So it sounds like Widmore and Hawking are both still on the Island in 1977. So, then have Faraday and Penny been born yet? Are they living on the Island, as toddlers or something?
In "Jeremy Bentham", Widmore indicates that Ben exiled him from the Island. I've wondered how this squares with Penny having presumably grown up in the outside world. As far as we know, Penny has never indicated to Desmond that she had ever been to the Island, or knew anything about it before he got shipwrecked there. So is she hiding this from him? Or did she leave the Island when she was too young to remember? Or did Widmore go back and forth between the Island and the outside world, and he fathered her when he was in the outside world?
Actually, maybe Penny *does* remember being on the Island, and is hiding it from Desmond, for whatever reason. At the end of "Live Together, Die Alone", those guys in that arctic station report to her that they've found the anomaly, which indicates that they've detected the Island. But how does Penny know what to look for, in trying to locate the Island? She's never explained this to Desmond, or any other character, has she?