Claire has been strangely absent from Lost since season four.  In fact, the last two times we saw her she wasn't quite herself.

Scene 1.  In the episode "Cabin Fever", Locke finds Jacob's cabin with the help of Hurley and Ben.  Locke goes into the cabin to as they stay outside.  Instead of talking to Jacob (which at that point we hadn't really seen), Locke talks to Christian.  Christian says he can speak for Jacob.  As they talk, Locke hears a sound next to Christian and Claire is revealed.  Locke asks Claire what she's doing there.  She replies that she's with Christian.  After Locke asks how he can save the island, slight grins appear on Christian and Claire's faces.

Here's what I think is going on.  Now that we know about Jacob and his nemesis, the Man in Black, my guess is that Christian is really MIB and Claire is Jacob.  MIB is trying to achieve the "loophole" so that he can kill Jacob.  Part of that plan is to get Locke to turn to kill himself so that he can take over Locke's persona.  In that one moment, we see both sides of the war, MIB has made a move that will get him closer to the loophole.  Jacob as Claire recognizes the move with her facial expression and is probably planning the counter-move.  Is this Claire her spirit or is it an imposter like Christian?  Claire may have actually died when the cabin she was in blew up.  It was pretty miraculous that she survived.

Scene 2.  In the last episode "There's No Place Like Home", Claire appears to Kate off-island after the Oceanic Six rescue.  A phone call in the middle of the night wakes Kate.  A man's voice, speaking in reverse, says "The island needs you".  Then Kate hears something in Aaron's room, grabs a gun, and comes face-to-face with Claire (who didn't make it off the island).  Claire tells her not to bring Aaron back to the island.  Kate wakes up, it was all just a dream.  Or was it?  Throughout Lost, characters have lots of trippy dreams, that instruct them to do certain things.  Could Jacob and MIB be contacting them through dream as well?  This "dream Claire" is either Jacob or MIB, but why wouldn't they want Aaron to come back?  Is he special because he was born on the island?

The main theory behind Claire is that Jacob and MIB can take over people that have died.  The personas of Christian, Claire, Yemi, Alex, Boone,  and of course Locke, have all been used by either Jacob or MIB at certain times.  If you go through and watch old episodes, the trick can be figuring out who the imposter really is.

What's Your Theory?

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