So far, the conflict over the undoing of the plague-pocalypse and then the destruction of Time has been between two parties—the Witness and his Army of the 12 Monkeys versus Project Splinter and Jennifer Goines and her Daughters.
But in the wake of their conflict, they have created a third, de facto party—the allies of Team Splinter and the discarded pawns of the Witness. People whose lives amount to collateral damage in the conflict between these two temporal superpowers.
I believe that someone could organize these individuals into a strategic and effective force that can make a difference in the outcome of this time war—Olivia.
She’s familiar with the Word of the Witness and the worldly workings of the Army over decades of time. She has visited the Red Forest and can navigate others to it via red leaf tea. She is gifted with supernatural strength and healing, and may very well be Splinter-compatible (like the Messengers, whose DNA and abilities contribute to her own, thanks to Vivian Rutledge).
She’d be like Professor X, rescuing and recruiting his X-Men, or Nick Fury collecting Secret Warriors, locating literal and figurative “orphans” of the conflict—the likes of Samuel Ramse, Agent Robert Gale, Gale’s granddaughter, Victoria Mason and her son, Elliot Jones, maybe even her brother, Tall Man—and recruiting them to join her in defying the will, plans, and Word of the Witness.
To assemble the most effective force possible, she’d need one thing that she’s apparently missing—time travel. As far as we know, she’s never engaged in actual time travel herself. She travels thru time the usual way—from past to future, one day at a time. Father created her in Germany in the 50s; Vivian brought her to America in 1961 to raise her; she grew up to become one of the leaders of the Army of the 12 Monkeys; and she rejects the Witness and his Word in 2016.
It shouldn’t be THAT difficult for her to get access to Elliot Jones’s Project Splinter, right? We know that she quits the Witness in 2016, but we don’t see her turn in her Monkey gun and badge. She may still retain her position in the Army and its authority, and with that authority, she should be able to finagle access to Elliot’s to-the-future Splinter device, right? And that gets her access to the future. And once in the future, she should potentially have access to all of Time (via Katarina’s Project Splinter, or perhaps the Witness’s Titan?).
Or maybe she contacts a Splinter agent in 2016 at the Emerson. Could she approach young Katarina? She wouldn’t need Elliot’s device if she can enlist the aid of a Splinternaut.
Let’s assume she gets access to time travel tech. She could turn 2044 Titan into the action-packed final showdown of TIME BANDITS! She could Splinter in allies from any point in time, including…
Samuel Ramse (post-Core-feedback blast, older? or perhaps still youthy, as proof for Ramse and company of her benevolent, anti-Witness intentions) Agent Robert Gale Gale’s granddaughter Elliot Jones (2016 or later) Jennifer & Daughters (2044, they stayed behind at the Bleeders’ camp) Victoria Mason & son (rescued from the Immortal by Cole and Ramse 1975) Tall Man (a future version?)
Could she save those who have died, or appeared to have died?
Elena? David Eckland? (dis-Splinter-ated) Eyepatch Ramse? Charlie Messenger?
And, since Olivia and none of these allies were actually present for the events we witness in 2044 Titan at the end of “Blood Washed Away,” they could Splinter in before them and pre-emptively undoing their deaths without causing a paradox.
Maybe undoing isn’t necessary, tho. This would be wild, but what if Olivia’s agents are already at Titan when Ramse, Deacon, Hannah, and Marcus are killed? They’re the ones (some of the ones) in the masks and robes, and have faked our heroes’ deaths! =)
Yeah…Probably not. Boo.
And it’s probably “easier” to have C+C show up at the Bleeders’ camp to rally Jennifer and her Daughters to join them and save Ramse and the gang before they get Katar’d up.
Better to keep Olivia’s Task Force O under wraps until they’re REALLY needed, right? =)
If the factory IS consumed by a massive paradox (more powerful than what we saw in “Blood Washed Away”), perhaps it’s by design. The paradox may have blasted the factory, its machinery, and materials out of reality and into the red tea zone, ready to be shaped and transformed into Titan.
I suspect that Elliot Jones is familiar with the red tea zone, thanks to some mind-expanding experimentation with the green-to-red ivy he created in his lab. He might understand the “timelessness” of the dimension, and figured out how to exploit it to develop the technology and complete the construction required to make Tall Man’s Project Titan a reality.
Gonna throw everything, theory-wise, that I’ve got cooking in my so-called brain out here and see what sticks. =)
Well, y'know, not quite *everything*, but whatever I can think of that has a bit more than just hey-what-if? behind it… Stuff that’s at least, umm, let’s say… half-baked.
Mostly. =)
I’m gonna try and keep the crazy-talk-splanations short. If you’ve read my rambling before, you know it tends to get away from me. Some of what follows has been covered in longer posts already.
Elliot Jones invents time travel into the future. In inventing that, he’s also responsible for the creation of red leaves. He’s also the first person, umm, causatively(?), not chronologically, to get a chance to experiment with them in a mind-expanding way. Given his hippie demeanor, I can easily imagine him rolling the leaf before crushing it. =)
So, he’s the first human being to visit the red tea zone, the limbo outside of Time and reality, the eventual home of the Red Forest. Without the guidance of a Primary or someone with a mental map, like Olivia, who knows what Elliot’s experience would be like? Maybe raw, unguided exposure to the red tea zone is what makes Elliot the Witness, what causes/allows him to “see everything,” like the ant stepping out of the (Time) line.
And maybe he becomes the Witness that Cassie, Olivia, and Tall Man meet in the House of Cedar and Pine when he’s on one of his mind-expanding trips and his body is destroyed and consumed by a paradox event, the one that creates the Red Forest, perhaps the 1957 Melinda paradox, or maybe as part of the chaotic Splinter event at Raritan Valley in 1957, or perhaps a physical meeting with himself, once he himself becomes a chrononaut.
The big question mark/issue I’ve got with EJ as the Witness? Is the restoration of his consciousness into a body on the physical plane, in reality, worth all of the manipulation the Witness is responsible for?
What else is there for EJ? Saving the world/reality? Doesn’t really seem his style, except that that’s the place where he keeps all his stuff. Saving someone who matters to him? Katarina? Hannah? That seems kind of thin, too, although I do like the idea that his treatment of Katarina tugs at what there is of his humanity, as described above in DAVE-ECKLAND-IS-ELLIOT-JONES. Maybe it’s all a means to a still greater science-y powerful end? Or in service to another, greater intelligence or cause?
I’d just really like for it to be Elliot, cuz he’s there at the beginning of time travel in its technological and psychic forms, and he’d be a fitting opposite to Katarina, who declares that she’s not the physicist that reality needs, she’s the one it got by default. When I heard her say that, I immediately felt that she was talking about Elliot.
Duh, right? I had my doubts as to his ability to become this shadowy mastermind. James Cole’s natural bent is to take action in the moment. Get from point A to point B via a bullet, right? But what we’ve seen of Cole this season, and what Old Jennifer points out, is a transformation in Cole, growth towards becoming not just a leader, but a clever strategist, with still untapped potential.
Y'know, when he hasn’t given up on saving the world to give his lady love a pre-apocalyptic life.
Another huge asset for Cole-as-Witness is his apparent “photographic memory.” He can recall every thing he’s seen (and perhaps heard) in his experiences thus far and leverage ever piece of it to manipulate and/or re-create the scenarios and strategies he’s lived thru, but from the side of the Witness.
