Tonight’s episode of LOST is about Richard, one of the great mysteries of the island. Ironically, it feels like it’s been ages since we first met Richard. Back then we didn’t really understand much about him. He was an advisor to Ben, the leader of the Others, and seemed to wield significant power in his own right, but we didn’t know much more than that. Since then, we’ve learned a lot.
Richard’s role seems to be something of a priest, in my opinion. His role on the island seems to be a liaison between Jacob and Ben, or Jacob and the Others. Richard relays orders to the Others and recruits for them. Richard was involved in the recruiting of Juliette, under the auspices of a research corporation. He was also involved in scouting out John, under the guise of a camp for children with special skills. Remember, this was because John himself, while time-travelling, told Richard to come and find him.
So, Richard plays an important role on the island, but how did it come to that?
It seems, from our last Richard-sighting, that he came to the island as a slave on the Black Rock ship. There was rampant speculation about this all over the Internet back when Jacob’s nemesis made the comment, “it’s nice to see you without those chains.” Richard’s whole scene back on the crashed Black Rock gave further fuel to this fire, and I suspect that this is indeed the case. Richard came to the island on the Black Rock, which was summoned by Jacob, as a slave. Whatever happened in the intervening time, I guess we’ll figure out tonight.
My prediction is as follows:
Richard came to the island as a slave. Whatever Jacob sees in people which he makes into “candidates” he may have seen in Richard. Whatever the case, I suspect that the position which Richard fulfilled on the island must’ve either been recently vacated, or was going to be vacated soon. That is, I suspect there was already a mediator, a priest, on the island at some point. I don’t think Richard’s position was created when Jacob met him. My guess is that there was someone doing this already on the island and they either had to be replaced because they died, or whatever, or they needed to be replaced because they were no longer satisfactory. Maybe Jacob’s nemesis, for example, got to the adviser and turned him for Jacob. We don’t know.
However, perhaps I’m totally wrong. The episode’s title “Ab Aeterno” is Latin for “Since the beginning of time.” Certainly we know that Richard wasn’t always immortal, he told us as much, so I assume the reference is to Jacob? Perhaps?
What we do know is that obviously Jacob touched Richard and made him immortal. He’s unlike the other Survivors, the other “candidates” in that way. They can die, but Richard cannot. Interestingly, Richard remains immortal, even while Jacob is killed. I think this is interesting because, in my mind, I imagine that Jacob and his nemesis are replaceable in their roles; Richard remains immortal, remains in his priest position, because once another “Jacob” is established, he’ll be priest to that person too.
But I wonder, how well does Richard know Jacob? I have a theory, which I talked about last week, that perhaps for some time, when Ben was leader of the Others, his orders weren’t coming from Jacob at all. I suspect that perhaps Richard was getting his orders not from Jacob, but from his nemesis, posing as Jacob, and living in the Cabin. What do you think?
So, I don’t know. There’s a lot of excitement around tonight’s episode because it’s finally breaking some new ground, and answering some long-standing questions. We really don’t know much at all about Richard, certainly not very much for sure. It’ll be good.
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