Tom was initially a member of DHARMA. (- that would explain why he quoted Alvar Hanso to Jack)
I think that when DHARMA originally started its activities on the island, they made an agreement with The Others who lived there before about not involving in each other business. The Others weren't aware of the proportions of the DHARMA projects. When DHARMA started to invade various parts of the island, building stations, barracks and everything else - a behaviour that represented a violation of the non-disturbance agreement with The Others - The Others started to sabotage DHARMA projects. After 20 years of living in the peaceful coexsistence, DHARMA determined the Others to be hostile and introduced measures of self-defense against sabotage by the The Hostiles (-as they then began to call them): for example, C4 in the Flame. Then they decided to take drastic measures: kill all of The Hostiles. The Purge, I think, began in 1992, shortly after Kelvin arrived to the island. Kelvin was the last DHARMA member to be placed on the island.
Tom was in charge of the The Flame and he was the one who didn't want to get involved when DHARMA began The Purge against The Hostiles. Since Tom was isolated in The Flame, he was not aware of the existence of The Swan station (-also Radzinsky and Kelvin didn't know the exact location of The Flame - according to The Blast Door Map
When The Hostiles succeseded not only to defend them selves, but to wipe out every member of DHARMA known to them (- except, Radzinsky and Kelvin, because The Hostiles also were not aware of the existence of The Swan station), they kept Tom alive, because he was not hostile to them. So, The Hostiles never made an intrusion on The Flame, C4 was never activated. The Hostiles then made a "don't cross the line" pact with Tom (- which influenced Tom to make the same pact with the castaways, more than a decade after). Mikhail was the one who made that pact with Tom.
However, shortly after The Purge happened The Incident, which I think was some electromagnetic anomaly somehow unintentionally triggered by Radzinsky from the Swan. One of the effects The Incident had on various parts of the island was that the satelite dish at the Flame became unoperable. The Incident did not, however, afected the sonar system. Because Mikhail was a better engineer than Tom, and because Mikhail actually himself liked the idea of the isolation, Tom was replaced by Mikhail who, after he repaired the satelite dish, decided to stay in The Flame.
I think the rumored "hippy centric" episode will reveal DHARMA's arrival on the island with DeGroots as the hippies and young Tom, their first encounter with the Others, the beginning of The Purge and "don't cross the line" pact made at The Flame. The rest will be revealed in the Ben-centric season finale from his point of view.
Theory by Tole
I think that when DHARMA originally started its activities on the island, they made an agreement with The Others who lived there before about not involving in each other business. The Others weren't aware of the proportions of the DHARMA projects. When DHARMA started to invade various parts of the island, building stations, barracks and everything else - a behaviour that represented a violation of the non-disturbance agreement with The Others - The Others started to sabotage DHARMA projects. After 20 years of living in the peaceful coexsistence, DHARMA determined the Others to be hostile and introduced measures of self-defense against sabotage by the The Hostiles (-as they then began to call them): for example, C4 in the Flame. Then they decided to take drastic measures: kill all of The Hostiles. The Purge, I think, began in 1992, shortly after Kelvin arrived to the island. Kelvin was the last DHARMA member to be placed on the island.
Tom was in charge of the The Flame and he was the one who didn't want to get involved when DHARMA began The Purge against The Hostiles. Since Tom was isolated in The Flame, he was not aware of the existence of The Swan station (-also Radzinsky and Kelvin didn't know the exact location of The Flame - according to The Blast Door Map
When The Hostiles succeseded not only to defend them selves, but to wipe out every member of DHARMA known to them (- except, Radzinsky and Kelvin, because The Hostiles also were not aware of the existence of The Swan station), they kept Tom alive, because he was not hostile to them. So, The Hostiles never made an intrusion on The Flame, C4 was never activated. The Hostiles then made a "don't cross the line" pact with Tom (- which influenced Tom to make the same pact with the castaways, more than a decade after). Mikhail was the one who made that pact with Tom.
However, shortly after The Purge happened The Incident, which I think was some electromagnetic anomaly somehow unintentionally triggered by Radzinsky from the Swan. One of the effects The Incident had on various parts of the island was that the satelite dish at the Flame became unoperable. The Incident did not, however, afected the sonar system. Because Mikhail was a better engineer than Tom, and because Mikhail actually himself liked the idea of the isolation, Tom was replaced by Mikhail who, after he repaired the satelite dish, decided to stay in The Flame.
I think the rumored "hippy centric" episode will reveal DHARMA's arrival on the island with DeGroots as the hippies and young Tom, their first encounter with the Others, the beginning of The Purge and "don't cross the line" pact made at The Flame. The rest will be revealed in the Ben-centric season finale from his point of view.
Theory by Tole
