Thank you for saying that, it's much appreciated :) I'm a big believer in "trust the tale, not the teller", which assumes that the author can never truly be honest about their work and, even when they are, they don't have an objective perspective in which they can discuss it. Sometimes, the author of a work doesn't even understand or know what their work is really about, which you often find with film & TV directors for hire. Audiences usually think more deeply about a work of fiction that they love than the person who created it. Whether or not this applies to the LOST writers, I don't really know. I like to believe they knew what everything meant and could easily validate or dismiss my ideas one-by-one. But I try to avoid using interviews and quotes from them as proof of anything (with a rare few exceptions). Because the only canon that counts is the show itself, and what we as viewers/fans make of it. :)

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 that’s very well-said. To be quite honest, I loved the show when it aired but in hindsight I’ve come to find it doesn’t hold up as well. Too many plot holes, characters coming and going (Annie?), meandering threads, wasted eps (Nikki & Paulo), and missed opportunities - ex: the volcano or that the Smoke Monster was originally going to be a DHARMA security system rather than something wholly supernatural. The writer’s strike didn’t help, and as you note, there were budget constraints. Also, the network, ABC, stretching the show out to six seasons instead of a tighter five as planned. Still, having said all of that, I’ve gained, or regained, appreciation for *the story* by watching your vids. Thank you.

I think it is mostly j j Abrams' work that really tells the story. Ofcourse the writer has most credit to the story but it's the way it is brought. And in the shots that have the answers mostly. Like the placement of Mother behind the ladder etc. Tho not really sure that is Abrams doing

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 god bless you sir

@@koinpusher Abram's stopped being directly involved in the show early in season 1. He was executive producer but that's about it

That is incredibly kind of you to say. I'm so pleased these videos are enriching your viewing experience of the show. That was my main hope going into this channel. Thank you :)

Lol! Perfect timing to Google that question. I've only been around for about a year. Glad you found me 👍

I googled at midnight, what is a time pardox

I watched the entire series.

Yes, The Island brought Sayid back from the dead after he was healed in the spring. I tend to believe that Jack had actually re-started Sayid's heart during the CPR, but it was incredibly faint and took Sayid some time to become conscious again. We know the spring healed his gunshot wound otherwise he would still have been bleeding out. I don't think he was dead for as long as it seemed. So pleased you are enjoying the videos! :)

Well, it is worth remembering that the Man in Black needed Ben alive at this point as part of his plot to kill Jacob. In fact, he had already set the wheels in motion on this plan, which involved both Ben and Locke. Sure, he could have sat back and watched what might have happened with Keamy's mercenaries. Maybe they would have (incidentally) killed all of the candidates, including Locke. But where does that get MiB in his plan to escape the island? Nowhere really. Because Jacob still lives and would continue to bring more candidates to the island, starting the process all over again. Both MiB and Jacob had been locked in a stalemate for centuries at this point. Both were trying to break the deadlock.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 That's true I suppose, but why try & lure Jack off of the cliff in season one if that were the case? I might just be splitting hairs, his plan probably had not been settled on by that point.

That's correct. The Man in Black was still formulating how to use the latest batch of arrivals to the island, if any. Remember, he has been trying to find a way to kill Jacob for almost 140 years ever since his first attempt with Richard Alpert failed. We can assume that MiB tried different methods and manipulations throughout the proceeding years. Somewhere along the way he realised that his plan needed to become more elaborate in order to succeed. By the time Oceanic 815 crashes in 2004, MiB already had Ben Linus in the back pocket as a potential Jacob killer, but because Jacob was now in hiding and impossible to find (much like the Heart of the Island), a willing assassin was now useless. How to solve this problem? Well... if MiB could become the leader of The Others then that would grant him an audience with Jacob. Now, if he could just find someone special (and coercible) enough on the island to build up into that position... then *become* that person. Someone who would win him the leadership over The Others and gain him access to Jacob. He found that person in Locke in episode four 'Walkabout'. The perfect candidate. So, people like Jack were expendable to MiB in the meantime; they were candidates that he could clear off the board early before the main event. MiB didn't care when they died, just as long as those that were still useful to the plan survived long enough for him to prime them. Ben and Locke were the priority.

The fire generation definitely has some supporting evidence demonstrated within the show. It also sits comfortably beside telekinesis. I certainly think the case can be made for it anyway. And I love all of the Cerberus parallels. I wish there had been a bit more of that explored within the show from the DHARMA perspective. I can imagine a fan-canon episode taking place in S5 that might have showed DHARMA trying to capture smokey for further study to understand what it is, and paying the price for it.

Thank you for the encouragement and support 🙂 I started this channel because I too had been looking and waiting for a channel like this to pop up for the past ten years. So I finally thought… I’ll do it myself. Like you said, the show is so rich to explore and discuss.

As always, Dale, you post the nicest comments! I really appreciate your support. Thank you 😊

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 The one thing ive never understood thou, is why we never see a face in the black smoke, its the mib consciousness fair enough, but how come we never see anything in the smoke like a face or anything. Its basically got the same brain as a human but no face its messed with my head so much ngl🤦🏻‍♂️

Well, there is no face in the cloud but, if we look closely at the formation of the smoke, it always narrows into an outcrop at the tip of the cloud. Watch the scenes where he is scanning Eko and Richard. This bulbus-shaped part of the cloud comes forward to meet them, like a head. And this is *the eye* of the smoke monster; the Man in Black's POV from within the cloud.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 So, when mib gets knocked out and goes directly in to the light, what happened to his body, did it come out of the cave with the black smoke?

The Man in Black's body comes out the other side of the cave, remember? That is the body that Jacob finds on the rocks in the stream. The same body he lays to rest alongside Mother in the caves.

Deconstruction of myths is a key part of LOST, especially in its final season. As for Claudia naming her son Jacob... Perhaps the name Jacob was derived from the Late Latin name "Iacobus". It's worth noting that the opening scenes of 'Across the Sea' show Mother and Claudia speaking to each other in Latin, but then they switch to English midway through their dialogue. In reality, they are actually still speaking to one another in Latin. The language switch is a narrative trick for the audience's benefit, also seen occurring in Sayid's first flashback story in 'Solitary' where he goes from speaking Arabic to English in the space of the same sentence. It is likely Jacob's name is being spoken in the Late Latin pronunciation but we are hearing it in its English translation, as with all of the dialogue in that episode. We have to suspend disbelief to some extent, because Mother, Jacob and the Man in Black all speak with American accents. Accents that did not exist 2,000 years ago.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Thank you for your answer! But the issue is actually with the name itself, in any version, anglicized or latinized. Late Latin = Medieval Latin, and "Iacobus" came into use very lately, as a part of judeo-christian tradition that took over Europe. In the Roman Empire (not to mention the Republic) that name just wasn't in use, pronunciation aside. And there's still the "nomen" part! So even if we accept Iacobus in classical use, it still would have been Iacobus + Family name (e.g., Antonius, Iulius, etc.).

I take your point. But we don't know Jacob and the Man in Black's parentage on the father's side and where he was from, or why and how Claudia came up with this name. There are too many unknowns. It is conceivable that, in the world of LOST, Claudia became the first person from her culture to ever use this name for a child.

Well, yeah! Wouldn't it be interesting, considering the consecutive Island history, if his father was an Egyptian or an Egyptian Jew! It is said that biblical Jacob went to Egypt in his old age.

Yes, that is an excellent point!

Thank you :) And yes, had MiB left the island, the world would have ended. Because the only way for him to escape the electromagnetic bubble that he was trapped within was to switch off The Source. And The Source is the battery that powers our existence. If the light goes out there, it goes out everywhere. Chapter One on "The Source", and Chapter Two on "Jacob and the Man in Black" go into this idea in more detail. I recommend you check those videos out if you haven't already. They were my first ones uploaded on this channel.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 While the source was put out & he was mortal, could he have left without consequence though? If Jack had not stopped & killed him, would he just be a normal human living in the world? Or would he not have been able to escape the island radius in time before the island was destroyed, thus ending existence? I also wonder if he was aware if any of this or just blinded by his desire to leave.

