Lostpedia
Register
Line 27: Line 27:
 
==Connection to the DHARMA Initiative==
 
==Connection to the DHARMA Initiative==
 
[[File:Kelvinlookingtough.JPG|thumb|200px|Kelvin Inman]]
 
[[File:Kelvinlookingtough.JPG|thumb|200px|Kelvin Inman]]
* [[Kelvin]] was not in [[DHARMA]] and was still working for the DIA. He wasn't working for DHARMA or the [[Others]] or [[Widmore]] etc. He worked for the US Government. The Government has had an interest in the Island dating back to the 1950's. Kelvin came to the Island very soon after the [[Purge]] which happened in December 1992. [[Radzinsky]] presumably began living in the [[Swan]] in 1992 around the time of the Purge. None of the Others (not even [[Ben]]) had been inside the Swan and knew of what was going on inside the station. Radzinsky and the members of DHARMA who built the Swan station were the only ones who knew about its purpose or about the button. Kelvin may have come to the Island undercover to infiltrate the Others who like DHARMA before them still recruited people in the outside world. Perhaps upon being discovered he hid out in the jungle using survivor skills until he was eventually found by Radzinsky. I assume Kelvin came to the island shortly after the Purge because Radzinsky would have had trouble staying alive if he could only sleep in between intervals of 108 minutes for a prolonged period of time. I think sleep deprivation eventually caused Radzinsky to go insane and kill himself or perhaps he was killed by Kelvin in self-defense. Kelvin wasn't really DHARMA any more than Desmond was or the 815 people who took Desmond's place pressing the button. He wore the DHARMA suit because that's what they wore in the Swan station (it was probably cold in there and it was the only thing to wear with long sleeves).
+
* [[Kelvin]] was not in [[DHARMA]] and was still working for the DIA. He wasn't working for DHARMA or the [[Others]] or [[Widmore]] etc. He worked for the US Government. The Government has had an interest in the Island dating back to the 1950's. Kelvin came to the Island very soon after the [[Purge]] which happened in December 1992. [[Radzinsky]] presumably began living in the [[Swan]] in 1992 around the time of the Purge. None of the Others (not even [[Ben]]) had been inside the Swan and knew of what was going on inside the station. Radzinsky and the members of DHARMA who built the Swan station were the only ones who knew about its purpose or about the button. Kelvin may have come to the [[Island]] undercover to infiltrate the Others who like DHARMA before them still recruited people in the outside world. Perhaps upon being discovered he hid out in the jungle using survivor skills until he was eventually found by Radzinsky. I assume Kelvin came to the island shortly after the Purge because Radzinsky would have had trouble staying alive if he could only sleep in between intervals of [[108]] minutes for a prolonged period of time. I think sleep deprivation eventually caused Radzinsky to go insane and kill himself or perhaps he was killed by Kelvin in self-defense. Kelvin wasn't really DHARMA any more than Desmond was or the 815 people who took Desmond's place pressing the button. He wore the DHARMA suit because that's what they wore in the Swan station (it was probably cold in there and it was the only thing to wear with long sleeves).
 
* Kelvin wasn't officially DHARMA. Radzinsky manipulated Kelvin into helping him save the world AFTER the purge. Radzinsky needed help with the button. The only thing Kelvin knew about DHARMA was what the Orientation tape and Radzinsky told him. Radzinsky edited the tape to keep Kelvin from learning key facts about the Initiative.
 
* Kelvin wasn't officially DHARMA. Radzinsky manipulated Kelvin into helping him save the world AFTER the purge. Radzinsky needed help with the button. The only thing Kelvin knew about DHARMA was what the Orientation tape and Radzinsky told him. Radzinsky edited the tape to keep Kelvin from learning key facts about the Initiative.
 
* Kelvin was in reality one of [[the Others]] (based on theories from [http://thelostmeister.blogspot.com/2007/04/expos-and-other-commentary-official.html the JoshMeister's LOST Blog]).
 
* Kelvin was in reality one of [[the Others]] (based on theories from [http://thelostmeister.blogspot.com/2007/04/expos-and-other-commentary-official.html the JoshMeister's LOST Blog]).

