The Island Controls All
The Island itself is a referee. It is sentient in some way, and playing out a game.
It could also be possible it is a machine carrying out it’s programming, or a consciousness sealed inside the exotic material. It’s really too early to tell. The point I am making here is that the island is actually in control of everything. Jacob and MIB are cogs in the wheel. Not the real powers at all. I think it’s very likely that the island exists in superposition. It is a nexus for all realities. From the island one can see all potentials. This thought was solidified for me when we saw the lighthouse. Perhaps the lighthouse was looking at many realities? Not just one?
The Island has these “special” properties which have been referred to as “exotic material”, and “electromagnetic pockets of energy”. This energy/material could be many things. I’ve always thought it was from a meteor that crahes/crashed on the island then was found by man and manipulated. It could also be the island is from the future where technology has advanced far enough that even we the viewers perceive it as godly and supernatural. Then the island goes back in time and encounters several time periods. All the while collecting the many ruins/artifacts in praise as some god or heaven/hell. Who knows.
Regardless, somehow these properties are being manipulated by someone to try and avoid a cataclysmic event that has yet to happen in the show. Proof of this I believe is in Jacob’s line:
“It only ends once, everything leading up to that is just progress”
He obviously knows something is going to happen, and is working towards fixing it. Somehow fixing it involves proving to MIB that humans are worthy. This brings me to Jacob/MIB and their realtionship.
I do not think either is good or evil. I believe they are of opposing perspectives. Jacob has hope and faith. MIB is hopeless and faithless. The one key thing that people seem to have forgotten about MIB is that he has pretty clearly been shown as a judge/jury/executioner. I do not believe that everything MIB has done on the show is evil. If he is just evil incarnate why would be scanning peoples memories?
My guess is that he is just as important as Jacob on the Island. Jacobs role is to bring people to the island and show the judge that they are worth saving. MIB’s job is to judge and execute those that aren’t worthy. If however, MIB is fed up and no longer believes it is possible to save humanity. His leaving the island could mean he judges everyone at that instant, and executes them all.
Could this be the cataclysm Jacob is trying to prevent? It seems more and more likely to me.
Now, how would MIB destroy everyone? How was he once a man, yet now smoke and without a body? I don’t buy into this show being about gods or deities at all. If MIB came in contact with the island as man and we have no idea what the island is. Is it not possible that the island made him what he now is? Exotic material can probably do exotic things to a man!
It seems to me that MIB is linked to the energies under the island. He also travels under the island, rips trees down, and makes machine sounds. So could it not be that MIB was made into this form by the islands intelligence. To serve it as judge? Just as it makes Jacob serve it? I am thinking that MIB might create a paradox if he leaves. He is not actually going to fly around the world and destroy everything. He is literally not able to leave the island without destroying everything. I think when Whitmore says to Jin “Everyone will cease to exist” it kind of reveals this. He will cause the undoing of reality should he leave the island.
Perhaps being made the judge dislodges you from all realities and you exist in superposition like the island? So returning to a normal reality would rip everything apart. MIB doesn’t belong anywhere, but on the island.
One final thought I have to wedge in here is about what Eloise said to Desmond. She tells him that what he is doing is a “violation” in the LAX world. That sounds like she is talking about some unknown rules. We have heard of these rules time and time again. Where do they come from? Jacob must abide by them, as must MIB. So what does that leave? The Island!!!
I can’t shake this feeling that The Island is in control of everything. Almost like The Island is running a program to stop things from ending.
It’s freaking alive or something!
My buddy calls it the Ref. I like that name for now.
Hello Lostitute.
You have here a very interesting well grounded theory. However, I don’t believe that the island comes from the future.
I liked your reference to the conversation between Eloise and Desmond. I think, as said in another post by appledouble, that Eloise is a character that must exist since the beginning of the existence of the island, she’s probably not the mother of Jacob and MIB but she’s a person who knows all the secrets about the island (for example, its exact location),Jacob, MIB and the alternate reality. For me, she is kind of a legislator or a judge. I believe she is the one who dictated the rules of the “game”.
That’s something else in regards to MIB being evil incarnate I have been thinking. Long ago some people were talking about mirror matter/antimatter/neagative matter.
I think that supports the idea that MIB is going to destroy everything by leaving in a scientific sense.
Perhaps he is a flip side. If he were to come in contact with the opposite side of the spectrum, it would unravel everything.
I also think that we may have been misled when Jacob says the island is a cork and holding the evil in.
I wonder if it’s more like Jacob is on one side of the cork, and MIB is on the other. It could get pulled out either way.
Lostitute, I love your theory about ‘the island’.
Ms. Hawking ‘rung it home’ again when she told Desmond that what he was doing was a violation. As both she and Widmore keep repeating to Desmond that ‘the island’ isn’t finished with him, I have to believe that ‘the island’ does play a significant role, aside of Jacob and Nemesis.
The ‘island’ does seem to have a will of its own.
Really nice theory!
I agree with a lot in here but mostly the fact that if Smokey were to leave the island, it would somehow create a massive time paradox and existence would “fold into itself” and all would cease to exist.
Lostitute, I agree 100% that the island comes from the future.
It is a vessel for time travel.
Furthermore, some terrible event happens (in the future), and this is mankind trying to solve it by travelling back in time.
What that event is? Nobody knows, because if not it would cease to be a watchable show!!
But I like your idea with the island, it balances out well.
Also regarding smokies scanning, it is dangerous to assume. For example why doesnt he kill Richard on the black rock? Well he scanned him and realised he could use him to try and kill jacob. So once he frees him, he manipulates him to kill Jacob.
he did the same thing with ben. Scanned him, and used him for his time loop. And it was successful.
Scanned Eko, tried to use him, but then killed him off once he knew he didnt need him.
So I believe scanning is merely to see if there is something it can use from that persons life (love for a dear one, family, revenge eg Locke, Sawyer).
So good and bad, evil and god is still a viable option I believe.