Smokie Harper
+8 8 Votes
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By MacCutcheon
- Smokie Harper
- Created: Mar 10, 2008
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.2: The Glass Ballerina
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
Ben is in control of the smoke monster
— MacCutcheon
I’ve had a check through the more recent theories and having not found any mention of this I’m not sure how well this theory is gong to go down. I’ve only seen this episode once, so if there’s something I’ve missed that totally disproves this theory please let me know. Likewise if this was so blindingly-obviously intended for us to pick up as part of the story, and not even worth the mention, just say.
Anyhow..
Not long into The Other Woman we see Juliet’s encounter with a recently introduced Other, Harper. Harper’s arrival is accompanied by the whispers that usually signify the presence of the smoke monster.
I immediately thought of Yemi’s appearance in The Cost Of Living, and how he asked Eko “What makes you believe that I am your brother?” or words to that effect. Ever since that episode I have assumed that appearances by dead characters (Jack’s dad, Ben’s mum, Ana Lucia) have been human forms taken on by the smoke monster as a means to manipulate the characters to whom they appear. I even assumed that this applied to, for example, Kate’s horse and the Hurleybird.
Assuming this is the case The Cost of Living can be seen as a pivotal episode in the sense that dead characters appearing in present time are not necessarily ghosts. They’re simply the smoke monster using data it previously collected from its flashes to take on the form that its target will be most affected by.
Enter Harper - with a message to Juliet to stop Lewis and Faraday by shooting them dead. This smacks of previous assumed smokie manifestations: a significant character from the target’s past leading the target to do something that will lead on to some significant event (Christian leads Jack to water, Emily Linus leads Ben to his encounter with the hostiles, Ana Lucia I think leads Eko to the hatch to stop Locke from not letting anyone push the button).
This all begs the question, if smokie manipulates its targets then in whose interests? Who controls the monster?
Towards the end of the episode Juliet tells Jack that Ben (not Harper but Ben) told her to kill Lewis and Faraday. To which Jack responds “How can he tell you anything? “. Ben is locked away at the barracks, so I see only three options:
He sends a message with Kate who is on her way back from the barracks.
He pre-empted the trip to the Tempest station and left instructions with his people to catch Juliet on her way there to give her the message.
Ben is in control of (or at least in contact with) the smoke monster, that took on the form of Juliet’s island nemesis.
Fire away.
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | Benjamin Linus | 3.20, 4.9, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1726 |
| Eko | Mr. Eko | 2.21, 3.5, 2.7, 2.10 | 288 |
| Juliet | Juliet Burke | 3.7, 3.16, 4.6 | 344 |
| Yemi | Yemi | 99 |
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | The Cost Of Living | 11-1-2006 | Eko | 140 |
I am with you! 1+
I am totally torn between what I think Harper was. I think I lean towards the idea that she is nothing to do with Smokey (‘the whispers’ being present in her entrance and exit suggest they might have some part in it for me), and that she might be a real, living person that can possibly astral project.
Still, you make a good case and it’s well-presented and may even be right! +1 from me.
I could be wrong, but I’m fairly confident that ‘smokey’ isn’t taking the form of living people that inhabit the island. I’m not sure about the dead, however.
In “Live Together, Die Alone”, “Hunting party”, and I’m sure many other episodes, the whispers are accompanied by the others. In Live Together, Die Alone, the whispers are heard when Jack, Kate, Michael, Hurley and Sawyer face the “Journal Graveyard”. Michael tells them to wait as they fire tranquilizer darts at the losties.
I found a FAR better theory as to the nature of the whispers. I think you’ll like it as much as I did. I hope so, anyway.:
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/lost/more/lost-easter-eggs-the-other-wom-17384.aspx
Cheers guys. Andrelus, I’m going to have to wait until I get home to folow that link, as my work computer doesn’t like it. You’re right though, the whispers have shown up at other times when the smoke hasn’t made an appearance.
MacCutcheon, This is nicely presented, and I think it could very easily be what is happening. I also believe that it is, an interesting point you made of Juliet telling Jack it was not Harper, but Ben that that told her to kill Lewis and Faraday.
I’m pretty sure Juliet knows a lot more about what is going on than we have been shown! Nice comments all around. +1
If Harper is alive, which at this point we have no reason to believe otherwise, then Smokey is able to take the form of the living. And if this is true, at what points has Smokey become a living player and who has he become.
Is it possible that Jacob and the Smoke monster are one and the same?
What happens to the person when Smokey takes over? Do they “leap” in time? That would explain the flashes.
If there are at least two factions of the Smoke monster, (one good?, one Evil?) Has Smokey been Locke when he killed Naomi?
Why can’t Smokey cross the Barracks Force Field? Why can’t Jacob cross the ashes? Or is it that Smokey cant cross the ashes and Jacob can? Who are the ashes there to protect?
Sorry, this is turning into a bunch of questions without answers. Ill cut it off here. Obviously this is quite the thought provoking post.
+1
Good food for thought. Both this theory and the one with the link sound pausible, hard to choose. If Harper was actually Smokey , it would make sense for wanting to stop Daniel and Charlotte, as it appears that it was wanted for everyone on the island to die. I can’t imagine Ben sacrificing his own life to that end. Then again, he has freedom to move around now, and no doubt some gas masks stashed away somewhere. On the other hand, I’m reminded of his warning to Danielle to get Alex away from there. But he might also have known how Smokey would react to the new arrivals.
