Since this whole subsection is marked speculation I figured I could make a topic about it.

Let's start by saying this is not my original theory, it was someone on the comments section. (For the life of me I can't remember who or what comic it went with, so I can't find it)

However, the theory goes like this. With Mr. Spender's comment "Quad again means squad again," it's implied that they can only go out on field missions and the like when there's four of them. They've talked about how your possession (or a tool's) runs out, and the spirit just leaves. If a member wasn't possessed anymore, he wouldn't be very effective in combat. So the theory goes that that was Dmitri, and they sent him over to the Journalism club so that he could keep tabs on Suzy, and at least prevent her from getting TOO close to what they are doing.

Now there's some support for this theory, the strongest of which is on this page: http://paranatural.net/chapter-3-page-5/
Inside the "limb eating" beast, there's an extra head and arm, and it seems to belong to someone African-American. So the squad's old fourth member was black, and the only one matching that description is Dmitri. Of course, it could just be a black student we don't know yet, but since there are already so many characters in the comic this seems fairly likely.

Now the rest is less solid, but still worth noting. In this page: http://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-42/ we've got Dmitri saying "they're not that bad" in regards to the Activity Club. Which is a normal chill-guy thing to say, but if the theory holds weight, it's good foreshadowing.

And finally, there's this page: http://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-68/ where it could be argued that Dmitri looks a little bummed, seeing the fourth member slot of the Activity Club being filled.

So yeah, that's that theory.

Probably, unless there is another black kid in the school.

Still, Dimitri is likely

For now, my hypothetical money is still on Dmitri. He's the only named black character up to the point of the limb monster, and even now. Doesn't necessarily mean it is him, of course, but I like to think it means something...

Hrm, I do like the idea but if this were the case, Suzy wouldn't really need to beg Max for information on the activity club though? She'd have an ex-member right there to try and harass, and given her nightmarish obsession, I'm sure she'd realize he used to be a member one way or the other. I guess that doesn't really kill the theory but considering I feel like it'd have to be quite a stretch :<

Dang! The kid in that panel has his head cut off just below the speech bubble. I could see it being Dimitri! Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be surprised if it isn't, actually.

It would be pretty unusual for Dmitri to be the only african-american kid in school, and its possible that the fourth squad member graduated the school completely as opposed to just having his tool run out. It seems like they've made plenty of tools during their activities, so the town is probably saturated enough that another spirit would go for any available spectral.

At this point, everything is a possibility

Isabel's comment "One more for the archives" Upon receiving the plunger on page 28 of chapter 2 suggests the club has several tools that are not currently in use. As I'm pretty sure we've yet to be given any reason to believe a spectral who fully restores their spirit is unable to use a new tool, and assuming Dmitri was indeed a previous fourth member of the club, this means one of two things:

1. Mediums who were not spectrals before being possessed lose their powers when they lose their spirit, or
2. Dmitri was forced to leave the club for another reason.

...Yup, that's my two cents.

Von Aardvark wrote:

Isabel's comment "One more for the archives" Upon receiving the plunger on page 28 of chapter 2 suggests the club has several tools that are not currently in use. As I'm pretty sure we've yet to be given any reason to believe a spectral who fully restores their spirit is unable to use a new tool, and assuming Dmitri was indeed a previous fourth member of the club, this means one of two things:

1. Mediums who were not spectrals before being possessed lose their powers when they lose their spirit, or
2. Dmitri was forced to leave the club for another reason.

Or 3. Dimitri decided he didn't want to be a spectral and left

4. He is acting as a spy to keep Suzy in line

5. Dimitri didn't fit in with the club and decided to hang out with his friends

ect.

Eragon5055 wrote:

Or 3. Dimitri decided he didn't want to be a spectral and left

4. He is acting as a spy to keep Suzy in line

5. Dimitri didn't fit in with the club and decided to hang out with his friends

ect.

All of that was what I was attempting to get at with "Dmitri was forced to leave for another reason." I suppose "Forced" was a bad word choice, so I apologize.

Actually, now that I think about it, that's a horribly vague statement. I'll try to be more specific in the future.

Ooooh...... Now I feel like a dorksal fin.... get it?... Because I'm a, Oh never mind.

Eragon5055 wrote:

4. He is acting as a spy to keep Suzy in line

This is totally my guess.

Eragon5055 wrote:

Ooooh...... Now I feel like a dorksal fin.... get it?... Because I'm a, Oh never mind.

Cue rimshot!

Also gonna mention here that on this page Isabel is drawing the activity club; Mr. Spender, herself, and Isaac are already there, and it can be assumed that she is drawing Ed because the person behind Mr. Spender has poofy hair, which Ed obviously does not have. If it is the missing fourth member (aka possibly Dimitri, who DOES have hair like that), then nice division there , with Mr. Spender separating the club's active members and having the missing member BEHIND the rest of them.

