By the way, do baseballs float? When Dogen let go of it in the water, it went shooting to the top. I didn’t think they were that buoyant. If not, is there something hidden inside?

I don’t think we have any evidence that Richard has time traveled, which would mean when he visited young Locke, he had only only met adult Locke for a few minutes when Locke flashed back to 1954. If that’s the case, the only thing he would know (or at least think) belonged to adult John was the compass.

We’ve seen so many knives. Is that a knife we’ve seen before? Is it one of the ones John brought with him to the island and/or the one ben used to kill Jacob?

This is my current theory about this scene now that you’ve made me realize the test was for him to pick only one item and that the compass never really belonged to him:

Richard had only seen John for a few minutes in 1954 and the only item John had was the compass. Therefore, Richard thought the compass was the correct answer, but as you point out John never owned the compass. However, unknown to Richard, John owned a lot of knives so therefore the knife was in fact the correct answer but Richard didn’t know that.

I read about what you said, and the process of identifying the Dalai Lama seems to be exactly what Richard Alpert did to young Locke. Something else I found interesting is that when they cremate the Dalai Lama, they look in the direction of the smoke to find the reincarnation.

So what is he a reincarnation of? Future Locke?

Did he pass the test? I have to re-watch the scene, but I remember when Locke chose the third item, Richard seemed to get angry and storm off as if he failed. Or did Richard storm off because Locke did pass and Richard was frightened by the result?

I think there has to be some kind of time loop like you said. But I am having a hard time figuring out how things that he encountered as an adult make their way into his head as a child. The 2nd time through the loop is he somehow born with some residual memories of the 1st through the loop?

check out this link if you want: http://www.theoriesonlost.com/2009/07/the-smoke-monster-3/