KDeFlane

As much as don't want this to be The Matrix or another virtual reality simulation, I'm getting that kind of vibe from all of the references to the meals at the Biergarten. Assuming Kate and Harold have been "married" for several years, and people have only a limited number of places to eat out in their little town, it did strike me as odd the way Harold was commenting on how delicious his "buffalo burger" was. Yeah, maybe i'll ask my partner if their steak came out alright, but I'm not writing a Yelp review of my own meal for them right there at the table. It *almost* feels like they are trying to convince themselves that what they are eating is real food, or at least acting like satisifed customers for the sake of their hidden viewers. Man, this had better not be an extreme reality show in disguise. Oh, and btw, just mentioning "steak" triggers a Matrix flashback for me. Maybe that's just an easter egg or a wink to the audience, not a real clue.

Sorry, it looked fairly brown to me, definitely more like dust than frost on the bumper of the car and the windows. However, I do recall seeing something about the windows of the delivery van that made me think that warehouse is very cold. Maybe we see Ethan's breath in the cold air?

Might as well use the "In the Media" thread to discuss ratings, right? I ran across a tumblr which has the data for the first four weeks: Originally posted at: http://seriable.com/wayward-pines-ratings-table-nielsen-18-49-demo-numbers-season-1/ So viewership is holding steady, which is ALWAYS a good sign, even for a show on FOX. (I'll try keeping this table updated for convenience.)

I'll go along with the "pop" theory for now. (We only have a few days left to explore theories, if they're going to reveal "The Truth" in the next episode.) This leans towards some technology which pulled Ethan out of the car so completely that there is no DNA evidence left behind that he was ever in that car when it crashed with Stallings inside. The advanced tech must also grab entire cars, as it did with Theresa and Ben -- maybe it did grab Ethan and Stallings and their car, but then returned the car and in the process reduced Stallings to ashes (and removed the GPS unit). Wow, I wonder if that GPS would have recorded the travel to a parallel universe and back?

I'm assuming Bill Evans is the real father of Patricia's newborn. He was living there for two years, married for one year, babies happen. We also see Pam holding an infant in the hospital (with the creepy candy-stripers looking at it in awe), but maybe it came out of a test tube and not a womb.

I'm not seeing this in my guide at all.

Obliquely, it was implied when Theresa was accessing Ethan's account at the Secret Service office in Boise. She told Ben, "I'm putting my training to good use," or something to the effect that she's used this computer system before.

Do rewatch, but I'll ask politely that the previews not be discussed in this thread. At my old school, err forum (where's that strike-thru tag?), we tried to keep the topic related to only the content revealed within the episode. I haven't checked the rules yet for this new town. Anyway, I do try to avoid viewing the previews for a few days myself. I want the story to unfold in sequence, altho' I do peek at the visuals sometimes when I can't stand the wait. Just had my first viewing this morning, might not get to my freeze-frame note-taking viewing until Monday. Glad to see people already pointing out the numbers on the nifty aluminum folders. As for the Reckoning, I don't know if we know they always slit the throat, but that also is a method for the slaughter of animals in certain religious laws, like it has something to do with kosher and halal meats (i think). *shudder* at the thought.

man, I wish I could watch these or read it or whatever it is. My browser does not play nice with whatever plugins are involved. I've tried both IE and Firefox, but admittedly I might not have the latest versions of anything. I remember seeing that URL in the pre-publicity days and forgot all about it. Good to have on the record. (That doesn't talk about the past or my life before, does it?)

Random thing I picked up on my (third? fourth?) viewing of this episode: When Nurse Pam is confronting Ethan in the hospital morgue, she is carrying a library book titled "Keeping Bees". Truly a Renaissance woman, she is.

