The Shape of Things to Come

Well, we now know that Sayid is working for Ben voluntarily, although I’m sure we all agree, he was manipulated into his volunteering.

Ben was somewhat surprised when he awoke in the Sahara, wearing a winter coat. I wonder how he got there.

I wonder about Ben’s comment that the rules have been changed. Why were there rules? What were the rules? Surely there wasn’t a rule against killing. Perhaps personal attacks (killing Ben’s daughter) was supposed to be against the rules. Were the rules formalized? Did Widmore recognize that there were rules? Or was Ben just assuming the rules? In any case, killing Alex definitely resulted in a change in Ben’s attitude. He is definitely more aggressive in the future. Are we supposed to sympathize with him now?

Widmore said to Ben that the island was his, and that Ben took it away from him. I was assuming that the island belonged to Hanso, and that the Widmore connection was a bit more subtle. Perhaps Widmore has a stronger connection to the Hanso foundation than I thought.

Is the body of the ship’s Doctor another example of time travel, or were the people on the ship lying to them when they said the Doctor was fine?