(Update: I changed the title of this post about one third into it when I had the revelation, so the first part of this post may seem unrelated.)
We got a lot of very subtle info at Comic-Con. Then again most Lost info is subtle.
Daniel
So what can we say about the video? First of all it’s very obvious that Daniel is the man behind the camera in the video with Pierre. Secondly the source of “credible” info that Pierre speaks of can be assumed to be Daniel. So how did Daniel go to the island in the past? Perhaps he’s flashing back in a similar way as Desmond in The Constant, going back in time with his mind. We can place the year that video was recorded at sometime between 1970 and 1978 (30 years before G. W. Bush was president), therefore I submit that Daniel was on the island in the seventies. Since he was obviously not a child in that video it’s possible to assume that he doesn’t age, in a similar fashion as Richard.
Oh my god! New instantaneous revalation. Perhaps he’s not in love with Charlotte, perhaps he’s her father! I haven’t thought this through at all so please tell me if I’m wrong. I’m going to try to prove myself wrong (suddenly this has turned into a live blog into the innerworkings of my mind)… OK I thought about it and I can think of nothing that proves it wrong.
- He has never met Ben or Richard, the only two people who would recognize a Dharma member.
- He appears to have complete devotion and care for Charlotte, he never really expresses love, Jin and Sun think he loves her and obviously Charlotte thinks so too, but he seems pretty platonic towards her.
- We probably know that Charlotte was born on the island, that’s all we know about her parentage. She appears to have been adopted by a British family and raised in England, that doesn’t mean anything.
- Daniel appears to know a lot about the island, and the stations. For some reason we just thought that it was because of research or something but the more I think about it the more I think that notebook he carries around is full of his memories that he can’t remember on his own. So if he remembers Dharma logos and stations, it’s not due to research on Dharma it’s due to memories of Dharma.
One puzzling thing is why was he chosen by Whidmore. I’ve been theorizing that Whidmore was at one time a member of Dharma and one of the individuals who turn the donkey wheel. So he probably would have known Daniel, maybe that’s why he chose him. I’ll think about Charles later, he’s a mindful on his own.
But back to the analysis of the video. We know that Daniel knows a lot about time travel, he knows he can’t change the present by going into the past. So I think that is why he is always threatening to turn the camera off. Whenever Pierre tries to mention saving him and the other Dharma members from their inevitable death Daniel starts saying it’s useless. In the end he is right, he was trying to send a message to modern day people, trying to get them to join Dharma. Obviously that part of it is the ARG (alternate reality game). So the message of the video doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Daniel is old and possibly a father.
That’s all I got for today, I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about other things we learned and maybe more about Daniel.
And I don’t want to appear cocky, but I believe I am the first person to suggest this theory so spread it around.
– Izi
Not Confused Just Lost 
Some good observations and a very plausable theory. With all the Star Wars references on Lost, you know that SOMEBODY’S got to use the line ” ( Your name here), I am your father!” Why not Charlotte & Daniel? 🙂
Wait…Christian said that to Claire. Oh,well. It can still happen.
I have to say that it’s a pretty damn good theory. I like the idea that he’s having trouble with his memory much, much more than the idea of him being Charlotte’s father (not that it couldn’t happen). The memory thing would explain why he seemed to have no idea why he was getting upset when he was watching coverage of Oceanic wreckage last season. He possibly had already experienced it once, but for whatever reason, doesn’t remember. Maybe all of his time travelling has caused him to basically short circuit for lack of a better term. The thing that I can’t understand is why Desmond is his Constant. You would think that he would have an older constant if he’s been around for a long time. Of course, maybe you only need a Constant in that particular instance and not forever. Nice theory man. Keep em’ coming. Thanks for checking out my blog. I’m gonna save this one. Make sure to keep an eye on mine, as I will definitely post some Lost stuff as it gets closer to shooting.
Willo
How old is Farraday? He looks closer to 30 than 40. If he was living with Dharma in the 70’s that would make him 10 when he fathered Charlotte? Doesn’t add up. Because of the age issue, Farraday would have had to go back in time, not being time stuck, if it was time stuck he would be 10 years old in the video with Cheng. I also question when the first affordable video camera was produced, was it available during the time the video was shot or did someone have to bring it from the future? Every video to this point has been from a reel-to-reel camera.
When was the purge? What year? I’d guess shortly after the video was taken, why would they be in such a hurry otherwise? Either the purge was imminent or Farraday had to get back to the future quickly. If it was shortly before the purge, Ben would have had a dossier on every member of Dharma. Just because they haven’t shown the relationship between Farraday and Ben doesn’t mean they don’t have one. It took a while for Ben and Julietts relationship to be revealed.
The writers have already given us the magical relationship from no-where-> Jack and Claire. They aren’t making this a pattern. Believe me, if Farraday had a kid, he would know Charlotte was his and they would make it way more obvious. That isn’t a Father-daughter relationship they have going on.
Farraday was working for Charles Widmore, that’s why they were familiar with the island’s defense mechanism, the orchid, etc. Keemy knew how to get into the Orchid and I’m fairly sure he wasn’t on the island before.
If Farraday had a daughter on the island, I think that would be his constant, not Desmond and he would probably wouldn’t have spent all his time researching time travel at a university if he knew it was already possible to time travel as they had proven through Dharma.
Thanks for offering the theory though, it was interesting to read, even though I disagree. Overanalyzing Lost one episode at a time, what a great slogan for a Lost site. Keep up the good work.
Ah, but you see I have all my bases covered, I also slipped in there that I think Daniel is like Richard in that he doesn’t age. So he may be hundreds of years old.
I think the purge was pretty far in the future because Pierre still had to lose his arms and shoot another Dharma video (I can’t remember which one).
You could be right about Whidmore informing Daniel about the Dharma stations.
And about Daniel’s constant, I have a feeling that it didn’t occur to him to have a constant until Desmond came in that day. He was probably sure that it was unnecessary, but then Desmond barges in and informs him that his future self met up with Desmond and they needed to talk. Also I think that Daniel is having serious memory problems, so he isn’t aware of his daughter. I’m sure if he was aware of her existence he would use her as his constant.
Thanks for the compliments. And thanks to everyone for reading my theory and commenting, I really appreciate it.
– Izi
This theory is incorrect because Marvin Candle refers to the baby as a he, first of all. Second, the video was recorded in 1978, while Charlotte was born in 1979. Third, the baby is most likely Cheng’s because he calls his wife to take “him” outside.
There, now this theory has fallen apart.
Sigh… please try to read, I never said that baby in the video was Charlotte (hell, I agree with everyone else, I think it’s Miles). I’m saying that since Daniel was on the island way back then, and we know that Charlotte was born on the island I think that he could have fathered her.
I think it’s a great a theory! The only problem I see is that while Daniel seems to have a great deal of affection for Charlotte (and I agree it seem platonic), he doesn’t strike me as being as protective as he would be if he were her father.
Perhaps all of our freighter mission people have been on the island before and that’s why they were chosen.