Signifficance of the Magic 8 Ball

[Fringeling]

I am wondering what the signifficance of the 8-Ball is?

Early on in the episode, when Olivia, Peter, and Walter are setting up their mobile "mega cold virus" testing lab, Olivia begins asking a bunch of questions. Walter says to her in response to her questions, "You're like a question machine."

Well, the question machine is in fact the 8 Ball. I am wondering if he is pointing out it's signifficance with this remark, hinting that we should pay attention to it?

Actually, after thinking about it, the 8Ball is more correctly an answer machine. In a way, it is the catalyst that allows her to answer the important question she is seeking at that time ------- who abducted her? It is Loeb tossing it to her and her dropping it that gives her the discovery Loeb is the abductor. Hmmm ....:ninja:

The fact that Olivia's niece gives the 8 ball to her, and then the closing shot of the episode shows Olivia and the niece sleeping together face to face gives me the feeling there is a connection there between the two. I'm wondering if the sister knows there is a connection, and that is why "she is the only thing right she's ever done?"

For those who would read this thread, any thoughts? :confused0006:

[BadInfluence]

If it were hinting at a connection between the two it could be a psychic connection. Afterall aside from being a toy a magic 8-ball is in simple terms a crystal ball. Albeit not a very reliable one.

[Tritium]

Excellent theory.

As we've all seen so far, most everything done is intentional. There was a distinct reason that Olivia's sister showed up NOW. The only right thing she's ever done? Hmmm... perplexing.

I suddenly had a tangential thought: Olivia's niece gave her the 8ball. The 8ball led to her discovering that Loeb was the double agent. Was Olivia's niece somehow aware that this might take place? The tangential thought was about Heroes and people with weird, random abilities... brain spaz.

I never catch everything the first go 'round, but Olivia got the spinal tap before the water, right? Could that maybe have something to do with the worm things? If the plan was/is to release a bunch of those, was Olivia somehow "saved" from it happening to her? :what:

The moment I saw that worm crawl out of that guy's mouth, I IMMEDIATELY thought of the movie Dreamcatcher (though the worms in that movie come flying out the back door :ninja:). And the little spore things, similar to the egg that the heroes of Dreamcatcher prevented from contaminating the water supply. Water... water was a delivery agent for the eggs... a simple drink... ?

Loeb wasn't the boss of his faction, but he was a high-ranking official. Whether or not he's going to get the last laugh when the poo hits the propeller (as in, he actually was saving Olivia from something bad) probably won't be known until it's too late. Although it is interesting that he did wear the mask...
Wait a sec. Regardless of whether she lived or died, if she would've seen his face then she would've recorded a memory of it. MD makes the camera that can download images from people's eyeballs. Maybe he was going to kill her after all, and didn't want to contaminate her memories by his presence? Hmmmm. But if that's the case, then when they killed her they would've passed her off to someone or else why go to the lengths to keep her memory clean.


I'm gonna need to watch that again.

[Citizen]

I was expecting the ball to play some sort of role in the cliffhanger, giving Olivia an answer to her problems. It gave her an answer, just not in the cliffhanger :)

[Rocky]

At this point I am thinking it was just clever placement by the show's creators. As already said, it helped her find the "answer" to her mystery. I would not be surprised if we saw it playing that role in the future too.

[D-Roc]

Nice ideas! Here are some caps:
863864
some related links:


http://www.tridelphia.net/

The Magic 8-Ball, manufactured by Mattel, is a toy used for fortune-telling or seeking advice. Invented in 1946 by Abe Bookman of the Alabe Toy Company, it is a hollow, plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black and white 8-ball. Inside is a white, plastic, icosahedral die floating in a dark blue liquid. Each of the 20 faces of the die has an affirmative, negative, or non-committal statement printed on it in raised letters. There is a transparent window on the bottom of the 8-ball through which these messages can be read.
To use the ball, it must be held with the window initially facing down after shaking. After "asking the ball" a yes-or-no question, the user then turns the ball so that the window faces up, setting in motion the liquid and die inside. When the die floats to the top and one of its faces is pressed against the window, the raised letters displace the blue liquid to reveal the message as white letters on a blue background. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary (or recommended) to shake or jostle the ball before turning it, as doing so can create air bubbles that may visually distort the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-Ball

This is a clue if ever there was one, imo.

[zadok]

http://www.tridelphia.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-Ball

This is a clue if ever there was one, imo.

How is that, exactly?

[D-Roc]

How is that, exactly?
I'm not referring to those links specifically, rather the 'magic 8' ball itself. I would imagine that this is alluding to something. Possibly something that has already been suggested above? I just don't think they would drop something like this in there and refer back to it later in the episode, if it didn't have some meaning, however subtle:confused0006:

[BadInfluence]

This may be reaching but when trying to learn about the magic 8 ball I decided to use something easy at first. I immediately took note of the date that it was invented which was 1946. Why is this possibly important? Well I referenced the wonderful timeline made by Fringeling and saw that Walter was born in 1946.

