I'm totally up for interpretation, but to me where we are headed in season 5 is the conclusion of Daniel's storyline this season.
We started off dealing with time, and I believe what we will see is Daniel working on the Orchid to learn its secrets. We know young Ben is around somewhere, or will be soon and so we'll see his development. We have also been dealing a lot with Widmore this season, and so I believe we will also see his side of the story based on his younger hostile self. If we can go another 7 years in Dharma time, it will give Daniel long enough to learn everything he needs to know, and Ben long enough to fully infiltrate the hoslites. The end of this season will show a young Ben ousting a young Widmore with the help of Daniel's acquired knowledge of the Orchid.
In the meantime we will also learn the origins or secrets of some of the other Dharma stations, perhaps seeing Hurley program the musical key code or finding out if in fact Jughead is under the Swan.
Following the turning of the wheel by Widmore, or whatever his departure entails, I think we'll have no choice but for the losties to be sent to the past. That's the only way I know we'll see the statue again. It would be easy for them to find the Orchid again to get back, and for us to learn how it was built/discovered in the first place. We could also just as easily be treated to some time skipping again, or of course we could just wind up back in 2008 again, however I don't know how we'll learn about the ancient past stuff again if that is the case. Theory by Locke4God
We started off dealing with time, and I believe what we will see is Daniel working on the Orchid to learn its secrets. We know young Ben is around somewhere, or will be soon and so we'll see his development. We have also been dealing a lot with Widmore this season, and so I believe we will also see his side of the story based on his younger hostile self. If we can go another 7 years in Dharma time, it will give Daniel long enough to learn everything he needs to know, and Ben long enough to fully infiltrate the hoslites. The end of this season will show a young Ben ousting a young Widmore with the help of Daniel's acquired knowledge of the Orchid.
In the meantime we will also learn the origins or secrets of some of the other Dharma stations, perhaps seeing Hurley program the musical key code or finding out if in fact Jughead is under the Swan.
Following the turning of the wheel by Widmore, or whatever his departure entails, I think we'll have no choice but for the losties to be sent to the past. That's the only way I know we'll see the statue again. It would be easy for them to find the Orchid again to get back, and for us to learn how it was built/discovered in the first place. We could also just as easily be treated to some time skipping again, or of course we could just wind up back in 2008 again, however I don't know how we'll learn about the ancient past stuff again if that is the case. Theory by Locke4God