How does he become the Witness? I still like the idea that our Cole confronts his older, Witness’d self, and sacrifices himself in a paradox. Ideally, it would be willingly, after reasoning out that he has to take this step to save/preserve Cassie, his friends, and possibly his family. In the aftermath of the paradox event, our young Cole’s consciousness is shunted into the red tea zone, along with the house and the Red Forest, while Witness Cole is fully resolved back into reality and able to move forward with his plans in/from his base of Titan.
The greatest straight-line (but there are no straight lines!) explanation for how he becomes big W is that it’s the Witness who takes his hand at the end of “Meltdown.”
But, if future Samuel is the Witness, how could he safely take his hand? Simple enough—the Witness has developed technology that amounts to an essence containment suit. Wearable tech (perhaps that version of the Plague Doctor mask we’ve seen with the rebreather and other mechanical bits?) that prevents the the contact/reaction caused by close proximity with one’s out-of-time doppelganger.
I’m 50-50 on whether Samuel lands in the distant past or future. I think either could be a great setting for the Witness to raise, educate, and train his replacement—his younger self. If it’s the future, a time and place somehow AFTER all the strife and death and conflict that he’s been raised in, well, the promise of that, a non-Red-Forest truly better tomorrow would be great motivation for Sam, who as a child demonstrated a pretty altruistic philosophical stance by chiding his father for possibly sacrificing billions to save his Sam’s life. Sam seems a natural for a big-picture-valuing ethical person, someone who cares about the Greater Good/Good of the Many.
And Sam-as-the-Witness would certainly emphasize the story of Ramse going rogue to preserve his son’s existence. It might be presented as something remarkable, something to admire and aspire to (and paints the expected Traveler in a fiercely loyal and motivated light), but for Sam the Witness, it’s a reminder of how a connection or relationship can lead to disastrous decisions.
One interesting “weakness” I kind of want to attribute to a Sam Witness is the salvation of his mother, Elena. I wince a bit every time Ramse stakes his claim of “fatherhood” to Cole, but I let it go. He done and lived and sacrificed a lot for his son’s sake, never mind that he’s only spent a month of two of actual time with the boy. But never once did I hear or see him consider some time traveling shenanigans to save the life of his son’s mother. You know exactly where and when she’ll be in the future—Leave a freaking note tacked to a bulletproof vest for her in 2016!
I’d like for the Witness to have somehow saved Elena. It would be amazing if SHE’s the one who takes Sam’s hand in the green forest, altho his reaction doesn’t seem to be in line with that. At least, not if he can see her face.
Hrm… Elena as the Witness? Yeah, I’ve thought about it, and would love it, but haven’t been able to connect enough dots to build a decent story for it.
Yeah, a longshot, and the details of getting from the Adler we know to Adler-as-the-Witness are tough to imagine, but watch “Resurrection” and watch Adler.
Most of my Witness theory thinking involves one of our heroes as we know them being the pre-Witness. However, the funky looks from and at Adler in “Resurrection” seem to want to paint him as already the Witness. Having some fun in the field.
He’s programmed every Splinter mission, right? The pre-Cole “volunteers.” The errorful and malfunctioning ones. The successful (or at least, not completely disastrous) ones. What if the machine always worked as it should, but Adler’s programming caused or faked malfunctions and errors by design?
And in “Blood Washed Away,” he hits the road with Ramse and co, but at the Bleeders’ camp, he hangs back with Jennifer and the Daughters, and doesn’t go to Titan. I assume the plan is for Ramse, Marcus, Deacon, and Hannah to kill the Witness and come back for Adler’s time traveling know-how.
But his staying behind does allow for him entering Titan on his own and changing into mask and robe to join his minions—or sisters and brothers—in time for Festival.
That message appeared on the wall in the house by the Red Forest when Olivia walked in to her red tea meeting with Mr. W. In the flow of the conversation between Olivia and Witness, it was definitely an unprompted, unconnected remark.
I want to believe that it was a message for someone else, not Olivia. That the Witness was finishing a red tea session with another visitor and that visitors are unaware of each other unless the Witness somehow wills it, even if they’re “present” at the “same time.”
Or, maybe big W was careless about erasing his message from an already complete “earlier” red tea session.
In any case, in the audience’s future, I see someone else visit the Witness and that someone enters the house “before” Olivia and maybe they’re trying to locate Cassandra and/or Cole and the Witness gives them that response: 1957-1959 THIS WAS HOME. So, it’s not meant to be taken as a first-person statement, but in reference to someone else (C+C).
Perhaps it’s red tea’d Primary Lillian who visits, attempting to find a proper time and place to intercept her parents(?).
Huh. Maybe that non sequitur *is* meant for Olivia. So that when she’s ready to take the fight to the Witness, she can exploit that information (disinformation?) to catch the Witness before he’s full Witness’d.
What *would* Olivia make of that information, anyway?
Some possibly fanciful ideas about just who’s behind the masks and hoods of the killers of Ramse, Hannah, Marcus, and Deacon at the end of “Blood Washed Away”
TITAN IS DEATH 1
Our heroes, Ramse, Hannah, Marcus, and Deacon, are killed by alternate versions of themselves. Ideally, goateed versions.
TITAN IS DEATH 2
Our heroes, Ramse, Hannah, Marcus, and Deacon, are killed by people whom they killed. Each of them is done in slightly differently, as if each killer had a favorite method, or perhaps chose to deal with their killing in different, personal, degrees of intimacy. Ramse is skewered in the chest from afar—a slow bleed, so that he would see his people go before he does. Marcus takes it in the chest—facing his killer. Hannah in the back—her killer can’t look her in the eye. Deacon’s throat is slit—very personal, intimate.
TITAN IS DEATH 3
Every mask and robe wearing Titanian is someone who was deleted from reality by a change made by a Splinter agent. Maybe the Army is made up of these orphans of Time, in need of home, family, and purpose. The Witness, Tall Man, and Titan provide all of this. They would be especially motivated to punish and prevent Project Splinter from adding to their number and possibly even undo their successes.
Maybe Katarina has a type? I wouldn’t have guessed it right off, but it seems like it takes a bit of a hippie-dippie scientist fellow to break through her natural defenses. Both Elliot Jones and David Eckland fit that description. Eckland with more of the truly hippie philosophy behind it, a self-proclaimed pacifist, while Jones seems dedicated to his science (and the renown it should bring him), but seems familiar with a bit of mind expansion, man. Eckland could be Jones if he really got what he wanted and/or mellowed out, y'know?
So, HOW would this happen?
Through Immersion. Oh! Did I forget to mention? In order for this to work, Elliot Jones is/becomes the Witness. David Eckland is someone whom the Witness knows is/will be immune to the virus and part of the Spearhead contingent of scientists. He’s also someone who’s experienced Immersion. Whether it was voluntary (as a member of the Army) or against his will (a conditioned abductee), I don’t know, but either way, he was treated with and immersed in red leaf sauce, making him a vessel for the Witness’s consciousness whenever necessary.
