odd that Daniel being Widmore's son was treated like some sort of revelation. I recall that being painfully obvious in the Faraday flashbacks when he was young, still playing piano, and Widmore came over to chat with Eloise about Daniel's future.

Yep, I agree. We weren't surprised by this at all. Widmore said "My son" and I went "That's Faraday." I think they made this quite clear before. At the same time, maybe they expected the audience to assume that a lot would have changed in terms of who does and doesn't exist from that timeline.

It would be interesting to find out exactly when Eloise got off the island, and how, because it appeared she was *there* the day the bomb went off. Which makes me wonder more about who she is and what she's doing. Does all her reality-shifting make her someone Jacob-like, or at least Richard-like?

Back to Daniel stuff: is his name difference because Eliose married again? It's unlikely that Daniel was brought up by someone else, because he's clear about who his mother is.

Correction: no, she wasn't there when the bomb went off, was she - I had forgotten they shifted in time at least once between Faraday's shooting and setting it off. Still wondering exactly when she left, though.

I would guess that Daniel's last name is different because she remarried in Verse-1.

Correction: no, she wasn't there when the bomb went off, was she - I had forgotten they shifted in time at least once between Faraday's shooting and setting it off.

No, I don't think so. She brought them to the bomb, Richard clocked her, Jack and Sayid brought the bomb to the Swan, and Boom. THEN shift to 2007 and the current Island wackiness. She was there when the bomb went off, and pregnant.

She was there when the bomb went off, and pregnant.

That's what I thought, and then assumed I must have been misremembering, because I thought Faraday was shot in the 1950s but the bomb went off in the 1970s. Going to have to hurry up my re-watching to that point so I can get it all straight. Ah, timey-wimey.

Maybe Richard somehow smuggled her onto the sub?

nope, he got shot/was in utero in the 70s.

I don't think the bomb going off is the point of divergence. Sadly, I don't remember what gave me that idea, but Eloise and Daniel being alive in the Sideways makes me think it more.

I think it has to be close to that point in history (for example) for Ben to end up the way he has. He wasn't raised on the island. Locke's good relationship with his father?

Faraday ending up as part of the Widmore family? This was years in the making.

I'm thinking it almost has to have been earlier. Though Sawyer's parents are still dead, so maybe not.

But if the whole sideways timeline is more of an illusion than an actual divergent might-have-been, which the wish-fulfillment aspect seems to support, then I just don't know.