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The May 26, 2006 official Lost podcast claimed that viewers have seen the Monster after "The 23rd Psalm" without realizing they were looking at it. 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.

Arc

The Monster's first chronological appearance in the mythology is in "The Incident" where he and Jacob sit and talk on the beach as a sailing ship is arriving. The Monster, in the form of a Man in Black robes (played by Titus Welliver), disapproves of Jacob bringing people to the Island feeling that all they bring is corruption and destruction claiming that it always ends the same. Jacob says that anything that happens before the end is just progress. He tells Jacob that he wishes to kill him but he must find a loophole to do so.

"This Place is Death" showcased Rousseau's crew in 1988, joined by a time-jumping Jin, being attacked by the Monster near an ancient Temple. One of Danielle's crew members is dragged under the Temple Wall. Jin demands that Danielle, being pregnant at the time, remain outside, while the rest of their crew go inside to save the missing crewman. What exactly happened under the Temple Wall is unknown, but when Jin jumps into the future, he observes an encounter between Danielle and her lover, Robert. During the exchange, Danielle accuses Robert of 'being changed' by the Monster inside the Temple. He denies this, but then attempts to kill her when she lowers her guard, leading her to kill him when he discovers that his weapon had its firing pin removed.

The Monster first appears in the series proper in the Pilot. On the night after the crash, the survivors hear a loud, unidentifiable sound coming from the jungle and witness trees being shaken and torn down in the distance. The next morning, while discussing the sound the Monster made, Rose Henderson 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. Jack, Kate, and Charlie saw the power of the Monster up close when it ripped the pilot from the cockpit of the plane they crashed in and left the mangled body in a tree, all without being seen on-screen. In "Walkabout", 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. Locke later told Jack, "I looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful."

Boone had a run in with the Monster in "Hearts and Minds" where the Monster apparently kills his step-sister, Shannon. Although Locke put a hallucinogenic paste over one of Boone's wounds, it remains unconfirmed whether or not the Monster manifested itself into Shannon.

In "Exodus, Part 2", Locke's second encounter provided the first on-screen glimpse of the Monster as a cloud of black smoke. In "The 23rd Psalm" Charlie and Eko 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 relates his own experience to Eko, to which Eko replies, "That is not what I saw." In "The Cost of Living", the monster in the form of Yemi comes to Eko and demands that he repents for his sins. When Eko refuses to repent, the Monster reveals that he is not really Yemi. After disappearing, the Monster reappears in its Smoke form and kills Eko by slamming him repeatedly against nearby trees and the ground.

In the episode "Left Behind", the Monster appeared twice. It is unseen by the audience in the first encounter, when it released a series of bright flashes near Juliet, although Kate, who was standing right next to her, seemed unaffected. The Monster appears on-screen during the second encounter, where it is revealed that it cannot penetrate the Others' sonic wave 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 in "Confirmed Dead" and asks about the Monster, Ben claims ignorance. In the episode "The Shape of Things to Come", however, it becomes apparent that Ben knows more about the Monster than he has let on. After becoming enraged over the death of Alex, Ben disappears into a hidden room, which has an ancient stone door covered with hieroglyphs, only to emerge several minutes later covered in a dark ash like substance, telling the others they need to be as far away from the attacking mercenaries as possible. The Monster then suddenly arrives and proceeds to attack the mercenaries. It slithers on the ground causing the Barracks to rumble and consumes Keamy's team, extending a hand-like tendril to draw back a man running from it. In the next episode, it's revealed that most of the mercenaries survived, albeit badly shaken. When questioned about an injured man, Keamy responds that he was, "thrown fifty feet into the air by a black pillar of smoke."

The Monster appears as a drawing in "Cabin Fever". In a flashback, Richard Alpert comes to visit a five-year-old Locke in the early 1960s. Alpert becomes fascinated by a picture of the Monster which Locke drew, asking Locke about it. Locke gives no answer. In the picture, the Monster appears to be swirling around an unidentified person.

Following the crash landing of Flight 316 on the Hydra Island in "Namaste", Sun and Lapidus take an outrigger to the Dharma barracks on the main island, where they hear the Monster and see it move some trees. The Whispers are heard after this, followed by Christian Shepherd appearing from one of the buildings to inform Sun of her husband's whereabouts.

In "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" an apparently newly revived John Locke arrives back on the Island, but this is only an illusion since the Monster has now taken Locke's form. The other passengers are frightened by his appearance since no one saw him on the plane and he claims to have been killed by another passenger, Ben.

In "Dead is Dead", Ben and "Locke" travel to the Smoke Monster's lair so that Ben may be judged by it. The lair lies in a series of underground tunnels beneath the temple. It emerges from a stone grate on the floor. Above the grate is a series of pictographs depicting a strange, lightning bolt-shaped monster approaching what appears to be Anubis. The monster in its smoke form confronts Ben, showing him images of his life with Alex up to her death. After the monster retreats back into the grates, it manifests itself into 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.

