Early 1940’s: Richard Alpert is told by Jacob to visit the mainland, and find a very special young boy named Charles Widmore. Alpert gives Widmore a test, and unlike a young John Locke, Widmore passes the test. Alpert takes Widmore to the island, and raises him among the Others.

Early 1970’s: After around 30 years on the island, Widmore has risen to a leadership post, and for some reason, turns the wheel, moving the island, exiling himself and waking up in the Tunisian desert.

Widmore is desperate to either get back, or find a way to use the power of the island. He convinces a man named Hanso, along with a pair of Michigan grad students named the DeGroots, to fund a project called the Dharma Initiative. He informs them of the island, and with the help of Eloise Hawking, they build a station that allows them to find the island.

1992: Ben is instrumental in The Purge, which wipes out the Dharma Initiative. Ben gets everything he had by taking it from Charles Widmore. Widmore begins to plot how to get back to the island.

My reasoning: First, Widmore had to have lied when he told Locke that Ben tricked him into moving the island. Ben had to blow a hole in the Orchid Station in order to get to the wheel, so the island clearly hadn’t been moved since before Dharma. This scenario solves that problem. Second, it solves the “three decades” problem. Widmore didn’t say that his three decades started when he first met Locke. Third, it solves the Penny birth problem. If Penny is in her 30s in 2004, that means she was born in the 1970s, which is around the Dharma time. If Widmore had been on the island then, he would have either had to send Penny’s mother away, or have adopted her. Either are possible, but unnecessary in this scenario. Fourth, it solves the problem of how DI new to look for the island in the first place. Hawking said that her station was used to find the island in the first place, but the only way they would have known that there was an island to find was if someone told them, like Widmore. Fifth, it solves the problem of how Keamy knew about the Orchid. That had to have been one of the most secretive parts of DI, and if Widmore had been connected to DI, he could have known about it.

I’m still working out the details, but this story ties together a lot of loose ends.

It’s only the whole reason for this site right? Or perhaps I am mistaken, perhaps a wall of text about Charles Widmore takes precedence. Seriously though, I love a good lost post as much (if not more) than anyone but c’mon Chuck, give us podcasts.