![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbVqLfcDpLlwT9S04xOkVrvQ4cekmiJe9JeFTlEJcirRHe9V-DU4LFdUnflZlbsZGYdCS-eabSJxSz-KNpWHn4NxZlEqOK0B0_giECAcuMdwbzkDjK0NM1_zCjr6qeDQ_-07e/s400/Black+Smoke.jpg)
In Exodus Part 1 Danielle arrives in the beach camp,
announces the Others are coming, and tells the story of how
Alex was taken.
The others are coming. Our ship went aground on
this island 16 years ago. There were 6 of us...
my team, 6. At that time I was already 7 months
pregnant. I delivered the infant myself. The baby
and I were together for only 1 week when I saw black
smoke... a pillar of black smoke 5 kilometers inland.
That night they came they came and took her... Alex.
They took my baby. And now, they're coming again.
They're coming for all of you.
And then wouldn't you know it, hours later, but while
Danielle is still in the camp, we see a pillar of black smoke.
When we finally see the source of the smoke,
it's on the beach, not inland and there's no one there
but Danielle. And at this point, Danielle claims: I heard
them whispering. . . . I heard them say they were coming
for the child. The others said they were coming for the boy.
This fire is baffling to me. Why would the Others signal
their intentions with a big pillar of black smoke? They
didn't use one when they removed people from the camp
of the Tailies.
Was this a case of Danielle trying to lure the Others to the
fire to perform her exchange of Alex for Aaron (which
would be reminiscent of Sayid's bang-up plan in The
Glass Ballerina)? In response to the whispers was she
trying to "help" the Others by giving them a way to get
"the boy" without interference from the 815 survivors?
And did she use a slow fuse to start the fire while she was
in the camp as Locke suggested Sawyer had done way
back in The Moth?