Kelvin

If Kelvin was recruited by Dharma after the Gulf war, wouldn't he have to be in the Swan at the time of the Purge? If we put him there in 1991 or 92. The purge would have been after that. It looks to me that Ben aged much more than 12 years btween the Purge and the present time.
Also, why didn't the hostiles attack the stations? We now for sure that the didn't attack the Swan because Kelvin was still there to find Desmond. Unless Dharma was still sending people to the Swan after the Purge because of its incredible importance in saving the world and keeping the island hidden. I suppose this could be a possibility but I dont recall off hand the dates that Kelvin said he was there.

I was just thinking along the same lines. If all of the Dharma people were killed (and we don't really know if they all were), then who's dropping the food and backing this "new" operation on the island.

I still haven't decided when the purge actually happened...my initial thought was that the purge was before Kelvin got there, since it sure seems like the Swan was the one place the Hostiles could not take over. I figured that Dharma was still manning and supplying the Swan after the purge due to the important nature of keeping it going. Now I'm not so sure when to date the purge. There's definitely some inconsistencies with what we've been told about the purge...like Mikhail claiming Dharma initiated a war with the Hostiles (which he called the purge) while it seems clear from Ben's flashback that the Hostiles are the ones who "purged" Dharma. Read through this for the details of what we've seen so far...

The Purge - Lostpedia

I'm thinking that the Others just assumed the roles of the Dharma Initiative, that way, they could keep the drops coming, find recruits for their own purposes, etc. I think we've seen that they learned how to use all the technology that Dharma bought, and insted of keeping a man in the Swan, just let it go on without interfering. We know they knew the Swan was there, because they could monitor it from the Pearl. I guess they sent Patchy to the Flame right away to learn the system and tell the outside world "We're fine, we're all fine here, had a brief system meltdown but it's fine now.. how are you" (sorry I used to know that little scene form Star Wars, but, it's been a while)
I'm guessing as well that Richard Alpert is not his name, but an assumed one he took so he could keep up appearances for the outside world. Plus if you never age, you'd have to take different names so as not to arrouse suspiscion... it's just an idea though..

The Dharma Initiative obviously continued after the purge. I think this must be the "incident" referenced in the tapes. The incident must have become the stuff of lore; maybe thats why Kelvin and others had to wear protective suits and gas masks in order to leave the hatch. (even though Kelvin figured out there wasnt anything posionous) Has anyone else been thinking back to the Dharma tapes?

But the "incident' was refered to on the Swan Orientation video, with a copyright date of 1980. And Kelvin was in the Gulf in 1991. If the "purge" and the "incident" are the same thing, which I don't think they are, then something seems strange.

I thought the "incident" had specificly to do with an occurance with the Swan.

I was kinda thinking that the incident had something to do with the volcano possibly..

good one Wed... maybe with all the messing around Dharma did, digging holes, trapping electromagnetic fields inside hatches, the island itself revolted and set off volcanos ( but that was a long time ago, Olivia, teacher). I bet that was the incident, and well, we saw the Purge I believe.

So, in the world of flashbacks, is the Purge complete?

As some have indicated, what about the stations? Were those DI people eliminated, or will they eventually either be "recruited" to Other status, or hunted down and terminated?

There is also the smaller island with the animal research and zoo.

Could the DI skeletons in the cave be those who fled, and were later tracked down and killed? By the Others? By the wild animals the Others released in order to kill the DI folks?

All I know is I saw Sawyer purge a couple of episodes ago.