I have answered my own question: they have radios in WP. Somehow it took me until my 5th rewatch of the first episode to notice that Arlene has music playing in the background of the sheriff's reception area -- it's the song "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by the Ink Spots from 1941. In episode 2, she has something else playing which sounded a bit like really old country-western, maybe 1940s but that's a wild guess. I also spotted what looks to be a radio (model from the 1950s, maybe) in the area of the hotel behind the managers desk. And of course we do see Beverly mopping the bar floor and turning up the radio to dance with Ethan. (I couldn't place the song, but it has a 1940s blues feel to it.) This brings me back to Kate in the park interrupting Henry's horseshoe match to say, "We'll miss our program." Now I'm thinking that is more likely to be a radio show than televised, maybe a drama or comedy, or maybe just a specific block of music.

Try either http://www.fox.com/gone or http://www.fox.com/wayward-pines/gone It's what we're discussing over in http://forums.previously.tv/topic/27240-wp-gone/

I wandered over to the A.V.Club to read some other comments, where someone posted, "Families nowadays are finding that the big city life can be pretty cutthroat." No context was given, so I'm assuming they were simply being witty. However, this did remind me of something heard in the background of one scene. When Theresa and Ben are in the car pulling up to the gas station in Lowman, the radio is saying, "...Even young families are feeling the pull to smaller towns, preferring the atmosphere of an intimate community to the opportunity of a big city." Nice little bit of flavor hidden there. So now I'm pulling out my notes to see what else might be worth commenting on. * How about the early scene with Ethan on the run in the woods? I heard a coyote howl -- probably artificial, right? * Kate's home refrigerator has a large letter 'K' plastered on the door. Random, much? * When Ethan finds Beverly's body, her feet are bare. Keep an eye out for the knee-high boots she was wearing at her execution? * Ethan walks into Bev's empty house and finds only a bottle of water in the 'fridge, and a wooden block on the counter with the letter 'B' on it. Brown to Burke and they don't even need to change that prop. * His mailbox goes from 'Brown' to blacked-out to 'Burke' like magic. Those house flippers sure do work fast! Reminds me of an episode of the Twilight Zone. Is it Thursday yet?

I am watching it, but the FOX website does not cooperate with my browser. (I run Firefox with a flash-blocker, and I've already tried to enable and white-list FOX but the videos still refuse to load and play.) I have resorted to waiting for a TV station in the Netherlands to upload the clips to YouTube, which means I also get to see subtitles in Dutch. I tried linking to the clips on the Australian FOX affiliate, but those are region-blocked for me. I don't mind the acting, as it seems appropriate for the condensed format of a web series. The Micro$oft product placement is no worse than what they do on Hawaii-Five-O. I am more concerned with how much of GONE is its own little take on the concept of WP, rather than being a parallel story within the larger canon. For example, is "the mountain project" going to be just that one reporter's name for it or a classified code name she uncovered? I might rewatch these, but I'm not scouring them frame-by-frame for clues.

The tallest building cluster on the left of the photo (which I did mark) is the hospital, based on the floor plans posted in the hallways. They have they 3-wing shape and several floors. The other tallest single structure on the right of the photo (which I did not mark) is probably the high school, which we have not yet seen but appears to be at least two stories tall in the previews. It sure is massive, taking up a whole city block, so maybe it is a full K-12 system.

Alright, I just created an account on imgur so I could share my version of this map. (I took images from other websites, without attribution. Lock me up in WP and make me mow lawns.) https://imgur.com/gallery/IiQFEPc/new https://i.imgur.com/IiQFEPc.jpg I'm thinking all of the X marks show where Bill tried and failed to scale the mountain faces. The only exit would be the thicker arrow line, which runs along a line of trees in the photo before veering off. The train tracks are not visible (to my old eyes). Yeah, I don't think Bill drew it to scale.

