By the way, wasn't Michael unable to kill himself because "The island isn't through with you yet"? (or something along those lines). Apparently the island needed Michael to blow up Widmore's freighter. It would seem the island is working against Widmore, which would seem to point to Widmore being bad for the island.
If I trust any character on Lost, I trust the island lol.
I think the reason Michael was kept alive was not to blow up the freighter, because he didn't blow it up. Keamy did. What I think his mission was was to be the sacrifice so the others could escape. Michael was the one who thought of and executed the freezing of the battery which bought the rest the time they needed to escape from the boat. That is what I think the isaland wanted him to do.
Hi Zinzi! And welcome....
I'd totally forgotten about John seeing Widmore before...but if there wasn't a picture in the file, he definitely saw him on the tape that Ben showed him. When Widmore has a guy beaten up (stupid Ben taped over the Red Sox 2004 World Series win? That man is truly evil.

). You're right, I'd have thought that John would have recognized him, but maybe he was groggy from the whole time/space jumping + busted leg thing. Very strange.
Mrs. A, I don't mean to be corrective but at that point there was no space/time jumping happening yet. This would have been when they were in New Otherton before it was attacked. I'm sure you knew that though... brain fart? I still agree with the point you were making though. It seems styrange that he wouldn't remember what Widmore looked like after seeing that video and
possibly a photo in the file.