I’m gonna say that “whenever necessary” covers the months and years of Eckland’s courtship of and relationship with Katarina Jones. Maybe this is a purely recreational trip for big W. An astral vacation. Or maybe a bit of karmic adjustment, an attempt to make up for how he treated Katarina when they split back in 2015, and the pain that he caused her afterward—first as Elliot and then as the big W. As the Witness he learns that he set her on the path of considering an abortion of their child, then orchestrates the events which lead to her mourning Hannah’s loss for 20+ years. So, I like to think that he returns to her as David Eckland to bring some happiness back into Kat’s life, and maybe possibly perhaps his own. Who else could possibly be a better, proper match for the godfather of time travel than its godmother, right?
Sure, the Witness was also controlling Cassie in 2044, but it was either a past or future Witness, and while they may have appeared to be at cross purposes, both were no doubt playing his and her parts just as required. Witness-Eckland does turn out to be the “solution” to the troubles unleashed by Witness-Cassandra after all, as well as the proximate cause (the grand romantic gesture in the name of love) of the Splinter energy that spirits Samuel away. If nothing else, we know that the Witness is a master multitasker.
I can believe in the grind of the eleven months searching for the Primary being real and lived by C+C, but the jumps in time that follow the paradox… They might be jumps experienced by C+C themselves, as well as by the audience. It reminds me of the the weirdness of time in LOST’s Sideways reality, the willful malleability of time in the virtual reality of DOCTOR WHO’s Library planet, and the way Elliot gets his consciousnes to skip to the conclusion in that one episode of MR. ROBOT.
Yeah, it’s a stretch, but I like it. And it’s a smart detail because it’s in practical service to storytelling.
2. Agent Gale.
How does neither Cole nor Cassie contact their friend in the F.B.I. while on this mission?
That they don’t ring him in the eleven months makes me suspect the reality of that time as well, but I’ll allow it. Perhaps C+C work out that there’s nothing F.B.I. resources can help them with when it comes to auditing all of the Maxwell-Rigfield factory employees.
But in the two years after the paradox…? Cole on his own? Why wouldn’t he contact Robert? He’s got an envelope with important information about his future to slip into his overcoat pocket, dammit!
And Cassie, searching for Cole/Morris Morrison? What better resource than the F.B.I.?
When Charlie paradoxes Melinda, C+C are caught in the event. Serumed up, the paradox sends their consciousnesses into a virtual reality, a temporary shared universe, in which we see the 1957-1959 events they experience transpire. In this bubble universe, Lillian is born, maybe to them, but maybe not. She is a Primary, born in the bubble universe. Being a Primary, she is aware of the reality/unreality of their situation and attempts to open C+C’s eyes to it. Maybe that’s enough to crack the bubble, but what about this?
What if it takes a Primary paradox to bust them out? And Lillian offers herself up as that (being Primary, she knows it’s meant to be, y'know, if it is). And it’s HER unique Primary paradox that lights up Katarina’s readings in 2044 and results in permanent erosion of Time in the region of the Maxwell-Rigfield factory in 1957, and, for better and worse, the creation of the Red Forest in the red tea zone.
So, Melinda’s paradox is the fuse and Lillian’s is the bomb. I imagine that C+C are ejected from the bubble and red tea zone back to reality moments after Melinda’s paradox and perhaps miles away, inside or near the Raritan Valley Labs.
The strange chaotic Splinter phenom that zaps those four soldiers at Raritan Valley to the future is C+C’s ticket back to 2044. Maybe these future versions of them have been hiding in the facility during the 2044 events since Meltdown. Heh. Maybe they’ve been following Raging Ramse and Imperator Primariosa on Titan Road for the last 11 months, too. And once Ramse, Hannah, Deacon, and Marcus leave Jennifer, Adler, and the Daughters behind for Titan, C+C reveal themselves and offer up a plan based on Primary intel from Lillian.
Or something.
What IS the tech that’s brought to the lab in 1957? Is it a piece of Titan in development? I so hope that it’s a piece of the “flying saucer” wreckage found in Roswell, NM. =)
What if Ramse met himself on that road? What would he tell himself? He came back ready to kill Cassie and then himself and ends up being talked into living for revenge on the Witness. Perhaps that’s exactly what future Ramse wanted him to do, but he painted the situation differently, something like what Old Jennifer tells Young Jennifer… The Old Ramse was where Young Ramse was once, and he chose to continue his walkabout and ended up living the life of a scav the rest of his (short?) life. He regrets not going back to get revenge on the people responsible for taking his son.
Yeah, not a huge redirection, right? I’m just very taken with the idea of Ramse’s walkabout being a true Walkabout, y'know? The idea is to meet yourself.
Something that’s bugged me… Way back in the first couple eps of season 2, when Cole follows Jennifer up onto that rooftop in Chinatown, Ramse is also in pursuit, slightly behind Cole. He’s intercepted by someone we don’t see, tho, and knocked out. Then we see that Cassie beats Ramse to the roof resulting in the super gun fun.
The timing implies that Cassie knocked Ramse out. Can we believe that? With surprise, serum strength, and Scav King training, I suppose…
Still could it have been someone else? Could that moment have been exploited to replace or program/Immerse our Ramse? Could the Ramse we’ve known and loved in the episodes after that be a different or compromised one? He is pretty adamant about his intentional inexperience with red leaf shenanigans while working with the Army. Protest too much?
Actually, he protested just right, and it does seem in line with his personality…
JENNIFER: I see everything. The others like me. The numbers. 607. You, her.
COLE: Cassie?
JENNIFER: You want her to love you, but she doesn’t. Being single is not the end of the world. You two together is, though.
“You want her to love you, but she doesn’t.” What do we think of that? Hasn’t the rest of Jennifer’s Primary rambling been accurate, once it’s been deciphered and connected to actual events?
Do we ever hear Cassandra tell Cole, “I love you?”
Is she taking a (sexy) one for the team? Maybe Cole pointing out that Cassandra has succeeded in getting herself to a place where she has nothing to lose opened Cass’s eyes to the notion that Cole needs something to fight for. He’s completely resigned to letting the world burn and living his life out in the past. For whatever reason, Cole is important, and needs to get back in the fight, so, she resolves to create something for him to fight for—their relationship, perhaps their child (then Ramse will have to eat his “You’ve never been a father” words).
There are worse reasons to live a lie, right?
Anyone ever read DC Comics’s NIGHT FORCE back in the early 80s?
In 1961, he tells Cole that he has a granddaughter, age 2. So, likely born in 1959. That makes her 16 in 1975, 49 in 2009 (James’s likely birth year), 55 in 2016, 59 in 2020, and 83 in 2044. 49 is a bit on the mature side to safely bear a child, so unfortunately, my wish that Gale is James’s great grandfather is not likely to come true. Boooo…
Does this 2-yo in 1961 connect to anyone we know?
How about Cole and Cassie’s child, born in 1959? I imagine the situation in the moment would be that C+C have had their child, they’ve been inspired/motivated to rally back to the Mission, hopefully with some intel about their friends that need saving, about to acquire transpo back to the future to take the fight to the Witness in Titan, and need to place their baby with someone they trust in 1959, possibly for the long haul.
Agent Gale—and his child, apparently—to the rescue. Hell of a thing to do, but Gale is definitely one of the Good Ones.
Would any part of this interaction/transaction add to the “bum hair” tally?
What if Cass and Cole and Jennifer conspired to *fake* Zeit’s story and identity in order to bring Katarina hope again?
