Collecting some bits and pieces that connect to the so-called Mandela Effect and M-Effect adjacent phenomena in the universe of MR. ROBOT. Note that this is no doubt far from comprehensive. As any watcher knows, this show goes deep. =)
Elliot’s employee ID number…
072391. As a date, this is July 23, 1991. The date on which Nelson Mandela died as reported in a non-non-fiction essay published in South Africa in 1991. Before the essay was identified as non-non-fiction, this was passed around as a possible artifact/proof of the Mandela Effect. The ME explains that the phenomena of a great many people remembering hearing that he died in the 80s when in fact he passed away in 2013 is the side effect of a manipulation of the past of our timeline (somehow imperfectly allowing for some people to remember the original, or earlier timeline’s history) or the memory/history of an alternate timeline somehow psychically bleeding into ours.
This Esmail Egg is not strictly speaking evidence on which to build a logical theory about the MR. ROBOT universe, but a wink and a nod for us, the audience, a hint, but, y’know, possibly a misleading one.
Project Berenstain…
The FBI runs an illegal surveillance initiative dubbed “Project Berenstain.” Within the world of MR. ROBOT, we’re not given a reason for this code name, but the first reference that comes to mind is the children’s book series, the Berenstain Bears. Why that would be associated with surveillance, I do not know, but maybe that’s the point in choosing a project name for the FBI. Not to be clever about it, but to name it according to some agnostic system or order—children’s book characters in alphabetical order?—and so, give nothing away about the nature of the program in the name, right?
However, in *our* universe, “Berenstain” is another collective memory glitch of the Mandela Effect. Many—including myself—remember the bears’ family name being spelled with an “e,” “Berenstein.” Seriously, I pronounced the name like “Einstein.”
Darlene’s a Sinbad fan!
In an episode this season we got a glimpse of Darlene’s monitor which showed her torrenting SHAZAAM (1996), a movie that I believe was manufactured by the Internet (as Photoshopped posters, cases, fake trailers) in response to another Mandela Effect glitch—a memory of Sinbad playing a genie in a kids movie. The movie that seems to have inspired that mismemory, or overwritten it, is KAZAAM (1996), which starred Shaq.
What does this mean?
I’m sure there are more Mandela Effect droppings in the world of MR. ROBOT, but this is all I’ve got in my head just now, sorry. Still, in a story with BACK TO THE FUTURE REFERENCES, discussions of alternate timelines, and a cameo by what appears to be a particle accelerator, I don’t (want to =) believe they’re insignificant.
Assuming these facts of the reality of MR. ROBOT matter, they tell me that what we’re watching on the show is an earlier iteration of our own reality. So, when we examine the world and history and people in MR. ROBOT, we are seeing the source of the apparent aberrations we are now pointing to as evidence of the Mandela Effect. In the universe of MR. ROBOT, the bear family was named Berenstein, Sinbad starred in Shazaam, and Nelson Mandela passed away in the 20th century (I don’t believe that last event was reported in the show in any way, but please allow me the zany extrapolation). Then *something* altered the history of that universe, maybe once, maybe multiple times, ultimate resulting in *our* universe, one in which the bears are the Berenstains, Shaq played Kazaam, and Nelson Mandela died in 2013.
Could that *something* be WhiteRose and the Washington Township project (transferred, recreated, or completed in the Congo)? Has WhiteRose worked out the psychohistorical math to send information back in time to alter history so that the Washington Township leak never happens, Edward Alderson and Emily Moss never get sick and die, their kids grow up with their parents to be very different people, and WhiteRose herself is reborn as B.D. Wong, star of stage and screen, as she’s always truly wanted to be? =)
Note that this bothers my brain a bit because in changing reality to change herself, WhiteRose may alter events so much that she will never acquire the resources to create and use a time travel device in the new reality (not that B.D. Wong couldn’t make it happen, I did say “may alter” =). If MR. ROBOT only allows for one precious universe/timeline, then that could result in a paradox (that may or may not be resolved by the universe itself somehow), but if it allows for multiple timelines, then she will have created a new reality (possibly ours), but not overwritten her current one. Sad.
If you like this idea, here’s a fun thought… Think of the universe of MR. ROBOT as the first, original timeline. If WhiteRose’s machinations lead to the creation of *our* universe and our Mandela Effect is real, then the Elliot and Angela and Dom and Tyrell that we’re watching have no equivalent to the Mandela Effect in their world. There are no memories or history of a previous iteration of reality to leak into theirs.
Also, if the universe is as good as a simulation and hackable, then something something something… =)
Take the day off!
Something I’ve noticed that I consider ME-adjacent, in that it reinforces for me the experience of MR. ROBOT as an alternate reality…
When you compare the dates in MR. ROBOT to the days of the week they should fall on in our world, when it’s noted, they appear to be one day off. Someone pointed this out to me in season 1 or 2 but I can’t remember the details. I think it must have been about 5/9. In season 3, I noticed it when several people refer to the execution of Stage 2. They give the date as September 29 (2015) and refer to it as a Monday. On our calendars, 9/29 fell on a Tuesday.
I also found this little rabbit hole…Dom’s badge number: 22958. At least, I think that’s what it is. She identifies herself by it when she calls OpCenter for help. As a date, it becomes February 29, 1958. A leap day, but one that never actually happened! And the title—as ”Feb 29, 1958″—of a poem by Allen Ginsberg about a dream he had “last night” of meeting T. S. Elliot (aka Terribly Sexy Elliot). I’m no poemologist, but I take the the poem to be Ginsberg recounting a dream of himself dreaming of an evening spent with an imagined version of his hero. MR. ROBOT-y enough for you?
Gonna ramble on some Big Ideas that might explain what’s going on in the WhiteRosey sectors of MR. ROBOT…
WHITEROSE CAN HACK REALITY.
The universe is a simulation, or at least effectively functions and exists as one, and WhiteRose is able to hack it. Currently only to a degree. She can copy and paste elements that exist and have existed in the universe. She can edit them, but only in certain ways. She currently has limited write permissions.
We've seen her do this when she copied a young Angela from the past and pasted her into the present to interview the adult Angela.
We also saw *someone* do this when Trenton's brother (who actually left town with his parents) was copied and pasted onto the beach next to Elliot. Each of these instances was edited, tailored to accomplish a certain task. This is the kind of "undo" that WhiteRose has promised and tantalized Irving and Angela with.
However, he cannot yet deliver what Angela wishes for—the return of her mother and Elliot's father, hale and hearty. Editing them to the degree that they would be cured and healthy is currently beyond WhiteRose's power. She needs to proceed with her Congo project in order to gain that ability. WhiteRose's ultimate goal is to be able to edit the universe so that she can make lasting and stable changes, for herself, and to herself. In order to achieve that, anyone and everyone may be expendable, but also revivable.
WHITEROSE HAS A TIME MACHINE.
WhiteRose already possesses time travel capability, and she's used it countless times, each time tweaking events to get closer to an ultimate desired result. She doesn't believe in coincidence because when it occurs around her, she's had a hand in manufacturing it. In the events and timeline we see unfolding on the show, Elliot Alderson is the right person with the right connections and experiences in the right place at the right time for what WhiteRose needs to be done. I do not think that WhiteRose's time travel allows for a person to get into a DeLorean in 2015 and step out of it in 1985. Instead, what she can do is send herself (and maybe others) information. Maybe it's "psychic," a la PRINCE OF DARKNESS, but I prefer to think it's electronic, a la STEIN'S GATE. An email with an attached document sent from her personal server in 2015 to her AOL address in 1990.
How would this help WhiteRose? I'm gonna run thru a couple of *hypothetical* loops to demonstrate…
Let's say that in a previous iteration of the universe, WhiteRose identified Edward Alderson, Elliot's dad, as a useful tool in a takedown of ECorp and the global economy. He was poisoned by ECorp and had the coding/hacking chops to damage them. WhiteRose could have used her resources to encourage him to make the attempt. It fails. Edward can only do so much damage to ECorp in the 90s before he dies. However, his son grows up to be an accomplished hacker at a time when ECorp is committed to digital records and vulnerable to a catastrophic attack. But for whatever reason, this Elliot doesn't have the drive to pursue such a course. At the same time WhiteRose, Zhang, and the Dark Army try many paths to sink the economy and gain leverage for acquiring the Congo, but none pan out.
When WhiteRose believes she's exhausted her options in that iteration, she assembles an information payload—added to the one she received from her previous older self—for her younger self. ZIPs it, attaches it to her Chronomail, and hits [SEND]. The next iteration begins. This time, WhiteRose tweaks details at the Washington Township plant so that Edward dies earlier (perhaps by stepping up the timeline of her pet project there?). In the wake of his father's death, this Elliot makes toppling ECorp his lifelong goal. He grows up and assemble the fsociety team, but he's too reckless, and he gets himself caught or killed. His aggression needs to be tempered. He needs to be introduced to some already available channels instead of brute forcing his way every step of the way. Again, WhiteRose has many irons in the fire, but none prove successful. She assembles a new payload, updated with this iteration's edits and outcomes, and clicks [SEND] again.
