# Counterpart, new series on Starz (spoilers boxed in 1st post) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2018, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662 "2018-01-15T02:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/181 "2019-02-13T04:32:06Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I guess thirty years makes sense, but a few characters look too young to have others. The assassin, for example. Also, the woman who said she had never been kissed because her “other” never had. Did I hear that right? The actress playing that character is only nineteen. I don’t get it. > > Also, why did the operator call Ian Shaw Mr. Pierce? There’s no reason why an under 30 person wouldn’t have an other - perhaps not identical, but close enough for impersonation. If a couple has a girl in 1995, and their others also have a girl in the same year, chances are the resulting children would look very similar indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/182 "2019-02-13T04:35:46Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I guess thirty years makes sense, but a few characters look too young to have others. The assassin, for example. Also, the woman who said she had never been kissed because her “other” never had. Did I hear that right? The actress playing that character is only nineteen. I don’t get it. > > Also, why did the operator call Ian Shaw Mr. Pierce? There’s no reason why an under 30 person wouldn’t have an other - perhaps not identical, but close enough for impersonation. If a couple has a girl in 1995, and their others also have a girl in the same year, chances are the resulting children would look very similar indeed. I guess you missed the parts about how Ian was originally from “our” side and the management from “their” side recruited him and gave him a new identity. The woman that was kidnapped was the other of Ian’s dead wife from “our” side. Who Ian had recently tracked down and started a relationship with, against orders. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/183 "2019-02-13T04:36:52Z")
Double post deleted. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/184 "2019-02-13T16:31:59Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > There’s no reason why an under 30 person wouldn’t have an other - perhaps not identical, but close enough for impersonation. If a couple has a girl in 1995, and their others also have a girl in the same year, chances are the resulting children would look very similar indeed. > > I guess you missed the parts about how Ian was originally from “our” side and the management from “their” side recruited him and gave him a new identity. The woman that was kidnapped was the other of Ian’s dead wife from “our” side. Who Ian had recently tracked down and started a relationship with, against orders. Ah, thanks. That did slip by or I’d forgotten it. I don’t buy others under 30, though. Too many variations. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/185 "2019-02-18T18:49:56Z")
Well, at least it went out with a boom, some bangs, and a poke. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/186 "2019-02-19T00:55:14Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I don’t buy others under 30, though. Too many variations. This is a fair objection, I think. It reminds me of a plot point I really liked in the movie [About Time](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2194499/). Guy can travel back in time, “fix” stuff, and return to the present where the fixes have taken effect. He learns about the one hard and fast (self-imposed) rule: Never change anything before your children were born. If you do, when you return to the present you’ll have completely different kids. It’s just too random. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/187 "2019-02-28T15:57:40Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I don’t buy others under 30, though. Too many variations. Our worlds only started diverging 30 years ago because of the actions of management. And it wasn’t until the flu (I don’t remember when that happened) that things would really change for people not directly connected. So some people under 30 might have others, but some might not (like Howard’s daughter). A little easter egg I thought I spotted. When management learned the Berlin Wall was falling, they were watching a soccer game from both worlds. Was that supposed to be the same soccer game that Quayle was at, where he thought his timeline diverged? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/188 "2019-02-28T18:16:01Z")
I thought dipsy Quayle was watching a rugby game but my memory is terrible and I don’t know how one would look that up. I liked this show. Will there be another season? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/189 "2019-02-28T19:58:52Z")
No. Canceled. (In _this_ reality.) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/190 "2019-03-01T01:07:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > No. Canceled. (In _this_ reality.) As of a few weeks ago it was being shopped elsewhere, so there is always the chance some network picks it up as a prestige project. But it is _probably_ gone. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/191 "2019-03-02T02:59:18Z")
