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.

I know its already been pretty well established that the mystery fourth member was black or at least dark-skinned but i just found a new piece of evidence and felt like sharing.
the characters arm appears in the last panel of this comic http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-4-page-96 during Isabelle's crude flash back.

And the fact that that person is the only one who doesn't have a comment for Isabelle's cool new tool was either Zack just keeping his easter egg inconspicuous

OR

it reflects Dmitri's laid back personality.  

Thoughts?

Wow I didn't spot that one, that means Black Kid is on two pages. Now that I think about it he might not hang with the AC because while he knows about spirits and ghosts, perhaps he doesn't want to fight spirits? That seems reasonable...

Wait. In "Who knoooows" there are 4 "o"s in "knoooows", but only one in "Who". 4 minus 1 equals 3, Triangles have 3 sides, HALF LIFE 3 ILLUMINATI CONSPIRACY CONFIRMED

I've only just seen this thread because it's been bumped, but I really like the theory!  Especially in the latest page, it seems like Dimitri is more "hmm what's going over hereeee" instead of outright shocked like everyone else.

Apparently he is always like that, he's the quiet type. You gotta watch out for the quiet ones.
What's most convincing to me is how much focus he was given even when we know almost nothing about him except that he is with the Journalism Club.

Connorses wrote:

Apparently he is always like that, he's the quiet type. You gotta watch out for the quiet ones.
What's most convincing to me is how much focus he was given even when we know almost nothing about him except that he is with the Journalism Club.

I agree.

Actually, come to think of it...

This page (#225) has always bothered me.  The last three panels seem...a lot different than the things Morrison usually writes.  The whole thing about Colin's cat feels like it was thrown in (and ONLY thrown in) to disguise Dimitri's response.  I mean Zach writes things that are nonsensical and silly because they just fit his style, but even when I was a new reader, the whole ending to this page didn't make sense to me, like it was so pointless it just had to be hiding something big.

It's good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Dimitri is spying on Suzy

I've already said this in the chapter discussion topic but since it's relevant here I thought I'd post it here too (and add a bit):

This page (chapter 5 page 52) offers up a whole different side of Dimitri that we haven't seen before. And then there's him saying "Authority that lacks talent doesn't deserve blind compliance". If the theory that he used to be in the activity club is true (which is starting to seem more and more likely (though still seems odd Suzie wouldn't know)) this could point to why he would've left. He might not have been too pleased with having Spender as the person in charge. He also seems the strategising type who wouldn't mind putting others in danger to get stuff done, so that might have rubbed the others the wrong way as well... And maybe caused an incident...
Though I guess Isabel and Ed don't seem like they would mind jumping in a fight head first to be the distraction... There was hinting at Isaac maybe having done some harm though (I think) so that could also have been a factor in Dimitri choosing to leave, but since he seems like a smart dude, even if he left the club for his own reasons he would probably still want to keep an eye on Suzy anyway...

I keep repeating it, but there's definitely something disturbing about how the kids in the Activity Club so quickly resort to violence to deal with rogue spirits, specifically how much they ENJOY it. They have not learned to show much humility, or restraint. It's a total cliché but "with great power comes great responsibility". But even worse, Spender is not great at teaching on the fly and he seems forgetful at times.

But the main reason it bothers me that they engage in so much violence is that there are spirits who are extremely prejudiced against spectrals, and the Activity Club is only reinforcing this bad image.

Anyways, this is a good page to exemplify the utter confusion and lack of control present in Da Club:
http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-2-page-29
on the other hand she may have been sarcastic when she was threatening PJ. :/ But anyway, basically all of Chapter 2 when they fought the whale spirit was where I got this idea that something was wrong.

EDIT: omg that's Eightfold's cool paper power... The feels...
THE FEELS ALL OVER AGAIN...

I think Isaac mentioned how Isabel and Ed only really care about the fighting aspects of being a spectral and it's probably an attitude they get from Isabel's grandfather who seems to dislike or at least distrust spirits...
So far though I think they've only attacked spirits who are a threat to them or ghosts.

There definitely is something about the whole spectral/spirit thing going on in the world at large. I can imagine a lot of spectrals see spirits as lesser things and literally tools to use how they see fit. They would possibly see spirits who pose a threat more like dangerous animals that need to be put down than actual sentient beings that could maybe be reasoned with. And with spirits sometimes having some pretty impressive and dangerous powers it could seem prudent to weaken them enough so they'd be stuck in a tool and almost forced to accept a bond with a spectral.
There appear to be many different factions of spirits and spectrals who all have different views on these matters...

Though the threat of killing PJ seemed more like a joke suggestion to me since she doesn't seem too bothered with ghosts... Part of the activity club's activities even seems to protect the ghosts in the school against spirits who eat them...

Could be possible Dimitri didn't agree with how the activity club handles things and left for that reason...

Apophyllite wrote:

Could be possible Dimitri didn't agree with how the activity club handles things and left for that reason...

Yeahhhh, that's pretty much what I was getting at. And there do seem to be factions of spirits, which it will be interesting to see more of.

It's also odd to think that Doorman and Forge would be allies since Forge seemed like a perfect candidate for The Bad Guy when we met him. He's just so angry and reckless. But him and Doorman are the same color so there's that. Forge doesn't seem to be allied with the black dog/cat swearing creatures though. It's confusing.

This is a bit off topic but I don't think Forge seemed like a Bad Guy. Good Guys can be angry and reckless too. From the conversation Forge had with Spender, it seems Forge used to be the kind that would do anything for the greater good, even if it meant doing some pretty bad stuff and sacrifising innocent people to reach his goal.
Now he seems to really regret it and thinks of himself as a bad guy eventhough he still seems to be striving toward doing good. And because he doesn't trust his own judgement on what's good, he's looking to put himself into the service of this supposedly pure good being.
I think the fact that it was mentioned the dog/cat creatures (was it pixelhounds?) only obey truly evil beings and he didn't manage to get them to obey eventhough he thinks of himself as evil in some way, was supposed to show that he was in fact not evil.

Also seems like Forge has been in Mayview before (chapter 5 page 15) and he and Doorman seem to have known eachother for a really long time. Though I don't know what you mean by same colour? Doorman's energy is red and Forge's is grey. And the pixelhounds had pretty much every colour so I don't think factions are based on that...

To get things back on topic a bit: Going by the chapter title page, it seems like Dimitri has orange spectral energy... Also he doesn't seem to have a specific item he's always carrying around (unless maybe it's really tiny and hidden from view) so he possibly doesn't have a tool... He could be morally opposed to having a tool and using a spirit as a weapon...

the latest page definately bumps the theory but all in all that was a very confusing page to read. what did he even do exactly?

Something to protect his hand and/or redirect the ball. something MAAAAGIC *o*