The next thing I noticed was that the die within a magic 8 ball is called a icosahedron die. And while reading Walter's lab notes for the epi he makes an interesting observation. And I quote, "The rhinovirus takes the form of an icosahedron, not a slug." Now other than this die what else is in a magic 8 ball? Well a water based solution or just water itself which just so happens to be what triggers the virus. What does this all mean? At the moment I have no idea but as it has been said already in this thread, there has got to be some importance to this toy we know as the magic 8 ball.

[pancake]

This may be reaching but when trying to learn about the magic 8 ball I decided to use something easy at first. I immediately took note of the date that it was invented which was 1946. Why is this possibly important? Well I referenced the wonderful timeline made by Fringeling and saw that Walter was born in 1946.

The next thing I noticed was that the die within a magic 8 ball is called a icosahedron die. And while reading Walter's lab notes for the epi he makes an interesting observation. And I quote, "The rhinovirus takes the form of an icosahedron, not a slug." Now other than this die what else is in a magic 8 ball? Well a water based solution or just water itself which just so happens to be what triggers the virus. What does this all mean? At the moment I have no idea but as it has been said already in this thread, there has got to be some importance to this toy we know as the magic 8 ball.
Excellent observations! I too am not sure what it all means, but i dont want to think that it was all just a way of the producers being clever. Thats not fun enough!

[ecence]

Very VERY interesting thought BadInfluence. This being the first thread I have read on this forum after watching Last nights episode, I think you may just have cracked it.

[the bishop's wife]

I may need to watch "Bound" again, but didn't the sister say that they brought this gift back from Peru? If so, why mention this? It is home of the LOST city of gold...

[the bishop's wife]

Staring at the apple shown above, look at how the two embryonic type images are facing each other...just like twins...just like the position Olivia and Rachel were in at the end of the show?

[D-Roc]

This may be reaching but when trying to learn about the magic 8 ball I decided to use something easy at first. I immediately took note of the date that it was invented which was 1946. Why is this possibly important? Well I referenced the wonderful timeline made by Fringeling and saw that Walter was born in 1946.

The next thing I noticed was that the die within a magic 8 ball is called a icosahedron die. And while reading Walter's lab notes for the epi he makes an interesting observation. And I quote, "The rhinovirus takes the form of an icosahedron, not a slug." Now other than this die what else is in a magic 8 ball? Well a water based solution or just water itself which just so happens to be what triggers the virus. What does this all mean? At the moment I have no idea but as it has been said already in this thread, there has got to be some importance to this toy we know as the magic 8 ball.
Excellent observations!:tiphat:

[Fringeling]

This may be reaching but when trying to learn about the magic 8 ball I decided to use something easy at first. I immediately took note of the date that it was invented which was 1946. Why is this possibly important? Well I referenced the wonderful timeline made by Fringeling and saw that Walter was born in 1946.

The next thing I noticed was that the die within a magic 8 ball is called a icosahedron die. And while reading Walter's lab notes for the epi he makes an interesting observation. And I quote, "The rhinovirus takes the form of an icosahedron, not a slug." Now other than this die what else is in a magic 8 ball? Well a water based solution or just water itself which just so happens to be what triggers the virus. What does this all mean? At the moment I have no idea but as it has been said already in this thread, there has got to be some importance to this toy we know as the magic 8 ball.BAM! Fringe is back from the hiatus, but it's not just because there are new episodes ----- it's because we get to enjoy posts like that! I know this might sound cheezy, but I honestly get goosebumps when connections like that are made :happy15:

That makes it even more mysterious to me that Loeb would grab the eight ball and say that it might help Olivia solve her puzzle. Bravo to Fringe yet again, and Bravo to this forum!

I may need to watch "Bound" again, but didn't the sister say that they brought this gift back from Peru? If so, why mention this? It is home of the LOST city of gold... I'll have to watch again, but I don't remember that. All I remember is that it was from her daughter's bedroom .... but it could be .....

[cmcg16]

I may need to watch "Bound" again, but didn't the sister say that they brought this gift back from Peru? If so, why mention this? It is home of the LOST city of gold...

she said "she wanted to bring you something from her room". she said it kind of quick, so it definitely could have sounded like 'Peru' instead of 'her room'. : )

[Faded Picture]

i also heard Peru and so did my mom. never thought of it being her room. i didnt give much thought to the 8 ball, but now i gotta go watch it again.

[agent86]

okay seriously....i was thinking along similar lines of the "whole meaning" of this 8-ball...but WOW> u guys really thought this through...giving me quite a bit more to think about. SO MUCH FUN, i love this show!