The next iteration begins. This time, WhiteRose engineers events so that Elliot has a sister and a best friend who share his interests and motivation. Darlene is another hacker, naturally more reckless than Elliot, enough so that Elliot has to step up his responsible side. Angela is another victim of ECorp, whose shared orbit guides Elliot to a position beside her at AllSafe. This Elliot wants to take down ECorp, has the skills and access, and is levelheaded enough to accomplish it. However, when he does the math and comes up with an unavoidable body count, he cannot go through the hack, at least not 100%. WhiteRose takes notes and launches the next payload into the next iteration.
This time, WhiteRose somehow gets Edward to reveal his illness to Elliot in secret, leading to the first time Edward pushes his son out the window, and so, the introduction of Mr. Robot. Everything goes nearly perfectly, but the hack is thwarted. There's one piece missing, and WhiteRose thinks she's located the raw material from which to carve it. She adds her new experiences and insights to the next payload and begins the next iteration.
This is the one we're watching. The one in which Elliot breaks his father's trust, angering him enough to push him out a second story window, creating Mr. Robot. The one in which Mr. Robot recruits fsociety and plans the hack. The one in which Angela's influence gets Elliot to the place he needs to be—Allsafe—to enable Mr. Robot's hack. The one in which they both meet Tyrell Wellick, the final (perhaps) piece of the puzzle, and low and behold, a bloodless 5/9—well, y'know, not counting the aftermath—and leverage enough for WhiteRose/Zhang to acquire the Congo!
If this is the furthest that WhiteRose has gotten, then she is in truly uncharted territory. We've seen how she has numerous strategies in play (influencing the media to pump up a certain pompous buffoon's Q rating), and I think it's in that same vein that she turns to Grant for his advice in light of Elliot's proposal of Stage 3, something that would not have come up in any previous iteration of events. WhiteRose has the coltan mines of the Congo now. Maybe Elliot *has* outlived his usefulness. No doubt she's already made notes for her younger self to take steps to quell the unrest in the Congo so that her pet project can be transported there hassle-free in the next iteration.
And what is her pet project? Her ultimate goal? Y'know, assuming she's already got this method of time travel? What could top that?
What about the ability to run these iterations as simulations, allowing her to not have to *live* each iteration? Not that she feels it, but intellectually, for a hacker of time, that's got to be aggravating, right? Of course, each of those simulations is an iteration, too, so a subjective, paradoxical advance.
How about hacking reality? Basically, the ability I discuss in my first theory. I feel like WhiteRose's ultimate goal involves taming cosmic forces to perhaps selfishly right a personal (cosmic) wrong. Did Zhang ever have a sister? Do Zhang and WhiteRose each wish to live as two separate beings? Or is WhiteRose her true self, and Zhang a mask? Would WhiteRose wish to recode herself as a biological woman? Or somehow able to transform at will? Perhaps her pet project, once complete, can realize these wishes.
This would also make her promise to Angela a deliverable one, as I describe above.
TIME TRAVEL AND STUFF…
I would *love* for WhiteRose to have or be working toward, classic pulpy scifi time travel, but I just don't see it working out. Assuming that's the goal, and that she achieves it, she can't use time travel to go back and change or fix anything without endangering the machinations she engineered to enable it in the first place. Which logically means she can only go forward in time, and aside from hoverboards and gambling, where's the fun in that, right?
Huh. Something (zany) just occurred to me. Maybe she wants to go *all the way* forward, to the Singularity and/or Omega Point. Sorry, "and/or" because I forget if they're mutually exclusive. I’m fuzzy on the details of each. In any case, once then-there, assuming there isn't some fascist super villain who's somehow able to dominate the state, WhiteRose can live or relive any life she would want…or something. Right?
Yeah, like I said, that *just* occurred to me.
Multiverse-hopping also sounds like fun, but I'm not seeing the upside to that, either.
Maybe WhiteRose has been contacted by an alternate version of herself and given instructions on how to bridge and cross 'verses, but to what end? A Council of Cross-Time WhiteRoses who manipulate markets and technology across timelines? I'd *love* that, but it seems incongruous with the fabric and feel of the MR. ROBOT we've watched for three seasons.
Maybe WhiteRose speaks of these things in earnest with certain parties in order to manipulate them, as dramatically seen with Angela. Irving has mentioned that he doesn't find the possibility of some kind of undo (Angela and Irving never name it) completely unbelievable, and I love the idea that such a promise is part of Irving's motivation, but just as likely is the notion that Irving is toeing the line with Angela, saying what he's supposed to say to keep her motivated.
But you *know* Irving wants WhiteRose to deliver a reality in which BEACH TOWEL is a huge best seller and optioned for an HBO series, right? =)
Some last bits of crazy talk…
Washington Township has been the home of WhiteRose’s project for a very long time. If time travel is in play, maybe it’s only available for the lifetime of the functioning core of that project. How the heck is she having that “packed up” and moved to the Congo? Or is she having a second/newer facility assembled there?
What properties of the DRC region and/or coltan would be so valuable to the presumably exotic science involved in WhiteRose’s project? EM radiation? Magnetism? Radioactivity?
The Mandela Effect is visible everywhere in the show—and I *love* it—but maybe that's just the reality that this show lives in.
I'd like for there to be an opposing force to WhiteRose, someone we haven't met yet, who's playing the game at her level, or maybe even one level above, unknown to WhiteRose. Maybe it's a future Elliot. Or someone we've been told is dead. Or an alternate WhiteRose. Maybe Elliot's landlord (is that Guillermo del Toro or G. G. Martin? =) is the Yoda to WhiteRose's Emperor?
I think that someone or organization has repurposed Flipper's chip and is using him to track or spy or spoof Elliot and Mr. Robot. Krista's dick ex returning Flipper to Elliot as a curse on him was just a bit too dramatic for me to be legitimate.
Does WhiteRose know that Elliot shares his body with Mr. Robot? Does she *recognize* this dual persona existence because she does the same with Minister Zhang? Were WhiteRose's parents exposed to the same poison cocktail that killed Elliot and Angela's parents, but under different circumstances?
I know I've got more crazy talk in my rusty innards, but it's not coming to me just now. Hopefully events and revelations in this week's episode will rule some of it out. Just as likely, tho, it will inspire more. =)
A transcript—so, y’know, *SPOILERS*—of the opening to season 3 episode 2 of 12 MONKEYS. Our hero, Jennifer Goines, finds herself in 1920s Paris, having survived being dropped into the trenches of WWI four or five years earlier…
Where am I right now? Somewhere warm? Safe? With people who care about me? Nope. Not me! Some of us got left behind. So, what do you do when you're stranded in the wrong place…? The wrong time…?
JENNIFER: Just take these and mail them to America in 95 years.
PRIEST: We'll all be dead in 95 years.
JENNIFER: Then get God to do it.
PRIEST: You're insane.
What do you do when not even God will help? You accept that the only one you can rely on is yourself.
How do you send a message to the future? How does ET phone home?
You need a venue. You gotta make a splash big enough to hit ‘em a hundered years from now.
Make ‘em laugh!
[ CHAPLIN ]
Make ‘em cry!
[ E.T. ]
Give ‘em what they want!
[ ALIEN (a masterful production =) ]
Just when you've got ‘em right in the palm of your hand…
[ JAWS ]
…you hit ‘em w/the goods!
Your message—your piece de resistance! The story you were born to tell!
GODDESS: People of Earth…I am the Goddess of Time. I have traveled many centuries to vanquish my enemy…the Witness.
WITNESS: Never! Despite your mesmerizing beauty and your luxurious hair, my army will destroy all of time!
GODDESS: No, you won't! [Thrusts sword.]
WITNESS: [Gags.] Blood! Blood! Blood! [Croaks.]
GODDESS: The Army of the 12 Monkeys is no more! Now, I must travel back to my own time!
Je Splinter! (I splinter!) The end.
[ Francois tears up the poster for L’ARMEE DE 12 SINGES. ]
JENNIFER: But Francois, give it a chance! If you don’t advertise, how will I build an audience?
FRANCOIS: No one understands “time travel”!
JENNIFER: Uh, the smart ones do.
FRANCOIS: Do the space one! Or something with magic. People love magic.
JENNIFER: But I need this to be a hit! For the history books! So I can be discovered!
I do believe that Sean and/or Terry have just revealed their true purpose behind 12 MONKEYS (and perhaps a version of the show’s behind-the-scenes struggles?). They've created the show—and its audience—as a message in a bottle, tossed into the timestream, to be recovered by *their* Lasky, Adler, and Jones. I do hope that their Team Splinter finds this post and comes back for them!
