This is the same women that appears in series 3 eps 8, when Des has its flash back, she is the women in the ring shop

I'm not sure Daniel is playing for Widmore's team and is an adversary of Ben.

Yeah, sure, he came in on Widmore's boat. But Daniel strikes me more as the "pure scientist" type. He wants to know what's going on with the island and its mysterious properties. He hitched a ride along with Widmore for convenience's sake, but I doubt he has any real vested interest in Widmore (or Ben either, for that matter.) He's more interested in the island as a scientific curiousity to study.

Unlikely Hawking is Daniel's mother. Daniel is playing for Widmore's team and is an adversary of Ben.

Hawking seems like a Richard Alpert type character, someone who's been around a long, long time and is in on every secret of the island. Daniel is spending his life trying to figure out the island - why not just ask mom?

It is a tease that Daniel tried to give Des his mother's name (why not just Mrs. Faraday?) and that she lives in Oxford, but I just don't think Daniel is on the same level as Hawking. Would she have been surprised to see that light seems different on the island like Daniel was?

Also, why assume that Hawking is not back in London or anywhere else in the world - or at any given time? So what if Ben pops up in her basement. Do we even have a clue yet how Ben gets around? He may be motoring around LA with Locke's corpse, but it doesn't mean he can't pop around at will. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time, even away from the island.

I think the whole island is moving through time and space. The symbols on the computer show where it has physically popped up in space. the diagram on the floor looks more like a timeline, with various timelines, or threads, shooting off of the main line. Maybe it's a diagram of where the island is showing up along the natural timeline.

Maybe it's all predictable, and Hawking knows how to figure out when or where the island will appear next.

All this precise planning and Jumbotron goes and throws a wrench in the gears! I knew that was going to be her as soon as they showered her back. Seeing her converse with Ben was the surprise for me. The markings on the computer screen look like the island is changing positions throughout the South Pacific, not just in time. That'd make since how a Nigerian prop plane could make it that far. Black Rock appearance coming soon?

When they showed the close-up of the Foucault's Pendulum and the path it was making, did the path seem irregular? It shouldn't have been unless the earth's rotation was messed up. Did anybody else notice?

I also think Daniel's mother is an unknown or Karen DeGroot. Mrs. Hawking is a time traveller and related to Brother ? at the Abbey where Desmond served time.

The image of jedi, the time frame of 70 hours, and that there is a group above Ben in the game were things I thought significant at first glance. I did expect to see our new Dharma station logo at this site, so maybe that hatch IS on the island. Ben's team using OLD computers, etc. like Dharma. Looks like island hopping confined to Pacific Ocean. Maybe you are spit out to other locations like Tunisia when you are the wheel master.

And if the island is moving through space/time, what if the reason that Mr. Widmore is so fascinated with both the island and the painting of the Black Rock (4x05: Black Rock Auction) is that he has been on the island before.... what if he is actually FROM the Black Rock!

This probably isn't where I should post this, but I'm having a stream-of-consciousness moment...

"Everyone has a boss."

Madam P's post about Daniel's mother squeaked in ahead of mine. :)

I've been assuming that the island is moving through space as well as time. Certainly travelers from the island have travelled through both space and time before. Look at Ben (and the polar bear) who turned up in Tunisia.

The island moving around in space would also account for other things, like how a small plane like the one Ecko's brother was in got from west Africa to an island in the Pacific Ocean.

*Daniel's mother, I meant. Stupid no-edit-function. :-)

I wasn't at all surprised to see her pop up.

However when Faraday told Desmond that he had to go to Oxford to talk to his (Faraday's) mother, I was certain at that point that his mother would turn out to be "Miss Hawking". And when I saw the robed figure I knew it was her, but I was guessing that this was taking place in Oxford. But she's definitely in the US since Ben was able to drop in to see her.

Of course it still could turn out that she's Faraday's mother. Maybe when Desmond gets to Oxford and inquires about who Daniel Faraday's mother is, he will find out that she's out of the country. Gone to America on some business.

But this is all just speculation on my part.

So is Ms. Hawking going to turn out to be Desmond's "mother in Oxford"? (I had her pegged to be Karen DeGroot, but hey...)

What are all those little star-intersections all over the map? If they represent "event" locations, are we back to thinking the island is actually moving not only through time, but also through space? Or is it that the island is staying still, and with the passage of time the Earth is turning underneath it, and the little star-intersections represent the "pop-ups" after the white-light-energy-bursts?

She has quite the creepy quality about her! I'm really eager to find what Ben's true motives are. After all, he's left the island a bit bitter with Jacob, supposedly can't go back, probably a bit resentful of Locke. Is he really looking to protect the island anymore? He's obviously still opposing Widmore - could Ben be in it for himself someway? How is this collision course going to play out with the survivors going back, Sun's rage, Widmore, everyone one the island, etc., etc. Wow!