It’s possible that Cass and Jennifer pulled off such a deception without Cole’s knowledge. It depends on whether Cole ever saw Hannah on her sickbed. I don’t think we ever saw him in the same room with Katarina and Hannah. In the several attempts Cole says they made, having that happen would have tipped Katarina off.
So, Cassie’s the one who brings the girl to Jennifer and Cole in the woods. Where she’d get another/different 5-yo, I do not know. But on seeing her, Cole wouldn’t know it’s not her. And although Jennifer never sees Hannah’s face in Spearhead, I think her Primary abilities would clue her in if Cassie tried to pull a fast one like this on her own.
Technically, to escape the loop, two things had to happen…
1. Jennifer had to escape her execution.
2. Katarina had to mourn her daughter’s death.
So, saving Hannah was above and beyond, but certainly worth the effort to pull Katarina back from the precipice of despair.
In the moment, seeing Cassie write those words in the bar of the Emerson Hotel, it seems like she’s writing them for Cole.
We know what follows, though, at least, in the version that James recites to us in the series premiere:
Where are you right now?
Somewhere warm, safe? Next to someone you love?
Now, what if all that was gone? And the only thing you could do was survive?
You would, right? You’d try.
You’d do things, horrible things… until you lose that last thing you have left…yourself.
But what if you could take it back… All of it?
A reset switch.
You’d hit it, right?
You’d have to.
If Cassie does indeed continue to write this message, who could it be for? It almost seems to be leading up to apology for hitting reset, doesn’t it? So, written to someone who might get deleted or overwritten as a result of a reset. Yes, that could be Cole, but Cole is all too familiar with this conundrum from actual experience. He doesn’t need it spelled out for him.
It seems to me like a message Cass or Cole might leave for their child. Maybe it’s a note that’s left with Agent Gale when he takes in their daughter…?
Or maybe a note for posterity, to explain their mission. I suppose it would only ever be read if they failed, tho, eh?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - “YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE 10, 42, 75, AND 3″
We need for Young Jennifer to come across some artifact of Old Jennifer’s, some in-case-of-emergency-break case, w/a combination lock or password, so that these numbers will open it and reveal to her just the item or words she needs to see/hear (a dose of red leaf tea?) to step up properly to Motherhood.
It’s too bad Cole wasn’t present for the recitation of the lucky numbers, because then he could flex his photographic memory later and reveal something Jennifer left for him.
If Old Jennifer *was* in cahootz w/the Witness, or rather, playing at it, maybe she contributed these numbers as an override code for Titan. I mean, if you want the right numbers, who better to ask than a Primary (and 12 isn’t one of the numbers =).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well, that’s all I’ve got… All I’ve got time for, that is. =)
If I can find more insomniac hours before the finale tomorrow, maybe I’ll hunker down and assemble one final pre-finale dropping. Lucky you!
Okay. There’s just too much going on in my head to cover in one post. I’ve had a dozen or so false starts on posts since 02x11 “Resurrection.” I have a problem pulling back to talk about big picture stuff and keep getting sucked into probably-incredibly-unlikely what-if detaily bits.
Bleah.
So, what this is gonna be—what this is—is me walking thru the events we witness occurring from 1957 to 1959 in “Blood Washed Away.” I’m not touching the events that we saw unfold at 2044 Titan at all. Then I’ll explain what I think they might mean. I’ll admit, I’m going out on an ethereal limb here, but I find some stuff out there that I like, and even though it may not be suitable for prime time, I’m gonna take a look at it.
Do feel free to skip the two years of play-by-play and zip on down to “THE THING IS…” to get down to the nitty-gritty crazy. =)
1957 to 1959, APPARENTLY.
C+C spend 11 months in 1957 trying to identify the Primary as an employee at the Maxwell-Rigfield Manufacturing factory to no avail. Of course, it turns out that the Primary, Melinda, is the wife of Charlie, an employee and friend of Cole's. Charlie, whose life began in 2015, sent back in time from 2043 with a Messenger partner to kill Melinda.
Come November 7, 1957, Charlie is married to Melinda, who is suffering from cancer (and its chemotherapy, according to Charlie). His Messenger partner? Dead, circumstances unknown (I suspect that he's the nimrod who "fell" from the factory rooftop some time ago, tho). That mishap is part of some excellent choreography on the part of Charlie Messenger, as it removes the threat of his partner and sets the stage for the introduction of Reginald “Red Herring” Dupuy.
Melinda's paradoxidation is a bit perplexing to me. Emotionally, I get it. But Charlie-philosophically, it seems a bit muddy (after two viewings, maybe number three will clear it up).
She walks into the factory with the instrument of her own paradox—the bone dagger from the future. As a Primary, she has seen what happens to her, where, when, and how she is paradoxed. It happens at the factory and Charlie is the one who does it. In his words, Charlie is resistant…
CASS: You're one of the twelve. You're a Messenger.
CHARLIE: I was, but I won't be. Not to her. I can't hurt her.
CASS: She's Primary. If you paradox her, you'll destroy everyone—everything. Where's the other Messenger?
CHARLIE: He's dead. I'm not like them. Not everything the Witness said was true. Because when I saw you. I just…I couldn't do it.
In his deeds, however… Well, he accepts the box from Melinda, opens it, and takes the dagger in his hand. He is ready to use it. Melinda has a gun. Cassandra brought a gun. Cole brings a gun. If it's about ending Melinda's suffering, a bullet would do the trick, possibly near-instantly. However, Charlie chooses the dagger.
MELINDA: Do this…and we can live forever in the Red Forest like you said…
COLE: Charlie!
CHARLIE: I'm sorry, Cole. But you of all people should understand this.
Damn, that could mean so many things. Charlie doesn't just know Cole. As a Messenger, he knows ABOUT Cole. All of the gosh-shucks advice he gives him, he gives him knowing his actual Time Jesus-y circumstances.
CHARLIE: It's just so cruel. So when I say what I say, you know I know. Because when it comes down to it, the only thing you'll be wishing for is more time. Trust me.
And just a minute or two earlier…
CHARLIE: See? You do care. And whatever is stopping you two, it isn't worth it. This whole world could eat shit and die, It wouldn't matter if you were together.
An interesting echo of some of Jennifer's rambling on C+C in 2016…
JENNIFER: You know, like a kiss. You just have to close your eyes and let the world die. You can be with him.
So, Charlie seems to deny the Witness when he says not everything big W says is true. But in the end, he goes along with his mission, and Melinda's wish/Primary vision, and paradoxes the woman he loves, against his own word—he won't be a Messenger to her, he can't hurt her.
Of course, my take is that the Witness knew and planned on/for everything that happens as we saw it (see the aside above).
Charlie stabs Melinda. Cole gets a shot off, maybe hits Charlie, since his stab follow-thru has him facing Melinda, his back to Cole. The pink and gooey paradox effect seems to catch Cassie, but not Cole. Cole's paradox speed seems to kick in and he pulls her to the shelter of some machinery. We see the paradox effect blow out the windows of the factory from outside as flames from exploding tanks of something or other shoot out of them.
Nineteen days later we learn that Cassie is in a coma and no one else survived the explosion (none are as lucky as she is). Well, no one but Cole, who apparently was able to make himself scarce soon after. He visits her, surreptitiously, and explains to her that he is sorry that he failed, and that the best thing for her when she wakes up is to forget about him. And he leaves…
We then see that Cassie is reliving her trance sessions with Olivia, hearing her voice guiding her to the House of Cedar and Pine in the Red Forest.
