Category Archives: Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell)

Video of the Comic-Con LOST panel

LOST Comic-Con Panel 2009

LOST Comic-Con Panel 2009

Here’s the video of the whole thing (except for the clips):

Video by Totsie14

Who is Jacob? — part 2

After I posted my “Who is Jacob?” post (directly below), I started thinking that Jacob might be John Locke.

In Follow the Leader, we saw present-day Locke, using Richard Alpert as his messenger, give instructions to time-traveling Locke to bring everyone back to the Island. In other words, Locke was giving (and getting) his marching orders to (and from) himself.

Many times over the seasons, we have seen Locke attribute his actions to orders from Jacob. But now we know that Locke can (also?) get orders from himself. Could it be that Locke’s encounters with Jacob were really encounters with himself, that Jacob was really Locke from a different time? Were the meetings similar to what we just saw in Follow the Leader, with Locke meeting a time-traveling Locke from the past and giving (and receiving) his orders to (and from) himself?

Since I didn’t think of this until after I posted my earlier poll, I didn’t include Locke as one of the choices. So let me ask you that now:

Here’s the scene from Follow the Leader of present-day Locke telling Richard Alpert what to say to time-traveling Locke:

Notice that when Ben says to Locke, “Your timing was impeccable, John. How did you know when to be here?” John answers, “The Island told me.”

Could “the Island” also be Jacob? Would that make the Island = Jacob = John Locke? Has everything that has happened so far been the result of John Locke talking to himself across time?

And when we last saw John, marching down the beach, saying he wanted to kill Jacob, was he really setting off on a quest to kill a time-traveling version of himself?

Boing boing boing, goes my head.

Mini recap of 5×15 ‘Follow the Leader’

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Although the episode title refers to a “leader” in the singular, there are actually two leaders in this episode who set out on parallel treks in different times — Jack in 1977 and Locke in 2007. Each is convinced that he is finally acting out his destiny. And each has Richard Alpert tagging along, as fresh and dewy-looking as ever.

Jack wants to carry out Faraday’s plan to explode the bomb, in order to put things back the way they were. Kate’s not interested. If everything is undone, she will just become a fugitive again, and will never have met Jack. Besides, she thinks, not unreasonably, that it’s irresponsible to go around detonating hydrogen bombs.

Ellie, though, is glad to show Jack where the bomb is. She knows she has just shot her future son and of course would want to see that undone. Not to mention that the bomb is right under the village of her enemies, the Dharma Initiative.

Sayid pops up (I had forgotten about him!) and rescues Kate from being shot by a Hostile. Kate takes the opportunity to head back to Dharmaville, where she is captured and put on the submarine in the impromptu prisoner’s quarters already occupied by Sawyer and Juliet. They were gazing into each other’s eyes and reveling in their sweet Suliet-ness until being rudely interrupted by Kate’s arrival.

Jack, Sayid, and Ellie, accompanied, for some reason, by Alpert, enter some very cool-looking underground tunnels and find the bomb, which apparently was not encased in concrete after all.

Meanwhile, Hurley, Miles, and Jin are in the hills above Dharmaville. Poor guys! Sawyer, who was supposed to lead them to the beach, is on the sub, apparently not caring that he was leaving them behind.

Miles, though, learns something important about his past. He watches his father, Dr. Chang, yelling at his mother, who has baby Miles in her arms, telling her she has to leave. Grown-up Miles understands that his father is yelling not because he is cruel, nor because he wants to get rid of his wife and infant son, but because he knows that yelling is the only way he will get his wife to leave — and save herself and baby Miles. And so the Island, once again, seems to have healed one of its character’s painful lifelong Daddy issues!

Thirty years later, in the Hostile’s camp, John Locke is glowing with alpha male energy. Alpert (who John aptly describes as a kind of adviser who has had that job “for a very, very long time”) and Ben appear submissive, but seem to harbor mutiny in their hearts, as they follow John on a trek to find Jacob, who no one has ever seen before.

Alpert had told Sun that he had seen all the 1977 Losties die. Locke told her that Jacob can bring them back. But Locke told Ben that he really wanted to find Jacob in order to kill him.

There’s a mind-bending scene where Locke tells Alpert that his time-tripping self is going to appear in the jungle with a bullet in his leg (just as we saw him earlier this season). Locke tells Alpert to tell the other Locke that he has to bring everyone back to the Island, and that in order to do that he will have to die.

So Locke’s instructions came from …. future Locke. So it’s all a big circle? Excuse me while my head explodes.

Screencap from Lost-Media, (c) ABC

Michael Emerson talks about the statue, Alpert, Egypt, John Locke, and more

Here’s Michael Emerson (who plays Ben) in an interview last month with the Washington Post:

Liz: Will we find out what the deal is with the four-toed statue?

Michael: You are going to learn more about the world from which that statue came. I don’t think we’re going to see the statue again in context, but maybe. You’ll certainly know from whence it is a relic.

He also repeats the claim I’ve seen before (most notably in a Wikipedia article), that Richard Alpert is not wearing eyeliner:

Liz: Is Nestor Carbonell — who plays Richard Alpert — wearing eyeliner?

Michael: No. But he has a kind of genetic beauty that is a rare thing in men or women. No, that’s what he looks like when he wakes up in the morning. It’s hard not to study his face and admire it.

Ha! But Alpert has a dark line that goes straight across the bottom of his lower lid! Was he really born with that, or is everyone who makes that claim just pulling our leg?

Also from the interview:

Liz: Well you’ve probably just put to rest several theories about Alpert being a transplant from ancient Egypt.

Michael: Ah. Well, hold that thought about Egypt. That’s all I’ll say.

So whether or not Alpert is from ancient Egypt, the statue may very well be.

Emerson also says that he has “some crackerjack scenes — epic, vintage Ben and John Locke coming up — in ways you would never expect.” That’s great! The Ben-Locke pairing is one of my favorites.

There is lots more in the interview, including Emerson’s thoughts on whether Ben is purely evil, or if he’s a good person doing whatever it takes to reach his goal, and what kind of roles Emerson would like to play in the future.

Related Posts with Thumbnails