It would seem that widmore and dharma are linked. But as KateMac said, "Sooo... then the Dharma food drop came from Widmore?"

If that's the case, widmore would know where the island is. But every indication besides that is he doesn't know where it is and is looking for it.

Oh Jeez, I'm going crosseyed! But I love this show!

Oh, and another thing. Didn't Lapidus(?) put some other stuff into the bag he threw out of the helicopter? Some of it looked like info regarding Dharma stations. Maybe it's just me though

Several things: If Widmore was a leading member of the Initiative, perhaps the top financially, he would think that the island was his. So to piggyback on the time travel theory, when Ben "moved" the island, Widmore no longer had the ability to reach it, or send more people there to enforce his control of it. But I agree that the document Keamy removed from the safe was probably info regarding the Orchid's features, and that Widmore hired him to use the secondary protocol to "change the rules". I guess Widmore wants the island back no matter what.

To move the island, I think it means to move it in time. The same way they can move themselves though time, they now need to "hide the island" from Widmore by "moving it"... into a different time. Yes this has been done in the past, and yes that is how the Black Rock would have ended up in the middle of the island.

I don't think the captain (now dead) of the freighter knew all the ins and outs of the island... so if the gizmo on the really creepy bad guy had to do with moving the island, the captain wouldn't have known. BUT if it is a deonator, the captain would recognize that and be afraid.

I like the comment about the island materialzing beneath the Black Rock Ship... maybe the island has at times moved on its own.... and that is the energy that Widmore/Hanso want to harness.

Widmore appears to be a cheat... but Ben is a liar. They are both manipulators. Hmmmmm..... "he broke the rules" said Ben. Are they playing some game? Winner gets the island?

My guess is that Widmore started Dharma, and lived on the island for a while. But when Ben took over, he wasn't on the island at that time - maybe he was out on a trip. So he's trying to get back there, and he and Ben are playing cat and mouse. That would explain why he knew so much about the island, and why he says that it is his island and he wants it back....

Charles Widmore and the Widmore corp are linked all throughout the mythos as financial partners with Hanso.. Therefore it looks like they "were" the Dharma Initiative all along. That explains why they have access to the manual for the orchid. Looks like when Ben and the "others" took over, they hijacked the island and moved it to get it away from Widmore. Now it seems they strapped up their mercenary with perhaps a remote to work the orchid??? Could be they are anticipating the islands movement, and trying to stop it??
Just my thoughts..

I posted this in Norville's forum post (see below), but thought I would throw it up here too.

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I think this finally answers a few questions - and leads up to the confrontation of the season finale.

1. This is some kind of operations manual for the Orchid station.
2. We know the Orchid station is capable of time and space travel (Orchid orientation film and Ben in the desert).

Kearny wants to use the Orchid to do 'something' - I'm not sure what, but to use it to kill everyone. He's obviously headed there to do this.

Locke needs to 'move the island', and will use the Orchid station to accomplish this. I'm guessing this will lead to a big showdown Roll Eyes

I might add, this has an interesting corollary of explaining the Black Rock - it wasn't blown ashore, but rather the Island materialized below it! I'm not sure if the Orchid can move things back in time - it may be a one-way trip, but Locke's dream of Horace also implies some kind of time loop - Locke moving the island may trap the Black Rock, which leads to Hanso's writing the journal, which leads to Whitmore, etc...

col81... yeah, I noticed the same thing... In fact I just posted about it in the [a href="http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php?topic=7894.0"]forums[/a], hoping to spur a bit more discussion.

and didn't he say something about how the info would lead him to ben... how would Widmore already know where ben was? Also, the dialogue made it sound, IMO, that to use that info was "cheating" on Widmore's part. Anyone else feel that way?

Hmmm wow that's interesting that it's the Orchid station. Maybe someone from Dharma escaped from the island somehow or someway that smuggled some info off the island. Maybe it's Abbadon or Charles Widmore? In either case it has something to do with burning down the island.

Sooo... then the Dharma food drop came from Widmore?