Mother/Theories

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Theories about Mother

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Theories may be removed if ...

Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Is the Smoke Monster

• evidence:
  • She says the same thing that MIB says to Jacob: "They come, they fight, they corrupt." and that "it always ends the same".
    • This could equally as likely be because he learned that point of view from Mother.
    • MiB always quotes other people (including himself), when he took the form of Locke he quoted Locke "do not tell me what i cannot do", he could simply have been quoting his Mother to Jacob.
  • We see Esau as the smoke monster is released moments after she dies.
    • We are not sure if it is Esau who was released or just simply the smoke monster that was released because later on we see esau's body dead similar to the pilot seth norris in season 1.
• She doesn't want to leave because she can't leave, because she is guardian of the light. Since she appointed Jacob as her successor, now that she is killed she can finally leave the island. Unfortunately she is still stuck on the island in the form of the smoke monster, taking the form of MIB.
  • She tries to pit the boys against each other when she says only one of them can be the guardian of the light.
  • She is very vague about her past and lies to everyone.
  • She knocks out MIB and is most likely responsible for the massacre of the people. There is no other explanation provided for how all of the people could have been killed, neither by a single old lady or by any other source.
    • In the episode MIB says that "she burned them" referring to his kidnapper/Mother.
  • It is humanly impossible to fill up that deep well in a matter of a few days, even with 2 people.
    • There is also a large tree seen briefly lying across the well. Smokey is known to knock entire trees over, old mothers are not.
      • Unless 'old mother' has the smoke monster entiy inside of her or it is controlling her.
  • May also be the entity inside MIB and Locke
  • the entity in Locke is similar to MIB--similar enough for them to be possessed or cloned by the same entity.
  • The entity in Locke has his facial expression and uses his lingo much like Locke and an example of this is when he says "Don't tell me what I can't do."
  • Like Jack and the rest of the Losties who know that Locke is not who he appears to be, Jacob likewise knows that MIB looks and acts like his twin brother but it is not him but the entity that lived within his "mother" which is the smoke monster who perhaps is trying to leave the island to destroy the world!.. Unless the darkness is goodness than it want to make to world better and bring world peace and put the light: goodness back into people.
  • She halts Claudia's inquiries about her origin with the distraction of recuperating.
  • The camera pan over the Man in Black's shoulder as he's working in the well, and sudden reveal on his mother nearby. MiB turns as if suddenly aware - he would have heard someone if they had normally climbed down the ladder. Additionally, Mother is standing on the far side of the ladder, not in front of it or approaching the Man in Black.
  • The shot of Claudia at the stream seeing the approaching reflection.
  • The ghost of his mother, while disclosing some truth, could have actually been an apparition (being that the dead body was on the Island) intended to manipulate a division between the two brothers.
    • Unlikely - apparitions of dead people (not Smokey) have been shown to only be visible to a single person (other people nearby see nothing). So as Jacob didn't see anything, Claudia's appearance was likely not Smokey.
    • Indeed unlikely. It was MiB that wanted to leave. If the mother is the smoke monster, then why would she want to leave?
      • Well remeber what jack said the intentions of the smoke monster may not be to leave it just my be to kill all the candidates off the island. and It wouldnt actually be mother who wants to leave it would be the entity that was inside of her that is John Locke now and the entity that may have been inside of mib during jacobs discussion with him at the beach.
        • The smoke monster is able to take on charcteristics of the person who it takes over so the person the mom used to be may not want to leave the island like crazy mother Danielle did not want to leave.
  • She may have at one time entered the light and unwittingly became a smoke monster... this is how she knows that entering the light invokes a punishment "worse than death".
    • "a" smoke monster, rather than "the" smoke monster is key.
• Mother is a smoke monster because how could she have killed the whole village in such a short amount of time and how did sh know the fate of someone who goes into the source.
  • Interestingly, while Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have not confirmed nor denied the theory that Mother was the Monster prior to the Man in Black, they did note that while [she is] "a scrapper", for her do wipe out the Man in Black's village as a human by herself against "twenty armed men" would have been "impressive, especially in daylight".

