Every time Ben has spoken in the last couple of episodes has scared me. Not the man, but the prophetic words of doom, and his absolute fear of the freighter people. When something scares a man like Ben, you know it can't be good.

Keeping with this feeling was last night's scene in which Ben pleaded for Danielle to take Alex away to hide from the Freighties. But I'm more interested in the familiarity with which they spoke. They seemed to be on quite knowledgable terms with one another, wouldn't you agree? I have a feeling they've had more past encounters than have been alluded to so far.

I cracked up laughing when Danielle hit him. Sorry, Ben, but when you spend your life manipulating people, eventually no one is going to listen to you anymore.

Ben and Danielle having a past together wouldn't surprise me. If we take their stories at face value, Ben and Danielle have both been on the island for twenty years or more. That's plenty of time for the writers to play with.

I did find it really odd that after talking with Ben, Danielle walked away for awhile, the camera cut to a different scene, and when we came back to the hill, Naomi was gone. How did a woman stabbed in the back crawl away and get into a tree?

I couldn't agree more. They seemed to know each other on a personal level.

Still bugs me that in season 1, Danielle said to Sayid that she hadn't seen other people on the island, just heard them. Now it is being suggested that she has a history with Ben, doh.

There did seem to be 'something' between Ben and Danielle, even after watching the season finale when Ben told Alex that Danielle was her mother...it seemed like Danielle was acquainted with Ben and not at all surprised with the announcement.

Every time Ben has spoken in the last couple of episodes has scared me. Not the man, but the prophetic words of doom, and his absolute fear of the freighter people. When something scares a man like Ben, you know it can't be good.

Keeping with this feeling was last night's scene in which Ben pleaded for Danielle to take Alex away to hide from the Freighties. But I'm more interested in the familiarity with which they spoke. They seemed to be on quite knowledgable terms with one another, wouldn't you agree? I have a feeling they've had more past encounters than have been alluded to so far.

It's hard to tell if Ben's warnings of doom are true or not. He's so good at manipulating people for his own needs. But he did seem genuinely concerned for Alex's safety.

As for Ben and Danielle having past encounters, I suspect they have. First she tells Sayid she's never seen any of "them" but she hears them. But when Ben is captured in one of her traps she says he will lie and lie for a long time. Huh? I think she may have caught a few Others before, especially considering she's been on the island for 16 years. No way she hasn't encountered any of them. Like Patchy, I think she may know more about the DI and just made up the scientific research expedition since she didn't know if she could trust the Losties. But unlike Patchy she didn't join up with Ben after the purge.

:twocents: We need a Danielle backstory!

Very good conclusion considering she was on the Island with Research team(probably Dharma). Maybe the Hostiles took the baby away from Danielle right before they gassed the rest of the Island. She was in the right place at the right time and found a place to hide and not get gassed or survived somehow. We do need a back story

I think Danielle could be Annie, Ben's childhood friend. D"annie"lle. Obviously something serious happened to break up their relationship--maybe having something to do with the Purge?

I'm with ya there. It's definitely not like he just stole her baby and whisked it away. They know each other on some level, though not necessarily intimate.

Hmm...was Rousseau's baby cut out of her? I'm thinking so. If so, presumably by the "Dharma Initiative." What was Ben's position at that point? Was he behind it (fertility research)? Or was he then opposed to Dharma, fighting along side Richard? It's hard to say since we don't really know exactly how old Ben was during the Purge.

I'm with ya there. It's definitely not like he just stole her baby and whisked it away. They know each other on some level, though not necessarily intimate.



they knew each other well enough to know that the baby's name was Alex.

I've been suggesting for a long time that Danielle is Annie. TPTB have warned us that not everything Danielle says about her past may be true. I'm thinking that she does sincerely believe her story, though. I think that when we see the Danielle flashbacks that we may see that every point in the story she's told has a grain of truth in it, but that her tormented mind has rearranged and edited her memories somewhat. She's taken on the identity of a different person and really believes she is who she says. But she _is_ a nutcase...

