LOST: SEASON 5

[Flacolaco]

If you have a few minutes, this guy from entertainment weekly always does a really nice recap. It's 6 pages long but it raises some interesting possibilities...

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550...253904,00.html

My favorite of which is this tidbit...

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Ben asked Jack if Locke had spelled out exactly what had gone down on the Island after they left. Jack: Nope. Ben: ''Well, I guess we'll never know.'' Do you think the Machiavellian maestro is truly that clueless — or do you think he knows stuff and it serves his interest to make Jack think he doesn't? Think this through. The premiere gave us the answer to Ben's probing inquiry: After Jack and co. bailed, the remaining castaways started ricocheting through time. The opening sequence, in fact, revealed that at least Faraday is destined to make a stop in the mid-seventies Dharma Initiative past — perhaps right about the time Ben and his widowed father arrived on the Island. If this is where/when the season is going — if the rest of the time traveling castaways will be joining Faraday in the Dharma heyday — the implication is clear: Ben has probably known the castaways — or known about them — since he was a kid!

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[nikeball]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

My favorite of which is this tidbit...

That is what I thought at first. When Locke first traveled to the past and was shot by Ethan, I thought that he would bring him to Ben. There Locke would divulge everything that happened on the island. Ben would know or try to find out most of the people's life stories from this.

The other theory, where Ben meets the castaways as a kid seems plausible.