Theories: What Is Going On?

[penelope79]

I think it would be nice, for all of us who haven't read the books, to discuss our theories on WP and what the hell is going on! :)

For instance, after two episodes, I started to think about some possible explanation, far from being well thought and that may or not be ironic:

 

-It's The Truman Show 2.0: some sort of reality show where unaware people have to find out by themeselves what's happening. People who try to spill the beans/escape apparently die but are actually expelled. That would explain cameras, chips, the town being a no-fly zone, why there's only one nurse, a psychiatrist, tombs with no names etc. It would NOT explain why people have different perception of time. Or the endgame of the show in the first place (I mean, is there a winner? And who and how wins?)

 

-It's a government/social experiment. That would explain Ethan's colleague involvement (Adam, IIRC), the fake money, fake tombs etc., but I can't understand why some people ignore what's going on, the perception of time and many, many other things.

 

-It's all in Ethan's mind. As far as I understand, he caused the death of several people (I can't remember the number) or, at least, he feels guilty to the point he hallucinated in the past. Maybe, the lovely citizens of WP are the victims, included his past colleagues. That would explain quite a lot, but not the scenes where his family is searching for him,  nor the chat between the psychiatrist and Ethan's CIA colleague.

 

-For similar reasons, Ethan is currently in an asylum and WP is his Shutter Island. For those unfamiliar with Martin Scorsese's movie, a very quick recap (I put it in spoiler tags, just in case, but if you never watched it do it, because it's amazing):

Leonardo DiCaprio's character is investigating the disappearance of a criminally insane patient of an asylum, a woman who drowned her children and then killed herself. By the end of the movie, he finds out that HE is a patient in the same hospital, in denial because he killed his wife after she drowned their children. Throughout the movie, the hospital staff posed as other people -his detective colleague, other patients and so on- only to test him, in order to understand if they can spare him a lobotomy.

That a similar concept has been applied to WP is, at least so far, my best bet. However, it couldn't still explain the scenes concerning his family.

 

 

These are my first thoughts, probably all wrong. What do you guys think WP is all about?

 

 

 

 

[slothgirl]

There's something about the son that is always filmed oddly. I'm speculating that the entire thing is a story in HIS head (not Matt Dillons). He is so angry at his father for cheating on his mother and always being "I can't tell you... blah,blah, classified, blah", that he (the son) has created an imaginary world where both his father and the "other woman" are being %'ed over. And to make it worse for his Dad, the woman is married to someone else and he can't even trust HER anymore. Meanwhile the person he does trust gets killed off immediately.

 

Revenge fantasy. That's my theory for now... most likely to get revised several times over the next 8 weeks!

Edited May 22, 2015 by slothgirl

[ottoDbusdriver]

There's something about the son that is always filmed oddly. I'm speculating that the entire thing is a story in HIS head (not Matt Dillons). He is so angry at his father for cheating on his mother and always being "I can't tell you... blah,blah, classified, blah", that he (the son) has created an imaginary world where both his father and the "other woman" are being %'ed over. And to make it worse for his Dad, the woman is married to someone else and he can't even trust HER anymore. Meanwhile the person he does trust gets killed off immediately.

Revenge fantasy. That's my theory for now... most likely to get revised several times over the next 8 weeks!

 

Kind of along the lines of St. Elsewhere.  Interesting theory.

[alias1]

There's something about the son that is always filmed oddly. I'm speculating that the entire thing is a story in HIS head (not Matt Dillons). He is so angry at his father for cheating on his mother and always being "I can't tell you... blah,blah, classified, blah", that he (the son) has created an imaginary world where both his father and the "other woman" are being %'ed over. And to make it worse for his Dad, the woman is married to someone else and he can't even trust HER anymore. Meanwhile the person he does trust gets killed off immediately.

 

Revenge fantasy. That's my theory for now... most likely to get revised several times over the next 8 weeks!

