I see it as: this is all we're going to get of Richard's backstory amongst a cast of characters that have had how many years of naval-gazing, flashbacks, flashforwards, flashsideways, and explicit island time. So instead of a whole season of Richard staring morosely at a fancy crucifix necklace before we find out why... basically I see this as condensed.

Plus when things get too slow, I can just picture Batmanuel in these scenes and it's freakin' hysterical.

For the record, I'm enjoying it. I was a little surprised to find out 40 minutes had gone by.

Hmmmmmmmmm...

Someone is going to have to explain Jacob's logic to me.

So he brings people to the island so the Man in Black can know that all human beings aren't evil. But the MIB kills about a good number of the people who arrive on the island anyway, so how is it the human beings have choice?

What does Jacob have to prove to the MIB anyway?

Isn't it more honest to say that Jacob is bringing people to the island so that there will always be a replacement for Jacob and that Jacob is the MIB's jailer?

Jacob makes me think of God fucking with and ruining Job's life all because of a bet he had with the devil.

It was interesting that the MiB told Richard the exact same thing about killing "the devil" (Jacob) -- use this dagger, don't let him say anything, if he speaks to you it's already too late -- that Dogan told Sayid about killing MiB-in-Locke.

I still don't think that the MiB is necessarily "bad," and I definitely don't think that Jacob is "good."

It was interesting that the MiB told Richard the exact same thing about killing "the devil" (Jacob) -- use this dagger, don't let him say anything, if he speaks to you it's already too late -- that Dogan told Sayid about killing MiB-in-Locke.

Yep, I noticed that.

And I'm with you on the "Er, this is kinda boring, and we sure are spending a lot of time on it..." feeling. But for the story they intended to tell in this episode, it worked. I just thought we would get more of an expanded timeline in a Richard episode.

I'm disappointed that Richard isn't older, like back to the 1670s. The Black Rock looks like it should be an older ship.

Also, WHY was Richard bought into slavery by Hanso? Why was it important for him to know English?

Why was it important for him to know English?

So we wouldn't have to read subtitles.

I enjoyed it, but was disappointed. I fear several more episodes of adding more characters leading toward a finale that doesn't satisfy. They couldn't even come up with a promo for next week that tempted.

That said, I'm watching and will continue till the end.

I hope we get some explanation regarding how someone can get from Africa (Eko's brother) or the coast of Africa (Richard) and end up on the Island which is in the Pacific.