I still think Danielle ws complicit in Syid finding Ben in the first place. They set the whole thing up including putting the arrow into a non lethal part of his shoulder

Ben and Danielle having a past together wouldn't surprise me. If we take their stories at face value, Ben and Danielle have both been on the island for twenty years or more. That's plenty of time for the writers to play with.

I did find it really odd that after talking with Ben, Danielle walked away for awhile, the camera cut to a different scene, and when we came back to the hill, Naomi was gone. How did a woman stabbed in the back crawl away and get into a tree?

Danielle claims she's been on the island 16 years and that is the age of Alex.

You know, Danielle looked a bit stunned when Jack told her he wanted Ben going with them because he didn't trust him with anybody but him. Maybe Jack figures Danielle had something to do with Naomi getting up and moving on.

Also, if she was with Dharma, why did she have to draw a map of the island? I don't think she's truthful about her background, but I do think she wasn't part of Ben's group.

If she is Annie, then where did she pick up the accent??

Ben/Danielles scene in this episode was probaly the most mysterious and interesting. They seem to know each-other well enough, I just hope they reveal more about there history in future episodes.

She captures Ben and says he lies, shes meet him before I'm sure. I always get the feeling they somehow had a truce or something. I personally believe that Ben knows secerts about Danielle, I reckon she could of been another Claire, where she blocked out certain memories and some parts are left out.

It's hard to tell if Ben's warnings of doom are true or not. He's so good at manipulating people for his own needs. But he did seem genuinely concerned for Alex's safety.

Well, the big difference to me is that he wasn't asking for something for himself. Ben spent season 3 making promises, threatening and double-crossing to accomplish his own ends. This, on the other hand, sounded like a desperate plea for the safety of the girl whom he had come to regard as his daughter.

If she is Annie, then where did she pick up the accent??

Well... it would explain that joke about how her accent isn't even really french... :lol2:

During their brief conversation this week, while Ben was tied to the tree, it seemed obvious to me that they have a past together. Any ideas to what it might be, and if they're enemies, why Ben never had her captured or killed?

I believe they have a past together too. Maybe not a relationship, but they have met before, IMO. Remember when Ben was first caught in the trap? Danielle told Sayid he will lie for a long time, or something of that nature. She must've experienced it in the past.

She may have experienced this when they stole Alex from her.

A mother who still loves her child, even after 16 years, as Danielle does, surely would not simply give up once a rogue group stole her child shortly after childbirth.

What If Danielles team where once a threat to the Island, and never really where marooned there.

Is it possible at all that Ben had Danielle's team killed? I know she's said herself in the past that she killed them because they got sick...but maybe Ben was responsible.

What If Danielles team where once a threat to the Island, and never really where marooned there.

... So Danielle, who was very pregnant wanted to come and "attack" the Island, in whatever way you can attack this Island?
Then killed everyone and had her baby stolen, and became Island Danielle?

Is it possible at all that Ben had Danielle's team killed? I know she's said herself in the past that she killed them because they got sick...but maybe Ben was responsible.

I don't know the exact timeline, but was Ben even with the Others yet when Danielle arrived 16 years or so ago? We know Dharma and the island natives were there. It could have been the island natives, or maybe Danielle is telling the truth and she really did kill them. At any rate, Danielle's whole back story is missing and I'm hoping they eventually show what really happened, and if the "sickness" is real. It seemed like Kelvin used the "sickness" to scare Desmond and that it really wasn't real, but that's just my opinion.

I don't know the exact timeline, but was Ben even with the Others yet when Danielle arrived 16 years or so ago? We know Dharma and the island natives were there. It could have been the island natives, or maybe Danielle is telling the truth and she really did kill them. At any rate, Danielle's whole back story is missing and I'm hoping they eventually show what really happened, and if the "sickness" is real. It seemed like Kelvin used the "sickness" to scare Desmond and that it really wasn't real, but that's just my opinion.


We know Ben was there, because we saw him arrive on the Island as young boy. Further, we know that he took Alex from Danielle just days after she was born.

