There are two forces behind all of this. Jacob, who we've heard about but never seen before tonight, and Man #2.

Man #2 wants to kill Jacob, but he can't do it himself. He needs Richard to get him in to see him and he needs someone else to actually do the deed.

Throughout the first few seasons, the smoke monster is sizing up the Losties, scanning their brains, looking for someone he can manipulate and own completely and utterly.

He finds that man in John Locke, a sad man who will place his trust in anyone and anything that tells him he's destined for something better.

Throughout the first few seasons, a series of miraculous events happen that make Locke think that "the Island" has a special destiny for him.

"The Island" in this case is Man #2. He fixes Locke's legs, appears to him in the cabin, heals his bulletwound in the pit etc. etc. Man #2/Smokey appears to Locke as Christian Shepherd to tell Locke that he has to die and bring all his friends back.

This is all just Man #2's plan to put Locke into position.

Locke is made leader of the Others because Locke told Richard in 1957 that he would eventually be their leader. It's a paradox. Richard gave him all the tests and Locke failed them all. Locke wasn't meant to be the Other's leader, it was all a clever trick played on them by Man #2.

Irony alert: When jack finally stands up for Locke to tell Richard to give him a chance, Locke is actually dead. Heh. Jack is completely wrong.

So LOST is the story of Man #2 running a looooooong con on Locke and, through him, The Others (who are Jacob's people). The final key moment is when he takes Locke's form and tells Richard to send real Lock on his journey.

Ok. So through this con, Man #2 is able to trick the Others into seeing Locke as their leader and get Locke out of the way so he can impersonate him. This will get him in the door.

As for Ben, all season long, we've been watching Man #2 run another con on Ben to get him to turn on Jacob. When Ben tried to summon the smoke monster, it didn't work, because the smoke monster was standing right next to him. Then the smoke monster led him away to the temple where it took the form of Alex to lie to Ben some more. The goal is to coopt Ben.

Meanwhile, Jacob has been executing his own plan, a kind of backup plan that will have the Losties resetting time to undo the work that Man #2 is doing. In this episode we see Jacob putting his plan into place, making stuff happen so that the Losties will be sent back in time where they can reset things. perhaps Jacob realized he was going to get killed this time around and tried to plan for that eventuality.

So yeah, Christian = Claire = Ecko's brother = Smokey = Man #2 = "The Island"

It's very moving to learn that Locke was really just a big dumb patsy from day 1. His confidence was all based on false premises.

Other thoughts:

That was the last of Rose and Bernard. Their story is finished. I doubt we see them again.

I also doubt we see Juliet again. Like Rose and Bernard, she chose her fate and went out on her own terms. She's "retired" from the game, so to speak.

So LOST has really just been one long con to put Locke into leadership of the Others so man #2 can get close to him and kill him.

I am ok with this. I think it's pretty awesome, actually.