But, y’know, maybe not til they fix the mess that we call reality—*cough*2016election!
Some last-minute SEASON 3 thoughts and wishful thinking…
TUNING FORK/TEMPORAL FENCE?
I still like my previous thoughts on this device as something that helps James focus his abilities, or as a piece of appropriated Witness/Black Hat tech that he psychometrically reads.
However, over the weekend I caught an ad on Syfy that shows James apparently planting the/a fork in the ground, like a flag. Maybe he just needed to support his weight on a trek or climb, but it really had the feel of a claim or border staking, y'know? Makes me think that it may be used to set up a spacetime perimeter, perhaps to protect a region of time and space around 2044 and the Splinter Facility. Or maybe a temporal roadblock, to protect the past from further interference from the future. The idea would be that wherever and whenever these forks are planted some kind of temporal interference wave would be generated, causing time traveling and time scanning tech originating from the future to read only noise. Maybe only one needs to be placed, maybe a set of them, to define a fence, wall, or ring.
Hrm…Maybe it's a temporal perimeter alarm, a tripwire for an early warning system for Cole and Team Splinter?
THE BLACK HATS.
Are the hats functional? A component that's paired with the vests? And matching shoes and gloves? Is there a lot of rain (or too much sun?) in the far future? Or in the red tea zone? The rain always HAS washed away most of the blood, right?
What about the style/design? We look at the Witness in Titan, and his followers all wear uniforms based on his garb. So, just for the heck of it, let's assume the Black Hats are doing the same, dressing to honor and identify with their leader. Who do we know that kind of owns that silhouette?
Tall Man! Possibly and/or Tall Dad, now that we've seen him.
So, I'm predict-o-hoping that we'll see Tall Man stage a coup in Titan, having recruited a chunk of the Witness's followers to his own brand of Time-entology, and scarper off to some hidden Time fortress or zone of his own. Could there be a second Titan? Why build one when you can have two for twice the price, right? From there he did/can/will launch his attacks on our Team Splinter and the Witness in order to ensure some cosmic outcome or order—or chaos, he seems to like that—of his own.
I really do like that option. He gets to throw off the rigid fate-itude of the Witness's machinations. He gets to kick the Witness in the pants for deceiving his Messenger mother (Mantis/Vivian/Mother). And with a Time force of his own, he will get the chance to "set things right." Remember what she told Tall Boy on her death bed in 1971…
MOTHER: Have faith that the Witness has spoken, and that one day you, my son, will set things right…
And he can launch his coup while the Witness is weak, a child or adolescent, still learning the Witness trade. Remember, he's *safe* in Titan. No one's saying he's *powerful* in Titan. Maybe Tall Man's schism is history to the Witness's personal timeline, but (intentionally?) hidden from him since he was a child or youth at the time and required/requires TM's apparently faithful service in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
In any case, if Tall Man does break away with his own Time-tech-savvy army, he becomes a perfect greater enemy to both Team Splinter and the Witness.
JENNIFER + DEACON!
DEACON: See something you like, Granny?
JENN: Not yet.
Jennifer 2044 recognizes Deacon and we think the "not yet" refers only to the scar on his face. I think and hope now that it means Deacon himself, whom Jennifer 2016 will eventually fall for. They have the clever/snarky pop culture common ground and "self preservation was never my thing" could probably apply to both of them at the right time. Also, crazy as it seems, Deacon killing her was kind of the ultimate ice breaker. A testament to the talents of the creators and writers.
I love it when Deacon nods in approval at…
JENN: It's better to have a hen today…then an egg tomorrow.
What's the best "ship" tag for them? #Jenncon? #Deanifer? #Teddifer? #Jennodore?
And of course Deacon survived the attack on Titan! He's safe under that dumpster—duh! =)
Seriously, tho. He definitely survived. He's f@cking Deacon! Captured, maybe, scarred, definitely, but not dead. I like him for an unlikely knight of Time. I saw some fan art that evoked for me the Hound of GAME OF THRONES—Deacon Clegane. I so want that. Protector of one Mother (of the Witness) and partner of another (of the Daughters)?
FURTHER (PAST) ADVENTURES OF AGENT GALE.
I really need the S-Files ("S" for "Splinter" =) of Agent Robert Gale revealed this season. At least ONE of them, pretty pleez?
GALE: Y'know, Cole. I've known you a long time…
COLE: Whaddyamean? We met once, in 44, right?
GALE: Right…
And I *so* want his granddaughter to be staking out the Emerson in the hopes of meeting, and helping, Cole and company. Remember, there was an empty TaB can in room 607.
TITAN ICON/SIGN OF THE WITNESS.
I'm really hoping we'll see a meaningful origin or explanation of the Titan icon. It evokes a figure and an arrow. Seeing an arrow in the world of 12 MONKEYS, I think of Time. So it makes sense that it would be a representation of the Witness himself—a being of Time. Who first makes the mark, tho? I know the teaser showed us the icon painted in red (blood?) on a wall, with Jennifer and probably young W gazing at it, but I'm not convinced that's the moment of its creation. Does it create itself? Copied from one of the pendants? Perhaps it originates with the Druze, once they learn what the Witness is and can do. It's their sign for him, glazed into their centuries-old pottery time capsules.
Other ways to read the glyph? It could be two figures, defining the arrow with the space between them. Cassie and Cole? Back-to-back step dancing? =)
I wonder if it tessellates interestingly. I think the result would give us a kind of a mask, not Witness/plague doctor shaped, tho. Maybe its first inscription is in a different orientation, as an arrow pointing to something.
THAT KID.
Remember that time when Whitley, Deacon, and company were on patrol while the red skies were moving in? They run into a kid whom they assume came from a closeby refugee settlement…
KID: They're all gone…
WHITLEY: Your parents…They get caught in it?
KID nods, then walks back into time storm…
Think we'll get to see the other side of that storm this season? See where and when that kid came from as well as who his parents are?
Of course I *want* him to be young Witness, and his parents, "caught in it," would be Cassie and James. Maybe little Hot Pocket is being put through some tests or training by Tall Man using the splinter tunnels of Titan, or experiencing the onset of his temporal abilities in an unexpected and uncontrolled way.
Only two days til the 3-night event! Guess we'll get some answers soon enough =)
My third installment of trailer breakdown crazy talk. If you’ve got the time, please check out the first ramble (covering the trailer bits from start to finish).
This post is going to include some more thoughts on the first clips of Cole in the post-apoc, the meaning of one of Cole's line that seems to be about passing on some undesirable traits to his son, a description of how to Kat and James can back at/to the future, a connection between the Witness's ensemble and the Black Hats' Time Vests, and—surprise surprise—probably a few tangents.
********************
James and the Giant Fork
Early in the trailer, we see James standing outside the Splinter facility, time tuning fork in hand, the camera moving around him just a bit. The trailer then cuts to him standing in what looks to be a post-apoc Times Square. The camera is behind him in this shot, but still moving around him just a bit.
I rambled a bit about the possible functionality of the Time Fork—that it enhances his “James Cole doesn’t need a time machine” abilities, allowing him to induce and better navigate red-leaf-tea zone visits at will—but didn’t realize that we were being shown proof of it in those clips.
What if those clips are part of the same camera move around Cole, and what’s happening is that he is scrolling through time and space, similar to how 2044 Jennifer guided Katarina through spacetime during their mad red tea party. So, the full scene would start w/the camera in front of Cole, with the lab behind him. Then the camera moves in a circle with Cole its focus in the center while time and space change around him, showing us what he sees as he messes w/the 4-way rocker switch on his Time Fork controller, attempting to dial in a specific moment and location.
I suspect that this ability may only be a form of mental/astral projection, allowing him to see and hear what happens at a certain time and place, but not actually physically visit. MAYbe with some practice he can possess someone other than himself, tho, and affect things via a host body, the way the Witness can and has.
Time Fork? Time Trident? Time Bident? Timedent? Time Tongs? Chrono-prong?
COLE: If there's something wrong with him, he got it from me…
Cole apparently wants to take responsibility for his son’s darkness or wrongness…
As Hank Hill would say—That boy ain’t right.
However, I want to believe that line of Cole’s about his son getting something wrong from his side of the family isn’t be about guilt or self-hate or a darkness within him, but an actual physiological issue. Cole’s pretty literally a freak of nature right now. The oldest Splinter-based time traveler around, known to Primaries of several generations, only known survivor of a personal physical paradox, and mental time traveler.
What if he’s concerned about passing on some dangerous condition to his boy? Hrm…When we’ve seen the Witness in his tricked out Plague Doctor get-up, there’s been…machinery, right? Possibly something along the lines of a respirator or life support. Maybe that’s exactly what it is. Maybe the child of two time skippers is fated to be formidable in the mental and temporal planes, but frail in the physical one?
