Comments on: Scraggly Ricardo and Ben’s Mom

By: secretlostguy

secretlostguy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:11:39 +0000

smoke monster can only be trapped in the pylons in his smoke form. he also can’t kill people when he’s in somebody else’s form, only when he becomes the smoke monster. he can only judge and kill in his smoke form. so him being able to enter the pylons AS somebody else is likely.

By: HansoHattori

HansoHattori — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:59:53 +0000

Also, isn’t there like a 3 year gap from when Ben first meets richard in the jungle and when the losties deliver him to be healed? I’m assuming Ben got to the island before Sawyer and Jin traveled back to 1974(?) and lived there for 3 years (1977?). Ben ran into the jungle not too long after he arrived at the Dharma compound, right? This gap of about 3 years gives Richard plenty of time to get a shave and a haircut

By: HansoHattori

HansoHattori — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:55:55 +0000

I agree with allaboutalpert that the hair thing is just a matter of keeping up with the joneses. I also agree with ilieintheshadowofthestatue’s theory that Richard is kinda dumb, or rather easily convinced of something and less likely to think for himself. This would explain why he kinda follows the hairstyle trend of the time he’s in, but it still doesn’t explain where he’s getting his immortal supply of guyliner

By: so lost...

so lost... — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:28:33 +0000

I can’t remember the details of beard or no beard, but…

…maybe Richard IS somehow dead, and that’s why MIB could be able to take on his form? Richard definitely isn’t alive in the traditional sense of the word.

Having said that, I tend more towards the Richard-as-trend-follower idea. Long hair and a beard wouldn’t be uncommon in that time period.

Now the REAL question is, was he wearing the same outfit? Because I don’t think MIB usually does a costume change…

By: ekolocation

ekolocation — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:33:38 +0000

Not so. He is always clean shaven, except in the 1800s, and that one scene with ben in the 70′s. We see Richard talking to dharma at the same time (also with kate,jack and sayid) but he looks clean shaven again.

By: allaboutalpert

allaboutalpert — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:14:51 +0000

Alpert goes with the flow to fit in. When it’s the 1800′s he looks like 1800s, in the 50′s, he’s clean cut, in the 70s, he’s all hippied out like the rest of the temple (note, long hair, no beard), when it’s 2000′s he’s clean again. I don’t think its trickery, I just think he has to play the part to fit in.

By: ekolocation

ekolocation — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:57:31 +0000

no offense halapeno but i dont see how thats related to the rest of the post…

By: Halapeno

Halapeno — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:03:31 +0000

Since Richard is Jacob’s disciple, he follows the path of not telling people what to do and allowing them to do what they do of their own free will. I think this is why he normally doesn’t react much or act surprised when he sees anyone or any seemingly odd situation. On top of that, it seems that he has seen a lot of strange things over the many years, so reading into the way he acts is difficult. Last night we saw him question everything that he has done on the island with/for Jacob, then with Hurley’s help he came back to the Jacob side (again showing Hurley’s potential power in the entire game).

By: apache

apache — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:14:01 +0000

I too was thinking about the apparent dichotomy of Richard coming to an understanding that he saw MIB in the brig of the ship, not his wife versus Ben telling Richard that he was following his mother. If Ben was talking to Richard, upon understanding that Ben’s mother was dead, Richard, having gone through the same experience, would likely conclude that it was MIB. If so, I wouldn’t think Richard would invite Ben to join the Others, as I imagine Richard would want to distance the Others from any influence of MIB. That is, unless Richard was told to get Ben by Jacob.

The theory that Ben was speaking to MIB, not Richard, is somewhat appealing, but I think has some problems. First, the real Richard would have to accept Ben, and would obviously be confused due to the fact he did not have the initial conversation with him telling him to be patient before joining the Others. Again, Richard being aware of MIB and what MIB could do, would have to think that MIB is behind or influenced Ben’s appearance. Knowing that MIB wants to kill Jacob, Richard would not go along with Ben joining the Others, let alone become its leader, again, unless Jacob told Richard to do so. Therefore, since I doubt we will see further exploration into Richard’s past with Jacob, I imagine that Ben spoke to the real Richard.

I do not rule out the possibility that Jacob via Richard and Ben (probably mostly unknowingly), and now to some degree the candidates, is playing the true long con on MIB. Like a game of chess, MIB may have started moving his pieces, but Jacob knew what MIB needed and wanted to do to accomplish his ends, and started counteracting MIB’s moves well before MIB’s plan started to come to fruition.

By: ekolocation

ekolocation — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:32:14 +0000

i just always assumed that smokie only took forms of dead people. and if he was looking like ben’s mom, how did he get through the pylons? also he seems to need to scan people with flashes before he shows up as someone dead that they know (like eko, ben, etc.) theres something missing that just doesn’t fit.