The Actor: Nestor Carbonell

Biography: Dr. Richard Alpert is one of The Others. He seems to be a native of the island. In the outside world, he presented himself as a doctor and recruiter for Mittelos Bioscience Corporation. He appears to have a fair amount of authority amongst his people, and often seems to question some of Ben's actions.

Who he is: One of the Others. We first see him in "Not in Portland" attempting to recruit Juliet Burke to work for the Mittelos Bioscience Corporation. Richard and Ethan Rom say they have heard of Juliet's groundbreaking fertility research and try to convince her that Mittelos has the perfect research facility in which she can use her expertise.

Hails from:

Who he was before: In "The Man Behind the Curtain" we see Richard is part of the "Hostiles," the group at odds with the DHARMA Initiative. In this same episode, Ben refers to Richard's group as the island's original inhabitants.

Who he is now: Disgruntled Other? It seems Richard has grown tired of Ben's leadership and believes Ben is wasting thier time and resources on unimportant issues. He reveals this to Locke in "The Brig" along with the fact that many of the Others believe Locke is special, but Ben does not.

He informs Locke that he really must kill his father to realize his special potential and suggest James Ford (our Sawyer) as the one to to the job since Locke can't bring himself to do it. He hands Locke the file with (evidently) a lot of information on Ford/Sawyer, the story about a man claiming to be Tom Sawyer who conned Ford's mother out of the all family's money. This resulted in Ford's dad doing a murder/suicide, leaving the young boy alone and hell bent on revenge against the man known as Tom Sawyer. James Ford took on the name Sawyer and also became a con man in hopes of tracking the original Sawyer down.

Richard was with Ben and Locke when Ben revealed to Locke he must have some sort "communion with the island" because he had caused someone from his past to arrive. Ben instructed Richard to open the door, when Richard did so, Locke was shocked to discover his father, Anthony Cooper(aka Tom Sawyer) gagged and bound in a chair.

Big secrets: Richard is among the island's original inhabitants according to Ben ("The Man Behind the Curtain")

Richard is the courrier of the tape recorder Ben and Juliet use to pass along information and instructions.

Richard does not seem to age.

Questions:
Q: Can it be that Richard really doesn't age? Is he special? How/Why?

Q: If Richard was on the island first, why wouldn't he be in a leadership role of the "Others" instead of Ben? Is it because Jacob is the REAL leader and only Ben can communicate with him?

Theories:

Richard will be among some of the "Others" (possibly Tom and Juliet) who revolt against Ben and may even help the Losties during the attack to take Sun. (5-10-'07 Andfound2141)

Since we've all figured out that Richard Alpert doesn't age, can we assume that he is not really alive. At the beginning of "The Man Behind the Curtain" Ben mentions that it is his birthday and says to Richard "You do remember birthdays, don't you Richard?".
(Unknown)

I believe that there is a connection between Richard, Rousseau and Alex. Possibly Rousseau's husband and Alex's father. Since he can come and go, Resseau could have gotten pregnant while off of the island. If Richard aged, he and Rousseau would look about the same age. I don't remember how Rousseau got to the island, and I believe she is a hostile, and left during the first purge.
(First_Marti, 2/28/08)


Trivia: Nestor Carbonell appears in the film Smokin' Aces as elusive hit-man for hire Pasqual Acosta. In the film, Carbonell shares the screen with none other than Matthew Fox (Jack), who plays a hotel security manager. Carbonell's character kills Fox's character. Hope that's no inidcation of things to come on Lost! LOL.

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