@@Duckmann62 I think the Man in Black simply didn't care what the consequences would be, but it was dangerous ignorance. Because he never would have made it across the sea in the boat anyway. The very act of uncorking The Source and killing the protector (i.e. Jack) would have destroyed the earth. But let's say Jack simply re-corked The Source and let MiB go off on his sailboat, all that would have done is re-activate MiB as the smoke monster. He was tethered to The Source. The whole point of everything Jacob had planned and set-up to get to this point was so that our Losties could kill MiB once and for all. So an era of peace could begin on the Island without the smoke monster undermining and trying to destroy it.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Awesome! Thanks again, keep up the amazing work!

@@Duckmann62 Thank you for watching and supporting, and engaging! :)

I think the polar bear theory is perfectly possible, especially the polar bear from Further Instructions, whereas I'm on the fence about the Walt apparitions. We have an in-show explanation articulated about the Walt appearances, so there are a couple of ways of looking at them. I made a video all about the human apparitions on the island and I explore them in depth. Check it out if you haven't already, as I discuss this very theory you are writing about: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mLGqbMxj2LuYhaM.html

I actually get into this in the chapter on "The Whispers" and "The Flash Sideways." So there are answers to these questions :) In a nutshell, the dead that remain behind have "unfinished business" to resolve on the living plane before moving on. Michael still has a chance to resolve a broken relationship from his life -- with his son, Walt -- before moving into the sideways to make further amends. He can still help the living basically. People like Sayid and Ben could only make their peace in death because the people they needed to resolve their issues with were already dead before them. For Sayid, it was Nadia and Shannon; for Ben, it was his father and Alex (and many others!). Michael and Walt can still help each other in the living realm and help guide events on the island (Michael already was a key help to Hurley in season six). The notion that Walt will help his father "move on" is alluded to in the series epilogue 'The New Man in Charge'. We can assume that Michael and Walt moved on separately in their own sideways reality with Vincent and Susan (Walt's mom). Just because they weren't in the church doesn't mean they did not move on. My other videos do explore this a bit more. Hope that helps :)

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Very interesting. Thank you :) I´m wondering whether this is only fiction or is this what really happens after we die. I mean, the alternative sideways, finding our soul mates etc. When you mentioned Walt probably moved on also with Vincent, gave me hope that I will see my doggie again...

According to showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the whole flash sideways concept was based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead's notion of a "bardo": an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death and rebirth. They drew upon actual ideas related to spiritual and theological philosophy. So, there are many people in the world who actually believe in realities and afterlife(s) not too dissimilar to what is depicted in LOST. Whether or not it is genuinely like this after we die remains a question we have to ask and try to answer for ourselves as individual peoples. Many of us are men of science. Others are men of faith. Some of us are both. I suppose all that truly matters is how we choose to live this life. What comes after is the greatest mystery of existence.

Because he couldn't leave the Island. He was tethered to the energy of The Source in the cave. It was like the battery that powered him, therefore he could not escape the electromagnetic bubble around this area without turning the power off. If he could just jump on a boat or sub or plane and get away, he could and would have done that decades ago. I kindly direct you to watch Chapter Two on "Jacob and the Man in Black" on this channel and it will elaborate on this point more :)

You're welcome, I'm glad people are finding the videos useful. As for why smokey can't pass over the pylons... they most likely form a bubble around the barracks. Don't think of them like a literal fence. Think of them as forming a dome-like barrier. Kind of like a micro version of what the island creates; a snow globe effect.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 This is how I envisioned it, but someone pointed out to me that when Kate, John, and Sayid went to save Jack from the barracks in episode 12 of season 3, they had to pass over the pylons while they were activated. I remember they used a tree branch to go over the pylons. I might be missing something tho, thank you for your reply. 🙌 I meant, they successfully pass over the pylons while activated, MiB could have used the same technique ?

@@deux-trois2938 That is true, but the physical rules that exist for humans does not extend to the smoke monster, who is bound by different rules. A human being can literally walk between the pylons before being affected by the sonar, which can kill or incapacitate them. But the smoke monster can't even get that far between the pylons. He hits the invisible barrier like a brick wall. Smokey doesn't react the same way to the pylons as people do.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 You convinced me once again 😂 thank you very much

A very astute observation!

I explain and explore his very question in my video on Mother, which you can watch here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grNppduildmYfps.html There is a very clear and specific reason why Mother and MiB have his key difference. Check it out.

There are explanations for why Mother is different to the Man in Black. The primary reason being that she was both protector *and* smoke monster, which means she had powers that MiB didn't have. Mother being sleepy doesn't mean anything. We literally hear the Man in Black say to Jacob that he "just ate". Smoke monsters in human form can still eat and rest. It's probably what draws them to inhabiting corporeal forms in the first place. Reminds them of still being human. But there was a very specific reason why Mother could be killed normally and why the Man in Black couldn't. And that reason is the cork. I explain all of this in my analysis on Mother: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grNppduildmYfps.html

I think what's interesting is that when we see the Man in Black in other guises he only seems like the dead person superficially in that he looks and sounds like them. But when you look back at those appearances, each actor must have been told to act a bit different from the living version of their character because Christian, Yemi, Alex and Locke all behave in ways that are somehow unlike their characters. It's an uncanny sort of feeling, perhaps because we know they are "dead". Throughout the latter half of season five Fake Locke never felt 100% right. It wasn't the Locke we had known, and a lot of us suspected that he might have been Smokey at the time. When it was finally revealed, it made sense. Because something had been "off". Then in season six, I honestly feel like Fake Locke didn't seem like Original Locke at all. Yes, he had traits and mannerisms, and all the superficial qualities... but O'Quinn played it like a new person. There was something insidious behind those smiles.

I’m literally doing that as we speak. Check out my latest upload 😊

I explain why this is not the case in my video on "What Happened After the End": kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ptxnrdJyqNCminU.html

This literally made me laugh out loud.

Well, we see a few instances in which the smoke monster disappears in a flash of light then a human form appears. Which basically means the Man in Black has transformed from ethereal smoke into a corporeal construct of a person. In other words, when he is turning into Locke, it's the actual smoke cloud particles that have formed to project and hold together the image of a person. If the person is dead and the body is on the island then he can appear as that person in a solid, permanent form and tangibly interact with his surroundings.

A few points worth noting here. Remember, unlike human beings, the smoke monster is bound by certain rules. A human being can literally walk between the pylons before being affected by the sonar waves, which can either kill or incapacitate them. But the smoke monster can't even get that far between the pylons. He hits the invisible barrier like a brick wall. Smokey doesn't react the same way to the pylons as people do. The field repels him instantly. He can't get close enough to go over them, and he can only go so high.

I touch upon Rousseau's story quite a bit in Chapter Thirteen on "The Sickness".

If the "infection" was supernatural in nature then why could Sayid and Claire overcome it simply by making better moral choices? Nothing they do feels like they are being influenced by evil, or that their actions are beyond their own control. They are making bad choices based on the Man in Black's lies and manipulations. Claire literally kills The Others because MiB claimed they had taken Aaron. He promises Sayid that he will bring back the woman he loves (could be Nadia or Shannon). I am actually doing a deep dive into this in the next chapter to elaborate on portrayals of good and evil in the show, using Sayid specifically as an example of what the writers were trying to communicate about these concepts. Someone doesn't need to be near death or resurrected from death for the Man in Black to "claim" them. We see him do this with Rousseau's team, but more specifically we see him do it with Benjamin Linus in the S5 finale. All he does is talk to them and push the right buttons, poisoning their minds. It's why Dogen says: "If you allow him to speak, it is already too late." MiB knows just what to say to you because he understands human behaviour and weakness better than any other person on earth. He's had centuries of negative human memories to feed off.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Ben was manipulated but he was still himself. Sayid and Claire weren't. Sayid got completely zombified and Claire went cookoo from one episode to the next. I think that being claimed is not the same as being manipulated. MIB completely brainwashed both of them and I don't think it's a coincidence that they both had death-like experiences right before it happened. If it was all about MIB's manipulation then why would Dogen assume that Sayid has been claimed before he even talked to MIB? It was related to his "death". I do believe it was supernatural but not irreversible and if the right emotional strings were pulled a person could come back from that. I was thinking about Rousseau's crew but to be fair we don't really see what happened to them.