That's really an interesting theory, and I agree the angles when they film the son have been a little different, like when he was blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. Something seemed really off there. It's the most original theory I've read.  Good thinking!

[KDeFlane]

Thank you, fellow theorists. I live for these discussions. Some of my many (conflicting) thoughts so far:

- After the first ep, I was thinking people were being put into a coma before being brought to the town, which would account for those thinking it was still 1999.  Then, because Kate has aged by a decade since Ethan last saw her, I surmised that Ethan himself was put in a coma for those years.  His thinking that it is 2014 is also wrong, and this portion of the story is taking place in our *future*.

- Meanwhile, back in the Seattle scenes, it is 2014 and Ethan has just disappeared.  This would explain why the wife is not getting his messages, if he's in a coma "now". When he's awakened in 2025 and starts leaving messages, her phone has been redirected to a dead voicemail account.

- I'm also entertaining all of the other theories about this being Ethan's unconcious mind keeping occupied while he's in a coma from a simple car accident.  Vanilla Sky gets fairly trippy along the way.

- Or, Ethan's mind has been uploaded to The Matrix.  We have the Wayward Pines Hotel, Wayward Pines Sanitation (on the dumpster), etc., which feels very much like City Waste, City Phone, even "Heart o' the City" hotel from the movie. Virtual Reality could explain the lack of detail on tombstones.

- How about implanted memories as in "Total Recall"? Rather nice fantasy to be a Secret Agent, er, Secret Service Man, with a dash of paranoia.  (I'm not strongly in favor of this one.)

- It's not Purgatory.

 

Back in the days of LOST, we had a website devoted to uploaded freeze-frame screen grabs.  That would be handy for shots of the map and to compare scenes.  (I still swear that wall above the piano in the Biergarten changes.  When Beverly is working there in the 2nd ep, the mirror is gone and it's back to having framed photographs.)

[Chaos Theory]

Insane asylum? prison? Anyone see Escape from New York? Instead of guards they have...da rules.

[pezgirl7]

What about them being clones? Maybe the Ethan we're seeing is version 2.0. Maybe Beverly is a clone that was only created a year ago, from someone who died in 1999. It could explain how different people remember Bill dying three different ways, and why they're not allowed to talk about the past.

[slothgirl]

  This would explain why the wife is not getting his messages, if he's in a coma "now". When he's awakened in 2025 and starts leaving messages, her phone has been redirected to a dead voicemail account.

Doesn't he hear her outgoing message though? If it was just 25 years in the future for him and her voicemail was defunct, why would he hear an answering message that is familiar to him?

Edited May 23, 2015 by slothgirl

[Jel]

I am not clear where the 2025 date comes from. Would someone please explain. Thanks

[Happytobehere]

I am not clear where the 2025 date comes from. Would someone please explain. Thanks

I'm guessing that it is speculation on the part of the poster that like Beverly, who seemed to think she had only been in WP for about a year when she arrived there in 1999, Ethan might think it's 2014 still, when it might in fact be the future and 2025 was merely an example of what year it might actually be.

[Jel]

Ah, I see. Thanks Happytobehere.

[Guest]

Clones or some 'game' to find superior humans/agents is all I got so far.  But I'm just starting the book so I'll probably have to bow out from here.  

[SlackerInc]

-It's The Truman Show 2.0: some sort of reality show where unaware people have to find out by themeselves what's happening. People who try to spill the beans/escape apparently die but are actually expelled. That would explain cameras, chips, the town being a no-fly zone, why there's only one nurse, a psychiatrist, tombs with no names etc. It would NOT explain why people have different perception of time. Or the endgame of the show in the first place (I mean, is there a winner? And who and how wins?)

 

-It's a government/social experiment. That would explain Ethan's colleague involvement (Adam, IIRC), the fake money, fake tombs etc., but I can't understand why some people ignore what's going on, the perception of time and many, many other things.

