Richard Alpert/Theories

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Theories about Richard Alpert

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Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Name reference

His name is a tribute to Dr. Richard Alpert, who was a colleague of Dr. Timothy Leary in Harvard University. He was kicked out with Leary because of his research on Psychotropic drugs. In direct relation to the character, Dr. Alpert traveled to India in where he studied matters of the spirit with Bhagavan Das as a guide, he later met Neem Karoli Baba, or Maharaj-ji as he is known in the Western world; his new spiritual guide gave him the name "Ram Dass" which means "Servant of God". This serves in relation to the show's recurring theme of religions and beliefs. This could explain how Richard exists on the Island prior to Ben, and a possible indirect relation to Jacob, as his servant but not as his "son" as the biblical etymology of Benjamin and Jacob suggests.

General

• He is in league with Mittelwerk; the company name Mittelos is very similar.
  • Not only is Mittlewerk/Mittleos very similar, but Richard Alpert looks very much like a younger Thomas Mittelwerk.
• Personally engineered the bus accident which killed Edmund Burke.
  • This begs the question, if he "engineered" an accident, how would he have been able to put Edmund Burke in the right place at just the right time, better yet engineer a public bus to be at that place at that exact moment?

• Reverse temporal engineering. Richard made sure it had already happened.
• One notices that other cars are honking at the bus as it was it waits for Burke to walk out onto the side walk.

• Will attempt to take control of the Others along with Locke now that he knows the Island favors John, and not Ben.
• He is able to bend time & space. That is how he can travel to and from the Island at will. This is why Ben asked him to go and get the man from Tallahasee and how Anthony Cooper magically appears on the Island.
  • This could also explain how he could "engineer" the bus accident.
    • Also explains how he happened to be in the area of Juliette's sister so quickly when she has her violent outburst to Ben about her sister being dead already.
• We never actually see him off the Island after the events in Juliet's flashbacks. He might be trapped on the Island just like everybody else, leading him to be angry with Ben.
  • But we do see him before, so there must be some way of getting off the Island as well as on.
• He is Magnus Hanso, captain of the Black Rock, grandfather of Alvar Hanso. If time on the Island is stopped compared to the outside world (theory from The Third Policeman) they could have been there since the shipwreck. When we see Richard Alpert in ("The Man Behind the Curtain") he appears to be wearing pirate type clothing.
  • But everyone else on the Island is able to age, so there must be something else that causes him to not age.
  • He ceased to age after experiments performed on him by the DHARMA Initiative, thus causing he rift between the two groups
  • The clothes seem to be similar to what the Others were wearing when they originally appeared and wanted to look like they had no contact with the outside world.
• He and the Hostiles are not natives or members of the original Black Rock crew, as they are familiar with technology even before the attack to the Barracks and have probably run the DHARMA facilities after the Purge; they could be a faction of DHARMA scientists who split from the official group before Ben's arrival to the Island. Besides, their clothes are dirty and ruined, but not pirate or natural clothes: we see T-shirts, polo shirts and modern pants.
• He seems to already follow Ben's orders during the gas attack to the Barracks (he seems a bit unconfortable, and waits for Ben's directions on what to do with Roger's body), so he possibly wasn't the leader of the Hostiles at that time: Ben could have conned the Hostiles during his growing-up and personally arranged the gas attack.
  • This seems to be confirmed by Lost: The Answers.
  • Not likely, the Hostiles were already attacking the Barracks since Ben's arrival, as we see when they attack while Ben's at science class. Also, it's much more probable that Richard asked Ben if he wanted the body to be brought back to the Barracks as a sign of respect, and not as a sign of submission. Thus being Ben's response of leaving the body out there (because he lacked respect for him), contrasting the closing of Goodspeed's eyes (as a sign of respect).
    • He could feel that Ben is "special" just like he feels Locke is.
• Richard believed that Ben was born on the Island because Ben claimed to see his mother, even though she was dead.
• Richard is; or is a manifestation of "the monster"
  • When Richard met young Ben, Richard was not at all surprised that Ben had seen his dead mother on the island. It seems that "the monster" can take on the form of different people. Richard's lack of surprise could indicate that he at very least knows about the monster's abilities, and at most perhaps that Richard is the monster's true persona.
    • Interesting idea, but it's possible that he knew that non-real people could appear on the island, but did not attribute it to the monster.
• Richard is "the man behind the curtain"- he manipulates Ben by orchestrating Ben's supposed communication with Jacob.
• Conversely, Richard is [Ben]'s early request from the magic box - a friendly non-Dharma person who rescues him from his hated Dharma life. This ties in to the theory that the magic box is similar to fictional ideas in books such as Sphere by Michael Crichton.
• Alpert has formed an allegiance with either the Hanso Foundation or Naomi's "rescue" group during his off-island travels and is responsible for the events that take place during The Lost Experience, as is hinted at by the Mittelos/Mittelwerk link.

