Other than that a grown man putting up another person for potential harassment by outing her real name on the internet is abominable.

It really is.

Technically, he should have arrived somewhere in the three years they spend with the DI - if I got it right, the Linuses came to the island in 1975.

Hm, maybe we're due for more flashbacks for their three years in the next episode? Which apparantly we have to wait for two weeks, curses.

Dan's sighting of a red-haired girl: I wasn't sure whether this was really meant to be Charlotte, but of course she would evoke Charlotte for him. Also, isn't Daniel due at least one more trip to the further past because of the opening sequence we saw at the start of the season?

I think another possibility is that Ben wasn't the only one who switched sides before the Purge. He even said as much at the mass grave. So Juliet could know other people who used to be with Dharma before they became Others.

True, and if so, Harper is old enough to be a candidate.

You're probably right about the Doylist reason for the Olivia/Amy switch, and I'll take your Watsonian reasoning about Horace and Olivia splitting once they were on the island until we hear something on screen, too.

But Juliet being the one he imprinted on of course also makes a lot of sense. Oh Ben, you're so nuts.

Though I disliked The Other Woman as an episode, I'm actually really fond of this new theory of mine for more examples of Ben's screwed-upness. If Juliet finds herself adored by Harry Potter!Ben in two weeks, you've read it here first. (How old was he when he came to the island anyway?)

Given his charming personality, I wouldn't be too surprised if a wife/girlfriend thought it easier to raise Penny without his "help.

Good point. BTW, you're the Des and Penny expert - wasn't Penny refered to as "Lady Penelope" at some point? If so, she definitely had that title through her mother.

She did have nice chemistry with Sawyer, though.

True. And also, Sayid was busy working for Ben on the mainland, hence wasn't available for a deadly but truthful fling. Speaking of Sayid, do you think he and Sun are both in the 70s as well, or did the island inconveniently drop them elsewhere?