CigarDoug

It's modern day. They mention COVID. I have heard at least one mention of 2020 and 2021 being in the past.

See, that's where I got confused. I thought Alina and Mal were on the West side, crossing to the East, and the Crows were on the East side. I didn't realize their first trip through they turned around. I thought the crows crossing with Arken were going East to West, and they almost immediately went back to the East. I kept thinking, "Why go to all the trouble to cross, when you are going to cross right back again days later?" Like I was saying, it was so confusing keeping track of what side things were on. It did distract from the story, so I just sort of ignored it in my mind so I could just enjoy the show. The first view of the Fold made it look like it split the whole world in half, so by the time they introduced the sea I just said, "Oh, I guess one half of the world has a sea in part of it!"

I just binged both seasons of the show, and I was totally drawn in. I love the world-building, as it seems completely different from most fantasy books/series I have seen. I only have one (OK, two) complaints about the Fold. I don't think this really spoils anything about the rest of the series. 1. For the Fold being impenetrable, people cross it a lot. I mean, a LOT. 2. I try to pay close attention, but I literally have no idea what side of the Fold the characters are on. I just know they cross it, or go into it a little and back out again. I was convinced that Mal and Alaina are starting on the WEST side, and journey to the EAST, while Kaz and the Crows are on the EAST and travel WEST. But I may have that backwards. In one instance, Kaz and the Crows go to a lot of trouble to cross the Fold, and the next episode they are heading right through it again. So what was the point? I really, truly have no idea which way people travelled through the Fold. As someone else said, this show would benefit from a Game of Thrones style opening credits, showing which cities/areas are going to be focused on this episode. I realize I could stop, look up the episode online, and orient myself, but I think it would take me out of the show too much. Plus, I am worried about learning spoilers by reading any Wiki articles. Game of Thrones put me off reading Wikis in the middle of a show: ME: Looks up Robb Stark to see which Brother he is. WIKI, first sentence: Robb Stark, WHO DIES IN EPISODE XXX, was the... Come on, Wiki authors. At least bury the death in the third paragraph, so I can read who Robb Stark was in relation to Jon Snow and quit reading. But I digress. Overall, really love the world-building. Love the concept of magic and the execution. You are born with a talent, but must train to get good at it. Plus there is more available beyond your innate gifts. Excellent background for an RPG.

After posting this, I Googled to see if there was a connection, and apparently there is, but it's not apparent from the show, in my opinion. I don't recall any dialog making it clear that Childress is either (a) the King in Yellow or (b) worships the King in Yellow. I guess it was meant to be left to our imagination to connect the dots. https://nerdist.com/article/true-detective-yellow-king-carcosa-first-season-lovecraft

So I expected the "Yellow King" to be a big reveal, and be a reference to "The King in Yellow" from Lovecraft. Turns out neither really happened. Why the Yellow King? Was Errol Childress the leader of the mask-wearing, child-raping cult? Obviously his dad being the Sheriff was how the investigation was stalled, but what part did the Governor's brother play, other than being one of the cult? Who are the other cult members? Seemed a lot of threads left unresolved. I get that, but I wanted a little more closure.

Who play's Dre's Mother in this episode? IMDb.com is no help. They list Tina, his baby momma, but not his actual MOTHER, the one who pulls a gun on him. She looks familiar, but I can't find a credit for her. UPDATE: Never mind, just saw MrsRafaelBarba's comment. She is Ami Brabson, listed as "Vanessa". They chose a younger picture for IMDb, that's why I didn't recognize her.

I would say, no. I guess the examples I am thinking of, from shows that pulled this trope off, is where we are shown a real-world explanation for something that the person in question thinks can't be explained. If that makes sense. Like someone has schizophrenia and is talking to an imaginary person, and another character proves that person doesn't exist: No one lives in that house, no one was assigned as his roommate, etc. In A Beautiful Mind, Dr. Nash is talking to people who aren't real. One by one, we the audience are shown that each person is not real. I remember being shocked when If someone is speaking to a demon or a witch or some other supernatural being, it's a given that no one else can see them. I guess it's a distinction between "everyone else thinks you are talking to yourself, so THEY think you are crazy" and "You really ARE crazy, and the audience can see it now".

