Back Off 2013-04-09

[jwhouk]

I disagree with one major aspect of your observation, scantron: I don't think it's a case of dual entities.

I think it's a genuine case of schizophrenic amnesia.

And, I think it was done intentionally - possibly with help from Lanthian tech.

Tech that the priests wanted to try out a second time, so as to hide the secret of the calendar machine.

It worked too well, though...

[Julie]

Unless Mark N's comment yesterday was the solution: all of this is some elaborate plan by Brandy to "see" if someone she eyes as a deep-MIB-operative, is smart enough to distrust anything that looks too easy, and is prepared to do éverything to prevent interference with a mission.(and all of that, preferably, without casualties. Could be important to Brandi, given her remorse over the glazing of a part of the earth, and her general refusal to kill)

It's pretty sure Brandi did not take a hand in this game. The Library is the player instead. I kind of doubt the Library is working for Brandi. The bigger question is why is the library taking a hand in this game?

I'm of the opposite opinion... i think that The Library is NOT the one that sent them for the simple fact that they arrived in helicopter's... if The Library HAD sent them, it would have poited them into place just like it poits Phix and Nudge around (remember how it did the retrieval of Nudge from the volcano Monica sent her to?) Also, for the vamps to arrive at the airbase that the helo's were stationed out of (which is also well away from the portal site itself at least), all the way from Minneapolis, get them flight ready, AND the physical travel time to the actual site... no, they HAD to leave WELL BEFORE Atsali met Katherine at the threshold of the Library Annex... seeing as how Kath walked into the Annex, met Atsali, got swooshed thru the halls (ran from the Minotaur ) landed in the mineshaft, and walked for a few yards before getting shot out the mineshaft on the cart and then surviving the flooring collapse, and then, JUST when they get really ready to do serious work, the choppers show up?... and all that took probably LESS than 30 MINUTES??!! NOPE, those choppers left the base WELL BEFORE Kat even THOUGHT she was going to GO to the Library, let alone have both the Vamps on-board and launched only AFTER the mineshaft blew up and they were scrambled to find out exactly what the totally unexpected explosion was all about...Nope, not buyin' it... and that "short time-frame" Lily was talking about, hmm... maybe that's the short amount of time that they have available to them before the REAL investigation team shows up and starts asking the hard-to-answer questions of them, like "who the hell are you, and why did you set off that explosion?, etc, etc, etc..." and she was trying to bluff her way into letting them "help" in order to facilitate them "disappearing" the two of them?

I think you're interpretting "sent" a little too literally. I can be sent somewhere by my boss without her physically sending me off. She can call me and tell me to go...and therefore she sent me. On this page Lily says that "The Library took note of your quest and paired you off with us." That suggests that the vamps were already working towards Mesa Verde, or at least the Mapimi Silent Zone (which we knew because of Brandi's conversation with Lily here), so they may well have already been in travel mode for a while...after all, we last saw them leaving the Library with Monica and Tsillah...and who knows how much time passed between their visit and Kat's adventure. So if we assume (and I know how dangerous that is around here ) that they'd already left for their MiB mission, is it really that hard to believe that they could be contacted by the Library who then "sends" them to join up with the gals who left via the Mesa Verde portal on a similar mission?

Yes. I know that I'm a little too naive and trusting of the characters we're shown (unless we're given immediate reason not to trust them...like Bia). But can you really blame me?? They're all so lovely and awesome!

[Mark N]

Yes. I know that I'm a little too naive and trusting of the characters we're shown (unless we're given immediate reason not to trust them...like Bia). But can you really blame me?? They're all so lovely and awesome!

That is where the danger lies my Lady. If there is anything that Paul's epic has taught us it is not to take anyone (anything) at face value and always check your references ... sorry last one was learned from Real Genius.

[shadowinthelight]

That is where the danger lies my Lady. If there is anything that Paul's epic has taught us it is not to take anyone (anything) at face value and always check your references ... sorry last one was learned from Real Genius.

I thought the lesson from Real Genius was to always check your optics. That and how to cheat a vending machine with dry ice.

[scantrontb]

Yes. I know that I'm a little too naive and trusting of the characters we're shown (unless we're given immediate reason not to trust them...like Bia). But can you really blame me?? They're all so lovely and awesome!

That is where the danger lies my Lady. If there is anything that Paul's epic has taught us it is not to take anyone (anything) at face value and always check your references ... sorry last one was learned from Real Genius.

