Richard Alpert visits little John

In the episode Cabin Fever, we see Richard visit the hospital at Johns birth and and again when he is a small boy.
I haven't been reading all the theories lately so forgive me if this has been suggested before....I think we'll see in Season 5 that Richard hasn't actually gone back to see John yet.
In the same way that we saw Ben in the desert in the future before we saw him turn the wheel and be teleported there, Richard will go back to see if John is actually the leader the Others have been waiting for. Maybe they have doubts after spending some time with him

Just some speculation.

Ah, the old 'Alpert time travelled' idea. . .

Trouble with this, to my mind, is that Alpert tests Locke to see if he's the right guy for whatever he has in mind. If he had come from the Island where Locke clearly is the right guy, why would he go back and test him?

All Alpert has done is turn up and changed nothing. Locke still gets on Oceanic in 2004. He doesn't pass the test as a child. He doesn't take up the scholarship offer as a teenager. (Technically he could have applied for adoption of Locke as a baby, no? But he didn't.)

That makes me think Alpert lives for a very long time, and he was going around finding suitable people for the Island, testing them and monitoring their progress. Locke was one of those that slipped through the net but ultimately turned out to be the man - well, apart from the fact that when he was in charge things have gone horribly wrong and he wound up in a coffin!

Logical, AC

Yes, I've always belived that Richard doesn't age quickly rather than him time travelling. It just seems more logical in my eyes, basically for all the reasons AC has just said.

AC, I like the idea that John and the others were being monitered and tested.
My thought about Cabin Fever being revisited in the future is based on the possibility that eventually it becomes obvious that John is not clearly the right guy.....I don't know that I agree that John passed Richards tests.
Maybe Ben was smart enough to figure out who the right guy was and got him off the island before he had to leave it himself.
But yeah, I like your thoughts better than my own AC.
Can't wait for Season 5! Its August already

WTF - I agree with you that Locke may turn out not to be the right guy in the long run.

I think Jack will be the right guy.

I agree with you!
lol, I wonder if there's a sword in the stone on that island

I think Alpert definitely went back in time to do something with Locke, which was to change his attitude. It was his visit to Locke that started the whole "dont tell me what I cant do" attitude. It was reverse psychology if you like. It didnt matter which object Locke chose, the outcome would have been the same, and Alpert teling him he wasnt ready etc would have made any boy of Lockes (then) age feel inferior and like he had something to prove.

I dont know what the purpose of this was - perhaps we will see in Season 5!

SBP - I like your thinking. . . I don't agree with it, but I like it.

lol, thanks AC I like your thinking too even if I dont always agree! (though I have to say that isnt very often)

AngeloComet wrote:WTF - I agree with you that Locke may turn out not to be the right guy in the long run.

I think Jack will be the right guy.

I almost always agree with AC, as I like to think of him as our equivalent of the Professor on "Gilligans Island" here on Losties Island. You guys are great! I am going to miss you,as I will be gone for a week...sigh without a computer.

ksj

Aw no KSJ! Make sure you get your nomination in for Hall of Fame before you go!

This kind of fits into a theory I posted a few months ago about a possible prophecy involving Ben and Locke. I think Ben (rather than Locke) will turn out to, in fact, be the one who "pulls the sword out of the stone," so perhaps this is what is going on between Alpert and Locke (Alpert begins to have doubts that Locke is the one so goes back to "test" him). We've already seen Alpert interacting with a young Ben so maybe there was some testing that went on with him too.

Good post WTF.

I have always thought that Richard looked a little younger when he visited young Ben than any other time we have seen him. He had that whole long hair, scruffy, late 20's or early 30's look going on. If they were going to portray him as someone who does not age, then why change his look at all? Why didn't they just keep the clean, short hair, mature look when he visited young Ben? I think they were trying to portray a younger look.