Or better/worse yet, what if he’s worried about passing on special abilities?
What if what’s important about little Hot Pocket is not that he *is* the Witness, or grows up to be the Witness, but that he’s the ideal *vessel* for the Witness. As the offspring of two Splinternauts, one of them uniquely favored by Time (as Lillian put it—James Cole don’t need no stinkin’ time machine!), it would come as no surprise if Jimmy, Jr. exhibited abilities similar to his parents, the Messengers, and even Primaries, and perhaps some beyond them.
Back to the 80s =)
I like to think so many things about this. I’m really hoping it’s not just 15 seconds out of a 2 minute montage that shows Team Splinter walking thru the Emerson in eight different eras wearing eight sets of characteristic wardrobe.
I love that James is basically dressed as Marty McFly, a callback to season 1…
COLE: Still don't believe me, do you?
AARON: I believe this cult is real, but no, I don't think you're Marty McFly.
COLE: Who?
Is there any way they’re doing a 21 JUMP STREET, infiltrating a high school dance or prom at the hotel? Please o please? =)
What would the prom theme or song be—”Time After Time?” “The Time to Remember?” “We’ve Got Tonight?” “The Power of Love?” =)
What are the odds that Jennifer Goines put together everyone’s ensembles for this particular mission?
If they’re stuck in the 80s for a while, with some downtime, Jennifer should really be taking them on field trips to the movies. If not for simple entertainment value, then as educational resources, so that the rest of Team Splinter can better understand Primary Jennifer’s eccentric way of expressing herself.
The clock on the mantel in room 607 is also frozen on 10:04, right? Will we get to see the moment/reason that stopped the Emerson’s clocks? In my earlier post, I wondered if we might meet Agent Gale’s granddaughter, Roberta…
Maybe she’s inspired by the Emerson’s clocks to add that detail to her screenplay for BACK TO THE FUTURE? =)
Getting Back at/to the Future!
I’ve got a good scenario to go with this moment…
At the end of season 2, we see Cole get into the chair and splinter away. The splinter beam is blue-white, same as it’s always been when Jones sends someone to the *past.” I imagine that what Jones does next is get in the chair herself after setting the controls to splinter her to the same coordinates as Cole—Raritan National Laboratory, sometime between 2015 and 2040, let’s say 2024, just for the heck of it.
The image above is what greets them…Project: Splinter…mothballed. Remember, after Ramse’s henchman is found dead in the lab, Elliot Jones’s project is shut down (thus freeing him up to work on Titan). In the wake of the spreading plague, the facility would be shut down, secured, but unmanned.
Why would Kat and James jump back to a time when Splinter was shut down? So that they could use the machine to splinter into the future! Remember, Elliot Jones’s machine succeeded in sending Cassandra Railly (and English ivy) decades into the future. Note that the splinter beam for those events appeared gold, not blue. We see a golden splinter seconds later in the teaser…
Remember…
GOLD : to the future
BLUE : to the past
GREEN: to the present (time travel without the time =)
RED: failure/malfunction?
I suggest that when Katarina and the rest of her team revived the Beast in the 2040s, and configured it for travel into the past, they disabled its to-the-future capability. Perhaps it’s still possible in 2044, but would require significant mechanical and electronic overhaul, practically impossible for Jones without her team.
So, in order for James to make a jump ahead to catch Titan in the future, he needs to jump back to 2024, so that he can jump forward to 2163.
And in that shot of the cloaked Beast, we’re seeing Katarina first arriving in 2024.
At least, that’s my theory. It could also be that 2163, or some other year, post-2044, after she and Team Splinter have had to leave the temporal facility for an extended time, maybe even before it happens in her personal timeline.
But I really like the idea of one step backward, two steps forward to get to the future. =)
From the Witness’s Suit to the Black Hats’ Vests…
Somewhere in my 12 MONKEYS ramblings, I wondered about the Witness’s need for a life support apparatus. The first few times we see him on the show, the mask seemed like it might decorative, serving to hide his identity while instilling fear in those who see him, as well as associate him with plague doctors, and so, plagues.
In later appearances, we see that the mask seems to be sealed, its sockets holding eyepieces/lenses, and its “beak” connected via hoses to a breathing apparatus under his robe, attached to his body. So, the Witness wears some kind of life support or encounter suit. Why?
I had several thoughts…
1. His travels thru time have taken a physical toll on his health and body. Also in line with that, he may be extremely long lived, and although he may be aging slowly, he’s lived long enough that even the serum-enhanced metabolism passed down to him from his parents can only do so much in the face of centuries of life.
2. The suit and mask provide enhancements to his natural or scientifically augmented time-associated abilities—mental and physical time travel as well as some kind of vision. Maybe it provides him a controllable dose of red leaf extract on demand to activate and/or supe up those powers. Like Time-Bane.
3. The suit and mask provide protection from paradox exposure and reality rewrites. This is the most game-changing possibility, so of course, it’s the one I really love. =)
This would mean that he could interact with himself in other moments of his personal timeline without any danger of pain or paradox. The suit completely contains his…essence, so that when he is in the same room with himself at a different age, the universe doesn’t detect two of him in the same place, and so doesn’t “know” to trigger a paradox event.
This might lead to some perilous narrative knots, but knowing Terry and company, those knots would only lead to amazing ways of resolving them. I won’t go down those rabbit holes just now. Maybe in another post.
What does the Witness’s spacetimesuit have to do with the Time Vests we see on the Black Hats (Time Shadows?) and Evil Annie Lennox? Well, I’m thinking that these vests are the next generation version of the Witness’s gear, allowing the wearer to travel thru time and affect changes without altering his or her personal history or any danger of paradox. I think this is also a clue that we’ll be dealing with a new player in the Time War in season 3—a faction/society/culture from a future farther off than 2163—
OLIVIA: …the very edge of time…an inch from falling over…
—possibly even an alternate, or earlier, timeline (a longshot, I think), or a kind of limbo, outside of time (not as much of a long shot). They would be the great grandchildren of time travel and a threat to both the Witness’s Army and Team Splinter.
Here comes a lot of jibba-jabba about the nature of the GROUNDHOG DAY loop that Cassandra and James find themselves in when Cassie is Splintered to Spearhead 2020. Her mission: Kill Jones and thusly prevent time travel from being perfected.
C+C quickly learn that that is easier said than, umm…undone. Why? Because it turns out that…
TIME *LIKES* TIME TRAVEL…
So, what exactly were the conditions required to break out of this loop/super-Jinn?
We know that Time wants time travel to exist so…
Hannah Jones must die.
Katarina Jones must mourn her daughter's death and live to perfect time travel.
We see several loops in which Katarina is killed, and in each, her death triggers a reset.
We see one loop in which Cassandra saves Hannah. That triggers a reset.
As far as Time is concerned, letting Hannah live is equivalent to killing Katarina. Time's kind of a bitch, eh?
But what happens when C+C do nothing? Letting the day play out without their intervention *should* satisfy both of Time's requirements, for without Cass's medical aid, Hannah dies, apparently of the virus, and bullet-free, Katarina lives, motivated by her daughter's death to turn back time to prevent the outbreak and undo it. Why then, does the day still reset?
ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PUZZLE.
Jennifer. Suspected for attempting to infect Spearhead with the virus, Jennifer Goines is being held prisoner, to be executed on the following day. It's her imminent death that triggers the reset at the end of the do-nothing day.
[aside] Strange, tho, that the reset seems to happen in the deep of night. Is Jennifer executed at that hour? I don't remember hearing gunshots. Or perhaps there's some last order given in Spearhead at that moment that seals Jennifer's fate? Nah. That doesn't seem fair, right? Time would have to allow for a call from the governor right up to the last second of Jennifer's life. [/aside]
Maybe the "natural" duration of the loop isn't determined by events within the loop. Of course, an event that would break Time or delete time travel (the deaths of any of our faves) immediately triggers a reset, but if that doesn't happen, reaching a particular second of the day triggers it "naturally."
When reset time is about to hit them on do-nothing day, Cass tells Cole, "The longest day was my first." Was there a day we weren't shown? And how did Cass get to the end of it, playing nice w/Foster and letting herself be jockeyed away from Katarina in mourning? Were there actually two days when Cass was alone at Spearhead 2020?
That missing first day and Cassie's mask are two little things that bug me. RE: Cassie's mask—she is maskless when she sits down to Splinter in 2044, but masked when she arrives in 2020. Waitasec… Whoa… Does TIME actually pass for a traveler within a Splinter? Cole mentions seeing colors and flashes of memory *while* Splintering. Could Cass have had the mask in her hand or pocket and put it on while Splintering?
I always want to capitalize Splinter but I'm not sure if it's correct.
As a Primary who has played an important role in guiding and connecting members of Team Splinter across decades, Jennifer's 2040s self is integral to Cassie and Cole arriving in the Spearhead 2020 Jinn in the first place. Jennifer has to survive 2020 and live to become that self. Jennifer explains that much to the Puzzle-maker while they're in holding together.
