Finally we get what we should have gotten last week, the cliffhanger resolution I bitched about us not getting. For some reason things were aired out of order, which I imagine was done to not confuse newcomers to the show. In any case, we got more questions than answers from this episode. At least we’re hopefully back on track in the airing sequence.
I’ve really only got three main points to mention from this episode: the red-skinned man, the Aries Project, and the mysterious voice at the end of Sam’s phone.
First, the red, burn-scarred man. What I didn’t really understand was how people picked up on this guy’s scarred ears and hands before noticing that he’s got red skin! Was that supposed to look like his entire face was burned? If so, wouldn’t he have looked a lot worse, more like his ears did?
Obviously something’s going on with this guy besides looking freaky, as he just handed himself over willingly to the police. That brings me to the next item, the mysterious “Aries Project” shown on the folder at the end of the episode. I tried to get a translation of the phrase under the project title (something like “obeh пpoekta”), and the closest I could get was that “obeh” means “circulation” in Slovak. I’m not even sure what that first letter in the second word is.
This seems to at least try to tell us that Sam’s not in some simple coma, dream or purgatory (though, who knows, that red guy could be a demon for cripesake). Sam’s part of something structured and planned, if we’re to believe the folder’s contents, which seemed to include sketches of the robots he keeps happening upon.
That leads us to the mysterious person with the folder, the one making the filtered calls to Sam. Unless we’re being thrown a red herring, that just has to be Detective Skelton. If I told you to look at that image above and tell me which character it was from the show, wouldn’t you guess Skelton? He’s wearing the same white shirt he always does, has sideburns and a clean-shaven face. Also, he was carrying a gun and wasn’t among the ones grilled in the interviewing room. Hell, it even sounded like him.
Is the red man significant? What’s the Aries Project and the translation below it in the insignia? Is that really Skelton behind the calls? What do you think?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Feb 05, 2009 @ 10:30 EST5EDT
ОВЕН ПРОЕКТА = ARIES PROJECT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries_(astrology)
notice the logo has the head of the ram (aries)
also. aries = mars
also associated with the color red (fire, etc) i.e., the red man
https://www.spelwerx.com/aries.html
It can’t be Skelton. Unless he changed his tie. He was wearing a red and gold tie whereas the Aries guy was wearing a black tie with blue and gold stripes. He was also escorting the red man to holding at the time of the call.
I thought about that, but I went back and checked, and at the very least Hunt is also wearing different clothes making me think the interviews are on a different day.
*POST AUTHOR*
At least Hunt and Sam are definitely wearing different clothes. The interviews are on a different day. When I mentioned the shirt, I just meant that Skelton often wears a white shirt is all.
Why else would this person disguise their voice from Sam? It’s someone he knows.
I’ll also point out that the other writing on the folder is Cryllic (or Russian) which in 1973 would be Soviet (a.k.a. “Reds”).
OBEH stands for Organizational Behaviour.
Aries is typicaly under Mysticism refered to as Body Mind and Soul, it also said to symbolize potentiality. It is also associated with look, moves, gestures, body language and how a person appears to others on a superficial or first impression level. Essentially, it is the projection of an individual’s image. hence again the reference to the study of ones behavoir.
I figure NPOEKTA is the compaby or organization
NPO usualy stands for Neurotic Personality Organization, now by Nuerotic it means affected with nuerosis which is a mental and emotional disorder that affects only a part of the personality, it is accompanied by a distorted perception of reality and by various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances.
EKTA is a Hindi word, which means oneness, unity.
now this is my crazy idea NPOEKTA stands for
Novikov Principals of Experimental Key Time Anomalies
Dr. Igor Novikov in the mid-1980s is said to have solved the problem of paradoxes in time travel, which is theoretically permitted in certain solutions of general relativity (solutions containing what are known as closed timelike curves). Stated simply, the Novikov consistency principle asserts that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any “change” to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero. which led to the belief that it is possible to affect the past, but not to change it. which is what sam has been doing becuase events have been acuring with his help but. hence the red dress and his mom coming home crying, and his dad disapearing on the day of his birthday, all events that are a part of Sams future memories but were affected by his past actions.
As a Russian let me confirm that ОВЕН ПРОЕКТА is Russian for “Aries Project”. I’m just puzzled how someone could see the CCCP on the folder and not realize that the funny words with the weird letter they dont recognize are probably Russian.
In cyrillic B=V, H=N, П=P and P=R
*POST AUTHOR*
I immediately assumed it was Russian letters, but plugging in “OBEH” into Google Translate came back empty. Thanks for clarifying!
And I had no idea CCCP meant USSR. My bad.
So, here’s a crazy theory: The Russians of the ’70s found a way to extract someone from the future (Sam) in order to use him for their own purposes, like gathering information on what’s going to happen in the future.
I think it is the other way around….while Sam is in a coma,someone(maybe the Russians) is tapping into his brain so he can help solve unsolved cases from 1973,like what happened to his father,which could lead to a bigger mystery to solve.I remember there was one episode in which he was watching a soap opera in a store window only to realize it was his story(He laid in a hospital bed in a coma while his girlfriend mentioned that she couldn’t wait much more longer).Then there was an episode in which a little black girl was murdered and in the end he met her ghost and some other man who said he wasn’t dead.
After all,it was his father who escaped with the Russians…right?They just showed him how and why while he lay in a coma.
I refuse to look at the BBC version because it would be like reading the end of a mystery book to find out who-done-it.
And that is my theory….so far.