Danielle = "Annie"

Ben may very well be Alex's real father. Danielle ("Annie") might be crazy and that's why Ben took Alex from her?

-- J

We know Ben was there, because we saw him arrive on the Island as young boy. Further, we know that he took Alex from Danielle just days after she was born.

Ahh thanks for refreshing my memory. :) I'm still hoping for a Danielle flashback so we can see how everything played out. I still don't think Ben killed her team. The Others took the children from the tail section of the plane, but for the most part left the adults alone. I know things may have been different 16 years ago and her team had a different agenda than the crash survivors, but until I see otherwise I think Ben is off the hook on this one. :biggrin:

Danielle = "Annie"

Ben may very well be Alex's real father. Danielle ("Annie") might be crazy and that's why Ben took Alex from her?

-- J


I don't think there's any evidence to support that ..
100%
Ahh thanks for refreshing my memory. :) I'm still hoping for a Danielle flashback so we can see how everything played out. I still don't think Ben killed her team. The Others took the children from the tail section of the plane, but for the most part left the adults alone. I know things may have been different 16 years ago and her team had a different agenda than the crash survivors, but until I see otherwise I think Ben is off the hook on this one. :biggrin:

I just find it odd that 1) Out of all the children that they've taken and "given better lives too", Alex and Carl are the only ones we've seen? 2) That Ben decided to raise Alex as his daughter, giving her no indication that she was adopted (/stolen)

this opens a very interesting sideline. IMO, Danielle once trusted Ben, and perhaps her team was once part of dharma, kinda like a liason group. she deliverred a healthy child, but im not sure whether or not the child was actually delivered on the island or was with her prior to coming to the island. Ben is obviously in his early to mid 40s, or older if the island has some type of youth regeneration properties.

Danielle wasnt always crazy im sure, she was a scientist (what type?) and 16 years of isolation in a hostile environment made her that way, kinda like a homeless person, we are social creatures that need human interaction for sanity. Im sure over the years as danielle descended into her psychosis, the facts of the events have changed. it make sense that her team may have been part of the dharma initiave and was part of bens purge. im curious to see if danielles memory becomes clearer with interaction with ben, who i thnk is short lived now, and alex.

After Naomi's trail leads to an end. Ben fills in Jack with what had happened.
Kate took the walkie talkie when they hugged (which explains Ben's look
when they are hugging) and followed the correct trail of blood.

As he is finishing up Ben says in regards to Kate, "I guess she's taken matters
into her own hands". Jack takes a few steps away and Ben continues, "But
look on the bright side, at least someone around here knows what the hell
they're doing".

As the dialog is being spoken, Ben turns to Danielle (almost in the manner of
a child to suggest without saying a name).
Danielle turns to Ben and looks surprised and disgusted that he would say or
suggest anything.

The only thing I take from this is that Ben and Danielle have a past that is much
thicker than we think or have ever seen. They both know something that the
Losties do not know. Are we ever gonna get a Danielle flashback?!

I thought Ben looked a bit scared of Danielle, like she was going to haul off and smack him again. Or was that wishful thinking on my part? It cracks me up to think that of all the crazy stuff happening on that island, seemingly fearless and powerful Ben might be brought to his knees by Danielle. :woohoo:

I thought Ben looked a bit scared of Danielle, like she was going to haul off and smack him again. Or was that wishful thinking on my part? It cracks me up to think that of all the crazy stuff happening on that island, seemingly fearless and powerful Ben might be brought to his knees by Danielle. :woohoo:

I'd be creeped out by a weird loner (male or female) who supposedly killed everyone she knew, sets little traps around the island, and tortures the people she catches.

After Naomi's trail leads to an end. Ben fills in Jack with what had happened.
Kate took the walkie talkie when they hugged (which explains Ben's look
when they are hugging) and followed the correct trail of blood.

As he is finishing up Ben says in regards to Kate, "I guess she's taken matters
into her own hands". Jack takes a few steps away and Ben continues, "But
look on the bright side, at least someone around here knows what the hell
they're doing".

