S01.E02: Empathy Bonus

[AnimeMania]

Mercenaries raid the family home. Seeking answers, Flynne returns to the headset and learns it is not a game, but a time machine that goes 70 years into the future. Flynne makes a deal with Wilf and Lev and agrees to help find Aelita.

Original Air Date: October 21, 2022  

[ratSenoL]

This one was better than the first one.  It covered a lot of ground in one hour, but there are so many questions. 

[xaxat]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:55 PM, ratSenoL said:

This one was better than the first one.  It covered a lot of ground in one hour, but there are so many questions. 

I agree. The second episode was like a video game tutorial, where the player is taught the initial rules of the game bur not what the game is ultimately about. When it comes to video games I also like how the visuals are clearly better in 2032, but they use a filter to show that it's still not quite photo-realistic. You could really see it in the scene with Pickett at the nightclub.

Burton and his squad of veterans is a compelling story in its own right.

This show is gorgeous.

They could have used a better accent coach.

[Quilt Fairy]

I'll like this show a lot better when I figure out what is going on.  The VR/sim stuff can be hard to keep straight as it is, but add in the time travel and it's ramped my confusion level up to 11.  

Great acting and visuals, though.  And the guy who's playing Burton looks so much like Chris Pratt.

[dwmarch]

2 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

The VR/sim stuff can be hard to keep straight as it is, but add in the time travel and it's ramped my confusion level up to 11.

I haven't read the book and I have no idea if this show follows it or not but from what I can tell so far, the "people" (who might not be people at all) in the year 2100 are using human minds from the past to drive robot bodies because... well, they haven't explained that yet. They also started explaining how the time travel aspect of things was creating branched universes but then said it was complicated and changed the subject. But the good guys (if they are actually good guys) are happy to cure cancer and drop lottery wins on people while the bad guys (see above) drive around in cloaked cars and happily murder anyone who gets in their way. No one uptime is concerned about what kind of follow-on effects this might have. All I can discern from that is that Judgment Day is inevitable and it won't matter what happens to the humans regarding individual fortunes or miracles cures because no one can escape that fate. In any case, I'm curious to see where it goes. That and I'd watch Chloe Moretz read the phone book, even in a cheesy faux-Southern accent.

[shrewd.buddha]

How incredibly lucky was it that the bad mercenary team decided to ambush Flynne and her brother on the very night he was having a late night campfire gathering with the former members of his elite tech-enhanced marine buddies .. all of whom are now non-active and live in the same area .. and they happen to have drones and are heavily armed .. ?
My big take-away was that gun control laws have definitely not changed in 10 or so years...

Flynne is a "brilliant gamer" - - but how does that make her more capable of remote-piloting a robot in the actual (future) world?  There are no hacks, tricks, easter-eggs or secret passages. Exceptional hand-eye coordination does not seem to be a factor since there are no controls .. to be controlled.  Why does it matter that the robot look like Flynne or her brother? (other than the obvious desire of face time for the actor)

Still - the show is not so bad.  It does drag a bit because so much time has been spent setting things up.  And there is a lot explaining to do.  So much explaining ... and we still don't know much of what is going on or why certain things need to be done.
But we continue to watch..

Edited October 24, 2022 by shrewd.buddha

[Quilt Fairy]

14 hours ago, dwmarch said:

But the good guys (if they are actually good guys) are happy to cure cancer and drop lottery wins on people while the bad guys (see above) drive around in cloaked cars and happily murder anyone who gets in their way

We don't know who the good guys and bad guys are at this point.  All we have are two opposing factions. 

[cdnalor]

I'm curious about the giant statues in future London and what happens in history that motivates people to build them.  And no more bananas in the next ten years?  Noooo!

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, cdnalor said:

nd no more bananas in the next ten years?  Noooo!

OT, but that's actually not out of the realm of possibility.  Almost every banana in grocery stores is a Cavendish, and all growers have converted to this one variety.  One disease could wipe out bananas as we know them. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 10/24/2022 at 6:20 PM, cdnalor said:

I'm curious about the giant statues in future London and what happens in history that motivates people to build them.  And no more bananas in the next ten years?  Noooo!

