KDeFlane

Does anyone recognize the kinds of explosives being used? The pipe bomb sure looked like it had a large chunk of C4 (or a gray block of modeling clay). At the end of last episode, we see Harold packing a much different packet into the music box. That one looked more like a pouch of chocolate syrup to me, certainly squishy and black if not actually liquid. Could Franklin have concocted something out of chemicals?

There must be more pets in town, to support the Noah's Bark Pet Store on Main Street. Can you imagine how feral all the domesticated animals would be after 2000 years without humans to care for them? I wonder whether the fish in the local rivers also developed mutations to cope with the environmental changes. The Drill&Nail hardware store sells Idaho fishing licenses, but are people able to access a stream within the perimeter?

A tiny detail was changed in this week's episode, visible in the background on Main Street. Early in the episode, they use their stock footage looking into the town from the Welcome sign, from which we can see that the Pines theater marquee still says "WPA RECITAL" (and some date/time line I can never quite read). Later, in the actual episode scenes, that sign now says "WPTC [presents?] / OUR TOWN" -- i didn't get any better view of it. It is visible twice, first when Henrietta is storming out to her car, and then later leading into the meeting between Kate and Theresa at The Excellent Bean. I'm guessing WPTC = Wayward Pines Theater Club. For the completionists out there, David Pilcher's book title was "THE COMING CRISIS: Human Adaptation to Environmental Pressure" I didn't see any useful meaning in all of the numbers on those hibernation chambers. The font they used made it hard to read some of the digits, too. The child Amanda Loman was behind 65.2384.179 and I think 51.2490.537 or 51.3490.537 looks like was duplicated on at least two chambers as well, and another said 14.2648.291 (and in some other notes I have either 94.5014.746 or 34.2014.746 but i forget which scene that was from). oh, and the framed sign with "The Rules" which was posted next to the front door of Ballinger's Toys is now sitting on the counter, propped against the bottom of the cash register. Random fiddling with the props? Surely a continuity intern needs to be informed of these details.

I'm back after a rewatch, yay! So now we have a whole 'nother layer of civilization to examine. We can start with all of the motivational signs placed at strategic locations in the complex: WAYWARD PINES IS THE FUTURE OUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS WE ARE THE FUTURE KEEP WAYWARD PINES SAFE YOUR WORK STAYS UNDER GROUND DON'T SHOW THAT YOU KNOW SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON YOU So Ted works for a top-side-only local delivery service, not to be confused with the Finest "International" Foods delivery van. (I'd love to think of a witty comment here.) And yes, there have been multiple sightings of dogs on leashes, at least I remember a golden retriever in maybe the first episode on Main Street, and near the end of episode 5 showed a different breed dog in a driveway as Ben is walking home. That one *might* be the same black dog as people spotted in ep#6 but i haven't gone back to check.

One thing I noticed is that Pilcher seems resigned to taking his book tours and slowly recruiting volunteers -- until he meets Megan. The hypnotherapist touches his hand in a meaningful way and tells him, "Find a way, please." The next scene is Pilcher recruiting Arnold Pope, in the rain, joking about how, "I may need an ark."

I just poured myself a glass of wine and wondered... What do the labels say on the wine bottles in WP? Do they have no appellation or year of vintage? Do they have faked labels, as the wine itself came from cold storage? (And is 2000 years a good amount of time for maturation, or would it spoil?) Random thoughts. Plenty of bottles on the wall behind the bar at Das Biergarten, too, but hard alcohol probably is ageless.

We had links to Bill's map in an earlier thread, and I posted a composite https://i.imgur.com/IiQFEPc.jpg

Random musings on the numbers: The photo of "100 yards outside the perimeter" was taken 14 years ago. Dwayne Johnson's new house was "built 12 years ago" according to the literature Theresa was given. Kate arrived 12 years ago. (Bill arrived two years ago and fathered a child.) Some of the students at the Academy do look to be younger than 12-14, but plenty are 15-17 years old. Over 100 students have been numbered as having been thru Orientation, although the initiation room seemed to contain only 50 or so candle-holders. My guess is that the younger students are attending normal classes until they are deemed old enough to handle The Truth. We don't know specifically when Reed and Carrie were brought in via their car crashes. And we don't know how long ago the first set of students were given the Orientation. Maybe the first fifty have already graduated? Maybe students #1,2,3 arrived 14 years ago, and now are all grown up and working at French's General Store. A "generation" can span at least a decade, so even the students joining today can be considered part of the First Generation that began 10-12 years ago.

