I have not read this any where yet and I am not real good at guessing things and always understanding Lost. However, what about their real mother who was dead that the young MIB saw? If the smoke monster could take the form of any dead person, could it have taken her shape to get young MIB to see the other people? This would mean the smoke monster already existed in some form on the island. This is what totally came to my mind first and foremost when watching this episode. The smoke monster showed itself as Christian, Jack's dad, leading him to water. Please note I could be missing something altogether.

Well, one thing I noticed reading these comments and watching the Instant Dharma video is that everyone seems to agree that the M.I.B. was stuck in the non-corporeal smokey form until Locke's body arrived on the Island. I disagree. Sure his body was destroyed after Jacob threw him into the cave but he apparently is able to inhabit the bodies of dead persons (i.e. Claire's father, Mr Ecko's brother...etc), so why wouldn't he be able to re-inhabit his former shell? As you undoubtedly recall, M.I.B. was walking around as Flocke while Locke's corpse remained in the coffin so the fact that his skeleton was buried with "Mother" doesn't mean he discontinued traversing the Island and conversing with Jacob in corporeal form.
I may be wrong but I think he can change between non-corporeal and corporeal(Including his former body and any corpse happens to be on the Island) forms at will. He waited for Locke's body to arrive on the Island to utilize this skill because it was the most effective way to have someone other than himself successfully reach and kill Jacob. I predict we will see M.I.B. shape shift to other fallen castaways before the series concludes.

While I didn't really like the episode, I liked the newly discovered information about Jacob and how he came to be the protector of the island. I also liked putting this episode together with the Richard centric episode. The way that Jacob spoke to Richard about how people have choices and he'll let them make them on their own decisions says a lot more now that we've seen Jacob get almost no choice in becoming the island's savior.

I love thinking about Room 23 and wondering if that was an idea Richard came up with. All the others must love Jacob. The idea that Richard was gaining favor for Jacob among the others is almost cute.

The Dharma Initiative still puzzles me to some extent. Was the Dharma Initiative brought guided by the MIB someway? They were definitely curious/scientific enough just like the original people MIB hung around with to dug the wells.

Also, what of the temple? Who built it? The Egyptian Hieroglyphics inside show that the people knew about the smoke monster. I would almost hypothesize that these people lived in the same time period that "Eve" came to be on the island. I agree a lot with LOST Examiner's post. It would only make sense that she would know what happens to people who go into the tunnel of light because she went into the tunnel herself. Maybe she was a more understanding and sensitive "smoke mommy" than our current Smocke as she never wanted to leave the island except only to die and rest. She only wanted to protect the light. Who knows how long she was there before Claudia washed up on shore.

If the "other mother" as someone called her made it where to boys couldn't hurt each other........how the heck did Jacob kill his brother? I had wondered how she destroyed an entire village and found someone's comment that she was a smoke monster interesting.

Ideas/theories of mine not mentioned in this week's Instant Dharma:

Who or where is Jacob's & Man in Black's father? Obviously, their mother came to the island with others who were looking for the source of the island's power/light/magnetism. It's logically possible that Jacob & MiB's father was also aboard that ship with their mother, even though he wasn't or hasn't yet been mentioned.

With this in mind, who is the main character that we know of trying to harvest the island's power? The character of Charles Widmore immediately comes to mind. How much do we really know about his origins? Is it possible he could have family ties to Jacob or the MiB? It wouldn't be the first time we've been surprised by the ongoing family connection theme. Could he be another character that cannot die? Ben Linus obviously hasn't been able to kill Charles Widmore... why is that? How deep does the relation go between MiB/Smocke and the true leader of the Others, Charles Widmore?

Lost will end the same way it always does; with a "loophole".

Im thinking that the "Mother" was the guardian of the "pit" where the angel of light was cast down from after his rebellion in heaven. Jacobs killing of his brother by throwing him into the pit released the entity in the pit to the island where he must now try to contain him. The smoke monster is not necessarily the brother but the embodiement of good and evil in man. The light is not per say good but the knowledge of good and evil.

The only way the Janney character could know that going into the cave of light was a fate worse than death was to have done it herself. She *was* the smoke monster. It was the only way she could have massacred that entire village of Others on her own. The only way an aging woman could brutally force her 40+yo son into that cave wall. She was alone and isolated (like the current MIB), and those babies were her "loophole." She raised them to follow her blindly and without question. When the time was right, she left the MIB without his new-found people and without a way across the sea. She needed him to be desperate enough to take her life as it was her only escape - she even thanked him for it. And that act is what pitted Jacob against his brother for all eternity.

I need to make some clarifications to my earlier post. Saying that the Mother is actually God was not what I meant. I think she represented God but was the literal interpretation of Eve in the Garden of Eden that I believe the island to be.

Ironically enough, I am NOT a very religious person. Too many people invoke their religions in the name of the most evil, unholy acts on this planet, which LOST itself has shown many examples of. Established Religion was created by Humanity as a way to control an otherwise out-of-control population.

At its heart, the Bible and other Holy Books are a collection of stories, whether someone believes in their Divine creation or not? The writers and producers of LOST are doing the same thing. They are telling a great story, drawing parallels to the Bible, Greek Mythology, and many other wonderful works of fiction that Humanity has created over the Millenia.

I * DO * believe in a "Higher Power," such as God, and I most certainly believe in Good and Evil and the subtle line between them. Life itself is in a constant state of flux, never static, never as black-and-white as we think, and LOST tells its story the same way. It has been constantly changing and the viewers' expectations are never exactly what we may think, which is why it is such a super show.

The idea of Redemption is central to everything that is going on in LOST. I have also thought the Island is Purgatory and that these characters must keep coming here until their souls are redeemed, but that explanation is a bit too simplistic for a story as complex as LOST has been. That is why I postulated in my earlier piece that it is a multidimensional place that Humanity originally called Eden.

In the end, we are all just speculating, anyway, so what does it matter? It's the great story I said it was, and nothing more. We will all get our answers (at least most of them) on May 23.

In the beggining of last night's episode Janney had a sense of relief when Jacob was born but a sense of confusion when MIB was born. I think she expected her replacement to be born, but instead there were 2 possible candidates. I believe her replacement WAS INDEED born, but it was split... hence the twinns. Both are meant to stay in the island. Both posses qualities equal to the ideal protector of the island. That's why one can not leave without the other. They have sort of a balance needed to protect the island.

Oh and one other thing. I know Jack's right about Locke or whoever Locke is now, not being about the kill them. He keeps setting up ways for them to kill himself. Just a thought