i can't read all of those posts, but i did read that you finished and talked about the smoke monster.

i don't read the stupid message boards because they're way too in depth and although it's fun to entertain new theories, those are just a bit too much for me..

In my opinion, i LOVED the finale. I love when shows/movies lead you in one direction, and then you find out that there is a bigger picture (being Jacob and the man dressed in black).. my theory was that the guy dressed in black is the smoke monster. He can change into other people. You asked previously why did ben have to kill jacob and not locke/smoke monster guy? Well you remember the beginning of the episode when he said he couldn't kill him but he'd find a loophole. So we don't know wh yhe can't kill him, but it seems pretty apparant that he appeared in the form of Alex to tell Ben to listen to whatever Locke says, which is why Ben killed Jacob..

A few things i researched after watching.. When the crew from the second flight that crashed asked "what lies in the shadow of the statue" and Alpert says something in Latin i believe, it's something like, "he who saves us". and also there is a great picture/heiroglyph of the statue of Anubis (where Jacob lives) facing what seems to be some sort of monster that could be depicted as the smoke monster. Which makes me think even more that the guy at the beginning is the smoke monster.

I also, for some reason, am not positive that Juliet is dead. There was no explosion, just the white light. I read a theory saying that Juliet may be some sort of white smoke monster, because the screen turned white, and that when Locke saw the monster for the first time, he said "it was the most beautiful thing" he has ever seen. Something to think about.

Also, yo uhave to wonder why the statue was dismantled in the future/present/whatever you want to call it.. was it the jughead bomb that blew it up?

Lots of questions, but i trust the writers and haven't been excited about a tv series in a LONG time.