More than flashlights and villagers, I saw military guys with advanced assault rifles. (I bet you can't buy those at the place on Main that sells fishing licenses.) (edit to add, rather than double-post, not sure of the local etiquette) Now after watching this ep a third time, I just noticed the mention of the name Pilcher. When Hassler is on the phone in Seattle, he's telling "Mr. Pilcher" that Theresa had just logged into the computer and will be headed "your way". Then later, in the woods with Kate, Ethan asks her, "Tell me about this Pilcher..." (not the exact wording, maybe). I don't see that name in the IMDB character list (yet), but it's worth keeping an ear out for it in the future. I might need to go back for more rewatches to confirm, but I don't think Ethan ever heard that name before, so Kate must have said something else and we were not privvy to their full conversation in the woods.

I wish I knew how to grab a screen shot from my TiVo and post it here. I know there was another aerial view which showed the single road going in/out of town. Maybe it's just the contrast & brightness on my screen making this image harder to see the details.

I added a notation to my timeline to point out that Sheriff Pope was there in 2014 to aid in the abduction of Theresa and Ben. While some might take this as proof people can cross the boundary, my brain is fixated on 2014 being the past in relation to the WP scenes. Pope's hair was shorter in 2014 (or maybe just slicked down) compared to the thicker layer he's hiding with his cowboy hat. In 2014, he's wearing a highway patrol or police officer's uniform, complete with blue dress shirt and tie. (I noticed the blue scarf he was wearing at the Reckoning rig, which was a nice touch of costume design.) Episode 3 has the sheriff frequently repeating "This is my town" like a mantra (or a bad improv actor reminding himself of his role). It has me looking more closely at the roles people have been assigned. Who thinks Nurse Pam is a registered nurse? She seems both more relaxed and more honest when she is seen outside the hospital, while her line of "I made them all better" sounds like someone merely play acting. Then we have the hotel clerk with a look of pride at being told he "seems like the manager", well, you get the idea.

Thanks for the reminder about all of Ethan's outgoing calls. Even from The Excellent Bean, the Powers That Be are letting him think he is dialing the outside world. I wonder if the other citizens are taking notice and wondering when they'll get dialing privileges. More random thoughts: All of the cash registers are antiques, and none are electronic. A quick search didn't give me any specifics about the history of cash registers (aka 'tills') but some look to be at least 100 years old? Is this a choice driven by power consumption or security issues? Are the coins also counterfeit, and how old are the newest mint dates? There is a W.P. Bank and Trust next to the Laundromat near the park, and my guess is that everyone with a paying job brings their paper paycheck to the bank to cash it, rather than anything as modern as direct deposit into accounts.

The phones don't make outgoing calls? Is that everywhere, or just in the Burke's house? There is a pay phone booth on Main Street (and I've even seen an extra (actor) inside it in the background of one shot), but perhaps it is just for passers-by to "answer the call" when it rings. How do people ever contact one another to organize community events? No television, no wi-fi, and I assume no cell phone service. What about radio? It seems like a small town would at least be able to run a low-wattage radio station, kinda like they had in "Northern Exposure" (i forget the name of that Alaska town). Do we know if they have phonographs? I wonder how old the LP records would be -- assuming classical orchestra symphonies are not counted as mentions of the past. Entertainment? No movie theaters (that we've seen), because movies would be too much of a reminder of their life before. But there is a marquee on Main Street which looks like a theater entrance, and a notice of a recital. It's probably just a local talent show. At this point, I might just get violent with those horseshoes. Good thing they don't have lawn darts.