Statters wrote:

Also gonna mention here that on this pagehttp://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-48/ Isabel is drawing the activity club; Mr. Spender, herself, and Isaac are already there, and it can be assumed that she is drawing Ed because the person behind Mr. Spender has poofy hair, which Ed obviously does not have. If it is the missing fourth member (aka possibly Dimitri, who DOES have hair like that), then nice division there , with Mr. Spender separating the club's active members and having the missing member BEHIND the rest of them.

Well, I certainly missed that. It really does look like there's a fourth person just off the corner of that drawing.

I posted this in the wrong thread because I didn't see this one. I guess I'll post it here even though you've already pretty much figured it out.

I don't know if anyone has said it yet but it seems likely to me that Dmitri was part of the Activity Club at one point. In this page we see there seems to be a kid with brown skin with the rest of the club. (panel 5 on the monster that steals body parts' forehead)
http://paranatural.net/chapter-3-page-5/
This also makes sense because when Suzy was talking about how evil the Activity Club is Dmitri said they were alright implying he knows them. Also in chapter 1 when Isaac was talking to Spender he says if they don't do something fast Max may "flip his nuggets just like.." implying there could have been another student who the paranatural business was too much for. (bottom of page)
http://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-38/

Cool theory! Completely makes sense to me.

Something else that backs it up; like OP said, panel 4 on this page, Dimitri seems bummed:
http://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-68/

But then see Zack's response in that same page's comments:


Which in the past has shown that whatever Zack is commenting on is certainly relevant.

Eversist wrote:

Cool theory! Completely makes sense to me.

Something else that backs it up; like OP said, panel 4 on this page, Dimitri seems bummed:
http://paranatural.net/chapter-1-page-68/

But then see Zack's response in that same page's comments:


Which in the past has shown that whatever Zack is commenting on is certainly relevant.

It is interesting he responded to that one. It doesn't seem like a question that really needs addressing. Especially since he responded in that way.

That pretty much confirms to me that Dmitri is significant in some way. Perhaps not as a former official member of the Activity Club (I really can't imagine how Suzy wouldn't be aware of that), but significant. "Who Knooows?" is Zack's go-to response when commenters are on the right track.

Oh yes, I'm definitely calling Chekhov's Gunman here. Suzy and Collin are understandable, since Suzy's purpose so far is to heckle the club and Collin is her straight man; but Dmitri's existence has no narrative justification so far making him a loose cannon. Also we got almost no information at all about him when he was introduced, which means he was most likely written into the story for a purpose we are not yet allowed to know about~

To play the devil's advocate, he could also be a red herring.

(I don't think so, but it is good to consider all options before jumping the gun)

Could be, but there'd have to be stronger hints before I'd consider that likely. The point of a red herring is to fool the reader, and as far as I can tell, not very many readers have noticed the few existing hints at all.

I agree with this theory completely!

Suzy is obsessed with the Activity Club and Zack stated that Collin was a mystery nut and had a sleuth-type thing going on (he said that on a stream he was featured in yesterday). So it's not hard to imagine Dimitri is a mole in the Journalism club to make sure the secrecy is maintained.

Mr. Spender could've arranged things so that a not-widely-known member of the PAC got in Suzy's club as a brake, or even arrange things so that an outside spectral transferred to the school and joined her club.

Indeed, Dimitri seems pretty defensive of the PAC (which he could be seeing as equals/teammates) and he was bummed that Max joined the PAC because it definitely means more trouble for him to handle.

I sort of felt it was more likely to be an older brother of Dmitri's who was in the activity club. Dmitri would be a little defensive of it because his brother was in it, his brother would have a strong reason (transferring out of that school through graduation) to leave the club, and Suzy, who we know to have access to the student files, would want him on the journalist club. Close enough to maybe know their secrets, but not close enough to be The Enemy, you know? I'm pretty sure club participation is automatically recorded in the student files.
It would be really weird if all the kids in a club were from the same year, after all.

Let's see if at some point when Suzie shows the thing Dimitri sent her to blackmail Max it will involve clues that serve as Dimitri tampering with the object, thereby pinpointing him as that fourth member

In fact, riding off this theory, the rainbow producing hammer may precisely be the tool of which the spirit regained full health and left him. It would make sense in-universe that Isaac makes an example of something he's already seen instead of something out of nowhere, and making something plot relevant look like an inconspicuous example beforehand (as was with Doctopis) seems precisely like the kind of thing Zack would do

Yeah I remember the theory about the limb-stealing spirit and I thought it was really cool, and I hope Dimitri comes into the story again sooner or later. Of course there's no reason he shouldn't.

Then I saw this page http://www.paranatural.net/index.php?id=69 and formed a NEW THEORY:
This is foreshadowing for Suzy actually blowing up a house later when she turns spectral and links up with a spirit.