Now that we know the young Charles Widmore was hanging out with the others in the 50's it opens up many possibilities as to why he is so desperately searching for it half a century later. We hear Richard tell Locke the the process for selecting their leaders starts at a very young age, that not anyone can waltz in and take over. What if young Charles was one of those candidates for leadership during his time on the island? He could have been brought to the island because of his potential as a leader. Before he could take the throne however perhaps he did something unforgivable and was banished from the island, only to become the wealthy and powerful man that we are introduced to.
While so far we haven't seen any evidence that Widmore himself has been back to the island he is connected with Hanso/Dharma, who the others killed in the purge. During the scene with Ben and Widmore he also seems to feel that he has a right to some ownership of the island, and that Ben took everything from him.
My theory is that Widmore wants the island now because he feels that he was cheated out of role of leader in the past. To him Ben was just some Dharma kid who got lucky and befriend Richard, eventually becoming leader himself. The others obviously don't want him back and are doing everything they can to prevent him from returning.
I'm not sure how the Ben/Widmore power struggle will continue since Ben also seems to be stuck off-island for the momment, but hopefully we'll find out more in the next few weeks. Theory by hellokittums
While so far we haven't seen any evidence that Widmore himself has been back to the island he is connected with Hanso/Dharma, who the others killed in the purge. During the scene with Ben and Widmore he also seems to feel that he has a right to some ownership of the island, and that Ben took everything from him.
My theory is that Widmore wants the island now because he feels that he was cheated out of role of leader in the past. To him Ben was just some Dharma kid who got lucky and befriend Richard, eventually becoming leader himself. The others obviously don't want him back and are doing everything they can to prevent him from returning.
I'm not sure how the Ben/Widmore power struggle will continue since Ben also seems to be stuck off-island for the momment, but hopefully we'll find out more in the next few weeks. Theory by hellokittums