So, Time's *complete* to-do list for C+C in Spearhead 2020?
Hannah Jones must die.
Katarina Jones must mourn her daughter's death and live to perfect time travel.
Jennifer Goines must live to lead and Primary.
So, how do they check off all three boxes? Given that numbers 1 and 2 happen on their own during the do-nothing day, C+C only need to act on number 3. They just have to break Jennifer out of Spearhead after Hannah dies.
But, Cole has something else in mind. Something very "New Cole"—saving life instead of taking it. First, he feels compelled to check in with Katarina herself…
COLE: Just answer me this—is a little bit of happiness better than a lifetime of anything else?
JONES: Yes.
COLE: I'm gonna hold you to that.
That question. Man. Let's just focus on it as it pertains to Katarina. Boiling that general question down to the specifics of her situation, Cole is asking her if more time—ANY kind of time—with her daughter, ever, is better than losing her completely, for the rest of her life. Is Hannah's living presence of more value, or…importance, than the void of her absence.
I should think that that's a question that doesn't need asking. Right?
(Storywise, tho, I love and feel that Cole is asking that question of and for everyone we care about in 12 MONKEYS. =)
But, "I'm gonna hold you to that" kind of explains why he asks, right? He wants an idea of whether Katarina will hold C+C (and anyone else involved) responsible for taking Hannah and hiding her away for 24 years. He needs to know that when mother and daughter are reunited, Katarina won't hate them for taking her away, but rejoice at having her returned, having her at all.
If you were to ask any other person, that answer in 2020 would not necessarily correspond to the actual reaction in 2044, but this is Katarina Jones we're talking about. She knows herself, and across alternate realities/Jinns, she is a constant.
So, answer gotten, Cole moves forward with his plan. It takes them several resets to get all of the moving parts in sync, but in the end…
Cassandra revives Hannah after she apparently dies in front of Katarina. (I'm not sure if she medically faked her death, or if she actually died and Cass brought her back.)
Cole breaks Jennifer out of Spearhead holding, reuniting her with her Daughters.
Cassandra manipulates protocol so that she can get away from Spearhead with Hannah and deliver her to the Daughters.
They manage to do it all without revealing their identities to Spearhead and Katarina. Cole can be a random scav Morris Morrison, maybe with hacked digital records that connect to some kid in Philly. Maybe Cole helps Cass get into Spearhead when he escapes with Jennifer. Cass avoids showing her face and never IDs herself as Dr. Railly. She gets into a hazmat suit as soon as she can and uses her medical know-how to bluff her way close to Hannah.
That closes the loop, and Time lets Project Splinter pull them back. Well, you know what happens then, so I'll spare you the Kleenex and skip it. Hooray!
THIS LOOP, AND ITS CLOSING, ALWAYS HAPPENED.
We don't see any of our serum soldiers experience a reality change wave (and we don't hear anyone refer to one). This could be an editing call, but I'm gonna assume that if C+C Splinter Factory changed history, we would be clued into it in a pretty overt way. Yes, they suffer nosebleeds (which is a physiological side effect of a reality change for serumed travelers), but they suffer increasing pain, nausea, and damage with each reset. I believe this phenomenon is similar to the deterioration Cole suffered when he landed in Pirate Ramse's 2043, a reality in which Cassandra was killed in 2015 and Cole never joined Project Splinter. I do not think that each reset they experience ripples down to 2044 with changed history. No changes or ripples escape the loop until it is closed and again connected and in sync with the flow of the timeline, and then the ripples are ones that always propagated into the future.
And, when C+C do return to 2044, Katarina greets them with…
JONES: If you seek congratulations for failure, I have nothing for you.
She hasn't experienced any rewrites to reality in their absence. I take that to support the case that C+C's GROUNDHOG DAY experience was always going to will have had to have happened. If, before Katarina sent Cassandra to 2020, someone had gone to visit the Daughters for a census, they would have encountered 28 year-old Hannah.
I honestly can't remember the face of the Daughter-ninja who infiltrated the Splinter facility earlier this season (all my brain recalls is warpaint, wrap, and “NINJA!” =), but I would *LOVE* if that was Hannah (Brooke Williams). It would be wonderful proof positive that she's been with the Daughters since she "died" in every timeline we've seen so far in season 2.
SO, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
One man's miracle is another man's green box.
God, what a perfect story for James to tell! =)
Can this maneuver that Cole and Cassie and Jennifer engineered get a name? One of those confidence/scam names, y'know? Like Three-card Monte or the Nigerian Prince? What should it be?
The Sick Daughter?
Meanest Prank Ever? =)
I'll have to think about that.
It may seem a bit, I dunno, cheap? cheap-ish? to use this temporal sleight-of-hand again in the show, but if ever there was a moment that could use it, I'd say it's Cassie dying in Cole's arms at the CDC. In Cole's memory, it happened in 2017. In Cassie's personal future, I suspect it's meant to happen in 2019, offset in time due to the change in the date of the outbreak.
I'm not much for looking ahead/around at promo materials for a show, but this fun tease from Syfy for next week came up in my neighborhood of St. Tweetersberg…
This is the wonderfully-ghastly-logical follow-thru on Jones’s ominous last words in “Meltdown…”
CASSANDRA: All this, it's my fault…Cole…Eckland…Sam. JONES: No, it's mine. And for this, there is a solution.
What do we get out of a visit to Spearhead in 2020…?
Jennifer Goines and her fight taken to the street…
Hopefully, Katarina w/Hannah…
And even better-more…Cassie w/Hannah
MAYbe—a longshot, but I'd love it—Elliot w/both of them?
Possibly younger Eckland!
Thing is, if Cassie's sent to 2020, well, it’s not gonna be easy for her to be anonymous. She's the face of the CDC during the outbreak, right? And in the latest version of reality, deceased by 2018(?). Does she have a "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" cover story for 2020?
Also, is Cole gonna sit by and let this happen? He's got to follow, or maybe… Maybe he’s already there for a later mission? No no no. Wait—An EARLIER mission! To retrieve Foster’s photos!
JONES: The man I sent back into time…he retrieved them for me.
I explained that line away in my head with the idea that Cole may have been sent back on supply runs to collect certain items between Mission-critical Splinters, and he collected those pics on one of those. Team Splinter knows the layout and protocol of Spearhead, should be easy enough to give Cole appropriate cover story and credentials to safely spend a day or two to grab a few things, right? At the time, it didn’t seem like all that loose an end to tie up, but now?
So, before confronting Foster in 2043, Jones sends Cole to Spearhead in the past… And now, in 2044, she’s sending Cassie then and there, too! Why would she send them anywhere near each other, spatio-temporally? How about because when Cole returns from the Spearhead photos run, he tells Jones that he meets a future Cassie and helps her complete *her* mission, without giving her any gory details. Maybe 2044 Cassie and 2043 Cole work out what he has to tell her when he returns so that she tells Cassie just the right things when she is sent. In any case, Katarina has known that she would be sending Cassie on a Splinter to Spearhead 2020, but didn’t know when or why. Now, when confronted w/the ruins of “Meltdown” that knowledge clicks into place.
Katarina would have had to have kept schtum about all of this, having lived thru it as her 2020 self. Fun!
And Cole would have had to have kept mum around everyone about his Cass team-up interaction because it's yet to happen for Cass. Fun!
And then there’s Jennifer’s 2020 activities, too, right? Fun!
Maybe we get Cole holding wee Hannah… = )
MAYbe we get Cole and Cassie and Elliot Jones helping to work out a plan to SAVE wee Hannah, via time travel. Wee Hannah, who grows up in the past to become Olivia (one of my pet theories). This/these Splinters could definitely fill in some blanks I’ve got in the math. =)
Wow, this is gonna be SO MUCH FUN! =)
Unmake history!
Keep on keepin’ on~
P.S. If Cassie (and helper Cole) are successful with their assassination attempt, what should the result be? 2044 Katarina’s intention is to prevent successful time travel to the past by removing herself and her knowledge from the Splinter team. Will that be enough? Will there be no one else to step in and revive Project Splinter? And just how strong is Katarina’s quantum serum now? Can Cole, Cassie, Jones, and Ramse survive with their current memories and histories intact? Can Jones survive in a reality in which she’s already dead? Cole couldn’t, back when he landed in Pirate Ramse world.
