How did Richard not remember Dan after the long conversation that they had in Jeghead? I know it's been 23 years but it was a pretty memorable even, people supposedly coming from the future?

Maybe Richard thought that version of Daniel might not have known him yet.

To me, it seemed that Richard recognized that he has met him, but just can't place him. The way he said "Do we know each other?" just made me think this.

This is like the "Danielle doesn't/does remember Jin" thing, people thought she should have, if she didn't, recognize Jin when they met later,

Every time. It never fails.

Someone will ALWAYS question "Why doesn't x remember y?" Well, sometimes the answer is simple, like, "y" is not an important person to "x" like "y" is to the audience.

But this one is even better.

Richard DID recognize him, at least a little bit. He strongly implies that he recognizes him, but just can't quite figure from where.

There are tons of people that I see on campus everyday that I recognize, but can't quite remember how I know them. And these are people that I probably know from only a few years ago, let alone twenty something. The point is, Richard hasn't been waiting around for 20 years for Daniel to come back. In fact, I'm sure he never expected to see Dan again. Therefore, he would not INSTANTLY recognize him, no matter HOW memorable Dan and Co.'s visit to 54 was.

This is like the "Danielle doesn't/does remember Jin" thing, people thought she should have, if she didn't, recognize Jin when they met later.

Yep. I don't think people are really reflecting on how possible it would be to recognize a face 23 years after a single meeting, no matter how memorable the meeting.

I guess what passes for memorable in the real world is probably just one of a long string of mental things that may have happened on the island as well.

It has been so long. He just does not remember. Besides they talked for about 15 minutes. There is no way you could remember that.

Faraday was out of context, too. Not a calm guy with a tie....A Dharma jumpsuit guy brandishing a gun. If I were Richard, I'd be focused on the gun and the jumpsuit first.

course richard knew dan right away, he was asking to see if dan knew him!

There is considerable evidence that Richard does not age. At this point it is conjecture as to why this is the case (ie, he is "dead" ala Christian, he is immortal, he is from the future, etc etc).

With this in mind, and from what we have seen, Richard is (at the low end) pushing 100 years old while still looking 35-40ish. During his time in the world he has met A LOT of people that come and go, from different eras, with different agendas, etc.

Subsequently the meeting in 1954 had two major plot-lines going on:

- Daniel, his mother, and the bomb
- Locke, Richard, and who is a leader

Richard briefly meets Daniel before meeting Locke... Locke who tells Richard that in about 50 years he will be Richard's new Leader... That in 2 years he will be born... etc... Meeting Daniel for a few minutes will be overshadowed by Locke's arrival.

I think that Richard recongized him immediately but could not quite place who he was until Daniel mentioned the bomb. Then he remembered exactly who this was.

What I found way more interesting was Richard's reaction to having a gun pulled on him.

How did Richard not remember Dan after the long conversation that they had in Jeghead? I know it's been 23 years but it was a pretty memorable even, people supposedly coming from the future?

It woudn't be memorable if it hadn't happened to richard yet. For example, Richard could have time traveled to 1977 before time traveling to 1954, in which case he still should have remembered him in whatever sequence of events in the thereafter, but who's to say he didn't remember him.

Didn't Richard say to Ellie that "he wasn't going to shoot me"

course richard knew dan right away, he was asking to see if dan knew him!

This is what I thought, too. Richard was playing the game, asking him if he knew him, testing Dan's response. Richard knew exactly who he was. His expression didn't change when Daniel mentioned the bomb and 1954.

course richard knew dan right away, he was asking to see if dan knew him!

Richard is aware of the time traveling, and that both parties are not aware of meeting each other until it happens in their present.

When Locke was Shot by Ethan, Richard gave Locke first aid, and a compass to give back to Richard if they should meet somewhere in the past. This way, Richard would know that they knew each other even though the 1954 Richard would have no memory of it.