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What's the deal with Setalle Anan? Is she 'The One Who Is No Longer'?

"The key to finding the bowl is to find the one who is no longer." (LoC: 19, Matters of Toh, 312)

Well, they found the bowl. "The one who is no longer" is still a mystery. As "Skwid" says, "It's more like the key to finding the one who is no longer is to find the bowl."

Given the whole Bowl plotline in ACoS, and we look for one single person who was key to finding the Bowl, a likely candidate is Setalle Anan, the innkeeper of The Wandering Woman. El and Ny's meeting with her set off the chain of events that led to finding the Bowl. (Anan introduced them to the Kin, who they got Mat to spy on, and when Mat followed one of them, she led him to the six-storied building where the Kin's stash of *angreal was.)

Here is what the Kin say about Anan:

ACoS 23, Next Door to a Weaver, 393:
Reanne is apologising to Anan: "The Anan woman and Reanne Corly entered the sitting room, and Nynaeve blinked in surprise. From the exchange, she had expected someone younger than Setalle Anan, but Reanne had hair more gray....Why would the older woman humble herself so to the younger, and why would the younger allow it, however halfheartedly?"

From this, we see that Anan is no ordinary innkeeper. The Kin kiss up to AS, but they're pretty arrogant to everybody else. Yet, they defer to Anan. True, she has something on them (knowing they are non-Tower channellers), but that's not enough to treat her as some sort of superior. She must be in an actual position to betray them to the AS.

ACoS: 24, The Kin, 404:
Garenia is carrying on: '"What of this Setalle Anan, then? Those girls know about the Circle. The Anan woman must have told them, though how she knows....She's an innkeeper, and she must be taught to guard her tongue!" Berowin gasped, wide-eyed with shock, and dropped into a chair so hard she nearly bounced. "Remember who she is, Garenia," Reanne said sharply. "If Setalle had betrayed us, we would be crawling to Tar Valon, begging forgiveness the whole way....She has kept the few secrets she knows from gratitude, and I doubt that has faded. She would have died in her first childbirth if the Kin had not helped her. What she knows comes from careless tongues...and the owners of those tongues were punished more than twenty years ago." Still, she wished there was some way she could bring herself to ask Setalle to be more circumspect.'

So, at the same time, Anan is regarded as an innkeeper who must be taught to guard her tongue, who knows few secrets, and also somebody who they don't dare offend, even to ask to be more circumspect. From the "crawling to Tar Valon" remark, we have more evidence that Anan has the ability to betray the Kin to Tar Valon.

ACoS: 23, Next door to a Weaver, 395:
'"Setalle!" Garenia exclaimed...."That was Setalle Anan? How did she--? Light of Heaven! Even after seventy years, the Tower would--"' At this point, Reanne cuts her off with a dirty look.

This passage is very annoying, since there are dozens of ways the fragments can be interpreted. Does "seventy years" refer to Anan or Garenia? In any case, Garenia apparently has heard of Anan. However, to make it more perplexing, on the next page, we have:

'"I still want to know who this Setalle Anan is," Garenia put in.'

which implies that Garenia has no clue who Anan is, or why she is important. This is such an obvious contradiction with the previous statement, that I am tempted to believe this is a typo -- maybe they meant to type somebody else's name besides Garenia's in one of those sentences. It's also been suggested that Garenia is asking whether the Setalle Anan who brought El and Ny to the Kin is the Setalle Anan she'd heard about.

On to the theories:

Setalle Anan is an ex-Aes Sedai: (Dylan F. Alexander, Elizabeth Cornwell, Michael Werle)

• The Kin kiss up to her to an extent not seen except around real AS, although not quite that bad.
• A burned out or stilled AS meets the "Who Is No Longer" tag. Probably burned out, because novices are required to learn the names of officially stilled women, and Elayne doesn't recognize hers. Then again, maybe she changed her name.
• She's got only a touch of grey in her hair (p. 381), but she's met the AS great-aunt of a woman who appears to be Nynaeve's true age (ACoS: 23 Next Door to a Weaver, 394) when Anan was "younger than you [Garenia] are now." Although we don't know how old Garenia is, since we don't know what the "slowing factor" is, we can make a stab that she is at least 40-50, since G. looks Ny's age, as does the 40+ years old accepted Elayne mentions in ACoS: 24, The Kin, 408. If Anan is referring to Garenia's true age, then it implies that Anan is quite a bit older than 40-50 (which happens to be her apparent age).
• She's not at all unsettled by being held by the Power (ACoS: 22, Small Sacrifices, 383).
• She knows far too much about AS, and throws around AS terms far too naturally for her to have had no contact with AS (ACoS: 22, Small Sacrifices, 383).
• "Why would the older woman humble herself so to the younger, and why would the younger allow it, however halfheartedly?" Because Anan has some sort of seniority in Reanne's eyes. Former Aes Sedai?
• We know that the AS are fond of forcibly matching up burned out women with brand-new spouses, in the hopes that a husband and family will give her something to live for beyond the OP.
• Anan is not native to Ebou Dar. "Her hazel eyes had never been born in Ebou Dar." Note that this isn't really evidence; after all, Ebou Dar is a pretty cosmopolitan city. It's mentioned here bc it is brought up quite a bit.
• The "seventy years" comment Garenia makes is discussed below.

Setalle Anan is an AS Eyes-and-ears.

• An AS spy would be in a better position to snitch on the Kin than a stilled AS; the AS try to avoid contact with stilled women, and thus isn't likely to have a lot of contact with the Tower.
• Being an AS spy can explain her familiarity with AS terminology, channelling, etc. just as well as her being an ex-AS.
• This also explains the Kin's deference to Anan. She associates with AS, and is able to squeal on them at any opportunity.
• Setalle Anan has been in Ebou Dar for at least 20 years. By all accounts, women who have been stilled usually don't live very long. There are lots of eyes-n-ears; there are very few stilled/burned out AS, and even fewer who survive 20+ years after stilling.
• About Garenia's great aunt: Before this, Anan has never met Garenia. Why would she know her true age? It's more likely she was making the natural assumption that Garenia's age is however old she actually looks, i.e. in her mid-twenties. In that case, Anan could have met the aunt 20-30 years ago, which is a reasonable amount of time to refer to as "long ago."
• The "seventy years" comment is discussed below.

Note that this theory has no obvious provision for Anan being "the one who is no longer."

Does Setalle have a connection to Verin?

"Setalle!" Garenia exclaimed as soon as the innkeeper was gone. "That was Setalle Anan? How did she-? Light of Heaven! Even after seventy years, the Tower would-?" Oh, please. What's the only other mention of seventy years in the whole damn series? Yep, Verin's "plans." The Tower would what? Perhaps she's not a burn out, after all. So why would the Tower be interested in a woman who can't channel (anymore?) who left the Tower seventy years ago? (Dylan F. Alexander)

Perhaps the 70 years doesn't refer to Anan at all, but to Garenia herself: "If Anan squeals on us, the Tower will kick my butt, even though I've been gone seventy years." In that case, the possible Verin connection is with Garenia, not Anan. (P. Korda)

Could someone else be the One Who Is No Longer?

Well, as discussed above, Anan seems to fulfil the requirement of being "the key to finding the bowl." However, we could go further along the trail and pick any of the Kin that they meet while looking for it: Reanne Corly, the first Kin El & Ny meet, or Solain, who Mat follows to the storehouse. All of the Kin are "no longer." (No longer associated with the Tower.)