I like this approach by jhlipton, so I'm expanding on the previous post. Kate and Bill disappear at the same time, but pop up at different times. The two timelines are not at all synchronized. Seattle/Boise: 1999-unknown: Town is built or discovered? 1999: Beverly disappears from I.T. job. 2014 -5 weeks: Kate Hewson and Bill Evans go missing together. now -5 days: Ethan and Stallings are sent on assignment and crash. now: Theresa and Ben are abducted (by Sheriff Pope!) Let's say that the current year in WP is IMR (In Media Res) 0 IMR -???: Town is built, infrastructure set-up, IMR -???: core inhabitants, like Pope and the nurse, move in IMR -12 yrs: Kate arrives in WP IMR -2 yrs: Bill Evans arrives. IMR -1 year: Beverly awakens in WP IMR -2 weeks: Bill Evans is reckoned. (how long was he dead?) IMR -3 days: Ethan arrives. IMR -1 days: Theresa and Ben are seen in the hospital IMR = 0: Theresa and Ben are released and moved into Beverly's house. (I might be off on a few days of elapsed time.) I'm increasingly curious about the involvement of Adam Hassler in sending these agents off to Boise. Did he know that Kate and Bill were being sent into the void? Did he set that up as a pretext for having Ethan abducted? Was the death of Stallings necessary? Yeah, I can imagine Hassler transferred Kate to Boise, and only then was read in on The WP Project. (The companion series "GONE" has just started referring to it as "The Mountain Project".) Maybe he thought he was sending Ethan in to rescue his agents? I think Hassler doesn't know as much of the details as "Doctor" Jenkins does, or he wouldn't need reassurances. I cannot stop thinking about this show!

In between bouts of speculation and confusion, I like to think about the daily lives of our residents. It's not all mystery in the town of Wayward Pines. (I do believe Nurse Pam used the WP abbreviation, too.) We got a good look inside the refrigerator at the Burke's new house. What struck me is the amount of fresh vegetables and unpackaged foods, and how none of it is branded. The liquids are in clear glass bottles without any labels. The cheese is under a dome -- don't even think about that other show -- and other assorted foodstuffs are in unmarked Mason jars. None of the packaging is plastic, with the exception being the tub of ice cream. (I tried to freeze-frame on the lid, but I could not read the label.) I wonder where the grocery store is. Maybe everyone gets their groceries delivered to the house. Maybe the menu is pre-selected for them. (Maybe a pallet from the Dharma Initiative will parachute into the park.)

And why can't they see any fence when they are driving into town? Have we ever seen anyone actually drive into town from the outside world? I think we saw a sign for Wayward Pines being 9 miles ahead, and that is as close as we know anyone ever gets. Their cars break down and/or are crashed on the outskirts, and then they wake up in town after some time has passed. I think I've heard them mention Lowman, Idaho as the last place Ethan and his partner were when they checked in by email before their disappearance. The gas station where Theresa stopped is probably in Lowman as well, which is outside Boise. Perhaps everyone who lives there has seen the signs for the turn-off road which leads to (what they assume is the town of) Wayward Pines, but none of them has ever tried to actually visit there. Rural folk can be isolationist that way. (My problem is with the framed map at the sheriff's office which looked like it was pointing to a spot in the northern panhandle as the location of WP, not anywhere near Boise. Random prop dressing, I'll let it go.)

Agreed that the aerial view of the town matches the hand-drawn map if it is held upside down. The hospital is likely the tallest building which would match the black rectangle near the "park". I wonder why the tracks are marked as a question ("Train Track?" and not 'truck', just an sloppy letter 'a') as if Evans found those tracks in the woods but is questioning their true purpose. The show is making it very difficult for me to make my own map of the buildings on Main Street. Every time I get a view out the window of one building looking across the street, I've made a note of it, but this has given me a list of contradictions. Either they are rearranging the signs to mess with Ethan's head (and my own mind) or the continuity staff is going for the essence of what is visible rather than spacial accuracy. I also went back to episode one and confirmed that none of those framed signs for "The Rules" is visible in the locations where they are located in episode two. I'm OK with that (for now). If this place is inside a strange space-time vortex, perhaps the lifespan of crickets would give away their secret location. But I did see a dog on a street scene, and pets would age at the same rate as people and crickets, so it seems futile to simulate nature. Oh, and I wanted to add an observation from the sheriff's reception area. There is a chalkboard on the wall by the front door. In ep.01 it says "BE Quiet.", and in the 2nd ep it has a list of flavors: Strawberry, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla, Butterscotch. Just those four, no Rum Raisin.