 

Ha, nice: I just speculated in the latest episode thread about the Truman Show possibility.  This could explain why some people seem to know they are being held prisoner, and remember their lives before, while others (the barista for sure, probably his partner's widow, maybe some of the pained faces in the crowd at the execution) seem naive.  Maybe ten or twenty percent of the town is made up of "Trumans"?  And good point that the executions could be like in The Truman Show when

the girl Truman really loved, who was starting to reveal the truth to him. supposedly moved to Tahiti or somesuch faraway place.

 

But as you say, it would leave other questions unanswered.  Primary among them would be: why not just, as in that actual movie, use professional, paid actors for the "non-Trumans"?  Why risk revealing everything by bringing in outsiders?  And why post those rules?  What do the "Trumans" think those are about?

There almost has to be some time-warping stuff going on, or there are some serious red herrings afoot.

 

 

Doesn't he hear her outgoing message though? If it was just 25 years in the future for him and her voicemail was defunct, why would he hear an answering message that is familiar to him?

 

 

I assume the answering message, like the "receptionist" at the Secret Service HQ, is just being played for him in the phone system that does not actually connect to the outside world (not unless you are some big honcho, at least).  They called her phone, recorded the message, and played it for him whenever he called that number.

 

But of course that calls back to the most fundamental question of all: why they at times try to make it seem like he is in a real town with a real sheriff, with CSI people that come in from Boise, yadda yadda; and then at other times it's like "fuck it, this is a weirdo prison town with a huge electrified fence around it, special rules posted in every place of business, and you can't leave".

[johntfs]

Taking the idea that this is "Evil Eureka" in some way, I figure that Sheriff Pope is going to get killed or otherwise sidelined and that Ethan will become the new sheriff because he has law enforcement experience and is actually in town.  Figure he can't realistically just keep wandering around town starting shit without getting killed or locked up and also that he needs a way for himself (and us) to learn more about the town from the inside, which he won't do by getting a job as a bartender or lawn mower.

 

I'm assuming that type of time travel is involved.  Perhaps Wayward Pines is like Terra Nova and located in the distant past or distant future.  Suppose that there's some kind of "timehole" that links Wayward Pines and Earth.  So, 13 years ago or so in Wayward Pines they look through the timehole and see young Carla Gugino in the vicinity of the timehole, so they grab her.  12 years pass and they decide there's some niche in their population so they grab her partner, who was looking around the timehole.  In 1999, Juliette Lewis is in the vicinity of the timehole so they grab her because she meets some need or want.  Perhaps Reed Diamond's character was actually a handyman from the 1850s who got close to the timehole when the powers that be in Wayward Pines realized they wanted someone who could make wooden duckies, so they grabbed him and shotgun weddinged him to a Secret Service agent from 2014.

Edited May 26, 2015 by johntfs

[roctavia]

Seein this weeks episide with the garage and the creature thing... I'm leaning more toward aliens or something.

But like Alien zoo.. And Wayward pines is one of. The exhibits- come see our quaint earth town!! Hence the rules and the fence . And that could even account for the time stuff . Though if it's aliens, why would they label stuff in English vs whatever alien language???

[plurie]

I don't think it's aliens.

 

I'm going with "Government Conspiracy." The other Secret Service agent is in on it and the people in the Boise office MUST know something is going on.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I'm going with "Government Conspiracy." The other Secret Service agent is in on it and the people in the Boise office MUST know something is going on.

 

There was confirmation in the latest episode of more time shenanigans -- Kate told Ethan that she had been in Wayward Pines for 12 years, but she hadn't seen her partner Bill until two years ago and that he hadn't aged a day.

 

I'm onboard for Gov't Conspiracy, but for what purpose is still the mystery ?  And what are the creatures -- I'm thinking Morlocks maybe.

