In 2001, Richard approached Juliet Burke in Miami. This meek fertility doctor was still under the watchful eye of her ex-husband, Edmund, as she conducted experiments in the hopes of impregnating her barren sister, Rachel. Ben sent Richard to recruit Juliet in the name of Mittelos Bioscience in his attempts to find the reason and cure for pregnant woman dying on the island. Alpert's assistant referred to him as "Dr. Alpert;" however. Juliet addressed him as "Mr. Alpert," suggesting that he might hold a Ph.D. but not be a doctor of medicine. Juliet declined after a cheerful slideshow about the...

In June of 1956, per adult Locke's suggestion, Richard Alpert visited the Tustin hospital where John Locke had been born prematurely a Monat earlier. Mrs. Locke was inquiring about putting the infant up for adoption when the nurse spotted Richard at the window. As he smiled at the confirmation that Locke had told him the truth, Mrs. Locke Kommentiert bemusedly that she did not know who he was. ("Cabin Fever")

Richard again entered Locke’s life in 1961, when he visited the five-year-old while he was in foster care. Richard told Florence (John’s foster mother) that he considered John special...

Richard was one of the "Hostiles" present on the island alongside the DHARMA Initiative. In 1973, a young Ben encountered him after taking off into the jungle, searching for an apparition of his dead mother. Richard, at this time sporting long hair, was dressed in primitive clothing but had a twentieth century halfter, holster on his right hip. Richard reassured Ben and asked why he was out in the jungle alone. When Ben explained what he'd seen, and that she had died off the Island, Richard was visibly interested in this development, but told him to return home. Ben, however, pleaded with Richard to...