• counter-evidence:
  • MiB's ambition has ALWAYS been to leave the island. "Mother" showed no sign of wanting to leave the island (except in death). In fact, Mother is shown passing some unknown quality on to Jacob, saying that now "we're the same".
    • Mother showed no sign because it was part of her plan to get Esau angry, kill her, and then have Jacob kill him.
    • MIB is not Mother, they are two different smoke monsters. She wanted to stay in the island, while MIB doesn't. She knew what would have passed by falling into the source because she did before.
  • Mother was stabbed to death, however the smoke monster cannot be harmed by knives or guns.
    • Well it has never been shown what happens if the smoke monster is stabbed and it is all an plan to get Esau angry, kill her, and then have Jacob kill him and throw him in source which may be the reason why she told jacob that if you go in there it is worst than death. Because she knew that Jacob had atemper already and was deeply attached to her and he would the worst thing to his brother that he could think of and soon after that the smoke monster was released because that was smokies plan all along.
    • Actually, she was stabbed to death without saying a word, that is the way Dogen told Sayid to kill MIB (Sundown: "Dogen gives Sayid the dagger warning that he should stab him in the chest before giving him any chance to talk").
      • The reason Dogen says that is due to MiB being persuasive. Sayid does stab him before he says anything, but to no avail. MiB within two minutes after being stabbed has Sayid affiliated with him. Boo Yah
      • Jacob was her loophole which is why he sounded like ben when he told his "mother" that she never wanted him to be the gaurdian of the light but his bother. So mother basicly manipulated these boys their whole live so that the moment could come in which smokie could be release to the last barrier the island and manipulate some more and plot people against each other and after that it would be able to could enter the off island world.
    • Perhaps MIB was able to kill her because he did it before she spoke? it has been indicated before that Jacob and MIB can only be killed before they speak to you. Ben succeeded in doing that to Jacob, where Sayid failed to do it with Flocke.
      • Jacob said a mouthful before being stabbed by Ben. "What about you?" etc.
        • This may be because Jacob was never controlled by the black smoke and since he was able to let richard alpert drink the evelasting life kool aid (wine)he was able to then die like mother.
          • Jacob was killed by Ben, not by MIB. Sayid stabbed MIB (Locke) AFTER he had spoken. Richard tried to kill Jacob but was apprehended before he could do so. By that time it was too late, as Jacob started speaking.
    • Plus, she left a body behind. If she was the smoke monster, there should already be a dead body on the island which the Smoke Monster took the form of.
      • Fake Locke also left a body behind when he was killed by Kate, so there's no reason Mother would not leave a body behind even if she were also the previous smoke monster.
• It is possible that Mother was BOTH protector and monster. She seemed fine with Claudia until 2 sons were born, then she killed her. Mother knew that she could split up the duties between the two, though she suspected that Jacob would become the Monster because he was not good at 'games' the way BIB(Boy in black) was. She raised Jacob to be the balanced judge (monster) and BiB to be the protector because he 'had what it takes' to be able to combat those who sought harm to the Islands source. The key is GIFTS. she gave the game to BiB and the wine to Jacob.

She is both a smoke monster and the guardian of the source.

Mother was once a human being just like any one else. She was chosen to become the guardian of the source and took on the privledges and responsibilities of this position from the previous guardian in ceremony like the one she has passing the job on to Jacob. After protecting the source for a while, the temptation becomes too great and she goes into the cave resulting in her becoming a smoke monster. Not the same smoke monster we know but a different smoke monster. She is tortured for years by her evil nature being trumped by herself.

• In "Across the Sea" the smoke monster that we know is created when the man in black enters the source. This entity clearly identifies as MiB even when it takes the form of other people. We know this based on the conversations with Sawyer and Kate.
• It is possible that anyone who enters the source would suffer this same fate, worse than death, as the MiB did (becoming a smoke monster) if they enter the source.
  • Mother seems to speak from experience indeed when she tells about a fate worse than death ... and thanks the MIB when she finally dies, indicating her current predicament is actually worse than death.
• We have strong evidence that there was a smoke monster before the MiB smoke monster because the Egyptian Hyroglyphs in the tunnel in "Dead is Dead" depict a smoke monster.
• Mother would have to have some powerful ability to fill in the well and kill the settlement so quickly.
• Mother is killed in the exact way that Dogen tells Sayid to kill Flocke, with the dagger before she has time to speak.
• Mother clearly cares about protecting the source. When she finds out that MiB and his settlement has discovered it she puts and end to it.
• Mother passes the responsibility of protecting the source on to Jacob.
• Mother's statement to Jacob "I love you both differently." is a way of telling us that each of the twins becomes part of mother. Jacob the guardian. MiB an evil smoke monster.
• Figuratively speaking, Mother is the yin-yang, unifying the principles. She is the balance. Her foster sons show us the extremes, yin and yang seperated, the scale out of balance.

She is an American Time Traveler

• She speaks Latin with an obvious American accent, unlike Claudia.
  • Or she's played by an American actress.
  • Yes, but her accent is obvious. It's fairly easy to lessen an accent, especially for actors.