[DesertCyclist]

I've watched enough Lost that outlandish theories don't phase me in the least.  Perhaps the drive to Wayward Pines is one-way wormhole to prehistoric times, and the town is a settlement surrounded by a fortification.

 

Doesn't explain the phone calls between #1 and #2 (presumably #1 is outside the dome).  Doesn't explain the workers who seem to be able to come and go.  But it does explain how people can seem to be on both sides at the same time; the sheriff and the shrink still exist in our world because they haven't made the one-way trip yet.

 

Just spitballing.  Clearly!

[Jel]

More spitballing...

 

Is Wayward Pines there to protect the rest of the people on Earth? Like a holo-world plug to whatever exists on the other side, some kind of deal the government has made with the aliens to keep them from taking the rest of the people on earth?

 

But why, alien overlords, why?  Is it the alien version of the Truman Show? Is it an human zoo, for aliens? Is it some alien kid's Tamagotchi?

 

I am still really puzzled about why there are no crickets.  And why time is so messed up. And why the kids all seem weird.

[Lrdmordain]

I think it's a virtual world construct personally. It would account for all the oddities, time discrepancies, and how they always seem to find Ethan even without his tracking chip. None of it's really real, it's all a Life on Mars type situation.

[DesertCyclist]

Did we ever actually witness Beverly taking out her chip?  Was it ever implied that she actually did remove it?  And (I erased my recording) did Ethan have a fresh wound where his microchip had been implanted?

[Tabasco Cat]

The opening credits show a fake town like one from a model railroad layout. That's a dead givaway to me that, at the very least, the town is not "real". I don't understand the warnings "do not try to leave" because that electric wall pretty much guarantees you can't get out even if you tried. If it's a zoo for aliens then that story was done in the pilot of the original Star Trek. It was later re-mixed as a two-part episode, "The Cage". There are a lot of parallels to other ST episodes and, as others have said, other shows as well.

 

So I'm going with aliens.

[jhlipton]

The opening credits show a fake town like one from a model railroad layout. That's a dead givaway to me that, at the very least, the town is not "real".

 

 

I don't understand the warnings "do not try to leave" because that electric wall pretty much guarantees you can't get out even if you tried

 

Yeah, the fake town with fake people in the credits is pretty weird.  But they've dropped the hallucinations angle -- I don't know how well "it's all in the mind of an autistic boy your mind" would work now.

 

Bill Evens found a couple of potential exit points (based on the Xs on his map), so I'm not sure that someone couldn't get out.  For that matter, if Ethan wasn't a hulking Frankenstein, he might have been able to hide better (or at all) in the food distribution center. 

[Sakura12]

I love seeing people's theories I had a lot of the same ones when I was reading the book. 

Edited June 1, 2015 by Sakura12

[Jel]

 

Yeah, the fake town with fake people in the credits is pretty weird.  But they've dropped the hallucinations angle -- I don't know how well "it's all in the mind of an autistic boy your mind" would work now.

 

Bill Evens found a couple of potential exit points (based on the Xs on his map), so I'm not sure that someone couldn't get out.  For that matter, if Ethan wasn't a hulking Frankenstein, he might have been able to hide better (or at all) in the food distribution center. 

I keep expecting him to say "FIRE BAAAAAAD"

 

I wonder if anyone has escaped WP.

[Tabasco Cat]

For that matter, if Ethan wasn't a hulking Frankenstein, he might have been able to hide better (or at all) in the food distribution center. 

 

I didn't plan to even watch this show but the night episode 1 was on, I spotted my gf watching it in the living room as I walked across a hallway on the other side of the house. I glanced at the TV and saw a dark outdoors scene and thought to myself, "Huh. I thought Fred Gwynne was dead." No offense to Matt Dillon :D

 

So I sat down and started watching and now I'm in.

