John's Statement

[beachblinkette]

" I have looked into the eye of this island and what I have seen is beautiful! Is this John having a memory of what happened when he time traveled? Maybe it's something that we haven't seen yet, or could it be from something else??

[islander]

" I have looked into the eye of this island and what I have seen is beautiful! Is this John having a memory of what happened when he time traveled? Maybe it's something that we haven't seen yet, or could it be from something else??

Did he say that after his run-in with smokie?

[addictedtopainmeds]

Did he say that after his run-in with smokie?

smokie tried to kill him, remember? plus, smokie is black. whatever john saw was bright

[Antdog]

smokie tried to kill him, remember? plus, smokie is black. whatever john saw was bright

I think john saw smokie but as something else. Eko saw it as black while john thought it was white. Eko may not be as close to the island as john as something evil seemed to look like Yemi.

[krakup]

u know how smokie examines ppl like taking photos and there is a like a camera flashlight. i took it as john was looking into that. what i found most interesting is the suggestion smokie is the eye of the island

[LOSTLOST]

I dont think that smokie was trying to kill him. God only knows what was down that hole. But maybe Locke knew, he wanted to go. Mayb Ben or even Jacob sent smokie to get Locke. Idk but what he saw was beautiful and i think that is why he wanted to go down the hole.

[beachblinkette]

John's statement about what is apparently the soul of the island being beautiful reminds me of something I heard a fisherman friend say. He said that one day, while he was standing on the bow of his boat, out in the middle of the ocean, he had a deep feeling of being at one with everything. He said it was a feeling of contentment, peace, and awe and that for a brief moment he knew all of the secrets of the universe and felt that he had looked into the mind of God. Whatever that feeling was, it left him with a sense of his place in the universe and that his life had meaning and he knew he was where he was supposed to be.

I think it's called an epiphany.
It's defined as "an appearance or manifestation of a deity...or a sudden intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience."

So this for me means that John completes his destiny. I don't know if that is having to die since we don't know the end of the story. So was his "death" for some greater purpose (the island, the world, the universe, mankind, the 06, Aaron, Jacob?) being accomplished? John may not be the crazy old man after all. And if he really is dead, his expression in the coffin, looks like he was satisfied with himself and accomplished his goal IMO.

[notsolost42]

Well said Beach, well said. You are right when you say that John completes his destiny. John is dead....sort of. Remember in one of the scenes when Ben is asked about John being dead? He never answers that he is. So, Ben obviously knows something that hasn't been revealed yet about John.

I was also thinking about something else, just to get off track a minute, though it does have to do with John. When he was young and Richard came to test him and Richard ran out the door because John did not choose the compass. Richard simply knew that John wasn't at a point yet where he remembered enough. He had the drawings on the wall of the smoke monster, he picked up the vile of ash and the compass, but of course, as a youngster the knife was still more appealing to him. He had no distinct memory of it yet. It didn't upset Richard, as we thought, but he knew he still had to wait. If Johnwas born in 1956, and he appeared to be what, about 8 in that episode, then it was around 1964. That's ten years after Jughead. Maybe there was a problem on the island now concerning Jughead. Maybe that was Richard's hurry. I don't know. Just a thought.