Revision as of 08:27, 28 February 2012

Main Article Theories about
Kelvin Inman
Main Discussion
 Theories may be removed if ... 
  1. Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc).
  2. More appropriate for another article.
  3. Illogical or previously disproven.
  4. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article.
  5. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments.
  6. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead).
  • This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory.
  • Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response.

See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

"Kelvin is the Man in Black"

  • This one is a thinker so bare with me. Let's start with what we know. The Man in Black despises Jacob. We also know (not 100% confirmed but come on) that the Man in Black is capable of taking the form of anyone that is dead on the Island that does not get buried. We can also assume that since Jacob is apparently capable of persuading select people to come to the Island (he does such to Kate, Sawyer, and Jack). Let's say that the Man in Black somehow finds out that Jacob is planning on using the Losties for Jacob's latest test of humanity.

To foil Jacob's plans, the Man in Black takes the form of Kelvin, who's body must have somehow arrived on the Island (the original Kelvin having served in the Gulf War), and using his abilities, knows exactly when Desmond will wash ashore hence the reason he is already at the spot where he does and wearing the suit that he knows he doesn't even need. He takes Desmond back and waits a couple years until he knows that Oceanic Flight 815 will be flying overhead. He then makes it obvious to Desmond that there is a rip in his suit to get him to follow. He leads Desmond far enough away from the hatch that he won't be able to get back to it before it pulls the plane to the Island, evidenced by his failure to confront Desmond until he gets all the way to the cove.

Now you may be thinking that if Jacob wanted them to come to the Island then why would the Man in Black be the one to bring them. As we saw in the season 5 finale, Jacob hadn't touched the chosen ones yet. He had touched Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Sun, and Jin but he didn't touch Hurley and Sayid until AFTER they had gotten back off the Island. This leads me to believe that his touching them off of the Island does something and that the Man in Black's act of bringing them to the Island before they had all been touched disrupted Jacob's plan.

This then explains Jacob's last words, "They're coming." This has something to do with the fact that everyone had now been touched while off of the Island so now they can do what they were meant to do.

Even if this entire theory is wrong, there is no denying something was wrong with the episode featuring Kelvin in the hatch.

  • I don't think there was anything wrong with that episode at all. Also, without being rude, this theory is very confusing and doesn't sem to be very well thought out. Given all that we've seen so far, I highly doubt the man in black was willing to do all that nonsense as Kelvin Inman to mess with Desmond, or whatever you implied.
  • This seems to ignore the fact that when Desmond pushes Kelvin and he cracks his head open, there is clearly blood coming out. We have seen that the Man in Black does not bleed when shot or stabbed, so I doubt that the Man in Black had any association with Kelvin.

Although, Kelvin is fixing Desmond's boat so he can get off the Island and theMan in Black's only goal was to get off the Island so this is semi-plausable.

  • There are too many theories on Lostpedia which start out with shaky justifications and, after being virtually disproven, still cling to desperate pieces of evidence to try and support them. This is one of them. Here are the problems with your theory ...
  1. As another user pointed out, the Man in Black does not bleed. Kelvin clearly does.
  2. Kelvin is almost certainly a candidate, as evidenced by his surname appearing in the Lighthouse
  3. Lots, if not the majority, of the characters on Lost wanted to get off the Island, but you wouldn't say Juliet was the Man in Black.
  4. Kelvin does not know "exactly when Desmond arrives on shore". The events are shown from Desmond's point of view, who is groggy, has just woken up and an indefinite amount of time has passed from when Desmond washed up to the point where Kelvin found him - he could've been there for a long time.
  5. The Man in Black was not interested in bringing people to the Island. He believed that man is inherently evil, Jacob brings people to the Island to attempt to prove him wrong. The MiB's only goal is to leave the Island, why would the MiB try to bring people to the Island when all he needs to do is to con the people who Jacob brings to the Island?
  6. Jacob's last words may well have referred to Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, et al., but that's because they were about to set off the hydrogen bomb which would bring them to the present. It didn't have to refer to them either, it could've referred to Ilana's group, or future recruits of the MiB, or anyone.

