Could it be that when Smokie came to the crash site it was expecting the original pilot to be there? When it found the other one, it killed him. I think we are going to be finding out more about Smokie in the upcoming episodes since that was Locke's first question to Ben when he said he had answers.

But Ben said he didn't know when Locke asked the question. Of course he changed the subject awfully fast and gave up the details on C.S. Lewis.

Yeah, for real man. That was probably the writer's way of saying "Hey viewers, don't forget about Smokie" because something about its coming up soon.

This is probably going to be an unpopular answer...but honestly I think 'smokie' killed the pilot in the first episode for no other reason than the writer's were introducing a 'monster' element into the pilot for a new show. I don't think they knew at that point all the intricacies of the plot. They knew a lot of things probably...but there's no way they mapped out the entire story before the series had even been picked up. So they wanted the monster they created to kill somebody, shock the audience and create a good story...and the pilot was a good candidate because they had decided not to kill Jack (their original intention) so it needed to be a guest star.

This is probably going to be an unpopular answer...but honestly I think 'smokie' killed the pilot in the first episode for no other reason that it they writer's were introducing a 'monster' element into the pilot for a new show. I don't think they knew at that point all the intricacies of the plot. They knew a lot of things probably...but there's no way they mapped out the entire story before the series had even been picked up. So they wanted the monster they created to kill somebody, shock the audience and create a good story...and the pilot was a good candidate because they had decided not to kill Jack (their original intention) so it needed to be a guest star.

Unfortunately, this is probably the case.

However, TPTB could still retroactively craft their explanation of Smokey to fit with the decision to kill the pilot.

I'd be willing to bet Charlie's "DS" DriveShaft ring originally stood for nothing more than the band's initials. The writers later crafted a more touching and sentimental story about Charlie's family and the ring was given more meaning, even though the writers probably didn't have this planned out from the onset.

Certainly, formulating a compelling explanation about the Monster and having it fit in with its early behavior would be more difficult than finding another meaning for the letters "D" and "S", but it could be done. =]

QueenElessar, I wouldn't disagree with you. I doubt they had it that well mapped out. More than likely they retroactively fitted it in. Still, it would be cool if it was tied together in that way.

I think we'll find out that Smokey read the pilot's mind, and found absolutely nothing redeeming there.

Maybe we just need to wait for Smokey's flashback episode to find out.