11:23 a.m.
I just talked to Richard. It turns out that he agrees with those of us who think John Locke may be better qualified to be our leader than Ben is. The problem is, according to Jacob's rules, we can't just decide to overthrow Ben. Richard only knows of two ways that Locke can become the new leader at this point. One is if Ben blatantly breaks enough of Jacob's rules that Jacob himself becomes convinced that Ben should step down. (Richard said that this actually happened with the previous leader 11 years ago, and that leader was actually exiled from the Island.) The other way is for Locke to actually follow through with the test that Ben gave him last night -- killing his father. Or at least for Ben to think that Locke succeeded in killing his father. Basically, that would force Ben to keep his promise to allow Locke to join our people, and it would make Ben look bad. The question is, if Locke isn't willing to kill his father, how do we make it look like he has? I'm certainly not willing to kill an old man in cold blood! Richard thinks our best bet is to go for the first option and somehow con Ben into breaking Jacob's rules so that we can exile Ben like the last leader. He's working on a plan, but he doesn't have anything solid yet. I'll see if I can come up with anything in the meantime.
2:42 p.m.
Ah-hah!! I knew Locke's father looked familiar!! Something clicked in my mind when I walked past him, but I couldn't put my finger on it, and it was bugging the heck out of me, so I asked Tom for Locke's file because I couldn't remember his father's name. And that was because the man had legally changed his name several times. But I finally found the connection I was looking for when I saw a name that he'd used back in the mid-1970's while living in Alabama: Tom Sawyer. Sawyer! The name that James Ford has been using for himself! Named after the con-man that he's been hunting for most of his life for allegedly killing his parents when he was a kid... in Jasper, Alabama! Holy crap, it's the same con-man!! That's it, I'm telling Richard that we found our hit man!!