And once Cassie is on the ground in 2020, can she (and Cole, and maybe Elliot?) come up with an alternative solution? Try it Cole’s way (well, Cole’s way 1 out of 4 times), by saving someone instead of killing someone? By saving Hannah and removing the most immediate motivation for Katarina to revive Splinter? Yeah, not really a guarantee, but if Hannah survives to a later mutation of the virus, then Spearhead’s computer-predicted vaccines would keep her (and everyone who’s survived) alive. Wow. If the show had to end here (w/a happy-ish ending) it could happen and be pretty satisfying. Katarina never had to kill Foster. 2020 Cole survives w/Ramse. Ramse meets Elena and Sam is born. Maybe they’re all reunited in the 2040s. And our 2044 Cole and Cassie can settle down in 2020, or maybe join Jennifer and her daughters to fight the 12 Monkeys in whatever form they’ve taken.
Huh. Maybe that’s how Katarina is left alone in that future we see via webisode? The serum has preserved her but the difference between her personal history and the new reality is so drastic that she’s out of phase with most everyone else in reality, living alone and out of sync. Until someone comes for her…
Cassie's consciousness is trapped in a room in the Witness's Red Forest house while the Witness controls her body in 2044. From within the room, she hears what sounds like a factory horn outside. She moves to the window, pulls apart the curtains, and sees…
Titan. That's the name painted on the side of what appears to be a water tower, tank, or silo that's part of what looks like a factory complex. There are cylindrical towers topped with what look like funky klaxons horns or speakers, but must be something else, there are so many of them.
And below "Titan…" A symbol. One we've seen before. I can't quite remember all the places we've seen it…
Definitely the Tall Man's paradox pendant.
Did Vivian Rutledge have it as a tattoo?
Did all Messengers?
Was it part of the markings on a Druze artifact?
Does the symbol *mean* Titan? Is it the mark of the Witness, showing ownership/allegiance? WAS TITAN TOWN ALWAYS OUTSIDE THE WINDOW?
I don't think so, nope. There's never been a sign of it in the Red Forest of anyone's vision.
No. I believe that Something Changed that brought Titan Town into existence, or perhaps caused the Red Forest to Brigadoonally align or sync with Titan Town somehow, allowing the Witness to (finally?) leave his forest house and go to (return to?) town. Is this what the Witness's form of Splintering looks like? A tesseract? Folding spacetime so that two normally distant points connect (one of them the Red Forest), and he bridges that connection to travel from one time and place to another?
What changed?
1. The release of raw temporal energy/Splinter radiation/whatever it's called in 2044. This apparently releases all kinds of temporal driftwood caught in the time stream, as well as beams bits and pieces of 2044 into it. Perhaps it released Titan, a factory town somehow lost in time, and synchronized it somehow with the Red Forest. I'm sure the Witness could do that with a Tricorder, right? =)
2. The Splinter zap maybe-not-death-maybe-spacetime-displacement of David Eckland. The idea here is that when and wherever Eckland lands, he is put to work by the Witness to work on what ultimately becomes Titan town. It couldn't exist "until" Eckland is shunted out of 2044 to a certain time and place to begin its creation.
3. The Splinter zap and spacetime displacement of Samuel Ramse. The idea here is the same as the Eckland scenario, only for Sam. So, Sam is responsible for the creation of Titan somehow, but can only be so once he's been Splintered away from 2044 to wherever he's landed.
4. The U.S. military of 1959 is made aware of time travel. Note that that's only a big deal assuming that FBI Agent Gale's Splinter Files are classified. =) The military then shifts whatever sciencing they've got going on at Raritan Valley in 1959 to focus on time travel applications, but in a new and secret location. Can't go building in the same place that a potential enemy already controls in the future, right? This new and secret location? A factory town code named Titan. Their R&D eventually leads to the maybe accidental time displacement of the entire complex, which lands it Red Forest-adjacent, because…why not?
5. Jose Ramse leaves Project Splinter and sets out for parts unknown in 2044. This is very interesting to me because even overwrought, Ramse's the kind of person who likes to have a plan. Although I joke about him going all David Banner on us (which I'd love), I think he has a specific destination in mind…
5a. Jennifer and the daughters? In 2043, before he splintered, she told him he would be a good friend. It wasn't clear to me if she mean to herself or to someone else/Cole. Ramse reveals that he’s never tried red leaf brew.
RAMSE: Yeah, there's some pretty trippy shit going on w/that tea. They'd drink it, they'd see him in their heads. Never tried it.
Perhaps he’s looking to send a message to the big W with Jennifer’s help.
5b. Whatever remains of Spearhead's camp or facility? A safe place that puts distance between himself and Project Splinter.
5c. The home of the Messengers? They must have been sequestered somewhere secure for 30-ish years, right? Ethan Seki might not have known the purpose of such a place, but he probably would have known if the Army had purchased it. Certainly he could do the math and figure it out.
5d. An as-yet-unknown-to-us location. A place or resource that Ethan Seki set up as part of a long-term contingency plan.
WHAT IF RAMSE HADN'T SHOT COLE?
Is Cassie in the house in the Red Forest the same way she was when Olivia guided her there with the red leaf tea? I think we have to assume yes.
Outside the house, thru the window, Cassie sees the Witness. He's apparently exited the house, and paused outside the window to look back. First, he's facing her, then he turns away and begins to walk to Titan town. Worth noting that he appears without any flickering or weird speed tics. I think the way he appears in this Red Forest experience is different from others. This is a clue to some difference in the environment, or perhaps the Witness himself.
As the Witness heads to Titan town in the Red Forest, Ramse shoots Cole, shocking and releasing Cassie from the front room of the house, freeing her from the Witness's influence in 2044. If Ramse hadn't shot Cole, what would have happened instead?*
In the Red Forest, would Cassie have remained trapped in the house forever? Would the Witness have released her from the house and compelled her join him in Titan town?
In 2044, to save Sam and the facility from meltodwn, Ramse would have to shoot Cassie, probably killing her. If an Immersed person dies while under the Witness's control, does his or her consciousness survive in the Red Forest, trapped and bodiless? Perhaps that's what happened to the Witness.
Hrm…Gonna try running this down while it’s still fresh…
* Of course, there should be no point to this what-if? since the Witness knew/planned for everything to go down exactly as it did. Nyeah. A WITNESS ORIGIN STORY?
Let's say that the Red Forest exists on its own, completely independent of the Witness (NB: currently I prefer that their creations are connected to one another). Now let's say that the Witness (whoever he is) taught himself to visit the Red Forest via paradox-created red leaf brew of some kind. On one of these visits, while his consciousness walks the Red Forest, his tranced physical form is killed—no, not just killed—paradoxed! His body dies in reality in a paradoxidation event while his mind survives, trapped in the Red Forest. The birth of the Witness? Well, maybe a step in his creation, a step that leaves him a disembodied mastermind in need of servants to manipulate reality.
I like this. The one weakness for me is the existence of the Red Forest before the Witness. Maybe the Red Forest exists on its own because there are naturally occurring spontaneous splinter events. Bursts of chaotic temporal energy that transform green to red, creating the psychedelic key to psychic time travel.
Or, maybe it's an astral plane created by the minds of the Primaries? I suspect the Primaries can all see it, but that may be because of the threat that emanates from it in the form of the Witness, eh? They don't visit the Red Forest, except when under the influence of red leaf (which is created via time travel or paradox).
First off, something that hit me a few days after "Immortal" I think we finally know what Jennifer means/meant when she says…
TWELVE IS NOT PRIMARY!
She's referring to Kyle Slade's twelfth victim, Victoria Mason. Victims one thru eleven, according to Slade himself, were all Primaries, while number twelve, Victoria, was not. I vaguely recall Jennifer getting excited at the idea of thirteen, following twelve, but don't remember hearing her expand on that. Perhaps Kyle continues his serial killing posthumously under a different name?
If that’s correct, then Jennifer’s been cluing James into his reality-changing encounter with Kyle since they first met. Or at least, since *he* first met *her*. I still think that Cole’s otter eyes will make an impression on a younger Saturday-morning-cartoon-watching Jenny G. in a Splinter yet to come for him.
WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT KYLE…
From the research done by Team Splinter in 2044, we know that Kyle Slade is the identity of the serial killer known as the Immortal. He was responsible for 12 murders in the 70s, and died under mysterious circumstances on the day he killed his final victim, Victoria Mason, who worked as a waitress at a coffee shop. Those "mysterious circumstances?" Death by paradox, stabbed in the sternum w/one's sternum. Team Splinter takes this information and turns it into a plan. First, find Victoria at the coffee shop. Follow her until Slade kills her. Follow Slade from the scene of the murder. Intercept the Messengers when they try to paradox him, saving Slade.
What could go wrong?
When Cole and Ramse find Victoria, they learn that she's the mother of a young boy.
COLE: She had a kid…What's gonna happen to him when she dies?
RAMSE: Whatever already happened.
Gotta love time travel!
Then they learn that she's probably not up for mother of the year. They only just start to process that when Kyle Slade strikes.
COLE: This is me looking and not leaping, this sit right with you?
RAMSE: Don't like it any more than you do, but it's how it has to be.
