Who is Richard?

[Mistral]

I searched so don't hate me. Searching for Richard gives you almost every thread.

My theory is that Richard is the first mate of the Black Rock, who's journal was bought by Widmore at auction. For whatever reason, he's unaging and leads when he must but defers to the #2 role whenever possible.

My wife is convinced that as the series winds down the mystery of Richard is going to become primary, as he gets a little more screen time each season.

Anybody else got a clue?

 

[exodus]

I think Richard is what Mola Ram was in "Temple of Doom".

I think like some High Priest that worships as is the right hand of whatever entity Jacob/the Island is. I think he is responsable for the well being and upholding the laws/will of the island.

The odd thing most seem to miss is, the Others are always dressed in rags & dirty looking. Richard is the only one in clean fresh clothes in the middle of a jungle. There is never any dirt on him, not even sweat.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

The Black Rock idea is a good one. Another good theory is that he's Ra or Anubis or some sort of ancient Egyptian along those lines.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Now that we know there is some kind of Egyptian connection, another theory is him being RA, Egyptian God of Sun.


Edit*

^oh you beat me to it

 

[Mistral]

I think Richard is what Mola Ram was in "Temple of Doom".

I think like some High Priest that worships as is the right hand of whatever entity Jacob/the Island is. I think he is responsable for the well being and upholding the laws/will of the island.

The odd thing most seem to miss is, the Others are always dressed in rags & dirty looking. Richard is the only one in clean fresh clothes in the middle of a jungle. There is never any dirt on him, not even sweat.

He's not always clean and spiffy-only sometimes. Recall what he looked like in Ben's origin episode-scruffy. I think his appearance alters along with the fortunes of the Others.

 

[Roshi]

He was a roadie for the Bangles way back in the Eighties...

 

[Hober Mallow]

In the season three commentary for the episode "Man Behind the Curtain," Damon compared him to the guy whose job it is to search for the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

 

[propita]

The odd thing most seem to miss is, the Others are always dressed in rags & dirty looking. Richard is the only one in clean fresh clothes in the middle of a jungle. There is never any dirt on him, not even sweat.

[He's not always clean and spiffy-only sometimes. Recall what he looked like in Ben's origin episode-scruffy. I think his appearance alters along with the fortunes of the Others.

In the season three commentary for the episode "Man Behind the Curtain," Damon compared him to the guy whose job it is to search for the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

Yeah, Richard was scruffy in his first appearance--before Ben joined the Others and presumably when Widmore was the leader. But by the time Ben was grown and got Alex (getting ready to take over as leader), Richard was looking much better.

So maybe he reflects the leader or the state of the Others--and he sure seems to be identifying the new leader.

You know, when Ethan was born, I was like, "Wow! Ethan!" without realizing that means that he also survived the Dharma-purge.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think he's got to be from the Black Rock. I know this makes no sense, but he "looks" like someone from olden days, not a modern guy. If he's not a 17th C seafarer, I think he could be Egyptian, and a whoooole lot older than we realize. He could be staying young by bopping through time discontinously, spending a day in 1658, a week in 1977, a couple days in 2348 BC, another couple days in 2004...maybe the few years we've been watching him for are just a month by his reckoning. He might be older in his 2348 BC sojourns than his 1950s AD experiences, if he did that time travelling "later."

Of course, it's entirely possible that he's both an ancient Egyptian priest and a 17th C seafarer. He's probably had a lot of jobs in the service of ole Smokey (who I guess is now female, if she's Anubis' daughter?)

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I am R.A. MacLeod of the clan MacLeod. There can be only one!

 

[Mr Light]

I think he's ancient Egyptian and/or an Egyptian God. It looks like he's the only immortal in the Others.

 

[Starbreaker]

I don't know how important he is actually going to be. They were all but ready to write him out permanently when he had that short regular stint on Cane.

 

[chrisspringob]

I think he's got to be from the Black Rock. I know this makes no sense, but he "looks" like someone from olden days, not a modern guy. If he's not a 17th C seafarer, I think he could be Egyptian, and a whoooole lot older than we realize. He could be staying young by bopping through time discontinously, spending a day in 1658, a week in 1977, a couple days in 2348 BC, another couple days in 2004...maybe the few years we've been watching him for are just a month by his reckoning. He might be older in his 2348 BC sojourns than his 1950s AD experiences, if he did that time travelling "later."

I thought that for a while, but I'm not sure it's tenable. He just seems to be around so much of the time, if he's only in each time period for a couple of weeks or so, then there should be a lot more scenes with the Others where he's not there. No one ever says "Oh, Richard is away right now."

