This goes out to Louker for an amazing thought as part of a larger theory I read here about a dream so thank you Louker.
Here goes, we still don't know who was in that canoe chasing the canoe with him, Juliet, Faraday, Miles, Charlotte, and....... John Locke. We do know that when they leave for the Orchid that it is in the future for them cus' the other are already gone. With not much time left in the series I would venture to guess that it's 2007. Could it be that the canoeists will end up being some of our losties currently on island? If either Miles or Sawyer are able to remember this(how IDK but it'll work), or be told by some entity(i.e. time traveller, Jacob*, dead people, or some other way). They would realize that they COULD change the past, just like Faraday said, by getting to them and telling them what the deal was. Unfortunately as we saw last time if they were in the chasing canoe, they were too late. They may have fired on them hoping to (this sounds sick but) kill John, before he could become Flocke, because that is what would be THE issue. Saving Juliet, Faraday, and Charlotte! would be a secondary benefit and probably wouldn't matter because if they prevent John from being killed later in the real world by Ben and then brought back, maybe it all changes. Faraday would have been the one that I would have had turn the wheel, logically he would be more equipped and he did know about the wheel from S5 premiere. If they are experiencing a loop, which has yet to be proved concretely, then maybe some detail we have yet to connect will make them be able to get there faster, and stop Locke from getting where he is headed, the Frozen Donkey Wheel. Also if either Miles or Sawyer is able to figure it out, they would have to stay behind, or risk seeing a double of themselves in real time I think, though I don't know what effect that would have. Could this be a LOOPHOLE that Jacob presented them, by way of free will?
*I bet it is Jacob since he is dead now and guess who other than Hurley communicates with ghosts(not buried)? Sawyer has a new found ability my friends. He's gonna' have a tough time convincing Sawyer to help him, can't wait for that!