I’ve read the suggestion that Starz was wrong not to make the first season of the show available through Netflix or another streaming service, and that if it had, the second season would have had a larger audience. I think that’s been true of other shows, where people binge-watch the earlier seasons of a show via Netflix, and then go on to watch the new seasons as they aired. As an example consider that the other day, a guy named Alex Mills died. He was better known by his Internet alias of Viper007Bond as the host of a Top Gear fan website called [FinalGear.com](http://FinalGear.com). Before the BBC made Top Gear available around the world, his site helped people outside the UK watch the show (through illegal means, mind you). But this exposure demonstrated that the show was popular outside the UK and it became a huge hit for the UK internationally. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/192 "2019-03-04T15:45:25Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’ve read the suggestion that Starz was wrong not to make the first season of the show available through Netflix or another streaming service, and that if it had, the second season would have had a larger audience. I think that’s been true of other shows, where people binge-watch the earlier seasons of a show via Netflix, and then go on to watch the new seasons as they aired. They did a terrible job marketing this show. I only found out that the second season was coming back because I watched an On Demand movie that happened to be from Starz. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/193 "2019-03-04T20:51:33Z")
Honestly, I think 2 seasons was enough. I’m not sure if I can take more seasons of the Silk Brothers bickering or the Quayle’s weird Mr. & Mrs. Smith marriage. > [@Shakester](#): > > There’s no reason why an under 30 person wouldn’t have an other - perhaps not identical, but close enough for impersonation. If a couple has a girl in 1995, and their others also have a girl in the same year, chances are the resulting children would look very similar indeed. There’s one reason. Their parents might never have met. Millions of people were killed by the flu on one side. That’s a pretty big butterfly flapping it’s wings. Even if both parents didn’t die in the epidemic, one or both of them might have moved somewhere else and never met. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/194 "2020-02-25T01:16:01Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I hope Amazon Prime or Neflix gobble it up. Amazon Prime did. Having binged watch it over the past five days, it was a delight to discover and watch. No clue if they’re going to produce new episodes like they’ve done with the Expanse, but I’m happy with the story’s resolution over two seasons. As much as I love the world created, I don’t know where they could go with the story since they wrapped it up so neatly. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/195 "2020-04-10T18:41:00Z")
Justin Marks did a recent AMA on Reddit, mainly about how the pandemic on Earth-Prime relates to ours. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin\_marks\_spoiler\_ama\_thursday\_319\_5pm\_pst/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin_marks_spoiler_ama_thursday_319_5pm_pst/) I recommend reading the whole thing. He said there’s no interest in continuing in another format, but did give some details about what the future of the show would be: > [@](#): > > Season 3 would have left Berlin. I think I’ve said that before. We felt we were done telling stories of that city, even though we loved the city and loved our Berlin crew. The Cold War allegory was finished once the Flu was released. > > Can I give you the opening of Season 3? I’m so excited for this opening, we’ve had it in our heads since Season 1… > > Season 3 began with the bright burning sun. > > TILT DOWN to reveal we’re in the desert. The farthest from any setting you would imagine after the first two seasons. We hear a song being sung in Arabic and reveal we’re a construction site of some kind. Behind multiple levels of chain-link fences. A sign reads “WAKE-PILGRIM” which is important if you’ve seen Season 2. > > You’re probably checking your remote at this point. Are we sure this is COUNTERPART? > > But this is COUNTERPART. And we’re several miles outside of Tangiers, in Morocco. > > Workers are steadily digging away at some kind of giant trench. It resembles an oil pipeline of some kind. But there’s other technology around to indicate there is something more going on here. Something sci-fi, potentially. > > Then suddenly there’s an EXPLOSION OF SAND. The workers we just saw disappeared. The ground has completely imploded and everyone has been swallowed up into a giant pit. The workers on the outskirts are panicking, rushing around and trying to pull bodies from the debris. > > We’re on the lines of workers, HANDHELD, as they fight with each other to save their friends. Finally, we focus on one man as he drags a body out of the sand. He looks down at the body and his FACE DROPS. Next to him, another man has pulled out a body and his face also drops. All down the line everyone is frozen… > > Because as we TILT UP, we reveal these workers have just pulled THEIR OWN BODIES FROM THE SAND. Wearing the exact same clothes. Their counterparts. > > And then we SLAM TO CREDITS. > [@](#): > > Emily Prime on the other hand… the central antagonist of Season 3. That’s right, you heard me right. A woman who took it upon herself to guard the secret of the new crossing discovered in the opening moments of Season 3. A woman who spent her time hunting down our new character… > > Max. A young weapons trafficker living in Morocco (Alpha side) who is deep in debt to the wrong people, until one night he meets Dez… his counterpart. A man who just recently discovered the Pipeline in Morocco and has a secret way to get trucks across. He proposal is simple: we go into business together, shipping medical supplies from my world into yours, in order to profit off the Flu that’s been going on in the Alpha world for the last few years. Max is a reformed criminal trying to live an honest life (under a fake name). But Dez represents his id. The old version of himself wanting to come alive again. To break the law and go into a life of crime. They will have to go into business together… but Max very quickly realizes Dez is trying to betray him and take over the business for himself. So he arranges things in such a way that both counterparts must rely on the other to survive… even if they can’t trust each other. And so a new buddy comedy is born. Well, not comedy, but you get my point. > > Max/Dez is the new introduction for Counterpart Season 3 and we were so excited to write him. He was going to start a black market business shipping