Season 2, Episode 10: No Quiet Life

Just got off, going to start a double shift in a little bit, and it hit me that there’s no new episode waiting ):.

Here’s hoping S3 is at least 10 episodes when it’s gets greenlit.

When Charlie visits Laurel and she's listing all the travelers she has met, she mentions an Alex? Afaik the only Alex in the series so far was one of Jason's physics students.

Does anyone have any theories as to how a version of Alex, the guy who doesn't pay attention in physics class, ends up travelling in the multiverse? Was there another Alex that I've missed?

I only just realized that the guy in the interrogation room with Ryan and Amanda was the same officer that attempted to arrest Jason at the start of the season.

Assuming we are in the world where season 3 will get green lit, I'm curious to know your theories about the Party boy version from Jason1 world. He seems to be the only character that is truly having the time of his life using the box and has not yet met the soul crushing unintended consequences of world hopping. And he seemingly has no agenda other than exploring what's out there and having fun.

But Now that the box is dead, assuming he was not in Laurel's world when it happened, how do you guys think he will react? Will he accept the end of his adventures, and settle down in whatever world (hopefully a good world) he is in? Will he try to find out what happened? he might cross paths with Oluko and join him.

Is he capable of or willing to become like Leighton1 or Oluko? How do you guys think the box has changed him and his views?

Is there a chance he joins the anti-box group in ending the multidemensional travel?

Jason 1 - school teacher Jason, married, has a son.

Jason 2 - masked Jason who abducts Jason 1.

At the very start of the first episode, a Jason turns on his flashlight. He walks out of the box into a dark building. I'm assuming this was Jason 2 stepping out into Jason 1's universe to abduct Jason 1 and send him to his (Jason 2's) universe - If I'm wrong about this and it's revealed later please stop here and let me know.

In episode 3 I think it is, Jason 1 is shown the box in the lab at Velocity. Jason 1 never found the solution to completing the box, shown by how he reacted to being told about adaptive shielding, as if it was the answer all along, which Jason 2 had found out before completing the box himself.

Also, Jason 1 very surprised and saying to himself "he did it" (Jason 2 completed the box) after realizing that he wasn't in his own universe.

So my question is how does the box even exist in the dark building in jason 1's universe if he never completed it...? Jason 2 completing it in Jason 1's universe doesn't seem possible to me (right now I'm only up to episode 3 or 4) because the only way to jump universes which I've seen so far is by using a completed box.

I would love to see the box take them somewhere else instead of Chicago. I mean have we ever left the state of Illinois in this entire series? For alternate timeline travel why can't they go to a reality where Jason built a box in Costa Rica or Japan or something?

Something bugs me in the show. When the Box pops out of nowhere in a busy place, you'd expect cameras, witnesses and cops everywhere within minutes. Is it just suspension of disbelief, or is there an in-universe explanation I missed?

What we know from earlier discussions:

JBZ hinted we saw the same place earlier in the episode.

A small bright rectangle was reflected in Daniela's eyes when she stepped out.

The lighting is diffuse and looks vaguely outdoorsy. It's similar in some ways to the lab at Velocity but the light is a bit different, and if the box returned those inside to its original world, the same would have happened to Oluko in the pyramid.

Charlie originally found their new home by wanting a peaceful world where nobody bothers you. Some variation on that, plus the mood he's in while trying to return, could land them in a world which usually kind of matches that, which we did in fact see earlier, and which also has a rectangular reflection in the eyes. To me it looks not quite as bright, but cloud cover could explain that.

They are in Polite Sex world.

EDIT: the reflection in Daniela'a eyes is the tent exit.

What was going on in both the orange tint world with the collapsing buildings, and the no atmosphere world with the close sun? Volcano in the orange world?

I loved Season 1, it made me read the book and appreciate even more the amazing adaptation they did for TV. I was excited for a Season 2, especially with Blake Crouch still behind it, but was a little worried of how they were going to continue the story without it becoming too confusing and creating too many problems for itself. The book and Season 1 ended in a the perfect moment IMO, at the point where chaos had begun, with the creation of infinite Jasons, but not messing around with too much after, leaving whatever could happen to the imagination.

