Particularly Special.

Tonight’s episode has been looming since February 7, 2007, the original airdate of “Not In Portland” (season 3, episode 7) when we were introduced, for the first time, to one Richard Alpert. At the time, he was known as Dr. Alpert of the Mittelos Bioscience company, working to recruit Dr. Juliet Burke, a prominent fertility specialist, to work at their facility in Portland, Oregon.

For the last 3 years, 1 month, and 17 days, we’ve all wondered about this Richard Alpert. And tonight, all signs point to some serious answers, stretching back to a place and time on the island Charlie and I have only dreamed about.

Welcome to Ab Aeterno, readers: Richard Alpert’s first and (presumably) last centric episode. Better go refill that coffee mug before taking in this preview: we’ve got a lot to cover…

…actually, more to cover than usual. Why? Because tonight’s episode is going to be longer than normal!! That’s right: Charlie’s 26th birthday wish came true. This episode will be SIX MINUTES longer than normal, so check your DVR to make sure it is recording the entire episode (or record the show that follows, just to be safe). For those of you in Central Standard Time (also called “God’s Time”), Lost will air from 8:00 PM until 9:06 PM. Other time zoners, do the appropriate math or consult the TV Guide or pull it together because you really should know what time this show is on by now.

It’s All Latin To Me

Tonight's episode is called Ab Aeterno. Latin. Translation: from the eternal.

And the wikipedia notes continue: literally, “from the everlasting” or “from eternity.” Thus, “from time immemorial,” “since the beginning of time,” or “from an infinitely remote time in the past.” In theology, often indicates something (such as the universe) that was created outside of time.

I’ll pause here for you to take a deep breath and blink for the first time since the beginning of this post.

Meet Richard Alpert

To get us ready for tonight’s episode, I’d like to take some time to dive into the man, the myth, the legend, the ageless acolyte of Jacob: Richard Alpert. He’s been around for 3 years, but what do we really know? Where has he been? What has he said? Is he really wearing eye liner? And can we trust him?

However, I'm going to do things a little differently today. Everyone who visits this site has opinions about who Richard is, where he comes from, and what is role is in the endgame of the show. However, instead of diving into all of my theories, it seems to me the best use of today’s preview is to walk through what we know about Richard. As Charlie has said, “Tonight’s episode will stand on its own.” My job is to set you up with the information you need to understand the episode in the context of where we’ve been already. There will be plenty of post-episode theorizing to occupy our time…

Time for a Deep Dive

All the time traveling, flash backing, and flash forwarding can really confuse a girl, especially when it comes to Richard. So, my type A personality will now present a fairly lengthy summation of Richard Alpert, chronologically through the years, thanks to the help of the trusty lostpedia.

1954
Jughead, Season 5 Episode 3
We see Richard Alpert at the Others’ camp. Richard appeared to be in charge at the time, though we have since found out he was actually an advisor to, well, whoever was in charge at the time. We found out that around 1954, the U.S. government had sent military installations to multiple islands in the Pacific to test hydrogen bombs, including Jughead, which was the bomb brought to the island. Richard told the soldiers to leave the island. The soldiers refused. So, the Others did what they do best: they killed them. And after burying the bodies, Richard and the Others took over their camp, weapons, tents, clothes, etc. The bomb, Jughead, remained on the island, undetonated.

John Locke stumbled out of the jungle towards the camp, and a strapping, young Charles Widmore nearly kills him. However, Locke claimed that Jacob sent him and Richard agreed to speak with him. Locke showed Richard the compass Richard had given him, and explained that he knew Richard in the future, where Locke is leader of the Others. Richard was skeptical. To prove his claims, Locke said that in two years he would be born in Tustin, CA, and that Richard should go visit him. Locke then asked how to leave the island, but a time flash happened before he could discover the answer.

1956
Cabin Fever, Season 4 Episode 11
Richard appears at the Tustin hospital where John Locke had, in fact, been born prematurely a month earlier, just as the elder John Locke had said.

1961
Cabin Fever, Season 4 Episode 11
Richard visits five-year-old John Locke while he was in foster care. Richard tested Locke as part of the process of choosing the leader of the Others by presenting him with six items: a baseball glove, a book of laws, a vial of sand, a compass, a comic book, and a knife. Locke was asked to identify which of these items were “already his.” Richard was pleased when Locke chose the compass and vial of sand, and smiled slightly as Locke considered the book, but Locke ultimately chose the knife. At this, Richard turned cold and left.

1973
The Man Behind the Curtain, Season 3 Episode 20
A young Ben Linus met Richard in the jungle while searching for an apparition of his dead mother. Richard had long hair and was dressed in primitive clothing. Richard asked why Ben was out in the jungle alone. When Ben explained what he had seen, and that she had died off the Island, Richard was visibly interested in this development, but told him to return home. Ben, however, pleaded with Richard to let him return to the “Hostiles” with him. Considering this, Richard told Ben that this might be possible, but that Ben would need to be “very, very patient.”

