This statement has plagued me. What has happened to Robert? Is he Robert and changed, like brain washed. Or is Robert a different thing that looks like Robert, smells like Robert, tastes like Robert, but isn't Robert?

Out of all the greatness of this episode I keep thinking back. Maybe we need to realize that Danielle understood the island better than anyone. And her cryptic words explain it better than anyone else: the sickness, security system. Dead, or not, she is now telling us the history of the island.

I'm quite curious as well, what this "sickness" that took over Robert & crew entails. His mannerisms and words were eerily similar to Cindy, the Flight Attendant, when she was talking to Jack on Hydra island in S3. It seems like people who are "taken" by the Others/Monster suddenly gain knowledge about the Island... and are suddenly completely at peace with being there.

And they may want to shoot you. o_O;
100%
The other question is, was "that temple" also "the Temple" that Richard took his people to? I was instantly reminded of the markings on the Blast Door... "Cerberus Vents"... Certainly seemed like a "vent" to me.

Or is Robert a different thing that looks like Robert, smells like Robert, tastes like Robert, but isn't Robert?

This is what I'm thinking straight out of John Carpenter's The Thing.

I'm guessing it's Robert, but brainwashed or something (just a guess, I don't know any more than anybody else, heh.) Even in the short period we saw him, he went from a tender, loving boyfriend/husband/whatever-their-relationship-was and obviously happy about becoming a father, to somebody who who had no qualms (look at his face when he raises that gun on Danielle) about killing his lover and child. Presumably Danielle knows him way better than we do.

That's not saying he couldn't be a "reanimation" of Robert directed by Smokey or the island, but then why would Danielle be able to kill him, and the rest of the crew for that matter, so easily?

She could kill him that easily because it wasn't him. She knew he was gone (mentally), and something else had taken over. Kinda like what happens when you have rabies.
And yes, I believe the Temple is the same as the one Ben wants Alex and Karl to go to. And he said something about it being only for certain people... I believe the Temple was pre-DHARMA, but that's a theory. If the Temple is not "for you", you get sick. like the french team. just a theory.

She could kill him that easily because it wasn't him. She knew he was gone (mentally), and something else had taken over. Kinda like what happens when you have rabies.
And yes, I believe the Temple is the same as the one Ben wants Alex and Karl to go to. And he said something about it being only for certain people... I believe the Temple was pre-DHARMA, but that's a theory. If the Temple is not "for you", you get sick. like the french team. just a theory.

I understand what you're saying, but I meant that, if Robert was a reanimation by Smokey of of the Island, wouldn't it/they have been able to stop Danielle from killing him? To me, the fact that she was able to kill him and not stopped by the island or whatever, gives credence to the idea that he was a brainwashed Robert, not some "thing" made to look like Robert.

I think that whatever is below the ground at the Temple totally re-oreints your mind so that all you care about is protecting and serving the Island. And you get very "Hostile" to anyone who doesn't share your point of view.

That's what makes the Others the Others. It may take a while, as I think a couple of months passed between the time Danielle's team went down there and when she found it necessary to kill them. So I don't think Robert was physically someone else, but I think that mentally he was.

I've written more about my theory in this thread:

http://forum.thefuselage.com/showthread.php?t=107631

... if you're interested.

I kept thinking back to this too. There are a number o things that Danielle could have meant, i'm guessing Robert has either been driven crazy by something while on the island or been brainwashed. We know for a fact that they can brainwash people, and he seemed completely lucid when Danielle saw him. He spoke to her, knew who she was then...tried to kill her. Something wrong there, obviously...

I don't think is brainwashing. It is like Mind Uploading (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_transfer). Robert's essence/soul/consciousness wasn't there anymore.

But his memories were still there because they are read, copied and transfered. Remember when Smokie was able to read Ecko's memories?

The same thing might have happened to Robert down there. I personally believe that Smokie is just a tool that Jacob uses to read people's minds and find possible candidates to possess.

If they are safe to enter them, Smokie is ordered to kill the victim and then Jacob's mind takes over the victim's body.

I think it is still Robert, but a brain-washed version of him. I think he looked into Smokie, and experienced lucid visions that altered his beliefs. Kind of like what Yemi offered Eko, but Robert accepted.

I'm quite curious as well, what this "sickness" that took over Robert & crew entails. His mannerisms and words were eerily similar to Cindy, the Flight Attendant, when she was talking to Jack on Hydra island in S3. It seems like people who are "taken" by the Others/Monster suddenly gain knowledge about the Island... and are suddenly completely at peace with being there.
That is very interesting, considering that both Cindy and Nadine instantly and noiselessly disappeared from the back of a column of people moving through the jungle. It was Smokey who took Nadine, and for whatever reason, killed her. This suggests that it may have been Smokey who took Cindy, but instead of killing her, "reprogrammed" her? Smokey was never much of a suspect before, because there were no Smokey-sounds to implicate him. But now we see him using the same M.O.. Very curious.

you are all probably on the right track. but i would like to think that from a dramatic point of view, that Robert and the team and even Cindy, just have seen something that gives them a very different point of view. They have been enlightened to what is at stake. I'm not a writer so I have know idea how they would pull that off, but I'm hopping about episode 10 of season six they will explain.