Two Half-Baked Ideas

I like to watch Lost late at night. My typical ritual involves waiting for everyone to fall asleep, turning off all the lights, turning on all the analytical parts of my brain and diving into the next episode of my rewatch. I feel like I can do my best thinking at this time of night; it's just me, the show and, recently, a little notepad to jot down any interesting thoughts I may have. Little possibility for distraction. No glare on the TV. It's just me and the show. Then again, since this is all going down at ungodly hours of the night, I'm prone to get a little groggy.

Last night, the rewatch took me to "Whatever Happened, Happened" and "Dead is Dead". I wrote two things down on my trusty notepad as I struggled to keep my eyes open -

1) "Something w/ temple & smokey makes you next leader of Others"

2) "Island kills babies cuz Ben wouldn't kill alex "what Jacob wants?"

I'll tackle these two brilliant, articulate insights one at a time:

1) How do the Others determine who becomes their leader? In "Cabin Fever", we saw Richard give Locke the Dalai Lama test, but they can't just go around giving this test to every kid who lands on the Island. Or do they? Maybe that's why they take children. In between his questions about Vincent, Walt did say they made him take tests. Farfetched, but possible. But the thought that passed through my head yesterday evolved from Richard taking Ben into the temple to heal him. I don't think they test everyone with knives, compasses and the Book of Laws. Maybe something in that temple makes them different, makes them "lose their innocence", as Richard (creepily) put it. We already know the smoke monster conducts business in there, so maybe it brands them in a way that will forever change them. I don't know. That's why it's a half-baked idea.

2) We see in "Dead is Dead" that Charles Widmore ordered Ben to kill Rousseau and baby Alex under the almighty reason of "protecting the Island". Well, this time on the receiving end of this common rationale, Ben refuses, shooting back "Is killing this baby what Jacob wants?" I sure as hell don't know the answer to that question. But it got me thinking, what if this act of defiance toward the wishes of Jacob caused the fertility problems the Others experience under the Linus administration? We know that babies could be born on the island 1977, meaning any problem must have begun afterward. Maybe the fertility problems are a sort of psychosomatic symptom, but instead of the body suffering from problems of the mind, the Island suffers in a way that coincides with the transgressions of it's leader. I think I might be on to something here...

One more thought - At one point, Locke (version MIB) says to Ben that his relocation of the Others into Dharmaville "doesn't seem like something the Island would have wanted". If Smokey can speak for the Island - which I'm guessing, to a certain extent, he can - that's not a good sign for Ben. Killing Jacob and defying the best wishes of the Island as the leader of the Other's does not seem like a good combo to have on your resume.