The Soda Shop Message Boards

HomeschoolCowgirl wrote: But why would Blackgaard be walking around Red Scorpion headquarters with a rubber ball stuck up his sleeve for this purpose? If he knew Red Scorpion's plans, he'd know they meant to stab Jason with the "vitamins" and not that he was the intended victim.

And why not? He could just stick one in his pocket as a stress ball and then stick it up his sleeve when needed. It's not that unusual to carry around..

I think it is, then again we are talking about Blackgaard...

How is it Tasha and Whit both worked on TA418? I mean, when exactly did they agree to partner, before she knew Jason?
And how old is Tasha then?

HomeschoolCowgirl wrote:But why would Blackgaard be walking around Red Scorpion headquarters with a rubber ball stuck up his sleeve for this purpose? If he knew Red Scorpion's plans, he'd know they meant to stab Jason with the "vitamins" and not that he was the intended victim.

Blackgaard deliberately took the needle for Jason. He knew about Red Scorpion's plans, and used their intention to kill Jason as a cover for his own escape—it's sort of hard for people to track you and your schemes when they think you're dead.

GJFH wrote:How is it Tasha and Whit both worked on TA418? I mean, when exactly did they agree to partner, before she knew Jason?
And how old is Tasha then?

Jason and Tasha have both been working with the NSA for a while, and Whit worked as a consultant with them for years. I think it's pretty easy to construct a narrative wherein Whit discovered the properties of the mineral in the Underground Railroad tunnel and wanted to investigate it, and no doubt Tasha's knowledge of microbiology attracted his attention. Tasha is more than likely around Jason's age (otherwise he probably wouldn't have pursued her romantically); Whit's been known to work with people significantly younger than he is, after all.

Mitch, in the episode where he proposes to Connie, encounters Charles under the screen name "AREM" and produces it "air-em" rather than "are-em", AKA RM, or Robert Mitchell. He created the name, shouldn't he know how to pronounce it?

I have two guesses in response to this:

The first is that the people around him—his sister, Connie, Whit, the kids, even the Odyssey Police—all pronounce it "air-em", so he picked it up that way and started using it himself because that was what he heard all around him. (I'm sort of picturing him attempting to convince everyone to pronounce it "are-em" and being really dogged about it and then Connie's just like "Babe. Babe. No one's listening" and so he just sighs and gives it up.)

The second is that as he heard people talking about this hacker whose name they thought was pronounced "air-em", he decided to go with it not just because it was easier, but also to throw off suspicion. Wouldn't it look a bit conspicuous if everyone else was pronouncing the screen name of an infamous computer hacker a certain way and you—someone who everyone knows has pretty strong knowledge of computers—just happen to be pronouncing the name differently? Anyone trying to spot a thread would have unraveled the whole fabric by then.

WHY in the WORLD would someone send cotton candy in the MAIL??? #onlyJason

Isaiah the Ox wrote:WHY in the WORLD would someone send cotton candy in the MAIL??? #onlyJason

JUST STOP IT. Your personality is unchangeable.

And what's so horrible about sending cotton candy in the mail anyway? Does it go bad or something?

Novatom wrote:And what's so horrible about sending cotton candy in the mail anyway? Does it go bad or something?

It does in the episode *spoiler alert*

My guess is that he didn't send the kind we are selling at the store, which is wrapped in a special bag to keep it soft for like a year!

Isaiah the Ox wrote:WHY in the WORLD would someone send cotton candy in the MAIL??? #onlyJason

I know that I've been gone for a long while, but I must cut in and defend Jason.

My father has for 20+ years bought oranges every Christmas for himself and had them shipped fresh from California. He loves citrus. So every year around Christmastime I can remember this box of around two dozen oranges coming in the mail. Oranges and cotton candy are plausible items. They can and do go through the USPS. Even weirder things go through the mail, however. A lady at our church works for the post office, and she said that several years ago someone mailed a dead animal (I believe it was a deer) through the mail. At their post office, it began to decay. The stench could be smelled through the box, and so it was taken out. Once you hear about things like that, Jason mailing cotton candy sounds almost entirely sane.

As a postscript, what episode was that in? I am drawing a complete blank.

The most famous song of the duo known as Paul & Paula. (1963)

I can very clearly remember that it was a missionary episode, probably a 2-parter, and that the cotton candy was sent to a boy in the foreign country. The whole thing was about how some radio programs in the foreign country were leading people away from Christianity. I just spent a long time looking through all the episodes from albums 21-50 on whitsend.org, but I couldn't find it.

The Old Judge wrote: As a postscript, what episode was that in? I am drawing a complete blank.

Shining Armor, Parts 1 and 2.