She is "the Island"

Somehow, her spirit/consciousness became one with the Island. Her will enforces "the rules" and chooses who lives and who dies.

• • I support this theory strongly. Her spirit IS the island hense why she found Claudia rather quickly. She chooses who lives and who dies. Her death was probably planned and now Jacob is the Island. But Mother expressed strongly not allowing MiB or the light to go out (leave) so Jacob followed her "rules". Therefore I think it was Mother's idea all along, and Jacob doesn't have free will.

She is one of the people who discovered the Light

When Jack enters the water fall to the Source, there are skeletons of people there, most likely of Mesopotamians (from the cuniform on the plug), with that in mind, she could have been with them and helped dig into the Source. When they drilled into the Source (which explains why theres a plug in the first place), she could have been there and then transformed by the light to be immortal and possibly a slightly different Smoke Monster (which granted her super human abilities which allowed her to wipe out MIB's "people" but also allowed her to have a human body; MIB's body died when he became the Smoke Monster). Her first hand experience with the Source explains why she doesnt want the light to be shut off (the Island probably began to crumble with her people as well until they plugged it)

Reference to

• Taweret - It make sense that the mother is in fact Taweret herself, as many of the mythos related to her can also apply to the events between her, Jacob and the MiB. Also the statue is protecting the island just like her.
• Rebecca - In the story of Esau and Jacob, it was Jacobs mother Rebecca who came up with the plan to steal the birthright. MiB is in fact Esau and is still angry that his mother favored Jacob
  • In the end, Jacob (Ya'akov) and Esau make peace.
  • However, contrasting to the Biblical story, Jacob was born first on the Island rather than Esau, and Jacob is clearly under the impression that Mother favors Esav.
• She is an Egyptian goddess, possibly Nephthys. She could be the actual Tawaret, inspiring Jacob to have the statue built in her honor.
  • No evidence that Tawaret statue was build after her death. Since Jacob/Esau were born approx. 10 C.E. (after Romans conquered the Egyptian empire) it is more likely that the statue was built in her lifetime
• She is the witch Sycorax, the MIB is her son Caliban from William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'
• Echidna - In Greek Mythology, Echidna was a monster who gave birth to many monsters. Among them was the Lernean Hydra (like Hydra Island) and Cerberus (one of MiB's names).
• Lilith - The apocryphal first wife of Adam. Traditions vary, but the story, as put forth by C.S. Lewis, goes that the two had children before the creation of Eve. Lilith sinned and was cast out with her children. Eve was created as a replacement.
  • Lilith was not a story told by C. S. Lewis; the only tie to him is that Lilith was the mother of White Witch, one of the Jinn.
  • Lilith is a mythological daemon/succubus, most well known as the first wife of Adam before Eve from Jewish folklore. She is an embodiment of infertility, lust, and has origins as a Mesopotamian storm daemon that was the bearer of sickness and death. More recently she was reclaimed as a kinder gentler feminist figure.
• Eve - Adam's wife in the book of Genesis. While Adam and Eve are only recorded as having children after being expelled from Eden, the fact that "the Curse" contains a clause about childbirth suggests that they had children before the fall, who would have remained in the Garden.
  • The producers have said that Adam and Eve were not the biblical figures, so that rules out Mother being the Biblical Eve, but we do know she was "Eve," the female skeleton named such by Locke.
• The Virgin Mary - Mary is used quite a lot in Lost.
• Rhea Silvia - In Roman mythology, a Vestal Virgin (tasked with maintaining a sacred fire) who mothered twins Romulus and Remus, the founders of a city to which all roads lead.

Insanity

• Although her responsiblity is real, Mother went insane after being alone on the Island for God knows how long. Her absolute distrust in humans, which led her to massacre the only other people on the Island are clear indicators that we are not dealing with a sound and rational mind. Mother might have wanted just such a legacy. Maybe she wanted to be the Cursing rathering Blessing Mother. She's a sociopath, perfectly rational, perfectly evil.

"Mother" is connected with the discovery of the Island through the Lamp Post

"Mother" was an American who was part of an expedition sent to the Island sometime prior to the 1970s after the apparatus at the Lamp Post station was built by the "clever fellow." She was, however, transported to an unknown point in time millennia in the past by a time flash like the one that transported Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sayid from the Ajira 316 flight to 1977. There, she came in contact with the Source and became the Island's ageless protector (as well as acquiring other powers, apparently).

• Evidence:
  • Her Latin has a painfully obvious American accent, while Claudia's does not.
  • Jacob and MiB use modern American English when communicating with Ricardo in 1867.
    • It appears she uses her "other powers" to have Claudia speak/understand Modern American English.