[Tabasco Cat]

OK so maybe it's not aliens. I'm wondering if WP is a dystopian future where humanity has evolved way beyond where we are today into those hairless humanoids. Maybe they discovered Orwell's "1984" and are running some kind of experiment to see how and why humans from the past react in an Orwellian scenario. The truth-telling quote as graffiti, the pervasive surveillance, the brainwashing, the "don't question anything" mentality.

 

Maybe the show (and the books - haven't read them) is an allegory about today's society. It's hard enough to cope and plan for a better future when, as in WP, the signs are everywhere and people know something just ain't right. How far will people go to deny the truth and not stand up for themselves? Eh, well... I hope that's not it. I would prefer aliens lol.

[Maximum Taco]

OK so maybe it's not aliens. I'm wondering if WP is a dystopian future where humanity has evolved way beyond where we are today into those hairless humanoids. Maybe they discovered Orwell's "1984" and are running some kind of experiment to see how and why humans from the past react in an Orwellian scenario. The truth-telling quote as graffiti, the pervasive surveillance, the brainwashing, the "don't question anything" mentality.

 

Maybe the show (and the books - haven't read them) is an allegory about today's society. It's hard enough to cope and plan for a better future when, as in WP, the signs are everywhere and people know something just ain't right. How far will people go to deny the truth and not stand up for themselves? Eh, well... I hope that's not it. I would prefer aliens lol.

 

I agree. It's some kind of far flung future the people in WP are living in.

 

The only way I can wrap my head around the time discrepancies is some manner of cryogenics. This way anyone can be frozen or defrosted at any point in time, and therefore everyone can have a different idea of what year it is, and how many years they have spent in Wayward Pines.

 

For instance Kate could be frozen in 2014, defrosted at some point in the future, age normally for 12 years. Meanwhile Ethan is also frozen in 2014 but is defrosted 12 years after Kate is. To him it would seem as if no time passed, to her 12 years would have. She'd think it 2026, he'd think it's 2014.

 

In truth it could be anytime, the only thing we know for certain is it must be past 2026, cause Kate has lived there for 12 years. But if the hairless pale canabalistic Morlock-esque humanoids are our future evolution, it must be hundreds or thousands of years in the future.

 

The question I have now is why defrost some of the people and leave the others in stasis? Unless they keep a bunch of people with similar backgrounds in stasis in case they need a replacement due to someone getting reckoned? Maybe when Evans died they defrosted Ethan to take his place?

Edited June 5, 2015 by Maximum Taco

[Jel]

Loving everyone's theories. If it's a dystopian future, and everything we've seen from outside WP was a long, long time ago, who is running the show and how are they alive, especially since WP has seemingly been around for only 20ish years?  The defrosting people idea sounds good to me, but who is defrosting people and where are the defrosters living?

 

There's no tv and wifi because there's no more tv and the internet no longer exists, okay.  Could someone not have saved a few DVDs at least?  A PS4 and a couple of games?

 

Okay, so let's say it was the government, knowing something bad, like world ending, a giant asteroid perhaps, was coming, selected some people to be frozen and later rethawed to keep the population going, and WP is one of many of those places, okay. They need people to make a bunch of babies to repopulate earth once it becomes inhabitable again. But why the need for all the fear? The extreme adherence to all the strict rules, the reckonings, etc.  Wouldn't it be enough to say, "Look the world outside is a horrible mess, zombies, weird cannibal alien things, see look! You are safe and sound in here".  

 

The fear I guess could be the independent variable, and they have a bunch of "experiments" (towns) and in this one they are measuring the effect of fear on how people live and survive.  But I doubt that.

 

I am loving this tv show right now, just loving it.  Cannot wait until next week--I am also one who wished she binge watched this series.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I was thinking about the numbers on the file folders, and the ideas upthread about crytostasis and freezing people for long times gave me an idea.

