Read on for some rambling on (1) the Monster's pseudo-clairvoyance, (2) Jacob's Cabin and Esau's captivity, (3) the other half of the outrigger shootout, and (4) Richard's faulty memory.
SMOKEY'S LONG MEMORY (in both directions).
The Smoke Monster can take the form and memories/experiences of anyone whose dead body is on the Island. The Others have burial rites to prevent this, but there are lots of non-Others we've met who have died on the Island at different times. This gives the Smoke Monster access to life experiences from past as well as the future (up to a point), thanks to time travellers. Charlotte died during a time skip, I think it was the distant past, when Locke gets unroped while going down the well. Her experiences would give Smokey memories of the 21st century, and perhaps his first glimpse of Richard, aka Ricardo, leading him to spare him and attempt to use him as his first clumsy attempt at a loophole. Knowing that centuries would pass before he would even get close to killing Jacob must have ticked him off, but what else is he gonna do, right? It will take that much time to get all the necessary pieces in place (not to mention born, grown, and transported to the Island).
What does Charlotte know? She's spent her life searching for the Island, and altho she isn't fully aware of it, she's a child of the DI. She was hired by Charles Widmore and knows of Benjamin Linus by reputation. She met Lapidus, Miles, and Daniel. She also met the 815 Candidates. In her time skips, she meets Richard and the young Charles and Eloise. That's a lot of clues to the future.
Esau could connect a lot of dots with the memories of all of the not-cool kids from Oceanic 815 who got wacked in the time skips, like Frogurt, y'know? Rose and Bernard's natural deaths? And what if Daniel Faraday was never given a proper Other burial? THAT is a lot of valuable information, including significant interactions with Desmond! That would mean that Esau would actually recognize Desmond as a proper threat or key to a threat to himself when he sees that he is the secret that Widmore kept on his sub.
WHO WAS IN "JACOB'S CABIN?"
I think it was Esau. His consciousness. Trapped within the cabin within the Circle of ash AND as such, separated from the smoke monster, which cannot break (into) the Circle either. I think that the Others believe themselves safe from Esau, treating him as a bedtime story told to scare Other children. Y'know, when they could still have children.
I believe that Esau is an entity separate from the Monster. That the Monster inhabits the Island with instincts and/or programming of its own to follow. In his time on the Island, Esau was given or discovered that he had the ability to enter and control the Monster, possessing it. This is why, when he's attacked by Jacob's bodyguards, Lockesau disappears from the Foot chamber, and the Monster enters thru the door. Apparently Esau's human forms can materialize and disappear at will, while the Monster is wherever it is when Esau's will possesses it.
So, who trapped him? When? How? Was Richard not aware of it? Did Jacob do it on his own and keep the success, or its details, from his people, reassuring them only that the Boogeyman had been mysteriously dispatched? Richard seems genuinely surprised when Lockesau walks out of the Foot and tells him that he looks much better out of those chains. As if Esau has been long gone/absent from the Island and its affairs. Of course, the presence of the Smoke Monster is no surprise to 21st century Others, right? Juliet knows to activate the sonic fence to save herself and Kate when they're all "chained heat" together, and Ben is familiar with the Monster is something that can be summoned to beat on the enemies of Jacob's people. So, in recent Island history, Richard must consider them, Esau and the Smokey Monster, to be two different entities, even tho he "met" them when they appeared to be one and the same.
The Circle is a special place, one that only Others and Candidates, those touched or baptized (via the Temple spring) by Jacob, can find and visit. You might have a map to it, but if you're not meant to see it, you won't see it. Horace was special ("Goodspeed" is a crossed out name), but not educated or indoctrinated by the Others, so he was still an outsider when he stumbled into the Circle. Once within it, Esau was able to manipulate him. He planted the idea of building a getaway cabin on the site of the Circle, a place where a human host could commune with Esau while in captivitiy. Perhaps he believed him to be the voice of the Island, or even Jacob. Maybe that's how Esau sold himself to his visitor/s.
Whose dog is that portrait of?
How does the Cabin become Ben's go-to place to stage visits with Jacob? Ben claims he's NEVER communed with Jacob. His only communication with Jacob was via Richard's messages and lists. Did Ben just happen to find the Cabin and realize that it was a special place, a place to use to keep up appearances and maintain his sham relationship with Jacob? Did he do this with Richard's help or blessing? Richard certainly didn't go to the Cabin to get Jacob's lists. After all, when Lockesau asks to see Jacob, Richard knows to take him to Jacob's sewing room in the Foot.
I think that when Ben takes John to the Cabin, it's Esau's voice that John hears, asking for help. It may have been a genuine plea, but it's also a cunning little move, boosting Locke's faith and cache w the Others, and at the same time jabbing another needle into Ben's side, another bit of kindling for the fire that would eventually consume Jacob. And when John and Ben leave the Cabin, one of them breaks the Circle without knowing it (I'm guessing Locke, as he rushes out, startled, while Ben steps out calmly, quietly freaked out), thus releasing Esau from his prison, allowing him to roam the Island again at will, possessing the Smoke Monster some of the time, but at other times, taking on the corporeal form of the Island's dead.
