Just finished watching the first season, I really liked it. With regard to the finale, one thing I picked up on about 1/2-3/4 through the season when they started introducing Harold's partner and such is that when it shows the "Machine vision" seemingly anyone who knows about the existence of the machine has a yellow box around them, as opposed to the standard white.

This theory was solidified in the 2nd to last episode. If you watch, the POI's box was white - but when Finch told him about the machine, the camera switched to "machine vision" and his box was then yellow, along with Finch's.

Flashforward now to the finale, and the psychiatrist had a yellow box around her from the get-go, so I knew she was a major player in disguise.

Anyway, this was just me grunching, so didn't take the time to read and see if anyone else picked up on that detail - but at least I didn't see anything referring to it in the last page, just people talking about her being a bigger name actress.

Edit: Did some internet searching and looks like the general consensus is that this theory is correct... the strange thing that one person pointed out is that Reese had a yellow box over him as early as when he was in the airport talking to Jessica... in 2006.

http://io9.com/5933966/wikileaks-rev...llance-cameras

http://youtu.be/MYiIuaEDIno

This exchange made me lol

Wow - hadn't heard that name in a while. How good was S1 of that show?! Talk about a fall from grace.

Just finished S1 and loved it. Starting S2 now. Really enjoying the back stories of Finch and Reese. Curious to see how Finch got that limp.

When Finch bumped into Reese in the hospital (right after Reese finds out that Jessica was dead), Reese says "sorry" and walks away. Finch then says "I'm really sorry" after looking at a file w/ pics of Reese, Jessica and her hubby. Was Finch just saying "sorry" as in "sorry for your loss" or could there be more to that? Obv don't answer if you know thru S2.

If I remember correctly, she was the first number under his new system, and Harold wasn't able to save her. So, he was sorry he couldn't save her, if I'm not misremembering.

Her number was the first we were shown to be found by the machine in an irrelevant list. Its more of an easter egg because you have to be really paying attention to notice it, but when Finch talked about irrelevant numbers showing up over and over in that episode he was referring to Reese's girl amongst others.

Thanks guys. It's show is the tits.

Can we discuss China here? I'm only two episodes into season two and it has not yet been resolved. My questions revolves around the guy that Reese's partner shot. He said that someone came and took the machine. What was he referring to?

Also, at the end of an episode near end of the season, that same partner shows up in a hotel room (shoots two CIA agents). That was present-day, no?

Some of these things may be answered in season two, so I'm sure I'll catch up in that thread. Let me know if that's a better place to discuss. I'm sure ill be caught up soon.

Ps: this is JJ's best show IMO. And I'm a Fringe lover.

China has huge question marks over it still, you have caught most of the key details so far.

It seems that at some point around the time Nathan was killed and Finch was injured a copy of "the machine" Finch invented found its ways into the hands of the Chinese scientists and Reese and his partner were sent to cleanse the area after the Chinese government had been there and killed (nearly) everyone, find the last remnants which included the copy they found and they were to be destroyed in an air strike as the standard protocol of killing everyone who has contact with the machine.

It is logical to infer that Nathan's death, the injury to Finch and the Chinese scientists having a copy is directly linked just from the timing and it is going to be a big reveal linking a lot of threads together, but we dont know how yet. We also dont know if the Chinese government who killed everyone took a copy or if they did it as a favour to the US Gov and just killed everyone then drew back giving Reese and his partner time to confirm they found the (only?) copy and then get destroyed. We know both survived but have no idea if the copy of the machine they found also survived etc.

How do we know the Chinese govt killed those people? Couldn't it have been a US hit squad? After all, Reese and his partner were with another team (remember- some commandos took their com units and gave them their signal flares, etc).

Copy of the machine? How does one copy something that needs carried b an entire freight train?

Oh just had a thought re: 10 days on train... But it may be better posted in S2?? Any chance the "secure location" for the machine is not on US soil?

The machine is essentially just code. The reason they needed a train was because Finch made it as a pure plug and forget system so the government wouldn't be able to take a copy of the code and build the drives and severs around it. Indicating that Nathan or someone who had access to the back door he built in could have just copied it. It's basically just speculation at this point but the scientist specifically called it "the machine".

I assumed it was Chinese military that killed the scientists because the Chinese set up the fake quarantine if i remember correctly, been a while since I saw that episode though.

Phill, I think what we saw in China was the actual machine. Remember, Harold's just working off a "back door", and I'm pretty sure the machine was already delivered by the time the scene in China happened, which is why it makes sense that Harold had already been receiving the irrelevants list by the time he ran into Reese at the hospital. I doubt there's a copy of the machine. Only 7 people (8?) originally knew about it, and the people who saw it in China were all killed, and Reese and Stanton were also supposed to be killed. Neither knew what it was, and I doubt Reese has put the connection together, yet. It's possible Stanton has, and that's why she's running the op with the disgraced CIA agent that she's kidnapped.

I hear this show is a little slow at the beginning. When's a good episode to jump in from?

Start at the Pilot, and don't give up. EZ game.

The first couple minutes on the subway are rough, but its action from then on.

What? The pilot is awesome! The subway scene is great.

The beard is so bad it becomes awesome.

I thought Phill was joking about the subway scene. That's straight up great, but beard is pretty lol.

Yeah, I was joking that the show got awesome nearly right away in the first scene of the first episode.

This show is incredible.

Pwned

It was 8 people. The 8th was Harold and only Nathan knew about him. He slipped when he said 8.

The China installation was blown up...

After watching the first 7 or so episodes when they came out last year, I was interrupted and just got around to finishing season 1. Pretty excellent. A little frustrating how ridiculously bad ass the good guys are though. So much easier to believe when characters have super powers.

I had forgotten about Root by the time I got to the finale and I was watching the episodes straight through.

Amy Acker isn't that big an actress. If she becomes a recurring character in season 2 rather than being killed quickly, this might actually be her biggest role yet (if you include ratings in your calculations). And Angel and Alias were a good while ago. She's been in single episodes of a lot of shows in the past several years.

Compared to most of the numbers on the show she is a huge actor. Isnt the second nearest the judge who was on Breaking Bad and a few other small guest roles? The only other person I remember recognising was Elias who was on Flashpoint.