Man in Black (Lost)

"The Man in Black" (also known as "the Monster" and other names) is the nickname for a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost. The de facto antagonist of the series, it frequently appeared as a cloud of black smoke ("the monster") until the final episode of season 5, where it appeared as a middle-aged man dressed in black.

A long time resident of Lost's main setting the island, the true nature of the Man in Black is shrouded in mystery. It has been described by Lost producer Damon Lindelof as "one of the biggest secrets" of the mythology,, and the producers have often hinted that the black cloud of smoke is not a monster in the traditional sense (nor a cloud of nanobots as some fans speculated).

Fictional Biography

Before the Crash

The Man in Black's first chronological appearance occurs in the episode "The Incident", as a man in black robes (played by Titus Welliver). He and Jacob sit and talk on the beach as a sailing ship, since confirmed to be the Black Rock, approaches. The Man in Black states that he knows that the ship was brought by Jacob, and expresses his disapproval of Jacob bringing people to the Island--stating that all they bring is corruption and destruction, and that it always ends the same. Jacob says that "It only ends once; anything that happens before that is just progress". The Man in Black tells Jacob that he wishes to kill him, and that he will find a loophole to do so (hinting at the existence of still-uncertain 'rules' between the two).

After Richard Alpert arrives on the Island as a slave on the crashed Black Rock, Jonas Whitfield, an officer of the ship, goes below deck and begins executing all the slaves. Before he can kill Richard, the Man in Black appears as the Monster and kills everyone on board but Richard. He later manifests into Richard's wife Isabella, who upon exiting the ship appears to be kidnapped. Later, he appears to Richard in human form and frees him from his chains. He tells Richard that they are dead and are in hell, and that the Devil has taken Richard's wife. He tells him that to get his wife back and escape from hell, Richard must kill the Devil, and gives him directions to Jacob's residence in the statue of Tawaret. Richard agrees, but Jacob preempts his assault, and after an altercation convinces Richard that he is not dead. He tells Richard that the island acts as a cork, which is the only thing keeping the darkness (possibly the Man in Black himself) contained. As the Man in Black sees it, people are inherently corruptible; on the other hand, Jacob believes they are good. Jacob brings people to the island, so that they may prove the Man in Black wrong; however, he does not believe in ordering people, as this would suppress their free will to choose good. Richard notes that if Jacob doesn't intervene with people on the island, the Man in Black will remain able to corrupt them. Jacob responds by offering Richard a job, as an intermediary between himself and those he brings to the island. When asked what he would like in return, Richard first requests his wife back, and then absolution of his sins--both of which Jacob is unable to offer. Richard finally asks for immortality, to which Jacob replies "Now that I can do" and touches him on the shoulder, smiling knowingly.

Later, Richard visits the Man in Black to give him a white rock by Jacob. The Man in Black tells Richard that if he ever changes his mind, his offer to give his wife back would still stand, and gives him his wife's necklace before disappearing. Shortly after, Jacob visits the Man in Black and questions him about having Richard try to kill him. Jacob states that as long as he is alive, the Man in Black will never leave the Island; the Man in Black replies "Now you know why I want to kill you". Jacob replies that even if he is killed, someone would replace him. The Man in Black then says that he will kill them too.

In 1988, the Man in Black (in smoke form) attacks Rousseau's crew, who were joined by the time-jumping Jin. One of the crew is dragged under the Temple Wall by the monster. Jin demands that Danielle, being pregnant, remain outside while the rest of the crew attempt to rescue the missing crewman. What happened under the Wall is unknown, but when Jin later jumps to the future, he observes an encounter between Danielle and her lover Robert, both wielding firearms. Danielle accuses Robert of having been "changed" inside the Temple. He denies this, but then attempts to kill her when she lowers her guard; however, she had removed his gun's firing pin, and shoots him.. In the episode LAX, when the castaways are taking a critically injured Sayid to the Temple on orders from Jacob, they discover the remains of at least one of the crew in the same wall area.