Connection to the DHARMA Initiative

Kelvinlookingtough

Kelvin Inman

  • Kelvin was not in DHARMA and was still working for the DIA. He wasn't working for DHARMA or the Others or Widmore etc. He worked for the US Government. The Government has had an interest in the Island dating back to the 1950's. Kelvin came to the Island very soon after the Purge which happened in December 1992. Radzinsky presumably began living in the Swan in 1992 around the time of the Purge. None of the Others (not even Ben) had been inside the Swan and knew of what was going on inside the station. Radzinsky and the members of DHARMA who built the Swan station were the only ones who knew about its purpose or about the button. Kelvin may have come to the Island undercover to infiltrate the Others who like DHARMA before them still recruited people in the outside world. Perhaps upon being discovered he hid out in the jungle using survivor skills until he was eventually found by Radzinsky. I assume Kelvin came to the island shortly after the Purge because Radzinsky would have had trouble staying alive if he could only sleep in between intervals of 108 minutes for a prolonged period of time. I think sleep deprivation eventually caused Radzinsky to go insane and kill himself or perhaps he was killed by Kelvin in self-defense. Kelvin wasn't really DHARMA any more than Desmond was or the 815 people who took Desmond's place pressing the button. He wore the DHARMA suit because that's what they wore in the Swan station (it was probably cold in there and it was the only thing to wear with long sleeves).
  • Kelvin wasn't officially DHARMA. Radzinsky manipulated Kelvin into helping him save the world AFTER the purge. Radzinsky needed help with the button. The only thing Kelvin knew about DHARMA was what the Orientation tape and Radzinsky told him. Radzinsky edited the tape to keep Kelvin from learning key facts about the Initiative.
  • Kelvin was in reality one of the Others (based on theories from the JoshMeister's LOST Blog).
  • The fact that the DHARMA Initiative ended in 1988 (off-Island) and he was in the Gulf War, which ended in 1991, would theoretically eliminate the possibility of him being part of the Initiative.
  • The D.I. could have recruited right up until the Purge, 1992.
  • His partner Radzinsky WAS a DHARMA member, therefore Kelvin lied to Radzinski about his origin, just as he lied to Desmond.
  • If Kelvin was simply working for DHARMA, he wouldn't have known that Desmond's boat had crashed on the island. It's unrealistic to think that Kelvin just happened to explore the beach at precisely the right moment to find Desmond still unconscious. As an Other, Kelvin may have had access to the island's surveillance system and potentially other resources, which he kept hidden from Desmond.
  • Like Juliet, Kelvin was not a "fully indoctrinated" member of The Others, hence he kept the boat secret from the rest of them in the hope that he could use it to escape from the island.
  • Kelvin taught Desmond about the fail-safe, which ultimately led to the destruction of the hatch. This long con parallels (and even coincides perfectly with) Ben conning Locke into thinking that the hatch was fake in order to trick Locke into letting the hatch destroy itself.
  • Kelvin used the same term ("hostiles") to refer to his own group as Mikhail did when speaking with Sayid and Kate.
  • Kelvin and Radzinsky seemed to have trusted each other at least somewhat. This "unattainable" information could have been gathered through teamwork. Desmond was able to maintain the Swan for a long while, and there is nothing to suggest that either of them could not have done so as well, while their partner explored. It was revealed by Kelvin that Radzinsky had/has a photographic memory, so scouting and map-making wouldn't be a problem.
  • Kelvin referring to the Others as "hostiles" and actually knowing they were on the Island too could mean he encountered them in the past, like Radzinsky had.
  • Kelvin was not one of The Others, and was truly a member of the DHARMA Initiative as he claimed to be.
  • Ben seemed surprised to find out that there was a sailboat, which indicates that Kelvin never said anything to him about it.
  • Kelvin referred to The Others as "hostiles," and DHARMA Initiative members used the same term to describe the Others since at least the 1970s.
  • Kelvin was an Other, and not part of the DHARMA Initiative and was in charge of The Swan after the Purge in an analogous manner to Mikhail
    • He refers to himself as a "Hostile" because this is the term DHARMA used to refer to the group led by Ben Linus and Richard Alpert. Danielle Rousseau was the first to refer to that group as "Others".
    • Kelvin called them Hostiles because his partner Radzinsky was DHARMA and DHARMA folk referred to the natives as Hostiles. It may be that the term Hostiles is what the US Army called them first and that the fact that DHARMA uses that term indicates a connection between the military and DHARMA. At the very least, DHARMA's knowledge of the natives comes from information they gleaned from military sources (and is why the Lamp Post has a picture of the Island taken by the military back in 1954). Whoever in DHARMA who first began searching for the island did so armed with information from the military.
  • Kelvin thought he was hired by the DHARMA Initiative, but was in reality hired by the Others to keep up appearances after the Purge (and by keeping him in the dark he would never be suspected of being a mole by Radzinsky). Thus, by maintaining a two-man crew at the Swan, the Others were able to keep the ruse that the DHARMA Initiative island facilities were not completely overrun by "the Hostiles."
  • He was one of the others. IMHO, Timeline: 1)The Purge, Radzinsky survive and start making the blast door map. 2)Others kills him and taking the Swan. 3)Kelvin arrives.

