Smoke Monster + MIB
[As an aside, I’ve only gotten into lost this last year, and though completely hooked, so far have only done 1 watch (working on rewatch #1), so my bad if any of this has already been hashed out]
I’ve seen variations of this, and wanted to throw in my 2 cents. I think the smoke monster is,
a) a minion of MIB
b) a container of some sort of the conciousness and/or souls of the people that have died on the island
We know it is a sentient being b/c it can make judgements, therefore perhaps it is an aspect of MIB to counteract Jacob’s trials. But I don’t buy into the fact that the monster can pre-cog read peoples minds and pass judgement. Instead, I think every instance of where the monster is judging, it has an exposition of information (souls?) to help it. This can be seen with:
1) Eko (his brother died [presumably] on the island before him)
2) Ben (Alex died on the island)
3) Juliet (‘died’ on the island in season 5 finale, which would consequently matter when the ‘monster’, i.e. juliet’s apparition of it, tries to pass judgement on itself)
An obvious objection would be Charlie, but I have always thought there is a difference (metaphorically and literally) of the inner island/outer island. Jack wakes up (I got a bigger theory for that) on the inner island. Danielle, Eko, Alex, Juliet, die inner island. Charlie dies at sea, beyond the grip of the island.  Â
Therefore the sounds we hear are largely the sound associated with the deaths of the souls within the smoke monster (loud pipes, chains for Juliet…propellars/tickers for Yemi, etc.)
So, to sum it all up, the smoke monster is a minion of MIB, probably trying to do his will b/c maybe he has now caught their souls and ‘promised’ them passage elsewhere, and thus is a security system for him. There’s more to this, but that’s the basic jist.
What say you?
The part about the sounds being related to different characters deaths is very interesting.
i think the monster and mib are very hard to judge i also like your take on the sound association. peace
It just seems too correlated. As to the extent that it is controlled by MIB (if at all), I’m not sure. One theory I heard was that the Smoke Monster was controlled by (or was in fact) MIB – for example by the fact that we never see fake-locke and it in the same frame when it’s judging Ben, so therefore they must be one and the same. I don’t think this is the case.
Remember, when Ben is being judged, the Smoke Monster recedes before the premonition of Alex shows up. So I think the Smoke Monster judged Ben, let him live, left, then MIB (as Alex) shows up to put the nail in the grief-stricken coffin of doing everything (Fake)Locke says.
This (harbinger of soul- Smoke Monster) could explain the bright flashes when it closed in on (present-day) Juliet and Kate b/c it (as Juliet) recognized itself and drew back.
Anyway I’m just throwing out ideas here…
Nikki’s spider is supposed to be a manifestation of Smokie (just watched episode and his metallic chinging can be heard just before the attack. Maybe it’s the spider she killed – and maybe the polar bears, too … )
That said, Smokie came for Kate / Juliette a coupla’ times. The 1st time they saw the white flashes Locke saw. The next, it seems Smokie woulda’ got ’em (both/one?) if it weren’t for the fence. Think Smokie only ‘saw’ Juliette 1st time then went after ole unrepentant Kate (like it did Eko?)
Ronin81, are you saying that Juliet is Smokey?
Yes, essentially I am. Although I’m not sure it’s “just” Juliet. Perhaps it traps souls/consciousness of those that die on the island, or something like that. That would explain why it “knew” Eko’s past in the premonitions – not because it was reading his thoughts but because it had previous history of it (as Yemi) and was recalling it.
Do you mean that Smokey took over Juliet’s dead body at some point? When?
(I assumt that if the nuclear bomb went off, there wouldn’t be much left of Juliet’s body.)
I’m not sure if I’m saying it took it over, but maybe became it. Perhaps the bomb going off (w/ Juliet being at the epicenter) did something, so maybe either it encompassed her into the smoke monster, or actually created an instance of the smoke monster because of the blast. Not sure of the details.
Honestly this sounds a little too weird for me. 🙂