Thoughts on LOST

Since Nathan and I can't watch LOST together, we got a chance to talk about it on the phone today.  Here is what we came up with.

1. Jacob wasn't in the cabin - it was "Smokey".  The ash was used to keep him in, not someone else out.  

2. "Smokey" took the form of Christian when the survivors first crashed in the same way he took the form of John during the second crash.  Christian appeared to Claire when she was in the jungle and she left with him.  Claire was then with him in the cabin being all weird.  As we saw this week, Claire said "that's not John, that's my friend".  So, we think Smokey was in the form of Christian until Locke was brought back to the island dead.

3.  We think the Smokey's goal is to now kill all of the candidates or recruit them (and then kill them) so that he can leave the island.

4. Sayid probably is sick since Jacob didn't worry about getting him out of the temple.  It looks like Smokey is going to the temple and going to kill those who are there.  That makes us think that Sayid is no longer a candidate.

5. We think that those who were on the plane and landed have been "touched" by the island.  Its like they have been able to see the positive in their lives instead of the negatives - i.e. Locke being ok in his wheel chair, Claire keeping Aaron, Jack accepting his son, Hurly being lucky, etc.

Questions:
Is there really someone else coming to the island?  If so who is it?  Widmore?

Will Jacob take the form of someone else?

What is going to happen to Kate since she was never a candidate?

Is Sawyer really on Smokey's side?

I think they are currently doing a great job of raising the discussion of "free will" vs. "destiny".

What do you think?