But of course, our man James cannot sit by and watch this woman being killed by a psychopath. Cole's fist meets Primary jaw, scaring Slade off and saving Victoria from becoming his twelfth victim. Our heroes' reward? A wave of reality-rewrite pain, a… Timegraine? In the wake of the reality wave, both Slade and the unseen Messenger—who paradoxed him in the previous reality—escape.
Later in the episode, Cole has apparently won the trust of Slade, simply by revealing his identity. It's interesting… Slade does not immediately recognize him, but *we* know that he knew he was coming for him (as seen at the end of previous ep, "Bodies of Water"). It turns out that slade has been waiting for him. He explains to James that he can take him to the Witness. He's holding him captive in his abandoned warehouse-slash-bloody artist's loft lair.
On the way to his bloody sanctum, Kyle explains to James that he's aware of the Witness's plan to destroy Time by paradoxing Primaries. In order to ruin that plan, Kyle has been killing contemporary Primaries so that they cannot be paradoxed. He believes that he's been so successful w/his strategy that the Witness decided to paradox Kyle personally. He shows Cole the bone knife that was meant to kill him in a previous reality. We see his physical reaction to being in close proximity to it. When he then shows Cole the Witness himself—a man clad in a hooded robe with a mask sewn together from human flesh—he insists that it's Cole's role to take that bone dagger and kill the Witness with it.
WTF?
Oh, before I forget, when Kyle mentioned that his victims were all Primary, Cole pointed out that Victoria was not. Kyle explains that she was a "flare" that he sent up, to call for (Cole's) help across the decades. He selected Victoria knowing that she would be his last victim, the one whose death, connected to his mysterious demise on the same day, would lead Cole to 1975.
Now, where was I? Oh yes…
WTF?
KYLE: Take the dagger and kill the Witness. It is why I brought you here. It is your fate to do this!
RAMSE: [whistle] Hey, Cole, let's do both of these guys, get the hell out of here.
KYLE: What's he doing here?
COLE: Easy, we're all on the same side.
KYLE: Are we? Cuz I am seriously starting to doubt your commitment, man. Put your gun down.
RAMSE: You first.
KYLE: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not how this is supposed to go. It's supposed to be you [COLE] and me. Blaze of glory in the future and he [RAMSE] is NOT a part of it.
So, there's a lot of weirdness here, and yes, it *could* be chalked up to Kyle's apparent mental instability, partly fueled by his Primary connection and visions, partly fueled by whatever additional ding his brain chemistry took that led him to his brutal homicidal practice, but let's take a look at what he's given us (and Cole and Ramse) and see if there might be any useful clues.
KYLE THINKS HE'S CAPTURED THE WITNESS…
I've got a theory that he believes this because essentially, it was true when he caught him. When Kyle reveals his prisoner's face to Cole, we know that he has a Messenger caged up, not the Witness. But, what do we know about Messengers?
VIVIAN: They never imagined I’d survive the paradox, but Father, he made us too well.
The Messengers were engineered. The Army invested in a number of technologies in the late 20th century and in Markridge, not only did they get the resources needed to create a humanity-decimating virus, but also a pioneer in human cloning. I think Father (whoever he is) used Markridge tech to create the twelve Messengers. We know that they are imbued with enhancements that resemble those possessed by quantum serum users. That's increased strength, speed, resilience and healing, as well as the ability to Splinter. I don't think it's a huge leap to think that Immersion is part of the standard Messenger package as well.
Giving the Witness a direct psychic link to the Messengers would be very valuable. Granted, if the Witness *is* riding psychic shotgun on the Messengers, he's only seeing 50-50 success so far, and that's in those who survived to Splinter in 2043. Nevertheless, I'm pretty certain everything is still going according to the Witness's plans.
In any case, if the Messenger in Kyle's cage had been Immersed, that would allow the Witness to inhabit his body when he attacked him. I believe that on encountering the Witness-controlled Messenger, Primary Kyle would *sense* the Witness's presence, and believe the man standing in front of him to *be* the Witness. Kyle gets the better of the Messenger, probably exactly as the Witness wished, for his capture (the reported capture of the Witness) is what leads to Kyle sending up his flare, Cole being Splintered to 1975, the conventional death of the Primary-killing Primary, and the extended life and motherhood of Victoria Mason. I have a feeling we'll find out what that's worth in future episodes. Perhaps a new Project Splinter labcoat w/a tag that reads "MASON?"
KYLE CAN'T KILL THE WITNESS HIMSELF…
For some rason, Kyle insists that Cole is the only one who can kill the Witness. I'm thinking that he's right about that, but that he's wrong about the time and place. Will it be with a knife made from a homicidal maniacal Primary's bone? I don't know. That seems like such a strange detail. If it's an accurate detail… The only thing I can think of is that some version of Kyle Slade must be the Witness, then being stabbed by that knife would cause a paradoxidation death. Could that be right?
It feels unlikely, but honestly, still very possible. Within the events of this one episode, we saw Kyle Slade manipulate history in a way that resulted in him saving himself from the Messengers by tricking Cole into changing reality. That's pretty frickin masterful. Imagine if he was sane?
Hrm… I will have to think on this some more. I've been in love with the notion that the Witness began life as one of our heroes (or Sam, or Elliot Jones =), but the possibilities of Kyle Slade are interesting. It's the personal connections that are missing, tho. Why is Cassie so important? Why the focus on Ramse's story (and his love for his son)? Perhaps the relationships and stories aren't what's important to the Witness, and instead it's their tactical and perhaps misdirectional value. Cassie has to be kept alive until she leaves her "Leland Frost" message for the future. The story of Ramse and Sam is a parable for his followers, and perhaps meant specifically for Vivian.
Perhaps.
Is there some other reason that Kyle can't kill the Witness himself?
1. The Witness can only be killed with the bone of a Primary? That's crazy. Unless… Unless the Witness himself is that Primary. Hrm…
2. If Kyle kills the Witness it leads to Something Bad. Perhaps for Kyle alone—his death, perhaps for Time itself—his paradoxed death. Well, it seems that if Kyle had killed the Witness-Messenger right away, Cole and Ramse never would have come to 1975, and the Messenger partner would have paradoxidized him, just as it was reported. That just covers the notion that waiting to kill the Witness-Messenger contributed to saving Kyle’s life. It does not explain why Cole can’t kill him.
3. Kyle insists that Cole has to kill the Witness with the knife made from his own bone. If he really believes that, I supposed that explains why he couldn’t kill him himself. Holding the knife would be incredibly painful for him and could potentially trigger a paradox.
There’s just not enough reliable info to come up w/a definitive reason or reasons. Boo…
KYLE DOESN'T "SEE" RAMSE…
For a few minutes I thought that Kyle's plan "clicked" for me when he talked about going to the future with Cole. That he himself was somehow an agent of the Witness and had manipulated everything to get Cole to kill the real Primary and sucker him into getting him to 2044 because… umm… history recorded that he disappeared after 1975, maybe that's the reason because possibly.
Of course, things didn't work out that way, but for a few minutes, pretty cool. Pret-ty pret-ty cool. =)
Yes, he's all mixed up in the head, even for a Primary, but he seems mortally offended by Ramse's presence in 1975, doesn't he? In fact when he talks about going-slash-returning to the future with Cole—ominously described as "blaze of glory"—it sounds like he's mistaken his life for Ramse's (or vice versa). Could his cracked version of Primary vision have dropped him into Ramse's POV for some reason? And/or the Witness's, pre-Red Forest?
Gotta wonder what's in store for Ramse and Cole that a mistaken-Ramse-identity would consider "blaze of glory," right?
Could it be that Kyle has held onto Primary visions from a previous reality? One in which Cole did NOT go back to save Ramse at Project Splinter in 2015, which would mean that Ramse wouldn't be around to jump to 1975 with Cole. Of course, I don't easily see how it would follow that Kyle would end up partnered with Cole as a result of Ramse's absence, but Time works in mysterious ways, right?
Also, lotta nuts in that Kyle Slade bar.
PARADOXES/INCONSISTENCIES?
There are a couple of things in this episode that don't quite line up for me time-travel-logically. Still, I think I can creatively rationalize them to my satisfaction. I have to say, tho, these are probably the zaniest time traveling curves thrown so far in the show.
In the episode's original reality Team Splinter found reports of Kyle Slade's death by apparent paradox in 1975. What actually happened? If the Messengers had succeeded in paradoxing Kyle, Time should have collapsed (according to 2044 Jennifer, it only takes two). Maybe there's a funky causality explanation? Because, honestly, if the Messengers EVER succeed in killing two Primaries, time should have already collapsed, regardless of *when* they're killed. Instead, the passage of time relative to our players seems to matter. That is, the effects of events experienced by our heroes are felt in the same order. Always a tricky phenomenon when messing with time.
