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That creeped me out. Richard looked the same when Ben was ten as he does when he is 50 something, meaning that ???? I don't know! It is so creepy!

I noticed that as well and it bothered me for two reasons. One, the obvious creepiness of someone not aging. And two, why is Ben in charge of the Others and not Richard?

I think Richard is the smoke monster. that would explain his lack of hostility towards the survivors, his apathy towards being the leader of the others (he's an all-powerful pillar of smoke, why would he want to lead a pack of muddy kidnappers?), and also his use of dark eye make-up. It might also explain why the others can get so much information on the survivors. I mean, as much as I'd like to think Mikhail can do ANYTHING, you can't find out about things like Sawyer killing a man before he got on the plane or confidential information about how many people Saiyd tourtured from the internet. Perhaps Richard helped out there. The smoke monster seems to be able to pick up memories from people and we know Richard has been off the island. Furthermore, Locke was rescued from the pit by 'Walt' after Richard was told by Ben that he 'had an accident'. Richard also seems to like to stir the others up, I think it was him who got the camp talking about the rumors that everyone who went down to the beach was dead and Locke's accident. The smoke monster has sort of played with the survivors from time to time, attacking then letting them escape like with the pilot, only killing the one guy, almost like it was doing it for kicks. Since the smoke monster seems to be able to take on the form of anyone, that might explain why he hasn't aged, or died for that matter, and also how he found little Ben when he ran away from home. It doesn't however, explain why the smoke monster attacked Julliet and Kate when they were tied together or why Juliet did not know it was Richard. (Unless he was trying to tip off Kate to Juliet's lie or just for entertainment. Plus, Juliet could have been lieing when she said she didn't know or Ben mightn't have told her.) Ben's supposed authority over Richard can be attributed to the fact that Ben thinks highly of himself and may often simply take Richard for granted, causing Richad to have reason to work against him so often (with Locke and so forth). I feel rather smart... did any of it make sense?

Wow, I really like that theory too! Pretty awesome!

i dont think ben is the real leader

I think that if Ben is the leader (Juliet told Jack that "It doesn't work that way.") it's because of Jacob.

Jacob becomes aware of Locke, and prefers him to Ben for obvious reasons, basically, Locke pwns and Ben is a douche-mobile.

Smoke monster is still a mystery to me.

I think Richard is much older... before Dharma (though we know this from Ben's flashback) and he looks young for a reason. I like the idea that he's from the Blackrock... but only time will tell :3nod

YES! There has to be something to it!!!!! He doesn't age at all!