Characters:

Apart from the main characters that have been shown with name/face through out the series, we now have a face for Jacob - the blonde guy. We also have a new character revealed for the first time (bare with me here) late last season as Jacob's nemesis. He wasn't given a name but was wearing black (to Jacob's white) when we first saw him. We'll call him "Man in Black" for now (MIB).

The initial discussion points:

So, number one for me is the smoke monster and the Man in Black (MIB). Last season, I speculated that they were one and the same entity. In the premiere, the MIB in Locke-form says "I'm sorry you had to see me like that" confirming that he is the smoke monster.

Now... There are two options here.

1. That he (the MIB) is the smoke as he claimed.
2. He (the MIB) is not the smoke and he was lying.

This may get long winded but I'll get to my questions and point eventually. I'd like to pose some questions around the above suppositions, one at a time and with some facts or elements revealed in the show as a framework.

Facts:

1. We know that an ash perimeter keeps the smoke monster out (of whatever is encircled.
2. We know the MIB can't (or couldn't) kill Jacob himself.

Question:

1. Who was in the cabin in the woods? Or who lived there, who primarily hung out there, what was its purpose, etc..

What we've seen from the show:

We were led to believe Jacob was (lived?) in the cabin.
We were told/shown that this cabin is surrounded by an ash perimeter.
We were told/shown that the ash permitter had a break in it.
We were told/shown that the cabin moves around (could be irrelevant).
We were told/shown that the smoke monster hangs out in the temple wall.
We were told/shown the temple didn't already have an ash perimeter.

Scenario 1:
Let's suppose that MIB is the smoke and that Jacob was in the cabin.

Why would the cabin be surrounded in ash? MIB can't kill jacob, therefore Jacob wouldn't need any protection from him.

Scenario 2:
Let's suppose that MIB is NOT the smoke and that Jacob was in the cabin.

Why would the cabin be surrounded in Ash? Clearly the smoke can also enter the room under the statue where Jacob was in last year's finale. So, can the smoke hurt Jacob?

Scenario 3:
Let's suppose that MIB is the smoke and that HE was trapped in the cabin

The ash ring is there to hold him in. However, we've seen the smoke elsewhere, so there's obviously some other way out or the ring was broken a long time ago.

Scenario 4:
Same as 3 except MIB is not the smoke. Same points still apply about trying to trap the smoke.

Random questions:

If the whole story had been framed up well in advance, why was the smoke in past seasons seemingly killing random people? If MIB is the smoke, then why not just kill a shitload more people?

Its clear MIB can take on the appearance of other people. Another thought I had last year was that he was responsible for all the visions others had on the island, with maybe some exceptions. The issue here is that I can't recall all the other visions to better speculate if they all had nefarious or dire consequences. Certainly any that involved convincing Locke about faith could be thought to have been prep work to get him killed last season.

One of the most recent visions was from late last season when Locke had to spin the crank to stop the island jumping around - what did Christian tell him? Did he re-iterate that Locke had to die? Obviously Locke dying was part of MIB's plan to be able to assume his identity. Just wondering if there was a clear indication here of Christian also being MIB.

As an example of idiocy, here's one person's answer to another who said they missed Miles telling Sawyer what Juliet wanted to say as she was dying...



The correct answer is "It worked" - Miles told Sawyer that Juliet wanted to say "It worked." Sorry, so wrong. So wrong. BTW, "Kim" is the last name of the actor and actress who play Jin and Sun. Miles is played by Ken Leung. Idiots.