Note that Kyle uses his Primary abilities to work out that killing Victoria will result in Cole Splintering back in time to prevent him from killing Victoria. I don't find this inconsistent. I find this awesome. =)
When Jennifer in 2016 talks about how a ghost is a replay, an event recorded into its surroundings, she flashes to a vision of the Messenger punching the hole in the hotel room wall. This punch would not have been thrown by that Messenger if Cole and Ramse hadn't saved Victoria (and Kyle). Hrm…
MAYbe a different punch or other incident creates that hole in the episode's original reality?
MAYbe if we asked Cassandra in that moment if she sees a hole in the wall where Jennifer's hand is, she would truthfully answer, "No, what hole in the wall?" So, only Primary Jennifer sees the hole in 2016 before the reality change because that is what a Primary does—sees not only forward and back, but across, to other realities.
I hope that's the explanation, cuz I love the idea that we see Jennifer read an event from a timeline that has yet to become reality. And it seems totally in line with what we've heard from the Primaries we've met thus far, right?
Also, I'd say that the disturbances to Time caused by Tommy's paradox assassination would help explain away any other apparently paradoxical (inconsistent, not spacetime-tearing) interactions. Time may not be behaving as it normally does, allowing for inconsistent experiences and discontinuities.
Or something. =)
WHO ARE "THE OTHERS?"
KYLE: You're not worthy.
Ramse shoots Messenger.
KYLE: You're not worthy. You're just like the others. You were meant to protect me.
COLE: Only from a paradox.
KYLE: I'm the Immortal. I'm not supposed to die.
COLE: Everybody dies.
Man. Kyle's wackadoo words really do sell me on the Kyle-is-the-Witness idea. Kyle lambasts the Witness for being so insane as to attempt to destroy Time to achieve immortality, yet all the while he calls himself the Immortal. One of Tommy's ramblings included "The Monkeys come for the Witness," or something to that effect. A strange sentiment when you realize that the Monkeys are the Witness’s followers (if you hear “monkeys” w/a capital M there). So, Tommy’s words mean: the Messengers come for the Witness. The Messengers have been sent to kill Primaries. So, the Witness is a Primary. Y’know, if we can trust the collective word of the Primaries…
Okay, I'm gonna say it, cuz I can’t stop thinking it…
KYLE SLADE IS THE WITNESS!
…is one of my theories. =)
Unmake history!
Keep on keepin' on~
P.S. My other favorite answers to “Who is the Witness?”:
James Cole. Jose Ramse. Samuel Ramse. Elliot Jones. =)
Some *SPOILER*y discussion of what we see (and don't see) of the Witness in this episode. If you haven't watched this week's episode yet, get thee to syfy.com and do it. Then come back and have your mind blown!
Or at least your eyes strained a bit.
Meanwhile, at stately Witness Manor… When Olivia visits the Red Forest via a dose of red leaf brew—taken in a ceremonial chamber designed specifically for such communion (it could probably do with a good fainting couch, tho) we learn that she communicates with him by entering the simultaneously crumbling-building-rebuilding house on the edge of the forest. She speaks her thoughts and dares some questions and the walls of the house answer with words supernaturally scrawled on them.
Was kinda surprised that the Witness *seems* to own up to being fallible.
Technically, though, that's not what he says…
OLIVIA: Time has been altered. Change was not supposed to be possible. You promised the cycle would hold… MY WITNESS THE HOUSE: TIME EVOLVES
Pretty rude, that, donchathink? ALL CAPS? I suppose his minions are all a bit too afeared to school him on polite wall post etiquette…
I still believe that the Witness is feeding half-truths and hidden misdirection/motivation. He passes on enough information to have his players advance to a certain next stage, then redirects or discards them. We saw it pretty explicitly with Vivian Rutledge (aka Lady Messenger) who, as a Messenger, was indoctrinated to believe in the Witness's word and the promise of a deathless paradise called the Red Forest, and trained for a singular purpose—the paradox assassination of a Primary. She was not taught to think of a life outside or beyond that mission. Yet when she survives, she goes on to become the mother of a very important lieutenant in the Army in the early 2000s, Tall Man. I can't believe the Witness doesn't know that that will happen, that that is "luck."" He's used Vivian to complete a Primary mission (pun intended) and then left her in just the right time and place and state of mind to be of even more service to the Army, and perhaps allows her to do it believing it's of her own free will (which it is and isn't, depending on your POV =).
Tall Man kind of puts it into words when he somewhat snidely welcomes Olivia back from the Forest…
TALL MAN: You get your answers, darling? Of course not. The one who sees all, knows all, asking us to see nothing and know nothing. It's chaos. It's beautiful. A new uncertain cycle has begun.
He's seeing this apparently unmapped cycle as a great challenge and adventure, which, if you buy my explanation of Witness direction above, is exactly how he needs to see it in order to achieve what the Witness wishes. While the Tall Man certainly operates as a true believer, personally, it seems he'd rather not feel like a pawn or puppet while fulfilling the Word.
Later in the episode, when Olivia guides Cassie to the house, the Witness appears as the Plague Doctor and then as Aaron, the right side of his face apparently scarred from the fire which Cole and Cassie believed he died in. The Witness does not speak as either figure, at least, not that we get to see/hear.
It's interesting. The Witness's communication method certainly seems like a Primary's—writing on the wall. However, I think that this user interface is out of necessity, not any kind of Primary-esque mania.
What we/visitors to My Witness The House see seems to be instantaneous and/or otherworldly. The Witness's words as writing on the wall appears instantly. Apparitions (whether Plague Doctor or burninated Aaron) appear spontaneously. I see this and it inspires the following thought: try to reduce this "supernatural" behavior to some trick of physics, based on—what else?—time. What if the Witness is in the room, but moving/living at a hyper-accelerated state? Like the Flash, or, better yet—and better demonstrated on screen—Quicksilver? We've seen this very effect on the show a couple of times. First, when Cole was caught in the blast of the watch paradox. And again (I think) when the Messengers took over the Splinter facility.
So, from the POV of a visitor to the Red Forest, words appear and disappear on the walls in a flash. However, from the Witness's POV, he writes them casually, and leaves them on the walls for days, possibly even months, in order for them to appear for the seconds needed for his visitor to read them. This is all just theory (one that I realllly love), but let's just say that for every second a guest experiences, the Witness experiences an hour. That means that 2.5 days would pass for him while only a minute passes for Olivia or Cassie.
The Witness himself could be pacing back and forth in the room next to a visitor and they wouldn't notice. At most/best, a guest might notice a blur. For the Witness to appear as the Plague Doctor, and then burninated Aaron, he would costume up and stand in place for hours, maybe days, for a guest to register his presence. Maybe he sets a timer/alarm/reminder and stands in position for a minute every hour for several days. Whatever frequency it would take to fool a visitor's persistence of vision. Painstaking work, but we know that the Witness is nothing if not meticulous, right?
The real trick involved in communicating is understanding the speech of his visitors. He would perceive their speech as radically slowed down. Like Bugs Bunny and that mini-Frankenstein doctor when they break that jar of ether, y'know? Perhaps he's just trained his ear/mind to understand. Or maybe he uses the timer/reminder trick again to record mouth shape and position and plays them back for himself on a zoetrope or flip book and reads lips. Or, if he's real lucky, there was a reel-to-reel in that house when it got paradoxed or anomalied and he uses it to record and speed up the spoken words of his visitors.
We haven’t seen the rest of the house. And I think it must have been rooted in reality (at least *a* reality), along with the forest, at some point in its past. Maybe it was loaded with 20th or 21st century technology that he takes advantage of and keeps hidden from guests. Or perhaps the Witness has items scavenged or “washed up” from different eras when the Red Forest has bordered/borders reality (via an original paradox event, anomalies, and/or time storms).
And all that wallpapering! I wonder if he's learned to make his own paste and paper. Does he ever change the actual design? Why not paint? Hrm… He could probably only make red paint after any original paint runs out, right? So…He has to recycle and re-use the wallpaper. He must be going nuts! (Safe to say, right?) Probably doesn't have cable, fiber, or dish, right? I hope he has some good books in that house. He should really ask his minions to bring him some offerings. The red leaf seems to offer an astral form of visitation. I wonder if there's any way visitors can take or leave anything besides words and ideas. Visitors turn the front door knob. Can they draw on the walls as well? Break things?
Some writing on the wall worth remembering…
When Olivia enters the house: 1957-1959 THIS WAS HOME
This seemed unprompted, not a response to a query by Olivia. Perhaps Olivia caught him in a century of forgetfulness? Or maybe that message is meant for someone else whose visit overlaps hers?
When Olivia asks what the Witness wants from her: FIND CASSANDRA / PREPARE HER
Olivia responds that Cass is a threat who should be eliminated…
To that: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO *
* Punctuated with a scare-stare by the Plague Doctor.
Something that sticks in my mind… Olivia says something interesting when complaining about how things have not gone as they were foretold.
