Mystery recap - What is Smokey?

Sad Professor

Okay, rather than continue to discuss particular episodes, I thought maybe we should skip to the point and discuss the big unresolved mysteries themselves. This is the final season, so if anyone has any theories on Smokey that they've been holding back on, or if they want to start laying bets, now is your last chance.

Lostpedia has a good recap of what we've learned about Smokey so far.
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Monster

A few questions:

Is Smokey actually "Esau"? Or is Smokey controlled by Esau?

Is Smokey good or evil? Or just indifferent?

What is Smokey's connection to the island? Could he be carrying out the island's will?

Smokey seems to "judge" people - why? for what purpose? Is it just a case of killing the sinful, unrepentant types like Eko? If so, why was Ben spared?

Psychedelic

The smoke monster is probably the biggest mystery on the show and the one I'm most looking forward to answers about.

The image below (from the season 5 episode 'Dead is Dead) gives a clue about the smoke monster. We know from this image that it existed when the ancient Egyptian type people lived on the island.

Psychedelic

Sad Professor wrote: »

Is Smokey actually "Esau"? Or is Smokey controlled by Esau?

There has to be a connection between them but I just can't imagine what way it works. Esau, when impersonating Locke, was surprised about Ben telling him that the smoke monster appeared as his daughter. Earlier in the same episode, Esau/unLocke disappears into the trees when Ben is trying to summon the monster, seems like there's a connection there too.

Sad Professor wrote: »

Is Smokey good or evil? Or just indifferent?

It'll probably turn out to be that we have to decide for ourselves whether it is good or evil, i.e. there is no such thing as good and evil in life, merely what we believe is good or evil.

Sad Professor wrote: »

Smokey seems to "judge" people - why? for what purpose? Is it just a case of killing the sinful, unrepentant types like Eko? If so, why was Ben spared?

I think it judges people based on whether they may be useful somehow, maybe it leaves people live if it "thinks" (good question there actually, does it have its own consciousness?) they can be used to carry out some task later or influence or manipulate someone else to do something (I'm thinking about it leaving Locke live early in season 1, and how Locke has turned out to be Esau's loophole). Maybe Ben was spared because the monster knew he was needed by Esau to kill Jacob?

I'm gonna venture a theory and say that the smoke monster is something like the dead souls of everyone who ever died on the island (unburied people only?). Definitely gonna be something weird like that anyway, I think it has to have to something to do with death, coz I also think the temple, which it protects, has something to do with death or the afterlife. Note also it is called Cerberus on the blast door map - Cerberus was the 3-headed (like the monster) guardian to the underworld Hades in Greek/Roman mythology.

A few more questions:

• Why does it take the form of smoke?
• What's the deal with the machine-like noises it makes?
• Why does the sonic fence stop it? Why can't it go over the fence?
• What is its connection with the statue, or rather the God-like being that the statue represents?
• Does the monster take sides with Esau or Jacob?
• Is the monster controlled or influenced by Esau or Jacob or does it control them?

Mr.Nice Guy

Psychedelic wrote: »

I think it judges people based on whether they may be useful somehow, maybe it leaves people live if it "thinks" (good question there actually, does it have its own consciousness?) they can be used to carry out some task later or influence or manipulate someone else to do something (I'm thinking about it leaving Locke live early in season 1, and how Locke has turned out to be Esau's loophole). Maybe Ben was spared because the monster knew he was needed by Esau to kill Jacob?

I was thinking along these lines as well. I think Esau and the smoke monster are one and the same and having watched the episode where Eko dies just last night, it seemed like Eko's number was up when he refused to repent for his sins. I reckon the original aim was to use and manipulate Eko but when he declared he was not ashamed of the actions he'd committed then he became expendable. Ben in contrast did repent and thus was deemed to be useful in following the bidding of Esau/Smoke monster.

The problem though is the smoke monster at times appears mechanical in the way it scans people, is inhibited by the sonic fences etc. Thus if the smoke monster is part of some type of system, then this theory would make Esau also part of a system.

Damn this is confusing.

Sad Professor

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I was thinking along these lines as well. I think Esau and the smoke monster are one and the same and having watched the episode where Eko dies just last night, it seemed like Eko's number was up when he refused to repent for his sins. I reckon the original aim was to use and manipulate Eko but when he declared he was not ashamed of the actions he'd committed then he became expendable. Ben in contrast did repent and thus was deemed to be useful in following the bidding of Esau/Smoke monster.

A really interesting idea, but I don't think Esau and Smokey are the same. Esau seems to have been hanging out at Horace's holiday home (the cabin) for the last few years - possibly under house arrest. And Smokey appears to reside at the Temple - which he also apparently "protects". That doesn't deny the possibility that they have some relationship but I don't quite see what it is.

I think Jacob and Esau are like two kids fighting over the family inheritance. Neither of them may have any real claim to the island. If we take the mural above at face value, then it depicts a figure (Anubis? Taweret?) summoning the smoke monster. Whoever the figure is, I don't think it is Jacob or Esau, they must have come later. I'm quite keen on the idea that Smokey is an extension of the island itself. A big column of black smoke turning out to be the bad guy is just too predictable.

I think the statue and the temple are key to understanding what Smokey is. But we don't really know enough about either of them yet.

uncleoswald

So if we presumed for a second that Smokey and Esau are the same entity then could we assume that the person Jacob was talking to on the beach was only a manifestation of someone, perhaps dead, from Jacobs past. The same way Jack saw his dad, Eko saw his brother and Ben saw his daughter.

Sad Professor

uncleoswald wrote: »

So if we presumed for a second that Smokey and Esau are the same entity then could we assume that the person Jacob was talking to on the beach was only a manifestation of someone, perhaps dead, from Jacobs past. The same way Jack saw his dad, Eko saw his brother and Ben saw his daughter.

I suppose. Although Ben/Eko were both being "judged". It makes sense that their judger take the form of a loved one, especially the one foremost in their sins. I'm not sure Jacob was being judged, but maybe he was. Certainly unLocke didn't carry out any judgment on him before getting Ben to kill him - so if Esau/Smokey are the same then that would seem to rule out unLocke being him.

I always thought it was worth noting that we never actually saw Yemi turn into Smokey. He arrived and left the scene separately to the smoke monster. This is more apparent in "Dead is Dead" in which Smokey had already fully retracted into the vent before Alex appeared from behind.

Perhaps all these apparitions (with the exception of Christian) are just the island - the island is judging these people and Smokey carries out the verdict. "The island" is often refereed to as if it were god - and gods do tend to carry out judgment (I'm not saying it is a god, just that it acts like one). This is easier than trying to make sense of why Smokey as an independent entity feels the need to judge people.

NukaCola

I get the feeling it will be one of those things that won't be explained.....

FedEx

Is Christian Shepard Smokey ??

I am watching season 5 again in the run up to season 6....

in ep 8 (o 9) when Sun and Lepititis arrive on the main island you can hear
smokey ... just before they meet Christian...

He also couldn't help Locke when he fell down the well, as if he couldn't
touch him physically???