Blockheaded Speculation on Lost 4.8

It's been over a month since we saw the Benjamin Linus/Charles Widmore chess match in action, and it's been longer than that since I last posted about it.

Season 4 is halfway over--sort of confusing since eight episodes have aired with six to go. (Darn writers' strike.) So to celebrate the return of the show tomorrow, here's a refresher on what happened in "Meet Kevin Johnson."

I'm not asking silly questions anymore, by the way. I'll be speculatin' about serious issues right through to the finale.

• Benjamin Linus is actually Benjamin Franklin. With the conflict between Ben and Widmore, we're seeing a modern Revolutionary War between the U.S. and Great Britain. I haven't fleshed this one out fully, but I have two crackpot arguments to support this theory. 1) John Locke was a philosopher whose writings influenced our Founding Fathers when they penned the Declaration of Independence (as well as a dude named Rousseau!). And 2) the code that "Kevin" enters into the bomb on the freighter was 7-1-7-7-6.*
• Sayid is already working for Ben. So is Captain Gault. Er...I got nothin'. I just know I'm right.
• Michael is immortal. He can't kill himself by car crash or gunshot because "the island won't let him." That means if he tries to die of old age he'll live forever! And if he plays his cards right, he'll be celebrated as a deity. There's even a chance that's a huge four-toed statue of Michael on the island, what with time travel and all. He'll go back in time with Walt Jr., his polar bear constant, and rule over a mysterious island until the Dharma folks show up and erect a statue of his freakish foot. (This theory will hold water until we see Michael has all ten toes.)
• Alex will kill Ben in the series finale in 2010. Ben sent her birth mother and boyfriend to their deaths...she'll do what she has to. Then she'll have her eyes enlarged to manga-chick proportions and become the new Ben. (All leaders of Dharma must have bulging eyes. It's in their mission statement.)
  
• It's Vincent in the coffin. Again...nothin'.
  

* I don't read the Lost boards, so if no one has floated this analogy yet, please let me know how much of a genius I am.