"Others" start with O too. And look where the compass is pointing...

Sledge, it could be French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian.

In all these languages, West begins with an O.

Westy knows!

Or maybe the whole island is jumping through time and space. Maybe Richard is Jon's constant (or anchor), or vice-versa. Dammit. The headache is growing.

I think the compass serves as a marker in time. Like when Farraday was always looking for man-made things to dictate his position in time. I think the compass is direct reference to young Locke meeting Richard previously. I think they are going to flash back to that particular point in time eventually.

I also think that maybe Richard is repeating, like a skipping record, and is also stuck in time. If so, I think he has ALWAYS been stuck, displaced through time, hence the lack of aging. I think he has been to all those points of the story before, and has been a witness to every single event that has happened on the island. That's how he knows all that stuff. He can't affect it at all, but he can guide people through it. Hence, the mentoring with Ben and Locke.

My thought was that the visit from Richard to young Locke has not actually happened yet. It was our first 'time travel flash' but we were not aware of it. Last night he gave Locke the compass in that moment with that moment's existing timeline. Later, he will travel into the past to see young Locke, hoping that he will recognize the compass (and maybe a few other things)

I hear you BobBX542. I could see Richard doing that to Locke to jog his memory that they've met before. But what I don't understand is why the mystery? Why not just tell him? Locke is obviously a believer. If your theory is true that we will see flashbacks of different "Others" contacting Locke I'm willing to bet that one of them will be the old lady who Ben spoke to, the same one with the clocks and Desmond. I'm not sure why, but I just think that.

That scene was too important to be a prop error. This is the 5th season after all. I think they're paying better attention because WE pay attention. That compass was Richard's, french or not. I still think the sand was John's.

It seemed to me that Richard gave Locke the compass to identify to him that they have already met in the messed up time stream, AND to start a conversation among fans as to whether or not that is the same compass.

I think we're going to see Richard (or maybe some other, uh, Other) give Locke a few different items throughout the season, and the thing that Locke "already has" is going to come out of left field. Like, the comic book or something. I think it's going to be the vile of sand. I'll post why I think that in the predictions page, so I can claim I called it later on, and so I don't post something that might be a spoiler on the main page.

Those knife skills certain come in handy! Maybe young Locke knew that he would need those skills in future. While we are focused on compass details, I do think that the compass just represents a code or password between Locke and Alpert, a pre-arranged form of communication. Also, it would appear that Mr. Alpert is a doctor/surgeon, possibly from a ship. Hmmmmm. I thought that he dialogue with Locke very similar to Ben (or I should say, that Ben picked up his communication skills from Richard) Creepy

For what it is worth, young John Locke DID pick the compass. He picked the sand, compass, and then the knife. Based on Richard's reaction, I think he was supposed to pick the Book of Laws instead of the knife.

It's a french compass:

E: l'est
N: le nord
NE: le nord-est
NO: le nord-ouest
NO: l'ouest
S: le sud
SE: le sud-est
SO: le sud-ouest

I agree that the two compasses are not actually identical, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it HAS to be a minor prop error. I think this is supposed to be the same compass. And I think in the coming episodes that is going to become more and more clear.

Good catch, lostfan777. Maybe the 'O' replacement for the 'W' is some coded part of a message Richard is giving Locke. Could this have something to do with Richard's obvious disappointment/frustration with young Locke's choice of items?

I'm not too familiar with compasses (other than that they point north!), but why does Richard's compass have an 'O' where the 'W' for west usually is and 'so' and 'no' instead of 'sw' and 'nw'? Is this normal, some Latin terminology or something like that?

I don't know??? There are still alot of similarities!!!

It's definitely not the same compass. So either it's a prop error (I'd say not likely with a prop of this significance), or it's not the actual compass itself that's important. Maybe what's important is just the idea... what a compass does... ("It points north, John" LOL)... a compass gives you direction... maybe something of that nature?

I agree that it's not the same compass. The lettering and layout of the directions are different.

It's definitely not the same compass. If you look below the South you'll see that in the one young Locke saw there was writing and none on the newer one.

I'm pretty sure that Richard said that he wouldn't recognize Locke. Locke was to give Richard (or show him) the compass so that Richard would believe Locke.

When Richard, tonight, said "When you see me again, you're not going to recognize me", I think he was referring to when he approaches the boy John Locke! Does it fit? With this time issue, so many possibilities are opened up now! Certainly blows the mind.

it doesn't look like the same compass to me, the new one has a spade shape on one end of one of the needles while the other needle is very thin. The compass Richard shows young Locke doesn't appear to have that spade shape, and if i compare it to the straight needle this one starts fatter in the center than the other one.

Plus, the font sizing/where in the compass it is located in relation to the rest of the font is different. the lines around the edges are different.

This could be an error on the Crew's part however, as it has been known to happen with props before, and we are supposed to think they are the same.