plothole - Travelers (2016) Discussion

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

Gee ... no one else has ever thought of that one!

Sorry for being sarcastic here, but this is an obvious point. The Director has demonstrated continued awareness of previous timelines and events that have been altered (like the Helios impact). There are any number of ways they might do this. An archive in the present for example, for backup purposes. Each time a discrepancy arises between present and future records, a complete data dump of the future's historical files is performed. Then all previous data dumps are re-uploaded to the future. And so, you have a continuously self correcting database that's immune to changes in the timeline and accumulates a steadily growing knowledge of alternate histories.

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[–] Warrior_Poet 8 years ago

Boom.
____________
I'm something new entirely. With my own set of rules. I'm Dexter. Boo.

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[–] shopatrix 8 years ago

yea.. my bad :P

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[–] cdub2103 8 years ago

Here's a plot hole. In Episode 9 they know that a plane is going to go down, killing everyone on board. Their mission is to save a politician named Bishop. So they send a traveler -- a team leader no less -- to get on the plane, use a device to protect and eject them from the plane, resuscitate them and then over write Bishop with a new traveler. Why didn't they just stop him from getting on the plane in the first place?? Episode would have been over in 3 minutes.

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[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

They seem to have rules that haven't been spelled out regarding how soon before and after their historically recorded time of death a host may be overwritten. There was one potential candidate (a construction worker if I remember correctly) in one of the episodes that Phillip said was out because it was impossible for the incoming Traveler to avoid the accident that kills him. Same issue - why not just take him ten minutes before the accident when it could be avoided? Trevor was pissed at Traveler Grace for taking her host well after her time of death, which apparently broke the same rule of being outside the allowed time window. It would definitely have been easier to get the Congressman before he boarded the plane. For whatever reason, they were unwilling to do it that way.

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[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

It's not a plot hole. I don't think they've explicitly stated it in the show but I believe a person DOES have to die because apparently more than one consciousness can not exist in a single brain. This is demonstrated at other points in the show when they overwrite a person who hasn't died/wasn't supposed to have died at the moment of being overwritten and this person's brain ends up overloading and killing them. The senator(?) died of a heart attack in the process of being thrown from the crash. Had they kept him from getting on the plane, he wouldn't have died at all and, therefore, couldn't be overwritten for the above reasons.

**edit**Well, children can have more than one consciousness but I'm going to guess it's that they don't have a fully formed consciousness of their own(or maybe it's that they aren't so rigid in their thinking?) and, because of this, it leaves their brain a bit more flexible in allowing a temp Traveler to exist in it. Even then, it can only occur for a very short period of time and I'll guess, if a Traveler tried to stay longer than that, the child's brain would overload just like it does in adults.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

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[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

He didn't have a natural heart attack. That stasis field device stopped his heart. But whatever rule prevented the Director from sending a Traveler before the plane took off is clearly considered vital enough to go through this whole convoluted plan. Keep in mind they now have to explain how he took off on a doomed flight with everyone else, then after his plane slams into the ground at 500 mph and scatters flaming wreckage all across this huge field, somehow he walks away without a scratch on his body or a smudge on his suit. That'll be ... challenging.

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[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

Either way, he actually died thus allowing "room" for a Traveler's consciousness to be transmitted into the brain. You're right though...it's going to take some serious tap dancing to explain away how he survived without a scratch. lol

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

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[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

The messengers don't have a consciousness downloaded into them, even temporarily. They are more or less executing a set of instructions implanted by the Director. Seek out these particular people, speak these words, end program and delete all data. Then control reverts to them and they "wake up". This is why the Travelers can't engage the kids in discussions or ask them questions. The Director can't see or hear through them. They're just messengers and nothing more.

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[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

You're right. My point still stands about how apparently more than one consciousness can't exist in the same brain though.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

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[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

Yeah, only one occupant at a time. Let's face it: an agent with multiple personality disorder wouldn't be especially useful even if you figured out a way to "double up".

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[–] xenopharb 8 years ago

The host does not have to die. If fact, the host must be overwritten before he or she dies. Jumping into a body hit by a truck or shot in the head doesn't do much good for the traveler.

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[–] houstonhacker 8 years ago

I doubt they'll ever have to explain how he survived the plane crash. That'll probably never be brought up again. Swept under the rug.

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[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

Obviously, I was referring to viable Traveler candidates where the host body is intact and functional otherwise. Well, as functional as needed depending on the mission the Traveler is to do. Such as Bloom whose host body was dying from cancer but only needed to be alive for about a day to achieve her mission of setting up the laser and firing it.

But, yes, technically you are right. A host does not have to die for a Traveler to attempt to take over their body. Unfortunately, when it happens, the host's brain is overloaded and "burns" out almost instantly kind of like sending twice as much watts through a lightbulb than it is rated for will burn it out very quickly. Which is just as pointless to do as trying to send a Traveler into a host too damaged to function/live.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

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[–] wwoods-3 8 years ago

Their mission is to save a politician named Bishop.

It turned out that they didn't want to save him -- they saw the opportunity to put a Traveler into Congress in his place, and they took it. I guess they didn't have a fix on him earlier, or they could have overwritten him and had him decide to take a different flight.

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