James said 'his name is John Locke, and I'm waiting for him to come back'. Year is 1974, Locke was born in 1956 making him 18. I wonder if this mention was motivation for Richard to try and get John to the island by way of the science camp. He was in high school right? My memory on that episode is kind of weak.

Not that it would really mean anything, just thought it would be cool especially with everyone talking about time-line problems from this episode. Maybe they do know what they are doing. :)

Perhaps Richard's faith in Locke was weakened after he presumably failed that "test" as a little kid, and Sawyer's mysterious appearance gave Richard some new motivation?

Perhaps Richard's faith in Locke was weakened after he presumably failed that "test" as a little kid, and Sawyer's mysterious appearance gave Richard some new motivation?
I figured that young Locke didn't fail the test so much as Richard misinterpretted the results. He did have much more use for the knife than the compass in the long run.

James said 'his name is John Locke, and I'm waiting for him to come back'. Year is 1974, Locke was born in 1956 making him 18. I wonder if this mention was motivation for Richard to try and get John to the island by way of the science camp. He was in high school right? My memory on that episode is kind of weak.

Not that it would really mean anything, just thought it would be cool especially with everyone talking about time-line problems from this episode. Maybe they do know what they are doing. :)

Locke didn't look close to 18 in that episode thb, i'm 19 and i would have put John at 15 in that ep

According to Lostpedia, he was sixteen in that episode.

I think Sawyer was talking about the meeting that Locke had with Richard when they were flashing. Remember, Sawyer talked about the flash of light and John just disapearring.