1974
LaFleur, Season 5 Episode 8
Richard marched into the Dharma barracks after dark, causing mass hysteria and panic. He placed a torch in the ground and waited, until Horace Goodspeed came to meet him. Richard accused Dharma of breaking their truce by having killed two of his men. With Horace’s permission, Sawyer, who was stranded in that year after Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel, emerged from a cabin and confronted Richard. Sawyer told Richard he was not a member of the Dharma Initiative, as Richard originally assumed, citing his knowledge of the events at the Others’ Camp with Locke in 1954 as proof. The two made a deal that the truce between Dharma and the Others would remain unbroken, since Sawyer killed the two men in self-defense, which was not a violation of the truce.

1977
Whatever Happened, Happened, Season 5 Episode 11
Sawyer and Kate were captured by the Others while carrying the seriously wounded young Ben (thanks to Sayid) in an attempt to get the Others’ help in saving Ben’s life. Sawyer demanded that they be taken to Richard stating that Ben's death would have repercussions on both the Dharma Initiative and the Others. After telling them that Ben would remember none of this and would be “one of them” (an Other) for good after this, Richard carried Ben through the jungle and brought him into the Temple.

1977 (appx)
The Variable, Season 5 Episode 14
Daniel Faraday entered the Others’ camp and demanded to meet Ellie. Richard tried to calm him down, but Daniel demanded to know where Richard had buried Jughead. Pointing his gun at Richard, Daniel told that he would count to three. Before he could do so, Ellie shot him from behind. Richard asked why she did it, to which Ellie replied that Daniel was threatening Richard. Richard then watched as Daniel revealed that he was Ellie’s son, before dying.

Charles Widmore then appeared with Jack and Kate as prisoners. After Ellie read Daniel’s journal, she ordered to release them. She then asked Richard to accompany them to the Jughead. The group traveled to the lake, which held the entrance to the tunnels in which Jughead had been placed. After Sayid removed Jughead’s core, the group then traveled further down the tunnels, where Richard used a hammer to break down a wall leading to a house in the Barracks. Ellie then decided that she should go into the house first, but Richard knocked her out, telling Jack and Sayid that Ellie ordered him to help them get the bomb, which he did, and that he was just protecting their leader.

December 19, 1992
The Man Behind the Curtain, Season 3 Episode 20
Richard led the Hostiles in the Purge when they killed the Dharma Initiative population with gas from the Tempest station. After the gas had dissipated, Richard emerged from the Barracks with the other Hostiles to meet Ben who had just returned from killing his father.

2001
Not in Portland, Season 3 Episode 7
Ben sent Richard and Ethan to recruit Juliet in the name of Mittelos Bioscience in his attempts to find the reason and cure for pregnant woman dying on the island.

September 24, 2004
One of Us, Season 3 Episode 16
Moments after Flight 815 crashed, Ben took Juliet to the Flame station, where Mikhail patched them through to a live broadcast of Richard filming in Miami. The broadcast showed Juliet’s sister and nephew having a happy moment at a playground, with the date illustrated by Richard filming a Miami Journal newspaper header.

Days 80 – 90 (Season 3)
Eighty days after the crash of Flight 815, Ben instructed Richard to bring him “the man from Tallahassee.” The next day Richard helped Ben bring him to a room where that man was revealed to be Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper. Ben insisted that Locke kill his own father, but Locke refused. The next morning, Richard introduced himself to Locke, who did not remember his childhood encounter with him. He said that Ben had known Locke wouldn’t kill his dad and wanted him to fail in front of the group. Richard mentioned that they were all there for reasons more important than the fertility issues Ben had been focusing on. He then presented Locke with a file on Sawyer, suggesting that he should kill Cooper instead. Locke, confused, asked why Sawyer would want to kill Cooper; Richard simply told him to read the file.

Two days later, at the temporary camp, as Ben reminisced over a wooden doll he had received from Annie as a child, Richard entered and asked what it was. Ben explained that it was a birthday present and asked cryptically, “You do remember birthdays, don't you, Richard?”, to which he received no response.

Day 100 (Season 4)
Richard makes a deal with Kate and Sayid that if they helped the Others rescue Ben, they could leave the island on the helicopter. Upon success, Lapidus takes off with a group of the survivors. Prior to leaving the island via the Orchid, Ben told Locke that Richard and his people were two miles east of the station. Ben also said that Richard would answer all of Locke’s questions about the Island and follow all his commands. Locke proceeded to the camp to be warmly welcomed by Richard and the Others. The two were talking when the sky began to glow as Ben began the process of moving the island. Locke disappeared at this point, while Richard and the Others remained in the same time.

