With the new shots of Smokey or Cerberus there have been a lot of speculation. Here is my thoughts and theory. I think that Dharma origianlly created Cerberus on the island.  But things didn't work out quite like they planned, Cerberus started acting of his own accord, or at least not according to their wishes. To protect themselves they built the Sonic Hedge.
Only someone who knows how Cerberus works could build a defensive parameter to keep him out. So whoever is responsible for the one is responsible for the other.
So why doesn't Cerberus fly over the Sonic Hedge? I feel the reason is that Cerberus doesn't fly, he hovers only about 10-15 feet maximum off the ground (hovering means that there is some linkage to the ground below). We've never seen him hover (or fly) higher than that. He did reach higher when he attacked Eko, but part of him always maintained a minimum distance from the ground. He probably also is the one who snatched the pilot from the front part of the plane, but again did he reach or did he fly? We weren't shown so we can't call that one.
But according to what we've seen and Juliette's comments, he can't get past the Sonic Hedge, so he is unable to go over or under it or he would of.
In Left Behind we saw Cerberus in three parts and then join together as one, and after the encounter with the Sonic Hedge split off into two parts.
Now this is where it really gets dicey, treading dangerously close to the Purgatory theory. Cerberus in mythology is a three headed beast that guards the entrance to Hell. We saw three smoke puffs form into one. Also when we hear the whispers most often they are in a three part harmony. Some of the whisper transcrïpts have also named the voices, such as Boone, who was dead at that point.
Is the island channeling the souls or essence of recently deceased ones on the island into Cerberus (the guardian of Hell)?
The whispers have mentioned a number of times that so-and-so might see them...such as wisps of smoke in the forest.
Was the incident the loss of control of Cerberus? Or maybe they opened the portal of Hell with the creation of Cerberus and that is the incident? And are the whispers part of Cerberus or closely connected to him?

Interesting thoughts.

I also lean towards the theory that the fence was built to keep smokey out, seeing how easy Kate and the rest got over it. I mean, I can`t believe they would be the first group to think of that. The Losties are not usually that quick to catch on. And if it was designed to keep people out, wouldn`t they have put some barb wire or something on top of the pillars where the sonic waves didn`t reach?

And the part where he split into 3 seems to indicate the link to Cerberus, since that was also mentioned on the blast door map.

As a follow up, on the Dresden Files last week there was a dark smokey cloud that enveloped Harry's office (Harry Dresden is a wizard who helps out the Chicago Police Dept, sorta a all growed up Harry Potter). It was said the smoke is what is between the two sides, basically it was death. It just seemed to go with the whole Cerberus/Smokey deal, though some of the details are different,as they would be with two different sets of writers.
It seems that a lot of this is based on old legends and lore, not something the writers just drummed up to explain away plot problems.

"He did reach higher when he attacked Eko, but part of him always maintained a minimum distance from the ground. "

I am curious about this... just wondering how you'd work it out. If he can extend as high as he wants as long as maintaining that distance to the ground, why not pull himself over the fence until he reached that height on the other side and pull the rest over with him? I mean, he moves freely, he isn't physically attached to the ground.

That is why I used the term hover as opposed to flying. There has to be a "connection" the ground, not physically, but electro-magnetically or something. Real world hovercraft need something below them to work off of. They aren't really flying, If they try to cross a valley they are going to drop, they can't just fly over it.
If Cerberus reaches up and goes over, then tries to pull himself over, he'd lose that connection. And maybe he could do that and keep the connection on the other side, but we don't know how far up the field reaches, but apparently it was designed to keep him out so they thought of that.
Why can't he just go under the fence, below the barrier? There must be something that prevents that as well, but we don't have enough info to draw a conclusion.
The bottom line is the Sonic Hedge keeps him out. If he could cross it he would of.

Maybe, just maybe, the sonic fence disrupts smokey's mojo enough to prevent him from dragging his smokey ass through said fence in any universe, on any plane (no pun intended), and has absolutely nothing to do with his relationship to the earth.  Just speculating...

Or perhaps Smokey is just too plain stupid to know to go over?

I thought I said that last week and you argued it??

I'd buy into him being linked to the ground because of a link to Hell. I'd love to see a bit of the fantastical with Smokey, a bit Buffy-esque with his creation.

just out of curiosity, since we have seen smokey break off into at least 2, possibly 3 parts, what do you think the chances are that each individual part has its own unique 'personality', possibly even its own 'job'?  In other words, one part could be the scanner, one could be the investigator, one could be the attacker, etc.  For all we know, there could be more than 3 of em around.  when they sense a threat, they can merge if needed.

Raider - Yeah, I like that. It also bolsters the connection between Cerberus and the whispers.

that's a good thought, Raider. I never really thought to put the whispers and smokey together.
I hope they aren't the same, but it is a good theory!

that is an interesting thought, Raider!

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raiderfan43 wrote : just out of curiosity, since we have seen smokey break off into at least 2, possibly 3 parts, what do you think the chances are that each individual part has its own unique 'personality', possibly even its own 'job'?  In other words, one part could be the scanner, one could be the investigator, one could be the attacker, etc.  For all we know, there could be more than 3 of em around.  when they sense a threat, they can merge if needed.

this could explain why it appeared "beautiful" to Locke on one occasion, then not so nice when he dragged Locke into a hole the next time...nice.

I do like the theory of Smokey being the whispers. It would make for an interesting twist.

I dunno. For absolutely no reason at all, lol, I don't want Smokey to be the whispers.

I still think those Whispers are separate from Smokey. I cannot offer any credible answer to what they are though LOL.

LOL Pen, ditto. I think it would be more interesting to have a completely other source for them rather than to just chalk it up to something else Smokey does.