So Abocaj (Jacob's enemy, as I used to call him) is clearly Smoke too. He also said he wanted to go home, so I guess I was quite right. So I will develop my theory about the future where the AI ??being a cloud of nanomachines could get out of control. Most likely, it was sent into some kind of time loop at the last minute, or something ... at least - to an island where it is cut off from its reality. And now he is trying to get out of it, go back to his time. Perhaps Jacob was the ranger who would somehow keep her on the island. I still have no new idea why Jacob's Nemesis can't just kill him other than that it would be useless and had to be done by someone outside the loop.
And it looks like two alternate realities have developed. Perhaps the one in which everything is ok will be the final, happy-ending, and what we see on the island is 'only' a dramatic ending of a torn time loop ... if this loop exists at all;)
Hmmm ... interesting. Said may turn out to be both himself, Abocai (although he assumed only the bodies of dead people arriving from outside the island), or finally Jacob, although of course he would only have to gradually take control of his body. Okay, possibly the same "infection" that caused Rousseau to kill her own. Anyway, Claire looked a bit like the new Rousseau.
As for Richard, he probably also comes from the Temple, where this wonderful water probably gives everyone longevity ... and regenerates tissues (or at least it was probably the case before the events of these episodes). This reminds me of an old book from the world of Magic the Gathering Time Streams, where after the explosion of the time machine, zones of different lapse of time and water flowing from the free-lapse zones were created, somehow retained its properties and those who drank it regularly did not age. Perhaps this water works in a similar way, plus a regenerative effect, and since it probably also enters the environment of the entire island, through air, plants, rivers, etc., it also heals various diseases, including cancer (though why not Ben's cancer? Maybe Jacob or Abocaj called it on purpose to help fate for some reason? ... or simply Lost's creators forgot about it?;)).
And the Shark! ^^
Miles 'heard' after Juliet died that she said 'made it'. It could have been a ploy to add to the drama and mean nothing special ... or all the characters will have to die for their selves to return to that happy-end reality, so it's possible that by the end of the story they will be falling like flies
Aaron wondered for me ... maybe there is nothing behind him, but I think that the creators of LOST are preparing a surprise here. Maybe she's supposed to be the new body of the dead Jacob? Maybe Abocaj 'kidnapped' Claire because he couldn't finish the kid off himself (just like he couldn't touch Jacob) and thought that by taking his mother away, he would be destined to die?
One more thing - or maybe Jacob is the same SI too ??? And the bodies they both had on the island a long time ago were the bodies of people they had 'possessed' even earlier in the previous Game (or rather which they had assumed)?
It may be that one AI has become the guardian of another that, in their time and reality, has spun out of control. Finally - it may not be a question of health water retaining the properties of the forces affecting time ...
What if these are Jacob's nanomachines that have spread in the island's environment - they are healing nanomachines (Jacob is an island in terms of its properties and 'will' by the way). After all, this is one of the uses foreseen for them in the future. Most of Jacob's nanomachines, however, would still be in the water inside the Temple, and that was Said's only hope for that. On the other hand, it seems that the water turned rusty and stopped working when they got there, which may indicate that after Jacob's death, most of his nanomachines have been destroyed and it is possible that a couple of the remaining functioning have made contact with Hurley. .
Abocaj's AI could crash, or just make sense of XD and start destroying people, killing them instead of healing them. And that's why she was kicked out of her time ...
The circle of ash may not be ash, although I would be more inclined to the fact that it is a programmed part of Smoke-Monster's AI, a security that he could not bypass, and which does not allow it to cross clearly marked circles (or maybe just gray lines, because I think they poured out a line before entering the Temple).
Perhaps one cannot kill the other, because being AI they have some kind of hook on themselves (or something analogous to a short circuit would happen), and they would both die.
By the way, it looks like Jacob can leave the island and thus know the secret of time travel (is he a guardian ?!) while his enemy, like a prisoner, is limited to it.
Jacob, perhaps out of boredom, brings more people to the island, while Abocaj tries to use it to z
alicia of that, tearing out the secret of time travel (possibly to reach an already unguarded time machine), which will allow him to go back to his time and kick a few asses.