 

Peter McCall says he was taken in 2001, and the first number on his file folder is 1002-4001, or flipped around, 1004-2001. Was Peter taken by Pam on Oct. 4, 2001 ? Likewise, the first number on Arlene Moran's file is 3991-2280, which flipped around is 0822-1993 (Aug. 22, 1993)

 

Using that theory, I'm guessing that the 1st number is the date that everyone not born in Wayward Pines was taken and frozen, which means the 2nd number is the date that they were defrosted.

 

The 2nd number on Peter McCall's folder is 8104-7110, or flipped around, 0117-4018 (Jan. 17, 4018).  Likewise the 2nd number on Arlene Moran's folder is 0204-4010, or flipped around, 0104-4020 (Jan. 4, 4020).

 

Which certainly would help explain the time discrepancies, like why some people have only been missing weeks but seem to be years for them, why the cars were all caked in years of dirt in that facility Ethan found, and why there is no going back to their old lives.  Because the world as they know it is no longer there.  And all the people that seem to "appear" to be traveling back to the real world, but when really they just haven't been frozen yet.  And all the people in the outside world that "know" about Wayward Pines are part of some long-term gov't project to collect participants for that project in order to survive some sort of calamity (natural or otherwise -- meteor impact, alien invasion, etc.).

 

I'm also starting to think that they are in a constructed dome like The Truman Show.  And the reason that there are so many children in this town is that it's a re-population project, but something has gone awry and the children born in Wayward Pines are taking over (since they know that they have greater numbers than the adults).

Edited June 5, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[Jel]

Wow, great catch on the numbers/dates, OttoDbusdriver....very interesting.

[pezgirl7]

I was thinking something similar with the flipped numbers, but it never occurred to me that the first set of numbers were the month and day. Also, it being flipped makes sense, because there's been some flipped imagery on the show, and the poster for the show is upsidedown. But why is it flipped?

[Centaur]

What bugs me the most is why the most powerful or influential people we've seen so far all seem to be psychopaths. Pope, Pam the psychiartist, the teacher. Whereas Ethan clealry isn't. Is that why he's apparently been ermarked for a position of authority? If this is really some sort of planned community, whoever planned it doesn't seem to have picked very stable people to be leaders. Evan Ethan seemed a bit damaged in the Pilot. So far it looks most to me like the Maybury Potemkin Village act is for the benefit of the kids. The adults all seem to be coerced into living there and anyone with memories of 'the past' or of a 'previous life' will eventually be dead. Also - were the kids who told Ben and his mom about the car accident near Wayward Pines when they were at the gas station, the same kids we see riding bikes all the time and who said hi to Ben outside their new house? If so then that might mean they bring kids in to the community as well. Haven't seen any evidence of babies or kids produced by relationships within the town yet.  Maybe they have all been sterilised?

[JenE4]

Ok, at first I was not on board with the this is the future theory, but the numbers on the folders as dates has convinced me. That and the "links to the outside stuff" looking futuristic: the folders, the wall and gate, and especially the "shipping hub." And I'd like to add that's probably why the Wayward Pines town stuff is sometimes so old timey and out of place: the handmade wooden toys, the old cash registers and fake money. It's like what Medieval Times is to the real Middle Ages. We THINK this is what life was like 2000 years ago, but it's not going to be completely accurate.

[KDeFlane]

Haven't seen any evidence of babies or kids produced by relationships within the town yet.  Maybe they have all been sterilised?

 

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.

[jhlipton]

If we take Peter at his word, and posit that he arrived in WP 10 years ago, we have a better timeline:  (I wish we had seen the folder of someone whose "arrival date we knew.)  The current date (as of  "Our Law, Our Town") is some time in 4028:

4028 -???: Town is built, infrastructure set-up,
4028 -???: core inhabitants, like Pope and the nurse, move in
4028 -12 years (4016): Kate arrives in WP
4028 - 10 years (4018) -- Peter arrives
4028 - 2 years (4026): Bill Evans arrives. Arlene the Secretary arives.
4028 - 1 year (4027): Beverly awakens in WP
4028 - 2 weeks (4028): Bill Evans is reckoned. (how long was he dead?)
4028 - 3 days: Ethan arrives.
4028 - 1 days: Theresa and Ben are seen in the hospital
4020: Theresa and Ben are released and moved into Beverly's house.

