Total guess here, but I think the young woman holding Daniel at gun point is Mrs. Hawking/his mother. I’d have to go get the exact quote but Daniel said like; “There’s something very familiar about you….”

But Widmore’s appearance on the island confuses me, especially considering his line from the last season’s finale; “That island’s mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again.”

Oh and May 30?

Voltaire’s deathday

The blond woman as Faraday’s mother? Intriguing.

As far Charles Widmore claiming the Island was always his, but being there in 1954, let’s not forget that Widmore has a prior connection to the Black Rock, too — perhaps it’s “always” been his because he inherited it from an ancestor. Or perhaps sometime between 1954 and the present(-ish), he went back in time and discovered it, even though he’d been there in his own youth once already. I love time travel.

How old is Desmond’s son? Just when is his confrontation with Widmore and search of Faraday’s derelict lab?

Re: The painting: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Paintings_(Widmore)

Desmond in his biohazard suit saw the light that made Faraday disappear. Richard Alpert must have seen the light that took Locke. When Ellie reported back to Alpert that her prisoner disappeared, Alpert would have asked about a light. Ellie would then have become comfortable enough to reveal that Faraday and two strangers claimed to be from the future and had ordered her to bury the bomb. Ellie was unaware of Locke’s visit (just as Sawyer is always unaware of new characters with his “Who the hell are you” to the Expose girl and recently to Faraday as each one does his part in separate stories that run at parallel times).
Now armed with the bomb burying order, the hostiles set about doing just that (as in Travolta’s “Broken Arrow” mineshaft and the resulting underground nuclear explosion) perhaps in a pre-existing cave which was later taken over by and expanded upon by Dharma’s mining team (seen working the Orchid station last week). A Chernyobel incident occurred (possibly from Daniel Faraday’s visible leak that 1954-Hostile-With-Radiation-Burns tried to fix) resulting in concrete being poured as an impromptu radiation shield.
Why magnetic enough to attract Jack’s key around his neck is still a question since EM pulse normally releases only after an explosion, and why have a man work a temporary 108-Minute-Button valve-release or cooling mechanism (like the silent movie “Metropolis” with the worker tending the giant coolant control dials before THAT went boom) instead of a more permanent unmanned automatic mechanism — unless they were about to do that when Ben killed off Dharma?
On a highly technical note, homemade EM pulse thumpers are plugged into a 110 volt outlet to charge several capacitors removed from ordinary disposable flash cameras. Throw a switch and all that stored energy goes into an inducer (the wire spool of a VCR head) to send a coin flying up into the ceiling. If no one is around to throw that switch, could those capacitors pop? Or in the island’s case send a naked sailor running around after the Hatch blows up?
Ellie and Widmore somehow get booted off the island but not before at least a young Ben meets them both. Ellie remains on friendly terms with Ben, but might Ben’s ascension to leader of the Others have offended a rash, knee-jerk-kill-a-fellow-hostile-who-won’t-shut-up-even-after-a-stern-warning-in-Latin, and ambitious young Widmore (who has to be told twice by his leader Alpert to put down the M1 pointed at Locke)?
Widmore as Daniel’s father entered my mind as well there (good point, Stephanie). Since children cannot be born on the island and these two already know each other from the island, perhaps an ever so temporary romance existed post-island until they settled into their new lives (Widmore to power and money, Ellie to physics). Hence their keeping in touch over the years so that Desmond was given her address in L.A. although the funding of Faraday’s research would have been greed driven for Widmore.
Also, it was SO touching (and I wasn’t sure if I heard it right so I rewound it three times) to find Desmond named the baby after a friend he dearly loved (somehow, I don’t think either Penny or Desmond intended to name him after the much-hated Charles Widmore), peanut butter Charlie. Wow.
Anyways, can’t sleep. Overworked. Just thinking out loud.

Anne, I don’t think subtlety would’ve worked there, anyway. Locke is repeating the name because he’s as surprised (and sort of delighted) to hear it as we are. We knows the name from Ben. The point of that reveal isn’t just to let us know that’s Widmore, but to show how differently Locke is reacting to time-travel than, say, Sawyer. Locke’s clearly having a good time.