refugees from Alpha world into Prime world. Like CASABLANCA, but the twist was, he was in business with himself. > > Eventually Max would cross paths with Emily Prime, who is trying to enforce strict control over the lawless border, as well as Clare and Quayle, who are trying to get to the bottom of who created this second Crossing and for what purpose. > [@](#): > > Shaw was absolutely going to play a part in Season 3. The Shaw we knew (Wesley, if we’re being precise) was going to find his other in the Prime world. A man he was convinced wasn’t dead. And sure enough, he wasn’t. > Clare and Quayle remain together, and working together in Season 3. > [@](#): > > For now, I will simply give you the final frame that was in my head from the very beginning… > > We’re with Howard and Howard Prime. Howard Prime has hidden himself in an oceanfront cottage in the middle of nowhere. I’m thinking the English coast. He’s got a glass of scotch in hand. And finally, after many years of searching, Howard Alpha has found him. They’ve both done so much to destroy each other’s lives over the course of this series, honestly, neither man has anything left… but each other. > > And as they have one final confrontation, a dialogue scene between them that would span the entirety of the episode… both men eventually brandish pistols. Firing at each other until they’ve expended all of their clips. They’ve got nothing left. And both men have been hit in the exact same place. Gut shots. Not enough to die fast, but enough to die slowly. Together. > > They collapse beside each other, staring out at the night time ocean view. Waves crash on shore. No choice but to abandon their weapons and just stare at each other. Breathing together. Their breaths becoming one. > > Finally, the camera TRACKS over, moving behind them. One Howard eclipsing the other Howard. Until there are not two, but one Howard seen from behind. Staring at the chaotic waves in silence. Just breathing. > > This is where they meet. > > Then it ends. > [@](#): > > And every two seasons we would change locations dramatically and introduce a new main character. Some cast would continue, while others would go off and only come back occasionally. Like Marvel characters. I’ve always been fascinated with the way they build their movies over large periods of time, and wanted to try the same within episodic storytelling. > [@](#): > > We were so excited about doing an episode called “Patient Zero” in Season 3, that would have been all about the spread of the Flu in our world in the 1990s. We had so many unexpected ideas for how it went down. > > There was nobody in particular that we had in mind, but probably by the time we developed the story further, we would have tied it into our existing arcs. > > The real idea of it was to answer how it finally got sent across. How it was not the result of a decision by Management, but a PURE ACCIDENT of incompetence that spread the Flu. I’m a big believer in the incompetence of the system, when it comes to safeguards we have in place. It makes it pretty scary to be alive today (no politics, sorry). I don’t believe anyone sets out to be an evil person. Evil is when we witness incompetence and allow it to continue because we think it serves our needs (again, trying to stay away from politics… but don’t forget to vote for Amy McGrath if you live in Kentucky!). That was going to become a big theme when it came to how the Flu originally spread. > > To be clear… Management invented the Flu (thanks, Yanek and Juma) but they didn’t intentionally release it. The release was going to be something much more tragic and accidental. Something so preventable if we had just opened our eyes. But then, the cover-up was where everything would have come out. Management knew they were responsible for the Flu, even if they didn’t release it. So they covered it up, internally and externally with the UN, to protect the existence of the Crossing. And that’s the true sin. > [@](#): > > Peter Quayle Prime. Ah… the room’s favorite pet character. We had so many plans for Quayle Prime in Season 3. Mostly having to do with a flashback episode focused entirely on his journey out of Echo, in the moment we left him in Season 2. Emerging from the hangar and disappearing into the woods once he had run out of food. > > He would eventually find his way back into his own life – a life that had been stolen from him. But a life that still had plans for him. Mostly because of the journals he took with him. Yanek’s journals from Echo. The ones that detailed how Yanek built the Crossing in 1987. An experiment, yes. But an experiment that, with enough time, might be replicated. Especially if the person had enough money to replicate it. And who might that person be? > > A company on the Prime side, originally financed by Mira. Which would use Yanek’s journals to construct a replicated experiment, far from government oversight in Northern Africa. > > Morocco, to be precise. Where a second Crossing has been under construction for several years. A Crossing of a different nature. This one a giant tunnel that could ship supplies back and forth between our world. We called it… The Pipeline. Its construction was being coordinated between the Prime and Alpha sides – on the Prime side it was led by a successor who took Mira’s place, and on the Alpha side it was led by none other than Alexander Pope Alpha. A wealthy businessman whose money has been invested into the Wake-Pilgrim venture. Pope Alpha knew that whoever controlled the Pipeline would have economic control over two worlds (this would be what Season 3 was about). > > Yanek’s journals provided the last missing piece the scientists needed to finish the experiment, and in the opening moments of Season 3 the Pipeline was complete. The story of Season 3 was going to take place 4 years after Season 2 ended. Enough time for a lot of things to happen, including the spread of the Flu on Alpha side. > > When we find Quayle Prime, he is now the (entirely unqualified) COO of Wake-Pilgrim in the Prime world. Reporting directly to Alexander Pope Alpha in the Alpha world. Thus, he has become the important man he always wanted to be. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/196 "2021-12-22T09:46:08Z")
