I'm assuming after this episode that ALL of the "I see dead people/people who aren't here" hallucinations are related to the black smoke. I'm thinking it's some mass of microscopic things that can take any form. I also think that

The smoke monster was shown in Season 1 (episode 24) and Season 2 (episode 10). And, yes, it's been made clear that the smoke was the monster that we heard (but didn't see) in the earlier episodes.

I was really disapointed with this episode and I guess the direction that the show is going in. I think if this show does jump the shark it will be considered the adding of the two new actors.

The biggest thing thats bugging me is the two new people. It's bad writing and comes off as very forced every secene they're in takes me out of the show. They have so many characters like rose and bernard that they've already established I dont see why they would add new ones.

And I'm sick of them killing characters, especially eko, I mean all that time spent on backstories only to see them die seems like wasted time. I mean in the long run why did it matter that shanon and boone were romantically involved? Why did it matter that the man in the plane was eko's brother? It didn't change a thing, why did we need to know that?

And I know the writers keep saying they have a plan, but I think either their plan is retarded or they're full of shit. I think I may stop watching until it's over.

Sigh... if you go back to the very first press releases for the show (I wish I could find them), the writers said something to the effect of "there are 47 people on the island, and as the series progresses some of the characters in the background will come to the forefront, while prominent ones will occasionally fade into the background, as the story demands it."

Sounds like that's pretty much what's happening to me.

Besides, they've got to repopulate the cast somehow, after all the recent thinning. I do agree that Nicki & Paolo were introduced rather clumsily though...

They obviously hate the black man on LOST.

1. Michael and Walt. Adios.

2. Rose. Rarely ever see her.

3. Eko. Dead.

Rose is a black man?

And of course the murderous cloud is, you guessed it- BLACK!

That will be revealed in episode 17.

Yes. Even though when people us the term "keeping the black man down" they are refering to all black people, Rose is infact a man. That's the kind of strange Bernard is into.

I gotta say I agree. Season 2 appears, in retrospect, to be nothing but the writers treading water and going nowhere. Makes one wonder whether they should bother going forward.

What are your thoughts on Eko's character?

In his first and third flashbacks, we learned that he was a former warlord who posed as a priest but never actually changed his ways. But in his second flashback, we saw Eko as a priest in Australia, and my impression was that by then he had changed and fully accepted God.

Indeed, when we first met him, he rescued several people from the crash. Later, he was refusing to speak for 40 days to repent for killing someone. He wrote on his big stick to remind him of the proper path he should be taking. He seemed like someone who had an unshakable sense of morality.

Why then did he refuse to confess his sins? I thought that seemed out of character. It seemed that he was deeply sorry for his past behavior, and then all of the sudden he refuses to repent because he did what he had to do to survive.

(Nevermind the fact that he did far worse than he needed to do to survive. As a Warlord he wasn't out there fending for himself, he killed people just for a little extra cash.)

You know, I think there may be some sort of connection between Ben and Glory. I wonder what it is?

my little theory on this 'monster'

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OK, take this all w/ a grain of salt and put on those hip waders…

In one of the Dharma film strips, the dude mentions ‘an incident’ that happens. We’re meant to assume that some accident happened with one of their research hatches or something of that order. I believe one of Dharma’s areas of study was into parapsychology and maybe some advanced areas of technology too. This ‘monster’ seemed comprised of both and was somehow accidentally released or done on purpose (to maybe thwart the Dharma Initiative?).

I don’t know why or if there’s someone ‘behind the curtain’ but the ‘monster’ seems to be able to analyze and judge people…then apparently brutally kill them if deemed necessary.

I had a hunch about this last season, but after last night’s episode I think I’m right. I think this ‘monster’ also has been creating all the ‘visions’ these people are having on the island:

• Jack saw his Dad on the island in season 1. He went looking for the casket and found it empty
• Shannon and Sayid saw Walt last season
• Locke was having visions of Boone in season 1 and 3
• Kate and Sawyer saw her horse
• Hurley saw Dave on the island
• Eko saw the gang he murdered, that altar boy, and his brother Yemi (his body missing too)

In last night’s episode when Eko was walking in the woods, you did see that small puff of smoke pass by him before he had visions of the gang, altar boy, and Yemi. Then the vision of his brother led him away from the plane…Eko said he was NOT sorry for his sins…the vision of his brother said something like “why do you call me your brother?” and left. Then the black smoke monster came out of the trees and smacked Eko around…complete w/ T-Rex roar and mechanical sounds as the tentacle dragged him.

During last season’s encounter of it by Eko, we saw that it was scanning him…you saw very quick flashes of Eko’s memories…the virgin mary statues, etc.

This monster seems to be scanning people and their lives and then judging them…occasionally projecting images from the person’s lives. Now to what end? Is there someone controlling this thing?? I don’t know…

Additional ‘monster’ thoughts –

• Is all of the Other’s intel on the castaways indeed coming from the outside world, or is most of this info coming from the scans the ‘monster’ is doing?
• The neon scribbling on the blast door revealed last season…some of the text mentioned ‘Cerberus malfunction here’ – if my mythology is correct, wasn’t Cerberus the 3-headed dog that guarded the gates of hell? Naming a security system that has the ability to scan and judge people ‘Cerberus’ seems pretty appropriate
• Could the ‘3 heads’ of Cerberus as it relates to the ‘monster’ be – (probably reaching here..)Another theory (and this is even more out there) is that the flashbacks we as the audience are seeing is exactly what the monster/security system/island is seeing. The producers have gone on record saying that the flashbacks are an important part to the show…obviously many of the flashbacks are nice insights into each of the characters, but this would be a way to integrate that more.

It’d be an interesting reveal down the road if the castaways find the heart of the island or nerve center and see tons of TV screens playing portions of people’s flashbacks….I’d think that’d be a nice “holy @#$%” moment.

The Dharma Initiative seemed to be formed to study science, human behavior, parapsychology and use these to try and make the world a better place…this ‘monster’ they created could be an early version of something they wanted to set out on the planet to help make the world a better place and get rid of those that are truly not worthy.

I have to say I totally disagree. I really liked the two extra characters being involved last night especially with the line stating that they are never involved. You have 40 people stranded and only a few do everything. I think that this filled a hole in the show. I do not suspect we will see them all the time but I liked adding them a lot.

I swear that people just want to complain about shows more than anything else.

Welcome to the internet, johnny.

Exactly! When those two decided to go with the group, my wife and daughter were both going "Who the Hell are they?!" I said "Hopefully, they're redshirts," and then had to explain the whole ST reference.

The show might have lost its fastball, but it still has a pretty good curveball and changeup.

I've liked this season, and although uneven, I think they've been moving the plot along at a decent clip.

The black smoke made its first appearance in the first episode of the series when the airplane engine blew up. The smoke wisps diagonally across the screen during the explosion.

i've seen the gif. of that and going back and watching the episode, it's very hard to see....plus there's some much junk flying around in the air

That's a stretch.

i think though that obviously the person sucked into the engine is what caused the explosion...

many people on the threads confirmed that they did see the "smoke" on their DVD copies. hard to say if it was there in the original showing.

and not sure if anyone posted this yet...

Eko is Monster Mash

There is something there, but i don't believe for a second that it's the smoke monster. It just looks like some unfinished cgi debris to me.

The producers already debunked that... the 'smoke' in that scene is just a shape that was used for special effects timing, and wasn't properly cleaned up before airing.

I have to agree with you. Also he did that period of silence deal because he killed the "other". Wouldn't that also have been what he needed to do to survive, yet he seemed very remorseful for that.

It was a great moment in his flashback when he said, "you don't know who I am," right before killing that guy.