I have been an avid fan for sometime now. I've watched, and rewatched episodes until everything made as much sense as it could up to this point in time. I then always turn to the THEORIES PAGE and view the new theories posted and I've come to believe that people are somewhat overlooking a major factor; at least in my opinion. Who is Richard? What is Richard Alpert's role? We keep finding out about Others Leaders (Widmore, Linus, Locke) while Richard is there for each of these eras if you will. We're focusing on Jacob and Smokey alone, and their struggle with good and evil...I feel this is rightfully so, but I still think that we're missing a piece of the puzzle. Why was Richard never the leader? What was preventing him from being the leader when he has the most information on the island and on Jacob? From a historical point of view, there is always a theis, antithesis, and a synthesis. Jacob and the isl! and/Smokey are the thesis and antithesis (we don't know which is evil), and I feel that we're going to find that Richard is the synthesis that has been keeping the peace on the island. Richard has proven to be the middle ground or voice of reason between different groups of people. In "Follow the Leader" we find Locke apparently acting on behalf of the island, and we see the concern Richard shows while speaking with Ben. I really have no theories of what will happen. I just wanted to bring Richard to light again, since for so many he has fallen out of the spotlight of questioning his purpose and importance.
