Ben is a pathological liar, we know, but he said if he left the island he wasn't allowed to come back.

Well, we know he had left it before - the freighter people had that photo of him and he had a bunch of fake passports.

But also, we saw that Tom and Richard both left the island too.
So was Widmore actually banished for that or was it about having a child off the island?

Secondly, Ben was lying to either Locke or Sun, clearly - the question is, did he really not expect to see Locke's resurrection? He says he has never seen that before yet he reacted to the name of Christian as if he recognised it.

Which brings me to Smokey: as No.1 says in his review, is Christian Shepherd a Smokey manifestation or did he resurrect like Locke? His coffin was empty when Jack found it which would suggest resurrection.

On the other hand he does pop up in odd places to tell people what to do, like Michael on the freighter and Locke at the donkey wheel...
There seems to be a difference between the manifestations that occur when people are judged (Yemi, Alex) and the "helpful" ones - Christian, Walt, Ben's mother.

I feel a nosebleed coming on....

I'm hoping we'll get a little clearer on some of this in "Some Like It Hoth". (A wonderful title, too. I doubt we'll see any Losties in drag, but who knows?)

Got to say though, the special effects when Ben is being judged did make me throw my remote at the T.V!