A.A.C. Puryear STAFF WRITER

If you’ve read anything about what the folks at LOST did at Comic-Con this summer, you may have already heard everything about this video, or you may have even seen it. If you’re not in this boat, then you now have the opportunity to see this cryptic video and read what I have to say about it. But before I get into the analysis of what this means for Season 5, please watch the video or you will be, for sake of better words, lost.

Seen it? Good, I will continue.

First of all, here’s what I see happening. This transmission is going to pop up on the Island somewhere, and important people from Team Sawyer and/or Team Locke (see part 3 of Flash-Forward to Season 5) will see it. This will cause the leader of one faction to follow Chang’s advice and reconstitute the Dharma Initiative while the other faction will oppose. Expect a similar “choose your side” scene like we saw at the beginning of Season 4 when people divided up between Jack and Locke about whether or not the freighter people were there to save or destroy.

The big question is who will be pro-Dharma: Sawyer or Locke? If you perceive each character as he was initially in the show, you would assume Locke would be the one to reinstate the group of scientists. However, keep in mind both characters have changed dramatically. Locke now takes his orders from the unseen Jacob, just as Ben Linus used to do, and in case you forgot, the original Dharma was wiped out by Linus. Also, Locke is supposed to change his name to Jeremy Bentham, which to me is a symbolic clue that he will reject his old ideals and beliefs for new ones that Jacob instills upon him.

However, Sawyer doesn’t seem to be a much better choice to believe in the Dharma cause. Early in the show, he acted in such a way that only benefited himself and even at the start of Season 4, he remarks that everything he has ever done has been for the sake of his own survival. Plus, he’s never been one to care much about anything related to the Island’s history, and he’s been even less likely to act on it.

Yet, we have already begun to see a change of heart in the former con man. He ran towards an exploding building to help fellow survivor Claire and even jumped out of a helicopter so that the woman he loves and several others could finally get off the Island. Also, given the events that have taken place on the Island, something tells me that Sawyer will be more open to reinstating the Dharma Initiative; he probably understands that there are some pretty wacky things going on and the Dharma guys were on their way to figuring it out before Ben killed them all. Furthermore, Sawyer already has a team of Dharma-like experts on his side to help start the DI once more; Juliet is a fertility doctor, Faraday is a time-traveling physicist, Charlotte is an archaeologist, and Miles is a psychic. Now while I originally had Charlotte defecting to Team Locke, I imagine part of her story this season will entail learning more about the Island’s history, discovering she was a child of the Dharma Initiative, and realizing it was the Others who took away her family, which means she’ll return to Team Sawyer with all kinds of good information for the New Dharma.

But there’s more to this eerie video transmission than just assessing what will happen on the Island. We also need to take a look at some other major aspects: camera operator Daniel Faraday and the identity of the baby.

So Faraday will figure out how to travel thirty years into the past. He hasn’t traveled there yet, but he will in either this season or next season (my bet is on Season 6). He will do so having already seen the video, which gives him cause to say “this is futile” while he films. After all, he will have already seen what has happened after the video is made, he will know that the Dharma Initiative was not saved, and he will see that filming Chang’s message will not change the future, but instead initiate the one already in place in present LOST time. Perhaps Faraday himself is the “credible source” that Chang mentions; if he has traveled from the present (future for Pierre Chang), Daniel will be able to tell Chang all the particular facts that he mentions in the video.

And now on to the last bit of the video I will discuss: the crying baby. My first thought was Charlotte, until Chang refers to the baby as “him”. My glorious theory of Charlotte being a miracle baby born on the Island lost some possible proof. However, I still believe that whoever that baby was, he or she was born on the Island under some fairly mysterious circumstances (which could simply be the fact the baby was born), and he or she is more than likely a character we already have met. Here’s a few thirty-ish year-old characters (I think, I’m terrible at assessing age) that could have possibly been born on the Island:

Miles: he’s psychic, or in simplistic Island terms, “special”. He could have certainly become special by being the rare child to succeed in being born on the Island. I’m not entirely convinced on this, but I can’t rule out this possibility.

Desmond: he’s traveled through time on a few occasions. He’s in love with the daughter of a man who could have had a very large role in the Dharma Initiative (remember that Widmore said to Ben that everything Ben has, he took from Widmore). I’m sure the Island has a way of drawing back the people who were born on it (that’s right, Aaron, you haven’t seen the last of your birthplace). Furthermore, we haven’t really heard anything about Desmond’s parents or how he grew up or anything.

Charlotte’s twin brother: it’s possible. They could have been miracle babies together. Perhaps he’s still on the Island, hiding and waiting for the perfect time to get revenge of the Others for killing all the people he cared about. Perhaps Charlotte will learn the Dharma history from him if she finds him. Or this character could not exist at all. I just want there to be some connection to Charlotte and this Dharma baby.

Yet, none of these options are nearly as enticing as the next one you’re about to read. This is the one to which I hold the most conviction. It would help explain why a certain character is so vital to the well-being of the Island:

Jack: His dad had traveled back and forth from Los Angeles and Australia a number of times, supposedly to see his Australian mistress. What if this relationship was merely the by-product of Christian’s real reason for making these frequent trips? What if he and his wife had been members of the Dharma Initiative and conceived and given birth to a child on the Island? What if the mother died during childbirth and Christian decided it was best for him and his son leave the Island? What if he then moved to Los Angeles, married another woman (whom we have believed to be Jack’s mom all this time), and eventually discovered that he needed to go back? What if the source of Christian Shepherd’s alcoholism was the frustration of his own inability to return to the Island, only to finally return to the coveted place via a coffin?

If so, I’d say Jack is our miracle Dharma baby. What significance that ultimately has, we still have yet to find out.

Feel free to discuss what I’ve said, and come up with your own theories. I’d love to hear from you.