Richard isn’t ageless
What if Richard isn’t ageless, he just time travels. We know he can get on and off the island to be where and when he needs to be (Locke’s birth, childhood visits, Juliet’s recruitment…) What if his mode of transport allows him to travel through time (not so far fetched based on what we’ve been shown in S5)? Someone who is always skipping through time would seem to be ageless becasue they can be anywhere, anywhen. I guess if I use Back to the Future as an analogy. If you didn’t know that Doc could time travel, but knew what he looked like in 1885, 1955, 1985, 2015 wouldn’t you think he was ageless?
Couldn’t Richard be doing all these time travelling missions for Jacob, popping in and out when needed and have only lived a few years of HIS timeline (therefore not changing much in looks) but appearing across a huge span of years, seemingly ageless to the others? Also explains Ben’s comments about birthdays – if you spend your life outside of the normal flow of time, then bithdays wouldn’t mean anything – how would he keep track of it?
I like it, Tas. Lost is all about withholding information and delivering the missing bits at key times. It’s definitely possible.
Richard seems to have lived on the island for quite some time. He would have to do an awful lot of time jumping to not have aged. I think instead of Ben saying that Richard had been an advisor for a long, long time, he would have said Richard? He’s ok. Not here much though.
I don’t think they did time-travel stuff until Dharma came, and that’s why he looked so ragged when Ben stumbled upon him. I think he was ‘saved’ by Jacob to be a servant to guide the ‘progress’. He has been (made?) eternal … perhaps is a Flock-zombie, as we have no evidence they age (and MIB/Jacob may have adopted bodies, too – maybe MIB slips on different skins now again to change his appearance and the native/natural form is Smokie?)
i thought that at first… but it seems as though his memory works in a regular straight line (not knowing who locke is in the 50s, etc.) and being around at ALL the past scenes we have seen is too convenient.
Eko – which?
i thought he time travelled…but now i dont think so.
I like this idea, but I don’t think it’s true.
The fact that when Locke came back to camp in 2007 Richard says to him “it’s been 3 years”, which suggests Richard has lived out 3 years on the island from the time Locke left to the time he came back. I guess that isn’t solid proof, but that’s what it suggests to me.
Also, when Locke asks Juliet how old Richard is, she says “old”. I think someone also said that he’s been there for a long time (maybe that was Juliet as well? Can’t quite remember).
It just seems to me that Richard has always been around with the people in the 50s, then with Widmore & co. in the 70s, and now with everyone in the 00’s.
That being said, time travel is a possibility on Lost, we all know it can happen, so even though I don’t think Richard does time travel, I think it’s something we can’t outright rule out.
I agree with Emzi. I think this idea is plausible but not likely. As Emzi has stated there is more evidence that he isn’t aging nor time traveling. However until season 6 anything is possible.
Most of our information about Richard has come from third parties, primarily Ben and Juilet who have not been the most upfront and honest characters on the show. But any of us could easily be explained or described in a variety of ways by people we know, so I don’t think we can use their statements as accurate. On Richard’s comments about his own timeline, as I’ve been rewatching he is very ambiguous whenever someone asks him about time, he often just smiles or goes mmmmm, or throws it back as a question to the other person. On his memory working in a lineal way. If the first time we see him meeting the losties is the first time he has met then it would seem like that. The one time I noticed where he met Kate and Sayid in the 70s which means he should have remembered them in 2004 to me indicates that maybe he isn’t experienceing time like we thought.
I also find him popping up exactly when and where he needs to be a little suspect (Eg, When Locke unexpectedly turns up at Otherville and Ben asks for Richard to get Cooper, then he’s back, with Cooper) Time travel explains how Richard could jump over to the US, get Cooper and get back without any real time passing.
On his long hair, I had figured that he was in Other costume as they tend to dress down and wear wigs while wandering in the jungle.
This may very well be totally wrong, I;ve heard someone say there’s a fountian of youth, who knows, but I do feel that this idea answers some of the questions that other theories just say, he just got made ageless.
I once thought this, too, but not so much anymore. Given we now have evidence of at least one other apparently ageless character (Jacob), and Richard said Jacob “made him this way,” I don’t think time travel is needed to explain agelessness.
Also, Richard seemed genuinely confused in 1954 by Locke’s claims of time travel.
Yes Rick that’s excatly what I was going to throw out…. The fact that ” Jacob made him that way”….. Plus it would be really hard to keep up with everything time traveling all the time…. And he’s always with the others
Was it Bradbury or Heinlein who wrote that any science advanced enough would appear as magic to the un-initiated?
I believe that Richard has been genetically “fixed” to stop aging in order to serve a purpose. Perhaps to serve as an intermediary between a very old (seemingly ageless) race of beings (sample Jacob and Nameless) and the human race. The island is a portal between them and us.
If basic laws of physics (at least primitive Newtonian physics) no longer apply on the island or if those laws can be bent, then Richard would appear ageless and could jump in time and space at will. Perhaps the secrets of how to do this are shared with a chosen few through the ages to “protect” the island from immature races such as ours.
This is a nice thought, with some good reasoning behind it, although I have to believe that there is something else to his “agelessness”. You cannot deny one thing about the others and especially Richard.
They have an uncanny unity with the island.
They didnt skip in time like the Losties did when the wheel turned.
Just like the island changed its timeframe according to the position of the wheel, the others did too…and you know what…Richard always looked the same even though his mind was in whatever year, past or present it was.
The Losties knew they shifted through time, and still looked the same…which means one of two things…
1)Richard and the Others are moving through time as well, and are not aware…
or
2)Richard and the Others are NOT moving through time, and Richard IS ageless, because he does NOT change physical appearance based on time.
Although the first is a possible thought, which coincides very well with this theory, which although I do like very much…I believe it is incorrect.
Richard is well aware of the timeframe due to people such as Ben and Ethan obviously aging (more than any characters we have seen thus far on the island), and is suprised by Lockes visit in the 50s, and unaware of Faradays intentions in Jugghead.
He never sees Widmores off-island scheme coming, and is baffled by how John knew where his “past” self would be so that Richard could deliver the compass.
When John, Ben, and Sun return in 2007, Richard seems more suprised than expectant.
If he can travel through time, than he either is not very understanding of what is happening…or a very, very good liar…
Nice thoughts in the theory, just do not exactly agree with everything.
I also had that thought once, but I also have 2 agree I think there is something more to him being ageless………..