Defreezing these people doesn't make sense to me -- "unsticking" them and popping them in as needed does. But I will be alone in a forum filled with cyrogenics!

[JenE4]

Defreezing these people doesn't make sense to me -- "unsticking" them and popping them in as needed does. But I will be alone in a forum filled with cyrogenics!

I'll join your tribe. That was what was initially keeping me off the future theory--cryogenics is SO outmoded as a "future" world. It's like that future world ride in Epcot--they haven't updated it in like 30 or 40 years?! I agree that it HAS to be something more exciting than freezing these people for 2000 years. I can't imagine the point of planning something like that and WAITING 2000 years. I think it's more like time travel or alternate universe--or something so amazing that we can't even fathom it.

[jhlipton]

. I think it's more like time travel or alternate universe--or something so amazing that we can't even fathom it.

 

Alternate Universe makes sense.  They don't have any inventions after the 40's or 50's because they haven't been invented yet.  And people "pop in" based on the rules of that universe, which we don't know yet.

[KDeFlane]

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?

[SonofaBiscuit]

Am I missing something here? It's clear that at least two people are able to leave WP. Sheriff Pope clearly had access to the outer hwy and Dr. Jenkins was able to meet up with Ethan's boss. If Ethan's the new sheriff, why isn't he allowed to come and go the way sheriff Pope was?

 

I think that the show is messing with us.  They were making it appear as though the wife and son were searching for Ethan at the same time all of this crazy shit was going down in Wayward Pines.  But I don't think that these two storylines were actually happening concurrently.  I think that the wife and son were searching for Ethan in 2015.  When Pope approached their car and told them that they were leaking oil, it was still 2015.  The crazy version of WP where Juliette Lewis had her throat slit in a reckoning doesn't yet exist in 2015, and won't exist for thousands of years (a quaint little town called Wayward Pines does exist in 2015, but it's not yet the crazy version we've been witnessing).  When we see Ethan's wife and son wake up after their car accident, it is actually somewhere near year 4020.  Now we're in this crazy Wayward Pines where you get your throat slit for talking about your old life or spray painting graffiti.  I don't know if we're doing time travel or cryopreservation or what, but the son, wife, and Pope all arrived in WP however Ethan did.

[JayCobb1045]

Love these theories - I'm particularly interested in the numbers theory.  I had a thought a few weeks back and I'm curious to know what others think about it.  What if we're dealing with an Edge of Tomorrow like situation?  This theory is mostly influenced by Juliette Lewis' line "I've always believed you."  Even with the cryo/pop theory, that line only makes sense if she has met him before.  What if these things are on a repeat cycle of some sort, and when you die you go away for awhile and restart?  That would explain the time confusion and would explain her having some previous experience with Ethan. It would also explain why the rules are so strictly against discussing the past.  

 

There are some holes in it, to be sure, but it's a thought.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Love these theories - I'm particularly interested in the numbers theory.  I had a thought a few weeks back and I'm curious to know what others think about it.  What if we're dealing with an Edge of Tomorrow like situation?  This theory is mostly influenced by Juliette Lewis' line "I've always believed you."  Even with the cryo/pop theory, that line only makes sense if she has met him before.  What if these things are on a repeat cycle of some sort, and when you die you go away for awhile and restart?  That would explain the time confusion and would explain her having some previous experience with Ethan. It would also explain why the rules are so strictly against discussing the past.

 

Maybe it's a combination of different scenarios -- people being kidnapped and frozen, but then they are cloned and its the clones are who are being introduced into Wayward Pines, so sometimes that's why people have been in WP more than once (Beverly's "I've always believed you" comment) and also why they seem to have no problem with killing people because they will simply make another clone that will be introduced sometime later.  Combine that with children that are born in WP turning into some sort of weird cult (possibly by brainwashing) that is really controlling the people within WP.

