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A key expository scene, from ep 1.6, Helios 685

posted 8 years ago by gswan
17 replies | jump to latest

I won't bury the lead. In this episode Traveler 117 tells the more junior Travelers that their ultimate goal is to prevent asteroid Helios 685 from striking the Earth and almost wiping out civilization.

...If we deflect asteroid 685 we alter the course of humanity so profoundly its highly probable that the time we came from... everything between then and now... the plagues... the shortages... the wars... None of that will happen... which means it is also highly probable that, neither will we...

This key scene is about 25 minutes into episode 1.6, "Helio 685".

I think answers some of the questions some of us raised in comments prior to its broadcast. I went to the work of transcribing it, and I am going to paste that here. I will also try to record it, more permanently, in the Quote section for this series. But I don't expect that to succeed. That requires one of the IMDB moderators to endorse the transcription. I've made this effort for key scenes before, only to have those moderators reject the transcription, without any feedback as to why they rejected it.

Anyhow, episode 1.6 shows us a new Traveler take over the body of an elderly woman who is about to take an apparently legal suicide cocktail, at a clinic authorized to administer legal suicide cocktails. Unlike every other Traveler we have seen, so far, she isn't part of a team, and makes her way by taxi to the secret anti-matter storage facility our team, and several other teams, have just taken over.

When she makes her way to the storage chamber, where our team, and a few other Travelers from other teams are gathered, and are trying to access the anti-matter.
Bloom: I am Traveller 117. The Director says "Hello".

McLaren: Welcome to the 21st Engineer.

Bloom: Call me Bloom.

Trevor: It is wonderful to see you again.
This exchange answers a key question I had... Does the Director have a way to retrieve the consciousness of Travelers? This passage seems to indicate that not only can Travelers consciousness be retrieved, but that they can and are transmitted into dying bodies multiple times.

Bloom's low number seems to imply she was one of the first Travelers. It seems to imply that, after a few successful missions, she was promoted to management.

I think the warmth of her greeting to Trevor seemed to indicate they had served together before.

Her low number also indicates Travelers retain the same number, across missions.

Anyhow, Bloom gives Trevor a warm embrace.
Bloom: You too Kid.

[Bloom turns to Carly, who we saw in episode 1.1 had been
accidentally transmitted into the body of
a woman with serious brain injuries, and enfolds her hands within
her own.]

Bloom: How are you coping with your situation dear?

Marcy: Fine thank you ma'am. It is an honor to meet you in person.

Bloom: Please, the honor is mine.

[Bloom turns to address the whole group, and raises her volume]

Bloom: You do realize you guys are famous, where I just came from?

McLaren: Really?

Bloom: Not in a good way.

McLaren: Oh.

Bloom: There have been a lot of arguments among the project team over
you. I should know, as I argued on both sides. Did they ever
give you a hard time... Remind me never to get on your bad side.

McLaren: What? You know who abducted my team?

Bloom: It wasn't anyone on my team.This suggests the compartmentalization we saw when McLaren tried to coordinate with other team leaders extends right to the center of the Directorate.
McLaren: They were tortured for days!

Bloom: I know what happened dear. I am from the future.

I am sure it was terrible, but the point is you found them...
well, we found them.

Not that this matters, anyway. This is the big day! If this
works, we are done!

Marcy: [wistfully] If this works we save tens of millions of lives.

[Bloom turns and gives Carly a surprised look]

Bloom: But you are forgetting the oath you took before you came.

Trevor: "At the peril of your own birth"

Bloom: [smiling] The handsome boy gets it.

Marcy: I am sorry... I don't...

Bloom: [Whispering, in an aside, to Trevor] They are so cute when
they are young.

Bloom: Everything up until now, all these missions, they have been
preparations, fine tuning, for this moment. Not that the
other work wasn't important, or didn't matter...
[pauses]
...If we deflect asteroid 685 we alter the course of humanity
so profoundly its highly probable that the time we came from...
everything between then and now... the plagues... the
shortages... the wars...
[pauses]
None of that will happen... which means it is also highly
probable that, neither will we...Woah! So if securing the anti-matter is such a key milestone in their plan, why were they the only team assigned to secure it, back in episode 1.2?

If securing the anti-matter is such a key milestone, why wait until mission 3,000 to secure it?

For what it is worth, there really is an asteroid named Helios. But it was the 895 asteroid to be discovered, not the 685th.

[–] Fishbread 8 years ago

I got the impression that Bloom and Trevor knew each other from the future, not some time served together in the present.

[–] gswan 8 years ago

I got the impression that Bloom and Trevor knew each other from the future...

It is possible that Bloom and Trevor only knew each other from the future... Nevertheless I remain convinced Bloom's low Traveler serial number shows that she was one of the original Travelers, and that this was not her first excursion.

She said she wanted to turn the key herself? That last scene, where Major Red-head's men are taken over, one by one, by a Traveler from the future? Each of those might have been yet another appearance of Traveler 117, so she gets to turn the key, as planned.

