Off to Vegas!

Yep, tomorrow at some point we’ll be flying to Las Vegas! But that’s not really what I want to talk about here.

This is going to be a strictly LOST-related blog. If you don’t watch the show, bail out now. There’s nothing else to read about.

OK, so, all the rest of you still here, I’m going to assume you’ve seen the finale by now; if not, go watch it first, because this is going to be spoiler-heavy.

So, on to my first theory: The hydrogen bomb explosion isn’t going to change the future.
Evidence:

First, the writers already laid the groundwork for this by having Miles say, late in the episode, "Have you thought that maybe blowing up the bomb is what’s supposed to happen? So, maybe if we want to change the future, the right thing is to do nothing?"

Second, in the ‘official’ past, Eloise clearly remembers killing Daniel, which she wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t barged into the Other’s camp (brandishing a gun; geez, what did he THINK was going to happen?) while trying to find her. His whole point in doing that, you’ll remember, was to find out the location of the bomb, which he was going to try to use to change the future.

Third, what the bomb was ostensibly going to do was destroy the pocket of electromagnetic radiation where the Swan would someday be built. In addition to their explosive powers, nuclear bombs give off a great deal of… you guessed it! EM radiation! I think the explosion is going to in some way alter the EM pocket so that it acts the same way as it does in the future, so that what the characters have done simply fulfils the future, in the same way Sayid did when he shot the child version of Ben Linus.

Next theory: The ‘resurrected’ John Locke (revealed to be an imposter in the last 10 minutes of the finale) is a manifestation of the smoke monster.

First, earlier in the season, when Ben is ‘judged’ by the monster, it tells him he is to do exactly what Locke says, whatever he commands. Four things make this suspicious. One, the smoke monster has a demonstrated ability to read people’s minds; it would have known immediately that the Locke accompanying Ben wasn’t the real Locke. Two, the phrasing of its command, along with the threat to hunt Ben down if he disobeys, is calculated to make Ben follow ANY order from Locke, even one that goes against everything Ben was ever taught by Richard and Jacob. Third, and most significantly, the imposter Locke leaves when Ben falls into the chamber of the smoke monster, before the monster comes, and ONLY reappears once the smoke monster is completely gone, both in its smoke form and the Alex manifestation it used to confront Ben. Finally, earlier in that episode, Ben tries to summon the monster in a different way, one that never failed him before, but it did not show up- in my opinion, because it was already manifesting as John Locke, right next to Ben.

Second, during the rest of the season, and specifically during the finale, the imposter Locke demonstrates that he knows things that only the real Locke or Ben Linus would know. First, upon crashing on the island this season, only those two know that Ben killed the real Locke; no one else was ever told this, but the imposter Locke DOES know and remarks upon it immediately upon seeing the unconscious Ben. Also, in the finale, the imposter knows that Ben and Locke first met in the Swan station. The only way he could know these things would be some sort of telepathy, reading either Ben’s mind or the deceased Locke’s mind. (Actually, it must have read Locke’s mind, since it knew where and when he’d appear in the jungle when skipping through time; that’s not something Ben knew about). That ability is something only the smoke monster has been shown to have.

Third, when Frank Lapidis asks Ilana and company, "If Locke's in the box, who's with the Others?" (OK, he doesn't ask that exactly, because the episode is still shielding the viewer from the fact that Locke's really still dead, but that's the thrust of what he says), Ilana answers "Something a lot scarier than what's in the box." (emphasis added)

What all this means is that the man Jacob talks to at the beginning of the finale must also be a manifestation of the smoke monster. Through dialogue it is established that he is subordinate to Jacob, (or under his control in some way, and is thus forbidden to kill him, despite expressing a wish to do so), and that they hold opposite views of humanity. If this is true, it tells us a few more, miscellaneous things.

One, the smoke monster was not created by either the Dharma Initiative or the Others- it predates both of them. This actually was fairly well established already, but it’s even more obvious now, since the above scene was set in the 1800’s.

Two, every other example of a dead person being resurrected on the island is the work of the smoke monster, and the purpose of these manifestations have worked AGAINST what Jacob wanted. Specifically, the recent manifestations of Christian (Jack’s dead father) were the monster’s work, and have had a great impact on the events on and off the island. Of significance, the monster did NOT want Ben to move the island and be forced to leave it; it wanted LOCKE to do those things. This is probably because it had been grooming Ben to kill Jacob for a long time, and wanted him around for that purpose, whereas it wanted Locke off the island, since he’d been handpicked by Jacob. Also, note that the ‘prophecy’ of Locke’s death originates with the monster: Locke first hears that from Richard when he flashes forward in time; Richard, it turns out, heard it from the imposter John Locke (our smoke monster). In summary, Locke WAS special, and the monster really, REALLY wanted him gone.

One final theory, which occurs to me since the above raises the obvious question as to why the monster didn’t kill Locke in the earlier seasons, when it had multiple chances: All the people Jacob touched in the finale are off limits to the monster. Keep in mind as well WHEN he touched each of them, since that’s important to remember. He touched Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, and Locke BEFORE they came to the island the first time. Hurley, however, is only immune upon returning to the island, since Jacob didn’t touch him until right before he comes back. Everyone else, though, is fair game.

Alright, since this has now gone on way longer than I originally intended, I’ll sign off now. Anyone agree, or have alternative theories? Post yo’ comments!