Richard Alpert and the Temple of Doom

Richard: We're going to the radio tower?

Ben: Not ‘we,’ Richard, me. You're going to take everyone to the temple as planned.

Richard: Now might not be the best time to go tromping off on your own.

Ben: Oh really and why not?

Richard: Because people are asking questions, Ben. About leaving home, about what happened to Locke, about Jacob. Not to mention the rapidly spreading rumor that everyone that went down to the beach is dead.

With that exchange, the much-feared, much-misunderstood “Others” made their Season 3 exit. And in that short exchange we learned volumes, or were at least given ample material with which to speculate.

Then There Were Two.
2007 wasn’t the best year for The Others. The ones who we know, who are still alive and who have not sided with the Losties are Ben Linus and Richard Alpert. That’s it.

Now obviously there are Others we haven’t yet been introduced to. And surely the LOST writers will pull a Nikki and Paulo by blindsiding us midseason with a “Here are some Others you didn’t know existed. But they do! And now they’re going to…” storyline.

For now though, there are two known entities: Benjamin Linus and Richard Alpert & the Temple-Bound Others. Today we’ll focus on the latter. Maggie will handle Ben in her “Radio-Tower-bound characters” post in a few weeks.

Richard, What’s Happening To Us?











That headline was from Tommy Boy. Nestor Carbonell (who plays Richard) wasn’t in Tommy Boy. But he did recently begin a role on the CBS show Cane, opposite Jimmy Smits. And good for Jimmy Smits, finding work and all. NYPD Blue was a long time ago. With Nestor whiling away the moments in Smits’ enormous, looming shadow, it’s unclear how big his role will be this year. But with the writer’s strike in full force and what I can only assume to be the general void of entertainment that is Cane, maybe Nestor will find time to grace The Island with his presence.

Remember, it was Richard who brought a young, homicidal Ben Linus into the limelight after learning that Ben could see his dead mother in the jungle and may therefore have had some mystical connection with The Island. As an apparently ageless hostile, Richard persuaded Ben to gas his father (or Uncle Rico, if you will) and help topple the Dharma Initiative. And years later, when Oceanic 815 crashed, Richard was #2 (at best) and Ben was running the show.

We have a lot to learn about how exactly that happened. Obviously, Ben’s supposed connection with Jacob and/or The Island delivered him to preeminence. In the same way that Locke’s connection to The Island is lauded by the Others as a sign of something “special,” Ben presumably ascended the ranks by proving himself to be both frighteningly ruthless and deeply spiritual.

But more recently, Richard, Juliet and other Others have began to doubt their bespectacled leader. Dismissing the blind loyalty of those like Mikhail Bukanin, the anti-Others have started to drive a wedge between Ben and his power base. Juliet attempted to sabotage his surgery by using Jack. Richard pushed Locke to supplant Ben as “leader” by tipping Locke off to the Anthony Cooper-Sawyer connection, effectively gift-wrapping the keys to the castle for Locke. It remains to be seen whether or not Locke will take that opportunity. But that’s another post.

It’s obvious that Richard wants change. And it’s just as obvious that he’s either not the man to make that change happen or not ready to make his move. But his hand may be forced if Ben keeps giving him more reasons to distrust him.

Think about it. In the last few days (in LOST time), Ben has admitted to jamming communication signals from The Island, has ordered the deaths of Greta and Bonnie (God, why?! Do you realize they killed off those two and Nikki in Season 3? At least we got the Juliet v. Kate mud fight), allowed the survivors to radio for help and last but certainly not least, allowed a cadre of his most militant Others to be blown up/shot/run over by a VW bus down on the beach. None of these things are exactly good for the ole’ approval ratings, Ben. And exiling your dissenters to the Temple will only give them a venue in which to commiserate and plot.

