[/caption]Character Predictions: Smokie
We’ve seen the Smoke Monster chase and scan the living, kill, and take the form of the dead, but we’ve yet to discern a motive for the being’s behavior. We’ve been told by Rousseau and Ben that the Smoke Monster is a “security system,” though we’ve also seen the monster unable to pass the electromagnetic barrier surrounding the Dharma Initiative housing. It seems logical to conclude that the Dharma Initiative built the barrier as security against the security system, which would point to the Smoke Monster’s purpose being to protect the island from those who do not belong there, or do not respect it. However, if its purpose is to protect the island from outsiders, why does it continue to go after the people Jacob brought to the island? Perhaps the Smoke Monster is acting on the side of Jacob’s nemesis? Or perhaps the Smoke Monster is Jacob’s nemesis himself?
The coming war for the island will send multiple groups up in arms, but it is still unknown where the Smoke Monster’s loyalties lie. The fact that Ben has some control over it -- that he can summon it at will -- coupled with the fact that Jacob has paid no mind to Ben could be proof that the monster is working against Jacob. If this is the case, however, why does the monster never attack the Others, a group who has pledged loyalty to Jacob?
The monster’s secondary purpose seems to be judgment. It judged Eko, scanning his thoughts and memories, later to appear to him as his dead brother in an attempt to make Eko admit his sins and repent. When Eko would not concede the monster thrashed at him until he too was dead. It also took Rousseau’s crew, though it left them alive and changed, and almost caught Locke, Kate, Juliet, Jack, Sawyer and others throughout the course of the series. The monster most recently judged Ben in much the same way it judged Eko, but coming to a more favorable outcome. Ben gave in to the monster out of fear when it appeared as his daughter, Alex, and agreed to its demands: to do exactly what Locke tells him. This is more evidence that the Smoke Monster is on the side of Jacob’s nemesis. It could be possible the Others are not harmed by the monster the way the Losties and the Freighter people were because they had tamed the Smoke Monster. Maybe it was Jacob who helped them tame it, which is why he commands so much respect and fear.
All this evidence, together with the fact that Jacob’s nemesis took on Dead Locke’s form (just as the Smoke Monster can do) points to the Smoke Monster and the nemesis being the same. If this is the case, then the black and white Backgammon pieces Locke showed Walt in Season One and the other Light Vs. Dark symbolism could come to fruition with the Smoke Monster/Nemesis Vs. Jacob, as it seems Smokie has power over the dead while Jacob has power over the living. Both are ancient beings, as Jacob’s existence seems almost timeless and the Smoke Monster lives in the temple, where Egyptian hieroglyphs depict the monster.
If by having Ben kill Jacob the monster/nemesis gained any more power, it seems plausible that it could gain a greater control over the dead -- perhaps create an army of the dead whose bodies are on the island and pit them against Jacob’s living. Having Boone, Charlie, Rousseau, Alex, and many other members of Dharma, the Others, and the Losties rise to fight the living members for control of the island would be madness, raising many moral and philosophical questions. Could Desmond kill a resurrected Charlie in order to protect the living on the island? Could Sayid send Shannon back to the grave, given their romantic history?
What we still don’t know is why all these conflicts are important, and whether Jacob is actually good or whether we are simply being misled. For all we know the Smoke Monster has been the good guy all along (though I somehow doubt that).
As a side thought, we’ve never seen the Smoke Monster on the beach or in the water -- only in the jungle and the temple. If it is a security system then, like all security, it seems to have a perimeter. It will be interesting to see who else can summon the monster and how and when it was created. Is it the flip side of another deity, i.e. Jacob? Yin and Yang? Or is it an abominable creation altogether, created by Dharma that somehow became lost in time, finding its way back to the days of hieroglyphics?
Season Six must reveal the Smoke Monster’s true nature. There have been too many mysteries and events surrounding the being for the questions surrounding it not to be addressed. Unfortunately, I suspect the writers will leave Smokie and Jacob largely open-ended, giving us some answers but leaving the viewers to decide long after the show is over who was actually good and bad -- if anyone was at all.