Aftershocker wrote:

The Old Judge wrote:That's partially what I meant. If he has this big slide sticking out of his house, somebody could climb up through it.

I always thought that there was a covering on the slide from the inside and you can push it from the inside, but not from the outside so if someone crawled up the slide they wouldn't be able to open the covering.

Well actually in the real Wooton's slide in Colorado they have a seat cushion covering the bottom so kids won't climb up it when it's closed

Didi wrote:

Aftershocker wrote:

The Old Judge wrote:That's partially what I meant. If he has this big slide sticking out of his house, somebody could climb up through it.

I always thought that there was a covering on the slide from the inside and you can push it from the inside, but not from the outside so if someone crawled up the slide they wouldn't be able to open the covering.

He could always have a door that locks on the opening of the slide inside his house..

If no one tells Connie "anything around here", then why did Trent tell her about Max's secret valentine heart

I don't think Connie's thinking on that scale; I think she considers "secrets kids tell you about their adorable crushes" and "secrets involving mysteries and matters of national security" to be on two different levels...which, to be fair, they kinda are.

TigerShadow wrote:I don't think Connie's thinking on that scale; I think she considers "secrets kids tell you about their adorable crushes" and "secrets involving mysteries and matters of national security" to be on two different levels...which, to be fair, they kinda are.

Crushes can be in the same class as national security...

I agree with Didi! But it is true that Connie is often the last one to know!, Which is probably because, she can't even keep the "secrets kids tell you about their adorable crushes" without telling someone!

HomeschoolCowgirl wrote:In "A name not a number" Blackgaard said the syringe with which Mustafa stabbed him contained just a mixture of vitamins; however, in the Darkness before Dawn series he says it was a less-powerful version of Ruku. He wouldn't have "died" from the vitamin mixture and I'm sure Jason as a trained agent knows how to tell if someone's dead or not. I mean, one can only hold one's breath for so long and can certainly not stop one's own heartbeat (and therefore, pulse).

HomeschoolCowgirl wrote:But why would Blackgaard be walking around Red Scorpion headquarters with a rubber ball stuck up his sleeve for this purpose? If he knew Red Scorpion's plans, he'd know they meant to stab Jason with the "vitamins" and not that he was the intended victim.

Belle wrote:And why not? He could just stick one in his pocket as a stress ball and then stick it up his sleeve when needed. It's not that unusual to carry around..

I think you missed the whole situation there... Both agencies (I forget who exactly they were rn) were planning on going in and rescuing Jason, and Blackgaard was in on their plans. He knew when they were coming, and would set a plan. Blackgaard's really clever, and probably had a back-up plan just in case something went wrong. (Which may be the rubber ball thingy Belle claims is the excuse, but let me get there) We know this is true, because Blackgaard tells us syringe was just vitamins; he had a back up plan. In fact, it might have been his first plan. Now, as to his death, I'm almost positive Blackgaard lied or didn't say the whole truth when it came to the minerals. I'm guessing he stole some Romeo and Juliet poison from his brother, and put that in the syringe. My main reason for this, is his comment about being in the morgue. Which, I grant you, could also be a lie/joke. But I digress.

(Also, I like how you prove your point via a fictional army doctor, who knows how good he is in his field xD @Belle)

Is it considered a sin to "sin" in the Room of Consequence? Because you still have a choice whether or not to make a bad decision inside the machine. We are all held accountable for our actions online so why should a VR-esque machine be any different? But if that were the case, isn't Whit promoting sin? Wouldn't it just be easier tao put the kid in that situation without making them choose? Because if they decide not to but were only curious about what would happen, isn't the entire thing pointless?

What happens if you die in the Imagination Station? Let's say a kid was dying, or was suicidal and imagined dying. We've seen multiple times that it can really mess with a person's psyche (Novacom used it to try to take over the world!) so would "dying" in the Imagination Station actually kill you? Or at least cause irreparable brain damage? Would Whit get sued for hooking up advanced pieces of technology to a minor's brain without a parent/guardian's consent? I mean, there was a highly advanced and aggressive AI that tried to imprint itself onto an "avatar", a human being, that could have causes serious damage. Heck, it even threatened to send electric shocks through its avatar. Whit wasn't the one who made the program, but it still existed and was able to do all of those things through his machine so no one would really care about that part. Everyone's always after Applesauce but what they really should be after is the Imagination Station. To my knowledge, only Novacom went after it.

Wouldn't you think that a lot of people would be protesting how safe Whit's End actually is? Yes, it's been protested before but not about the highly advanced neurological equipment that he apparenly invented and fiddles around with in his spare time. Shouldn't Whit be curing mental disorders or something?