I could be overlooking something obvious, but back in season five, wouldn't it have been rather difficult for flocke to go all the way from hydra island to talk to Sun and Lapidus, then come back in time to talk to Ben the same night?.. I remember hearing the smoke monster or something when Sun and Lapidus got close to the barracks, but still its kinda iffy to me, especially considering the fact that he would've had to paddle all the way over there and back. Also, how would Smokey have gotten on the freighter to talk to Michael, and Jack saw Christian that one time off the island..ugh I don't know. best quote from last night's episode "Every question you ask will simply lead to another question." They should put that shit on the season 6 dvd box.
I recently watched the first few episodes again and when explains backgammon to Walt, it pretty much sums up the show: "There are two players, two sides, one light, one dark." So I'm fairly confident that the writers knew they were going in the good v. evil direction from the very beginning.
I'm not sure about Christian off the island, but we've seen Smokey move quickly across the island before reverting to his Flocke form, including that bizarre first-person (first-smoke monster?) sequence a few episodes back. The only times we've seen Flocke hoofing it across the island or paddling is when he's been with or leading other people.
I am pretty indifferent about last night's episode. I'm willing to just roll with the whole light tunnel business at this point. The thing I absolutely HATED about the episode was the insertion of the flashback to Jack and Kate finding Adam and Eve. Really!?! After 6 seasons of making people scour through backstories and do internet research on how things are related to one another (which is one of the best parts of Lost), they decide to dumb it down by putting that clip in. What was the point? Anyone who is watching Lost at this point knows that finding out who the skeletons were was one of the biggest mysteries of the show. I just felt like they were really undermining the intelligence of Lost viewers by showing the flashback.
So... basically, when they put Adam and Eve there, the creators had no idea who they were. That's just peachy. The blood on Young Jacob's hands was from him beating Boy In Black up, yes? And... since MIB smashed wine bottle in "Ab Aeterno", how can anyone else become the guardian of the light? Or is the wine just a ritual thing? (Also, I just gagged a little typing "guardian of the light")
Awesome: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/lost-auction-preview/lost-auction-preview 10-page preview of LOST props up for auction this summer. Yes, the Jesus Stick is on there.
I could be completely wrong in this assumption and may have not watched closely enough, but I need to ask anyway for clarification. A few episodes ago (I believe the episode about Richard?), Flocke/Smokey saw a little blonde boy in the woods who reminded him that he can't kill a candidate (if I remember correctly). Was that little boy the child version of Jacob? If Flocke/Smokey is in anyway the MIB, he could theoretically see dead people in the same way the MIB did with his true birth mother. Because Jacob is now dead, could the little boy have been Jacob reminding Flocke of the rules that they must play by? The only reason I ask is because after hearing the conversation between Jacob and his brother while playing the game, it seems that following the rules is extremely important. MIB specifically tells Jacob that he must follow the rules of the black and white board game because he made them, but that Jacob could one day make his own rules. Does anyone think that the little boy was Jacob and the whole purpose of seeing his ghost was to enforce the importance of playing the game by the rules? Just a thought...
I am normally just a lurker because I really do like to see what other people think of this truly great show, but you are right that this past episode has opened up a shit load of questions. I like your idea about the candidate watching another plane crash and the process starting over, but that would not really explain the island being underwater at the bottom of the ocean as seen in the season premiere in the sideways timeline. Then again, with the exception of the producers and very limited insiders, I don't think anyone can actually predict how the fuck the two separate timelines will ultimately connect in the end, just well crafted ideas. I just hope that the sideways timeline with the island underwater does have significant meaning intertwined with the events ACTUALLY taking place on the island. So many questions left, but DAMN if I don't love this show...
I'm going to guess that the rules involving Jacob's game with Smokey probably have a lot to do with the rules that govern Widmore and Ben. There's no way I can't see the writers addressing the Widmore/Ben situation, so I'm fairly confident we will get the answers we want. I was in complete shock for at least 5 minutes after that episode. Truely was a WTF moment. I really hope we get a clear cut answer for what really happened when MiB went down there, and Smokey came out. Is MiB actually just more evil for being down there, or is it not the original MiB, and a smoke monster using his physical appearance to do bad shit.
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My assumption is that MiB had his sould ripped out of his body, cursed to live forever as a cloud of smoke, i.e. the fate worse than death that CJ Craig was talking about. I think it is Brother, otherwise why would he give a shit about Jacob's rules? Unless the protector has mystical control over everything on the island, which does seem to be the case. Still, I think Smokey is the transformed essence of MiB. Cj Craig did say they would never be able to hurt each other, and I took that in a more ultimate sense than the fist lashing Jacob dealt out a couple times.
The way that I see the end of that episode is that there wasn't a Smokey before hand, and it was created then and there, probably through what iczorro said about MiB's soul being ripped out to create smokey. I do like the idea though of the final solution being getting smokey/the light back into that cave, sounds pretty plausible. The one thing about this last season that has bothered me is trying to connect MiB to FLocke. In the show they are the same character/entity, but the actors that play them are so different that I have a hard time connecting what we see of MiB to what FLocke is doing now. Not saying they are doing a bad job as they both are giving great performances (especially Terry O'Quinn), its just that Terry O'Quinn feels so unique and so like Locke that it seems as though in the past we had MiB, and now we have a different character that is just pissed of Locke. Anyway, that's my unrelated $0.02, however much sense it may or may not have made.
I didn't at first, either, but Vozzek makes a pretty compelling case. An interview with Darlton about "Across the Sea", which includes this:
Like someone said before, at least some of MiB had to have carried on through smokey (maybe his most evil characteristics/thoughts?). The interaction MiB and Jacob had at the beginning of last season's finale seemed like it was after Mother was killed and after MiB was dragged into the light because Jacob was living on his own in the statue without Mother. So MiB had his smoke powers, but he still had the opinions he had as a teen/adult and his mother had about the inherent evil of men. MiB post-smokey also has the same desire he had to leave the island. MiB is not just smokey who decided to use the MiB body, and just as easily could have chosen another dead person's body as his physical representation. There is definitely a connection between pre-light MiB and post-light MiB. I also don't think Christian was MiB in the earlier seasons either... unless I am forgetting something, it would be pretty hard to justify what Christian did simply as being a part of MiB's master plan, or at least doing things that MiB would logically want to happen.
Did we ever find out who the old dude was that flashed in the cabin very briefly when Ben took Locke to see Jacob? How did any of that tie into the story now? I could have forgotten about all this but this seems like another one of those plot deviations that made no sense.
Wasn't that ash on the ground though? The same ash circle that was surrounding the temple (to keep "him" out), the stuff that Smokey couldn't cross? I could be way off on that though. EDIT: ash instead of powder
Ilana's crew established that there was a break in the ash circle around the cabin. But it's likely one of those things like the outrigger shooting incident. They have the answer in their heads, but it's never gonna be on screen, now.