In "Follow the Leader" "Locke" and Ben go to one of the Others camps to get Richard to give the real Locke (who is flashing through time randomly) the compass Locke gave Richard and for Richard to tell Locke that he would have to die. "Locke" then demands that Richard take him and the Others with him to see Jacob. Richard reluctantly complies. "Locke" tells Ben the next day his plan to kill Jacob, but once Ben tells "Locke" what Alex told him back in the Monster's liar, "Locke" informs Ben that he will have to be the one to kill Jacob. Ben complies when Jacob appears to be completely indifferent to Ben's suffering on the Island, and "Locke" kicks Jacob into the fire.

In the first episode of season 6, "LA X", it is revealed that the "Locke" who Ben is traveling with is The Monster. It appears in the remains of the statue of Taweret and kills 5 people. One of the people manages to create a ring of ash around himself, temporarily hindering the smoke monster. However, it throws a rock at the man, knocking him out of the circle and making it possible for it to kill him. After the men are all dead, the smoke monster exits, and immediately reappears in the form of John Locke, stating that he is sorry that Ben had to see him "like that". It has since stated that it used to be a man, who lost a loved one, and has the goal of leaving the Island and "going home".

In "The Substitute" the Monster gives Richard a second chance to join him, but Richard refuses. The Monster then tracks down a drunken Sawyer (who recently lost Juliet), but Sawyer immediately realizes that the Monster is not John Locke, since he knew Locke was scared, while the Monster isn't. The Monster tells Sawyer that if he follows him he will tell him why he is still on the Island; Sawyer agrees. On their journey they come across a young blond headed boy, and the boy says to the Monster that he knows the rules and he can't kill him. Sawyer and the Monster eventually reach a cave near a ledge, and in it it has writing all over the walls. The writings are all people's names and have a number beside them. Sawyer is "15- Ford". The Monster tells him that he has been nominated to replace Jacob and that is why he is on the Island. He said Sawyer has 3 options: Do nothing, become the new protector of the Island, or to leave the Island with him. Sawyer agrees to follow him. Ilana also claims that the Monster is now stuck in Locke's form and can take no other human appearance.

In "Lighthouse" Claire says that the Monster has been keeping her company since everyone left the Island, and that he told her that the Others have taken her child. In "Sundown" the Monster recruits Sayid to his side by promising him the "woman who died in his arms". The Monster requests that Sayid deliver a message to the Others warning them to leave the temple by sundown or else they will be killed and to tell them they are free. He also requests that he kill Dogen, since Dogen being alive kept the Monster from entering the Temple. Once the sun sets and Sayid kills Dogen, the Monster (in smoke form) enters the temple and kills all of the Others remaining inside. Once he is finished, he gathers the Others who have left the Temple to follow him off of the Island, and Sayid, Claire, and Kate (who survived the Temple) leave with the Monster.

In "Dr. Linus" the Monster comes to Ben (who is digging his own grave) and releases him, and tells him that if he goes to Hydra Island that the Island will be Ben's. Later Ben stays with Ilana's group after she says he can stay, indicating Ben's redemption.

Current Mythology of Lost version

thumbnail|200px|right|Eko confronts the smoke monster The Island is home to a mysterious entity, consisting of a black mass accompanied by mechanical-like sounds and electrical activity within, dubbed the "Smoke Monster" or just the "Monster" by the survivors. The monster has been described by Lost producer Damon Lindelof as "one of the biggest secrets" of the mythology. The producers have often hinted that the black cloud of smoke is not a monster in the traditional sense, nor is it a cloud of nanobots (as some fans have speculated). It has been repeatedly described as a "security system" for the Island, specifically the ruins of the temple on the Island. It emerges from vents in the ground to attack people, though it does not always attack those it encounters. The Monster is capable of lifting a grown man with virtually no difficulty, and in one instance tosses a man nearly fifty feet into the air. In another it wraps a tendril of smoke around a man's arm, severing it.

In January 2007, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse asked fans on Yahoo! Answers what they thought the monster was. They later picked their "favorite answer... not that's [sic] it's the right answer." The response they chose suggested that the monster was "originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants of the DHARMA experiments" and frighten them with smoke and loud noises to prevent them from wandering outside of their hatches. However, the electromagnetic force of the island… mutated it — in the same sense that Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after [his] exposure — and made it malevolent and able to physically [interact with things]." The respondent also theorized that the monster could be "turned off" if the survivors found a control room for it. The producers restated that the answer could be "somewhat right, totally right — or completely off-base", but they thought it was "very cool and intriguing."

