An interesting point someone brought up on another site, if the island acts as a stopper from the evil spreading from the island, did its destruction in the other timeline release that evil?

Apparently a tidal wave put the Black Rock in the middle of the island and destroyed the statue. However, other than some refuse washed up on the beach, there doesn't appear to be any damage to the foliage near the statue.

Where did Richard get his American accent from?

The wave itself didn't destroy the statue. The wave smashed Black Rock into the statue. However, why wasn't the ship damaged more than it was, given the impact?

As to where Richard got his American accent? I'm assuming from Jacob. The real question is "Where did Jacob and the MIB get their American accents?"

I read that all Star Trek aliens have Californian accents. (I don't watch the show.) It might just be something we're supposed to accept. Language nits usually are.

Yeah, but most Star Trek aliens don't start with Spanish accents before switching over to American.

I would imagine he gained the accent from all of his exposure to the British/American troops and individuals that have been on the island since WWII days and before; live somewhere long enough, and you start to pick up the local accent. If his broken English was improved by exposure to Jacob and/or those outsiders, it would probably end up being spoken with their accent.

The idea of a Richard flashback is totally awesome and had me literally shouting with excitement when we saw the horse galloping and I realized what they were up to.

Intriguing that the Black Rock was responsible for the statue's destruction- if a bit physically unlikely. At least this gives us a 'before' date to fix to the time jump in which the cast saw the statue whole. (Speaking of which, still waiting for the Ajira canoe shootout- every time someone gets in a canoe- such as last episode- I expect it to happen, but am starting to figure it'll be during the finale...)

Very clever of MIB to use his appear-as-dead-people powers to show up first as the wife, then himself- he's his own good cop, bad cop routine.

Jacob was very different- much angrier, seeming less in control- than I expected him to be based on previous appearances.

So... bizarre theology set up in this one. (Not the priest's God-won't-forgive-you-no-time-for-penance spiel; unfortunately, that seems all too accurate for the era, when clergymen had a tendency to be bastions of corruption that lorded their power far more than any kind of messengers of the faith they claimed to represent.)
I'm still trying to hammer out the details, but...
Jacob seems to be the 'Blind Watchmaker' God ('I set things up but I don't want to have to have anything to do with them afterward.') with maybe a hint of... what, agnosticism? Relativism? However you'd describe an attitude of 'They ought to know right and wrong on their own without me telling them', and he's recruiting Richard as some sort of blind watchmaker version of Jesus ('You can be the intermediary between me and my people- because I don't want to do it.'). Meanwhile, 'Satan' (the MIB, evil incarnate) is the one that believes in man having a sinful nature- while still being a very traditional-Satan corrupter, tempter, and deceiver. All of this mashed with a healthy dose of Greek mythology feeling- Jacob as the guardian of the gates of the Underworld, MIB having a severely twisted mother (I half expected him to say 'Her name was Hera' or something.) :-)

All in all, I can't decide whether it's intended to be a blatant poke at Christianity (A god that does all the opposite things of the Christian God while the Satan holds the generally Christian beliefs), an odd pseudo-misunderstanding representation of Judeo-Christian philosophy (like Eko's claim that John the Baptist forgave Christ's sins, which kinda misses the whole point of Him not having any in the first place- odd because I couldn't tell if that was a deliberate error to show that Eko was still not very good at assuming the role of priest he'd appointed for himself, and didn't know much yet... or a genuine twisting/misunderstanding of the beliefs that the writers sincerely believed was accurate) or simply... a big coincidence/me reading too much into it. :-) I can't help thinking that some intentional parallels are being drawn; but perhaps both sides' manipulation of Richard's faith and their use of it as a metaphor gives the appearance of a muddled metaphorical setup in the Jacob/Richard/MIB setup where none exists.

All in all, very awesome in the Richard parts, very confusing and not-as-expected in the Jacob parts... and not necessarily in a good 'didn't see that coming' way- more of a confused 'that doesn't jibe with the previously established info/personalities' way.