Not-Locke – said “it always ends the same . . .” – totally makes me think of the Greek Gods and the games they use to play with the human race – testing, goading, pawning — so my theory here is that these two (Not-Locke and Jacob) have obviously been playing this game with the Human race for some time. It’s a sort of like “is man basically good or basically evil” debate between the gods.

The trials of Job come to mind here /just with human race – the black rock was one round in the game, the jug head yet another test –the Dharma purge – the incident and our 815’er another incarnation of this testing – this has been going on for centuries between the two of them (gods) with different sets of people and different circumstances. Each time “Man” fails these test – Jacob calls a do over – and “Not-Locke” keeps trying to prove him wrong succeeding up to this point!

I think next season we will see the statue destroyed in another incarnation of his game with another set of people. Possibly with Not-Locke involved in that as well.

It seems that if anyone says they don’t like Kate, they’re bombarded with replies wanting an explanation.
I don’t like mustard. I don’t like asparagus. I don’t like American Idol. I don’t like Kate.

If you like Kate: awesome! I don’t have a problem with that.
But I don’t. A lot of people don’t. And we don’t have to.

One thing I want to make very clear: WE STILL HAVE NOT SEEN THE TEMPLE.

We have seen the outer temple walls 3 times and only Richard going inside the temple walls with young Benji. (the other two were with Jin and French Connection, again going underneath the temple ‘when montand lost his arm’ and when NotLockEsauLou Pole and Ben were there with Sun for Ben’s judging…)

We have seen under the temple, or smokey’s lair, the Smokey Shrine, complete with hieroglyphic carvings of smokey and anubis… we have seen another temple-like underground passageway that is closer to the barracks in Dharmaville, that is accessible by swimming under a stream, and is basically another shrine (to what?) and housed Jughead for decades.

And we have seen Ben’s door to the mud toilet used to summon Smokey, which does not appear to be underground and most likely is in the same house (Ben/Horace’s) that is adjacent to the tunnels leading to the Jughead ’shrine’ underground.

But WE STILL HAVE NOT SEEN THHEEEEEE TEMPLE.

What we have seen is a torn scrap of burlap with a Sobek looking statue woven in and A PYRAMID beside it……………TEMPLE ANYONE???

Obviously they are setting up the big reveal for the final series. I’ve been combing these boards for some time, and I don’t think anyone is talking about that PYRAMID.

Lastly, I think that the carving of the monster and Anubis is very important to unraveling the mysteries revolving around the relationship of Jacob>NotLockebutLouPolEsauApep?>Smokey. I do not thinking that Lou Pole and Smokey are one in the same.

I also like the possibility of a white monster we have not seen yet, per Locke’s description of what he saw when he looked into “the eye of the island” (when we were seeing from the perspective of some monster like “thing” approaching Locke) that may be aligned with Jacob.

I also don’t see her indecisio between Jack and Sawyer as reason to hate her, but rather to pity her. It reflects the dichotomy in her life and in her way of seeing herself. She desires Jack because she wants to see herself as someone righteous and good to others, like her step-father was. But she fears that the worst mistakes in her life stemed from an egotistical drive, and she’s been driven away of society because of that… like Sawyer. But whatever mistakes she made on that stupid triangle, she didn’t seem comfortable doing them, and it seems it certainly had its emotional toll on her. Her speech to Sawyer at the end of “What Kate did” seemed quite cathartic to me.

And I wouldn’t mention the assasination thing against anyone. Not on this show. It doesn’t seem like you hate Sayid, for instance.

About Claire, we had plenty of clues pointing to her death. One of the readers in another page complained about the need of many fans to receive direct, straight, obvious answers, and their inability to get subtle information. Yes, Claire did behave like Anti-Jacob. In fact, she behaved as calm, collected and confident as Christian, and when Locke said “How do I protect the Island?” she and Christian shared exactly the same look. It’s probable that, along with the dead person’s memories, Anti-Jacob adopts some remnants of the person’s demeanor. But it’s minimal. Watch those scenes with all the dead people again.
Besides, Ben and Richard seemed pretty sure that… well, that “Dead is Dead”. The number 1 possibility for all those CORPOREAL dead people walking around the Island? Anti-Jacob.

I just hope they don’t do a huge turnaround with Ben for his death. It wouldn’t be fair with the character. He must stay true. Many times tv writers feel the urge to make the character do a big sacrifice or redemptive action before his death. Like what was done for Baltar in BSG. Wrong. It was predictable and boring. If Ben has to go down as the most tragic pawn or the biggest SOB in that Island, so be it… (I will always love him anyway).

Yes, we don’t know how many monsters are in the show… and we don’t know if Santa exists or if the whole story is a dream in Vincent’s head (warning: schizophrenic dog on the loose).
Occam’s razor. We’ve seen the monster half a dozen of times and never as a white creature, always as a black cloud. To make a last minute addition in season six would feel contrived. Anti-Jacob worked because it tied mysterious loose ends (all the undead thing and Jacob’s cabin) and was thematically predicted early in the show (the white&black motif). For the monster, all we have is Locke saying he saw a white light in only one episode, and we already got a perfectly good explanation for that when the monster scanned Juliet in the same season.

About Walt, well, I think it’s safe to assume that Locke was victim manipulation in multiple fronts and multiple levels. He certainly lived the life of the ultimate pawn. Anti-Jacob NEEDS corpses that are on the island… and that’s why so much emphasis was made on Locke dying and return post-mortem to the Island (I wonder if Hawking was consciously helping AJ in his plan). Anti-Jacob couldn’t take the form of the living, off-island people. He wishes, since that probably would have made things much easier for him.

I’m just not a fan of her right now. It baffles my wife. She loves Kate.
People do like Kate, and I’m fine with that. And I’d have no problem being proven wrong by having Kate do great and heroic things next season.

I don’t agree that Claire is dead. She was only seen once since her disappearance, and behaved strangely – and not in a way that you would think anti-Jacob would behave.
All we know for a fact is that anti-Jacob was pretending to be Locke. As far as we know, that’s the only instance that we’ve seen him (though I seriously doubt it.)

I still believe that Ben is good, and that he always had good intentions, even though others had to suffer for the greater good. I agree that his death, which feels inevitable, will be epic. I only wonder if his true nature – good or evil – becomes apparent before that happens.

I wasn’t saying that Frank should be the next Jacob, but maybe to lead in Ben’s position. If Jacob is to be replaced, it should definitely be by Locke. The real Locke.

We don’t KNOW that there is only one monster. The idea that anti-Jacob can only take the form of unburied corpses makes sense, but him being taller ghost Walt fits in with the manipulation of Locke and Ben, leading them down the path to the death of Jacob. Locke needed to die eventually, but that might not have been the right time.