I also thought the white rabbit was in the story for a reason. I forgot there was an episode called “White Rabbit.” It was Jack’s flashback when he went to Australia to bring his dead father back and he kept seeing him on the island.(From Lostpedia on last night’s episode) In the 5th episode of the first Season “White Rabbit,” Locke tells Jack to follow the White Rabbit, meaning Jack's father's "ghost". Young Ben is now following an actual white rabbit in order to follow after his own mothers "ghost".
Lostpedia is exhaustively detailed, but it is good for a quick refresher on what happened! http://lostpedia.com/wiki/White_Rabbit
Also from Lostpedia: Jack and Locke discussed Jack's 'hallucination', and Locke told him that he should pursue it, to put it to rest, and considered the possibility that everything that was happening on the Island was for a reason. He then told Jack "I looked into the eye of the island and what I saw ... was beautiful." I think that’s the first time we saw that Locke was forming a special relationship with the island.
I think I’m going to have to rewatch the first season this summer!