2007 (Season 5)
Richard Alpert was working on a ship in a bottle when he was interrupted by the arrival of the Man in Black, in the form of the recently deceased John Locke. Richard, however, did not know that it was MIB and proceeded to follow every command and step of Fake Locke (Flocke). In what is now a classic season of season 5, Flocke gave Richard a medical kit and told him that a wounded man would come out of the jungle. Richard was told to extract the bullet from the man’s leg and tell him that he should bring back everyone who had left the island and that in order to do that, the man would have to die. Flocke also tricked Richard to give ‘his’ compass to the man. The man emerged from the jungle, limping. To Richard’s surprise, it was Locke before his death, who was time-traveling as a result of the island’s movement. After healing his wound and delivering the message, time travel zapped the real John Locke away. Richard made his way back to Flocke and Ben, and seemed satisfied that the time-traveling John believed him. Richard was happy that Locke did not actually have to die, to which Flocke said “he did.”

Shortly after, Richard, Ben and Flocke made their way back to camp, where Flocke introduced himself to his people and informed them that Richard is going to take him, along with the rest of them, to see their unseen leader, Jacob. Richard wondered if Flocke would only cause trouble, to which Ben exclaimed that this is the reason he tried to kill him, which elicited a shocked response from Richard.

Richard led Flocke and the rest of the Others to the Four-Toed Foot, informing him that this is where Jacob lived. Along the way, he told Flocke the reason for him being the way he was (not aging), was because of Jacob and he suspected that Flocke’s apparent resurrection may have something to do with Jacob as well. At the Foot, Flocke wanted to take Ben with him to see Jacob but Richard objected, stating that the rules he follows says that only the Leader can meet Jacob and there can only be one leader on the island at a time. Despite hearing this and accusing Richard of making the rules up as he goes along, Flocke insisted Ben come along and Richard eventually gave in to his demand. Richard pushed in a stone at the base of the Foot allowing access and departed after telling them both to say “hi” to Jacob.

Later, Ilana and her group arrived and asked for “Richardus.” Richard came forward and corrected her by saying, “Actually, it’s Richard.” Ilana asked him the question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” To which Richard responded (in Latin), “He who shall save us all.” Ilana then said that she had something to show him. She opened the crate she and her people had been carrying around to reveal the corpse of John Locke. Richard asked Ilana where she found him and she explained thus revealing to Richard and all the Others that the Flocke whom Richard had been following was an impostor.

2007 (Season 6)
After the revelation of Locke's body, Richard attempted to prevent Ilana and Bram entrance to the statue, claiming that asking “what lies in the shadow of the statue” does not make them in charge. Ben walked out of the statue and asked Richard to go inside and talk to Flocke. Richard, frustrated, dragged Ben to the Ajira crate and tossed him on the ground, bringing Ben face-to-face with dead Locke.

The following morning, Richard saw the Temple’s message flare presumably, indicating Jacob's death. Just then, Flocke descended from the statue, causing the Others to point their guns at him. In a panic, Richard screamed for them to not shoot. Flocke approached Richard, and commented that it was good to see him “out of [his] chains.” Richard seemed to instantly realize who Flocke was, yet Flocke attacked him and knocked him unconscious before he could do anything. Lifting Richard on his back, Flocke said he was very disappointed in the Others before carrying Richard into the jungle.

When Richard regains consciousness, Flocke tells Richard he wants what he has always wanted: for Richard to come with him. Richard asks why he now looks like Locke, and he replies that Locke could get close to Jacob because he was a “candidate.” When Richard inquiries as to what a candidate is, Flocke responds sarcastically, asking why Richard would follow Jacob without knowing what he was following Jacob for and that he would never have kept Richard in the dark. He again requests Richard to come with him and promises to tell him everything, but Richard refuses to go with him.

After leaving Flocke, Richard goes to the Temple and discovers the terror that has occurred. He runs into Jack and Hurley out in the jungle and says he’ll take them to the Temple. Instead, he goes to the Black Rock. Richard stops to examine some chains and shackles, and muses that he has been on the island for a long time and this is his first trip back to the ship.

Richard begins playing around with some dynamite, to Hurley’s shock. The dynamite will not explode. Richard explains that Jacob touched him and he cannot die by his own hands. Because of this, Richard asks Jack to kill him. He tells Jack that he feels that his long life on the island has lacked purpose, because Jacob had promised to share his plans with Richard but did not do so before he died. Jack listens and lights a stick of dynamite, but instead of leaving, he sits across from Richard to ask him some questions. Hurley, panicked, runs off. Jack asks about Jacob’s purposes for him and Richard says he does not know. Jack tells Richard about how the mirrors in the Lighthouse showed Jack’s childhood home, and that Jacob had been watching him his whole life. Jack is not worried about the dynamite exploding because he feels Jacob would never let anything happen to someone who is part of his plan. Richard appears genuinely stirred by Jack’s words, but feels the latter is taking an awful risk in their current situation. However, the dynamite does not blow up just as Jack predicted.

