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DHARMA Recruiters are people in the outside world who may be involved in locating people and may manipulate events so that these chosen people end up on Flight 815 and the island for unknown purposes, likely working for the DHARMA Initiative. It has been suggested that every character in the show could be a recruiter, but some are more likely than others. Below is a list of possible recruiters:

Possible DHARMA Recruiters

Richard Malkin

• He was insistent that Claire must travel to LA on Flight 815 (couldn't be any other flight). This is further supported in the ? episode where he claims that he's a fraud, and "gathers intelligence" on people in order to "exploit them".
  • However, in the Lost Connections section of the Season 2 DVD he admits to Eko that Claire must travel to LA because people paid him so they could adopt Claire's baby. Yet this could easily be a lie.
    • Or the people who paid him are the DHARMA recruiters.
    • It still stands to reason that even if there were people paying him to send Claire over to L.A., the conincidence of Claire ending up on Flight 815 is astronomical. He knew something was going to happen... but whether by clairvoyence or something yet is still to be discovered.

Charlotte Malkin

• Charlotte Malkin might be responsible along with her father Richard Malkin for Eko being in Sydney and on flight 815.
  • However, Eko already had his flight plans.

Libby

• Could somehow be responsible for Hurley being on the flight, since she was also at the mental institute for no apparent reason (could have been watching him). On the island she claims she is a clinical psychologist.
  • No interaction with any character has been shown that could point she was involved in getting Hurley in the island.
• She exchanges knowing glances with Charlotte Malkin at the Sydney airport, suggesting that she may be in the plan to get Eko and the other passengers on the island.
  • Eko's flight was already planned.
• She very generously gives Desmond the sailboat Elizabeth for his "race around the world", which is sponsored by Charles Widmore. After a storm, he washes up on the island and is conveniently rescued by Kelvin.
• Is present in at least two characters' (relatively) distant pasts... which is hardly going to be a coincidence. Also, c.f. her lack of knowledge about clinical psychology (etc.), and we start to get a feeling that she's a part of something bigger.

Mr. Paik

• May have used the Rolex Watch as a pretext to get Jin and Sun on the flight 815, and eventually on the Island.
• He is probably the owner of Paik Heavy Industries, which is connected to the Widmore Corporation and the Hanso Foundation and thus, could be connected to the whole conspiracy.
  • There is no conspiracy on DHARMA's behalf. They recruit scientists and volunteers.
    • The conspiracy is just as likely on behalf of Widmore, Hanso, and Paik, with DHARMA as the "cat's paw".

Rachel (Claire's Friend)

• May be responsible for Claire being on the flight, since she encouraged Claire to visit Richard Malkin.

Brian Porter

• May have returned Walt's custody to Michael so they would go back to LA with the doomed flight.
  • Worked together with Susan.
  • Brian did not set up the flight
  • Actually, he did

JD

• Made certain that Locke got on Oceanic Flight 815.

Warren Truss (Australian Minister for Agriculture)

• Picked a fight with Sawyer to ensure he'd be deported on the correct day.

Edward Mars

• Put Kate on board Flight 815.
• Presumably, The DHARMA Initiative knew who would survive (or why bother recruiting them?), so Mars's task was a suicide mission.
  • The crash was unintentionally caused by Desmond. The hypothetical conspirators may have intended to have the plane safely land on the Island.

Alyssa Cole

• Bribed Sayid into infiltrating Essam Tasir's terrorist cell.
• Bought Sayid's ticket on flight 815, after Essam killed himself.
  • Put up only a token resistance when Sayid insisted on staying an extra day to bury Essam.
    • Or maybe she was acting on behalf of her CIA superiors, the true DHARMA Recruiters.

Christian Shephard

• He is responsible for both Ana Lucia and Jack being on the plane.
  • He was responsible for bringing them to Sydney but had not hand in their choice of date for the flight
• Perhaps he faked his death, and that's why his body was not found in the coffin.
  • Darlton has confirmed that Christian is defintely dead, although not necessarily in a way we, the viewers, might understand. Plus we saw his body in Jack's flashback for the autopsy.
• Additionally, he appears on the island not as a hallucination, but truly appears, in order to further goals of the DHARMA Initiative.

Dave (Hurley's friend)

• Not actually imaginary, he might have worked with Libby (and perhaps the psychiatrist at the mental ward?) in coaxing Hurley onto the plane. That's why he was so intent on getting Hurley to break out, and why he seemed so real.
• He and Jack's father are real people, working for DHARMA, and appear on the island to further DHARMA's goals (and are maybe the people heard whispering).
• Perhaps the ward itself is run by DHARMA - the fact that Leonard Simms, Libby, and Hurley were all there at the same time is coincidence enough.
  • On the other hand we watched him falling from the cliff.
  • If Hurley is special, and being special relates to the visions which some people have on the island then perhaps Dave is some form of a psychic projection.

Isaac of Uluru

• May have used real telepathic powers to see that Rose and Bernard would be good additions to the Island.
  • the Island is the place Isaac was referring to when he told Rose that she needed a "different type of place" to heal her.
  • He mentioned certain healing powers being magnetic, like those in the Swan.
• May be a fraud like Richard Malkin, having all those cards and crutches up as props.
  • Notice he stops and looks troubled after putting his hands near Rose's head, similarly to what Malkin did with Claire.

Matthew Abaddon

• Abaddon puts the idea of the walkabout in Locke's mind, thereby getting him to Australia.

Catholic Church

• Eko's Monsignor was acting under the orders of his superiors in the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Cons

• Everyone could be labeled a DHARMA Recruiter, including the extras. Every character in the show could be part of a massive, decades-long conspiracy to get a few selected people into a particular flight that would, because of an emergency, end up flying by the Island at the exact moment Desmond failed to push the button.

• A lot of this is purely speculative without any proper foundation to the guesses made.

• As revealed by Mikhail Bakunin, the DHARMA Initiative recruits willing scientists and volunteers.

See also

• Apophenia