Thoughts on 'Jughead'

This is the first episode in the entire series that didn't feature Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Jin or Ben - any of the Oceanic 6, in fact.  Sawyer and Locke are the only Season 1 characters to appear, I believe.

Some random thoughts and observations:

• Who does Ellie remind Daniel of?  Is it his mother, at that point a young woman?  Or is she a manifestation of Theresa's consciousness (the woman he apparently experimented on back at Oxford, who's now tripping through time while in a coma).  I think it would make great sense if it was his mother.  I used to think Daniel's mother was an older Penny (see previous post) but I think that a little unlikely now.  Because...
• Penny and Desmond have a son.  I thought it strange they never mentioned the little boy's name throughout the episode until the end, when it was revealed it is Charlie (after their friend from the island, Charlie Pace and also not incoincidentally after Penny's father Charles Widmore).  I thought for sure they were going to name him Daniel or call him Danny but it never happened.  So they have a son - he must have some eventual significance to the plotline, or else why introduce him?  Perhaps as an excuse to explain why they dropped out of sight for 3 years.
• So I no longer think Charlotte and Daniel are sister and brother, not after that declaration of love.  On a soap opera, maybe they'd try that kind of star-crossed lover storyline, but not on a prime time drama.  I still think Daniel is Mrs. Hawking's son, and after Desmond's interaction with Widmore and being directed to L.A. I'm pretty confident in it, but I don't think Charlotte is her daughter as well.
• So who is Charlotte?  And why the nosebleeds?  Is it because of the radiation?  Maybe after being born she was exposed to something that being back in its time period is causing a reaction.   Wherever the Losties jumped this last time, after leaving 1954, is significant to Charlotte and she's reacting to it.   What if this is the mysterious illness that plagued the survivors of Rousseau's expedition, that everyone was being inoculated for in the first couple seasons?
• Widmore is off my list of Black Rock survivors, since he now was once an Other.  He obviously knows about the ship and its significance due to his interest in the logbook.  It's looking like Richard Alpert is the main candidate for being from that ship, as well as Abbadon.
• How long have The Others been on the island as a functioning community?  Why are they there in the first place?  Are they maybe all descendents of the Black Rock crew?  Doubtful, because there weren't likely to have been any women on board as crew.  Where did they come from?  Why do they have such a fairly rigidly defined society, with rules of succession and hierarchy but relatively primitive living conditions?   In this episode the Others look to be living out of the tents the US Military left behind after being repelled.  During the course of previous seasons the Others were living in the Barracks left behind after the Dharma purge, as well as in extremely primitive camps and hovels.  Why the disparity in living conditions?   Who are these people?   I think even more than Dharma and its back story, the story of The Others is probably the series' most intricate and intriguing mystery.
• Some fans had speculated this past week that the mysterious thorn/dart that Sawyer stepped on was significant - that it might prove infectious, cauing Sawyer to lose one of his toes and eventually become the inspiration for the famous four-toed statue.  Since he seemed to move around just fine in this episode and nothing was ever referred to again about it, we may never hear anything more about the thorn.  Or maybe again, we might.  That's LOST for you ;)
• Out of 20 beach survivors, about 10 have been killed in flaming arrow and land mine attacks.  5 of those left were in this episode, so including Rose and Bernard there should be about 5 more Losties waiting at the creek.  Hope they're comfortable ;)
• So the US Military used the island for nuclear testing in the 50's.  Apparently the Others drove them off (or simply killed all of them) but they were able to keep the nuke.  Wouldn't the US government, if it just "lost" one of its test bombs, even in 1954, move heaven and earth to get it back?   Would the military just set up a bomb test site on any old island it found, or wouldn't they have exact latitude and longitude for where they were?  It seems odd that the US would just write off the bomb after the Army sent to test/guard it just disappeared.
• Does this also mean the Others followed Daniel's advice before they jumped, poured lead or concrete into the crack, sealed the radiation leak, and buried the bomb?  Is it still there, figuratively and literally, buried somewhere throughout the next 50 years of Lost time?   I wonder if Dharma, when digging their network of tunnels for the bunkers, found it at some point?

I'll be back at some point later in the week to dig into one of these points, or another one I think of along the way, a little deeper.  Come back and see!