They're Coming. . . by LostandLovingIt

I have a few thoughts about the group coming to the island.

1) Widmore - He has to make a reappearance before the series ends. He knew that a great war was coming based on the conversation he had with John Locke (when Locke was in the hospital after moving the island and transporting from the Orchard.) He may well turn out to be a good guy. He seems to act as if Ben may have been "claimed" by Smokey. Widmore said to Ben when Ben came night-visiting, "I know who you are and what you are..." Maybe he has somehow made a truce with Desmond. After Ben went after Penny, I could totally see Desmond and Widmore joining forces to get back to the island and take care of business. I wouldn't be surprised if they got Eloise on board with them to head back to the island.

2) The "other" candidates - So, if Jacob got to wander the earth selecting candidates to possibly replace him, it stands to reason that Smokey was able to do the same thing. If it is a cosmic game and Jacob gets to select his army/backgammon pieces, Smokey should have done the same. Meaning Smokey at some point gathered his own candidates/soldiers with evil endowed enough to replace him. Would be very cool, IMHO, to have a boatload of Smokey hand-picked baddies coming ashore to battle the Jacobites.***

3)The kids are alright - This theory depends on what time it is on the island. We all assumed that after the bomb went off that they returned to current time. What if that is wrong and they were sent 20 years into the future? Maybe that is why they had never seen the Lighthouse before. Because Jacob hadn't built it yet, like the statue's varying condition depending on time. What a fantastic twist to have all of the losties' children grown and coming to find their parents? Meaning those aboard the coming ship would be Walt, Ji Yeon Kwon, Clementine Ford, Aaron Littleton, Charlie Hume, David Shepherd (Jack's ex-wife was pregnant remember, so a child might not exist "only" in the side-flash). Really, when you think about it, all these children have a vested interest in finding the island and the mystery of what happened to their parents. A bit far fetched to make the time line fit, that they moved forward in time, could probably be debunked. But, maybe time has 'stopped'! on the island. We would all like to see what becomes of these kids. Maybe it will have to wait until LOST- THE MOVIE.

**That's right, I'm starting the term "Jacobites" to refer to Jacob's candidates. I'm a bit of a Scottish historian and couldn't resist.