Yesterday afternoon I went into my crazy – and increasingly not so crazy – theory as to what’s going to happen with that hydrogen bomb in next week’s finale. So what is going to happen to the second half of our story, the one with the creepy bald guy claiming to be an unchanged yet improved John Locke?
In short, I have no idea. I agree with Doc Jensen over at EW.com in that I have no clue as to where they are going with this, especially the part about John Locke killing Jacob. So here’s some more thoughts about that:
Dead is Dead
My gut instinct is telling me that the person going around as Locke is not Locke reincarnate but some kind of being inhabiting the dead body of Locke, just like some kind of being is inhabiting the dead body of Christian Shepherd. The being? My money would be on Smokey.
- In the episode “Dead is Dead”, Locke goes out to the jungle when Ben calls Smokey from his house, asking the monster to meet him (Ben) outside. Ben walks outside and meets…John Locke. Ben falls through the floor underneath the temple and Locke goes to find something to pull him out which is exactly when Ben meets Smokey. Locke returns once Smokey is done with Ben.
The island has a habit of bringing back dead people to do its bidding. These dead people seem to be aware of who they are, what their lives had been. So is John Locke gone? Not exactly but he’s being controlled by whatever the hell the smoke thing is/represents.
Good John or Bad John?
The increasingly more interesting question that Lost is posing, and has been for quite some time, is whether or not Smokey, Jacob, Richard, the Others, Dharma, the island is good in nature or evil in nature. Which side is the right side? For my part, I’m inclined to think this new Locke, whatever it is that he might be, is not on the side of good. And this goes with the assumption that the Hostiles/Others and especially Jacob are on the side of good, which I think they are.
- In Season 4’s episode “Cabin Fever”, John Locke goes to Jacob’s cabin to find out how to save the island. In there, he meets Christian Shepherd who says he is not Jacob but can speak for him. It is Shepherd that tells Locke to move the island and he tells him so again right before Locke turns the Frozen Donkey Wheel earlier in Season 5. We take it on faith that Christian Shepherd is speaking for Jacob. How do we know if he is? I’m right about Smokey inhabiting dead people and if I’m right that Smokey is actually evil in nature, not good, then moving the island was not Jacob’s idea but Smokey’s.
- When Jacob said “help me” in Season 3’s “The Man Behind the Curtain” (the first time we go to Jacob’s cabin), what if he meant that Smokey had him trapped and not, as many people are saying, that he wants John Locke to come back to the island in 2007 and kill him? Sorry, not buying the latter for a second.
Putting It Together
Assuming all of the above is what is happening, let’s piece this together into some kind of meaning.
If Smokey = Christian Shepherd, then Smokey ordered the island to be moved, thus thrusting the Losties back into 1977 (skipping over the whole time jumping part because Smokey wanted Locke to turn that wheel, not Ben) and ejecting Locke back into the “real world.” There, Locke meets Widmore who tells him there is a war coming and while Widmore can’t be trusted, this piece of info seems plausible enough to believe. Locke dies and comes back to the island, now a tool in which Smokey can enact its plan to get rid of his arch nemesis = Jacob.
- The war Widmore is referring to is between Smokey (whatever that is, I don’t have a better name for the force) and Jacob.
- Locke has been corrupted into being on the WRONG side. He was corrupted because he died. He thought he had to die because Richard told him to but it was baddie Locke that told Richard that.
- Jacob and the Others/Hostiles really are the protectors of the island and distrust anyone new that comes because of Smokey’s tendency to dress up as dead people.
“We’re the good guys”
Where do Richard and Ben fall into this theory above? Well, if all that above is true, then wouldn’t Ben and especially Richard be the good guys? I think it’s fairly reasonable to suspect Richard and Ben are in cahoots or will be shortly. Richard doesn’t trust Locke and Ben hates Locke – they have similar and different reasons for their feelings. But Ben and Richard have a connection to each other.
- Richard facilitated Ben being healed by the island, in what I’m guessing was a plea of help to the dark side. Richard stood by Ben during the Widmore days and when Richard came to Locke in Season 3 and suggested he and his people were tired of Ben’s experiments with infertility, I’ve always suspected that it was Ben asking Richard to do that in order to gain Locke’s trust falsely. Plus, they make such a cute couple.
- Though Ben is compromised by his very human emotions, ageless Richard is not, thus explaining why Richard comes off as more level headed yet more potentially threatening than Ben ever has.
The more I think about this theory, the more I like it. I at least think it has the potential of being somewhat correct, though it probably won’t be. I have a horrible track record with these things (see my Charlotte is Annie theory from last year). 
And you know me, I’ll do anything I can come up with that justifies Ben being Ben.
ETA: As to Locke insisting that no one has ever seen Jacob, I think he’s as wrong as Ben thinks he is. Michael Emerson is a wonderful actor and this show has great editing. Why would they choose a reaction shot of Ben when Locke accuses him of never seeing Jacob that wasn’t so much “Oh crap, he figured it out” as “WTF?” If I could find a screen cap of it, I would post it.