First of all, you're assuming Claire died during the attack on the barracks. This is not demonstrated or alluded to. She's knocked out. No one gives her CPR or revives her. She wakes up. If the Man in Black could simply magically revive people who have died, or are on the edge of dying, and turn them into his evil zombie slaves then why hasn't he got an army of them? Think about the logic of it. He's had centuries to claim the dead and turn them against the living. Yet he continues to take on the guises of the dead to manipulate people into killing each other and doing his bidding instead. This is why Dogen assumed that Sayid was claimed by the Man in Black. Because he had returned from the dead. The reason for this assumption is that "the dead" are the province of the Man in Black. Not because he's like "The Night King" from 'Game of Thrones'. In fact, everything we are basing this notion of "claiming" and resurrection comes from Dogen. But we have to remember that Dogen turns out to be *wrong*. He tries to get Jack to kill Sayid with a poison pill, then he tries to kill Sayid himself, and then he sends Sayid out to his likely doom on a suicide mission to "assassinate" the MiB. Why does he do this? Because he believes Sayid is too far gone to save. His specific words are: "There is a darkness growing in him and once it reaches his heart, everything your friend once was, will be gone." He goes on to claim that this happened to Claire too. BUT! Dogen was 100% wrong about this claim. Because not only do both Sayid and Claire come back from this supposed darkness of their own free will, but Sayid literally gives his life to save the group. After sparing Desmond's life a few hours prior. Claire also lays down her arms and stops killing on MiB's behalf and returns home to Aaron. She still has her traumas and her battle scars but that "darkness" never reached her heart and consumed her. The evil infection is a myth. Dogen was a mystic, not a scientist. If the "infection" was supernatural then how were Sayid and Claire able to come back from it? It undermines Dogen's whole philosophy and belief system about what had happened to them.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I never said that MIB brought people back from the dead. I said that the Island did that and MIB simply was able to take advantage of that if it happened. No one CPR-ed Sayid either unless we assume that the procedure he went through had a delayed effect. But he was dead there for couple hours so something brought him back. Just because MIB's corruption was supernatural, doesn't mean it couldn't be reversed by right emotional impulses. What happened to Sayid and Claire wasn't just about manipulating them to do what he wants like he did with Ben. He managed to change who they are overnight. That's something way different to me. Assuming that MIB needed people to be dead and rejoined with the Light in order to impersonate them, it doesn't sound so crazy to me that he could do something to people who were temporarily dead and presumably temporarily in the Light. Yes, I assume that Claire died there but only because it fits and it's the only way I can make sense of what happened to Claire and Sayid. In a way they were rejected by the Light, like MIB was. Maybe the darkness that grew in them was of a similar kind that MIB's only on a micro-scale and reverseable? Maybe it wasn't MIB putting a spell on them but simply exploiting the small corruption that came with coming back from the dead?

But you're still basing this whole concept on what Dogen said, which was proved to be inaccurate. Dogen says the "infection" is irreversible, which it isn't. He is wrong. And how exactly is the MiB getting to them? You might be able to argue that his essence infected the healing spring but he is nowhere to be seen at the barracks when Claire supposedly "dies". I disagree that Sayid and Claire are dramatically changed overnight. Sayid kills some "Others", not his own friends. Sayid hates The Others. He literally shot a child a few days prior. It didn't take much to convince him to kill Dogen - a man who had tried three times to kill him. Sayid was promised being reunited with his love in return for allegiance to the MiB. If MiB had some supernatural hold or power over Sayid, he wouldn't need to promise him anything. Sayid would just do things for him without the need for a bargain to be struck. Meanwhile, Claire was alone with MiB for three years, being poisoned by his lies. She was initially led away in the night by what she believed to be her real father whilst she was still suffering from a concussion. He wasn't exerting a magical influence over her in that moment then somehow lost that influence because Claire suddenly decided to engage her conscience. The infection and claiming are never proven to be actually real in any way. They are constructs that exist within Dogen's belief system. A belief system that is definitively proven to be unreliable and just plain wrong.

Only someone entering the open aperture of The Source can be transformed into a smoke monster. After the ancient incident during the Egyptian era, and their installation of the cork, it made it so that this could never happen again because in order to get to the light you need to uncork The Source, but by doing that you turn the light off. Creating smoke monsters is no longer possible. The Man in Black was the last of his kind.

You mean Hurley's friend Leonard at the Santa Rosa institute? He was the one who was repeating the numbers over and over again, which led Hurley to play them on the lottery. His knowledge of the numbers was explained in season one: Leonard was stationed at a government listening post with a man named Sam Toomey. They monitored longwave radio transmissions in which they heard the DHARMA radio tower broadcast from the island repeating the numbers. This led Sam to becoming consumed with their meaning/power while Leonard ended up going mad. Whereas Dave was Hurley's imaginary friend, who stemmed from Hurley's self-destructive guilt complex that was making him eat himself to death. To my recollection, the Dave we see in Santa Rosa never mentions the numbers (because this was happening before Hurley got out and played the lottery). However, the Dave we see on the island talking to Hurley does mention Leonard, the numbers and the lottery. If Dave is Hurley's subconscious then it makes sense he would know all of this. If Dave is the smoke monster at this point in time then it opens up more questions.

Monster used Dave or hurley seeing dead person

Sorry to not get back to the various questions you've been asking on other videos, but I answer most of them in the updated video series that I have shared with you previously. Technically, a lot of these videos you are currently watching are "obsolete" now as I've updated them and compiled them (and expanded upon the explanations based on questions like this). I highly recommend you watch this playlist over the older videos. I get into most of the things you have asked elsewhere: the evidence about Mother being a smoke monster; differentiating the lists furnished by Ben vs Jacob; the internal logic of why The Island does what it does, etc: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbqKa5uWurfWeqM.html

The smoke monster replicates the form of the dead, he doesn't inhabit the actual bodies. So when he appears as himself in MiB form, he is simply replicating what he used to look like. He does the same with Christian, Yemi and Locke. They are all visual recreations that exist separate to the actual bodies.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 aaaaah i see, i cant believe i missed that cause now that i look back on it, i think he literally says to richard that jacob took his physical form/body from him or something

The problem with the two smoke monsters theory is that it is never really demonstrated within the show. We know that the smoke monster can teleport and manifest multiple projections at the same time, so the Isabella scene on the Black Rock is explainable that way. Smokey usually attacks indiscriminately when there are non-candidates present because they are not protected. As for why he dragged Locke into that pit... this occurs before the Man in Black has planned out his long con (something that he does in a non-linear way, perpetuating the compass time loop back through time from 2007). So, perhaps MiB intended to start his long con on Locke here. For all we know, had Jack not intervened, Locke would have been dragged down into the underground tunnels where he might have happened upon Fake Christian, ready to start giving Locke instructions. We'll never know the exact intention of this moment but it reinforces the idea that the MiB has been watching and waiting for Locke.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I figured the moment in S5 when smokey tried to drag Montand into the tunnels and Rousseau's team pulled his arm off was meant to parallel this scene. The nature of who kills who is very important. The MiB can't kill candidates, but he can get them to kill each other. A tug of war situation is a grey area. Did the MiB kill Montand or did Rousseau's team kill him by dismemberment. If all smokey did was hold him in place then technically it was the team. This concept is represented when Keamy kills Alex. Ben feels Widmore "changed the rules" in that moment but Widmore explains "you know full well that it was YOU who killed Alex" referring to his decision in the moment that Alex's life rested wholey in his hands to make the right decision and he chose his power over her. This is also a microexample of MiB overall "loophole" plan to try to get somebody to really want to kill Jacob deep in their soul and of their own volition. In other words not just a pawn of MiB bidding like Ricardo was. That way it wasn't essentially the MiB doing but purely somebody else's With this understanding we can deduce that the MiB was simply trying to get the candidates kill Locke as he held him in place. Even with his knowledge of the time traveling he was trying to throw a wrench in everything much like leading Jack off a cliff (from the other comment thread)...But the unexpected use of the dynamite was the variable that gave them the upper hand.

