I'll Be Back

(March 10, 2004)

Lexikahn: We spent the whole ride to work today on Terminator.
onlyone: ha-ha!
Lexikahn: Specifically, whether Kyle Reese should or should not have been in T2.
onlyone: yeah. that's a questionable plot device if ever i saw one. 'cause if you think about it, his going back in time to save john connor's mother would require that john connor be necessary in that future. for him to be necessary, he has to exist. for him to exist, the guy has to go back in time to help conceive john connor. but he has to exist already to be important enough to save by going back in time to save his mother before she conceives him. and that would mean that the original john connor had to have a different father. and if he had a different father, then the hero fathering him on the second time around would make him a different guy.
onlyone: maybe even an asshole.
Lexikahn: It's a time warp thing. In actuality they didn't go back in time to change anything, but to preserve the future. Don't you know the prime directive from Star Trek?
onlyone: no.
Lexikahn: Well we're just going to have to assimilate you into the collective.
onlyone: no, thanks.
Lexikahn: Resistance is futile!
onlyone: but here's the thing -- i can follow the whole time warp thing, i can keep up with all of the strands wrapping around themselves. but for john connor to exist, the hero has to go back in time to father him.
Lexikahn: Yes.
onlyone: but he has to exist to begin with in order for him to be so important to send someone back in time to prevent his existence. and that has to happen for someone to be sent back in time to SAVE him. therefore it's impossible for that person going back in time to save him to be his father.
Lexikahn: It's all interconnected.
onlyone: in an illogical way, is what i'm saying. don't you follow what i'm saying?
Lexikahn: Look, I can't sit here and explain the basics of space time continuum to a neophyte. :)
onlyone: i'm not a neophyte. i'm saying that the two john connors have different fathers.
Lexikahn: John Connor has one father: Kyle Reese.
onlyone: impossible. BECAUSE if kyle reese didn't go back in time to save sarah connor, john connor wouldn't exist.
Lexikahn: That's why he had to go back in time. To make sure he existed.
onlyone: so wouldn't the bad guys just say "okay, well, we won't send anyone back in time to kill her, 'cause then he won't exist anyway."
Lexikahn: No.
onlyone: too many holes. it's bullshit.
Lexikahn: lol. The bad guys didn't KNOW that John Connor was fathered by Kyle Reese, you see. So in the end it was the only possible sequence of events.
onlyone: a sequence whose BEGINNING requires that JOHN CONNOR EXIST TO BEGIN WITH. so you're telling me that the first chain of events involved kyle reese going back in time for no reason than to fuck sarah connor?
Lexikahn: Yes. LOL.