Six months pass in a lighting and/or filter change (two seasons later, not a huge mystery, right?) and Cassandra wakes from her coma. That drops us into May 26, 1958.
No comment from the medical staff about Cassie's blood or any funky effects of the Quantum Serum. Maybe they don't have the technology to recognize that there's anything unusual? Fifteen years earlier, a physical didn't reveal anything unusual about Ramse's health (aside from the advanced localized osteoporosis). In any case, she must've been in a REALLY bad way if it takes her serum-enhanced physiology six months to heal her.
Another six months (November 26, 1958—Thanksgiving and Christmas soon) finds Cassandra working as a nurse for Dr. Ed, diagnosing Lyme disease years before it's officially recognized. I wonder if the boy she saves grows up to be someone important.
A few months later and it's 1959, and we learn that Cassie spends some of her downtime writing in the Emerson Hotel bar.
CASS: Where are you right now? Some place warm? Safe? Next to someone you love?
This must be the origin/creation of those words, familiar to us as voiceover we've heard in several episodes, first in Cole's voice, then in Cassandra's. This moment, their creation, as ink on paper, is interrupted when Cass turns to look at the man who's just ordered a whiskey sour. Alas, not James. We don't see if she continues writing, and which words follow, but it immediately makes me wonder under what circumstances does James ultimately read/recite them. After her death? Her disappearance? The words found in her belongings? Or planted in his pocket for him to find after some final mission or last stand.
Next, we see a bellhop pass along a message revealing that Cassie's been searching for Cole, at the speed of 1959. A search for Morris Morrison, the alias given to James by Jennifer Goines in 2016 (Jennifer enables Cassie to find him!), has turned up an address…
MORRIS MORRISON
10 OLD PINES RD.
BINGHAMTON, NY
Cassandra drives there and ends up parking in front of the House of Cedar and Pine, in reality, not the Red Forest. She approaches the house and finds James playing handyman beside it. He's just cut his thumb while sawing some wood for some home improvement project.
COLE: What are you doing here?
CASS: What are *you* doing *here*?
COLE: The house? It's mine. I bought it.
CASS: Why this house?
COLE: I was driving by, saw the "for sale" sign. Needs a lot of work. The hospital… They weren't sure if you were ever gonna wake up. But I knew you would.
And they exchange pointed words about hurting each other, and when Cassie feels she's gotten the last word in about James leaving her out of fear, she turns to leave… And it begins to rain. The red tea deja vu familiarity of the rain stops her, and she turns back to him and notices that he's bleeding. The healer in her kicks in and she offers to help clean it up. While doing that…
CASS: Easy…We have to wash it first. It's not as bad as it looked. Just bled a lot.
OLIVIA & CASS: Most of the blood has washed away…
The exact words from Olivia's red tea trance guidance. The rest of the words come back to Cass as she wanders into the next room and recognizes it as the room in which she was trapped while possessed.
She understands that Olivia, the Army, the Witness, they KNEW that this moment happens, exactly as it does.
CASS: Like a memory of tomorrow… They knew this place. This moment. You.
COLE: What are you talking about?
It's aggravating how she still doesn't spill everything. The most she's ever told anyone about her experience while red tea'd or possessed seems to be what she shared with Ramse, about being in the Witness's head while he was in hers and seeing Titan. No details about the environment of the Red Forest or the house. Boo…
If you're Cassandra, what are you thinking and wondering at this point? Does it dawn on you that Cole may be the Witness? Perhaps YOU are? Even if it crosses your mind, tho, no time for that! Gotta talk Cole out of giving up on saving the world again. Nope, he’s not hearing it. So, time to leave (again). Oh, but wait, Cole's saying ridiculous stuff about doing everything for me. Gotta straighten him out. Okay, I've said my peace. Huh. He just said that I don't have him. I’ve “succeeded” and there's nothing between us. Is that true? He looks pretty damn good, even in this creepy house. I better kiss him just to make sure there's nothing, and kiss him hard.
Yeah, that's probably not how her thinking goes, but you've gotta wonder, right? There do seem to be a couple of moments when she was ready to storm off/out, but she kept getting pulled back in by something, either some Red Forest deja vu or more bittersweet nothings with Cole. In the end, she kisses James and she's thankful she packed her 2015 underwear when she followed him to 1957.
When they started going at it, I thought of that wonderful Buffy-Spike homewrecking coupling. It’s a slight stretch, but I had a flash that these two serumed-up Project Splinter super-soldiers might very well replicate that scene here, and destroying the house could save them from a Red Forest fate, right? Alas, they exhibited no super-strength, and the house stands, intact and ready to be beamed to or re-created in the Red Forest. However, the episode did provide us with some intercut mayhem and some tres grandes morts to go with C+C's petite one. A pretty excellent bit of manipulation in its mix of despair and, umm, consummation. But also an aggravating bit of storytelling in its possible connection-by-juxtaposition of the two events. Sex and death—rock on!
The show's writers are a pack of wonderful bastards, aren't they?
THE THING IS…
Cole and Cassie fail to stop the Time-killing paradox of Melinda Primary by husband Charlie X. Messenger in November, 1957. However, the effects that we see do not seem to correspond to either Katarina's or Tall Man's expectations.
KATARINA: But we've picked up an enormous amount of temporal fallout between 1956 and 1958. The highest readings coincide with a single event… An explosion at a factory in New York on November 7, 1957. Hundreds of people were killed. The temporal signature indicates a massive paradox.
TALL MAN: A paradox so powerful, it destroys the fabric of time... At least locally... Enough to maintain erosion forever. The birth of the Red Forest.
This apparent inconsistency has me thinking that C+C's experiences from 1957 thru 1959 unfold in a bubble/pocket universe—a shared reality that exists for the two of them. One in which the paradox resulted in a fire at the factory which killed everyone except the two of them, but not in the fracturing of Time. In reality, however, the paradox decimated the factory and much of the surrounding area.
I've theorized that a massive paradox caused by the physical confrontation of the mature Witness with his younger self creates the Red Forest. That the effect of the paradox of contact of a living time traveler (possibly Primary) with himself would result in blasting a chunk of the world out of reality and into the limbo of the red tea zone. This chunk would include the region that becomes the Red Forest and the house on its edge and also result in trapping the younger Witness within it. The older Witness might survive, resolved by the cosmos back into reality, and broken out of his loop, or, he may simply be disintegrated.
So, when I heard both Katarina's and Tall Man's descriptions of the 1957 event, I really hoped this is what we'd see.
Alas, not exactly. Not quite. But "not quite" could still be pretty frickin cool.
I want to reach a bit now and say that the paradox-affected region covers at least as far as Binghamton and the Emerson, with C+C as the only survivors, serumed individuals caught nearly at the center of the event. But they don't survive in reality. The paradox has bumped them *out* of reality, into the red tea zone, the realm outside of time and the limbo into which the cosmos shunts paradox remainders. A release valve for temporal pressure and inconsistencies. This is the realm in which the Witness "lived/lives" until he departs for Titan. The realm those who partake of the red leaf visit via astral projection.