Maybe right before the Purge, Richard went back in time and visited young Ben to test him to see if he would be the one to lead them if they did go through with the Purge. Just like he might have time travelled back in time to visit Locke to see if he was the right one to lead them. Locke did say that things went wrong on the island so that might have caused Richard to doubt Locke's real ability to lead the Others. Maybe that was a direct cause of Locke failing those tests as a child.

There are lots of holes here as AC points out. But from what we have seen so far, it appears that time travel is more of a possibility in Lost than the possibility of people not aging. We have seen at least one definite instance of time travel and some other possible instances.

Irocz,

I totally agree that when Richard sees young Ben, he definitely looks a bit younger. I think this is an astute observation. However, the fact that Richard looks younger in this scene leads me to the exact opposite conclusion of you (i.e. it can't be time travel!!).

First, I think the point of making Richard look younger in this scene is to show us that Richard does age (not that he is ageless). At the same time, it makes us realize that Richard ages very slowly (significantly slower than you or I). For me, I am of the notion that Dharma tested life-extension treatments on Richard -- thus explaining why he ages far more slowly than you or I.

Second, the very fact that Richard looks younger when he sees young Ben makes it unlikely he was time-traveling from the time of the Purge.

At the Purge, Richard looks much like he does today -- clean, cropped hair, etc. Yet, the Richard you describe seeing young Ben has longer hair, more unkempt, etc. Yet, if we go with time-travel as the explanation, we have to believe that these two Richards are actually one person. Why? Because then the Richard in the woods is actually Richard from the future -- in this case, they should look identical, shouldn't they.

The very fact they look different makes it unlikely that the Richard we saw when Ben was a child was a time-traveler from around the time of the Purge.

My money is on Richard aging but aging slowly due to these life extension treatments!!!!

Igs wrote:At the Purge, Richard looks much like he does today -- clean, cropped hair, etc. Yet, the Richard you describe seeing young Ben has longer hair, more unkempt, etc. Yet, if we go with time-travel as the explanation, we have to believe that these two Richards are actually one person. Why? Because then the Richard in the woods is actually Richard from the future -- in this case, they should look identical, shouldn't they.

Well Igs, as astute as you say my observation was, yours was 'astuter' (if that is a word). Good point and well said.

If the solution is that Richard ages slowly, why does Richard look older in the 1950s when he visits John, to how old he looks in the 1970/80s when he talks to Ben?

wtfsignmeup wrote:If the solution is that Richard ages slowly, why does Richard look older in the 1950s when he visits John, to how old he looks in the 1970/80s when he visits Ben?

The one reason I can think of, silly as it may seem, is that in the 1950's people tended to have an "older", more mature appearance than in more recent years. Many people nowadays, seem to age more gracefully, maintaining a much more youthful appearance. It's all I got, so I hope you won't beat me too hard!

Maybe thats it dab..... Or Richards time travelling

Very good point WTF. I am with you. Time travelling it is.

If 'Island time' and 'real time' are running parallel with each other (which I think they are, barring the anomalous inconsistency with transference from one to the other) then that allows for plenty of time for Richard to change his appearance.

Locke is born: Richard is clean-cut.

Young Ben meets Richard in jungle: He has long hair.

Richard could have grown that hair very easily by spending his entire time living on the Island, 'going native', fighting the fight against Dharma instead of pursuing potential recruits in the 'real world' for the role of Island chief.

So AC, I wonder why it is that Ben ages, from a little boy to a man, but at the same time Richard doesn't age much.

Just curious?

AC, I do see your and dabs point that it could simply be a change of appearance. I'll see if i can find some screencaps to post and decide if Richard appears to be looking different ages in those scenes because to my mind, Richard was made up to look a bit younger in TMBTC.

OK, Im on board the ageless train, although that doesn't rule out time travel.

I feel I need to point out that he wont look any older or younger to any degree facially, unless aging make up is applied during filming which I dont think it has been....and it only takes a few months to grow your hair (unless its a wig haha)!!!

I think we are suposed to assume he has time travelled and thats the answer I'm sticking with