Exactly!... that's why anybody that you don't know prior to this, comes up to you and says "the Library sent us!" is an automatic "hmm, yeah, right" in my book, ESPECIALLY since we (the viewers) saw Brandi giving them a briefing (well at least Lily, anyway) WELL BEFORE they were at the Library... that's right up there with "TRUST US, We're from the Government..."... if it turns out that the Library really DID send them, then cool beans, but until then, I'm being my normal pessimistic, slightly paranoid, slightly conspiracy-theory-nut about it trying to place myself in Katherine's shoes... all she knows is that she had a spur-of-the-moment thought to travel to the Annex to do some research, and unpredictably mind you, gets caught up by Atsali, transported to this desert in the middle of NOWHERE, and within a VERY Short time she's talking to a dangling-by-a-rope Special Agent, that not only knows who she IS , but what she was GOING TO DO, and spouts off what Lily said at the time... yeah right... i know MY First thought would be "why the heck am i being put under surveillance, why the heck are you revealing yourselves to me AT THIS TIME, why, why, why?" unfortunately, in most black-ops and conspiracy-nut stories, "THEY" never reveal who they are until you are either ready to be "brought into the fold" or "ready to be disappeared and it won't make any difference any more" and with Ketherine's history (her flashback), i'm sure she thought she was about to be off'ed and acted appropriately... i think that Kat did the best thing she could under the circumstances, get rid of the Suits, and hopefully it'll turn out "OK" in the end... i think we can agree to disagree at this juncture, cool by you?

[Julie]

Yes. I know that I'm a little too naive and trusting of the characters we're shown (unless we're given immediate reason not to trust them...like Bia). But can you really blame me?? They're all so lovely and awesome!

That is where the danger lies my Lady. If there is anything that Paul's epic has taught us it is not to take anyone (anything) at face value and always check your references ... sorry last one was learned from Real Genius.

Exactly!... that's why anybody that you don't know prior to this, comes up to you and says "the Library sent us!" is an automatic "hmm, yeah, right" in my book, ESPECIALLY since we (the viewers) saw Brandi giving them a briefing (well at least Lily, anyway) WELL BEFORE they were at the Library... that's right up there with "TRUST US, We're from the Government..."... if it turns out that the Library really DID send them, then cool beans, but until then, I'm being my normal pessimistic, slightly paranoid, slightly conspiracy-theory-nut about it trying to place myself in Katherine's shoes... all she knows is that she had a spur-of-the-moment thought to travel to the Annex to do some research, and unpredictably mind you, gets caught up by Atsali, transported to this desert in the middle of NOWHERE, and within a VERY Short time she's talking to a dangling-by-a-rope Special Agent, that not only knows who she IS , but what she was GOING TO DO, and spouts off what Lily said at the time... yeah right... i know MY First thought would be "why the heck am i being put under surveillance, why the heck are you revealing yourselves to me AT THIS TIME, why, why, why?" unfortunately, in most black-ops and conspiracy-nut stories, "THEY" never reveal who they are until you are either ready to be "brought into the fold" or "ready to be disappeared and it won't make any difference any more" and with Ketherine's history (her flashback), i'm sure she thought she was about to be off'ed and acted appropriately... i think that Kat did the best thing she could under the circumstances, get rid of the Suits, and hopefully it'll turn out "OK" in the end... i think we can agree to disagree at this juncture, cool by you?

Maybe I'm just too trusting of the Library in general. I've not seen anything to suggest that its sentience is an evil one. Maybe Kat doesn't know that the Library itself is sentient though...which would make the "we were sent by the Library" thing a bit questionable...or if she does know it's sentient, maybe she's just going to refuse to trust folks who show up in helicopters because of her past experience (which to me suggests an unfortunate refusal of a growth opportunity...though the adventure is in and of itself a growth opportunity for Kat, so maybe that's not too bad). In any event, if I'd been in her place facing a potential unknown that is trying to present itself as an aide sent by the place I'd come from, I would have asked more questions or for some sort of credentials before I just "tried to lose the suits."

[bmonk]

On that note: we stíll do not know whát exactly she did in the airforce. My experience withthose that háve been involved in Intelligence, is that they keep mum about it, ánd that none, NONE of them had even the slightest resemblance with the movie-variations of "secret agents".

They were all...well.. "Bland", and very unobtrusive. Forgettable, even (ahaaa... Remember that Monica wasn't really aware of Katherine's existence in the beginning? Okhay, M isn't exactly the epitome of "good attention-span", but still...

A good line from one of Tom Clancy's novels, is a comment that one of the best things you can hear your opponent say about one of your deep-cover agents is along the lines of "Oh, he's too dumb to be a spy." For "too dumb" you can substitute "too scatterbrained", "too much of a nebbish", and so forth.

I'm reminded of the actual leaders of the N.I.C.E. in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength--John Wither, a long-winded bureaucrat, Deputy Director of the N.I.C.E.; his speech and thinking are characterized by vagueness and jargon--"diffuse" and Professor Augustus Frost, emotionless, very precise, whose eyes seem never to be visible behind his shiny glasses. Neither was considered an adequate leader (at first) by the main characters.