Revealing Penelope Widmore
This theory was inspired after reading beccaann’s theory/question about (Charles) Widmore’s timeline. The answer I was going to post turned out to be a theory. So here it goes:
Let us begin with Charles Widmore and what we know about him on the island. Widmore is on the island in 1954 as a 17 year old following orders from Richard Alpert. Whatever happens, Widmore becomes the leader of the Others and remains the leader for three decades before being “benipulated” and exiled from the island. Then, as Miles says, Widmore has been searching for the island for 20 years. So shortly after 1954, Widmore becomes the Others’ leader, gets exiled in the mid 1980’s (conveniently shortly before Rousseau’s crash on the island) and immediately starts searching for the island again, where he lead his tribe for 30 years.
Now to Penny. We can broadly assume she is from 30 to 40 years of age, based on her being an adult in 1994, when she met Desmond. This coinciding with Widmore’s time frame leads us to believe that Penny was born from 1965-1975, when Widmore was on the island, as the leader of the Others. So I want to say that Penelope Widmore was BORN ON THE ISLAND. Some support: We don’t know who her mother is, and have not had any references to her, which is explained as mothers die on the island when giving birth, so her mother would have died.
A line from Lostpedia: “Soon after Desmond crashed on the island, Penny began searching for him. At some point, she managed to learn about the island, but the extent of her knowledge, and where it came from, is unknown. (“The Constant”)”
– I think that her knowledge of the island comes from the fact that she was on the island. I do not see her father telling her about the island, as he doesn’t even want his son-in-law getting involved with the island, and at one point Widmore rejected Desmond’s wish of marrying Penny. So if he doesn’t want Desmond, someone who he does not love, getting involved, I doubt he would ever let Penny know about the island, if she hadn’t already.
My next thought is when Hurley asks Penny earlier on in season 5, “Why don’t you just ask your dad to call it off” when referring to the freighter (I think). Penny responds saying “There’s no stopping my father” or something that talks about her father’s leadership and refusing to be told things to do (much like Locke’s “don’t tell me what I can’t do!” attitude come to think of it). This could be because she saw how Widmore lead the Others on the island, and the things that he did, the people he punished or killed possibly.
Another point to take note of is that after Desmond’s dissapearance and Penny looking for him, she gets a call from the 2 Porteguese men at the listening station who say they found “it”, not “him” which would refer to Desmond. So Penny also has an interest in the island, or at least finding it. She also has the Looking Glass station conencted to her, as Charlie playing the song “Good Vibrations” on the control pad sends a call to Penny (Penny claims she did not initiate the call). So with the listening station, and the Looking Glass station being connected to her, she definately has something to do with the island.
Penny never mentions being on the island, but I can never recall her saying she has never heard of or has never been on the island.
I think she ultimately got off the island when Charles Widmore did when he was exiled by Ben. This would be around the time Penny was a teenager. I think Widmore had the mindset of “If I’m going, my daughter (his only family – his wife/baby’s mom is dead) is as well.”
Ben does know a lot about many characters, especially about his main adversary, but I think when he tells Widmore he will kill his daughter, Ben actually knows who she is, not just through research, but through knowing her on the island. She could even be someone we have seen on the island in the past, but I don’t want to go as far as saying that she is Annie.
I’d also like to say that going with this theory, that Eloise Hawking cannot be Penny’s mom, and Penny has, if anything, only half-sibling(s). But evidence suggests that she has been on the island.
Thoughts?
[My one argument against my theory is that since Widmore is a guy (obviously), he did not have to be around for Penny’s birth, only her conception. So he could have inpregnated Penny’s mom, who then left the island and gave birth to Penny, with Penny never going to the island. However, this would mean that she would not meet her father until she was a teenager, unless Widmore was able to frequent on and off the island in the 60s-70s, which I doubt. And her not meeting Widmore until her teenage years would have come up by now]
We don’t really know how long the island pregnancy problem has actually been a problem. It does seem that at some point in history some kind of civilization lived on the island and they wouldn’t last long without being able to reproduce. Maybe Penny was born on the island and her mother survived… In that case Mrs. Hawking could be her mother.
That is true, but that’s just a minor detail of the theory, something added on at the end.
