My Right Arm Is Complete Again!

I've just finished designing and fixing my Hallowe'en costume. It's gonna be epic.

I was originally going to be a mime, but the costumes were all sad and disappointing. I've had the idea since about fifth grade, when a family friend dressed up as a mime, and it was a really cool costume. However, she had made it herself and we just didn't have the time this year to do so.

So then I got to thinking. And so, lo and behold, for the fourth year in a row, I picked my costume from the Victorian/British Imperialism era. Behold...Sweeney Todd!

Photo Credit: impawards.com

It's going to be a very interesting costume. The last three years (four, if you count the Phantom of the Opera in 6th grade) I was the Mad Hatter, an Indian maharajah (think the evil character in Moulin Rouge), and a Victorian gentleman vampire. My favorite of these was the Mad Hatter. It was brilliant, elegant, powerful, and got lots of compliments. I don't think I've taken so many pictures with random strangers who were amazed.

So this year I'm a demon barber. Sweeney Todd, for all the sadly uninitiated, is the legend of a barber on Fleet Street who kills his customers maniacally. He arranges a deal with the pie maker downstairs, Mrs. Lovett, who sadly doesn't have enough money for meat. Suffice it to say that Sweeney need not worry about where to hide his bodies, and Mrs. Lovett didn't need to pay for meat anymore.

It's a gothically twisted story, and was a fixture in Victorian melodramas. Because, you know, Punch and Judy wasn't enough. (Once day I'll discuss Punch and Judy, the most amazing show in the world.) But then, as the Victorian age died out, in the Gay Nineties, so did Sweeney.

In the 70's, however, playright Christopher Bond rewrote the story into a play. Now Sweeney had a wife and daughter. A licentious judge lusted after the wife, imprisoned Sweeney in Australia, and kept the daughter while the wife killed herself. Spoiler alert: Sweeney returns, he kills the judge, his wife (who somehow survived, and he didn't know until afterwards), the judge's Beadle, Mrs. Lovett, and his daughter (no, the daughter survives.)

In 1979, the venerable Stephen Sondheim, who also made the amazing gem "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" made the play into a Tony-winning musical. The rest is history. In 2007, Captain Jack Sparrow Johnny Depp, Bellatrix Lestrange Helena Bonham Carter appeared in the film version, which was delightfully amazing.

But you probably knew all that anyway. :) But I do hope this year will be an epic year, on par with the Mad Hatter. But here, until the next post, I leave you with a playlist: the film's soundtrack, which has the songs from the original musical, a bit modified:


-Rob

Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

I don't often do reviews, but I had to do this one. It was such an amazing book and I'd like to share my thoughts on it.

Some mild spoilers and plot devices, nothing serious.

The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas, pere

5/5 stars

"All of human wisdom is summed up in these two words: wait and hope."

Photo Credit: Goodreads

So says the final line of the more-than-1000-page book that I finished reading for a week. But don't let that throw you off. The Count of Monte Cristo is not a boring book at all. It is long. I will say that. If you want a book that you can finish in an hour and call it a day, this book is not for you.

If, however, you want a book that you can take your time on, a book that will keep you wondering about the plot and characters even when you're not reading it, a book that has so many twists and turns to make it exciting and dramatic, then this is the book for you.

For a book revolving around several families, at least 50 different characters, and in a character chart that looks like this, the plot is astonishingly simple. A young sailor, Edmond Dantes, returns home successful from a voyage. Everyone's impressed with him: he's young, handsome, soon to be married to a beautiful girl, and to be promoted captain on his next voyage. Everyone, that is, except two people: his first mate and his fiancee's cousin. They're jealous of him. They're evil. The former wants his position and glory. The latter wants his girl. So they write a letter framing him for siding with Napoleon (this was in 1815) and Edmond is taken away by an unjust procurer and sent to prison for life.

While in prison, Edmond never loses hope. He stays there years and years, and finally, when he plans to starve himself, another prisoner breaks into his cell with some tools. (The original dig-through-your-cell-with-spoons trick.) With the help of this very interesting prisoner, Edmond learns the ways of the world and learns to be a cold, sauve, calculating person who has the power to inflict revenge on those three who made him suffer. This prisoner tells Edmond of a secret treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. Eventually Edmond escapes from prison after fourteen years, and finds the treasure on Monte Cristo. He becomes The Count of Monte Cristo (along with a handful of aliases, the best part) and begins the slow, revengeful plot to wreak havoc.