[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.

[SlackerInc]

Love these theories - I'm particularly interested in the numbers theory.  I had a thought a few weeks back and I'm curious to know what others think about it.  What if we're dealing with an Edge of Tomorrow like situation?  This theory is mostly influenced by Juliette Lewis' line "I've always believed you."  Even with the cryo/pop theory, that line only makes sense if she has met him before.  What if these things are on a repeat cycle of some sort, and when you die you go away for awhile and restart?  That would explain the time confusion and would explain her having some previous experience with Ethan. It would also explain why the rules are so strictly against discussing the past.  

 

There are some holes in it, to be sure, but it's a thought.

 

Yeah, that line has been sticking in my craw too.  If she just meant "always, since an hour ago when you came in", that's a very strange way to phrase it.  Did she for sure say "I've always believed you" and not "I always believed you"?  Because the latter is a little more ambiguous, but the contraction for "have" just doesn't work at all if she just met him.

 

I'm also stuck on the barista and how flustered she got at the idea that she might not know someone's (Kate's?) last name.  So different from the others Ethan has talked to who basically know what's up.

[KDeFlane]

I'm also stuck on the barista and how flustered she got at the idea that she might not know someone's (Kate's?) last name.  So different from the others Ethan has talked to who basically know what's up.

 

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.)

[SlackerInc]

Good call, like one of the beautiful fembots from the original Star Trek series.

[jhlipton]

What if these things are on a repeat cycle of some sort, and when you die you go away for awhile and restart? 

 

So basically everyone is a cartoon character -- fall off the cliff and go SPLAT! a day or two later, you're chasing that roadrunner again.  (Maybe that's whjat happened to Harper's mom on The Whispers....)

 

=======================================

 

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?  Will The Truth set us free?  (I hope it answers some of the basic questions but opens up new ones.)

Edited June 9, 2015 by jhlipton

[KDeFlane]

Pulling this quote from the ep.4 thread:

Not sure if it's been commented on before, but my 10yr old pointed out a whole bunch of single frames in the opening credits. And there is an occasional extra frame now and then in each episode. In the opening credits there are single frames of what look like trees bursting into flames.

 

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"...

Edited June 9, 2015 by KDeFlane

[SlackerInc]

Whoa, weird and intriguing--thanks!

[JayCobb1045]

What was the significance of "there are no crickets in Wayward Pines?"  I keep going back to this.  My first thought was that it was simply an example of how fake and manufactured the town is - they don't have real crickets, so they pipe in cricket noise.  But it might be more than that.  What if there are no crickets because there can be  no crickets - that is, because they would not survive?  Have we seen any pets or other animals in Wayward?  I can't remember, but if not that would support the notion that this place really isn't suited to support life.  Which, by extension, means that the "people" in Wayward are not people, or they've been modified in some way.  This could also explain the obsession with ice cream, buffalo burgers, fish, etc.  All animal products that are a real novelty if you live in a place where animals cannot exist.

 

A few non-sequiturs about  Bill Evans:

 

- If he was reckoned, why did his Wife lie to Ethan?  It doesn't seem that the powers that be were ever trying to hide the notion of a reckoning from Ethan.  Was it because she was ashamed to have a husband who was reckoned?  

 

- Why did they store his body in that house, and in that fashion?  I kinda understand what they did with Beverly's body to display it for all to see as a lesson, but his was hidden away, yet also displayed in a gruesome fashion.  Was that just "for" Ethan?  I don't think so cause he wouldn't have found it on his own and Pope seemed pretty annoyed that he found it at all.  Ooooohhhh was it there as some sort of a sacrifice to the beings behind the wall?!  I don't think so, but that just popped into my mind so I thought I'd include it.