For years, we’ve been yearning for the long-awaited Richard Alpert flashback. So, naturally, the expectations were through the roof. Luckily, the creators anticipated our anticipation and upped the ante: not only did we get a lot of Richard Alpert goodness, but we got a moving character story aswell.

The Episode…

Let’s start with the most shocking revelation: the island is a cork. It keeps evil at bay, stopping it from spreading. Interesting is, that I was so wrapped up into Richard’s emotional story, that I completely overlooked this revelation the first time around. But it is pretty important. Do we finally know what this place is all about? Is Jacob telling the truth?

You have to hand it to Mark Pellegrino: his performance of Jacob was different than the ones we’ve had before. Before, Jacob was reassuring, sort of like a deity. This time around, though, we got to see a much rougher side to the man: he seemed devious, if not a bit treacherous, and hella pissed off. It’s interesting, and of course raises the question: who is good and who is evil? It’s hard to say, so I’m just going with it.

Two mysteries got solved at the same time: a tidal wave (I suppose summoned by either Jacob or the Man in Black) flung the ship into the statue, breaking the stone and causing the Black Rock to land in the middle of the jungle. That is of course what makes sense: the ship is intact, whereas the statue broke down. Odd, but I’m going with it. I remembered something else at that point: when are we going to find out why no one could make babies on the island? I always figured it had something to do with the statue, but I guess I’m wrong.

The Questions…

This episode delivered – I don’t think it raised any questions with me. But now we know why Richard doesn’t age, and how old he is exactly. But we found out much, much more than that. We now know that there’s a reason to like him.

Next Week…

The Package is an episode centering around Jin and Sun. That means we will finally figure out who the watch is going to be delivered to! I wonder if they’ll see each other again, or if that will have to wait until the series finale… At any rate, I love Yunjin Kim’s performances, so I can’t wait to see Sun step out of the shadow and do something different than cry “Where’s Jin?” all the time. Poor Yunjin, completely underrated.

Maybe we will find out what’s behind Widmore’s door next week? Could it be Desmond?

In All…

Richard’s connection with Isabella brought back a lot of good old start-of-series memories. I more than once thought of Desmond and Penny – that’s just how good Richard and Isabella seemed. It’s amazing how they can set something like this up out of the blue and make it look like it’s always been there. You don’t cry foul because they can’t possibly have thought this out when they introduced Richard in the third Season, because the emotions he feels just seem so real.

If I liked Richard as a mythology character before, I like him as a human being now. His backstory was presented in such an epic, slow-moving way. Someone told me she was completely involved, which she found stupid because she knew he’d make it in the end. But isn’t that the force of true storytelling in movies? That you’re constantly living in the present?

Favourite Quote: Ilana: He is. So, Richard, what do we do next?
Richard: [Laughs]