All of that is just in the first 200 pages. Wow. The rest of the novel does not disappoint, unless you're really sure that you want something to happen and it doesn't. But if you look at the novel through the tragedies Edmond suffered, there really is a lot going for him. And it does turn out satisfying in the end. But be careful. Telling someone you really like this book will say a lot about you. It does for me. It's wickedly evil, delightfully dramatic (they have so many altercations in the Paris Opera it's amazing) and has a lot of allusions. That's another thing.

(I'd recommend you know The Arabian Nights, just the backdrop. Monte Cristo likes his Arabian Nights, and frequently references them without explaining. You might want to look into that. Also into several factors from Roman times. I can't give any names without giving away major plot details, but just try to look up the references as they come to not be confused. And, of course, know Napoleon's time. They do have a lot of hatred, those Royalists and Bonapartists...)

In a book of over 1000 pages, sometimes you might despair. I did twice. "It isn't gonna finish! Oh no! He hasn't done anything!" Yes, it can seem that way many times. But unlike certain books (War and Peace, Les Miserables) the prose is fluid and you can really understand it. But even I read it in degrees. I read roughly 100-300 pages per day, and I took breaks. Unless you're really hooked, read it in pieces. I read maybe 20 pages at a time, then stopped to eat or whatever. Or just stopped to take it in. You WILL be thinking about it often. So yeah. Take it easy and enjoy the ride.

Another thing: Don't get the abridged version. How do you know if it's abridged? It has about 600 pages, and COMPLETELY skips a scandalous affair that is super important, some illegitimate children, attempted killing of a newborn, a drug trip, a lesbian relationship (don't worry, nothing's explicit out of any of these) and a lot more. You could read the abridged version but you'd miss so much and you'll be confused. But for a truly rewarding journey about betrayal, revenge, love, hope, and treachery, read this book in its thousand-page-plus entirety. You'll never be bored.

Click here to buy the book on Amazon. Click here to read it for free on Project Gutenberg (but some people don't like that version. I really don't know about such things, though.)

-Rob

So shines a good deed in a weary world...

Greetings from a warm, sunny afternoon.

I've just been watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a wonderful movie full of poetry, fun, hilarious moments, other languages, everyone being German instead of British, and much more.

It came out in 1971, and is INFINITELY better than the 2005 Johnny Depp version. Roald Dahl purportedly hated it, because they had "my beloved Willy Wonka spouting poetic nonsense that wasn't in the books."

So, as a result I'll post some of the quotes Wonka says (in bold), and where they really came from. Enjoy!


"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." ~Arthur O'Shaughnessy. Here's the full poem, titled Ode:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

"So shines a good deed in a weary world." ~Portia, from the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. The exact quote is

"So shines a good deed in a naughty (worthless) world."

"Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere, but not a drop to drink."     This of course comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which goes

"Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink,

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink."

"Where is fancy bred? In the heart or in the head?"   Another from Merchant of Venice, fancy in this case meaning love or passion. Make of that what you will, especially in the context of the movie.

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." ~John Keats, of course, one of his immortal epigrams on love from the poem Endymion. 

"Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple."  Excellent quote, said by the fraudulent Thomas Edison. I've discussed his fraud in a Triviality column, which you can read here.

"Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker." ~by the brilliant Ogden Nash!

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." ~This was actually said by Dahl himself, in the original Charlie book, which is ironic because he hated the nonsense they had Willy say.

"The suspense is terrible... I hope it'll last."  ~from the Importance of Being Earnest, said by Gwendolen in Act III. Of course, by the wonderful Oscar Wilde.

"In springtime, the only pretty ring time, birds sing hey ding... a-ding, a-ding, sweet lovers love... the spring."
Yet another Shakespeare quote, this time from one of his poems.

"Round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way!" ~William Allingham, a 19th-century author who wrote a poem called Homeward Bound, which is where this appears in.