The monster can't find the source without a candidate, he shows locke the source early in the show from his memory of the location.

No, because the source was corked and restarted so therefore Jack wasn’t exposed to the light in its fullest aperture like the Man in Black was. No one can be turned into a smoke monster when the cork is in and the light is refracted. Jack was simply transported out of the cave. Had he been transformed he wouldn’t have been alive after the event. His body would be empty and his consciousness roaming freely.

Yeah, I've flip flopped on this one a lot. It's one of the mysteries that is never given a complete nor entirely clear explanation. And there is very little to go on in terms of how the ashes actually function in repelling Smokey. I think the ash is definitely volcanic in nature and Dogen was in the know on how it worked. I've built upon these old videos a lot in the new Theory of Everything series, which you can watch here to get my more up-to-date assessments: kzfaq.info/sun/PL5iTj9psbPrNovFOg4pJJIyxiLAv2WAKB

I don't think that being a Smoke Monster could corrupt a person in a direct way. MIB was obsessed about leaving the Island before he became one. MIB was turned evil because of his life experiences. If Jack were to become a Smokey he would probably have been a good protector.

I don't think Locke was dead, but he would have died had Jacob not been there. His touch turned that accident from being a likely fatality into a survivable fall. Also, there is a difference between bringing back someone from the edge of death who is right in front of Jacob and resurrecting someone who has been dead for a long time.

Well, I have been with the show since it aired originally in 2004 and watched it live as episodes dropped, as well as re-watches over the years since it finished. I couldn't possibly fathom how many hours of viewing time and thought I have put into the series, but it's probably an unhealthy amount lol.

This is a very interesting question. We do not know if there is some kind of rule in place about this but, hypothetically, in a pre-cork era I suppose there could have been. During Mother's reign. However, if these smoke monsters are a necessary component of The Island's "master plan" for destiny (which I explore in the video on "Destiny") then it would not allow more than one at a time. However, post-cork everything changed. It is established that only someone entering the open aperture of The Source (i.e. the hole beneath the cork) can be transformed into a smoke monster. After "the ancient incident" during the Egyptian era, and their installation of the cork, it made it so that this could never happen again because in order to get to the light beneath you need to uncork The Source, yet by doing that you also turn the light off. Creating smoke monsters is no longer possible. The Man in Black was the last of his kind. Hence, why it was such a big deal to stop him. The end of an era of darkness.

The Man in Black didn't need to hide Locke's body in Season Five because, technically, the body was already hidden in the cargo hold of the plane. He didn't know that passengers on Ajira were working for Jacob. To him, the chances of anyone actually opening up a dead man's coffin in the cargo hold were highly unlikely. I mean, who does that lol! The Ajira passengers might look for other things amongst the cargo, but who would want to desecrate a stranger's coffin? So, he left Locke in there. What he didn't realise was that Ilana was Team Jacob and already suspicious of Locke's story (as she was educated about the smoke monster's mythology).

@LOST EXPLAINED I got you! I love the fact you (even) answered so swiftly. Brilliant work on the channel, keep it up!! I need a full detailed Marvin candle, doctor chang episode lol

Thank you! 😊 Noted about a request for a video on Pierre Chang too 👍

Emily Linus is a much debated apparition on the island for several reasons. We can view her as a real ghost or an MiB manifestation (but it requires more theory crafting). I delve into every human apparition that we see in the show in a separate video, including the arguments surrounding Emily Linus as a smoke-related entity, both for and against. You can watch it here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mLGqbMxj2LuYhaM.html

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 bravo for all your hard work ! 👍👍👍

Remember, unlike human beings, the smoke monster is bound by certain rules. A human being can literally walk between the pylons before being affected by the sonar waves, which can either kill or incapacitate them. But the smoke monster can't even get that far between the pylons. He hits the invisible barrier like a brick wall. Smokey doesn't react the same way to the pylons as people do.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 this is the question I had as well. It seems like it could just fly over as he is seen flying quite high a couple of times elsewhere, so I thought that maybe it actually can fly over and was just pretending that the fence was working against it to keep them thinking that they were safe. Another reason I thought this is because when Ben was a boy he saw Smokey as his mother inside the barracks (that was smokey right?)

@@micahg2242 Even if Smokey couldn't traverse the sonar fence, there were tunnels and vents beneath the barracks. And we know Smokey used underground tunnels to get around sometimes. I don't think the fences were enough to keep him out completely. So, it's absolutely possible that Emily Linus is the smoke monster. But it's also entirely possible that she is the genuine ghost of his mother. The Island can call upon the ghosts of anyone to appear, whether they died on island or not. Her presence can be read in either context. I like the ambiguity on this one and have changed my mind back and forth.

The Man in Black doesn't literally occupy a physical body. The smoke is his disembodied consciousness. When he transforms into a human form, it is a replication not a reanimation. And, from the way those forms are portrayed, they are hollow shells. Without blood or bone or anything inside. They are almost like tangible illusions. So, his real body remains in the caves, untouched for centuries. He cannot enter a dead body and reanimate it. He can only copy.

That scene is taken from the end scene of 'Ab Aeterno' when MiB is already the smoke monster.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yes but when the host dies the light goes back the the main point meaning if the smoke wanted to read his memory's it would have to find his light at the main source. Meaning when the smoke scans the dead body for memories it's pointless.

Consciousness is ethereal, not physical. A body is a vessel that carries consciousness, but it remains connected to the consciousness that once occupied it even after it has gone. We see this in how Miles reads the data from a dead person. The reason why Smokey needs the body is because it is the access point to a particular vessel's consciousness. Think of it as like trying to read up on a particular subject. The Source is an online library that exists within the cloud. There is a book on every subject ever, so it's too big to read everything in there. Smokey can't access the whole library cloud all at once, but he can download an e-book from it... Say, on John Locke's life. But you need a physical device present in which to download this data from. LOST is very clear that human bodies retain value even after death.

Makes sense really. Miles has a similar power so it's not that weird that MIB has one like that only more powerful.

I'll be making a video on this down the line because I keep having this discussion with people. First of all, we do not know exactly when 'Across the Sea' takes place, but that is neither here nor there. Secondly, and more importantly, the Egyptian era lasted almost 30 centuries and overlapped with the Roman era. There was literally a period known as Roman Egypt. People tend to think because one culture existed before the other that means they must have come there in order. It is demonstrated within the show that the Egyptians came to the island *after* Claudia's people because we see hieroglyphs on the cork (installed after the events of 'Acrss the Sea') and in the donkey wheel chamber (which we know was designed by the Man in Black). The devil is in the details. If that's not enough for you, in the commentary for 'Across the Sea' when the Man in Black gets thrown into the cave, Damon and Carlton confirm this chronology with the following statements: Damon: "If I were to have a theory that the apparatus we see in the finale with the stone sticking in the middle of the pool that's sort of blocking the light, maybe that apparatus wasn't created until, AFTER, this event." Carlton. "I think that's an incredibly likely deduction, Damon." It is also heavily implied that Jacob had live interactions with the Egyptian civilisation on the island, considering his absorbtion of Egyptian culture and iconography (the statue, the ankh, the tapestry depicting island history with the Egyptians). There is quite a lot more evidence, but I will put it into the video.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 ok brilliant!