I think it's more likely the he was dead, and resurrected by the Island, a la Christian and Locke. Maybe Locke won't age now either.

 

[propita]

With the hieroglyphs visible in shots, I'm thinking he's ancient Egyptian--he's got the kohl around his eyes.

His eyes are something else. *sigh*

 

[Temis the Vorta]

He just seems to be around so much of the time

If you added up all his literal screen time, it wouldn't add up to much. That's all we know he's been present for. If he can control time travel, he could vanish into the jungle to heed the call of nature, zap over to three different time periods to check in, and be back before anyone gets suspicious.

In fact, no time should elapse in any given time period when he's away in other time periods (I think - not sure if Lost is following that rule), but even if time elapses for him, and he ages normally, as long as only four years or so total have elapsed for him since he started to time travel, he wouldn't appear any older during any of his appearances in any time.

The fact that we haven't seen his younger self in any time period might mean he didn't gain the time travel ability very long ago, his time, even if it was in Ancient Egypt. We haven't seen his older self either, which might mean that he dies soon, or gives up or loses time travelling for some reason.

It's more fun that way than the alternatives - he's naturally immortal (Egyptian god or alien, or both) or the island is keeping him from aging.

With the hieroglyphs visible in shots, I'm thinking he's ancient Egyptian--he's got the kohl around his eyes.

Apparently that's natural for Nestor Carbonell (is that the coolest name ever or what ) but that wouldn't stop a TV producer from thinking he's perfect to play some ancient Egyptian guy.

 

[chrisspringob]

He just seems to be around so much of the time

If you added up all his literal screen time, it wouldn't add up to much. That's all we know he's been present for. If he can control time travel, he could vanish into the jungle to heed the call of nature, zap over to three different time periods to check in, and be back before anyone gets suspicious.

Well, I agree that the total amount of screen time doesn't add up to that much, but, if it's only been a few years for him, then he's only with the Others for a small fraction of the timeline from their perspective. So it just seems like a big coincidence that, whenever we flash to the Others, he's usually around.

Did Richard know that Sawyer and Kate were going to bring young Ben for example? If not, then what a coincidence that he happened to be hanging out with the Others at that moment. There's never a scene when someone says "Oh yeah, Richard isn't with us right now."

I'm wondering if Juliet knows anything about what's up with Richard, and why she doesn't tell the other Losties. Of course, same question arises re: why she's never really told them much useful info of any kind about the Others.

 

[Brent]

I do know this, for whatever reason he seems to be the ONLY one that the Island allows to go OFF Island. He is allowed to run a business off island and bring people there, like Locke, if they past the test or whatever. Widmore was kicked off the island cause he kept going off island, remember. So Richard is special in not only that he seems to be immortal, but he is allowed to leave the island.

 

[propita]

With the hieroglyphs visible in shots, I'm thinking he's ancient Egyptian--he's got the kohl around his eyes.

Apparently that's natural for Nestor Carbonell (is that the coolest name ever or what ) but that wouldn't stop a TV producer from thinking he's perfect to play some ancient Egyptian guy.

Nestor--from "The Odyssey" and other Greek stories...supposed to be able to smooth-talk even better than Odysseus, right?

Anyway, I love his eyes, and especially if it's natural.

Is that the same kind of thing with Ray Liotta?

 

[Starbreaker]

I do know this, for whatever reason he seems to be the ONLY one that the Island allows to go OFF Island. He is allowed to run a business off island and bring people there, like Locke, if they past the test or whatever. Widmore was kicked off the island cause he kept going off island, remember. So Richard is special in not only that he seems to be immortal, but he is allowed to leave the island.

That's obviously changed now, anyway. Tom and Ethan were both seen off the island. Bonnie and Greta were "supposed to be" in Canada. But good call. I wonder why Richard is allowed to do whatever he wants.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Yeah, Richard was scruffy in his first appearance--before Ben joined the Others and presumably when Widmore was the leader. But by the time Ben was grown and got Alex (getting ready to take over as leader), Richard was looking much better.

I think that was just his Others "disguise," like when Tom wore rags and a fake beard. I may be remembering wrong, but didn't Richard pop up in his scruffy rags and a wig near the end of season 4, when the Others attacked the mercenaries?

So maybe he reflects the leader or the state of the Others--and he sure seems to be identifying the new leader.

I think he's an island native. Like Juliette said, "Richard's always been here."