system of gears and pullies that correspond to a big dial with the names of Jacob’s candidates. Unlike other structures on the Island, it does not look Egyptian in descent. The usual hieroglyphs are missing, and the construction technique is of a very different era. I think that Jacob and early Others were the ones who built the Lighthouse.
Here is my theory on what it is used for:
The Lighthouse is a form of communication between the Island, and Jacob. A tunnel runs from one of the three energy pockets, which contains mirrors that REFLECT the light. The light/time is bounced through these mirrors to the Lighthouse, where it is cast onto the mirrors. When Jacob turns the dial to the name of a candidate, the Island can put a memory through the light that is cast in the glass. This is how Jacob communicates with the Island, and is able to find the location of candidates.

THE END

This part of the theory accounts for a lot of the events that occur in the very last episode of the show. It operates on the basis that if the Light in any of the pockets is held back, it exponentially slows the geological clock of the Island. Time is not being released as normal, thus the Island’s time is slower. Mind you, just the GEOLOGICAL time is slower. Time is not slower for the people, animals, plants, or man made structures on the Island.
In the last episode, we see Desmond descend into the cave. He goes into the pool, and is once more bombarded by harsh exposure to the light. However, he does not jump to the flash sideways at this point. And there is a reason for this. During the destruction of the hatch, and the exposure to the light in Widmore’s reactor, Desmond is being blasted with the energy in its purest form. However, here, the light is refracting underneath the pool of water. Desmond is not fully exposed. While the exposure is harsh, it is obvious in the scene that it is not nearly as intense as the hatch implosion or the reactor.
Desmond removes the stone plug from the hole. Normally, the light would refract into the pocket and the Island would move, however, this is not the case. This pressure has been building for thousands and thousands of years. The light was not being released normally. In a large burst, time rushes to catch up for all that was lost.
In the scenes that follow, we see the Island begin to fall apart. Large sections of land that would have been eroded fall off, and rock is flying everywhere. The entire thing is rumbling as the light is released. It is very possible that a volcanic eruption was suppressed in the time that the stone pillar was in place.
Removing the ancient Egyptian pillar also has one other important effect. All of the memories that are stored there from over time dissipate. In essence, they have just killed the Island.
Throughout the previous seasons, we saw the other pockets be rendered inert. The hatch is destroyed, so that pocket is lost. All the energy pent up underneath the Orchid is lost in Season Five, as it is released in large bursts that cause the time flashes. This leaves the heart of the Island as the sole remaining energy pocket, and when it goes out, then the entire Island does.
The Smoke Monster predicts this. However, he makes a fatal flaw. Jack has become the new Protector of the Island before the pillar is removed. Jacob has given him all of the memories, and Jack knows that if they remove that pillar the Smoke Monster will be mortal again. Jack is able to kill the Smoke Monster in human form, then return the pillar to it’s spot, where is stops the release of time causing the Island to fall apart. Upon Jack’s death, the only thing that remains of him and all the others that were on the Island is their memories stored there.

OTHER LOOSE ENDS

For those who haven’t yet, I highly recommend that you watch the Season Six epilogue “The New Man in Charge”. This answers many questions, including why women could not give birth on the Island. The reason is below, for those who have not seen the extra:

Fertility Problems:

The electromagnetic properties of the Island cause a problem in the early development stages of children. Originally, this was secluded to just the area around the Orchid, but after the Incident, the hatch’s energy field surrounded the whole Island. Women are once more able to give birth after the end of Season Two, when the hatch is destroyed. Juliet and Ethan also developed a serum that can overcome this, which was given to Claire.

The Healing Springs:

Another mystery is the Springs in the temple that healed Sayid, and Ben back in 1977. My answer to this is similar to that of The Lighthouse. An extensive network of ancient tunnels and chambers on at least two levels exists beneath the Temple which were first seen in “Dead is Dead".
Through a system of mirrors, light is sent through the tunnels to the temple, where it emerges in the spring water. Once this happens, the light is (of course) refracted.
When a person is placed inside the water, the refracted light will make contact with them. I hope you remember what happens when this occurs! Just like the Island experiences time jumps, so do the people. When Dogan sticks his hand in the water to heal a cut, it emerges cut free. It is an earlier version of his hand that you see.
I believe there is actual proof for this in the show. Young Ben Linus is healed in the temple, and when he emerges, he has NO MEMORY of the event. This is because he is an earlier version of himself, who does not remember Sayid, being taken to the temple, etc.
Immersion in the spring DOES provide healing benefits although, as described by Dogen, there can be risks. I suspect there is a possiblity of someone emerging from the spring as a future version of themselves, with the injuries much worse.
I suspect this mechanism is something the Smoke Monster does not know about. This could be why we had never seen Dogen before. Those who know of the healing springs must always stay in the temple, or else there is the chance their memories may be scanned by the Smoke Monster.
Jacob’s Cabin

Jacob clearly used the cabin at one point in order to deliver messages to Richard. At some point the circle or gray substance was broken, which allowed the Smoke Monster to get in and begin to manipulate Locke as Christian Shepherd. However, earlier in Season 3 Ben and Locke visited the cabin. There, they experience a sort of vision, where a man says “Help me”. This vision is what prompts Ben to shoot Locke. This is once again a demonstration of the Island needing to do things because it saw that thing many years ago when Locke was back in time. After this, the Island continues to project the image of the cabin to Hurley. It is this that leads Locke to believe Hurley knows where the cabin is.

The Gray Substance:

It is unclear what the gray mineral is that surrounds the cabin, and they put around the temple to protect themselves from the Smoke Monster. Many people think it is ash, but the substance does not display the same visage and consistency as ash would. It looks more like a mineral of some sort.
We have one clue regarding the substance. In Season Two, written on the secret map on the hatch door, it says “Geological composition likely to cause magnetic disturbances/interference.”
Perhaps this is actually referencing the gray substance. If so, then it has a magnetic interference with the electromagnetic energy on the Island. Could it be the same metal the hatch is made of that was so hard to open? DHARMA must have discovered some sort of metal that is resistant to the immense magnetic pull of the energy to contain it. We know that every hundred and eight minutes the build-up of energy is too large to contain, and it has to be de-powered. Maybe it is forced back by some output of this mineral. If this is true, then it suggests all other electromagnetic anomalies on the Island could ALSO be repelled by this substance. Including the Smoke Monster. This is the best answer I can give for the gray circles.

I will be happy to add to this theory, or if anyone wants to refute any of the ideas, add to it, or just talk about it in general, feel free! That is all. Thank you for reading