What is't? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2
Perhaps everything is in Loche's head and all the characters are part of his personality...
mogwai64
Locke clearly knows things other characters don't. If you watch the reruns you'll see that he always has that knowing smile. Why?
Because this is a game Locke is playing. If you remember he was playing some sort of a soldier based strategy game. He is done with that game and now has started another one. Maybe something like dungeons and dragons where he assumes a character (the hunter) and other players assume other characters. The Game masters conjures monsters and other difficulties for the players who then have to overcome them. This explains the handy appearance of objects like a guitar and the fact that the character soon abandons the object.
It also explains the running dice/game/chance theme throughout the game.
malcky
I think you have it all figured out. This is all in Locke's head.
Droop
no. locke just found out what there purpose on the island is. remember there is no monster, so what he saw taught him something and probably killed the boar for him so he could take it back. and now hes not afraid to enter jungle alone because he knows it wont kill him.
v1p3r6
The creators have stated the show is all in someone's head. But that someone is not Locke, it's J.J. Abrams.
Black Dahlia
locke smiles because, although the crash may have been a tragedy for everyone else, for him it was a miracle, and not just because he can walk now. his life sucked back in the world, but now he's a living the kind of adventure he dreamed about. people depend on him, and he's a valued and respected member of their society, rather than a discarded, crippled, paper-pushing old man.
who wouldn't smile?
lachme
This is another of the several theories I've been kicking around. I actually thought it was Jack, though, only as an old man. He got on the plane, it crashed, he's in a coma, and the island and everyone on it are coma-dream representations of Jack at different stages of his life.
As offshoots of this theory, I've also speculated that maybe Jack was a librarian or an avid reader (thus explaining all the literary references).
I've also con
sidered the possibility that the event that put Jack in this coma was either Sept. 11, or the Iraq War. It would help explain all the governmental references, the presence of an Iraqi member of the Republican Guard, and the plane crash is a no-brainer. Maybe Jack was an army medic in the Gulf War (explaining why he envisions himself as a young, hotshot surgeon, and then the guy who helps everybody on the island in his coma-dream). Just some theories I've been playing with. I won't even go into my Nuclear War Theory right now, but when I have it developed, I will share it with you guys.
ChoppinBroccoli