Hrmm... But what about Christian's appearances to Jack in the early days? Is Esau capable of phantom projection? And does he need the body to do that? When Christian appears to Jack on and off the Island, to Michael on the freighter, and to Locke in the distant past in the Donkey Wheel chamber, he doesn't touch them or physically interact with his surroundings.
OUTRIGGER CANOE SHOOTOUT.
I still like the idea that Locke's appearance in the near future will mess with Lockesau's integrity, rendering the Monster vulnerable to attack or (re)capture. I wouldn't be surprised if he had to sequester himself out of sight from his recruits during that time to deal with whatever effect it might have on him. Still, there is more to the shootout than Locke, right? There's a whole other canoe of people.
I'm thinking that it's Richard, Miles, and Ben. They're a small party of three, armed, and currently active on the main Island. After retrieving weapons from New Otherton, they'd seek transpo to get over to Hydra island, right? I'm still unclear on when two canoes ended up at the Losties beach camp, but I'm gonna assume they're there.
Let's recall who's in that lead canoe. Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Faraday, and Charlotte. So, it might take a little memory jog, but once he saw the other canoe heading out to sea, present-day Miles would certainly recall the incident and who was in the canoe with him. Why would he tell Richard and Ben to go after them, tho?
1. Because he thinks they could change the present/future by killing Locke in the past.
2. Because he thinks he could tell them or give them something to change the past and fix the present/future.
3. Because he hopes to get to Faraday for some help.
Option 1 seems like the most likely, right? I mean, Miles was a great student of Faraday's talk about "What happened happened," *but*, he was also there for his "variables" backpedal, that reality, the past and future, CAN be changed, thanks to free will.
And, OK, a hydrogen bomb, but now you're just splitting hares. =)
So, Miles, Richard, and Ben would set out to make it to Hydra island, but if, on the way, they can take a couple shots at Locke and kill him before he can make it off the Island to die and become Esau's loophole puppet, well, why not, right?
Wouldn't it be awesome if they could actually catch up to the first canoe so taht Miles could trade places with himself? "That's what I hate about singularities."
Juliet took shots at the pursuing canoe and apparently hit one of them. Could she make out who was in the other boat while sighting down her rifle? Maybe she tells Sawyer "later," once their cozy in their DI nest? And maybe Sawyer sees potential in knowing who chases them in the future and leaves some info with or for Miles somewhere in Dharmaville in the 70s for him to find in 2007.
Yeah, I still really want to see that Sawyer set up some remarkable long con of a play while playing LaFleur in the DI in the 70s. Maybe something convenient/lucky like a security override or code that he set as head of security, or the location of a cache of DI weapons and supplies? Or something very specifically farsighted, like... Frack, I dunno... a copy of the treaty between the DI and the Others that established the truce? Not sure why that would help, but y'know, some artifact or piece of info that he would want kept safe for 30 years to be played as part of a contingency plan if they made it back to the "present," which of course, they did.
I wonder what they'll find at New Otherton. I don't think any of these three have been there since the time travellers returned. Are there bodies for Miles to read? Who last died there? Locke's followers from 2004, when the mercs attacked, right? Did Ben bury Alex? He certainly left her exposed enough to be used by Esau (when Ben is "judged"). I wonder if the dead know they're being used by Esau. Where does Esau keep the bodies of his favorite corporeal forms? Christian? Yemi? Does he need them kept safe and "fresh" for faithful use and re-use?
Is there more secret chamber/compartment fun from Richard and Ben? Tunnel spelunking?
Allright, that's all I've got for now. Damn. Can't believe there's less than three weeks to the finale. Frickin frackin sazzafrazzin...
*sigh*
DID SOMEONE MESS W RICHARD'S MEMORY?
* May 5, 2010. This was originally at the top of this post, but I decided to bury it due to its mootitude. (See note in gray at the end.)
Widmore remembers Locke's time skipping visit on the Island. When he visits Locke after he turns the wheel, he marvels at how it's only been days for Locke but so many years for him since they last met face to face.
When Lockesau leads Richard and Ben to Ethan-bullet-wounded past Locke at the beechcraft wreck, why doesn't Richard remember his encounters with time-skipping Locke? He and Eloise recognize Faraday (eventually) in 1977 from his 1954 visit. Why not remember Locke?
* May 4, 2010. Okay. It's not a question of memory, it's a question of logic, confusion, and not enough information. Richard CLEARLY acknowledges Locke's visit to the past, because he does, in fact, have the paradox compass on him that Locke gave to him in 1954. Duh. Still, I'm surprised that long-lived Richard doesn't know or figure out what happened to John three years ago (2004). I'd think he'd have encountered enough dots (Locke and co in 1954, and Sawyer/LaFleur and Faraday in the 1970s) in his uni-temporal-directional life by 2007 to connect and end up with Island-driven time travel, no?
No, I guess. O well. So, this is a moot question.
(Altho, it does kind of dovetail with the nature, story, and/or disinformation of "Jacob's Cabin.")
Keep on keepin on~
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