I’ve just entered my first theory which ties in with this…what if “the box” is capable of moving things through time and/or space (by things read polar bears, Harper, Ben) meaning that Ben can be both imprisoned by Locke in the current version of time/space as we see it on the island whilst being somewhere else entirely (wel, dimensionally) sending Harper in to deliver the message so as not to blow his cover.
The whispers are an indication that dimensions are opening up as things move through the portal.
I don’t think Smokey is controlled by Ben.
I believe that there are 2 or 3 independent forces on the island-such as Smokey, Jacob, ghosts or ‘the Island’…
Mr Eko’s dream, where Yemi and Ana-lucia first encourage Eko to help John find ‘the question mark’(which led them to the Pearl station where they were all convinced that pushing the button was nothing more than a psychological experiment and eventually led Locke to believe that they should stop entering the numbers in the hatch- and so which ended up with hatch imploding, electromagnetic anomaly being spotted by Penny’s men and possibly other people trying to find the island, Desmond started seeing flashes of Charlie which led to Charlie swimming to Looking Glass and dying with hopes of a Rescue team finding the island and saving Claire-according to Desmond’s flash,)
===meaning that the first part of Eko’s dream was driven by a force that wanted the island to be found,
but then the dream changed and Eko was in the hatch where Yemi told him to enter the numbers no matter what.
Then possibly the 2nd Yemi(=Smokey) was angry with Eko for he failed to enter the numbers and it killed him.
Two forces that can both appear as ghosts but one wants the island to be found and the other(Smokey) does not want this. And there could be independent ghosts as well.
I personally think Ben and Charles Widmore are both bad guys. Ben acts as if he wants the protect the island but still he is just very selfish.
About Smokey and Jacob and the Island, I don’t know if they are all different forces, but one of them is the ‘good one’. Ben would like Smokey though because it wants the island to stay hidden.
So I think Harper could be Smokey, and Smokey could also be Jacob, and they might have picked Ben when he was a kid to kill Dharma and stop anyone from coming to the island for dangerous experiments. But Ben is the puppet and not the puppeteer.
word.
Just came up with a little observation. Smokey can’t be causing the visions because Smokey cant cross the barrier to the barracks, and Ben saw his mother outside his window at the barracks, which Smokey wouldn’t be able to get to.
Jacob must be the source of the visions then I guess.
If Smokey is able to take human form of dead people, Perhaps he has been in Mikhail form. We haven’t seen a living human try to just walk across the force field from the barrier yet. Although they shut it off with the code, maybe people don’t need too. If it only affects Smokey, that could explain why it fried Mikhail.
Far-fetched I know. I don’t really believe the paragraph above, but I am Spitballin’.
After Ben saw his mother he used a rabbit to test whether or not the fence was working, and it turned out the rabbit crossed safely, so I would imagine that the fence wouldn’t repel the smoke that particular time.
Yeah, but ben turned the machine off first with the code he had written on a piece of paper, and who gave Ben the code anyways?
I hope there aren’t too many different types of apparition, a one theory all would be nice. So, is Mrs Hawking the same type of apparition as, say, Harper.? Because let’s face it most jeweller’s are not experts on fate and time correction. Could the black and white smokeys be messengers for evil and good.
And also, it surprised me that Kate could pat her black horse.
Oh nuts. Who did give Ben the code? They are chalking up a lot of loose ends aren’t they? Cheers for the debate - I’m looking forward to checking out Andrelus’s link later.
Mnsr with this theory you are really spoiling us!
Great stuff. I vote for Number three. The smoke monster obviously preceeds Ben in that it led him to his mother BUT I believe it is a man made feature of the island which Ben could now control.
+1
I don’t think Smokie and Ben are related at all. Here’s why: 1.) Ben was surprised when Locke asked him about it. 2.) Juliette tells Kate they don’t know what Smokie is.
I think Ben (and Walt, too, for that matter) has a special ability that allows him to “bi-locate” or “astral project”.
From the Missing Pieces clips (mobisodes) it’s eluded to that Ben was trying to get Walt to grasp his ability. I believe it’s because Ben has that same ability.
We hear the whispers before Harper, Yemi, and Walt appear. Walt was older. If the apparition was taken from Locke’s memory, wouldn’t Walt look the same as he did in seasons 1 & 2?
Miles tells Ben, “Don’t treat me like one of them, ok, I know what you can do.” Juliette says “Ben will win” when talking about a potential conflict. He obviously has some kind of powerful ability.
Harper tells Juliette that Ben wants her to go to the Tempest, and that Ben’s exactly where he wants to be. How could she have known this if Ben didn’t have direct contact with her (assuming she wasn’t an apparition) or if she wasn’t a projection created by Ben?
If all of it isn’t Ben’s doing, I’m still leaning towards the Orchid station over Smokie.
great theory. I think it is as plausible as most of the other stuff out there now. My question now is that if Harper was the Smoke Monster, does Juliet have to die now for not following through?
Actually all the dharma people got a code for the fence every day. I just figured Lil ben snatched it from his father when he was drunk on the couch.
Very interesting, i posted a very similar theory let me know what you think. http://www.lost-theories.com/theories/2008/mar/07/harper-was-not-harper/
I can’t go with the smoke monster as manipulated by Ben or anyone. I think the smoke monster came from the same source as the other apparitions, out of the ‘box’ like Locke’s father. The box seems to respond to the deepest fears, secrets or concerns of the people on the island. I wonder who could have dreamed up Smokie.