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This page refers to the pillar of smoke from "Exodus, Part 1". For the black smoke creature/entity, see the Monster.

The Pillar of Smoke

The pillar of smoke appeared in "Exodus, Part 1" after Rousseau warned the mid-section survivors that the Others were coming. Rousseau claimed the same pillar appeared right before the abduction of her daughter, Alex, by the Others, a week after her birth.

Because of Rousseau's warning and the appearance of the pillar, the mid-section survivors decided to hide. A small group left on a quest to find dynamite and blow up the Hatch while the rest of the survivors were led to the caves by Sayid. After directing the first group to the dynamite in the Black Rock, Rousseau returned to the beach camp and, in the confusion of their flight, kidnapped Claire's baby.

When Sayid and Charlie went out to bring Claire's baby back, they discovered the origin of the pillar: It turned out to be a brazier, burning an unknown material on the beach. Rousseau appeared and claimed she had heard the whispers saying that "they" were going to take "the boy". She thought that if she brought the baby to them, then they would return her child. Sayid commented that it was odd that there were no footprints of people who lit the fire.

Later that night, Walt was taken from the raft by a group of Others on a boat. It seems that Walt was "the boy" the whispers referred to. Whether it was Rousseau who lit the beacon or someone else remains a mystery. When directly asked if she lit the beacon, Rousseau did not answer the question.

Rousseau's statements about the Others are not straightforward. Rousseau used the terms the Others and the whispers interchangeably as if they were the same thing. At the time she took Aaron, she still claimed she had not see an Other as a person on the island.

Sayid

Sayid also created a pillar of smoke as a signal to Jack, when Jack was leading Walt's rescue party of himself, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and Michael in "Live Together, Die Alone". It was visible from both the Pala Ferry dock, as well as Jack's point of view at the capsule dump. According to Sayid's surreptitious ambush plan, he also had intended the Others to see the smoke. The Others eluded the ambush, arriving from the ocean-side in the Galaga to capture the sailboat.

LOSTscape game

In the ABC.com flash game LOSTscape, one of the items to locate is the smoke. It is named on the item list Signal fire smoke.

Cultural references

• In the Bible's book of Exodus (also an episode name in "Exodus, Part 1" and "Exodus, Part 2"), a pillar of smoke by day, which also appeared as a pillar of fire by night, guided the Israelites out of Egypt.
  

Unanswered questions

For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Pillar of smoke/Theories

• Was there really an original pillar of smoke? If so, who lit it?
• Is the recurrence of these pillars connected to the smoke monster?

See also

• Religion and ideologies