Interesting BD, hadn't put that together that she gets the Journal that she gave him.

I think it is an open question if she pushed Daniel to study time travel stuff in hopes he could find a way to "change" what happened, or if she was guiding him to that point because she felt it was fixed. I felt her pushing him to not have a GF or life was in hopes things would change. I also assume the first scene with him at the piano is the first time she saw young Daniel after shooting adult Daniel. I think her comment to Penny that "this is the first time I don't know what will happen" indicates that she knew up to getting the O6 back on the plane "what to do" but after this point - its unknown to all of them.

What I find interesting is the theme that when the folks try to "change" things they end up being the cause. For instance:

Sayid decides he can stop the "evil" Ben by shooting the young Ben - who seemed at the time to just be the kind, geeky kid of an abusive father. But by shooting him he becomes the "new" Ben, changed by Smokey, and part of the Others.

Jack appears ready to follow the plan proposed by Daniel to "stop" the Incident - and thereby stopping the event that leads to the 815 crash - but I suspect that he will in fact cause the incident. The irony may be that Farrady convinced Pierre Chang to stop drilling and it wouldn't have happened.

Hurley, I predict, will try to stop the numbers being broadcast, but actually causes the broadcast that is heard in Australia and eventually leads to his hearing of them. (I am worried about Hurley's fate at this point - we haven't seen his flashback as to why he got on the plane, he seems to believe in the Back to the Future view that you can change the past - what if he sacrifices himself to stop the Incident, figuring it will not kill him as he'll end up in an alternate future? I think Hurley's story will end this year...)

Ben has tried to stop Locke from being the new leader, even killing him, but that didn't work - and instead made him even stronger in the eyes of the Others and Island most likely.

More notes:
There have been a few minor continuity glitches - Daniel's changing jumpsuit color, the position of young Ben's wound, even Hurley saying that Luke learned Vader was his father than had his hand cut off - mistakes or evidence that minor changes can and are happening? The situation with Desmond trying to keep Charlie from being killed - the implication was you couldn't stop it forever - that was was going to happen would happen, even if a bit different than expected.

I was thinking that Widmore, Hawking, etc. probably knew about the Oceanic 815 incident before it happened, given what is occuring in 1977 and so on. Its clear the reason the Others had files on people like Jack and Kate was they knew to follow them long before the crash occurred - Ben/Jacob knew who they could take as Others and the List was probably based on that. Richard telling Locke they had been waiting for him a long time wasn't just prophecy or generality but the truth. Anyway, if Widmore knew about the flight, why didn't he have someone on it, someone from the inside? I've always wondered about Libby - she gives Desmond the boat which conveniently gets him to the Island, and she is observing Hurley at the mental hospital. She is the only person we never learned why she was on the flight (of consequence) - I'm wondering if she was working for Widmore and was a mole (which would tie into the "Expose" episode-within-an-episode where we learn a hero was not a hero - which of course was a shock to Hurley.)

Lots to think about:

My previous statement "B - Jacob is a good guy, and the resurrected Locke is not what he appears, and may in fact be part of the "Shadow of the Statue" group." Was close, apart from the Shadow of the Statue group being a part of it in a bad way.

Gen. 27:41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

5 key points (I think...who knows...)

"Esau" on the beach says he wants to kill Jacob, then says "Someday we'll find a loophole" - at the end Jacob says he found his loophole. So, since "Esau" says "we'll find" maybe they both wanted Jacob to die (unlikely I think). But is the loophole that it has to be one of Jacob's followers - or at least someone alive - that does the deed - "Esau" can't himself? (Is there a parallel with Ben and Charles Widmore on the idea that they can't kill each other either...) Supposedly the response Richardus gave in Latin was "He who will save us all" or thereabouts.

My belief that Jacob was the captain of the Black Rock and was a Jack's great great great grandfather or so appears to be totally wrong. However my belief that there was likely a parallel between the Oceanic 815 and the Black Rock seems to be possible - something draws people to the Island - Jacob is looking for things to change, that humanity's fate isn't violence and death. Interesting as that is supposedly what the Dharma initiative was about...

It appears that Smokey is on "Esau's" side (if they aren't the same thing, really) - so all the way back when Locke first met Smokey, did Smokey figure out that Locke could be the one they could use for all of this and let him live? This also suggests that the Christian Shepard wandering about was doing "Esau's" work. If "Esau"/Smokey use the dead to communicate, is "Esau" the devil? If the statue is Anubis, the Egyptian god who helped get the dead to the underworld.... Or is "Esau" able to control the dead, which combined form Smokey. In any case, is Locke now the character from Expose who we thought was a good guy but wasn't? (And in other allusions, is "Esau" the Bad Twin...)

The ring of ash around the cabin was, as I thought, tied into a sort of "retaining" spell - only it appears it wasn't to keep Jacob in there but maybe to keep "Esau" in there - or maybe better yet keep him out? So when Ben brought Locke there, did that release "Esau" or was "Esau" already using it to pretend to be Jacob. Iliana expeced to find Jacob there, I think. One scenario - Ben/Locke break the ring when going to the cabin - the tantrum and "Help Me" was due to Jacob being attacked by "Esau" - when Hurley sees the cabin he sees the person in the seat and then an eye appears - if the person in the seat was Jacob, was the eye "Esau"? So the next time Locke is in the cabin and talking to Christian Shepard was that "Esau" manipulating him? (One thing that confused me - we thought Horace built the cabin, but it looked to me like the place that Rose and Bernard were living...)

At the end Jacob says "they're coming" - I assume that is the rest of the O6, who after the bomb goes off return to the correct time line? And if an evil force now controls the Isalnd - is that what Widmore wanted? And who will stop them - maybe Jack?