What was smoke monster

Audiences weren't given an explanation as to why the Smoke Monster made itself look like John Locke Terry O'Quinn , even after killing him. Lindelof explained how there was a give-and-take between answering and giving questions. He said, "So hopefully for every one that we answer, we've set up a new compelling mystery.

If we get that balance right, they're not gonna stack up. In the end, no matter how hard the writers tried, Lost ended up giving up more questions than answers. Newsweek reached out to a representative for Lindelof for comment but did not hear back before publication. Culture Lost Television.

Read more. Newsweek magazine delivered to your door Unlimited access to Newsweek. Unlimited access to Newsweek. Abrams and Damon Lindelof's original vision for the smoke monster was vastly different. According to the Lost series bible that was compiled after the filming of the show's pilot as a sales pitch to the network, the smoke monster was suggested to have " man-made origins " that linked back to the early idea that led to Dharma Initiative, either as a result of the group's cutting-edge scientific experiments or as a security system designed to protect the island's various Dharma stations.

The document also describes the smoke monster as " more machine than animal. Obviously, these plans were changed somewhere along the way and, reading into the show's development of the smoke monster mystery, it may not have been that early on. Early appearances of the smoke monster came with mechanical sound effects that imply technology and machinery are behind its appearance and the monster is described as "Cerberus" on the ultra-violet blast door map of the island.

Cerberus guarded the gates of hell in Greek mythology, suggesting that the original plan to have the smoke monster as a Dharma guardian system was still in place during season 2. In Lost 's fourth season, Ben is seen summoning the smoke monster from a special chamber using some kind of ancient mechanism that some suggested are responsible for the machine-like noises.

Once again, this propagates the theory that the smoke monster was still being written as a security system as late as season 4, even if the mechanical origins had been explained away by this point. With the mechanical sound effects, links to Cerberus and the summoning chamber, it seems that Lost 's original plan to reveal the smoke monster as a guardian remained in place long after the pilot, even as more mystical aspects had been introduced.

Indeed, it does appear that only in the final two seasons was the decision made to turn smokey into both Lost 's final villain and the monstrous form of a human character. But this idea that the Smoke Monster is in charge of keeping the timeline intact could explain why it killed specific people. Take Mr. Eko in Season 3 for example. If he carried on with his path of redemption, he could've changed much more about the survivors' journey.

But because he was always destined to die, the Smoke Monster was in charge of killing him. It does make sense, but it would also be surprising that the Man in Black would happily preserve the timeline when his entire purpose is to cause chaos and violence as Jacob's Mark Pellegrino opposite on the island.

Then again, keeping some semblance of order would also keep the Man in Black alive, so maybe his timeline-protector role was just out of self-preservation.