After the Crash

On the night after the crash, the survivors hear a loud and unidentifiable sound coming from the jungle, and witness trees being shaken and torn down in the distance. Jack, Kate, and Charlie see the power of the Monster up close, when it rips the pilot from the cockpit of the plane and left his mangled body in a tree. Locke also had a direct encounter with the Monster, but was spared. When Michael later asked Locke if he had seen it, Locke lied and claimed that he had not. He later told Jack, "I looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful."

In "Exodus, Part 2", Locke's second encounter provided the first on-screen glimpse of the Monster as a cloud of black smoke. Charlie and Eko also had a confrontation similar to Locke's. As Eko stared down the Monster, the black smoke briefly flashed images of Eko's past. John Locke later relates his own experience to Eko, saying that what he saw was "a very bright light", to which Eko replies, "That is not what I saw." An apparition of Yemi appears to Eko and demands that he repent for his sins. When Eko refuses to repent, the apparition states "You speak to me as if I were your brother" and disappears, after which the Monster appears and kills Eko, by slamming him repeatedly against nearby trees and the ground.

Kate and Juliet also encountered the Monster; when it appeared, it released a series of bright flashes. The Monster reappears later, when it is revealed that it cannot penetrate the Others' sonic fence. Juliet tells Kate that the Others don't know what the Monster is, but they know it doesn't like their fence.

When Locke holds Ben at gunpoint and asks about the Monster, Ben claims ignorance. However, it later becomes apparent that Ben knows more. After becoming enraged over the death of his daughter Alex, he rushes to a hidden room, which has an ancient stone door covered with hieroglyphs, where he drains a small pool. Shortly, the Monster arrives and attacks the mercenaries (but spares most of them).

After the crash of Ajira Flight 316, the Man in Black takes the form of the deceased Locke, whose body was on the plane. The other passengers are frightened by his appearance, since none saw him on the plane and he claims to have been killed by another passenger, Ben. Later, Ben tells the Man in Black (whom he thinks is Locke) that he must travel to the Monster's lair, to be judged for his complicity in his daughter's death. The lair lies in a series of underground tunnels beneath the temple. The Monster emerges from a stone grate on the floor, above which is a series of pictographs depicting a creature resembling the Monster approaching what appears to be Anubis. It confronts Ben with images of his life with Alex. After it retreats back into the grate, it manifests as Alex, warning Ben not to harm John Locke under threat of death. "Alex" orders Ben to follow Locke's every word, to which he complies.

The Man in Black and Ben, along with Sun, arrive at one of the Others' camps, to instruct Richard to find the real Locke (who is flashing through time randomly), and give him a compass and tell him he must die to bring his friends back to the island. The Man in Black then demands that Richard take him and the Others to see Jacob. Richard reluctantly complies. The next day, he tells Ben of his plan to kill Jacob, before asking why Ben isn't rushing to inform Richard of this. Ben informs him of Alex's threat, to which the Man in Black replies that is good advice, as Ben is the one who is going to kill Jacob. After arriving at the Jacob's residence in the statue of Taweret, the two enter the statue and meet Jacob. Ben tells Jacob how he has sacrificed and suffered for the island but still been ignored by Jacob, asking "What about me?", to which Jacob responds "What about you? with seeming indifference. Enraged, Ben stabs Jacob, whom the Man in Black then kicks into the fire.

Later, Jacob's protectors enter the statue and attempt to shoot and kill the Man in Black, who changes into the Monster and proceeds to kill them. Bram, one of the protectors, manages to create a ring of ash around himself, temporarily excluding the Monster. However, it dislodges a piece of the roof, which knocks him out of the circle and enables it to kill him. After the men are all dead, the Man in Black reveals to Ben that his intention is to "go home." They exit the statue and the Man in Black confronts Richard, stating as he did almost a century and half prior that "It's nice to see you out of those chains". Richard realizes who the man is, but the Man in Black quickly knocks him out and carries him into the jungle, after announcing to the Others that he is disappointed in them all.

