Dunno if any of you watched the recap episode beforehand, but in it Carlton and Damon said that Jacob and Smokey were -- quote -- Gods -- unquote. I thought that was interesting since I hadn't heard it confirmed before. So you can almost explain them, the mother, and almost everything else island-related with your own god-related beliefs. Kinda of an easy way out for the writers, I suppose, but it does provide some kind of closure to those questions.
BTW, if you didn't catch JKL afterwards, here's a video of the first 5 mins w/ Matthew Fox, which was the only worthwhile moment of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCXlLNWRULo
I'd bet money that the writers, Fox, and JKL were all in on that "theory" -- it was a staged/planned release.