He's Not Heavy, He's My Smoke Monster

[ckirkman]

I'll just leave this here:

Retcon - "Retroactive Continuity" v. to retroactively revise (a plot, storyline, character, event, history, etc.), usually by reinterpreting past events, or by theorizing how the present would be different if past events had not happened or had happened differently. See: Crisis on Infinite Earths; Wolverine's bone claws

Comments

[ashmh]

Perhaps Smokey is the essence of MIB that developed into that form after Jacob tossed him into the cave of light. As for his "dark" personality traits, I would say that Jacob also possess negative traits, as well. I think that Smokey/MIB simply wants off that island after learning the truth about his origins and his mother's death. And he is willing to do anything to achieve this. But due to Jacob's idiotic act of murder, his essence is mingled with that light and if ever gets off the island, it would mean the end of the world and the Universe. Think of the Pandora's Box myth that was featured in the last Lara Croft movie.

[ckirkman]

Did you just bring up a Tomb Raider movie?

[ckirkman]

It's quite possible... it could be a central nexus through which all branching, alternate universes must pass. There has to be a core - and maybe it's the heart of everything.

[asavitzk]

Only thing I wanted to chime in on is the idea from MIB of using the wheel to channel water and energy to make something happen. Channeling water is exactly how Ben "called up" smokey when they were under attack by Keamy's men.

[ckirkman]

Good call! I had almost forgotten that he pulled the plug on his tidy bowl.

[mollymillions]

You're not alone in being annoyed about the basketball belly. I couldn't get that out of my head during the scene!

As for the temp. in the wheelroom, I think it might have something to do with Dharma messing with it. Maybe how they got Polar bears transported around the world (like when Charlotte found the bear with a dharma tag in the desert)?

[ckirkman]

Ahhh, the polar bear angle. Nice connection there, I hadn't really thought of that. I wonder if there is another exit somewhere else on the planet? Doubtful, as I covered the physics of the exit point last season......

[mollymillions]

Yeah, I toyed with the idea that it could dump someone out at the north pole, but that doesn't jive with the physics.

I was thinking something like Dharma artificially manipulated the temp of the cave. . . maybe they were getting the polar bears to turn the wheel to test the effects? That would explain how Ben knew where it was and knew how to use it.

[filigod]

I could get convinced either way by a good enough argument, but so far I'm still thinking Smokey might really be MIB, shorn of his "body and humanity" which he accused Jacob of taking from him. There's that accusation; the fact that he chooses original MIB for his form unless he's going on an undercover mission; the fact that he talks about Locke in the third person but MIB in the first person; the fact that he hates Jacob (if he's not MIB what sort of grudge would he have against him?); the snarky exchange of game pieces; and most of all, the fact that he "just wants to go home

[kyaraelf]

I like your theory.