Alpert’s Immortality was not a gift, nor a punishment…

I like this Richard Alpert talk. Next to Locke and Desmond, he’s one of my favorite characters on the show. I wrote the Schrodinger’s Cat theory a couple weeks ago that suggested Jacob made Alpert immortal because Jacob saw his valuable utility. Either as someone who could see between realities or could see both the “lands” of the living and the dead. And while that may in fact end up being the case, I’m entertaining the idea that Richard was not rewarded with immortality, nor “punished” with immortality just because he was a useful tool for Jacob. I think we might see a scene where Jacob gives Richard the choice to die as a mortal or live as an unchanging immortal until he reaches some specific event in time. If we are led to believe that Jacob is a champion of free will rather than predestined fate, then I think he will give Richard the choice to become some sort of temporary immortal following Black Rock’s arrival on the island. We will have a RA flashback scene whose tone mimics the scenes where Jacob tells Hurley he has the personal choice to return to the island and where Jacob tells Ben he has the choice to either do what UnLocke has instructed him to do, or to walk away.

This poses several big questions, the answers to which will finally define Richard’s role on the island. 1.) What were the circumstances of Richard’s life upon his arrival at the island that would represent some utility to Jacob so that our island demi-god even offers him this choice? 2.) Following what specific event does Jacob give him this choice? 3.) Why would Richard say yes to immortality (which I assume he does), or what event have we not seen post-2004 that Richard is waiting for so that his century-long patience finally comes to fruition, allowing him to pass on to the afterlife?

I admit, I’m clueless as to the answers. Hopefully someone comes up with a good theory in the comments section. To get the ball rolling, here are a few ideas…

-Richard loses a loved one, on-island or pre-island. Jacob tells him that if he defeats the MIB in their eternal conflict, events will be reset to an extent that allows Richard to save the aforementioned loved one, and live happily ever after with no knowledge of his life in island purgatory. Jacob tells him that there’s a risk of failure and that it will take an incredible amount of planning, effort, and time, but the possibility does exist. Should Richard choose immortality, he would be instrumental in aiding Jacob’s side to victory.

-Jacob needs an island voice, someone to guide his people (the others) and their leaders, until “it ends once.” He tells Richard all about the loop trapping humanity in a cycle of death and destruction. He tells Richard about why this loop needs to be broken, why MIB must lose, and Richard chooses to aid Jacob in his struggle. This would be a more macro idea, based on Richard’s own human morality. He would choose immortality to sacrifice his own mortality to help humanity as a whole.

-Jacob’s “choice” is not a balanced choice, but rather a sticky ultimatum. Either Richard becomes Jacob’s consigliere or he perishes along with the rest of his Black Rock crew. This idea would involve any previous Black Rock/815/Jacob convoys always ultimately killing each other off. So when we see Jacob and MIB on the beach, they are the only things “living” on the island, because every other previous group brought there by Jacob has perished. Richard is presented with death vs. life, and he chooses life, not fully aware of the consequences. What a philosophical conundrum this would present. Ask yourselves deep down, if someone told you tomorrow that you will die on January 5th, but you could stave off death if you worked for that person as an immortal employee…would you accept your death/fate? Or would you choose everlasting life? Having read Tuck Everlasting and watched LOST, maybe I’d be swayed toward death. But at the instant the question is posed, there exists such a huge temptation to run from death, and I don’t know if I’d have the stones to accept my fate, because of the great uncertainty of what lies beyond in the afterlife. Going with this idea, LOST would add another amazing philosophical angle to a show that is already jam-packed with themes we’ll discuss for the rest of our lives.

-Richard is the last survivor of the Black Rock. Essentially, he is faced with eventual death with no one to bury him. Jacob explains to him that due to MIB’s capabilities, his unburied body will be used for manipulation, and in Jacob’s eyes, devious and “evil” purposes (evil being an obvious gray area in this show). So Jacob offers him the only other alternative. Richard can live forever, so that MIB will never be able to use his body as he has used many other characters’ bodies in the LOST universe. Maybe Richard has even witnessed such body manipulation by MIB during his time on the island. Jacob explains that once MIB is defeated, Richard will finally be able to rest at peace as intended. This idea is an offshot of the one prior and could coincide in many ways.

-Fire away my fellow LOST fans. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.