Young Ben met Smokie, not Richard, in the woods by Jimbo

I am re-watching Season 3 for the first time since The Finale. What a difference. After watching "The man behind the curtain", it is amazing to realize Ben's part on the island was pure coincidence. Back in the young and innocent days, I assumed the Island hand-picked Ben to be picked up by Horace by the side of the road, but it was all pure coincidence that Horace drove by.

Roger Linus then comes to the island for work. Again: coincidence. However, somehow Jacob tunes in to Ben and visits as his mother. I would accept an argument that Jacob HAD picked baby Ben from the beginning - either way works, but the idea of Ben being another variable (like Desmond) is just great. Anyway...

So Ben runs into the woods after shutting off the sonic fence, yelling for his Mom. And who appears? Richard. But he looks exactly as he did when the Black Rock crashed. Because this is Smokie coming to investigate the young Ben in the guise of the Richard that Smokie had met/scanned 200 years before. Smokie is astounded that young Ben has seen his dead Mother in the woods - possible because he realizes it must be Jacob taking an interest in this unknown boy. He sends Ben back to camp as an insider.

Eventually, Ben and the real Richard meet years later, but we are not privy to what happened - did Ben recognize Richard? Was Richard surprised that Ben thinks he knew him from before? Hey, I can make it up with the best of 'em. I assume being saved in The Temple as a boy reset that memory perhaps, but interesting that after that Ben remembered he was not born on the island, as he confessed to John Locke before going to see Jacob together.

So I see Ben's encounter with Fake Richard as the moment when the Man in Black began honing his "loophole" to topple Jacob, using this young boy who hates Dharma as his main chess piece.