Well, first of all, the Man in Black is technically not killed. His body dies but his soul survives. Also, the rule that Jacob and MiB can't kill each other was one of Mother's rules. But she was dead by the time Jacob took over the role and threw his brother into the cave. New protector, new rules. I explore your questions in a series of videos on this channel: Jacob and The Man in Black: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fN6Gh8JyuszPgIE.html Mother: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grNppduildmYfps.html The Rules: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lb6Hgrqqm7y3ppc.html Follow the links for more info.

Kate's horse could possibly be a manifestation of the smoke monster but it is much most likely that it is just a horse roaming the island. We see in S3 that Mikhail kept an open stable of horses, which suggests it could have come from there. I don't believe the horse was literally Kate's manifested on the island, it just stirred up that memory in her. In the same way Mikhail's cat Nadia wasn't the same cat from Sayid's flashback when he was taken hostage by the restauranteur, but it reminded him of his past. These appearances, like Sawyer's boar, can be ascribed to smokey of course, but the only definite non-human form we know he took was the medsua spiders. The rest is speculative.

Well, the closest we come to seeing this demonstrated on the show is in S3 episode 'Expose'. We hear the monster's ticking in the background then the medusa spiders appear out of nowhere to bite Nikki. Darlton did confirm that the spiders were smoke monster related in a podcast. This confirmation opened up the idea that if the smoke monster could appear as spiders then he could also appear in other non-human forms such as animals. Presumably he can only manifest as animals/birds/insects that have died on the island. But it does call into question the appearances of certain animals and whether or not they were smokey related. A quick mention of possible smoke monster apparitions: Sawyer's boar. Kate's horse. Sayid's cat. The "Hurley" bird. I mention these mainly because they are strange animal encounters that stand out, but they are all open to interpretation (maybe they were just normal animals). But if smokey likes to watch and observe candidates or any island inhabitants then it would make sense for him to take on the guise of an animal in order to do that without raising alarms.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Yes, this makes sense. I heard the podcast when Darlton talk about the spiders in Exposè, but I've never noticed anything while watching the episode. Now that you told me this I saw the scene and I absolutely heard the noise. Thanks!

I think you heard incorrectly. The sonar security fence was built by DHARMA in the 1970s to keep both The Others and the smoke monster out of their barracks. It was unrelated to Jacob's powers. However, I drew a comparison between the sonar fence and the circle of volcanic ashes because they both appeared to repel the monster. The fence repelled the monster using high frequency sound waves. We know that the monster was electromagnetic in nature, due to how he was created, and could be disrupted by adjusting magnetic fields. We also know that the ash circles repelled the monster too and could protect anything within the circle. I hypothesise that the ashes were made from a superconducting compound found somewhere on the island -- near the heart perhaps. It is volcanic in nature. The ash was imbued with properties that could create a strong diamagnetic field. They were a primitive version of the sonar fence in a way. The reason for the confusion perhaps comes from Lennon -- the translator for Dogen. He claims that Dogen was the only thing keeping the smoke monster "out" and when Dogen is murdered, the smoke monster enters the temple. This implies that Dogen's life force was connected to the ash circles, although this is never confirmed. We have to interpret much of the ambiguous lines in LOST. Lennon might have meant that Dogen was keeping "the darkness" out and away from the candidates, as he was the last real person with any knowledge who could combat the smoke monster on the island. What makes more sense is that Sayid, on his way back into the temple, broke the ash circle to let Smokey inside. I hope this clears it up a bit more.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah, I remembered the security system being used against the hostiles shortly after I posted 😅. As far as dogen goes, you mention him as being one with a strong connection to the island, possessing a particular extraordinary skill or something to the effect, like hurley being able to speak to the dead etc- perhaps the island guides dogen, in much the same way that it guides the intuition of Jacob, with the skills to detect and root out any darkness that may infect people brought back in the healing pool, therefore he is the only one that can keep the smoke monster, perhaps a metaphor or substitute for the infection of darkness brought on by the smoke monster. By being able to root out one or both, I mean, in theory, broadly including the notion that he can keep a person infected by darkness out, or do whatever is needed, that person would then be incapable of helping the smoke monster get into the temple. It's been a while since I last watched, and can't remember if someone stopped dogen and overruled any decision to kill or kick sayid out of the temple..

It is open to interpretation. I often change my mind on this one. For it to be Smokey we need to accept some of the possibilities suggested by the video. The main one being that Smokey could scan people's memories whilst in other forms and that he used the underground tunnels to access the barracks. Another possibility worth noting here is we see that Young Ben has a photograph of his mother with him. It is possible that Smokey simply copied the image from the photo. As long as the person is dead, he can take their form if he has an image guide to go off. But Emily being a real apparition like Claudia, Isabella or Michael is certainly a cleaner, less complicated explanation. It depends on how long we think Smokey was watching Ben and grooming him to become the anti-candidate. I am happy with either explanation really. Emily's choice of words are what are so interesting to me: "It's not time yet" she tells Young Ben. Either that means "It's not time for you to be of use to me in my plot against Jacob" or it means "It won't be time for us to be together again until the sideways". But because we never see her in the sideways onscreen, it leaves her statement wide open in terms of meaning.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 thanks. And do you dismiss the idea of any of Shannon's "wet Walt" sightings being the MiB? I personally subscribe to it being the real Walt astral projecting, but it's one that keeps recurring within the FB group I belong to. And Cuse/Lindelof seem to take pleasure in ambiguity on this one. PS what do you think the reason is for him being soaking wet?

@@drewc.4061 Walt was wet because he had been abducted at sea. He might have tried to escape, hence the projection. That feels as if it was the implication. I know the writers teased whether or not Walt was Smokey in podcasts, but they never flat-out confirmed it in any seriousness. And his was during a period when it is clear that they had not have finalised the rules of the monster. By S6, they definitely had. Walt's appearances are non-smoke monster related either way. It is established that he has psychic powers and can astral project himself. Bea Klugh even asks Michael if Walt ever appeared in places he wasn't supposed to be, which means they have experienced his "appearances" otherwise why ask the question. She also asks Michael if he ever saw Walt even though they lived on the other side of the world. We see this astral projection happen again with Locke in S3. (Chapter Six explores Walt and his powers in more detail). By S6 it is firmly established that the Man in Black could only appear as dead people or manifest superficially as a person from someone's memory (like Emeka and Isabella). Let's think it out a bit more because there are many problems with "Walt as monster" theory. If he could manifest as living people like Walt then why stop there? How much easier his plans to kill Jacob could have become. He hardly would have needed to engineer such an elaborate plan for Locke to die. He could simply abduct Locke and hide him away somewhere then pretend to be him. This theory contradicts everything we come to learn about Smokey and his limitations and the rules. Furthermore, why would he manifest to Shannon as Walt? Surely manifesting as Boone would have made more sense, or even Sayid, or anyone else. It makes no sense to me. Also, why was he warning Shannon about not pushing the button? He says: "Push the button. Don't push the button, bad." Aka, it's bad if you don't push the button. It makes more sense that Walt simply couldn't control his powers at this stage and was doing it psychically and unconsciously.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Smokey could have also gleaned Emily's appearance from scanning Roger

No, there was no monster down there. Smoke monsters are created when a person enters the open aperture of the light. Their body dies and their consciousness (aka their soul) is ripped from their body and spat back out. I delve into this in the chapter on "Mother", which you can watch here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grNppduildmYfps.html

A woolly mammoth? Do you mean polar bear?

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 No, I mean very specifically the scene where it kills Eko in the Cost of living. Look at it's shape when it grabs him. It resembles a Mammoth, with the trunk being used to grab Eko. Apparently, there was speculation it assumed the form of a mammoth as one of it's animal manifestations in order to look threatening, and that maybe this is why it made stomping sounds throughout season 1. Apparently, Mammoths were still alive during the Egyption era, so it makes sense the MIB would have encountered one.