Realizing Jack is now the one “with all the answers,” Richard asks where they should go next. Jack responds with a smile: “Back to where it all started.” They return to survivors’ beach camp, where they reunite with Sun, Lapidus, Ilana, Miles and Ben who have gone there for safety from Flocke. Richard stands apart from the group (as does Ben on the opposite side) and silently watches the friends happily reunite.

I have a headache.

Yeah, me too. It is funny how we think we know so little about Richard, but he has actually been around at several very critical moments in the show’s history.

So what does this mean for tonight?

Well, the episode description is “Richard Alpert faces a difficult choice.” Is the choice in present time or “eternal time,” as the episode title seems to indicate? I’m going to vote for the latter, as I think tonight is going to fill in the holes of his backstory:

-When did he get the ‘gift’ of immortality from Jacob?
-Why did he get this gift?
-Did he really not know anything about the candidates?
-What was the deal with the six items placed in front of Locke? What did they mean?
-What was his life like before servitude to Jacob?
-Why did Ilana call him Richardus?

-And 1,000 more questions Charlie and I have pondered for the last 3 years.

And about the Black Rock..

Last week’s episode inside the Black Rock seemed to indicate that Richard had been there before (he said as much). In fact, Richard almost said that, at some point, he had arrived on the island via the Black Rock. Was it his first time to the island? Most people think no. In fact, I have read several theories that equate the Black Rock to Richard’s “Ajira 316,” in that it served as his second (or third? Or fourth?) vehicle to reach the island. The name Richardus does seem to date him a bit…

But this would be a good time to talk about the Black Rock. What do we know? What do we not know? Black Rock has been around since episode 1 of season 1. Danielle mentioned the Black Rock in her French distress signal, even though Shannon’s 3rd year French translation didn’t pick it up. However, since I am already three times the normal length of a preview on the Dharma Blog, I won’t go into the season-by-season summation of what we’ve seen of the ship. Instead, I’ll present you with the Top Ten Fun Facts about the Black Rock, Letterman-style, that we have learned over the year

1. In 1845, it set sail from Portsmouth, England (out of slip 23 on the docks) on a trading mission to Siam (aka Thailand).

2. It was a mining ship, but some of its cargo secretly included slaves. (The slave trade had been outlawed in 1807, but slavery itself was not abolished in the British Empire until 1833.) History claimed the Black Rock disappeared while on its return voyage from a gold mining operation in the South Indian Ocean. It had a crew of 40 men and an unknown number of slaves on board.

3. In that crazy beach scene from the season 5 finale, Man In Black claimed that Jacob “brought” the Black Rock to the island.

4. Currently, the Black Rock is mysteriously and bizarrely located extremely far inland on the island in an area called the Dark Territory. This part of the island (according to the Blast Door Map) is where the Smoke Monster is known to be most active.

5. It is full of highly sensitive dynamite, even though dynamite wasn’t invented until after 1845.

6. It is assumed that Alpert came to the Island on the Black Rock, but hadn’t visited it since.

7. The Black Rock was part of a fleet of boats owned by the New World Sea Traders. The New World Sea Traders was owned and operated by Magnus Hanso, a former ship’s captain who became a business entrepreneur. It is believed that the Black Rock was captained by Magnus Hanso, who is the great grandfather of Alvar Hanso, the financier behind the Dharma Initiative.

8. In 1989, the first mate’s journal from the Black Rock came up for sale at an auction at Southfield's. Charles Widmore purchased the journal, outbidding an unknown/remote individual who was never named. In addition to the journal, Widmore received a painting called “The Black Rock Storm,” which is later seen hanging in Widmore’s residence.

9. After Claire’s abduction by the Others in season 1, Charlie read her diary, hoping to find some clues as to her whereabouts. He uncovered a passage where Claire mentioned she had been having dreams about a “black rock.”

10. The Black Rock is presumed to have been lost in the Sunda Trench, which is where the fake Oceanic 815 crash was discovered (4 miles deep) by a vessel searching for the Black Rock wreckage.

Enjoy tonight!

Well, that’s all I have in me, folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this flash through the Lost series from the perspective of everyone’s favorite eyeliner wonder boy, Richard Alpert, with a bonus Black Rock top 10 list!

I invite you to take some time now to leave a comment. What question about Richard Alpert do YOU want addressed tonight? What theories do you have? And where do you fall in the eyeliner discussion? (Note: I vote he doesn't wear eyeliner, but has naturally dark eye lashes.)

ENJOY this episode. Lord knows Charlie and I will! Be sure to come back tomorrow morning when Charlie tackles the tough questions and puts it all in perspective, as he does so well week after week.

Namaste,
Maggie