Can Lost possibly answer all our questions to satisfaction? Can the writers find a unifying theory that encompasses all the characters, timelines, mysteries, and subplots? Or will the final season itself be lost? Each week I’ll investigate one of the many theories posted around the Interwebs and see how it pans out. Have a favorite theory? Let me know and it may end up right here on the Barrelhouse blog.

For our first installment, we’ll start with a theory that was even around in the beginning: the island is the Garden of Eden. Let’s break it down.

“So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24 (New King James)

Traditionally, the theory goes that the Smoke Monster, which Danielle Rousseau described as a “security device” (”Exodus, Part I“), is protecting the actual garden, perhaps inside the walls of the Temple. In the most recent episode, the Man in Black/Un-Locke/Flocke was revealed to be the Smoke Monster.

Here’s the thing. The Bible says “cherubim,” plural. I recently saw a comment on one of the many Lost theory sites that posited that there are actually two monsters. We’ve seen Man in Black/Smokey, but there may be another monster, Jacob, who will appear as white smoke.

When Eko confronts the Smoke Monster he sees all kind of terrible things from his life. After the encounter he builds a church, maybe as a kind of atonement (of course, the Smoke Monster ultimately kills him anyway). Same goes for Ben. He goes to see the Smoke Monster in order to be “judged” for all the lying and genocide and letting his daughter die and all that. If the Smoke Monster is supposed to protect the Garden of Eden, then having him judge whether someone was worthy or not to enter would make sense, and when they are found lacking, he pulls out that flaming sword in the form of a serious Smokey beatdown.

But remember, there were many scenes where we heard the monster but didn’t see it. This may have been the Jacob-monster. Three days after the crash of Flight 815, Locke comes face to face with the monster. He stands his ground and comes away with some kind of spiritual awakening. He later tells Jack, “I have looked into the eye of this island…and what I saw was beautiful” (“Walkabout”). In “The Cost of Living” Locke describes the monster as a “bright, beautiful light.” That doesn’t sound like Smokey.

You might also remember that way back in season 1, the crew found some skeletons in the caves which they nicknamed Adam and Eve (“House of the Rising Sun”). In one of the skeleton’s pockets is a black stone and a white stone. There’s also that scene between Locke and Walt in the pilot episode in which Locke explains that backgammon (played as white vs. black) represents the classic battle between good and evil.

Early on, references to people being Good or Bad were everywhere. The island may be some kind of proving ground where the wheat is separated from the chaff. The goal of the Dharma Initiative is to correct mankind’s course of self-destruction. How can you do that? Go back to the source.

And there are all the miracles. Locke is able to walk. Rose is cured of cancer. All kinds of improbable plot devices are convincing, etc. Now we’ve seen the healing baptismal font in the inner sanctum of the Temple run by John Lennon and some kind of Japanese arborist (Tree of Life, anyone?) bring Sayid back to life and we know it healed Ben years before. That’s something special.

Here’s a theory of my own. Yes, Jacob and the Man in Black are the cherubim placed to protect the Garden of Eden, however, they got bored and turned against each other. Jacob wants to invite people back in; Smokey wants to keep them out as per God’s instruction. That would make Smokey the good guy from a legalistic perspective, though Jacob’s mission to reunite mankind with Paradise and maybe even God is more appealing to us, the audience.

What to do with the Others? I don’t know. I can’t explain everything. Maybe they’re some race of beings that inhabit the Garden. Maybe they’re people who have been judged worthy to enter. That’s for the writers (or someone in the comments section) to figure out.