S6E5 VERSIONS OF LOCKE

There is some doubt on Ilana's statement that somehow MIB/Smokey is now "trapped" in a duplicate body of John Locke. When Claire's "friend" shows up at Camp Crazy, Jin says thinks it is Locke while Claire says he (it) is not Locke but her "friend."

There appears to be several different "versions" of Locke:

1. Regular boy Locke who grew up in a frustrated way.
2. Handicapped Locke who was betrayed by his con man father.
3. Miracle Locke who crash landed on the Island then who could walk again.
4. Time traveling Locke.
5. Strangled dead Locke (who turns into ripe Locke on the island who then is buried).
6. Flocke (MIB/Smokey) who takes the lead of the Ajira and Others.
7. Claire's unnamed friend.

We have seen that Flocke can change forms when he turned into the smoke monster and killed four of Jacob's guards. So afterward, when Ilana says he is trapped in that form, that cannot be the case because there is no intervening event (Jacob was already dead when the change happened in the statue.)

>>>>> Interruption tangent: looking at the various Locke characterizations, they can be imprinted on other characters in a similar fashion:

Ben:

1. Regular boy Ben who grew up in a frustrated way, without his mother.
2. Vengeful Ben who was betrayed by his alcoholic father during the purge.
3. Miracle Ben whose spinal surgeon crash landed on the Island so he could be cured.
4. Time traveling Ben.
5. Dead Ben (young Ben taken to the Temple after Sayid's gunshot wound to the chest).
6. Ben who takes the lead of the Others.

Jack:
1. Regular boy Jack who grew up in a fearful way with his father.
2. Surgeon Jack who was betrayed by his alcoholic father.
3. Miracle Jack who survived a plane crash.
4. Time traveling Jack.
5. Dying Jack who gave up everything to return to the Island.
6. Leader Jack who takes the lead of the 815ers.

>>>>>> I guess this can be filed under "Misery Loves Company."

The concept of "versions" of Locke reminds me of the uncanny ability of Patchy to die in episode after episode until the Looking Glass explosion. I always thought it was strange, like there were multiple Patchy guys running around like the robotic gun slinger in the old movie, Westworld.

It appears that MIB can shape shift into various forms, including the smoke monster and Flocke. If that is the case, then there is no restriction we know of that he cannot split into multiple beings like two Flockes. From a location standpoint, it is unrealistic to have Flocke and Sawyer in the Jacob cave on the other side of the Island, then Flocke and Sawyer show up at Claire's camp. The indication is that Flocke is alone.

Now, another explanation could be that Claire is under a spell. She sees a different person than Flocke, while the rest of the world sees Locke's appearance. When Flocke leaves the statue after killing Jacob, Alpert recognizes or sees a different "person" than Locke - - - he never says him name before getting beaten unconscious. It has been a hard push back from the TPTB that whomever Alpert or Claire has seen remains unnamed. Perhaps his name is Lucifer or Satan.

As of now, the majority view is that Claire died in the Keamy soldier attack in Dharmaville. Her house was exploded to pieces, and Sawyer came in to retrieve her groggy self. It was afterward that she saw Christian in the jungle, and she abandoned her baby and vanished with her ghost father. Dogen says Claire has the same infection as Sayid, a darkness that continues to grow inside. Claire says she was captured and "tested" like Sayid, except she indicated that they used needles on her (maybe the electric shock). The only reason that Sayid "failed" the test was that he did not react in pain when the ash was put on his body. The ash would have caused a severe reaction in the smoke monster (evil spirit) inside him. Of course, there may be no logic in the test protocol. Example, during Salem witch trials, the elders set forth a test whether a woman was a witch. She was thrown into the water weighted down: if she sank and drowned she was not a witch; if she floated and lived, then she was a witch who would be burned at the stake. In either situation, the end result is the same. An accused witch, proof or not, or an innocent woman, would receive the same fate, death.

The only apparent governor on MIB's actions has been "free will" choices of individuals. If MIB was an all-powerful being, then he would not need to take the form of John Locke in an attempt to influence, trick or push characters into choosing a course of action. Ghost Jacob is doing the same thing by pushing Hurley to push Jack into some final free will choice.

But if we are talking about versions of Flocke, meaning versions of MIB, we have no real proof that what we have been seeing is consistently a single Jacob, or a single MIB. If MIB can take the form of Locke, then why can't MIB take the form of Jacob? Likewise, if Jacob can turn from man to ghost, why can't he take the form of MIB, Jacob or anyone else? Ghost Christian once claimed he worked with Jacob (as a new form of Jacob or MIB?). It can be a huge game of misdirection on the viewer.