As the dialog is being spoken, Ben turns to Danielle (almost in the manner of
a child to suggest without saying a name).
Danielle turns to Ben and looks surprised and disgusted that he would say or
suggest anything.

The only thing I take from this is that Ben and Danielle have a past that is much
thicker than we think or have ever seen. They both know something that the
Losties do not know. Are we ever gonna get a Danielle flashback?!

I thought the same thing when I watched that scene...more so the second time around. Something is definitely up between those two, and I would imagine by the time we learn what it is, it's going to shock us. At least that's what I'm hoping for. :biggrin:

Danielle deliberately led Jack on a dummy trail because she's the one who created it. The favor Benry asked of Rousseau in getting Alex as far away as possible comes into play with why helped Naomi escape. What neither of them could have predicted was Kate picking up another trail, lifting the phone off Jack and going after Naomi on her own. Of course neither could really say anything without blowing their cover.

It's not enough for Ben to have taken Danielle's daughter when she was a baby and hide her for 16 years for Danielle to look at Ben with hate, contempt, loathing, whatever? I dont think there needs to necessarily be a history between the two of them for her to be disgusted by him based on the fact she knows he's been raising his daughter as his own her whole life.

Towards the beginning of us first getting to "know" Danielle, she states that she killed her team because they were "sick".

If we make an assumption (and it's a big one, but just for the sake of the argument) that Danielle is somehow Annie - accent and all - could it be possible that she AND Ben were responsible for the killing of all the Dharma folks? I know it's a stretch, just a thot that crossed my mind.

BUT, if she is Annie, how the heck could she have survived the pregnancy? Because as it seems to us so far, no one who has gotten pregnant on the island has ever survived it. So that'd be a big mark against Danielle being Annie. Huh.

BUT (again), if she was Annie, and somehow survived the pregnancy, and then fell out with Ben after...well, my first thought was ,"Why wouldn't they go ahead and kill her, too?"...but, if she was the only woman to survive pregnancy on the island, maybe they'd spare her life on that fact alone.

Totally thinking out loud here, maybe none of this makes sense...

Quote: If she is Annie, then where did she pick up the accent??

Well... it would explain that joke about how her accent isn't even really french... :lol2:

But she does have an accent, which Annie didn't. Danielle is not a native speaker of English as Annie seems to have been.

I thought Ben looked a bit scared of Danielle, like she was going to haul off and smack him again. Or was that wishful thinking on my part? It cracks me up to think that of all the crazy stuff happening on that island, seemingly fearless and powerful Ben might be brought to his knees by Danielle.

See, that's the big secret about Ben - and this is something that I believe only Sayid has really picked up on - Ben is afraid of EVERYBODY. It's the single biggest motivation for his character. His overriding fear of everyone is what drives him to do the crazy things he does.

As he is finishing up Ben says in regards to Kate, "I guess she's taken matters
into her own hands". Jack takes a few steps away and Ben continues, "But
look on the bright side, at least someone around here knows what the hell
they're doing".

As the dialog is being spoken, Ben turns to Danielle (almost in the manner of
a child to suggest without saying a name).
Danielle turns to Ben and looks surprised and disgusted that he would say or
suggest anything.


I had the impression that Danielle was shocked because Ben said, "at least someone around here knows what the hell they're doing". Was Danielle's reaction to this because she just came to realize that Ben doesn't know what he's doing either? If they are in cahoots and Ben is their leader wouldn't this be a shocker for her?

I had the impression that Danielle was shocked because Ben said, "at least someone around here knows what the hell they're doing". Was Danielle's reaction to this because she just came to realize that Ben doesn't know what he's doing either? If they are in cahoots and Ben is their leader this wouldn't this be a shocker for her?

Yes, it's possible they've been in cahoots since the beginning. Ben did end up in her trap, and she went and got Sayid. Then Ben infiltrated their camp...it's possible he and Danielle set that whole thing up from the start. It just doesn't make sense that Ben would kidnap her daughter, and yet leave her alive and uncaptured to roam the island and set traps as she pleased. I'm starting to think she's on Ben's side.