True Identity/Deeds

  • Kelvin killed Radzinsky. (See Radzinsky/Theories for more details.)
  • Kelvin taught Desmond everything he knew about the Hatch because he knew that, when he left, it was very unlikely that there would be anybody else to replace him. That is why he waited for 2-3 years until he left.
  • Kelvin was expecting Desmond. He was wearing the hazard suit when he first dragged him from the beach. Kelvin of course knew the suit wasn't necessary but wanted the person he was expecting to meet to believe that it was.
    • He may have found Desmond first without the suit, then returned to the hatch to put it on for the same reason.
  • At some point in time, Kelvin turned the fail-safe key, giving him the ability of premonitions. He therefore knew that Desmond would end up on the island, that he would be able to train him to take over the Swan station, and that all of his actions before the crash of Oceanic 815 were for some larger purpose.
    • If this is true, and if Kelvin is not dead, then this was all planned by Kelvin as a way to get away from the Swan. (Seems like a tedious job to do for years by oneself.)
    • Widmore seems to think that Desmond is the only one to survive the electromagnetism from the Swan. If this is true, then Widmore is unaware of Inman's activities.
  • Kelvin must have known that Desmond was going to crash on the island because he came there almost immediately and it seemed as if he knew where he was going.
    • He said, when handing Desmond the vaccine, that he could have been out there awhile and the he hopes he isn't too late.
  • Kelvin was left unharmed in the Swan station because Ben or the Others needed him to keep pushing the button.
    • If Ben wanted the button to continue being pushed, why would he have tried to convince Locke not to push it?
  • Kelvin wore a gas mask when he went in to the outside world. Was this to scare Desmond, or did it have to do with the Purge?
  • He was the last living member of the DHARMA Initiative on the Island, besides Desmond who was a substitute.
  • He was recruited by DHARMA to push the button in part due to his military service in following orders no matter what. After the Purge, the Swan station was left alone by the Others to carry on the work (push the button). Kelvin, accustomed to following orders continued to push the button expecting a replacement to arrive at some point, when Desmond arrives, he can finally move on.

Kelvin's name

  • Inman is the last name of an Egyptologis Thomas Inman, who is credited with a much-cited hypothesis of the origin of the ankh symbol, which is an important symbol in LOST mythology.
  • Kelvin is the SI's (International System of Units) unit of temperature, derived from work of the Irish-Scottish scientist Lord Kelvin, aka William Thompson (1824-1907), who created one of the first temperature scales, and did critical research on subjects like electromagnetism, thermodynamics, cross-continent communication, etc. In James P. Blaylock's novel "Lord Kelvin's Machine", Lord Kelvin invented an electromagnetic device which would negate the earth's magnetic field for a brief time in order to avoid a collision with an iron-bearing comet. The hero spends the first part of the novel trying to prevent the machine from being turned on, as the result would be cataclysmic. Also of note, the book, which takes place in an alternate Victorian era, makes use of Maxwell's Equations, a series of equations that describe electricity, magnetism, and their relationships. In the real world, Maxwell only came up with 4 equations. To account for all the impossible science that exists in the alternate world, Blaylock had his Maxwell come up with an additional 12 laws, bringing the total to a Swan-friendly 16.
  • Inman is the name of a major character in Charles Frazier's novel "Cold Mountain."
  • Kelvin is the last name of the main character in Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 film Solyaris. Similarly, both Kelvins are left alone in solitude and isolation on remote stations or outposts. Chris Kelvin tends to a damaged space station in orbit around Earth, while Kelvin Inman is forced to continue to input the numbers at The Swan by himself after Radzinsky's suicide.

