LOST: Mother, May I?

Whether you liked it, hated it, or gained some kind of insight from it, last night's episode was definitely a classic LOST story. And despite the snark, Mother's comment to her soon-to-be victim rang true: the more questions this show answers, the more questions will be raised. Why? Because the only way we'll truly know everything is by going to the absolute beginning. And as "The Phantom Menace" proved, sometimes you can go back too far.

So for the sake of the show, LOST begins with "Mother" finding Claudia, helping her give birth, and than pulling a "Taking Lives" by assuming Claudia's natural role as the matriarch. The new family plays "The Blue Lagoon" until it's revealed that there are more people on the Island (even back then people thought they could just kick their shoes off and make themselves home) and Mother has to deal with it as only she knows how.

REVELATIONS (DISCOVERIES)

1. Jacob and the MIB are twins.
2. "Mother" killed the Twins birth-mom Claudia as soon as she delivered them.
3. The MIB was never given a name by Claudia or Mother.
4. The MIB helped to design the Frozen Donkey Wheel.
5. Jacob is responsible for the MIB turning into the Smoke Monster.
6. The "Adam and Eve" that Jack, Kate and Locke found in Season one are the corpses of Mother and the MIB. Also, if Jack's estimation of their decomposition is accurate, this happened sometime between the 1940's and 1950's.
   

OBSERVATIONS

1. While the motives are still unclear, Mother was certainly raising Jacob and the MIB to be opposites: from she dressed and addressed them, the things she allowed them to do.
2. In addition, Mother seemed very concerned when she learned that Claudia was having twins as opposed to one child. Perhaps she thought/expected just one, making the choice of a successor (candidate) easier.
3. Either the Island is bigger than we've been led to know or Mother was very careful to keep The Twins away from certain parts, considering that they never encountered the other survivors of Claudia's boat until their teens and that neither found the Cave of Watery Light until Mother took Jacob back there.

QUESTIONS

1. Why did Mother need to kill Claudia?
2. How did Mother manage to kill the survivors of Claudia's boat crash 30 years later?
3. How was Mother able to keep the Cave of Watery Light hidden from everyone?
4. Why didn't Mother ever name the MIB?
5. Why was the MIB the only person who could see Claudia's ghost?
6. What was the motivation behind what Claudia's ghost was telling the MIB?
7. If Mother (and then Jacob) was concerned about dangerous people coming to the Island, how does keeping the MIB on the Island fit in?

UPDATE: As suggested in the comments, some of my questions may be answered via this little tidbit: Mother, in a fit of insanity and loneliness, went into the Cave of Watery Light and became the first Smoke Monster. It would explain how she knew about the CoWL's powers as well as her being able to kill a small village (and fill up that well). Of course, with the current Smokey, we saw that while the MIB was transformed, his body (along with Mother's) was laid to rest.