I think hskr_n_hi is on track. How could Danielle go full term with Alex unless she came to the island pregnent (like Claire)? That would rule Ben out as natural father. Speaking of teens, where did Karl come from? Was he born on the island or did he arrive later?

I think hskr_n_hi is on track. How could Danielle go full term with Alex unless she came to the island pregnent (like Claire)? That would rule Ben out as natural father. Speaking of teens, where did Karl come from? Was he born on the island or did he arrive later?

I never really thought about Karl. I wonder where he came from. All we know about him is that he's a troublemaker, at least in Ben's eyes.

I'm with ya there. It's definitely not like he just stole her baby and whisked it away. They know each other on some level, though not necessarily intimate.

Hmm...was Rousseau's baby cut out of her? I'm thinking so. If so, presumably by the "Dharma Initiative." What was Ben's position at that point? Was he behind it (fertility research)? Or was he then opposed to Dharma, fighting along side Richard? It's hard to say since we don't really know exactly how old Ben was during the Purge.

No, not if you believe Danielle's story. She said she was 7 months pregnant when they marooned on the island and that she delivered the baby herself. Then the Others came and took the baby.


Well, the big difference to me is that he wasn't asking for something for himself. Ben spent season 3 making promises, threatening and double-crossing to accomplish his own ends. This, on the other hand, sounded like a desperate plea for the safety of the girl whom he had come to regard as his daughter.

Yes, that might be the first unselfish thing we've seen Ben do. And even though he isn't Alex's biological daughter he has raised her as his own. That bond is usually just as strong.



I just find it odd that 1) Out of all the children that they've taken and "given better lives too", Alex and Carl are the only ones we've seen? 2) That Ben decided to raise Alex as his daughter, giving her no indication that she was adopted (/stolen)

It is strange that we never see the children. I suspect they are very protective of them.

Just remembered, we did see some of them when Cindy spoke to Jack while he was in Sawyer's old cage.

See, that's the big secret about Ben - and this is something that I believe only Sayid has really picked up on - Ben is afraid of EVERYBODY. It's the single biggest motivation for his character. His overriding fear of everyone is what drives him to do the crazy things he does.

Hi Saukkomies! I always enjoy your posts. :) But I'm not so sure he's afraid of everyone. He's far too cocky and brazen to be afraid. I think he just may be too confident - in his beliefs and his right to decide what happens on the island. The only thing I think he's afraid of is the island being located and being deported. :biggrin:

Hi Saukkomies! I always enjoy your posts.
Well thank you so much LinCA! The feeling is mutual, I am sure.
But I'm not so sure he's afraid of everyone. He's far too cocky and brazen to be afraid. I think he just may be too confident - in his beliefs and his right to decide what happens on the island. The only thing I think he's afraid of is the island being located and being deported.
Of course this is all very subjective, and also it is all very much what one's particular perspective is, so of course there really is no "correct" take on the subject of Ben's psychological motivations. However, from my own perspective, as seen through my personal rose-tinted mind filters, I think that Ben's bluff and cocky attitude stems from his lack of self confidence. I could of course be howling at the moon, though, since it's all just so much armchair-psychology... But from my perspective it seems that those who are the biggest bullies are the ones who are the most full of fear. And I think Ben is a classic playground bully. But I'll respect anyone else's right to have a conflicting opinion. :)

I think hskr_n_hi is on track. How could Danielle go full term with Alex unless she came to the island pregnent (like Claire)? That would rule Ben out as natural father. Speaking of teens, where did Karl come from? Was he born on the island or did he arrive later?

Ah ha! I've had a suspicion that Karl could be the biological son of Ben (from Annie?), and that's why he is so adamant about keeping him and Alex apart.

I'm thinking, just now, that perhaps there are younger people with the others??? Aldo appeared just the other side of his teens???

