Is it Richard that meets young Ben?

Written 17th February

Seen a few posts concerning the time when Richard Alpert meets young Ben by the sonic fence. The fact that Richard seems so out of character (in terms of appearance) has made some people question whether this truly is Richard, or whether it is Flocke/Nemesis. It is something that has bothered me for a while, and I think I have settled on it being Flocke.

Firstly, from Flocke and Richard’s conversation on the beach in this series, it would appear that the last time Flocke met Richard, he was in chains. This would explain why Flocke represents Richard as a slave. My argument has always been that Flocke was acting, even at this early stage, to manipulate Ben to help generate the loophole that allowed Flocke to have Jacob killed.

Now, the one problem I have had with this was that Flocke only seems to be able to animate dead people before. So how could be pretend to be Richard. A possibility is that Richard arrived on the Island at some point in the past. Rather like Rousseau’s crew, the survivors slowly started to become ‘infected’. Perhaps, like Rousseau, Richard even had to kill some of his people. Flocke then has the chance to animate these dead people, and Richard becomes acutely aware that death on this Island comes with serious consequences! I then wonder if at some point Richard was near death himself. This could be the point at which Jacob enters the equation. He could offer Richard a choice. Richard can accept death or he can allow Jacob to save him. However, being saved also comes with consequences. I don’t think Jacob would insist on Richard’s help, but would ask for it. And Richard fearing what might happen to him if he refuse, would accept Jacob’s proposal. This would answer those people who think that it seems like Jacob has forced Richard to exist in his current state.  Whatever Jacob has done to Richard, it means he technically isn’t actually living (bit hazy on this part, I admit), which might explain why Flocke can still represent himself as Richard if he desires. Can’t remember if Miles has ever met Richard and what his reaction would be?

Of course, not having seen the latest episode, this theory might rapidly fall to pieces. However, there is a Richard centric episode on the way, which might play out as I describe!