The Man Behind the Curtain - Thoughts, Speculations, Questions

With yesterdays Official Press release of The Man behind the Curtain, I thought I'd try to list the various Speculations/Questions that we've got so far.

Official Description
Here is the official discussion "The Man Behind the Curtain Ben begrudgingly begins to introduce Locke to the secrets of the island, beginning with the mysterious Jacob. Meanwhile, Juliet's secret goes public, on Lost."

Here are the guest characters.

Mikhail
Is he really still alive? Is his appearance just a flashback?

Young Ben
This is a photo of the young Ben, played by Sterling Beaumon. Looks like a good choice facially.

Jon Gries as Roger Linus
I think we can assume this is Roger Workman who we first met in Tricia Tanaka is Dead.
Is this Ben's father, Uncle or someone else?

Carrie Preston as Emily
This is actually Michael Emerson real life wife. Could she be the woman in the photo who is holding the hamster? Is she his wife/mother/sister? Can we assume she is dead now?

Doug Hutchison as Horace
Who is Horace?. I mentioned that a source informed me that Horace and Olivia(see below) will not be their names in the episode. I assumed the reason they did was that they would be playing the Degroots, although I'm now starting to wonder if the DeGroots actually exist or were just actors in the Dharma Video.
Here is the casting info that we have on "Horace" : a scientist/mathematician. Embodies a 'hippie' idealism.

Samantha Mathis as Olivia
As for Horace, who is she? Karen DeGroot or someone else completely?
Here is the casting info that we have on "Olivia" : an attractive elementary school teacher. Embodies a 'hippie' idealism.

Madeline Carroll as Annie
We have no info on Annie, but I'm going to speculate that she is from Ben's flashback and is his sister, which if true means she probably died in the purge as we've not seen her on the Island.

General Questions
- How does Juliet's secret get revealed?
- Can we assume that her secret is the fact that she is a plant, or is there something else
- Will Juliet be banished? or forgiven?
- Who or what is Jacob. Jacob is not listed in the guest list so either he does not have a speaking part or is not real or is someone we've already seen before.
- What other Island Secrets will be revealed? and why does Ben "begrudgingly" tell Locke?