Was the Brian suicide guy a cortexikid?
Everything he says seemed a little off to me:
Brian: "You're not scared. I know when people are scared. You're not."
...
Brian: "I don't want to hurt people, but I always do."
Dana: "How do you hurt?"
Brian: "I have no hope."
...
Brian: "I don't like my purpose."
...
Brian: "Can you help those people on the train?" (when he's supposedly the one who put the bomb on it and he calls her to send her there!)
After he dies Dana looks down on all those sketches of Angels and Azraeal. (reminded me of the sketches from the guy who was picking up the ghost network in season 1)
Brian could have been an assumed name he used for the suicide hot-line. To me it sounds like he might be a reverse em-path like Nick Lane, I think the dialogue was similar to Season 1's bad dreams - or he could have just been a run-of-the-mill MOTW guy.
What do you think?
I think you could be on to something. I thought that he seemed clairvoyant as well, so Cortexifan could be why, and he also reminded me of the guy that was having visions because of the Ghost Network. How they filmed the train scene and Dana Gray when she got on the train, reminded me of Alistair Peck in White Tulip. I think this season is definitely reflecting back on past episodes in a lot of ways.Originally Posted by fringeG33k
"When you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes you find the truth." - Walter Bishop
I also noticed he was wearing black/gray clothes.
I thought this at first, but then I thought it unlikely because Walter and Olivia both were at Brian's house, and both would have had the chance to recognize him. Walter's brain might of slipped, but the fact that the issue wasn't even indirectly suspected or hinted at via camera angle or something makes me think that Brian was just a messed up guy.
He could be another damaged cortexifan kid, who didn't finish the trials, that Walter wants to hide, like the mind reading guy in Concentrate and Ask Again. Or like you mentioned, Walter's mind could of slipped. Brian did seem clairvoyant to me, so I don't think he was just messed up. I rewatched the episode today and he seems to be reading her mind, and then he tells her that she has to go save the people on the train, like he knew that was her destiny or purpose. I am just left wondering why he felt the need to put the bomb on there in the first place, like if for some reason someone made him do it, since it seemed as if he was regretful about harming others and might have done so against his will.
"When you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes you find the truth." - Walter Bishop
Some sociopaths are very conscious of body language and social cues. That's how they blend in. It could account for his seeming "clairvoyant". The atypical part about Brian is that he had extreme sociopathic tendencies -- hurting and killing animals and then people -- but felt enough remorse to decide that the world was better off without him.
I watched it again after reading your comments and yah, I can see how he fits the sociopathic tendencies. All the dead pets!!! I felt like I was watching Dexter!
Maybe he was both though, it just occurred to me that we only saw the other cortixikids once they had been 'activated' so I was wondering if maybe he was both. He had been living a normal (ha!) sociopathic life from his daycare trauma until somebody (a recently returned Bell?) arranged for him to be activated? I also caught a part where he basically told Dana Gray (going from memory) 'you're here to save those people, that's your purpose.' That does sound very clairvoyant to me, but looking at it from the other angle - he must have been talking with her for long enough to find what buttons to push with her since he called her personal number and not the main hotline. (But she didn't recognize his voice and he had to give her an assumed name? hm.)
I don't think they were. It was Broyles, Blincoln and Peter at the house with an FBI team. Walter was with Bellivia. In the lab. With the transparent whiteboard.from blindmansleeps: I thought this at first, but then I thought it unlikely because Walter and Olivia both were at Brian's house, ...
Thanks for all your input. Love it!
Brian as a Cortexikid is as likely as Jacob Fisher being one of the First People.
And even if Brian was a soldier both natural and unnatural, he's dead now, so a possible reveal would have little to no value.
I don't like how you phrased that. It seems like you're just trying to insult my intelligence for putting out a theory you happen to not agree with. Reserving judgment on your intent - but just sayin'.
I think if it were true (which was the whole reason I wanted to ask for input with this thread) it would point to ZFT coming back and starting to activate ex-cortexis again at exactly the same time Bell happens to be back.
I would think that would be too apparent a link to Bell being the ZFT mastermind so the writers would have deliberately tried to make it NOT obvious in the same episode. The body of a woman who can't die would be perfect for bad Bell in the search for a new host. If he really is a bad guy with a whole network behind him you don't think he'd be all over that?
The value wouldn't be in the dead character but in the events around him. Peter's questioning of Walter when he says "how many others will come out of the woodwork?" seemed like foreshadowing to me.
This was most certainly not my intent; I apologize if it came off this way.
It is merely that the short scene in which Brian figured gave no indication at all that he was indeed a Cortexikid (apart from perhaps the dark clothing, but that could just be a result of his depressive, suicidal state).
That was the purpose of the comparison between Brian and Jacob Fisher. They were two one-time characters, and I was simply pointing out that given what was shown, Brian being a Cortexikid is as likely as Fisher being an FP, because there was little to no elements that support either of these claims (although you could use any character in this instance, the point remains the same). I guess I should have elaborated on this in my previous post.
Dana Gray used suicidal individuals in an attempt to "stowaway to heaven"; this much the episode made clear. Brian was evidently suicidal, which fits into the established framework of that episode. Whether there was something more to Brian than suicidal depression (such as reverse empathy, as you suggest) is debatable at this point.
No doubt that Peter's question is foreshadowing, but it does not necessarily mean that Brian is a Cortexikid. He seemed to be more a MOTW character, given the circumstances surrounding his scene (although, I suppose the role of Destiny/Fate can be debated, given the themes explored in the episode).
Brian is dead now, so the knowledge that he was treated with Cortexiphan dies with him, as there was no audible or visual mention of it, and neither did anything allude to the possible fact. The only way his death could be of any impact is if the characters later find out that one of the people who killed himself during the Dana Gray case was in fact a Cortexiphan subject And I don't think that would serve much purpose to the current ongoing storyline other than act as a "well, what do you know?"-type of reveal.
As for the Bell angle, that he has come back to activate the rest of the Cortexiphan children is interesting. We'll have to see, as Bell has yet to carry out whatever constitutes his agenda. If he starts to activate additional soldiers, I will gladly concede. With his ties to the First People (his research of the Weiss/Wiles/Weisselauss Books, his relationship with Walternate, etc,), I would expect his agenda to be more centered around Peter and the Vacuum than ZFT.
As with all things in Fringe, I suppose we shall see.
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