Found this show on Amazon Prime a week ago. Binged the two seasons. Although some of the spycraft got kinda dubious by the end, overall it was a great show. And was one of my favorite types of sci-fi: take a single unexplained premise and run with it as far as you can go. There’s no technology of the week. Just the portal, which aside from a few minutes of technobabble in one episode, went largely unexplained. It has simple, easily understood rules with wide-ranging consequences. > [@DPRK](#): > > I suppose they would or could have set things up so that there is only one border crossing to maintain, in the sense that you might walk from dining room A into kitchen B, or from kitchen B back into dining room A, while the door between kitchen A and dining room B stays locked. I had similar questions along these lines. However, there’s enough evidence to say that the tunnel is an exact duplicate on each side. If entering the tunnel is to the north on the Alpha side, then exiting is to the south on the Prime side. I.e., the two universes are rotated 180 degrees to each other. Another possibility came to mind early on, which is that the universes are mirrors of each other–i.e., that they got _reflected_ across the portal plane. Later on, we find out this isn’t true–the episode where the portal gets created shows the dropped flashlight, etc. as being rotated, not mirrored. But you don’t actually have to watch that far to know that’s not possible. The others can eat food in our world without problem. But a mirrored person would have opposite protein chirality and be unable to digest most foodstuffs. They’d starve. There’s still the problem of what’s on the other side. I got the impression that it’s rock, debris, etc. But you’d think they could clear things out. I’m surprised that didn’t make it into the show somehow–a backdoor to the portal, accessible only by Management maybe, or used by Indigo. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/197 "2022-01-06T00:11:50Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > There’s still the problem of what’s on the other side. I got the impression that it’s rock, debris, etc. But you’d think they could clear things out. I’m surprised that didn’t make it into the show somehow–a backdoor to the portal, accessible only by Management maybe, or used by Indigo. The [Reddit AMA thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin_marks_spoiler_ama_thursday_319_5pm_pst/) mentioned above explains that Management had a backdoor on the 4th floor: > [@](#): > > • When Emily Prime goes to the 4th floor to “meet” with Management, there’s a lot of weird background noise, similar to what is heard in the basement crossing; does that room sit above the crossing as well? > > Yes, that background noise was exactly what you heard in the basement. The Fourth Floor is eerily shared in a lot of respects between both worlds. Though you never saw the exact seam in Season 2. One of my favorite movies is MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN and we had a whole design for the Fourth Floor based on the building in that experiment gone wrong. The construction of the Pipeline apparently produces a lot of debris that they had to clear out, as quoted above, so you are right about that as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/198 "2022-01-06T00:57:17Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The [Reddit AMA thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin_marks_spoiler_ama_thursday_319_5pm_pst/) mentioned above explains that Management had a backdoor on the 4th floor: Well, it’s not 100% explicit that there’s a backdoor, but it certainly sounds like a plausible theory. We know Management communicates with their counterparts and would need some means outside of the main tunnel. Using the backside of the portal would make sense. Or maybe the seam somehow extends upward through the Fourth Floor. Some other posts in the thread indicate that they had plans for other portals in future seasons, but they would all connect to the same universe (i.e., there’s just the one Alpha/Prime pair). That feels hard to justify. In one post they describe a scene where the construction workers encounter their dead counterparts building from the other side. But the timelines are already well-diverged at that point–why would the construction workers be the same? It’s believable if they split off another universe, but not if they’re just joining to the same one. Unless the producers believe that there is some inevitability in the timelines as well. That contradicts the overall message of the show, with small divergences amplifying into big ones, but one could perhaps argue some kind of consistency principle as well, where the universe “conspires” to have the new split be a perfect replication, at least locally. Something like consistency principles in time travel stories, except here it’s spatial as well as temporal. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/199 "2022-01-06T01:05:41Z")
I’m still sad that this show was cancelled. It had potential. And I think it would have benefited from being made available on a streaming service like Netflix, while new episodes were on Starz. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662/200 "2022-01-06T01:58:46Z")
Well, it’s on Amazon Prime. Or is it Amazon Alpha? The AMA above mentions that the producers were getting tired after two seasons, but it’s been a few years now. Would be interesting if Amazon could fund another couple of seasons in a different locale (like Morocco, as mentioned in the AMA). They wouldn’t necessarily need to have the same cast (might be hard to wrangle everyone up at this point). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterpart-new-series-on-starz-spoilers-boxed-in-1st-post/806662.md?page=11)