What if Danielle was in the purge but lived and the chemicals screwed with her brain

The only thing I take from this is that Ben and Danielle have a past that is much
thicker than we think or have ever seen. They both know something that the
Losties do not know. Are we ever gonna get a Danielle flashback?!

Somewhere, I think TPTB have said that Danielle will get a flashback. I hope it's this season, and if so, it'll (unfortunately) probably one of those that will be filmed when the writers' strike is over.

-----

Somewhere, I think TPTB have said that Danielle will get a flashback. I hope it's this season, and if so, it'll (unfortunately) probably one of those that will be filmed when the writers' strike is over.

Same here, Her whole story and the Alex/Ben should all be another Other48Days type episode, I'd love that. But I guess they can spread it out like always over a number of episodes.

I'd love a 2-hour final for Danielles flashback, that would make my day.

they knew each other well enough to know that the baby's name was Alex.

I think this is the most simple and concrete evidence of a past relationship (whatever form it may be) between Danielle and Ben. If you kidnap an infant from a crazy woman do yo really bother calling the child by the same name the crazy lady gave it? I think Danielle was, at the very least, an Dharma Initiative member and was in Alex's life for at least her toddler years.

When Alex looked at Danielle in TTLG, I didn't take it as someone who was meeting their mother for their for the first time. While it's a romantic notion that barely born Alex had her mother's face burned into her memory, it's highly unlikely. Plus we've seen that Ben and the Hostiles aren't adverse to "reconditioning" the people on the island. So my guess is that after Ben and Rousseau had they're falling out, Ben systematically erased any memory of Danielle from Alex's mind.

The only uncertainty in my mind is whether or not Danielle is in fact Annie. That's one hell of a rouse to put on, fake accent and all. Though it's not out of the realm of possibility on this show. Mikhail, seemed to have a very solid alias for himself when he first came on to the screen. Maybe Rousseau, if that's her actual name, is a master of deception... kinda like someone else on the island who claims to be Alex's parent.

Here's what I call the Rousseau Linusian theory.

"My name is Henry Gale." + "My name is Benjamin Linus and I've lived on this island my entire life." = Crap.

Herego, "We were part of a science team. Our vessel was three days out of Tahiti, but our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm.. the sounds.. The ship slammed into rocks. Ran aground. The hull breached beyond repair.. so, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter temporary. Nearly two months we survived here." = Total crap.
;)

If she is Annie, then where did she pick up the accent??

I'd suspect she picked it up the same place she picked up her story; out of her mind. You may notice that her accent is Eastern European (the same accent that her actress Mira Furlan uses in real life) and not the least bit French. I think this is a HUGE clue... Casting someone with an authentic French accent to play an authentic Frenchwoman is just not all that hard...
100%

If we make an assumption (and it's a big one, but just for the sake of the argument) that Danielle is somehow Annie - accent and all - could it be possible that she AND Ben were responsible for the killing of all the Dharma folks? I know it's a stretch, just a thot that crossed my mind.

BUT, if she is Annie, how the heck could she have survived the pregnancy? Because as it seems to us so far, no one who has gotten pregnant on the island has ever survived it. So that'd be a big mark against Danielle being Annie. Huh.

BUT (again), if she was Annie, and somehow survived the pregnancy, and then fell out with Ben after...well, my first thought was ,"Why wouldn't they go ahead and kill her, too?"...but, if she was the only woman to survive pregnancy on the island, maybe they'd spare her life on that fact alone.


We've not been told that there was _always_ a problem with pregnancies on the island. It could even be something caused by Dharma. In doing my own creative story writing, I've wondered whether Annie might have become pregnant right on the edge of the time where the problems with pregnancies started occurring. Annie didn't die but sustained brain damage, ran off into the jungle with her baby, and had the baby taken away from her by sone Dharma rescuers. .

TPTB have said that not everything Danielle says may be true; perhaps in her tormented and damaged brain she's fabricated her story, but every part of it contains some grain of truth?