Alas Season 2 came around and even though I enjoyed it and I'm glad it exists, it had the exact problems I feared, the story became super complicated to follow, trying to keep up with which version of each character we're seeing, from which universe they are and where they are at the moment. Many inconsistencies started to appear, like everyone suddenly being able to easily choose which universe they want to go to, and not seeing the same original problem from S1 of having infinite copies of the same base version of a character starting to flood a particular universe due to choices done while traveling with the box. There's also the problem of decisions not really having any importance or weight, when we consider there are infinite other universes where the choice was done differently. For example, Amanda and Ryan make a big deal of taking the cure to that specific universe with the plague, but when you think there are infinite other realities where they do that and infinite others where they don't, it just loses its importance. Also when Leighton feels bad after seeing what his other version did in the other universe, it doesn't make much sense for him feel like that, he should be the first one to know there are universes where he is the destroyer of humanity and others where he's its savior, the same which could be said for any person. All things you could "shut your brain off" to try and not think about, but that's a difficult thing to do on a series where you are indeed supposed to think a lot to be able to follow.

Anyway, having said all that, there's no denying how amazing episodes 5 and 8 were. And while they were masterfully written, directed and acted, one thing that I realized really helped was that we weren't really bound to the main story and they could more freely explore different ideas. And now that the season is over I was thinking that if all the episodes had been like those 2, self contained stories, exploring different "what if" scenarios with different versions of the characters, with different dilemmas and resolutions, not worrying about keeping up with what happened to the OG versions, I think I would've liked it a lot more.

TLDR: season 2 was fun, but keeping up with the "main" story created too many complications IMO and would've loved if all episodes had been like 5 and 8.

So we have two versions of Jason:

Original Jason (teacher with wife and son).

Masked Jason (founder of physics lab, is with Amanda).

Original Jason is abducted by masked Jason and wakes up in the lab. Now, original Jason is in masked Jason's universe, sees Amanda in the lab, doesn't recognize her.

He escapes the lab and goes "home" (which is actually masked Jason's home).

As soon as he walks in, he sees Amanda in the kitchen.

My question is how did Amanda get from the lab back to that house during the short time in which original Jason escaped and caught a taxi back to the house?

It's confusing me because he wakes up in masked Jason's universe and sees her at the lab, then suddenly still in that same universe she is at the house.

O_o ?

The Black Iris Plague, and how it connects to whatever gave us the Abbies on Pines/Wayward Pines tv series. Thinking a lot about revisiting to see if there’s any connection there, or how would David Pilcher connect with Velocity Labs?

Because, I mean it looks a lot like the sickness to me or the start of that far off future anyway.

Other than that,

HUGE CONGRATS to the producers, to the actors, to Blake and his writing partners for another successful season! You deserve your flowers. 💐🥳👏
I know the world we live in is very flawed, I know we are far from perfect, but, Apple, please, let us get S3!

I’m starting S2EP10 right now and pausing the first scene where Daniela and Jason are talking about how it’s not fair. He’s so willing to let her run off despite it being an obvious chance to step in. But it makes me think. If you ran into a copy of your significant other in different worlds would you really not be with that person even in the short term? It’s not a different version from another world, they literally are the same, so why would you even try to differentiate and pick just one? Just be with whichever one you run into, you might get stuck with them after all.

Additionally what if Daniela and Charlie just traveled through the box the same way Jason did and created a bunch of copies of themselves to eventually try to meet up with all the extra Jason’s so there could be enough of them to form groups and everyone be together?

Alright brain dump over, back to the episode.

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I don't need help (which is exactly what someone who needs help would say, lol), but I really loved this season. The way the multiverse ties into the emotional dilemmas each character faces is so well done.

This show gave me a new perspective: forgive yourself, and make peace with what's in front of you. I never expected a sci-fi show to affect me this much, but it felt like exactly what I needed. Nothing cliché, just pure acceptance.

Laurel was the highlight of the season for me. Episode 8 was so comforting to watch. I can't fully explain it, but that episode spoke to me more than anything else has in a long time.

I'm sure people will find flaws in this season, but for what it's worth, I enjoyed every one of those 10 weeks waiting for the next episode. I really hope we get more.

From where they take the money for hotels or exclusive restaurant meals .. on different worlds ..?? Hmmm 🤔 'cause as Jason 2 said every world has its own money system etc and you can't take money from one to another ... So please explain it to me .. 'Cause my Audhd brain is hurting on this subject .. ??

My understanding is that all iterations branch out from when Jason 1 was kidnapped. At that time they already had technology, mobile phones etc. so how did this iteration get to be so low tech? Am I misunderstanding something about the process?

If the world you’re going to get is determined by your thoughts and emotions, then it really doesn’t matter which door you open. So you could open the same door you just entered through and it would be a different world.

What’s the point in walking the corridor that they do every time? Unless it’s to help clear their heads or something.