It would have been better if Major Red-head's whole squad was taken over at the same time.

[–] dmc101 8 years ago

I think it's obvious they can travel multiple times otherwise they would have sequential numbers if they showed up together instead of being 100 years older/younger than each other even though they show up together. Some are 3000+ and some are less that 200. If they show up with low numbers, they obviously traveled before.

[–] Motoko_Kusanagi 8 years ago

If securing the anti-matter is such a key milestone, why wait until mission 3,000 to secure it?

Maybe it would have been impossible for them to secure it after the military took it away.

[–] gswan 8 years ago

I am kicking this, since people are posing questions that indicate they missed this key episode, or were in the kitchen when this key expository scene played out.

[–] tzot 8 years ago

Only consciousness travels back. Any technology required (eg efficient antimatter containment) has to be built by specialised crafting teams. I'm just saying that yes, they could send team 1 to secure the antimatter and then send 100 support teams to earlier points in time, but why risk it? The Directorate experiences time linearly, and they plan accordingly.

--
I speak England very best.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

Who is to say there isn't another team set up further down the road? Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. They also need to operate within a specific window of time determined by physical parameters. The further away the asteroid is, the harder it is to hit, but a smaller deflection is needed to achieve their goal. As the asteroid gets closer, it is easier to hit but requires more energy to deflect it a larger angular distance. At some point it gets so close that they aren't able to generate enough impact energy to keep it from hitting earth.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] tzot 8 years ago

Additionally, it's quite possible that the Directorate is a committee… and like all committees they discuss alternatives like we do, and they have to reach a consensus in their plans. :)

--
I speak England very best.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

When Bloom (Blue) says "The Director says hello" it implies to me that a single individual is calling all the shots. Granted, closed captioning said Bloom whereas I still hear Blue, is closed captioning saying The Directorate because I have only heard Director.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] tzot 8 years ago

They always say “the Director”. This works as an indication —not a proof— that there is a single person that is calling all the shots. Thankfully, the title “Director” (singular) is not the only clue we have:

Bloom: There have been a lot of arguments among the project team over you. I should know, as I argued on both sides. Did they ever give you a hard time... Remind me never to get on your bad side.

This says that there is a multitude of persons discussing things before action is taken. I called that Directorate, and I could be wrong; they might be “Committee of Special Advisors to the Director” or plain “Project Team” as in the dialogue. Still: discussion (minimum participants: 2) before action.

--
I speak England very best.

[–] vitae666 8 years ago

Having watched Episodes 11 and 12 on Netflix, I can say that the Director is
an IA

- In my spare time I like to necro old posts

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

I was going to say the director was an AH ;-)

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] gswan 8 years ago

I'm just saying that yes, they could send team 1 to secure the antimatter and then send 100 support teams to earlier points in time...

Tzot couldn't have known it, when he wrote this, but this violates the "no do-over rule".

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

We don't know that these Traveler designations are given at the time of departure. They may be assigned when someone is accepted into the program. "Blue" the engineer was obviously someone of importance, probably part of the effort from early on but not scheduled to go until she completed the X-ray laser to deflect the asteroid. We've seen no evidence of Travelers being retrieved from the present. It hasn't been said explicitly, although it's implied, that the trip is inherently one way. Otherwise Marcy could easily be recovered and re-deployed.

[–] SrEditor 8 years ago

I don't remember who, in which episode, reacts to hearing a low Traveler number (maybe it's the "Marcy" ep) by saying something about "why are they sending someone so important."

So the numbers are not assigned according to order of travel, but of closeness or importance to the Director. (Chief Engineer, for example)

[–] Freddy_Boy 8 years ago

Trevor and Bloom knowing each other in the future isn't unsurprising. He is the team's engineer and his number designation is, in fact, 0115. It does not seems as if Trevor has traveled in the past. So how he acquired such a low number is intriguing in that case. It's also weird that he wasn't given seniority on the team in that case if he was an experienced time traveler.

It rather seems to indicate importance to the Director. Bloom being one the persons who actually worked on it. As an engineer Trevor may have performed equally important work.

But the numbers may very well indicate the order they were dispatched as well. But let's not forget we're dealing with time travel here. Bloom could very well have been sent within seconds of Trevor but arrived at a completely different point in time.

There definitively seems to be some kind of butterfly effect at work too. As Philip noted historical facts he memorized had begun to change. It is possible that the the Director started with the most important to the plan and keeps sending people to fine tune and compensate. As Bloom said said the rest of the missions had been about fine tuning.

[–] McQualude 8 years ago

Bloom and Trevor are both very old, probably hundreds of years old (Trevor is older than the rest of his team combined) and have lived in multiple hosts. I get the impression that is possibly the only way they survive and that "traveling" doesn't refer to the past, but to body hopping.

|Statistics show that 100% of people bitten by a snake were close to it.|