And of course, the true classic crowning quote of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka:

 "There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be!"

-Rob

Ballads, Block Dude and Bainting! (and Boetry, too!)

Today's been rather a tumult for me.

I've been rather taciturn the last couple days. First off, I've found a new album, by Natalie Merchant, called Leave Your Sleep. It's pretty epic. Natalie Merchant took 26 children's rhymes or just random poems and turned them into song form.

There's The Blind Men and the Elephant, by John Godfrey Saxe (one of my favorites, in Lemony Snicket), The Adventures of Isabel (which is so Chuck-Norris-boss-like, it's not even funny. Well, actually, it is), Bleezer's Ice Cream, which I remember reading as a kid by the epic Jack Prelutsky. Prelutsky is a genius.

So I've been devoting the latter days listening to this album. It's really rather interesting.

Next is my good friend Cesar's graphing calculator. I consider myself a nerd in that which I compare my graphing calculator to my friends'. Mine is a TI-89 Titanium, one of the best on the market. Most people I know use the piddly TI-83s. *scoff* But some have TI-84s, silver edition, nonetheless. And it is there I discovered Block Dude, by Brandon Sterner.

My friend and I scoffed at it. Block Dude? The very name had implications of a Mario-like-two pixel early '80s game. It sounded pathetic. How wrong we were.

For the past week or so my friend has been attempting to pass Block Dude's various interesting and tititllating levels. I myself only got the hang of the game yesterday, and today we reached Level 5. A neat thing about the game is each level has a password and so if you lose you can punch in the password and get the level you were at. It's brilliant. Which leads us to...

My "Immortal Last Words" quote book which came in the mail yesterday. It's by Terry Breverton, one of my favorite authors, even though including this book, the only other book I have by him is "Immortal Words", which I got at Borders when it was still around.

My only regret with this wonderful book is that many of the quotes and epitaphs can be found in the latter book. For example it has Benjamin Franklin's epitaph, Hilaire Belloc, Thomas Jefferson, etc...However it still has interesting anecdotes and quotes which make Breverton an amazing scholar.

"I hate bainting, and boetry too! Neither one nor the other ever did any good," said George II, responding in fury to a painter.

'George II spoke notoriously poor English and wasn't the most cultured of individuals', says Breverton. I'll say. His father wasn't so bright either. Both were born in Hanover and spoke at least 10 times more German and English. And both these Georges were kings of England. Such is the way the monarchy works. The whole "oh you're a Catholic we have to kill you and we're just Protestant." Oh, Henry VIII...

Well, that's my musings for today. There's plenty more going on, which I may or may not elaborate on tomorrow or sooner.

To the next!
-Rob

Fringe Review of Series Finale: Liberty and An Enemy of Fate

Full spoilers follow as usual.

I cried. So hard and depressingly. I'm not proud of it. What has been my favorite TV show, and often, sole divertment, has now ended.

It ended on good terms. I'm happy of that. But the sacrifices made were the worst of all. First, a brief recap of the first 80 minutes

Michael has been taken to Liberty Island. Broyles gets the info at the risk of Olivia gets herself jacked up with Cortexiphan at ungodly levels to go to the Other Side to use their Liberty Island. I knew we needed closure over there, at least a visit...(A daisy-chain of cool things, Wyman called it.) She meets Lincoln and Fauxlivia Lee, married, and asks for their help. She manages to get Michael, and then ports back over there, gets on a boat to the safe place over here. She says goodbye to everyone and brings Michael back.

Then Donald comes along, starts working on this really cool machine from the schematics that have been shown at least 20 times this season. He finishes, it doesn't work, he goes to December for help. December goes to 2609 to get the part of the plan they're missing, but he hangs himself? Loyalist killed him? IDK. But the piece is gone, and the plan doesn't work.

Acid, I mean Astrid, decides to use one of their shipping lanes from the future instead of Donald's cool device. They get ready, but Broyles has been captured by Windmark. Peter looks through the amber for a final piece of the PLAN, but finds a tape to him. He and Walter watch it, and it's Walter's sacrifice.