The Swan Station's blast door map makes several references to a "Cerberus" activity and also notes that this "Cerberus" prevents passage between certain stations, indicating the security system aspect of it may have failed as early as 1984. Notations on the Blast Door map seem to confirm the "Cerberus" patrolling regions of the island in which the Monster has been seen as well, suggesting that perhaps the two are one and the same. This is confirmed in a G4tv presentation of Lost in 2.0 (where Lost creators have pop-up windows within the episode, giving away or explaining away major plot devices, mysteries, and such), during the second season episode "Lockdown". According to KSL TV, "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."

The Monster is introduced early on in the show. On the night after the crash, the survivors hear a loud, unidentifiable sound coming from the jungle and witness trees being shaken and torn down in the distance. The next morning, while discussing the sound the Monster made, Rose Henderson 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. Jack, Kate, and Charlie saw the power of the Monster up close when it ripped the pilot from the cockpit of the plane they crashed in and left the mangled body in a tree, all without being seen on-screen. In "Walkabout", 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. Locke 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. In "The 23rd Psalm" Charlie and Eko 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 relates his own experience to Eko, to which Eko replies, "That is not what I saw." In "The Cost of Living", the monster killed Eko by slamming him repeatedly against nearby trees and the ground.

In another unseen appearance, the mechanical sounds of the monster can be heard at some point during episodes "Exposé" and "Special". The May 26, 2006 official Lost podcast claimed that viewers have seen the Monster after "The 23rd Psalm" without realizing they were looking at it. 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.

In the episode "Left Behind", the Monster appeared twice. It is unseen by the audience in the first encounter, when it released a series of bright flashes near Juliet, although Kate, who was standing right next to her, seemed unaffected. The Monster appears on-screen during the second encounter, where it is revealed that it cannot penetrate the Others' sonic wave 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 in "Confirmed Dead" and asks about the Monster, Ben claims ignorance. In the episode "The Shape of Things to Come", however, it becomes apparent that Ben knows more about the Monster than he has let on. After becoming enraged over the death of Alex, Ben disappears into a hidden room, which has an ancient stone door covered with hieroglyphs, only to emerge several minutes later covered in a dark ash like substance, telling the others they need to be as far away from the attacking mercenaries as possible. The Monster then suddenly arrives and proceeds to attack the mercenaries. It slithers on the ground causing the Barracks to rumble and consumes Keamy's team, extending a hand-like tendril to draw back a man running from it. In the next episode, it's revealed that most of the mercenaries survived, albeit badly shaken. When questioned about an injured man, Keamy responds that he was, "thrown fifty feet into the air by a black pillar of smoke."

The Monster appears as a drawing in "Cabin Fever". In a flashback, Richard Alpert comes to visit a five-year-old Locke in the early 1960s. Alpert becomes fascinated by a picture of the Monster which Locke drew, asking Locke about it. Locke gives no answer. In the picture, the Monster appears to be swirling around an unidentified person.

"This Place is Death" showcased Danielle's crew in 1988, joined by a time-jumping Jin, being attacked by the Monster near an ancient Temple. One of Danielle's crew members is dragged into the ruins. Jin demands that Danielle, being pregnant at the time, remain outside, while the rest of their crew go inside to save the missing crewman. What exactly happened inside the Temple is unknown, but when Jin jumps into the future, he observes an encounter between Danielle and her lover, Robert. During the exchange, Danielle accuses Robert of 'being changed' by the Monster inside the Temple. He denies this, but then attempts to kill her when she lowers her guard, leading her to kill him when he discovers that his weapon had its firing pin removed.

Following the crash landing of Flight 316 on the Hydra Island in "Namaste", Sun and Lapidus take an outrigger to the Dharma barracks on the main island, where they hear the Monster and see it move some trees. The Whispers are heard after this, followed by Christian Shepherd appearing from one of the buildings to inform Sun of her husband's whereabouts.

In "Dead is Dead", Ben and Locke travel to the smoke monster's lair so that Ben may be judged by it. The lair lies in a series of underground tunnels beneath the temple. It emerges from a stone grate on the floor. Above the grate is a series of pictographs depicting a strange, lightning bolt-shaped monster approaching what appears to be Anubis. The monster confronts Ben, showing him images of his life with Alex up to her death. After the monster retreats back into the grates, it seemingly creates manifestation of 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. Later, Ben admits this encounter to Locke, who seems genuinely surprised. Later, an angry and slighted Ben murders Jacob due to The Monster's manipulations.

In the first episode of season 6, "LA X", it is revealed that the "Locke" who Ben is traveling with is The Monster, an incarnation of Jacob's Nemesis. It appears in the remains of the statue of Taweret and kills 5 people. One of the people manages to create a ring of ash around himself, temporarily hindering the smoke monster. However, it throws a rock at the man, knocking him out of the circle and making it possible for it to kill him. After the men are all dead, the smoke monster exits, and Jacob's nemesis, in the form of John Locke, immediately appears, stating that he is sorry that Ben had to see him "like that". It has since stated that it used to be a man, who lost a loved one, and has the goal of leaving the Island and "going home" (in LA X and The Substitute).