Arrival on the Island

How and when did Kelvin arrive on the Island?
  • Kelvin arrived on the island prior to the Purge, as a member of the DI.
    • He was serving in the Gulf War in 1991, but he didn't necessarily serve until the end of the war. DHARMA could have recruited him out of the military.
      • He may not have been strictly military - more likely an external contractor to do some dirty work.
  • Kelvin arrived after the Purge as a member of the DI, which suggests that some part of the DI remained intact.
    • This begs the question of in what form the DI survived and how it recruited Kelvin; all of its front organisations such as Mittelos Bioscience appear to have been taken over by the Others.
      • Ben could certainly have leant and leveraged the DI fronts for the Others.
  • Kelvin was Ben's man in the Swan, posing as a member of the DI. Kelvin seems rather cynical about the DHARMA initiative. Kelvin's DI jumpsuit does not show his name on the left top pocket, yet shows the Swan logo. Like the early Others using the US Army uniforms, Kelvin is just using the clothes he finds at the Swan.
    • Kelvin told Desmond he was a DI member, and there is no reason why he would lie. Desmond had no idea what the DI was, so there would be no reason for Kelvin to pretend he was a DI member.
    • It seems that Ben didn't even know that the Swan existed.
  • Kelvin was Widmore's agent in the Swan.
    • This assumes that Widmore knew about the discharge, and wanted to prevent it. However, if Ben/the Hostiles didn't know about the Swan, that suggests Widmore didn't know either.

Other

  • Kelvin's body was washed out to sea by a tide soon after he was killed by Desmond.
    • Looking at the picture at the article for the Cove where Kelvin was "killed", it seems unlikely that the tide would get up high enough to reach him.
  • This article's main page states Kelvin was a former DIA agent. If that's the case, he may have been involved with or at least familiar with intelligence on nukes and atomic weaponry. His knowledge of that area may have been the Dharma Initiative's reason for bringing him to the island - they realized there was a hydrogen bomb buried on the island and wanted someone familiar with the technology around to make sure it didn't detonate.
  • Kelvin was neither a pre-Purge member of DHARMA or a Hostile/Other. He came to the Island because he was directly recruited to assist Radzinski. The Others were unaware of the Swan, or at least of its location and function, so could not have recruited him for the job. Also, given the paranoia displayed by Radzinski, it is highly unlikely that he would have willingly cooperated with the Others for any reason. Radzinski was alone in the Swan during/after the Purge. He used the Swan computer to contact the remains of Dharma in the outside world and told them he needed help pushing the button. As to why he did not simply use the Fail-Safe, I can only assume that he and/or Dharma had their reasons. At some point before Kelvin's arrival, Radzinski edited the orientation film so that nobody else would know that the computer could be used to contact the outside. Either he simply didn't want anyone (including Kelvin) to know, or he learned that the Others had control of The Flame and was concerned that they were intercepting all communications. Kelvin was air-dropped (just like the supply drops) and was given the passphrase so he could gain entry. Radzinski may have led him to believe that he was supposed to get relief at some point, but after a few years Kelvin realized the truth and/or Radzinski became increasingly paranoid. At some point, they got into a massive fight and Inman killed Radzinski. From then on, he had no choice but to await some relief. Radzinski's paranoia is evident in the Blast Door Map. He made it in such a way that almost nobody would ever even know it was there except himself. Perhaps Kelvin discovered it during a drop, and that was what triggered the fight that ended in Radzinski's death.

Theory: Kelvin is in the Swan to also gather intelligence (which was his mainland job) on the more secretive aspects of the Dharma Initiative and its stations.

  • The Blast Door Map had some items as facts and others as speculation. If Radzinski was writing items on the Map, his senior position and technical knowledge would have been listing the facts, not the speculations. For example, the "?" in the middle of the map has been proven to be the Pearl - which was in operation in '71 or '72. The Swan was not operational until likely '79. But the Map has no knowledge of this. Therefore it is likely that the vast majority of the Map is created by Kelvin, with intelligence pieces gathered from Radzinski, possibly over a few years before his suicide.
  • Ben and a handful of DI people were left after the Purge, but no one seems to have been a senior technical member. Ben was only a workman. But now he needs to take and operate the DI facilities for the Others, and there is much he didn't know. So Kelvin is recruited by Ben, post-purge. Probably in secret from the majority of Others, to build up knowledge (and power) on the DI secrets.