Juliet and Orange Juice

• He gave Juliet the spiked orange juice in order for her to be implanted.
• He was able to tell Juliet the orange juice was spiked with tranquilizer because Juliet was especially selected for her submissive tendencies, not only for her brilliance in fertility.

Aging

• He was meant to appear much younger than he does with long hair. They had to use the same actor for the scene, so he was meant to appear younger.
  • Not likely, Richard and Ben are roughly the same age now, Ben is a little older, so when Ben was a child, Richard would have been an even younger child.
    • Richard does not age faster or slower than anyone else. It is easily possible that they have around a ten year age gap between them, Ben being around 40 and Richard around 50, which could mean when Ben was young he was around 13, and Richard was around 23. While Richard didn't actually look 23 the show may have been trying to make him look this age as best as they could, so there is no mysterious aging to account for.
      • This is highly unlikely; Richard's appearance to young Ben was obviously supposed to come as a shock to the audience, and now Ben is clearly older than Richard (in real life, actor Michael Emerson, who plays Ben, is 12 years older than Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard).
        • But it is a shock only because it's a known, but previously minor character who has suddenly taken on more importance.
      • A concerted effort was made in making Roger Linus look a lot older during the purge. The Fact that Richard only gets a haircut is surely no mistake.
        • This may be because the writers didn't come up with this direction for the character until long after he had been cast and used.
      • There are 6 points that suggest that he is old and is not aging normally. There has not been one suggestion that he is aging, just theories of why he could look like hes not aging.

1. No apparent aging in the 3 times we saw him (just a haircut)
2. His odd clothing
3. His very old gun (Luger P-08, designed in the 1800's)
4. "It's a birthday present. You do remember birthdays don't you?" - Ben's comment to Richard
5. "no matter how much time you spend on the island, you never get tired of this view" - Richard to Locke on the hill.
6. "you're gonna be amazed at how time flies once you're there" - Richard to Juliet

• The Richard who met Young Ben looks about fifteen years younger than the Richard of today (early 20s v. late 30s). There is some indication of aging, but about half as much as there should be (assuming 30 years has gone by since Richard met Ben).
  • All that is apparent is a haircut, not a wrinkle or a gray hair.
• People on Island are actually aging faster then off-Island. Richard hasn't aged because he spent a lot of time off Island ("Not in Portland", "One of Us").
  • That's because people age in real life? The show has, after all, been running for 3 years – but only supposedly passed around 90 days on the island.
• Richard Alpert is the son of the man who approached Ben. Nothing about the original island inhabitants has been told and it would explain the lack of any aging.
• Richard is somehow "special" and the Island gives him eternal youth, that is, prevents him from aging.
  • Supports theory that he is Magnus Hanso.
  • Could be similar to how Locke was healed of his paralysis on the Island.
  • Being "special" might afford him a higher status in The Others than he actually has, especially when you consider he seemed to have a key role before The Purge.
• People who are conceived and born on the Island do not age. He is a native of the Island, and was conceived there before the problems surrounding fertility surfaced.
  • If this were so, those conceived and born on the Island would be perpetual infants (such as Aaron, and Richard obviously is not.
  • However, Richard may have been conceived on the island and also born there, whereas Aaron was conceived off the island. There is a noted difference between babies conceived on the island versus off.
• Something that resembles an "Eternal Youth" is a gift for the inhabitants of the Island (the hostiles, for the Dharma Initiative), Black Rock's crew.
  • Or this eternal youth was discovered/granted before the Black Rock arrived at the island.
  • The DHARMA Initiative vaccine would allow you to continue to age normally - this is why all the DHARMA folks continued to age normally (like Ben and his father). If you stopped taking the vaccine, you stop aging. This is also why Claire was injected repeatedly with "vaccine"... to allow baby Aaron to grow and develop in utero until birth. Kind of makes you wonder if Aaron will grow any bigger without more vaccine. Also, was Alex, Rousseau's daughter, given vaccine by the Others after her capture, in order to grow to her current age? Are the others giving the "vaccine" to the other children to allow them to grow?
• Richard is a time traveler. He leaps from time to time and from era to era. Thus he looks the same age whenever we meet him.

• Alternately, he is the proverbial Randall Flagg of the Lost mythos, an entity that takes on a human identity in order to bring chaos and destruction to the mortal realm.

• In The Stand Nadine Cross asks Flagg what his real name is. He says "Call me Richard. That's my real name. Call me that."

• Richard ages normally but looks much younger because he is a metrosexual that adheres to a rigourous beauty regime. This is supported by the fact he wears eyeliner.

See also The Man Behind the Curtain/Theories#Aging