"I know in my soul this is what I am supposed to do," he heartbreakingly tells Peter. "Nature abhors a paradox. The Boy and I will live in 2167, and I will never see you again." The video mentions a letter Peter is supposed to get - which will lead him to the Lab, and Walter will not be there. He will have vanished.

Peter is sad, and Walter too. "You are my favorite thing, Peter. My very favorite thing." :) I was so sad at that point.

Astrid calls Walter over. She has found Gene, ambered. She didn't want to unamber her because she would moo loudly. Walter chuckles and calls her by her real name.

"It's a very beautiful name." "What is?" "Astrid."

Olivia and Astrid get the Fringe cases ready to attack. They need the shipping cube to open the wormhole, and they might as well get Broyles. At the lab, Donald tells Walter, "I shall do the sacrifice. I will cease to exist in any case." He has feelings for his son now, that he didn't have before.

Olivia and Peter go, and GO FORTH AND FRINGE-CONQUER!

It is impossible to explain the scene where they walk through the hallway. Floating Observers, killer butterfly, Ability Toxin, nematode worms galore, parasitic slugs in one guy's mouth, shapeshifter gummy face on another...It was so amazing and epic, and I was cheering and clapping for all the epicness.

They get the cube, and Broyles, and they all go off on a merry chase to set the PLAN.

The Beacons are for traveling to the future
The Equations are to calibrate the machine
The Rocks are to stabilize the wormhole
The Cube is to open the wormhole
The Magnet is to send the Beacons far into the future
And the Boy is to go into the future.

They use more Fringe cases "PETER! LOOK! WHAT DID I TELL YOU!" (cue floating guy) "IT'S COOL!" Oh, Walter.

They get it all set up, but then Windmark comes. The bastard. He starts beating up Peter and Astrid horribly, and Oliviar too. Then Olivia closes her eyes and makes the whole city black out. She gets a nearby car, drives it toward Windmark...

CRASH.

Finally, he's dead. At last. But Donald takes Michael and begins running. Running. Running. RUNNING...

BOOM.

Donald lies dead on the floor, killed by a stray bullet. Michael begins to play the little music box from last episode, and Walter looks at Peter. He nods. He takes the child's hand, they walk into the wormhole...

"I love you dad."

FLASH.

2015. The day in the park. Etta runs toward Peter...but...no flash. They get home, and Peter looks in his mail. He finds a letter from Walter. He opens it...

The white tulip.

Fade to glyph.


I cried at that scene. The father, and now the son. Walter is gone, September is dead, December is dead...and then all the Other Observers, but they didn't matter. Sorry, Team Fedora.

My favorite scene was the Walter-Peter lab scene, the white tulip end scene, and the Gene-Astrid-Walter in the amber moment. Walter didn't get a moment with Olivia, really. Sad.

Overall, 10/10. There were some mysteries in the series overall, but I'm prepared to disregard them as continuity errors. :) But this ending is bittersweet. Usually, I could turn off and look in earnest for the next season to arrive. Not this time.

No, indeed, not this time.

Recap and Review of FRINGE Season 5, Episode 11: The Boy Must Live

Let me start by saying that this episode was everything I could have hoped it would be. However...


Plot A: Walter decides to go into THE TANK to find Donald. He finds his apartment and locates it.

En route to Donald's apartment, Walter tells Peter that when the Boy (Michael) touched him, he regained all his memories of the original timeline. Yay! "I thought you'd be fatter", he tells Peter, smiling.

They meet with Donald: September with a pretty good hairdo, some stubble, and a warm Mr. Rogers-esque outfit. But he only has eyes for Michael. They do this hand-touch thing, then everyone goes inside.

Donald tells them everything:

He was captured for betraying the Observers to the Bishops. They took his tech and did "the unthinkable": give him his humanity back. "I don't mind. I have always held this era in the highest regard."

On the fateful day of February 20, 2167, a Norwegian scientist from Oslo discovered that if one manipulates the portion of the brain of jealousy, one becomes exponentially smarter. Following this, the Observers were created: first the tech, then by an asexual breeding technique.

ONE PERSON REQUIRED: By using genes from one person, the Observers are able to create a person by building them in a tank. They become full-fledged rather quickly.

