S6: Ab Aeterno

Since we, the audience, have first met Richard we've always wondered who this guy was.  Later on when we realized that he doesn't appear to age we wondered even harder, if that's even possible.  Finally in the final season, all (rather, a lot) of our questions about Richard get answered.  What's great about the sad story of Richard is that we get to learn more about Jacob and the MIB as well.

Some great scenes include Jacob "baptizing" Richard in the ocean, seeing the statue again and how it was destroyed, finding out how the Black Rock first arrived on the island and pretty much every sit down scene with the MIB and Richard about Hell and the devil, then Jacob and Richard about evil and the cork, MIB and Richard again with the white rock and lastly with MIB and Jacob revisiting the bottle and the cork.

This episode was pretty much one giant Richard back-story which wasn't a bad thing.  There was nice bookend theme with Hurley being able to talk to Richard's dead wife who through Hurley helped Richard not return to the MIB and stay on the side of good.  I forget how Richard helps in the end, so I'm looking forward to seeing that again.