I have seen several comments suggesting this episode was one of those "Is she crazy or is this really happening?" kind of shows. Those shows are great. But this show was NOT one of them. There was zero evidence, ZERO, that she was simply imagining the demon and just decided she wanted to go on a killing spree. Other people can't see the demon. Well, that's pretty standard. The cop assuming she IS crazy because of the story she is telling. Everyone else's reaction to her is perfectly normal. But she's not crazy. The story is real. I just wish there was some explanation about what the domino, er, TALISMAN meant. I was halfway thinking the politician died of his injuries, and she met her quota anyway, so the talisman changed. I wonder, did the detective, when he saw the nuclear bombs hit, think to himself, "Maybe she wasn't crazy?"

Agreed. There was nothing futuristic, or tech-related, or Twilight Zone about this episode at all. It could have been a Law & Order episode. Oh, sorry. I mean it could have been a Bergerac episode.

I love all the comments here, you guys asked all the questions I was going to ask, except one: In the summary, they say, "In an alternative 1969..." Normally, everything mentioned in the summary is shown or explained within the show. So, instead of going to the moon, we have a deep space mission, and we have this replica technology. But nowhere in the SHOW does it communicate that idea. Other than the fact it's happening in the 1960s, there is nothing that clearly states it's a different timeline, other than the replica tech. I would think there would have been some lines of dialog about where they were going, how we abandoned the idea of going to the moon, or maybe someone watching a reworked version of JFK's speech: "We choose to go to Saturn in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Now, if they REALLY wanted to mess with our minds, show footage of LBJ, or maybe a 1960s President Nixon, making that speech. THAT would be a mind-blower.

Just finished the show, binged over a few days. I had some thoughts about the alternate dimension that Kaelego lives in. I love the idea of alternate dimensions/universes, but shows spend so much time breaking into them, they don't put a lot of thought into how those universes should look or be set up. It doesn't make sense that this is a mirror universe, or an alternate timeline, with only minor differences. The compound where Dan is working... why would that compound be built, if the Vos Mansion and Visser Hotel were never burned in the other universe? But it appears that every place we see in the other dimension is pivotal to our story: The Vos Mansion, the Visser, the compound, Dan's childhood home. My answer is, this is a pocket universe. It only contains bit and pieces of places relevant to the people looking in/visiting. Now, that makes sense, that Kaelego would simply construct spaces, illusions if you will, to trick the people he wants to keep there. We may have no idea of what the actual dimension looks like, it's just what Dan and Melodi see. Kind of like a holodeck of sorts, run by Kaelego. I know the writers can't explore every single aspect, they are trying to tell a story. But what is Kaelego's goal? Does he want to break into our dimension? Does he want to draw people into his dimension? What does he get from it? If he kills people in our dimension, are their souls drawn into his? Lucas mentioned "batteries", as if everyone at the Vos Mansion was going to die in the fire as a result of the ceremony. He could see it, his sister could not, apparently. Or she didn't care. Plenty of stuff to chew on, but honestly a second season would have less to work with after these reveals.

So, when Marc/Steven's mother died, that's when Marc was no longer able to control their body, and Steven started noticing things, right? That happened just a few months ago? So Steven is just leaving voice messages for his mother, because her phone is still active? Or is he imagining he is actually talking to her? If Marc/Steven grew up in London, how did Marc develop an American accent?

So, to bind an Egyptian god to stone requires five avatars and a fancy magical ceremony you must commit to memory... But any old person can pick up a statue and smash it on the ground to release them again?

She drove off of a pier in the middle of the day, there were people standing around when it happened. It didn't happen in the dark in a secluded place. I didn't even realize that until I saw you post, it certainly SHOULD have attracted some attention, but I guess it helped the plot to just have Nathan's family wonder what happened to Fran.

It's funny, I also remember Adriyan Rae from Vagrant Queen who was on Chicago Fire. It's like Chicago Fire is the next stop for sci-fi actresses after one-season shows (although Upload was renewed).