I've never come across that theory before! Woolly mammoths walked the Earth during the time of the Ancient Egyptians but in very small numbers in territory very, very far away from the African continent. It's worth remembering that Jacob and MiB came to The Island around 2,000 years ago during the era of Roman Egypt, so this was long after mammoths had gone extinct. I suppose MiB might have scanned someone who had seen a woolly mammoth depicted pictorially, but I doubt woolly mammoths were ever actually physically present on The Island at any point as it would take considerable transportation capabilities to get them there, which simply did not exist back during their time. To me, the smoke cloud in that scene resembles more of a hand or fist reaching out to crush Eko. But you can certainly view MiB's shapeshifting as taking on specific shapes that mirror other things. For example, when he comes into the barracks, the smoke looks and sounds like a train speeding through.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Very good. Can you remind me again why Mr Eko's last words were 'You're next', and what was meant by this, and why he actually appeared to say 'I saw the devil' and Locke lied about it? I was never clear on that...

Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor. It's a book of short stories.

I explore this in my video on “Mother” in more detail. 👍

Eko was not a candidate. I kindly direct you to watch Chapter 8 of this series, which specifically deals with Mr. Eko and his purpose on the island. :)

I go through the supporting evidence in depth in this video, which includes quotes from the showrunners: LOST Explained - The Theory of Everything: Part Two (Mother, Jacob, Man in Black & The Egyptians) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l6hkntmD3bSbeJc.html

I haven't been watching 'Loki'. Did they homage the monster from LOST?

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 There is a smokey creature but I wouldn't call it an homage to LOST. However, the show does deal a bit with the theme of "free will vs. determinism" and there are some similarities there.

Yes, exactly. Just as there are technically two bodies of the Man in Black on the island -- his remains in the cave and Fake Locke's body on the cliff ledge.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 But the MIB as Locke is another manifestation. Whereas the mother would have died twice in the exact same shape. That doesn't really make sense. What do you think about this: The mother did not go down to the source and became the Smoke Monster, but was made the protector AND the security system/ Smoke Monster another way. And when she made it, so Jacob and the MIB couldn't hurt each other, this caused the island to divide those powers, when Jacob threw his brother down to the source, instead of killing him. I'm just thinking that, if Jakob would have been able to kill his brother, he most possibly would have done it, after he killed the mother and there wouldn't be a separate smoke entity. But since the mother destroyed the village of the people who were working on the wheel construction, with a high probability as such, the powers of the smoke entity must have been part of what was passed to the protector of the island. You know what I mean?

@@julez8053 What makes you think that the Mother we see is how she always looked? Why can't she being doing what the Man in Black did and occupying the form of another dead person? But even if she was occupying her original form, it can still make perfect sense. We know beyond a doubt that two versions of the same body can exist simultaneously in LOST as evidenced by John Locke and Fake Locke (Real Locke is buried on the beach, Fake Locke is on the cliff ledge); or we can look at it with the MiB being dead in the caves and his last human incarnation as being on the cliff ledge. It's logical to think that Mother's original body could be buried somewhere while her final body is at rest in the caves. The show demonstrates that this is an absolute possibility. I'll be releasing a video on Mother in two weeks that will elaborate on why (and how) Mother was a smoke monster. Keep an eye out for it.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 She depilated her legs. I can't imagine, that the (separate) Smoke Monster would have to deal with such things. I'm looking forward to your video about this subject. But also to all your other explanations.

@@julez8053 Fake Locke walked around the island when he could teleport or turn into smoke whenever he wanted. When Ben asks him why he does this, Fake Locke replies: "I like the feel of my feet on the ground. *It reminds me that I was human once* ." We even see Fake Locke eat food and drink water at various points. Whether or not he needs to do this is unclear, but it's unlikely he needs the nutrients. He certainly doesn't need to walk anywhere. Does him doing all these human things mean that he isn't the smoke monster either?...

I like this question because it seems deceptively simple but it's really quite complex. So let's get into it! Fans picked up on this idea of being able to kill the Man in Black before he can speak from Dogen. Now, Dogen was a bit of an island mystic and held some beliefs that were later proven to be misconceptions. For example, he believed that once someone is "infected" by the Man in Black's darkness and it reaches their heart, there is no coming back from it. Yet we see both Sayid and Claire come back from this soul sickness. And Claire spent three years under MiB's influence! Dogen was mistaken in some of his beliefs, which makes him an unreliable source in general. We also know that the Man in Black has been shot at by people who don't let him speak and still he keeps on going. Remember when Widmore's goons open fire on him at the Ajira plane? He never spoke to them and their bullets were useless against him. We have to remember that Dogen thinks Sayid is infected with darkness and, therefore, un-saveable. He tries to get Jack to poison him with that pill then, when that fails, Dogen tries to kill Sayid in hand-to-hand combat hours later. He sees Sayid as a liability to the other candidates and wants him dead in any way possible. When he gives Sayid the dagger and tells him to attack the Man in Black, this is yet another attempt to have Sayid disposed of. It's a suicide mission. He was sending Sayid to his death in the hopes that he would be killed by MiB in retaliation. But MiB still has a use for Sayid. The reason why Dogen stipulates that Sayid shouldn't let the Man in Black speak first is because the MiB is very persuasive. He talks to people and pushes the right buttons, poisoning their minds and promising them things they want. We see this happen with several characters. It's why Dogen says: "If you allow him to speak, it is already too late." MiB knows just what to say to you because he understands human behaviour and weakness better than any other person on earth. He's had centuries of negative human memories to feed off. And he talks to Sayid and promises to reunite him with the person he loves most. It is this conversation that convinces Sayid to go back and kill Dogen. Allowing the Man in Black to speak to you means it's already too late to resist his influence. When Sayid returns to the temple, Dogen looks disappointed and says with resignation: "You let him talk to you." And Sayid replies: "That's *twice* you've tried to have someone else kill me." This theme of talking to people and persuading them runs back and forth between MiB and Jacob. In 'Ab Aeterno', MiB cautions Richard about letting Jacob talk to him because: "He can be very persuasive." After Richard is eventually swayed by Jacob's argument, he returns to the jungle and the MiB says: "You let him talk to you, didn't you?" So, it's not that there is some magical rule that allows the MiB to be killed in human form if you get him before he speaks. If that were true, Jacob could have told people to do that quite a few times over the centuries and solved all the trouble. It's that the Man in Black, like the devil, can be very convincing and seductive. He talks people into doing what he wants them to do.

Finally a Gnostic fellow

In the show or on this channel?

I discuss this in future videos on both “The Others” and “Good vs Evil”. Check them out 🙂

The Egyptians settled on the Island after Jacob and the Man in Black got there. That's why we see no sign of Egyptian structures or influences during 'Across the Sea'. Damon and Carlton confirm this in their commentary on the episode too. Some of my chapters have already discussed key points about the Egyptian culture on the island but I will consider making a whole video on them. It's a good idea! Thank you for the suggestion :)

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 They havent show a lot of island in Across the Sea anyway. So how would we know if structures were there. Why would man in black manipulate Egyptians to bulid the temple IF he wanted to get inside anyway, he didnt care about people/humans...and island was just a prison for him or cosmic joke. Clearly there was a monster before MiB and "Mother". The cuniform writing on the cork which holds the light within heart chamber are even older than Egyptian, like Persian alphabet. Carlton didnt say that Egyptians were they he just said that : "it was incredibly likely conclusion" that all.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I love LOST. Mythology and Secrets of the island is like a religion to me. I been watching show since I was a child from season 1 in 2004. Island is important to me, I consider myself a OTHER like Alpert. I even teach myself classical latin, sacred language..with hebrew and classical greek.