Michael was created by using September's genes. But early in his "development", the doctors noticed that Michael was becoming smart...but emphatic also. :o They stunted his growth, labelled him "anomalous" and were gonna kill him.

But September took him and hid him in the past (2008, with that ever-creepy scene of the Child under the site). "After seeing how fathers loved their sons in this time, I was...inspired to do the same." Aww. Interesting parallels betwixt Walter/Peter and Donald/Michael.

September watched a movie with Walter. It was "Singing in the Rain." After watching it he chose the name "Donald O'Conner" from the actor. So that's his name now.

THE PLAN is to send little Michael to 2167 and show the cold and crafty Norwegians that the Observers are not needed. With little Michael, one can be smart and empathic. But since Donald no longer has his tech, they need the magnet and all that random stuff.

BOOM. Answers, answers, and ANSWERS. Yes. While I love character development, I enjoy answers more than anything.

However, Oliviar tells Peter that she thinks she's gonna get Etta back. Peter is more reserved. After his venture to 2609-man, I think he'd be more embarrassed to see her back. But I hope that she isn't back. It sounds mean, but the show would have more meaning if Etta (and Nina and Simon by extension) stayed dead. To show that lives are necessary. And speaking of lives...

And off they go to get the final piece of the plan: some future-tech from 2609 in Donald's storage bay. Which leads to Plot Number Two.


Plot B: Windmark goes to the year 2609. (Which all along, I have endorsed and supported. Like "An Origin Story" that wasn't, THIS episode should have been named that)

I particularly liked the trademark Fringe Floating Location Sign written in English and Observer Language. I need to get solving that thing...I love cryptography.
He meets with THE COMMANDER of the Observers. Nice fellow. He tells him "Anomaly XB-6783746 has been located. He has been found hidden in 2036. I will ask for extraction."

THE COMMANDER says "no. The boy is irrelevant. He is of no consequence-blah blah blah."

Windmark: "These fugitives must be destroyed!"
The Commander: "What is wrong with you?" :)
Windmark: Ending their existence consumes me.

Poor Windmark. He's been a most intriguing character. Dare I say it - he's better than Mr. Jones and Newton and Walternate and William Bell? Indeed. All four villains from all four previous seasons have had their ups and downs (especially the disappointing Season 4 finale). But he ports back to 2036 (as always, hardly any exposition) and there.


Plot A and B combined: Windmark goes to Donald's apartment and he finds them gone. He turns on some music and his assistant starts tapping his foot to it. What is going on? I think THE PLAN isn't gonna work - instead it involves Michael showing the O.o, not the 2167 guy, that emotions are necessary.

Donald explodes the place but Windmark and his lackey escape. For once the Loyalists are "ept" and set a perimeter.

In the storage, Donald and Walter talk. Walter knows something grave- HE HAS TO DIE. Donald sadly nods. "It was your decision." That sounds so fake...but necessary. Am I in denial? It would be an intriguing ending but a sad one. Bittwrsweet.

Donald hands him THE ENVELOPE - with the White Tulip, from the 4th best Fringe episode ever. (1st, 2nd, and 3rd? Back to Where You've Never Been, Entrada, and Peter, of course.)

The Envelope is empty. "I'd like that tulip - where is it?" "I do not know, Walter." Walter needs that tulip - for catharsis, I'd guess - before he dies. :( And one final notice- "When you pulled me and Peter out of the lake, you told me that "The boy is important. He has to live.' You weren't talking about my son. You were talking about yours." Retcon! Peter is important, not bald-empathic-highly intelligent kid from the Matrix! I'm sorry, but this is clearly anticlimactic. But no matter.

They get the stuff and leave. Donald is not coming with them - there is something he has to do. They all leave, but there's a perimeter. They split up and walk to the monorail. They all catch up, but the Loyalists are coming and...

Michael steps out the door as it closes. And stands on the platform. Olivia stares in shock as the monorail goes away and the Loyalists find him. And take him to Windmark.

"Hello," Windmark smiles, as...fade to glyph. Then black.