I think some of the specifics were deduced because the show planted some details where they knew they would be caught and analyzed. The year was deduced because the show runners wanted us to notice the numbers on the files and the mentions of dates. I think that tiny success is what drives the effort to analyze *everything* beyond reason. Not everyone watches entertainment as a puzzle, but those of us who do are craving more of that kind of activity. Pope talks a lot about ice cream flavors, and his chalk board lists flavors of ice cream in one episode. It *feels* like a planted clue, but seems unlikely to have a pay-off later. I try to gather details just to see how creative the set designers are. Did you notice the open jar of peanut butter on the small table next to the sofa in the sheriff's office? Someone had to decide to put it there -- or someone on set ate their lunch there and forgot to clean up. Without a deliberate close-up shot of that area, I won't treat that detail with as much weight as the numbers on the files and the dates inside. It's why I even tried to decode the barcode-of-triangles under Arlene's name, because the camera took the time to focus our attention on it. Sorry, I'm rambling. I haven't re-re-rewatched this episode yet, so I might return with other tiny details to ponder, just for the sake of filling our week until the next episode.

I don't think we ever were told what Ethan was hallucinating -- and I'm speaking as someone who has seen episode #1 six times now! (But, I might go back and rewatch the part where he talks about the 621 people who died, including a girl named Jenny. I think he was telling Kate those were haunting his nightmares, but maybe he didn't want to admit he was on the verge of a relapse.) If you want to go to extremes with theories relying on the Unreliable Narrator gimmick, one might speculate that his entire life is a fantasy, and his "hallucinations" were really moments of lucid consciousness in the REAL reality. Ugh, don't Vanilla Sky me, show, not without planting more clues to justify such a twist.

I'm still tracking the ratings numbers. The table posted above was indeed just for "overnights", while the better numbers come from "live +3days" and "live +7days" -- viewership doubles when delayed DVR data comes in, but those numbers take longer to come in and then it gets complicated to post tables with columns here for comparison. The real news is that the show has a strong audience that just doesn't care to stay up on Thursday nights. I wasn't sure if anyone else is following the show's official Twitter account. For weeks they were teasing images (some were mild spoilers) and using a weird font to tweet phrases that looked upside-down or mirrored. At this point after the reveals in "The Truth", I'm thinking that was simply a ploy to appear mysterious, rather than being a specific clue. Anyone else notice this?

My head is spinning from the many layers to this question of fact vs fiction. From within the show, from the viewpoint of the characters, how much evidence should a person require to believe the unbelievable situation they appear to be in? Should Ethan have insisted on a fly-over of Boise? Should he have insisted on touching the ruins himself? If I were in his boots, I don't know if I would doubt anything I'm being told at this point, after having just witnessed devolved humoids munching within arm's length of my own face. From the meta perch, from the vantage as viewers being fed a narrative, we can insist on internal consistency and maybe some hand-wavey dismissal of "whatever" technology. Explanations only slow down the plot and invite further scrutiny. I don't mind having an unreliable narrator, and I don't mind being misled in the case of a mystery show. Some of the best TV moments are the sly reveals, if the clues are laid out in a natural way. But as a puzzle enthusiast, I have problems when I can't see the difference between what is an intentional clue and what is a simple oversight, and I really hate sloppy mistakes. I'm still willing to give this show the leeway to tell me its own version of its own facts in its own way, even if I need to maintain several conflicting theories as to what I think is going on. (Androids on a Holodeck!)

Ethan used the push-button phone from behind the bar at the Biergarten. I'm pretty sure the other call he made from the sheriff's conference room was also push-button. Maybe only Arlene got stuck with the rotary dial at the reception desk. I'm not sure about the wall phone in The Excellent Bean. (Sorry, drifting outside the episode now, but on the subject of phones, I think all of the ringers are bells rather than electronic ringtones, too.)

Listening to Mrs.F give her student orientation, she has elevated Pilcher to god status. Her hand gestures towards the end were like she was lifting up her praises in a prayer worship service. "You'll never meet him, just know he's watching over you." Either God, or Santa Claus.

I'm not sure they want to preserve the past. "They" want to preserve the human genome, or at least the human race at the point of homo sapiens modernus or whatever. Even though WP is a slice of historical culture, I think the expectation is that the teenagers will spawn a new culture.

Sorry I wasn't expressing myself well. In my head, everyone (up until this point) has seemed to be existing in some past decade. The (fake) money isn't any newer than 1988? No electronic cash registers? The artifacts around the town tended to pre-date the 21st century, at least as far as technology and fashion went. I might not have noticed it if her warmer jacket had been a puffy vest from the 1980s or a camoflage hunter's coat, but that silver material stood out as being far more modern -- even futuristic -- compared to what we had been led to believe was available to the citizens. Maybe that was just me jumping to conclusions, but I was taking it as an early clue.

whew! I am still trying to catch up with the flurry of discussions. I waited until my household all went to bed and then stayed up late to watch this episode -- never fast-forwarded the recording either, to make sure my DVR viewing counts the most it can towards ratings (she says with the delusion that TiVo reports back to the networks). And then I had to stay up for another half-hour to read all the reactions in my twitter feed. And then got up this morning and read at least 3 different recaps. And only now am I joining in on this discussion thread. (Seems like my delay saved me from unwanted book-spoilage, thank you.) It was fun watching the reveal about the future year, as I sat there all smug for being on that theory train. And yet, the episode still gave me moments of surprise -- my jaw dropped when the helicopter made its appearance. I might need to rewatch it later today.