We are seeing C+C living out their lives on an astral plane, a mental "Matrix" of a virtual reality. Why does it look and feel the way it does? Well, I'm not certain if the environment and its population of NPCs are…
Duplicates, based on reality at the time of the paradox…
Constructed by the Witness, designed to his liking…
The product of C+C's own unconscious/subconscious thoughts and expectations.
So, the house that Cole chooses to buy might have been real, at 10 Old Pines Road in Binghamton, New York, and been consumed or "read" by the paradox front and transported to or replicated in the red tea zone. Or the Witness used his mind to shape the mental clay of the red tea zone to produce it, knowing that it would appeal to Cole from the outside and trigger Cass's programmed deja vu on the inside. Or Cassandra subconsciously shapes the red tea zone to create the house, based on her memories of the house as suggested by Olivia from the outside and visited when possessed.
I pondered the possibility that the bubble might be filled with and inhabited by everything and everyone caught in the radius of the paradox event, but given how much geography is covered—from Binghamton to Manhattan to wherever the Maxwell-Rigfield factory was—and that 1957-1959 includes technology that connects any place to the rest of the world, I'm not going to follow up on what that could mean in this post. But I'd love the logic of it. Alas, I think that those non-serumed individuals caught in the paradox died, perhaps experiencing the chaotic aging effects of the anomalies seen in 2044.
So what is the meaning or purpose of this bubble universe?
It's kind of what Desmond thought the Sideways universe was in LOST. It's like the Fortress of Solitude in SUPERMAN II (did anyone else get that vibe?). It's like the Mars in ANGRY RED PLANET and that one Martian Chronicle. It's like the virtual reality of the Library Planet. It's SOLARIS. It's Mabel's Prison Bubble from Weirdmageddon. It's the Nexus from STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. It's a honeypot world. A trap which gives you your heart's desire/s. A trap meant to keep Cassandra and/or Cole from pursuing the mission and meddling any further in the Witness's grand design.
What will it take to free them?
CRAZY TALK…
C+C begin to build a home together. They make plans that don't involve weapons and ammo checks or Splinter coordinates. They have lots of sex, and one of those sexytimes results in a pregnancy. Or rather, it will. We may not actually find out that Cassie's pregnant. Maybe we do, but maybe not. What we do find out, what we and Cole get, is a visit. A visit from their fully grown and mature daughter—possibly granddaughter?—named Lillian (Madeleine Stowe’s character). I want to say granddaughter, because if C+C have a daughter, how do they NOT name her Katarina or Jennifer, right? Hrm… But I suppose she could be their second daughter… Okay, I’ll allow it. Daughter Lillian appears to Cole one day, relatively soon after we last see him in "Blood Washed Away.""
Is she real? If C+C have children in the bubble universe, in the red tea zone, are they real? I'm going to say real enough and you're going to pretend that that's an answer.
When Lillian reaches puberty, she begins to experience visions, she becomes one of Time's neurons, a Primary. As a Primary within this bubble, she becomes aware of the experiences of other Primaries within the bubble and perhaps without. She knows about her grandparents and their time traveling history. She sees the screaming monkey. She sees the Witness.
In the future-meantime of the bubble, a scientist named Elliot Jones develops time travel into the future. His early tests of the technology result in the transformation of English Ivy into red leafed ivy. Lillian seeks it out and experiments with it, learns to navigate the red tea zone outside the bubble. From C+C's bubble future, she travels to C+C's bubble present, where and when she will explain to her not-yet-but-always-father the true state of their existence and experience. They are in a trap. They must break out. Yes, it will mean Lillian's death or deletion, but as a Primary, her duty is to the preservation of Time and Reality. Sadly, it seems many Primaries are wired to be satisfied with, even dedicated to, their envisioned, apparently predestined, fates. Also, hopefully, as a Primary, she has seen that she will succeed in freeing them, in freeing their minds.
I think that once she shows them a flaw in the logic or environment of their bubble world, it will begin to fall apart. Perhaps it will require that both C+C see it and acknowledge it, and that will be an issue (I'm looking at you, Cole). But in the end, they break out. Maybe they take advantage of some Neo-like abilities in the red tea zone and conjure up some advantages to take with them once the bubble bursts. I can see the burst being a transformation of their world, with the House of Cedar and Pine as ground zero, into the Red Forest.
That would be lovely.
But how do they get back to reality? Well, with the bubble gone, they are loose in the freshly minted Red Forest, the hottest property in the limbo of the red tea zone. If time flows at all in the zone, it's going to be wonky. Maybe Lillian will have given them instructions/Primary wisdom to follow, but maybe once the Red Forest is revealed, Cassandra will have a sense of what they need to do and where they need to go—Titan.
Remember, Cassandra saw Titan town through the window of the Witness's house. It appeared in the red tea zone without any fanfare, Red Forest-adjacent, and picked up the Witness. If C+C can catch the flow of time just right, or perhaps just camp out in the right spot and wait until Brigadoon Titan appears again/for the first time, they can hitch a ride back to reality, 2044, Colorado, by walking from the house right into Titan town.
If they beam into reality with Titan town at the right time, they may be able to prevent the deaths of their friends.
I can see Lillian and Cole engaged in a conversation similar to Yoda and Luke's in EMPIRE before he leaves to save his friends in the city in the clouds. =)
CRAZY TALK 2…
Adding a little wrinkle… In this scenario, Lillian is not C+C's daughter. She lives in reality, rooted in the/our present, 2016. She is a Primary and is aware of C+C's honeypot captivity, the Witness's manipulations, and the bleeding of Time. The skies above her are turning red. She has gained access to red leaf, perhaps thanks to Elliot Jones, maybe even Tall Man, and navigates the red tea zone to contact C+C in their bubble world. And everything after they meet plays out as it does in the first scenario.
Maybe Lillian is a best friend of Cole's mother. If Marion's best friend was a decently functioning Primary, it would explain how she was clued into the threat of the Army to her son James, right? And she'd be able to share something more than just destruction-of-Time intel with him, perhaps something that gets him to see beyond Cassie and the idyllic world of the bubble.
I'd like that.
WHAT NEXT?
Of course, none of the above covers any of the action in 2044. Says anything about Cole (or Cassie) not being the Witness. Includes none of my rambling on several zany Witness theories…
I’m my own worst enemy. So much so that I’d probably Katar an alternate self in the back in front of the Witness mainstage in Titan town.
I've come up with bits and pieces of a story-slash-theory to explain how several different characters might become the Witness when they grow up. I’ve dropped some of them in previous posts, but haven't been able to compose a decent "complete" story for any of them so far that fits all the data. The magically aggravating thing about the Witness's identity—given the events we've witnessed so far on the show (thru 02x11 "Resurrection"—turn back now if you haven't watched yet!), and the characters we've met: it really could be ANYone if you follow thru on the proper motivations and opportunities.
I *want* for it to be Elliot Jones, but I can't find legit motivation in what we've seen of him so far. If he knew he had a daughter, if we saw that he truly loved Katarina (I certainly believe he has affection for her), if he was more than an apparently techno-hippie egomaniacal genius, well…
Hrm…
Maybe that's enough? =)
I *can* come up with opportunities, but the reasons are kind of thin, or require just a bit too much imaginative heavy lifting on my part. For instance, one of my Elliot "Witness" Jones riffs posits that David Eckland is a temporal anomalitical opportunity seized by the Witness to romance Katarina again in reality—"a wild, romantic gesture to a beautiful woman all in the name of love." Cuz, if you subtract their scientific specialties—and allowing for a data set of two—I think you'll find that Katarina has a type. The science hippie, in attitude (both Jones and Eckalnd), at least, if not philosophy (only Eckland ever declares such belief, while Jones is quite focused on making a mark more than anything else).
