The Mikhail-not-dead angle was explained when he told Ben the fence wasn't set to full force. This was reinforced when we could watch young Ben adjust the dial in order to make his escape with the bunny.

that's ben's eye. The blood vessel thing was noticlible in HD throughout the show.

Well, IIRC, he was kind of annoyed with Locke. Then the beatdown occurred, so I'm sure that didn't make him all warm and fuzzy towards Locke.

Here is my theory to what has happened recently. Ben shot Locke to see if Locke is really the one that Jacob wnats to "take over" and lead the group. He doesn't intend to kill him outright simply test him. I know that Locke has to survive and he will be involved in a huge showdown. Whose side he is on is anyone's guess but you can figure out whose side I think he will be on. Also, when Ben spoke to Richard in the tent at the beginning he said something that made me 99% positive that Richard's people are much older than they appear. He said to Richard, "You do remember birthdays don't you Richard?"

I'd say he wants Locke dead because he is losing his power as the leader of the Others.

When I slo-moed the Jacob scene it looked like block smoke pushed Ben against the wall, so I'm 100% that Jacob=black smoke.

I'm pretty sure the losties were led to the Black Rock by Rousseau.

At this point in the show I am almost completely sure that the Black smoke and The Others are not on the same team. Black smoke machine/monster is a remnant of the Dharma Initiative and The Others/Hostiles are obviously not them.

But wasn't the sonic field created and installed by Dharma meant to keep Smokie, among other wild life, out of the camp?

I don't think it was specifically built to keep the smoke monster out, as Juliet makes it sound like they stumbled upon the realization that it doesn't like the fence.

"We don't know what it is, we just know it doesn't like our fence." (paraphrased)

The Sonic Fence I believe was built to keep the wildlife/experiments (which one of them could have been Smokie gone wild) as well as the "Hostiles" out. The Hostiles obviously used the opening that Ben gave them to take out Dharma and are now using their facilites to safeguard themselves from Smokie. Up to this point we have been given no evidence to think that Smokie was on the prowl during Dharma's time on the island. My belief is that Smokie became self aware when all of the main handlers of Dharma were killed during the "Purge".

Juliet doesn't work for Dharma either so she wouldn't know exaclty what it is. Also, Ben was still young when he "Purged" everyone else and may not have been aware of all of the things that Dharma had been up to. Obviously he didn't think the Swan was really important when he visited there last season. He made the button seem like it was just a game when it was discussed. Obviously he found out later, during the seaosn finale, that there was more to it than what he had previously thought.

Good catch. Didn't understand it at the time, but definitely makes sense now.

It looks like ol' brown-eye has dark brown sideburns. Maybe Richard.

maybe Jacob is the island itself.

that was my thought and might explain why richard seemingly barely aged from when ben was around ten years old to probably 30 years later with ben being around 40.

In the bible, Benjamin is the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel. Rachel gives birth to Benjamin on the side of a road and dies in the process. Rachel's last words were to name the baby Ben-omi, which means "son of my pain". However, Jacob changes the name to Benyamin.

There are a lot of similarities between Ben's story and Benjamin's. Ben's mother also gave birth near a road and died from the delivery. Similarly, her last words were to name the baby "Ben". This makes be wonder if Jacob is really Ben's father. But maybe this just alludes to the fact that Ben takes orders from Jacob.

In the bible, God changes Jacob's name to Isreal. In all, Israel bears 12 sons with Benjamin being the youngest. These sons go on to form the 12 tribes of Israel. The first king of the Jews came from Benjamin's tribe.

There's a lot more information about Jacob in the bible but I'm not sure how relevant it is. What stuck out for me was that the biblical Jacob was the father of the "chosen people". Maybe the tribe in Lost ("the others") view themselves the same way.

The chosen people were waiting for the Messiah to come. I wonder if they view Locke as the Messiah?

I think you are taking this a step too far. The room was very dark, without light to reflect off the pigment, you wouldn't see any color. In fact, although we'd never be able to prove it conclusively, I'm so sure that it's *not* Jacob in that shot I'd put money on it.

That's what i posted in the first few pages of this thread. I think it's pretty likely.

I've not seen that theory on any other board, and I read alot of them. I'm not saying you are wrong, but I believe you might be mistaken.

Just found out who will die by the end of the season:

It looks like black liquid smashing against the wall then breaking apart.

Also, it was interesting to see the fire from the lantern suddenly vanish in an instant.

And Locke pulled his trusty knife from behind his back to throw at Ben but was shot before he could let go of it.

Just curious, whatever happenned to the two twins and that woman on the boat with Tom that blew up the raft from season 1?

Who gave the fence code to Ben and why is it different than when Juliet disabled it?

why didnt locke shoot with the gun that roussoe jr gave him.

combo may have been changed in the 15 years or so since ben put the code in to when juliet did.

Wait, I thought she didnt know what it was? Didn't she say that to Kate?

his mom appeared outside of the security field