The forms MIB takes

[darthnosaj]

I've got a random theory that I don't know if anyone else has come up with yet regarding the different shapes that MIB can take.

Over the years we've seen him take the forms of Christian, Yemi, Isabella, Alex Rousseau, Locke and of course, himself. What do all these bodies have in common? As far as I can tell, with the exception of Isabella, none of their bodies were buried at the time there forms were taken over.

Christian - casket on the Oceanic 815
Yemi - drug dealer's plane
Alex - New Otherton
Locke - case
himself - "Adam" in the caves

Of course, MIB doesn't take over the old body, he forms his smokey self into a duplicate (we know this as his own body was left by Jacob in the caves and Ilana was carrying around Locke's body in the case). Anyway, I digress...

If you remember in the Season 5 episode "LaFleur", when Sawyer and Juliet saved Amy from the Others, she freaked out saying that they "We have to bury them...We have to! The truce. Oh, God. We have to bury them. And we have to bring him back home. We have to bring Paul back with us. Please. Please."

I think the Other's knew that MIB could only take the form of bodies left above ground so that's why they made sure that in the truce with the Dharma Initiative that old bodies had to be buried.

I could be wrong on this one and it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things...of course my only problem is that Isabella "shouldn't" have been on the Black Rock for her body to end up on the Island. Though one could argue that in the "off Island" world, they took Richard away from his house and left her body there unburied. But this would mean MIB could make contact off the Island which I don't think he can.

Any thoughts?

Jw

[spinaltumor]

Yeah, I think Smokey needs bodies to some sort of extent. Yemi's corpse disappeared from the plane before Smokey took his form, for example.

Buuuut, Smokey was also able to at least create an illusion for Eko by showing him men he had killed that were not killed on the Island. Isabella didn't die there (if she was ever Smokey). And then there's strange cases like Claudia (who appeared before Smokey happened so she could be just a ghost) and Ben's mother, Emily, who didn't die on the Island.

Also, remember that we saw the Others perform a sort of ritual cremating in season 3.

[cucumberjones]

I think Smokey needs the bodies to recreate them, the same way an artist needs to be looking at the subject he is drawing. From there, in simpleton terms, it's copy-paste.

I think anyone we've seen, including Isabella, can be explained as a ghost.

[monsterjester]

Nah, I think it's pretty clear that Smokie can assume the form of anyone dead from the memory of anyone he "scans," body or no, on-island or no. Perhaps the disappearance of Christian's and Yemi's bodies was just Smokie moving them to keep the people he would later manipulate with their likenesses confused.

[LockeRulez]

How could Isabella be either a Ghost or MIB if her body was not on the Island. this is all not very clear. "Ghosts" are supposedly dead people stuck there, and MIB so far needs a body to shape shift.

This is either something we don't know about yet, or in Richard's head.

[monsterjester]

I don't think her showing up to Richard at the end of "Ab Aeterno" implied she was a spirit trapped on the island, like Michael. I think it was just her spirit coming to him wherever he was at because he needed her. Hurley seems able to see dead people wherever he is, not just those trapped on the island.

[cucumberjones]

May 14, 2010 22:27:22 GMT -5 LockeRulez said:

How could Isabella be either a Ghost or MIB if her body was not on the Island. this is all not very clear. "Ghosts" are supposedly dead people stuck there, and MIB so far needs a body to shape shift.

This is either something we don't know about yet, or in Richard's head.

Like jester said, I don't think she's a trapped spirit, but rather just a ghost.

Hurley saw Charlie's ghost off island, when Charlie died on the island. Spoiler alert.

[LockeRulez]

yup.. i guess this just pokes another hole in the Answer that the Ghosts are those stuck on the island. Maybe that was just Michael's impression of things. They're probably just "stuck" in general, but not necessarily on or off the island.

[soreal]

Technically, there isn't a hole in the theory because they said the whispers were trapped spirits. They didn't say anything about ghosts.

[jacksonjessop]

That Others / Darhma / Body theory is good.

[witheyesclosed]

I said along time ago when Colleen died, the reason they did a burial by sea was so that she wouldn't come back as smokey. So possibly it's buried or drift out to sea. Which I think makes more sense since he can't go over water.

[tatumhart]

Wasn't Kate's horse smokey also? I think after he flashes around you, he can appear as something that you have an intense emotion about.