(If you don’t care about LOST, don’t read this. If you do care about LOST, well I’m not encouraging anyone to read this)

I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for a LOST episode (LOAD TUDOU LOAD!). While the Season 5 finale’s opening scene floored me like no other up to that point in the series, learning the story of how Jacob had picked each of the survivors was just a little too abstract to get really fired up about. Jacob was just a flash, a disembodied voice. The finale hinted at what was to come; it didn’t answer questions. Richard… and Richard’s episode though are completely different. We know so much about Richard, or better put we have seen him do so much and he knows so much about everyone else.

Richard has more potential to change our view of the island than any other character, even evil John Locke (would you trust him if he told you his entire history?). And since LOST became primarily a creation myth about the island, Richard’s knowledge is essential to why he is so interesting. This lack of potential to explain things is especially apparent with the original survivors. Jack riles and snares, and Kate————————————————————-? Hurley is lovable, Sawyer continues to be shirtlessly hot, Sun and Jin’s separation stretching into its third season has become boring. “My husband–is he alive??” None of them contribute to the island’s story. Even newer characters that were exciting at one time have paled as the plot has expanded. Remember when Ben was the most conniving villain on television? Remember how, no matter what, he could talk himself out of the situation he was in? Now he is just a talking head commentating as he walks. All of these original characters are bench-warmers filling the screen, waiting to see if they’ll be the one Jacob calls over and sends into the game.*

But for those characters that have escaped being marginalized by Jacob’s plan, they have become so much more important for the viewer. With the plot so much larger, there’s so many spaces in the plot that need to be filled in. By the finale of season 5, we were back to the 17th century–I’m guessing–and the more I hear evil Locke talk, the more I suspect this story goes on a lot farther back.** And Richard Alpert is one of those characters who fills things in. Richard is so captivating to us because he gives the viewer the most plot bang for the buck. He rarely shows up, but when he does, he tells you something, he does something. I would look up on wikipedia all the stuff Richard has done, but by this time 12 hours after the episode has aired, I’m guess that his Wikipedia entry has already been updated.

And that is why I am so excited to see this episode. If Richard does things when he is on screen, well then a Richard-centered episode will have to tell me lots of things about the island and about Richard himself.

*I’m not saying that the original survivors will remain irrelevant. If Richard’s episode and the proceeding episodes can satisfy the viewer’s desire to know from where the island comes from, and we can learn more about why being a candidate is so important and how Jacob chose his possible replacements, then these side stories and all the other back stories will become really interesting again.

**Evil Locke’s has mama issues? who in the show has mother issues? There are no mothers? Mothers can’t have babies. Jack and Claire and his dad. John Locke and his dad. Sawyer and his dad. Jin and his father-in-law. Hurley and Cheech.