Lost: Theories and Likely Wrongheaded-ness

[NOTE: This post is spoiler free for those who are either watching the show at its current point in the US with episode 10 "The Package" as well as those who are watching in Australia where episode 10 will air this coming Wednesday on 7Two]

Lost season 6 has so far felt as though it was meandering. But there is certainly a change in the air. Suddenly all the promise that the final season of the show represents is starting to become apparent. And gosh is it exciting.

With just seven weeks of episodes left (8 in Australia), Lost is finally ramping up to start delivering all the answers and exciting set pieces that we’ve been waiting for. The end of episode 10 was certainly rather invigorating. Damon Lindeloffs tweet about Episode 11 has been generating some buzz in itself:

For a show that dangles so many mysteries in front of us, I’ve strangely never felt compelled to theorise as to whats going on within the show. Yet, as we wind down towards the end I have been developing a theory that will likely pan out to nothing, but I thought it was worth publishing now on the off chance that I am even partially right and can score bragging rights.

My theory is this: the currently dead Daniel Faraday is the Smoke Monster/Man in Black/FLocke. I’m convinced that we haven’t seen the last of the character just yet and the more I think about the Smoke Monster entity, the more I feel he is someone we are familiar with from elsewhere in the show.

Some rough thoughts:

• Faraday left the island. When he returned, he was dressed entirely in black (a visual cue) – during his time away, could he have learnt something about the island, it’s physics, and have determined a way to transcend life and death, enabling him to become the smoke monster from back at the birth of the island?
• The Others are very much into notions like fulfilling a destiny. Eloise Hawkins was insistant that Faraday becomes a leading physicist. So far we have seen nothing within the show that indicates why she would have such a strong desire – unless she knows that Faraday eventually becomes so important to the islands existence.
• Considering Charles Whidmore and Hawking are so important to the mythology of the show, it seems off that the revelation that Faraday is their son won’t have some sort of massive payoff. This fulfils that nicely.
• The scene where Faraday cries upon seeing the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 still remains a little hinky.
• Faraday is one of the few characters that we haven’t seen in a sideways flash, yet is someone that we would totally expect to see in a flash. From a story-telling point of view, you don’t want to tip your hand too soon.
• Smokey claims to have mother issues. So far Faraday is the only character to have cited mother issues. The rest are all busy dealing with their daddies.
• And the big one for me is this: Damon Lindelof is a huge fan of Stephen King and, particularly The Stand. Lost is littered with a bunch of references to it. When the casting call went out for Daniel Faraday, the character name was different. originally the character was to be named Russell Faraday. Why is this interesting? Russell Faraday was an alternate name given for the bad guy in The Stand.

What wild theories are swarming about in your minds?