One of the best LOST episodes of the series features the long argued back story of the ageless one, Richard Alpert, once known as Ricardo.

Ricardo started his story at Tenerife, Canary Islands in 1867 with an adult aged Ricardo trying to save his dying wife Isabella.  We now know the age of Richard Alpert.  Ricardo, a poor man with little means, scraped together everything they had and went on horseback for a doctor.  He was told in no uncertain terms that he did not have enough money for the medication Isabella needed.  In a struggle over the medication, the doctor is accidentally killed.  Ricardo rushes back to his wife with the medication only to fins that he was too late and she had died.

Ricardo was sent to prison and was going to be hanged, but when it is revealed that Ricardo was teaching himself English, he be came more valuable and he was given to a ship’s captain to travel to the New World.

Ricardo was chained with the other slaves in the Black Rock, which gets caught up in a storm and crashes onto the Island, right through the statue of Taweret.

The Smoke Monster eventually showed up and killed the Black Rock crew (not before Captain Magnus Hanso stabbed all of the slaves with his sword…except Richard, of course.

The Man in Black attempts to manipulate Richard with visions of his dead wife Isabella and he sends Richard after Jacob with a knife using the same instructions that Dogen had told to Sayid when he sent him after Locke.

Richard does not come even close to killing Jacob as he is easily disarmed.  Richard believed that he was dead and they were in Hell, repeating a fan favorite theory about the Island.  Jacob repeatedly dunked Richard’s head into the water on the beachside until Richard claimed to want to live.

Jacob would make Richard immortal and use him as a second hand man for years.

Present day, we know that Richard had lost his faith in Jacob and had seen his life as a wasted time, becoming suicidal.  He left he beach to go and join Locke’s group, but Hurley followed him.  Richard was mad that Hurley came up to him, but Hurley was talking to Isabella.

The scenes between Richard and Isabella were beautifully done and really helped to understand the character of Richard.  Richard had always been a enigma since his introduction but this laid everything out for him.  Isabella is able to refocus and save Richard from doing something stupid.