That’s exactly what I was going to say…I believe the pregnancy problem is Dharma era….Great theory. I think you are right!
True. Interesting notion. But in regards to the pregnancy problems, its not just the mother that dies, but the child too, somewhere around 7 months into the pregnancy. So if her mother is no longer living, I doubt it has anything to do with the pregnancy.
Okay, so disregard the pregnancy issue. I really want to find out about her mother though.
Right, I’m saying that if you throw the pregnancy thing out (because it might not have been an issue yet when she was born) her mother could be Eloise Hawking.
I think this is a very plauseable theory! It would seem that Penny has been too connected to the island to just be searching for des.
This is a great theory, cappayne! You put all of your facts together quite nicely!
I also put Penny’s age to be between 30-35 years of age, and agree with your time-line on Widmore’s reign on ‘the island’.
I also agree that Ms. Hawking is not her mother!
Your observations about Penny are accurate. Penny never says she was or she wasn’t ever born on ‘the island’.
In fact, she says very little. Penny has some knowledge of ‘the island’. I doubt this information came from her father.
It will be quite interesting to find out Penny’s history.
She must have some knowledge of the island. How else did her scientists know to look for a magnetic anomaly (a property of the island) in Antarctica (can you say Polar Bears?)? excellent observation. As for her contacting the Listening Station, she was already nearing the island’s location and could have picked up a radio signal. Remember, the Others that were down in that station monitoring every type of call coming in from the outside world. But then again, maybe Penny knew about the Listening station. It’s all speculation, but we’ll see how it goes.
You compiled your facts very well.
Is it possible that Widmore was never the official leader of Richard’s others?
Could Widmore have become leader of a break-off faction of those others/hostiles who then formed the Dharma initiative off the island?
He would still claim to be the leader of the others. Then when Ben helps the ‘Hostiles’ to sabotage communications, subvert the Dharma Initiative from within and purge the rest, Widmore would become his mortal enemy.
So when Widmore tells Ben that ‘everything you have you took from me’ he is referring to all the subverted resources of the Dharma and the leadership of the remaining faction on the island (not to mention the remaining equipment and technological advances that Widmore brought to the island in the 1970s and 1980s.
Starting to read your theory I was saying ‘no, no’, but by the end of it I think you may be on to something. The pregnancy issue aside (that I don’t think was an issue up until Dharma, as it was already said), it seems actually ridiculously obvious how Penny just seems to accept things most people would be wary about. And she doesn’t really question things a lot.
“she gets a call from the 2 Porteguese men at the listening station who say they found
Yes. Last scene of last episode season 2.
I’m not sure if the Portuguese men actually spoke in English.
They did not between themselves but one of them switches to heavily accented English when speaking to Penny over the phone.
yeah good theory definately, one thing though if he was on the island 30 years that doesnt necessarily mean he aged 30 years, we know island time is much slower. When the 06 came back 3 years had gone by with only 3 months of island time, so roughly a month island time is 1 year real world time. Widmore couldve meant that when he became leader and then came off the island 30 years had gone by but really it may have only been a short time on the island.
Im sure someone else knows about the island time etc, dont think ive explained to well lol, but i think it should be included in the theory
whatistime (fitting name haha) – We don’t know if time always moved slower on the island, it could have only been becuase of Dharma, The Incident or something else.
We know that the babies on the island problems didn’t always exist… so you never know.
I think Ben tricked Widmore to spin the wheel and Charles doesn’t know he can come back by dying and being returned there, like Locke & Christian.
Ben became ‘the leader’ by agreeing to ‘the purge’.
Maybe he tricked Charles to get him off the island w/Penny ‘to save her from the purge’? Remember, Charles is ‘hostile’ and may not know of ways to get off the island, they didn’t have access to the sub ’till the purge. Ben is Dharma.
Also – maybe Ben went back so Charles doesn’t spin the wheel expecting Penny to die in the purge?
Widmore seemed pretty lowly on the island, so hardly passed the test given as kids. AND, his ancestors ‘found’ the island on the Black Rock … making him covet it (or maybe he’s just saying so) It’s HIS. (Do we know if the ‘hostiles’ came from the Black Rock or not)
Maybe he tricked Christian (who makes more sense as a leader) to spin the wheel, too?