I'd be okay with it being a grown up Samuel Ramse. But there's a lot of unaccounted for time in that. Easy enough to fill in with "indoctrination" of some kind, but I don't love that. A zany deus-ex (but then, what else would you call time travel, right?) that could go a long way to filling in the blanks—Samuel isn't blasted backward in time, but forward. To an era in which everything that he's experienced and learned about so far is history, and prelude to Something Good and/or Something Important. We've seen how Sam thinks the scales should tip with billions on one side and himself on the other. He demonstrates a particular moral and ethical clarity at a young age that could be the foundation for a Witness driven by the Greater Good.
The forward Splinter blast might work for Elliot-is-the-Witness, too, but I’m not certain that he’s got the moral balance to take on a post dedicated to the Greater Good.
I'd also be okay with it being a reluctant, for-the-greater-good(-and-also-Cassie), Cole. But would rather it wasn't, unless this is an iteration in which a decision by our Cole can change that. I think and hope he's still in the process of becoming, and isn't ready to be a final version of himself just yet.
I'd still love for the Tall Man to pull a Doctor Doom-y, Thanos-ian fast one on the Witness (only to discover it's always been him!). Some vulnerability, failsafe, or override, that he's had built into Titan. It's Tall Man's initiative to have the Army embrace technology in the first place. That sounds like just the kind of foundation on which to build a Witness. For him to take the place of the Witness, though, well, I don't know that I see a great motivation for it. What does he want? Power? Has he truly drunk the Word of the Witness Kool-Aid? Perhaps simply self-preservation. He does tell Olivia that he is off to secure their future, and describes Titan as insurance against the future, perhaps speaking for the Witness, but most certainly speaking for himself. Perhaps it's payback. A long game play that may have begun with Vivian Rutledge's resentment of the Witness after surviving her assassination of Tommy in 1944?
I'd *love* that.
But right now, if I had to pick someone for the Witness, if the men came, with their guns, I'd have to say…
RAMSE IS THE WITNESS.
He's already demonstrated that he believes that the life of his son is worth more than that of billions killed by the virus. He follows that up by choosing revenge on the Witness (his son's killer) over the preservation of Time and reality.
Yeah, Ramse's got the will for the job. But does he have a reason?
With Ramse, while he acknowledges both, it seems the needs of the one—Sam (and himself)—outweigh those of the many—the majority of humanity killed by the plague. Remember, Ramse's the one who convinced Cole to become Katarina's Splinternaut way back when. If he hadn't learned about Sam, he would probably still be 100%—well, okay, 87%—behind Katarina and her mission/s.
WHY?
So, why would Ramse become Witness? Well, those two motivations are still valid.
1. To save/rescue his son. Using the Witness's resources, he learns that Sam wasn't disintegrated and killed, but successfully Splintered. And, well, if he's the Witness, we've already seen him save Sam, by engineering the Core overload that zaps him out of 2044 Project Splinter to the mystery forest and meeting him there, in person or via minion or Immersed proxy.
2. To save the rest of the world (of the future, not the past). In part to make up for killing so much of it, in part to create/leave a world in which his son can live and thrive. Remember, Sam himself chided his father for counting him as more important/worthy/valuable than billions of strangers. Could Sam sit idly by while his father proceeds to ensure that happens again, only from the POV of the Witness? Ramse would surely have to do something to TRY to redeem himself. Given that the past must happen the way it's happened (at least until the Core overload), building a better future seems like the logical way.
WHEN?
But when does he become the Witness? Titan Town, 2044 seems like the ideal opportunity. Ramse is following Jennifer's Yellow Brick Road, off to kill the Witness!~
In his vengeful rage, I can easily see him pulling the trigger on the big W before looking under the/a mask. In fact, maybe he NEVER gets a chance to unmask the Witness—shooting him off of some precipice into the void or something—but once he kills him, he takes his place, the way he always has, once and future leader of the Army of the 12 Monkeys and Mayor of Titan town, in command of abilities and technology that will allow him to find and save his son.
And that's how he is there to meet his son when the Splinter Core overload zaps him from 2044 to the—I'm gonna say—1950s.
Thing is, he knows about C+C's mission to that era. What does he expect to happen? That he will team up with them to prevent the paradox that creates the Red Forest? Or does he need for that paradox to happen to ensure that he and his son survive? Hrm… Too many possibilities in that to guess, but remember the writing on the wall—1957-1959 THIS WAS HOME. What could that mean if the writer, the Witness, is a future Ramse?
That he and Sam lived, happily I think, for that time. But how is that possible if a paradox occurs at the beginning of that duration? Could those two years have been lived in the Red Forest? Sam and Ramse have never visited the Red Forest, so they wouldn't recognize the house of cedar and pine. Settling there for some father and son bonding wouldn't seem obviously dangerous or conspicuous.
SPECULATION…
This may be where my story frays and falls apart details-wise (not that my story thus far is exactly a detailed script to begin with : P). I still want to believe in the Tall Man's description of what happens in Upstate NY, 1957. A paradox so massive that it results in permanent temporal erosion and the creation of the Red Forest. It fits so nicely with everything that's come before. From Katarina, we learn that ground zero of the paradox is a factory explosion in New York on November 7, 1957.
Do you suppose that date coincides with the disappearance of four soldiers from Raritan Valley National Labs? What is the nature of the device or artifact brought to the lab at that time?
My ongoing theory has had a massive paradox encounter happen in the house itself (caused by one of our heroes meeting and confronting himself). The wave of the paradox swallows the house and the immediate surroundings removing them from reality and transporting them to the red tea zone, to become the Red Forest as we've seen it. Now, it seems, a factory may be the epicenter, and the house part of its surroundings. Paradoxing the factory may be how the raw materials for Project Titan are acquired, construction to be completed in the limbo of the timeless red tea zone. when it's complete, the technology within will enable the factory town to return and re-enter reality, to appear to anyone standing near those coordinates in Colorado as if it was built in an instant. A technological Brigadoon. And where/when would the Witness choose for Titan to touch down on reality? How about September, 2044? Just in time to pick up his younger self.
What about the 1957 paradox?
A CLUE IN THE WORD OF THE WITNESS?
The Word of the Witness refers to an "expected Primary" in 1957, but does not reveal a name. Jennifer mentioned that her Primary-ness kicked in with puberty, which makes a mutant-y kind of sense to me. So, if we're to trust the Word of the Witness, and the Tall Man, then C+C will be looking for an adolescent. The young Samuel Ramse.
The Messengers have been sent back to paradoxidize Sam. What would make this a more massive paradox than any other so far? Perhaps they assault Sam just as his Primary abilities manifest? Or maybe his time displacement has somehow supercharged him in some way, augmenting his Primary potential, and thusly priming his paradox to be more powerful.
IF RAMSE IS THE WITNESS, THEN…
I think Sam is the paradoxed Primary. Given the consistently tragic turns we see in this show, I have to ask—what's the worst possible scenario we can think of?
