My interpretation is that they lower Locke into the well, just before the timeflash to the 1800’s. Thats why after the flash, Saywer sees the rope dissapear into solid ground. Coz the well didnt exist back in the 1800’s.

But who says Locke timetravelled with them while being lowered inside the well, falling down into the frozen wheel room?

In other words, we dont know where Locke is or better said, when Locke is when he meets the mib in the form of Christian.

Thank you for your reply! It's an interesting idea that down in the frozen wheel chamber, time may not necessarily reflect the time that it is OUTSIDE the chamber. I totally agree with this premise.

I've had some time to think about this since I posted the question yesterday, and I have some additional thoughts about it.

First off, I know that the popular theory is that the wheel and the chamber were not built until sometime AFTER MiB was turned into the Smoke Monster. This is understandable, given that we see MiB with his wheel that Mother destroys before MiB can complete it.

However, what if that is just an assumption? What if the frozen wheel chamber was already completed by the Egyptians who were on the island long before MiB was even born? What if his ideas about how to build the wheel chamber are not actually his own (even though he thinks they are), but rather that he is unknowingly tapping into the Egyptians' knowledge of the island?

MiB seems to have many of the same gifts as other characters on LOST who are described as being "special". Locke was one of these special people, and we see some of his gift when he was young and drew a picture of the Smoke Monster. How did Locke know about that? Was he tapping into information about the island and then simply drawing what he saw in his mind? I'm wondering if that's what happened with MiB as well, as he was unknowingly tapping into the island's history with the ancient Egyptians.

MiB probably heard stories from Mother about the Egyptians and how they left the island (as illustrated by Jacob on his tapestry, since he also heard the same stories), and was fascinated by them--wanting to leave the island and find them.

Here's a rough idea of the timeline I'm picturing:

1) Egyptians create underground tunnels and various structures (the presence of hieroglyphs could be the indicator for pre-MiB stuff that the Egyptians built--such as Ben's secret room for summoning the Smoke Monster, the Temple, the statue of Taweret, the tunnels themselves, and of course the frozen wheel chamber)

2) the Egyptians leave the island, setting up Mother as the island's guardian

3) the second-to-last time flash occurs (the one which causes Locke to fall into the frozen wheel chamber, and the rest above ground can now see Taweret)

4) when Locke finishes turning the wheel, it brings Claudia (Jacob's and MiB's real mom) and her people to the island--similar to how Desmond accidentally caused Oceanic flight 815 to crash on the island.

5) after Locke and the others disappear from that time, what is left behind is Charlotte's dead body and a rope sticking out of the ground nearby (the wells had not yet been dug by MiB and his people, but the frozen wheel chamber existed underground, with access via underground tunnels, not from wells dug from above ground)

6) Jacob and MiB are born, and Mother kills Claudia

7) Claudia raises the two boys for 13 years

8) the survivors from Claudia's people are discovered

9) Claudia's ghost convinces MiB to join his own people

10) MiB joins his own people (who disappoint him, but he hopes they can help him leave the island so he can find the Egyptians who left so long ago)

11) some of Claudia's people find the magnetic anomalies, and they all start searching for more places on the island like that

12) One day while MiB is searching for more island anomalies, he comes across Charlotte's corpse, as well as the rope sticking out of the ground.

13) MiB then has a vision of the frozen wheel chamber but doesn't realize he's seeing what's already below his feet; he thinks he has to build it

14) he starts working with Claudia's people to build the frozen wheel chamber, but is stopped by Mother before he can complete it (which doesn't matter since the Egyptians had built it already)

15) MiB kills Mother, then Jacob throws MiB into the Light--turning him into the Smoke Monster. Now that MiB has been merged with the pre-existing Smoke Monster (which was probably a non-sentient "Cerberus" security system for the island), MiB's Smoke Monster "programming" prevents him from leaving the island, as well as from interfering with the island by continuing any of his previous projects/experiments (he wasn't even able to help an injured Locke make it the rest of the way to the wheel)

16) two thousand years go by, and the Dharma Initiative eventually comes to the island to pick up where Claudia's people left off--digging wells and trying to tap into the Heart of the Island

Having access to dead people's memories (like Miles does) could also help MiB to access the memories of Charlotte's dead body and learn much about the future, which helps him later to formulate a plan on how to kill Jacob and leave the island.

Just a point of notice.. something that sorta disproves your thoughts but will also screw your brain a bit more ;)

The Egyptians apparently encountered the Smoke Monster. In the chamber beneath the Temple wall, Ben discovered a mural appearing to depict the Monster facing the Egyptian god Anubis. (See ep.”Dead is dead”)

So the mib was there before the Egyptians? Uhhhmmm.. Didnt he find a set of Senet on the beach as a 13 year old? Senet.. an old egyptian game????

One thing to think about. With that wheel operational.. Time shifts for the Island is possible.. who knows what has happened in the past???

I mean, even this could have happened:

• Mib finishes wheel

• Wheel is used and time shifts back all the way back to Egyptian times. Thats where the markings comes from.

And since the wheel chamber is the center of all the time shifting... what if time stands still? We see it used a couple of times, yet nothing changes in that room...

The options are endless ?

My personal take on the smoke monster is that it existed before the MiB.

The original plan for the final season was to reveal that Jacob had thrown his brother into the volcano, not the heart of the island. The volcano was originally the source of dark power, and when Jacob throws MiB into it, it turns him into the smoke monster. Of course since it was the plan from the beginning that one of the dead bodies that Jack finds in the cave is MiB's body, that means that Jacob must not have thrown MiB into lava (no body to bury).

But when ABC said that the volcano stuff was too expensive, the writers had to make some changes. One of those changes was most likely a clarification on what the smoke monster is.

I believe that the smoke monster existed on the island as long as the Heart of the Island did. It was most likely not sentient, but more like a force that protects the island. It wasn't until MiB was thrown into the volcano that his consciousness was merged with the smoke monster to create the version we saw throughout the show.

The Egyptians discovered how to harness it, which is what Ben's secret room is where he summons the smoke monster. That was before MiB made it sentient, in which case MiB/smoke monster will "obey" the summoning if it suits his purposes.

A wizard did it