9.0 out of 10. I wish there was more exposition, as far as 2609 went. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the answers, it was all pulled off well, but I wish that the alarm hadn't been so sudden. Windmark could have died there! Nonetheless, I cannot wait for next week's 2-parter series finale. :(

Fringe Recap of Season 5, Episode 8: The Human Kind

I love Fringe. And while it's getting kind of late to review it (it ends in about 6 weeks), I can still review it, can't I? So, review and recap.

The Human Kind

Plot: Olivia meets up with Anil, the Resistance head. He gives her weapons, info -- and an Observer wire, identical to the one Peter stabbed in his head. He wants it to be studied.

Elsewhere, Peter (henceforth referred to as Peterver) is setting up his Truth Tables when Windmark arrives. Just before he sees him, Peterver disappears and revels in Windmark studying him.

Astrid liberates the eighth tape in the Plan To Defeat The Observers Tape Series. They must go to a town called Fitchburg and recover a large electromagnet. Olivia walks in with the wire. She tells them everything about Peterver and the wire. She gives it to them to study.

Olivia decides to go by herself to find the magnet because she needs to be proactive. She makes her way to a scrapyard and finds a small group of people there. She meets Symone, an interesting woman. Simone tells her that she's been waiting many years for someone to come with the magnet -- and it comes with a truck. While she waits to get diesel fuel for the truck, Olivia talks with a girl named Darby. Darby tells her that Olivia's is a fugitive with a bounty on her head and that people wanna turn her in.

Peterver stalks Windmark. While stalking him he hides in a random building. Windmark appears and they fight so dramatically. If there is one thing I love about Fringe, it is the amazing action that can take place in such a short amount of time. Only about a minute, but teleportation, jumping into thin air and disappearing...Peterver switching places with Windmark's lackey and killing him...after the fight, Windmark tells him that he is not the only one watching futures. Windmark has also been stalking Peterver, of sorts. He shows Peterver Etta's last thoughts. Peterver disregards it and disappears.

Walter and Astrid find that the more the wire is in the brain, more brain activity happens. With more brain activity, the brain grows outwards to accommodate higher rational thought, destroying the areas of feeling and -- wouldn't you know it -- hair growth. Peterver walks in and needs sutures from the fight. Walter wants him to stay, to take it out...Peterver won't have any of it. He leaves.

Simone comes with some water, and Olivia doubts it, thinking that it's a sedative because she mistrusts them. Simone says her people are wrong, and tells her about faith and hope. Olivia's doubting her, until Simone says she's an oracle -- she sees flashes around people. She knows Olivia drives at night, and has Etta's bullet. She attributes her powers to God and nature, but Olivia doubts it. Olivia calls her an anomaly -- she knows Simone's an anomaly because she's one herself. The fuel arrives and Olivia bades goodbye. Simone tells her that she has faith in her.

On the way home, Olivia is stopped by an accident up ahead. She gets out -- and two men knock her out. When she wakes up, she's in a warehouse. Typical. The two men plan to sell her out to Reward Wire -- the bounty system Darby talked about elsewhere -- and then Olivia escapes using Etta's bullet, a roll, and some paper.

Peterver plans to send Windmark off to his death. Olivia arrives as Peterver stares atop a high building. They talk and debate emotions and feeling. Peterver needs to kill Windmark the following afternoon snad avenge Etta. Olivia, crying, tells Peterver that emotions are the one thing they don't have -- and they need hope. Simone's words spark at last. Peterver stares at her and remembers Etta's last image. With Olivia's pleading, he produces a pocketknife -- and cuts out the Observer wire, making him Peter again.

Notes:

Fringe is doing a spectacular job with emotions and action...but they've really dug themselves in deep. There are too many questions unanswered.
What of the plan? I keep losing faith in it every time a tape is found because the object is always something random. A magnet, some rocks, a sheet of paper, a radio...
Walter was really getting around, wasn't he? He met and conspired with a lot of unknown people during the invasion...Of the top of my head: The Masseys (503), Simone and her mom (508), "Donald" (503, 506), and the Bald Kid (506).
Who is Donald? That's the big one weighing on my mind -- that and who the Observers really are. I think it's Bell's alternate universe self.

Name your theories and comments below!

-Rob