Ramse paradoxes his own son. Why would he do that? Some kind of ultimate Atari. But he would have to believe that his son wouldn't die. Maybe he knows that somehow? That would give him/them the two years together after the reported 1957 paradox. Hrm…
A not-worst scenario would have the Messengers succeed, due to C+C's distraction or failure. This would set Ramse against them, determined to manipulate time to preserve and save his son. He would be dedicated to re-creating the scenario of Sam's paradox death, but somehow replacing Sam's death with someone else's, creating a moment of choice/decision like Young Jennifer's in "Resurrection."
THE PARADOX…
Regardless of who paradoxes Sam, it happens, and the event swallows the factory, the house, and the surrounding fortress and drops it in the red tea zone. The blood of the Red Forest? The blood of all the unprotected, non-serumed people caught in the blast. Also, perhaps, the blood of anyone who ever dies in a paradox. My theory has been that the Witness ends up in the Red Forest due to a paradox involving himself. He loses his corporeal self and only his consciousness remains, inhabiting the house in the Red Forest.
Seems like what needs to happen is that Sam and Ramse are blasted into the red tea zone. They live together for some time until Sam, without the protection of quantum serum, dies or fades away. Ramse lasts longer, but begins to fade as well, as for whatever reason, he's never had complete protection from time. This is why he creates the "Plague Doctor" gear for himself.
Then, he waits. Spends his "time" in the Red Forest learning and mastering his abilities until Titan arrives to take him back to reality and give him his body back. Perhaps he takes the opportunity to run several Splinter missions to plant seeds of his centuries-spanning plan (i.e. visit Kirschner, perhaps seal the Pact of Time's Custodian). Then he waits to complete his cycle, to be killed (apparently) by his own, younger hand, only to rise again to truly continue his work. A nifty trick he learned from Brother Cole.
BACK TO TITAN…
I think that serumed-up, C+C survive the 1957 paradox in the factory, and are able to walk out once it touches down in 2044 Colorado as the completed Titan. Time moves around them, right? And paradox energy does funky things to a serumed-up traveler's speed and perception of time.
They hitch a ride w/the factory to Titan in time to meet the Witness with Jennifer and Ramse. Wacky fun ensues!
Or something.
This'll all probably be dinged hard by revelations in tonight's episode, but I wanted to get some version of my crazy talk out of my head and in front of me to revisit later. If you're still reading, hope you enjoyed the ramble.
Unmake history!
Keep on keepin' on~
P.S. This photo, posted by Sean Tretta, bugs me…
This seems like it clicks with the factory and its explosion. Who are these people? Why are they important? Are they important? Is this a crop of a larger photo of all the factory workers, and the Xes a tally of victims of the explosion?
Let's say these 12 are important. Who would be important in a paradox event? The ingredients of the paradox. What if the two remaining Messengers are sent to paradox more than one person this time, and none of them Primary (I find it hard to believe that 12 Primaries would happen to work at the same factory)? Could paradoxidizing 12 non-Primaries create the temporal event that Katarina detects and the Tall Man describes? What about removing 12 people whose actions, or whose descendants, have a significant effect on history? Would that produce an equivalent disturbance?
P.P.S. If tonight’s ep doesn’t totally obliterate the Elliot Jones possibility, maybe I’ll go back and try to sort that story out in a post.
This is a follow-up to some earlier Titan talk, offering a different path to the creation of Titan town. I don’t think I’ll be drawing from anything after 02x09 “Hyena” but FYI, I’m writing this after seeing 02x11 “Resurrection.”
ELLIOT JONES BUILDING TITAN TOWN…
At the end of episode 9, "Hyena," Elliot Jones meets with the Tall Man at stately Witness Manor. The Tall Man wants Elliot to helm Project Titan, an endeavor that Elliot characterizes as "massive." Tall Man implies that the purpose of the project is "resurrection" and explains that he needs it as "insurance" against "the future."
Ominous, no?
This is Elliot Jones, the Godfather of Time Travel, and he finds Project Titan daunting, requiring technology that would take decades to develop. But Even as he considers the impossibility of the task, he seems to be on the verge of a Eureka! solution. Remember, Titan itself isn't about Time Travel, but "resurrection." However, I think that Jones's problem-solving would naturally lead down a time-traveling path, and perhaps Tall Man (and the Witness) already know it. Elliot's work at Raritan Valley turns out to be a twofer! Laying the groundwork for Katarina to build on in the 2040s and also being the key to enabling the timely construction of Titan.
Elliot knows that his device (Project Splinter 2015) is capable of sending matter to the future, and before he was shut down, he was very keen on testing with primates and then humans. I had the feeling he was itching to travel to the future himself.
So, how would you use a device that can send you (and/or matter or information) into the future to build a machine, a complex, that would require decades of development, in the present? If you were a maverick of a scientific genius, you might start by doing a bit of research… Look for reports of any kind—news, science, criminal, intelligence, rumor, tabloid, folklore, anything—that might be connected to visitors from the future and/or their activities.
Perhaps your benefactor, Tall Man, Inc., would offer up its resources to help? Note: It seems that while Ethan Seki was playing front man for the Army's investments, the policy was to give no indication that they have any familiarity with successful time travel or knowledge of future events.
Maybe you even search for the project itself "Titan."
Sort of like "Remember a garbage can…Remember a garbage can…Remember a garbage can…," but in reverse. Kinda?
With the proper access/clearance, maybe in 2016 you uncover the same C.I.A. report that the Keeper prints out for Cass and Ramse in 2044. Perhaps you discover Agent Robert Gale's F.B.I. S-Files ("S" for Splinter =). In any case you collect enough intel to convince yourself that the past and present have been visited by chrononauts from the future, meaning that your device—or something like it—will be completed and perfected. So, if you can get a decent idea of when these time travelers came from (I'm fairly certain Cassie's statements to police must include that, right? And if not, then Gale's files certainly do), if you launch yourself to the proper era in the future—or BEYOND—you will be able to secure a ride back, and return with the knowledge of technology needed to realize Titan in the present, and if that's not enough, the ability to "make" all the time needed, between trips forward and back, to do so.
This time-hopping process of developing and building Titan does not require that Elliot Jones BE the Witness, although that's certainly possible (I've been thinking/hoping it could be him since we first met him). What it does require are friendlies on the other end of his trips to the future. Hrm…To ensure that, it seems like he *would* need the resources of the Tall Man and the Army. Given their purpose, they are built to plan, staff, and supply for the long term (i.e. the Messengers). Or perhaps the staff/crew of Titan itself (assuming it's populated—his older self? Hrm… a Witness-y possibility =) are his collaborators on the other end.
So, maybe it's as simple as Elliot Jones Splintering forward in time to when and where Titan is supposed to be built, finding it built, and then returning to the present—using the Witness's chronotech or Project Splinter's—with the technology required to build it. Other, less exciting possibilities include sending an agent, a message, or a device with a message in his place.
Of course, the most interesting time for him to Splinter forward to would be September 2044, when Jennifer and Ramse arrive at Titan town to kill the big W. Would be great to see Elliot give Ethan a piece of his mind concerning his career, right? And maybe/more importantly Jennifer and Ramse and company could influence (or kill) Elliot to change history so that Titan is never completed, or at least, easily destroyed/disabled, preventing the return of the Witness to the corporeal plane (that's what I believe "resurrection" involves).