Ben has then lost the one person who ever really cared for him because of a Dharma screw-up, explaining both his hatred for Dharma _and_ his obsession with fixing the pregnancy problem.

Wow, I really think you're onto something here. I was thinking the same about the pregnancies; that it wasn't always an issue. I'm pretty sure I heard a while back that TPTB have said we will see Annie again or at least find out what happened to her. The thing about the accent though; if it's in her head, it doesn't explain how she speaks fluent French (radio transmission), though it's possible she learned it in school.

We've not been told that there was _always_ a problem with pregnancies on the island. It could even be something caused by Dharma. In doing my own creative story writing, I've wondered whether Annie might have become pregnant right on the edge of the time where the problems with pregnancies started occurring. Annie didn't die but sustained brain damage, ran off into the jungle with her baby, and had the baby taken away from her by sone Dharma rescuers. .

TPTB have said that not everything Danielle says may be true; perhaps in her tormented and damaged brain she's fabricated her story, but every part of it contains some grain of truth?

Ben has then lost the one person who ever really cared for him because of a Dharma screw-up, explaining both his hatred for Dharma _and_ his obsession with fixing the pregnancy problem.[/quote]

Wow, I really think you're onto something here. I was thinking the same about the pregnancies; that it wasn't always an issue. I'm pretty sure I heard a while back that TPTB have said we will see Annie again or at least find out what happened to her. The thing about the accent though; if it's in her head, it doesn't explain how she speaks fluent French (radio transmission), though it's possible she learned it in school.

An interesting thing about all of this is that the actor who plays Dr. Marvin Candle et al, speaks fluent French. I'm suspecting that in Danielle's flashback they'll make use of this, explaining how the "Frenchness" impressed itself into the identity she's taken on. I'm suspecting that Candle is the "Montand" who Danielle mentioned "lost his arm," and the _real_ reason the writers keep showing that character with a different name every time is so we'll accept his real name when we hear it, which will be or sound something like Montand.

I just find it odd that 1) Out of all the children that they've taken and "given better lives too", Alex and Carl are the only ones we've seen? 2) That Ben decided to raise Alex as his daughter, giving her no indication that she was adopted (/stolen)

And that is where I think things get interesting. Alex grew up being told that she was Ben's daughter. Yet she also grows up in an environment where women die during pregnancies. It's safe to assume that she knows that - Ben told her in one episode that he kept her away from Karl because he didn't want her to get pregnant.
Now, a lot of fathers tell their teenage daughters that, but my take is that with Alex' life on the line if she got pregnant, Ben was very emphatic about that.
Also, we know that women died from pregnancies during the past three years (since Juliet arrived), so I think it's safe to assume that Alex knows about the pregnancy problems.
So why doesn't she question her origin as Ben "I've lived on this island my whole life" Linus' daughter? He could have told her that her mother had died (she does believe that her mother is dead, it's what she tells Sayid), but why did Alex never once question Ben being her father? Because if his story was true, logically Alex couldn't exist.
That's what really interests me.

I think this is the most simple and concrete evidence of a past relationship (whatever form it may be) between Danielle and Ben. If you kidnap an infant from a crazy woman do yo really bother calling the child by the same name the crazy lady gave it?
[...]
When Alex looked at Danielle in TTLG, I didn't take it as someone who was meeting their mother for their for the first time. While it's a romantic notion that barely born Alex had her mother's face burned into her memory, it's highly unlikely.

I agree with you that Alex' name is a very solid piece of evidence that Ben and Danielle have some sort of backstory. We don't know yet what it is, but to me it suggests at least more than the "we have to take your baby, feel free to roam the jungle for the next 16 years"-kind of acquaintance.
As for the way Alex looked at Danielle - I don't know if she knew her. I think a lot of it has to do with the moment it happened.
Sayid only told her a few days ago that her mother was still alive. She had no reason to believe him, of course, but I guess the fact that he immediately recognized her and told her that she looked just like her mother was enough to plant doubt into her.
Her conflict with her father was getting more and more intense, culminating in the fact that he was going to send her away. I think that also played an important role for her state of mind, that she no longer knew whether to believe him or not.
On some level, she might have started to believe already that her mother was roaming around somewhere on the island.
And then there's the fact that the two of them do look alike. Even the two actresses look as if they could theoretically be mother and daughter. So when Alex suddenly stood in front of her, she must have seen the similarities. I think the look she gave Danielle can be explained by a combination of those factors.

