Uh, no. It’s an in joke that they have made before. People speculated on that as early as season one and they came out and said it isn’t true.
You do remember they left the island and went back, don’t you?
Right. Locke’s Dad said the same thing when he arrived there. They love to throw back to that idea.
ok this is going on way too long. there’s only 8 episodes left and they pace them as if they had 8 more seasons
Nice fake out by smoke-monster Isabella.
so I guess Richard thought Smokemonster is/was Jacib and is now all confused all confused about what he was doing all those years? or something
Man, talk about bad health care. Worst doctor ever. Not so great for the priest, either.
The Canary Islands were indeed a major stopping point for people going to the Americas, and I’m glad they didn’t go “The BLACK ROCK was a slave ship!!!1!!” when slave trading ended in 1807 in Britain. However, wasn’t the ship’s last voyage in 1845?What’s the deal with this story starting in 1867?
Oh Richard, bad bad move.
Whatever. I’m with Smokey. Hope & Change!
Ding! Give the man a prize.
Hurley - you are so cool
I want to say it was 1837, but I didn’t record and can’t verify.
Great episode. I got a real answer. The beginning of the end has finally started.
'67
I like the Old Testament Jacob better than the New Testament Jacob. 
So does this mean that the Smoky is loose in the alternate timeline?
If you were stranded on island with weapons and slaves in chains, and if you were a slaver, would you kill them all off? Makes no sense.
So the island is Pandora’s box? (or something similar)
Well, we now know what happened to the statue.
So does anyone think the MIB is still the good guy? Definitely evil/ devil leaning. (will say anything to get his way). Of couse, Jacob isn’t exacly pure either.
Brian
So does this mean we go back to assuming that Sayid could have killed Smocke if he’d jabbed him before he spoke?
Also, Smocke’s got an MO where he tempts people with what they most want. Power, a dead wife, a lost husband, etc. I’d love to see what he’d offer Hurley.
Crack Pot theory with a lot of holes:
Perhaps Jacob is playing a God-Like role and the Man in Black is playing a Satan-like role.
Perhaps the Island is the Garden of Eden. The origin point of man’s original sin, now so cursed. Perhaps “Adam and Eve”, really ARE Adam and Eve? (But, of course, in the Bible, they were banished from the Garden of Eden; a huge Angel with a flaming sword guarding the way in).
God and Satan are still having their dispute about the nature of man, but keep it to those that only Jacob brings to the island.
This doesn’t line up with some things that were said though, such as, Jacob saying, if you kill me, someone else will just take my place. And when Fake Locke told Sawyer he was just a regular man too, as well as telling Kate his mother was insane.
This show makes my head spin. I don’t think the writers would do anything so literal, but there’s some parallels there.
Thought it was a fantastic episode. Glad it ran long enough to do it justice. Great to finally get Richard’s backstory (and he did a wonderful acting job, I barely recognized him as Richard or as Nestor). I guess they gave him last episode off so he could grow that beard. I’m glad the whole ‘hell’ thing was just another ‘disprove lame fan theory’ that they do from time to time. Was fun to have a old school flashback (2 actually) for once. Slightly annoyed that MIB evaded revealing his name again, but I guess they are saving that for the big Jacob-MIB flashback. The whole Jacob-Richard exchange ended up being very Christian allegory and also very Bender-as-God Futurama episode. I appreciate Jacob’s hands off sentiment to some extent, but it doesn’t take into account the relative moral advantage or disadvantage of upbringing, or of gray areas. Also, while many of the people he brought to the island did need a second change morality wise, quite a few (Jack, Hurley) had psychological issues but not really morality problems. I guess we’ll see how that plays out.
It was pretty far off in the distance and merely a sailing vessel. The implication being that a storm developed at night and pushed the ship to shore.
Yeah but…so far Smokey has only been able to impersonate dead people whose bodies are on the island, except for perhaps Ben’s Mom. Unless him having her cross was enough…
LOL yeah I had to wonder if this was a little jibe at the whole Health Care debate in the US…
I had always thought the smoke monster could only take the form of people whose dead bodies were on the island. Guess not. But this is the first time he has taken the form of a person whose dead body was not on the island, right? And how could he know anything about Isabella or Richard’s life if he hadn’t left the island in centuries?
Maybe through the cross-pendant? Also, he’s able to see into the lives of people, best shown in that episode with Eko.
So what did Richard and Eko have in common that Smokie left them alone? Did the MiB “read” them and find that they could use them for something? I remember smokie coming back as Eko’s brother, but did he appear to Eko or someone else (Boone, maybe)?