Richard Alpert: Friend or Foe?

Richard Alpert
Age: You wish you knew! More on that later in this post.
Home: The Island/Somewhere “Not in Portland”
Status: Alive
Profession: Recruiter for Mittleos Bioscience/Island Inhabitant
In Australia: (never)
On Oceanic 815: (never)
Charlie's Favorite Moment: When he informed John Locke about the Sawyer-Anthony Cooper connection. You sneaky bastard!
Friends: Ethan (sorry, bud) and Ben (or so Ben thinks)
Enemies: Ben (Ben just doesn’t know it yet) and anyone who messes with his business.

Wait a Minute. When you rearrange the letters in Mittleos (as in Mittleos Bioscience, Richard's faux employer off the Island) it spells "Lost time"! What else are you not telling me, Richard Alpert?
As the debate rages on over whether The Others are friends or foe, good or evil, it is interesting to look at individual Others and wonder what side they’re on. Minions like Ryan (the leader of the charge on the beach in the season finale who was run over by Hurley’s Magic School Bus) and Tom (the once-bearded Mr. Friendly who happened to get in the way of Sawyer’s bullet of distrust) have (or “had,” as it were) unquestioned loyalty. Tom adhered to Ben’s every word, never questioning the mysterious Jacob and believing in whatever his mission was. Ryan was, seemingly, a soldier following orders. But let’s look at the man who, more than anyone else, seemed pinned to Ben’s side at crucial times: Richard Alpert.

When we were first introduced to Richard, he was a mild-mannered but aggressive recruiter for Mittleos Bioscience, hell-bent on bringing Juliet on board for some wacky head games. Soon, we learned he was something of a mole. He was a member of the Island community, but was dispatched back into “The Real World,” supposedly to bring essential people to the Island. Before he fortified his vitae with his recruiter role, Richard was as primitive as anyone. We learned this when Ben went over the river and through the woods to dead-mother’s house we go (sorry, that was off-color). Ben encountered Richard, a bearded, tattered, primitive, native man who urged Ben to turn around and return to the relative darkness that was his Dharma Initiative life. But Ben persisted, aligned himself with Richard’s people (whoever they were) and ultimately helped plan/carry out The Purge against his own people. Somewhere in that story, Ben’s leadership abilities catapulted him past Richard (and those on his level) to an infallible God-like status. And when we met The Others, Ben was calling the shots and Richard was carrying out orders.

At that point, the character of Richard Alpert seemed calculable. He was a conduit to the outside world and a subordinate to Ben/Jacob. He recruited Juliet like Tom Osborne on a 5-star high school option quarterback. He managed (and very possibly coordinated) the capture and transportation of Anthony Cooper, the “Man From Tallahassee,” who Richard so obediently summoned for Ben in order to manipulate Locke. And all was according to plan.

But then, Locke didn’t kill Cooper when Ben told him to. And Locke went to sit on a hill. And Richard happened upon him with a very important file in his knapsack. He told Locke about the Cooper-Sawyer connection, manipulating Locke into using Sawyer to kill Cooper and slay both of their demons with one stone. Suddenly, Richard was as deviously manipulative as his commander-in-chief. And when he did this to John, he clearly alluded to the struggle for power between Ben and his subjects. After years (presumably) of The Reign of Linus, Richard seemed up to the task of initiating change, and he seemed to be speaking for several people when he did so.

So the question remains with Richard, as it does with all Others (and their tribe in general): which side is he on? He obeys Ben to his face, but why? To earn his trust in anticipation of a potential coup d’ etat? He uses Locke to try to usurp Ben’s power, but why? To supplant Ben with a more vulnerable leader (Locke) whose Island confusion leaves him ripe for the pickin’? Yes, Richard’s treachery blew open the doors of possibility for a character whom we once thought inconsequential.

Here’s what I like about Richard: he’s smart. Really smart. His manipulation of Locke and Ben, his relentless pursuit of Juliet off the island, his tricking her and her sister into believing that he was legit, all good. But his best move: recruiting Ben when Ben was a child. I know, they are going to be (if not already) at odds soon. But when he questioned Ben’s understanding of the term “hostile,” when he made Ben believe that there was a better alternative to his reality – that was ingenious. And you can only assume that he took young Ben Linus under his wing until Ben’s evil had fully blossomed. Despite the current power struggle, Ben served Richard (and Richard’s people’s) purpose: ridding The Island of The Dharma Initiative. Keep your eye on this cat if, for no other reason, his remarkable intelligence.

And finally… I don’t like to delve too far into “Island Phenomena/Theory,” but let’s talk about the aging issue. The only difference between the Richard that encountered Ben in the forest (some 25 years, give or take, before the crash of Oceanic 815) and the Richard that tied up The Man From Tallahassee was a beard. It didn’t seem to most that he had aged at all, and most of us would assume that it wasn’t just laziness on the part of the LOST makeup department. Is this part of the “secret” that The Island is protecting? Is there a fountain of youth? Or is Richard just the Island’s version of Dave Coulier (TV’s Uncle Joey on Full House, a mostly meaningless but endlessly entertaining supporting character)? Questions to ponder, and questions we may not be able to examine too closely until we know just what this Island is capable of. But if something about this place can cure cancer and shattered leg bones, is it too much to imagine that it can’t act as a spiritual Botox for its inhabitants?

Remaining Questions about Richard Alpert:
1. What (or more importantly, who) is in his best interest? What master does he serve, if any?
2. What does he see in John Locke that is so superior to Ben Linus? Both men are blinded by their mystical connection to The Island, so why is Richard so eager for change?
3. Why can’t Richard age? Or was it just a mistake in costuming? Again, my theory leans toward the spiritual Botox side.
4. What does Richard know that Ben doesn’t? In the same way that Ben relied on Mikhail for outside information, he must’ve relied on Richard for some outside connections. Were those connections with anyone we knew (i.e. The Widmore Coporation, Paik Industries, whoever staged the plane crash)? I await your theories on that loaded question.


To end, the quote that first raised eyebrows on today's character-in-question:
“Well actually, we’re not quite in Portland.”
-Richard Alpert


.charlie.