I'm confused..

He said the island took his body, and we saw Jacob bury it in the cave.

Can he still make his own body and walk around in it? If so, then what's the problem?

But if he can't...if he needs another dead body to touch...then how did he sit with Jacob, and tell him that he wants to kill him, and that he would keep killing everyone, and then smash the wine bottle?

I guess this is a small detail, but....

He can make another body, but his first one, which is better if you think of it as a vessel, was destroyed, so MIB "became" Smokey.
He can "make" other bodies, just can never have his own anymore.
Just like he could pet Vincent as Christian, just like he could sit with Claire, etc.

I think he could of used his form whenever he wanted. As witnessed in The Incident. "Do you know how much I want to kill you?" was after he was turned. The fact that he is in Locke form, and is now stuck in Locke form because Jacob is dead, was to facilitate the death of the candidates.

I'm confused too.

He was in his own body when he sat on the beach with Jacob which was obviously after he was laid to rest next to his mother.

I guess this means he, as smokie can take the shape of any dead body, in this case his own body - he took the imprint of his own dead body just as he takes the imprint from other dead bodies like Alex, Christian and Locke. Part of his special-ness was the ability to speak to and see the dead, this may have translated to this body snatching ability as smokie.

Thought - Hurley can see and speak to dead people....
100%
I seem to have talked myself out of being confused...hehe :)

Somehow I wasn't confused by this, should I be?

MIB can impersonate the dead, if the dead body is on the island. He, his soul, is alive, but his body is dead, but on the island. So, he's just been impersonating himself, just as he is now impersonating Locke.

Is that too much?

Somehow I wasn't confused by this, should I be?

MIB can impersonate the dead, if the dead body is on the island. He, his soul, is alive, but his body is dead, but on the island. So, he's just been impersonating himself, just as he is now impersonating Locke.

Is that too much?

No I think you're dead on. I thought I was confused but as I wrote my post above I un-confused myself and realised that he just impresonated his own body after Jacob put it in the cave.

The Island took his body... But it can take bodies to appear (and it's easier to film...) but it's like a ghost body and I suppose it doesn't allow him to leave the Island and see the world... Locke's body is his new real body (because Locke was a candidate, or went off the Island and back dead, or something else, I'm not sure) that allowed him to reach Jacob and would allow him to leave...

smokey is kind of like play-doh. he can change to look like his human body - but it doesn't mean that inside that form there is a hear pumping blood through arteries and veins, and a stomach that is churning berries into stuff.

so his corpreal form is dead and has deteriorated in the cave where Jacob left him.

His soul, on the other hand, is inside/melded into the smoke entity.

Somehow I wasn't confused by this, should I be?

MIB can impersonate the dead, if the dead body is on the island. He, his soul, is alive, but his body is dead, but on the island. So, he's just been impersonating himself, just as he is now impersonating Locke.

Is that too much?

Exactly! But, I have to admit, I was confused for a minute until I thought it out. At first I thought Jacob was talking to MIB's ghost on the beach. :redface::biggrin:

So, was Jacob being sarcastic by offering his brother some fish to eat? What does a smoke monster eat anyway? And don't say souls. ;)