LOST Revisited: Pre-Game for “Recon”

Widmore seems to have a bigger picture of the Island conflict than Benry. As much as their own rivalry parallels that of Jacob and Smokey, Widmore is the only one who’s indicated a knowledge of that larger conflict. (He told Locke about it last season – that he had a role to play in the war.) But what side is he on? Does he think that he’s a candidate on one side or the other? You could make a case for either. He “helped” Locke round up the Oceanic Six, though you could make the case that he was sabotaging him. And even then, once the Oceanic Six got back to the Island, everything went wrong for Jacob. But then, Jacob’s last words were “They’re coming”, and the Six included a healthy number of his own candidates. We’re sort of trapped in a loop as to who outthought who. There’s somebody who’s three steps ahead of everybody else, but I can’t determine who it is.