They appear to be giant versions of classical statues -- spotted the Michaelangelo's David, Discobolus of Myron, Winged Victory, Apollo and Daphne, Pallas Athena, and the Venus de Milo.  Why are they being built ? 

Even weirder there are more than 1 copy of the same statue -- why would they build more than 1 of the same giant statue ?  Bookends ?

Edited October 29, 2022 by ottoDbusdriver

[AuntieMame]

I love the giant statues too, but can’t imagine why they’re being built. Love the time travel aspect of the show because it is so mysterious. Those people from the future need something in/from the past and it is an existential level need or they wouldn’t be going to this kind of trouble. I’m very interested to find out what world changing event has forced them into the past for a fix. The show is gorgeous visually. I’m definitely on board, though I hate waiting for each week’s episode; I live to binge. 

Edited October 28, 2022 by AuntieMame

[ottoDbusdriver]

I'm also curious about the concept of stub universes.

What changed to generate the stub universe that Flynne is in ?

Are there any another stub universes that 2099 is connected to ?

[Netfoot]

On 10/24/2022 at 9:36 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

..her brother on the very night he was having a late night campfire gathering with the former members of his elite tech-enhanced marine buddies .. all of whom are now non-active and live in the same area ..

They did explain that the military was recruiting gangs of young men with esprit de corps already established. If they were recruited as a gang, at the same time and from the same area, it is reasonable to accept that they were demobbed at the same time and returned home to the same area where from which they were first recruited.

[Rickster]

On 10/27/2022 at 9:40 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

I'm also curious about the concept of stub universes.

What changed to generate the stub universe that Flynne is in ?

Are there any another stub universes that 2099 is connected to ?

(Just rewatched the second episode last night with a friend)

It was explained in her visit to the future, that the future Londoners interference in the past to establish the connection to her generated her stub universe.

I wonder if each successive interaction generates a new stub? Like setting up the hit squad, curing her mother, the wiring of money to the local crime boss, and each of her visits to the future.

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Rickster said:

I wonder if each successive interaction generates a new stub? Like setting up the hit squad, curing her mother, the wiring of money to the local crime boss, and each of her visits to the future.

No expert, but parallel universes are supposedly created when time travelers introduce the slightest deviation from the original. (Step on a butterfly, destroy the future.) What exactly the difference (if any) between a stub universe and a parallel universe is, I don't know. Seem to be pretty much the same to me.

[Haleth]

I was so confused by the timey wimey stuff that my brain short circuited and I fell asleep.  But since I love JJ Feild I'll give it another try when I'm less tired.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Is Connor Flynne and Burton's guardian angel? He keeps showing up at just the right time to get them out of a jam.

Kind of sloppy to leave a coffee cup sitting on top of a cloaked car. It's almost as if someone wanted the car to be found. (Or the mercenaries expected to fulfill their task and return to the car so they weren't worried about it.)

Wonder why they didn't get Robert Downey Jr. to play Lev Zubov instead of the "low rent" imitation? Too old for the role, or too expensive, ha ha?

That's excellent CGI on the actor playing Connor. He really does look like he's missing an arm and half of both his legs. He moves like it too.

I just learned that the same guy who was an EP of Westworld is also an EP of this show. For Westworld I had to read three different discussion forums to halfway understand what was going on. For The Peripheral I'm up to four forums and so far I'm still mostly lost. Sigh, Christopher Nolan, you're forever my guy but your brother Jonathan is wrecking my brain. 😵‍💫

[nomodrama]

On 11/26/2022 at 12:27 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wonder why they didn't get Robert Downey Jr. to play Lev Zubov instead of the "low rent" imitation? Too old for the role, or too expensive, ha ha?

My husband was passed out next to me, woke up during the scene with Lev and Wilf and said, "that guy looks like Tony Stark." LOL

[Tachi Rocinante]

• A little too dark during the firefight, but at least it wasn't the cheap-ass filter from House Of The Dragon.
• So military vets get to keep their tactical implants?
• Stub universe is an odd name choice for 'original timeline'.
• Burton's conversation with Flynne figuring out the WWI sim scenario was very subtle, now that we've seen his real-world capabilities.
• Sooo, the basic plot is that they want to kill Flynne because she saw some lady?
• This show is intriguing and very well done, so far.