​@@micron4056 LOST is very specific in what it shows us versus what it omits. In 'Across the Sea', if the writers wanted us to know that this was all happening post-Egyptian period on the island then they would have shown us something related -- the temple, the statue, hieroglyphs, something. But they didn't. The island is depicted as being sparsely populated with no structures or civilisation in sight. The caves is where "Mother" resides because no other structures have been built yet. Carlton said that it was an "incredibly likely deduction" that the cork was installed AFTER the Man in Black was turned into the smoke monster. There is no reading between the lines of that statement. He is confirming it, albeit in typical Carlton fashion. We know the stone cork was made by the Egyptians because of the hieroglyphs at the top of it and the water runoff system that pipes the light-infused water directly into the Egyptian temple's spring several miles away. Cuneiform script was used throughout the Egyptian period and right up to the Common Era. Plus, the cork wasn't installed until after 'Across the Sea', hence why it was possible for the Man in Black to be transformed. The Man in Black did not instruct the Egyptians to build the Temple, he merely infiltrated it from below and made it his home. They saw the smoke monster as some kind of deity and summoned it to receive instructions. He played into their belief and manipulated them accordingly. He got them to finish building the donkey wheel, as we see his design rebuilt but with hieroglyphics down in the chamber. Yes, there was a smoke monster before the Man in Black. That smoke monster was "Mother". This is explained in Chapter Two on Jacob and the Man in Black in a bit more detail.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 The tunnels beneth the temple which can be acessed via declevity in the wall extend and are connected somehow with the tunnels beneth dharma barracks, apparently which wss confirmed in LOST Magazine Issue 25 "Night Terrors", "Dark Territory Special". The cuniform were not egyptian do they look sumerian, sumerian script like those found in Mesopotamia. I think "Mother" was a monster, I think she knows mythology, story of the island which we never get to know. Is it confirmed that the spring in temple is connected with the source? Water moves around everywhere on the island not just to the spring. The healing process should be just as effective everywhere..?

I'll admit that there is a degree of speculation in some of the ideas for sure. Such as the ash circles (there might not be a real logical answer for them available). But other elements are based exclusively on information presented in the show and connecting dots or making deductions based on that information. I don't want to make this about head canon too much but there will always be a degree of creative articulation involved. The main thing is to help people understand the show a little better, and to highlight/extrapolate answers from the narrative for those who have been searching/asking for a long time. Hopefully, these videos will help a bit.

It wasn't intended as a criticism, by the way. Even the guesswork is intelligent, and I'm happy to agree with most of it. Let me pick up one point near the end, though. You say that Sayid cannot die in the Temple because it's his destiny to save the others on the sub. But for me, "destiny" was only a protection up to the moment when Jacob died and the time travellers flashed back to 2007. After that, literally anything could happen. Certainly Dogen, who seemed a very wise figure, clearly believed that Sayid could die there and then, which is why he sent him on a fool's errand to kill the MiB.

@@drewc.4061 Thank you. I am absolutely open to criticism or having these ideas challenged though. I think LOST continues to offer up things we can openly speculate on. I used to subscribe to this idea as well; that destiny only applied up until the time loop fully closed in 2007. However, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Namely, Jack's appendix being removed in S4 by Juliet. In the series finale, Jack is stabbed by Fake Locke/Man in Black in the same area on the cliffs. This surgery and appendix removal is the only reason why he survives for as long as he does to return to the cave and re-cork The Source. Without that surgery, he would have bled out sooner and died. It is a direct parallel to how Locke survives Ben's gunshot in the DHARMA pit in S3. Had he not had his kidney removed/stolen, he too would have bled out and died there in the pit. The Source has been guiding their lives and actions from the very beginning.

Okay, I can accept that argument (which isn't quite the same as saying that I fully agree with it, but close enough). So is it your view that Sayid needed the injury in order to be "claimed" by the MiB, and that without being claimed, he wouldn't have had the motivation to sacrifice himself on the sub? PS I agree that "destiny" ensured that Sun and Jin would die on the sub, in the respect that ever since Jacob touched them simultaneously and effectively made them jointly candidate #42, they were destined to die together, so as soon as Sun's death became inevitable, Jin's was too, even although he appeared to exercise free will in choosing to stay. Would you agree with that?

@@drewc.4061 I think there are no such things as accidents in LOST. Everything happens for a reason. The numbers are proof of a god in the machine, i.e. the island. Just look at Desmond and how he factors into S6. Everything that happened to him in his life and in the hatch was to prepare him for this moment of uncorking The Source. Obviously, he saved the world in the hatch but it also built up his resistance to electromagnetism, which is what makes him a key player in the endgame. I also agree that Jin and Sun were destined to die on that sub. After all, their deaths are what gives our Losties the final motivation they need against the MiB. Rather than running away from him, they choose to confront and kill him... particularly Kate. Whose name had been crossed off the cave wall, thereby making her seem less of a threat to the MiB. But she is the one that saves him a bullet in The End. She is the variable that he was not anticipating in a string of constants.

I think that the Infection is nothing more then that MiB manipulating the humans around them and strengths the dark in them. Mother said in everyone is a lil bit light. The infection is that he dimms the light in the people, like he wants to do with the Source. The consequence is that MiB can manipulate them to reach his goals. The good light inside his targets, is a obstacle for him because it allows them to think about his manipulations and to do better. Thats why he killed mr eko in anger. Only love and goodness can reactivate the light, like kates Kind words for Claire or Desmonds words to Sayid. He didnt Grab the bomb because of emptyness in his heart he did because he regret. Desmond reactivated the light in him. Thats why he is also in the Sideways and is not whisperer on the islands

His projection is corporeal, it's not like a Jedi force ghost or anything. Jacob can touch and interact with the world around him in the same way the Man in Black can project the guise of a person like Locke and be corporeal (even though he really is the black smoke). We see Jacob physically touching the candidates and objects. So we know he can interact with the material world. In the scene you highlight, he is waiting for Locke's fall whilst reading a book to pass the time. He might have been waiting in that spot for hours, long before Locke ever showed up. Because Jacob knows where to be and when. He is a very patient man who does a lot of waiting, as demonstrated with his tapestry in the statue.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah I was thinking of that too... when. Jacob handed jack the candy bar he made a really weird face... couldnt tell if it was because he couldnt feel the man or if he just thought jacob was being weird you know?

The Man in Black can take the form of anyone or anything that has died, including himself. I do point out that when he becomes the dead, he isn't reanimating the actual body, only replicating it. This includes his own body in the caves.

Yes, and I explore and explain that in a video on the Egyptians, which you can view here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bd-PdMeel6yclmw.html

Is that what we really see happen though? Jack discovers the caves for himself. The only thing that happens before that is that he chases Fake Christian (aka the Man in Black) through the jungle, which leads him off the edge of a cliff. If John Locke were not in the vicinity, Jack would have died that day. We know the Man in Black wanted the candidates dead but couldn't kill them directly. So, disorienting Jack while he was alone and vulnerable in the jungle during his first few days on the island was a perfect opportunity for the MiB to kill Jacob's "Candidate 23". Jack finding the caves and water was predestined and would have happened no matter what. The Man in Black takes credit for helping Jack find water but, if we watch that episode back again, he is actually trying to lead Jack to his death.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 oh I see

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 he tries to lead him off a cliff initially, but later when Jack's by himself alone at the campfire, his reappearance does prompt jack to further investigate his surroundings, which in turns, leads him to finding the water, amidst an abundance of useful wreckage and debris - clothes, food, Charlie's guitar etc. The smoke monster as Christian here, definitely seems like what he's doing is counterintuitive to killing the candidates off, but i think you could very easily argue that his initial failure in killing him prompted him to form a new strategy. He knew they were almost certainly going to find water soon, so instead, he figured, i'll give them what he needs for now. I'll lead him to the caves, let him have his water, and later, that may be the most powerful leverage i'll have against them.

