Before I get to Cerberus/Smokey, let’s go back to Locke for a minute. The episode’s title is “Dead is Dead.” Ben tells Sun that what’s happened to Locke (resurrection) has never happened on the Island before. The place can heal you, but it can’t bring the dead back to life, right? Christian Shepherd was in a coffin on Oceanic 815 just as Locke was on Ajira 316. I’ve always run with the assumption that the Christian Shepherd we’ve seen on the Island is Smokey itself having taken his form and memories. The same for Claire and Yemi and now Alex.
Well, it’s not too far of a reach to assume Locke remains dead, right. All five of the potentially dead people I’ve just mentioned were scanned by Cerberus at one point of another (substitute Eko in for Yemi’s memories).
So, is Locke truly dead? Is the “man” we’ve seen just another manifestation of Smokezilla? Locke disappears to find a rope just before Smokey appears. Alex appears after Smokey goes back into his grate. Locke re-appears after Alex disappears. Much like Faraday’s rule that the future can’t be changed, perhaps another of the Island’s rules is, as Ben says, “dead is dead.” If so, the John Locke we knew is dead and gone, his memories now processed and used to manifest a likeness of the Man of Faith who once seemed so directionless. He seemed to know how to get to the Temple pretty easily, yes? After Ben had performed his summoning in Otherville, he and Sun hear noises in the bushes. Ben suggest Sun vacate the premises, as whatever’s in those bushes is “something [he] can’t control.” Out walks Locke seconds later.
We can take Ben’s comment for its obvious double-meaning: he can’t control Locke, and he can’t control Smokey. One and the same? There’s a part of me that thinks the writers wouldn’t go this far, especially in light of “Alex’s” last words to Ben before she evaporates: “I know that you’re already planning to kill John (Locke) again. You will listen to every word John Locke says, and you will follow his every order.” So if Smokey/Alex is telling Ben to listen to Locke, it would stand to reason Locke’s still human and very much alive. And the Island very much wants him to be the leader.
Let’s forget who Smokey’s pretending to be and focus on the big, bad monster himself. Somewhere beneath the Temple (but not within the Temple itself, we’re told), is a series of catacombs that presumably serve as the big guy’s humble abode. A clear Egyptian influence in the decor; cuneiform adorning the room’s pillars, and of course the provocative mural above the smoke-grid.
On the right appears to be Anubis, Egyptian god of the afterlife. You’ll of course remember his giant likeness carved in stone outside the walls, last glimpsed by Juliet, Sawyer and Jin before they flashed into 1974 when the donkey wheel was set back on its axis. “Anubis was the god to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife.” Seems an appropriate description for a being that takes dead people and restores them to some sort of “life.”
On the left side of the mural is, of course, Smokey himself, apparently being summoned out of his grate by Anubis. Who the frick created all this stuff? I suppose Richard Alpert could pass for an Egyptian, yeah? An ancient pharoah; hell, maybe he’s Anubis himself! He’s always been a guide; never claiming the mantle of leading the Others himself. The Island has always chosen its leaders and Richard’s been there to offer advice, from the periphery when necessary.
I can’t wait to see where we’re guided next.
John Locke has turned supremely confident of late… a nice change to see the role reversal with him and Ben.
oops, that last one was me….
Have we seen anything of Ben’s “girfriend” that gave him the doll when he was a kid, yet?
why does this widmore not look anything like the “military” widmore from a few episodes back (with jughead)
About Ben’s “girlfriend”, I thought that it was going to be Charlotte until the Oceanic flashed back into that time and she was so young and Ben was obviously no where near enough in age to be in the same class. I hope we get to see the what happened to her soon.
David, this took quite a bit later. Jughead took place in 1954; this episode was in 1977.
If you look at the 1977 Widmore again, it actually does look quite a bit like Widmore. I didn’t see a strong resemblance until I was doing the screencaps.