I thought it was Alexander Pope. Speaking of which, I hope we get more backstory on him.
They haven’t really addressed this issue, but it seems to me that the Prime universe thinks that it is the one at a disadvantage, which suggests an inferiority complex to me. Perhaps they think of themselves as being “just a copy”?
And another question: Did the duplication of the Universe and the creation of the portal happen at the same time, or was there a delay? If there was a delay, did one side find the portal before the other? That could have serious implications for their relationship.
“Original” and “copy” aren’t really useful terms, any more than with a set of identical twins, one is the original and one the copy. Both were the original.
I just watched all 8 episodes so far over the past few days. One thing I can’t help thinking about is how perfunctory the “boarder” searches seem. Then I look at a MicroSD card which can literally be hidden under a postage stamp and come in sizes up to 512 GB. Take the appreciable risk once of smuggling over a small smartphone or digital camera to the lower-tech side and afterwards take very little risk at all shuttling across vast amounts of data.
What I’m wondering is whether the public at large is aware of this cold war going on. I mean, it seems the existence of the mirror world is a closely held secret, but there’s this vast infrastructure on both sides set up to support the war. Who do most people think is the enemy?
Most people are unaware that this cold war even exists. Even Howard Alpha, an employee of IO (the organization that manages the portal), married to a senior Office of Interchange (OI) agent, had absolutely no idea of the existence of the Prime world.
A better question (which starts to poke holes in the core concepts of the show) is how many people on either side actually know about the portal and the mirror worlds? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? OI is presented as a UN agency. Are heads of state and governments aware? How is it funded? Is it just some line on a black ops budget somewhere?
Why is it so difficult to track people passing between worlds? It’s not JFK. It’s a single doorway with not a lot of people passing back and forth.
My understanding is that Darren Garrison’s “identical twins” metaphor to describe the worlds would be “imprecise” (to quote Howard Silk). There was one universe, scientists ran some experiments, then there were two. Exactly the same down to the atomic level. Like the scientists opened a door and there were a mirror set of scientists who opened their door at the same instant. At that point, the universes started diverging. They diverged significantly after around 10 years when Prime was hit by a massive pandemic.
The Prime universe experienced a plague that killed 7% of their population 20 years ago while the Alpha universe did not. And in many ways the Alpha universe is a bit more advanced (cell phones). So there is this tension where they feel they might be getting the short end of this deal.
We are shown that Prime World is in many ways superior, especially in biotech/bioengineering and agriculture: HIV cure, advanced medical care, better food and cigarettes, tea, and vodka, oceans and environment cleaned up, high-tech planes and skyscrapers. Just the resolution on mobile computer screens is not that great, or something.
Except that the two worlds have only deviated for thirty years. Is that long enough for that many differences to have developed between them?
Well that’s an interesting question. If you are starting with two exact copies of the same exact universe, would they behave in the same exact way? Or is there some inherent degree of randomness that, given the same exact conditions, could still result in slightly different outcomes?
The show seems to propose that there would be slight differences and they would propagate over time. ie Emily Prime gives birth to a child while Emily Alpha miscarries. Or Apple Alpha funds research on the iPhone while Apple Prime sticks to PCs. Or if Gore won the election instead of George Bush. Or 9/11 was stopped in one universe but not the other.
The main deviation is the flu pandemic in the Prime universe 20 years ago but not the Alpha. The death of half a billion people 20 years ago would have a profound effect on society.
Which is pretty much exactly what I was describing by my “identical twins” metaphor. One thing splits to become two identical things at the same instant, then diverge. Neither has the standing to be called the “original” because both are.
When negotiating for the release of the assassin, “our side” was offered–among other things–information on an earthquake, so at the time I had assumed that it was an earthquake that happened on their side that didn’t happen on ours. But looking at the transcript, they offered “Italian vaccination numbers and a classified seismic summary of the 2009 earthquake,” so from the “Italy” mention I’m assuming that it was this one. ("Our side in return asks for “the last three American census reports and the geocoordinates of the petroleum deposits near the Mariana Trench [once, for 20 minutes]”. The other side was unwilling to give it.)
Italian vaccination numbers and a classified seismic summary of the 2009 earthquake.
And that explains most of the technology differences. They had a major motivation to put a lot more money into biotech research, and due to the economic effects of the plague, likely didn’t have much left over for things like smart phone development.
That’s what I figured too. A plague is a hell of a research motivator.
The only thing that bothers me is the bad guys’ motive. So far, we haven’t seen any proof that Earth Prime was responsible for the outbreak. Are they really just a bunch of deluded terrorists? If they’re so highly positioned, why don’t they find the decision makers instead of mass murder?
Either you’re confused or I am, because Earth Prime (where the badass Howard comes from) suffered the bird flu outbreak, while Earth Alpha (where the initial, more mild-mannered Howard comes from) did not. And the conspirators in Earth Prime, who were running the school to develop moles, blamed Earth Alpha for the outbreak. By the way, we have not been given any reason to believe the bird flu outbreak was deliberately caused by the other side. And in fact, we in the real world have had multiple bird flu outbreaks but have been lucky so far that none have risen to that level.
One amusing thing to think about: consider the tunnel underneath the Office of Interchange building. Suppose it runs north and south, for purposes of discussion. If you cross it from north to south, you come out on the south side of the building on the Other Side. If you then circle around to the north side, go downstairs, and once again cross the border in the same direction (going south), you end up back in the world where you started! Each side needs to man both ends of the tunnel (both north and south), but you can’t reach one from the other without going upstairs and all the way around.
Also, if two people crossed at the same time, starting from the same world, in opposite directions, they wouldn’t meet each other (there are really two tunnels, just like there are two of everything else). Similarly, the people entering the Interface rooms probably think they are facing other workers in the same building (I assume someone takes pains to keep the two groups separate), but they’re not. I wonder what they tell the cleaning staff…
Toward the middle of Episode 9, I was finding the show a little tiresome. Particularly the lengthy scenes with Quayle and his wife.
But what an ending! The bad guys won! I thought the moles were going to unleash some kind of plague, but they killed everybody in the building. Maybe they wanted to destroy the interface between the worlds to make sure that we can’t harm their world again.
Yes, whatever their mission was, the terrorists definitely succeeded in shutting down organized crossings for at least a little while, even if they didn’t blow up the whole building. And someone could still release the virus.
Regarding my last post, 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 been thinking that it would probably be best to fill the crossing point with concrete or bricks, but then I began to wonder, what would happen if you tried? would the concrete/bricks just constantly disappear into the other side? To seal it off, would you need cooperation from both sides?
Never mind that whosie-there decided to collapse and die right at the crossing. That’s going to bring up a lot of diplomatic issues since it’s a neutral zone.
(I cant remember the character’s name)
And wow – the finale is next week. I can’t see this wrapping up neatly. I wonder if there will be another season?
As somebody upthread mentioned, there have been times I’ve been losing interest in this story. For me, it’s been difficult keeping track (except for the Howards) of who is who’s counterpart and all the interplay going on.
Yes. According to Wikipedia, they started off with an order for two 10-episodes seasons.
I had flashbacks to the terrorists sneaking in and shooting up the American embassy in Pakistan in Homeland.
I’m still not sure that I understand the motivation for the attack, though, unless it’s just to put a serious damper in Alpha’s intelligence operations. Those people running the school made tremendous commitments in time and effort in raising and preparing their operatives. There still has to be something way bigger at stake.
Good episode.