I think Clairespeanutbutter has a good idea about the villages destruction also.

In brief:
I think it was the electomagnetic energy released from the ‘well’ (the hole with the donkey wheel that Jacob’s brother showed Mother). The villagers were burned just like Widmore’s man was – the one who got trapped in the cabin meant to test Desmond with the electromagentic energy.

(1) Either they did it to themselves by accident, just like Dharma was about to do while drilling, or
(2) Mother released it on them (she’s not the Smoke Monster, but something else – she’s definitely not just human either)….

putmeon – my guess is the low score is probably indicitive of the tone of your theory (to forsaken’s point), not the content. good points are made, but not everyone has a thick skin, especially when in it this deep and throwing ideas out there to the mercy of others to critique. but to each his own, its still a very relevant post that drummed up a lot of good conversation.

One reason is that Smokey’s mode of operation is hardly setting things on fire… The village was shown as burnt to the ground/on fire…Smokey would hardly need to resort to arson to kill all those people…it would be a simple enough task for him. Arson doesn’t fit his M.O.

Secondly, Mother could have easily just lit all the huts/tee-pees on fire in the middle of the night quietly..therefore, I think it IS possible she did it all on her own. Granted, if she did do it by herself, it is quite an accomplishment considering people must have tried to run when they realized everything was burning to the ground and she must have been able to stop and kill them.

But if she had enough powers to keep Jacob and MiB from killing each other, then I’m sure she could voodoo up some way to kill the stragglers too.

Neither Smokey was real Mom, though. Only MIB could see her (like Hurley), not everyone (like Flocke). Plus, there was no advantage for Mother to give MIB all that info.

Also, why did she leave all MIBs people alive all that time? Seems if she had no problem bashing in the skull of a sweet new mom offing that whole group of people sooner woulda’ been no problem.

I kid…

Putmeon…this occurs because people dont have to comment, to actually rate…happens to me all the time. Possibly no comment due to what greatforsaken points out…

I dont see anything wrong with it…but if I disagreed with you, I would probably lash out or ignore too…human nature…

(puts gum back into mouth after typing)

If you dont agree with someone’s ideas, thats great, but dont drop a “im amazed you walk and chew gum at the same time” kinda line.

I don’t think that Mother is the Smoke Monster. I don’t think that the Smoke Monster existed until Jacob’s brother entered the cave (I have a recent theory about this, posted the day before this one)

One question that remains is – how did the villagers die?

If I recall, they were ‘burned’ according to Jacob’s brother.

I’m thinking back to Widmore’s man, the one that got zapped by the electromagnetism by mistake (in the cabin that they put Desmond in). That man was burned to death by the electromagentism released by the Caduceus coil.

Along those lines – I think Mother manipulated the light from Jacob’s brother’s “well” (the well/hole with the donkey wheel that Jacob’s brother revealed to Mother)..

Mother has a connection to the light, she is nearly ‘all-knowing’ (maybe because she has tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge), so I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew how to release the ‘light/magnetism’ from the well (especially since there was already an opening to it) in a devastating wave that wiped out the village, AND THEN caused the collapse of the well on itself (recall the boulders, etc in the hole), the same way the hatch did… (remember the fail safe key and the hatch implosion).

I realize there would normally have to be metal present for the inward collapse to occur, and i’m not sure if there was enough metal around to cause that collapse, but even without that hard evidence I’m still leaning in this direction – that the release of the energy burned the village and villagers to death and then caused the inward collapse of the well somehow….

So – Mother is special? Yes, I believe so. Manipulative? Yes. Good. Yes. Evil. Yes.

She is the Smoke Monster? No, not the smoke monster that we know.

But she’s no saint either… fallen from grace and bound to protect “the source”, or so it seems…