We know that Ben had nothing to do with Nadia's death as he was transported from the island in 2004 to the future of late 2005 after she had already been killed. We literally see him jump ahead in time and catch up on the news about Sayid's loss on the TV. However, I don't believe Widmore was responsible for Nadia's death either. This is my take on it: Bakir (the man Ben claimed killed Nadia) was one of Widmore's spies. He was assigned to watch Sayid, hence why he was Middle Eastern so he could understand any Arabic conversations taking place. Every member of the Oceanic 6 no doubt had a Widmore spy watching them and tracking their movements. Probably from the moment they got back. What happened to Nadia was simply a tragic hit and run accident. An accident that was, of course, fated to happen the way it did. *But Bakir had nothing to do with it*. Ben simply appropriated this hit-and-run to manipulate Sayid into becoming an off-the-books assassin. Remember, Ben was not the leader of the Others anymore and no longer had access to the same resources. All he showed Sayid was a photo of Bakir in a car and fed him a story about how he was there that day in LA. Well, we know Bakir goes wherever Sayid goes if he is supposed to be the man's shadow, so he probably was indeed nearby that day. Ben knows Bakir works for Widmore, so he uses Sayid to execute him. Then continues using Sayid for other high profile assassinations in Widmore's organisation. Until Ben is done and cuts Sayid loose. Sayid realises, far too late, that Ben was using him the whole time to kill these people, and he can never be 100% sure if Bakir was genuinely responsible for his wife's tragic death or not. This feeds into Sayid's motivations of wanting to kill Ben as a young boy, because it would wipe the slate clean for the murders that Sayid carries out for Older Ben in the future.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Interesting! Thank you! But this leaves me with other questions: 1)why couldn't it have been Widmore? He also had motives for getting Sayid back to the Island and if Nadia was still alive it would be difficult to do so he had his motivation for wanting her dead. 2) why does Sun put the blame of Jin's death on Ben and not Widmore?

Widmore had no motivation to kill Nadia. At this point in time, there was no motivation to get Sayid back to the island either. This is happening in 2005, not 2007. And we know Jacob had not been to visit Widmore yet, so his impetus is not there. Widmore gains nothing from randomly killing Nadia like this. And it's not like he does the same thing to anyone else from the Oceanic Six. Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sun do not suffer any such reprisals or murderous threats. Why would he only do this to Sayid? A trained killer of all people. Widmore is simply keeping an eye on the O6, nothing more. Whereas Ben manipulates this tragic hit and run in order to gain himself a motivated assassin. You can even see by the way Nadia is hit by the car after stopping suddenly in the road that it was an accident, not murder. As for why Sun blames Ben for Jin's death, that comes down to a simple deduction she made based on the information she was given, perhaps as the Oceanic Six discussed everything that happened whilst holed up on Penny's boat. Frank Lapidus explains that the only mission the mercenaries had was to remove Ben from power. Hurley would have told them all what happened at the DHARMA barracks with Ben and Alex and Keamy. Ben was offered a chance to leave the island in peace but refused and sacrificed his own daughter to save himself. The only reason why everything spiralled out of control the way it did was because of Ben's choices in that moment. And Desmond no doubt filled them all in that the reason the freighter exploded was because of a cradle of C-4 that could be triggered by a dead man's switch on Keamy's arm. And the last that Kate and Sayid saw of Keamy, he was shot in the back by Richard. Presumably under Ben's orders. If only Ben had gone with the mercenaries, Jin would be alive and none of this would have gone down in the way that it did. Sun blames Ben, and she's right. It is absolutely his fault.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I'm not sure I agree 100 percent about it being Ben's fault. Widmore is the one who initiated this whole chain of events by searching for the Island and oust Ben. I think it was just as much Widmore's fault as Ben's. Maybe even more so.

@@raeliamrussi2679 Well, it's both of their faults. Widmore had to send the freighter to the island with Faraday's group because he was fulfilling the time loop. He had no choice in that. But he also claims that he was clearing a path for John Locke to become leader of The Others, so his motives are a mix of island-altruism and also petty vengeance (usurping Ben was personal for him too). I agree that Widmore bore personal responsibility for creating a conflict in the first place, especially hiring someone like Keamy. But there would have been very little conflict had Ben capitulated and gone with the mercenaries. Alex certainly would have lived (Ben admits as much to Fake Locke in S5). Obviously, we have greater sympathy for Ben as a character because he is more fleshed out than Widmore. We understand Ben more. Nevertheless, he is still a bad guy who kidnaps, manipulates, murders and has people murdered with no compunction. Sun was absolutely right to target her anger against easily the worst human being she has encountered since her father, Mr. Paik. Ben even kills a defenceless John Locke, which makes the entire end-of-world scenario possible in S6.

Well, the stones are symbolic. The white stone represents Jacob and the black stone represents the Man in Black (these are the colours they chose when playing their games together, one was always white and the other was always black). The set of scales shows that Jacob and MiB have been in equal balance for a long time, but now the white stone is gone (Jacob is dead) and the black stone has unbalanced the scales. It's essentially a visual metaphor for what the MiB has done to the power structure of the island. Thrown it into imbalance.

I'm afraid that is incorrect. The events of 'Ab Aeterno' on the Black Rock with Richard take place in the year 1867. The events in 'Across the Sea' (aka the origin story of Jacob and the Man in Black) takes place approximately 2,000 years prior to that during the Classical Roman Period. The Man in Black even confesses to Richard that he is the smoke monster in 'Ab Aeterno'.

I really have to challenge this one. Because we see those bright flashing lights again when the smoke monster scans Richard Alpert on the Black Rock in a scene that clearly shows the full scanning process. And we are talking full bright flashes that blink across his face. You can re-watch the scene on KZfaq and you will see it instantly. It's true that we don't see the bright light flashes on Eko's face but that is because the camera pivots through the smoke cloud from the other side in a cool 180 degree shot, but we do see the flashes within the cloud as his memories are extracted. Flashes are always associated with either time or memories on LOST. I'd also counter that it does happen with Ben. When he is surrounded by the smoke monster in the summoning chamber, we see these same flashes blinding him within the cloud as his memories are extracted. It's worth re-watching this scene as well. And this explanation definitely helps to explain what Locke saw in 'Walkabout'. When he looked into "the eye" of the smoke, he was blinded by these flashes, and mistook them for something inherently "pure". And conflated the smoke monster as somehow being a positive embodiment of the island itself.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Yeah, those are all just small short strobe like flashes. The ones with Kate and Juliet (and I suppose also Locke) are MUCH brighter and more like yellow. Why don't you even attempt to assume, my theory COULD be right? I think both theories are possible, but you insist that yours must be correct? Why?

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Especially in Locke's case, I would stand by my theory. Because in every other encounter with Smokey, even if he did scan them with strobe lights (i.e. Richard), NONE of those would have said they saw a bright light! They saw the SMOKE! Richard even says that (granted he had his eyes closed when he got "flashed" but still). Only Kate and Juliet and Locke saw a VERY BRIGHT light. That's because they were candidates and they were directly attacked. That's when the magical Island powers interfered. Why is this so difficult for you to assume? I think, it's a great theory! It doesn't ruin your theories! It just adds to them.

It's not that I'm saying your theory can't be true, I'm just responding to the fact that you claimed there were no light flashes in the scenes with Eko and Ben (and wanted to point out that you didn't mention Richard). So, for clarity, it was worth mentioning and countering that.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 OK, now that I have clarified that I just meant that there was a significant difference in the scan flashes and the bright lights, we cool? What do you think of my theory?

No, he was not lying. The showrunners confirmed that scene in The Last Recruit between Jack and Fake Locke to be an answer to the question of who on-island Christian has been. It’s official. Also, thinking about your theory from all sides a bit more: why would real Ghost Christian appear to Locke and make him do all these things that play into the Man in Black’s plans? It makes no sense. Why would Christian appear to Locke at all when The Island could have sent him someone he actually knew like Boone or Eko. The logic breaks down as soon as you start factoring in things like that. On-island Christian was always MiB.