The really interesting part about this exchange between Ben and Danielle for me is the fact that despite everything we're led to believe has gone down between them, there's one thing that unites them. And that's Alex.
I firmly believe that Alex is the one thing Ben truly cares about, and that it was an honest act of concern when he wanted Danielle to take her away before the freighter people arrived. He was no longer free to do it, so he did the next best thing and asked Danielle.
It's interesting that he asked Danielle to do him a favor, though. ONe should think that after stealing her child and never once allowing her to see it in sixteen years, Danielle should have no reason at all to do Ben any kind of favor. On the contrary, if I was in her situation I'd probably do the opposite of what Ben asked me to do, just because I couldn't trust a lying child-thief.
Was Ben hoping his story had been convincing enough to make Danielle believe that Alex was in danger? Or is there truly more to the backstory of those two?
Whether it was the act of taking Alex or something else, there is something that happened between them. And I'm eternally curious as to what it is.

i dont know if anyone else has caught it or not, but danielle cant be annie becuase when she, locke, kate, and sayid got to the perimter fence, she said she had never seen it before, or was that the barracks? it was in S3

i dont know if anyone else has caught it or not, but danielle cant be annie becuase when she, locke, kate, and sayid got to the perimter fence, she said she had never seen it before, or was that the barracks? it was in S3

That could be Danielle either a) lying or b) forgetting her past (her memories got confused, somehow...?). She's also a just liiittle crazy.

I cracked up laughing when Danielle hit him. Sorry, Ben, but when you spend your life manipulating people, eventually no one is going to listen to you anymore.

Ben and Danielle having a past together wouldn't surprise me. If we take their stories at face value, Ben and Danielle have both been on the island for twenty years or more. That's plenty of time for the writers to play with.

I did find it really odd that after talking with Ben, Danielle walked away for awhile, the camera cut to a different scene, and when we came back to the hill, Naomi was gone. How did a woman stabbed in the back crawl away and get into a tree?
In Season Two's One of Them it is clear that Danielle have a prior history. She keeps saying he will "lie to you for a long time." and Ben seems to wait until Danielle is set with the cross bow before making break for it, and in a clear path for her to hit him.
Then she says "if i wanted to kill him he'd be dead.:
100%
I cracked up laughing when Danielle hit him. Sorry, Ben, but when you spend your life manipulating people, eventually no one is going to listen to you anymore.

Ben and Danielle having a past together wouldn't surprise me. If we take their stories at face value, Ben and Danielle have both been on the island for twenty years or more. That's plenty of time for the writers to play with.

I did find it really odd that after talking with Ben, Danielle walked away for awhile, the camera cut to a different scene, and when we came back to the hill, Naomi was gone. How did a woman stabbed in the back crawl away and get into a tree?
In Season Two's One of Them it is clear that Danielle have a prior history. She keeps saying he will "lie to you for a long time." and Ben seems to wait until Danielle is set with the cross bow before making break for it, and in a clear path for her to hit him.
Then she says "if i wanted to kill him he'd be dead.:

i dont know if anyone else has caught it or not, but danielle cant be annie becuase when she, locke, kate, and sayid got to the perimter fence, she said she had never seen it before, or was that the barracks? it was in S3

I believe it was the Flame station. And she could easily still be Annie, for any of the following possible reasons.

1) She truly never did visit that station.
2) In her delusional new identity, she actually doesn't remember ever having been there.
3) She had reason to not want to disclose some information about the place, and the easiest way to avoid questions was to deny any knowledge.
4) Some other story detail that involves a lie, known to the writers, but not disclosed to us.