Later, the Man offers Richard a second chance to join him, which Richard refuses. The Man in Black then tracks down a drunken Sawyer (who recently lost Juliet), who despite his inebriation immediately realizes that he is not John Locke, since he does not seem scared. The Man tells Sawyer that if he follows him, he will tell him why he is on the Island; Sawyer agrees. On their journey they encounter a young blond boy, who tells the Man that he "can't kill him". Sawyer and the Man eventually reach a cave near a ledge, which has writing all over its walls. The writings are all people's names with numbers beside them. The Man reveals to Sawyer that the names represent the candidates to replace Jacob. He then has Sawyer join him on a mission to leave the island.

It is revealed that the Man has kept Claire company, and told her that the Others took her son Aaron. Later, The Man in Black recruits Sayid to his side by promising him his love Nadia back. The Man requests that Sayid deliver a message to the Others, warning them to leave the temple by sundown or they will be killed. He also requests that he kill Dogen, since Dogen being alive keeps the Monster from entering the Temple. After Sayid kills Dogen, the Man enters the temple as the Monster and kills all the Others remaining inside. After this, he gathers the Others who chose to side with him to survive (and in doing so participate in his plan to leave the Island), and Sayid, Claire, and Kate (who survived the Temple) leave with the Man in Black.

The Man later appears to Ben while the former is digging his own grave (having been forced to do so at gunpoint by Ilana), and tells him that if Ben acommpanies him to Hydra Island he can have control over the main island as he desires. However, Ben stays with Ilana's group after she forgives him. The Man sends Sawyer on a recon mission to Hydra Island. Sawyer returns from Hydra Island and tells the Man in Black that all the Ajira passengers are dead and Charles Widmore is on the other Island, where he has set up a sonic fence.

The Man later attemps to recruit Sun by promising to reunite her with her husband Jin/ After Sun refuses and flees, the Man chases her while exhorting her to stop. Sun collides with a tree and is knocked out, after which the Man either could not find her or gave up. On returning to his group he finds them all unconscious. Sayid tells him they were attacked by Widmore's team, who took Jin. The Man takes Sayid with him to Hydra Island, telling Sayid that they cannot lose Jin. He arrives on Hydra Island by himself, and approaches the sonic fence stating "I come in peace". Widmore (safe across the fence) meets him and asks what he wants. The Man says he wants Jin back. Widmore says he doesn't have Jin. The Man returns to the main island, where Sawyer asks why he does not have Jin and is simply told that the Man has a plan. Sawyer then asks where Sayid is, and the Man replies that is the plan: he left Sayid there to find Jin (instead, he found Desmond Hume).

Development

The original appearance of the Man in Black as the Monster was the first major plot twist of Lost and changed how the viewers and characters perceived the Island. In the Pilot episode, Rose commented that, "I keep thinking, there was something familiar about it." The producers had difficulty finding the right sound for the monster to make, and eventually settled on the receipt printer from a New York City taxi, which is why Rose, from The Bronx, New York, finds it familiar. The writers have made mention on numerous occasions that the Rover from the British TV series The Prisoner was an inspiration for the Monster. Theories regarding the monster being a cloud of nanobots has been refuted many times by the producers. In the March 21, 2008 official Lost podcast, Damon Lindelof said that manifestations of the Monster included Yemi, the Medusa Spider that bit Nikki, and some of Walt's appearances while he was not with the survivors, although they were in more of a joking manner so they may have not been serious. Regarding the Monster's appearence in season 5, Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin, said in an interview that "the origin and nature of the malevolent dark cloud will be disclosed and viewers will even get a glimpse of its lair. Turns out the monster is as 'old as the island' that's been home to the Oceanic jet-crash survivors and their foes."