mEn In Black
I’ll try to keep this simple because my theories tend to become a bit tangential(like the show).
Thesis: The Man-In-Black/Nemesis/Esau/Insert-Nickname-Here, is either part of a group or he can somehow separate into multiple entities.
Proof:
1. John Locke enters the cabin to find Claire & Christian Shephard having a tea party. Claire has just left her 2 month old baby, Aaron, in the middle of the woods, and doesn’t ask Locke about Aaron. Claire is smirking, Claire is laughing, Claire is everything BUT worried about her baby. Either Claire has had some sort of mind-blowing epiphany which renders the life of her child insignificant….OR, that isn’t Claire. So we have Christian(which I think most people would agree is NOT Christian, but a Yemi-Phlocke-like entity), and a SECOND entity, having a palaver, somewhat enjoying the fact that Locke has been ‘chosen'(i.e. you’re easy to manipulate, you fool).
2. Rousseau’s Expedition Team follows the armless-Montaud down into the dark chamber. They emerge and Rousseau believes they’ve changed, somehow infected with a sickness. Her fears are confirmed as Robert fires upon her, thankfully she saw it coming and had removed his firing pin. The important tidbit: That was not Robert. The more important tidbit: the other two expedition members laid side by side with bullet-holes in their chests. Rousseau clearly suspected ALL THREE members of her team and shot them in turn. It’s impossible that MIB hopped from body to body as they were shot because clearly they were all taken/carbon-copied/possessed/infected/whatever when they went into the chamber, simultaneously. THREE IMPOSTERS walking around simultaneously.
The Following points are circumstantial at best, and hopefully you can consider them without them underminding the first two well-substantiated observations:
3. The Blast-Door-Map gives The Smoke Monster the name Cerberus, a three-headed mythological creature. Of course, they might only be connected based on their purpose, but perhaps they are connected based on their functionality….both being three-headed beasts, one literally, the other metaphorically.
4. I feel silly typing this, but the boars who were raiding the fuselage were looking for bodies. How many boars? Three. Flimsy at best, I know, but the shot of the boars leaving the beach and entering the brush seemed a bit gratuitous and poorly timed to me, there’s always been something a bit peculiar about that shot(I’m an editor/filmmaker btw, these things stick with me). Also, they were looking for bodies, i.e., hosts.
5. Vincent is so peculiar during the first several episodes, and sure, I know EVERYTHING was made out to be more interesting and mysterious than it would ever prove to be, but Walt asking if Smokie was Vincent…is that supposed to highlight the naivety of a young kid(who happens to be clairvoyant) by having him ask a foolish question, or was it an obvious hint from an insightful source? In one of the Missing Pieces Mobisodes, we have Christian(who we have reason to believe was MIB) talking with Vincent before Vincent wakes up Jack in Pilot Part One. Why would Fake-Christian be talking with Vincent? Complete speculation here, but maybe they’re in league together and Vincent is really Fake-Vincent. How could Walt interact with Vincent and not know it was MIB, since Walt is clairvoyant? Simple….the real Vincent who time-hopped with Rose & Bernard will most likely die on the Island, thus his host-body is available to be used by MIB, while the living-just-crashed-on-815-Vincent is running around alive & well. 2 Vincent’s, and MIB gains the ability to mingle amongst the Losties and gather intel.
I’m sure most of you will respond to the last several points but try to focus on the first 2, I believe it’s near-indisputable that we’re dealing with either multiple antagonists or a MIB who is capable of controlling multiple bodies simultaneously
I actually think that MIB is only one entity persay, and that Jacob may possess a power along the same lines.
But your take on Cerebrus being three headed….now thats a great catch!!!
I honestly dont think I have read a relationship between the three heads and seperate entities, so again, hell of a thought there.
Lol, I actually posted a theory of why Christian and MIB are NOT the same person/persons, and used the same type of proof being that AntiLocke was not on the other island when Sun and Frank see Christian in the doorway.
Good pointa all around, but I gotta stick with my ideas on this one…complelling argument to my own thoughts here, nicely done…
risebysin: Your theory is really making sense to me. We know MIB was trying to find a Loophole and Smokey has been called a Security System.
So, was it a Security Loophole that MIB found? Could be!
And, I’ve been trying to believe that Anti-Locke/MIB and Smokey are not one and the same! Now, I’m having my doubts. Thanks a lot man 😉
i’ve always had a niggling thought in the back of my mind that maybe Jacob and the MIB are one and the same – ie. very similar to Neo and Agent Smith’s existance in the Matrix.
I think an interesting point on Cerberus is the reason for it being called that. as we know Cerberus is the guardian of the gates of the underworld so i think it would be good to find out who discovered smokey initially and who decided to call the it Cerberus.
I’d assume it would have been one of the DI who named it Cerberus but there must have been a good reason. just because it lives underground doesn’t instantly lead you to naming it Cerberus.
risebysin, nice to read your theories once again!
I love your take on Claire! It also struck me as odd that there seemed to be no concern from her regarding Aaron. I put that down to, if she was dead, she had no concern for him, knowing he was safe.
It seemed very unlikely to me that Claire was dead when she was last seen with ‘the losties’.
Of all people, Miles would have known this! However, Miles did sense something strange about Claire, and kept watching her. I presume this was because he was viewing Claire in another form.
It may have only been me, but the sense I got from Claire’s smirk, was not kind.
I also like your take on Vincent. We all know there is something up with that dog! lol
Great thoughts!
Good job on a well thought out theory. I agree with you that the Adversary was not in the bodies of the expedtion team. I believe that they were, like Rousseau says, changed in the Temple somehow. To me Robert seemed to be acting much like the Others tend to act when they find someone new on the Island, extremely trigger happy. This is part of the reason why I feel that the Others have some sort of initiation ceremony that does change them.
As to refering to Smokey as Cerberus I don’t think that this is too circumstantial. We have seen instances where three small Smokey’s combine into the one large Smokey we usually see and then splitting apart again (I’m thinking about the time Smokey was chasing Kate and Juliet in the jungle). think back also to the time Eko first encountered Smokey. In the overhead shot of their stare down it looks like Smokey has a ‘y’ shape, as if the three smaller wisps had bonded together.
Now as for the images of dead people that everyone sees I have been of the opinion that they are generated by different sources with different adjendas, not just one source. It’s just that these different sources have been using the same images. The sources I believe are the Island, Smokey, the Adversary, Jacob, and the Losties themselves.