Well, Jack did find the empty coffin all those years ago.

I'm just wondering if Christian is no more really-truly-dead than John is, now.

The show is certainly leading us to believe there's a direct parallel.

And yet Ben is the one who insists Locke has to come back to the island.

And Ben made sure that Locke still returned to the island, just, ya know, dead.

I'm thinking, Ben didn't want Locke to kill himself because he does believe that everyone needs to get back to the island, and Locke can help with that, since he's must trusted by a long-shot than Ben himself is. And then when Ben sees that Locke is going to steal Ben's specialness again with the knowledge of Eloise, he snaps.

I'm confused on the timeline of Sayid's after-island life. They've been back three years? So the first nine months or so are bliss with Nadia, then he starts working for Ben, I don't remember what happened that made Sayid finally lose his taste for Ben, and since then he's been do Good Works? Because all I can remember is the reveal that Sayid had been working for Ben, then Sayid telling Hurley to do the opposite of whatever Ben says. What did I miss? I had just figured that even though Sayid was still working for Ben, he hated and distrusted him, but went along anyway.

Julilebird - I think we need a Sayid episode because I thought he went right from working with Ben to the stuff with Hurley. And clearly, people are still after him so it's not like he was off the radar.

Okay some thoughts:

Didn't Michael try to kill himself in an ep last season and someone told him that the island wouldn't let him?

Perhaps same principles applied to Locke. Maybe the rope would have torn or something if he had tried to commit suicide.

Okay, can someone clarify for me the deal with Widmore, Ben, and the Others?

Richard is with the Others who recruited Ben, right? Richard sanctioned the killing of Ben's camp. At an earlier time, Richard and Widmore seemed friendly, so are we to understand that there was a split in the camp and that Richard and the people who went with him were "Others" and Widmore and the people aligned with him were the ones Ben eventually killed or kicked off the island?

I wonder if Walt will become a Matthew figure in the future. Clearly he is still seeing the future, so maybe that's how Matthew helped Locke on his walkabout?

FWIW, I think Ben came there deciding to kill Locke. He took off his jacket before helping Locke down off the table. I thought that was a weird gesture. Why take off your jacket THEN? And then he kills him and cleans up? I don't think the mention of Faraday's mother had anything to do with it. I believe the only surprise Ben had was that he now knows that Widmore knows about Hawking.

I thought that Ben only stopped Locke from killing himself because he needed to know how Locke was planning to get back. When Ben left, he thought he would be exiled fro the island forever. As soon as Locke gave up the name, Ben didn't need him anymore, other than as a returnee, and apparently decided that a corpse was as just as good for that purpose.

Widmore knows about Hawking?

I'm really curious about how Widmore came to leave the island. When we got Ben's backstory before, it seemed like the Others needed a leader and he showed up.

I'm wondering if we're going to come full circle, and the reason that Widmore is exiled has to do with some action that our Time Bouncers are going to take in the past (I know we saw Faraday back then, and now we're seeing Jin in Dharma-gear.)

I'd love there to be some circularity to it all.

I thought that Ben only stopped Locke from killing himself because he needed to know how Locke was planning to get back. When Ben left, he thought he would be exiled from the island forever. As soon as Locke gave up the name, Ben didn't need him anymore, other than as a returnee, and apparently decided that a corpse was as just as good for that purpose.

This is how I took it, -t.

Widmore knows about Hawking?

Yes. He gave the name and address to Des. We didn't hear the name said, but Desmond went to see him for "Faraday's mother's" name and whereabouts.

I think Hawking is young Ellie from the island (who had Daniel at gunpoint and took him out to the jughead bomb).

Richard is with the Others who recruited Ben, right? Richard sanctioned the killing of Ben's camp. At an earlier time, Richard and Widmore seemed friendly, so are we to understand that there was a split in the camp and that Richard and the people who went with him were "Others" and Widmore and the people aligned with him were the ones Ben eventually killed or kicked off the island?

Well, Ben killed Dharma. I don't know who else he killed, but he seems to have at least engineered Widmore's exile.

Ben took really good care of Locke's body. I'm pretty sure that Ben knew that Locke would reanimate upon hitting the island. I don't think Ben really thought he was doing Locke harm.

I wondered about that too, but Ben did say that he would miss Locke. I don't know.