I think the anger will fester in the temple, and that ultimately we’ll we see the divide grow between Ben and the dissenting Others. Ben has the monumental task of convincing 40+ shipwrecked people that they shouldn’t get on a boat headed for home. And in that argument, we may see the Others make a move. Will they trust Ben once more and reunite with him to stop people from leaving? Or will they urge the survivors of Oceanic 815 to get out of their back yard?

Here’s the other, and decidedly sadder, outcome: We don’t see much, if any, of The Others this season. Rather, Season 4 may be much more about Ben vs. The Losties vs. the people who show up on the S.S. Not Penny’s Boat. But if there’s one thing that can throw a wrench into any storyline, it’s the arrival of a band of disgruntled, battle-ready, preferably-armed Others. If Richard leads the troops back to Ben, expect a fight. And expect them to enter the fray at just the right time.


To The Temple! Wait, We Have a Temple?
Apparently, yes. As far as I know, we haven’t seen this temple. But we have seen other antiquated relics that seem to fit in nicely with the idea of a temple. Let’s start with the most obvious one:

Return of the Four-Toed Statue
Remember that thing? Sayid and the Kwons saw it on their voyage around the north shore. Well God forbid I don’t Wikipedia/Lostpedia the hell out of this thing. Here we go.

The Statue of Liberty. Four toes, gigantic. Could there be any other explanation? Well yes, actually. There could be. But many have theorized that it is indeed the left ankle and foot of Lady Liberty. Frankly, to suggest that she could have cankles strikes me as unpatriotic. Still stranger theories purport that The Island exists on an alternate timeline, and that geographically it is located above present-day NYC and that the foot is just a glitch in the time-space continuum. But that’s too crazy, even for me.

Colossus of Rhodes. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, this 100-meter statue towered over the port of Rhodes in ancient Greece as an homage to the Greek God Helios. The statue of Colossus straddled the port, with a sandled, four-toed foot landing on either side of the harbor. Meaning you had to play tunnel tag with Helios to get to Rhodes if you were a 3rd century shipping merchant. But an earthquake crippled Colossus, reducing it to rubble above the shin. Wait. Everything above the shin crumbled? Yeah. Leaving just a shin, and a four-toed foot in a sandal? Yeah. Ohhhh. I see.

Worlds Collide. Engraved on a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty is a poem by Emma Lazarus called The New Colossus. Written in 1883, it reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I know, I know. I need a life. But hear me out. Lazarus contrasts the “brazen” and “conquering” nature of Colossus with the welcoming, motherly nature of the Statue of Liberty. Sound familiar, like when the Others justify themselves as “The Good Guys?”

It’s a matter of perspective. Lazarus saw Lady Liberty as the embodiment of welcoming. Some would argue that, over time, she has become less so (see: current immigration debates). Similarly, The Island was originally intended as a place of welcoming, a refuge for the intellectual elite. But, over time, it has been taken over by hostiles and transformed into a battleground. Simply put, the four-toed statue symbolizes the complex duality of Good, Evil and the Grey Area within called "perspective.”

And that takes us back to The Temple. The Four-Toed Statue. The ruins upon which Locke was challenged to murder his father. The mere reference to a place of refuge as a “temple.” The hieroglyphics that replace the countdown timer in the Swan Station. All of it points to some sort of ancient civilization. And if we assumed that – by some miraculous coincidence – my Four-Toed Statue/Good vs. Evil theory were remotely true, than perhaps all of these autochthonous elements serve as metaphors that relate the nature of the Island. What do relics other than the Four-Toed Statue mean? We’ll save it for another time. What does the Temple symbolize? I don't know. Haven't seen it yet. I'll let you know.

Final note, I have trouble believing the “Temple” that Ben speaks of honors a God. After all, it was Ben who said, ““He (God) can’t see this island any more than the rest of the world.”



Okay, that was a longer post than intended. So if you made it to here, congrats. I’ll see you Tuesday for my article on whose eye we may see at the beginning of the Season 4 premiere. Spoiler alert: Not Charlie Pace’s (single tear).


Namaste.
.charlie