More thoughts on last week's eps...

So Faraday, and who we're guessing his mother is, Ms. Hawking (white haired lady) both say it is impossible to change the future, ultimately your fates are already decided.

But then why would Ms. Hawking be so concerned as to visit Desmond in his past to tell him he must break up with Penny and make it to the island? Why would it matter if he couldn't change his fate?

Anyway, the impacting of the future question got me thinking about one of the events we've seen so far: Ethan meeting Locke in the past.

Locke tells Ethan that Ben appointed him as the leader of the Others. Ethan thinks he's crazy, but let's say he goes back to tell the Others that story. Locke basically anointed himself their leader himself. When he actually shows up on the island they've already heard of him and our now blown away by the fact that he's really there!

Think about the actions of the Others as far as Locke goes:

- They consistently refer to him as special and/or important.
- When he helps Cindy (the converted stewardess) set up her tent she tells him they've all been waiting for him. They've been waiting ever since Ethan came back rambling about some guy he met in woods!
- Ethan infiltrates the crash survivors camp and almost immediately attaches himself to Locke as his hunting partner. He's probably pretty intrigued by Locke at this point. Also, wants to get on his good side for when he becomes the leader.
- and finally (well not finally, but the last thing I can think of right now), one of the biggest problems/questions I've had so far about the show, or something that always bothered me... Why would Ben have been coming across the island himself to check out the survivors camp? (Rousseau caught him in her net, and they took him prisoner, remember?) If he was the leader of the Others, couldn't he have found someone less important to run that mission? Well, he probably wanted to get a look at Locke himself and start manipulating the guy to protect his position of authority in the Others community and with the Island.

Clearly there's about a million chicken or the egg arguments to go along with this (How does Locke arrive in the past without the help of the Others along the way to get to the past and tell them he's their leader, etc.),... but it's still pretty intriguing.

If the writer's really had this all planned out it's pretty amazing.