i'm trying very hard to avoid the speculations and theories thread now, because some people have already seen "The Truth" it seems. All I can do is review my notes now (and stay off Twitter -- i'm avoiding you @WaywardPinesFOX and your mirror writing). I tried to find the specific back issue of "Guns & Ammo" magazine seen in the sheriff's desk drawer, but the internet is not interested in archiving such things. I might stop by my public library this afternoon as a distraction. The cover looked almost photoshopped, so it could either be a fake prop or it was made back in the early days of magazine paste-up. Besides the odd head of a bobcat (like Ben's school bumper sticker?) and what looked like a silhouette of a coyote against a full moon, there was a blurb for an article teased with "What are they? What can they do?" And as for the half-empty box of file folders, I think that's only the most recent additions to the pile. The box was marked "49372.527" and was stacked on top of another box marked "49372.526" -- perhaps 525 other boxes were moved to a storage room after they were filled, and the sheriff only needs immediate access to the current residents. (I estimated a population of around 200 people, judging from the turnout at the Reckoning.) Also wanted to mention Amy's taste in coats as well as her access to fashion. She was sporting a leather or suade jacket during the school day, but at night had switched to a puffy silver material. It's like the show doesn't even want to try hiding its inconsistent time clues. I love it!

Random theory/clue/question of the day: Were the hallucinations that Ethan was having really a sign of his impending shift in reality? Was Ethan chosen because of his hallucinations, or were they a ripple backwards in time caused by his being selected?

I was scrolling thru my TiVo schedule for the upcoming weeks, and I had a momentary panic when i did NOT see WP listed to record next Thursday, June 18. It turns out that some golf thing is being covered by FOX in primetime, and our little saga will be pre-empted. On one hand, "Waiting? Ugh!", but OTOH we'll have an extra week to dissect everything we learn in "The Truth". Just wanted to prepare you for the shock. and p.s. to the above discussion, I meant to emphasize that getting good ratings for a *limited-run and done* quirky show means we could see more networks take chances on both quirky AND limited-run. While there is value in renewing a successful brand for a second season (in recognition, set-up costs, marketing, etc.), I think networks are going to learn that some shows are successful precisely because they are written and promoted with the promise of being a closed system. When such shows do get a renewal now, it is for a new cast of characters with a new story to tell, barely tied to the first season, sometime only using the feel of a universe or premise. Think "True Detective" and "American Horror Story" and even "Fargo". If they can bottle whatever makes WP a magical success, they'll use it, somehow.

The upside to having good ratings on a show like this is that FOX may be more likely to approve *future* shows like this. The chart above seems to be just the first night ratings numbers. FOX tweeted this update to include DVR delayed viewing: https://twitter.com/WaywardPinesFOX/status/608343182968012800

Pulling this quote from the ep.4 thread: The opening sequence has hints -- both in being made of scale models and in what is shown in that model -- but are they hints as to the future of WP or the past of Earth-as-we-know-it? Some of the little details: The cemetary is seen in daylight, and all of the tombstones are clean and upright. Then we get a flash-frame of trees on fire. Then the cemetary is run down, the stones are weathered and some are toppled over. The house which appears when Reed Diamond's credit is on screen starts out as pristine white, then begins to deteriorate. At first I thought it was peeling paint from age, but perhaps it is charring from fire damage. Another flash-frame of trees on fire happen at the point we see a police car (marked POLICE and not sheriff) and a standing trooper. After the flames, the trooper looks more rural, and the car has moved. This could be foreshadowing, or it could be a traumatic memory. I wonder if the opening credits will change after we learn "The Truth"...

I forgot to mention the Brazilian coffee. (I love the way the show just sprinkles flavor and extra details into the frame, like a newspaper front page casually held in a scene where we're looking at people's faces instead.) The emphasis in such a headline could either be "small town news" level of excitement over the little things in life, or it could be propaganda from behind the curtain to help the citizens maintain their illusion that Brazil even still exists beyond the wall. (I'm not enough of a coffee snob to know for sure, but I thought coffee beans from Brazil are the least exotic kind you can buy now, but back in the 1950s it was probably a selling point.)

Has anyone proposed an android theory yet? That chick at The Excellent Bean practically twitched and said, "It does not compute." (How old does that reference make me?) So if the supporting characters in the town are all sentient robots, is Ethan a new model? Is this Westworld? Just think how advanced the technology of androids will be in the 41st century! Maybe they don't even know they are androids. (I'm going off the deep end with whack-a-doo theories now, because it's too hot here to sleep.)

I feel like putting this to a vote: Are the "buffalo" burgers regular beef cooked in the style of Buffalo Wings with that hot sauce, or do you think they mean the meat is from a bison? Or will either choice be moot when it's revealed it's all soy protein and tofu and an illusion? (btw, one of the cases in the delivery van is marked "beef" with contents of "steaks" and "ground beef" in units for delivery to the "Meat Market".)