*POST AUTHOR*
Obviously whoever is behind the Aries Project has plans in mind for Sam; as the caller said, he’s “doing a good job” at it. Possibly this is a Quantum Leap-like thing, where the Russians are using Sam to alter the past in a very precise way in order for a future event to happen differently and to their advantage.
that sounds like a really good theory… and i think the guy on the phone might be that one guy from last week who had the robot come out of his eye… because he was talking about the Russians doing experimental stuff, and it would explain why they showed that episode first.
In the Woody Allen movie “Sleeper”, which premiered in 1973, there was an Aries Project. It involved a plot to clone the dictatorial leader who had been killed by a rebel bomb and all that’s left of him is his nose…on life support. The plan was to bring him back and quash the rebellion.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with LOM, but I thought it was interesting that a movie from the year Sam’s trapped in had an evil plan of the same name.
This is a hollywood show. I keep coming up with this thought… It’s all a dream. He may or may not wake up. He was in an accident. Maybe he dies from his injurys. Its just a show and they can do what ever they want and it does not have to make sense. SCREWING WITH US!
The pentagram on the rams head could be satanic, but that could be a “red herring”?
The other idea – Russian and CIA types were trying to use psychics for a program called “remote viewing”. The process not only applies to a remote location, but to a remote time. Either in the past or the future.
Sam could be programmed to act as an agent for such “viewing”.
During the timeframe of which this show is being set, there was extremily massive studies being done in real life at Fort Meade in Balto, Maryland. CIA and NSA conducted an assortment of tests and torture tecniques on American military volunteers. Many hallucinogenic drugs were used on these individuals. Many times their description of what they thought when coming out, was that their brains were on fire. Since the folder that the one man was carrying when he stood up and walked away showed “TOP SECRET” and the other folders monogram dipicted letters meaning the USSR, The translation of OBEH NPOEKTA = OVEN Project. The man on the telephone does appear to be Det. Shelton. Also, Red Man glanced at Werewolf of Wallstreet with a familar jesture. What it all means? Who knows, I just watch it because I worked with NYPD and I like Harvey Keitel.
We all know the OBEH _POEKTA is Russian, but it is identical to Ukrainian until the last letter of the second word. The Ukrainian translation for ARIES PROJECT is OBEN PROEKTY, not OBEN PROEKTA as shown on the folder. The last word on the folder differs from this translation in that the last letter of the second word should be Y to be Ukrainian in a strict word-to-word translation. I looked into the plural word for projects and it is PROEKTN (backwards “N”). Does anyone have an explanation for that discrepancy? Perhaps it fits into Ukrainian conjugation of words?
Aside from the obvious, an interesting connection between the Ukraine and a werewolf is Vseslav of Polotsk who was excluded from the Kievan throne because even though he was the senior member of the Ruik Dynasty for his generation, his father had not been prince in Kiev and therefore could not become prince. That meant he was excluded from power and riches. Vseslav of Polotsk went on a pillaging and burning spree, decorating his home with the loot, some of which were religious objects. Remember the one particular item the Werewolf of Wall Street was excited to get back? Clearly Vseslav was a hostile man and so was the Werewolf of Wall Street. I think the bit about his mother and his removing the IV from his diabetic mother and replacing it with a cookie is significant. Perhaps the Werewolf of WS is illegitimate – still a big deal in the early 1900’s when the Werewolf of WS would have been born – or his mother didn’t marry who she should have according to society and therefore he was not accepted into some elite circle on Wall Street and went on a rampage to suck the blood out of the highest level Wall Street elite?
alright, i dont watch many tv shows but this one caught my eye in october when i turned on my tv after bball practice and started watching. after reading all these reviews, there are obviously a ton of possibilities as to what’s going on with sam. i was with the coma idea for a while there until the lady said that the diablo had killed the 2 men and then he came into the precinct…which was really weird. im thinking this guy really is the devil and this is some kindof a divine intervention type thing…good show.
I did figure out the meaning of the russian words and did notice the CCCP for the old Soviet Union. Now the ram could be liked as Aries=constellation or a ram has also been linked to the devil. Along with the upside down pentagram and the old lady saying EL DIABLO (the devil)killing the one man..hmmmmmmm
I love this show but I honestly hope it doesn’t get so stupid that it gets cancelled.
I paused it on the folder and saw cccp, which I knew was Russian, typed in OBEH NPOEKTA and it led me here. Also recognized the robots.
I thought how could he not be from the future? he knows too much, IE cell phones, clothing styles, policing differences, tv’s, DNA, the list is endless.
Again, I hope they don’t ruin the show and I am glad they showed the cliff hanger. I figured he’d find his dad in the basement, dead.
Oh, I don’t think a stupid plot is what’s going to get it canceled I think it’ll be the losers at ABC who choose to show episodes out of order. That’s what killed “Firefly” after all. That and a crappy time slot.
Anywho, I thought “the voice” was Skelton, too, but then again, that was probably meant to throw everyone off. I hope it doesn’t get to be too David Lynch as the next few episodes are shown.
Did any of you notice when this episode first came on and showed the jail cell, the first person they panned over (I think it was the first person) before settling on Carling’s brother looked like Sam’s dad?
Hi!
I don’t watch the british version, just seen the first 4 episodes, I ewatch this one and if I recall correctly, they have taken away the background to have an own mythology.
As for the letters, thanks to friendly stay of every Soviet nation in Hungary, we were let’s be diplomatic, asked to learn Russian and Russian only which is still a transfer language between many people. This is important because someone pointed out the differences, a language the CCCP did not even consider official until its collapse, many people in the Eastern Ukraine still speak a mixture if not Russian only. Point is, having Ukrainian letters on a Russian document is literally impossible.
As for the Aries Project: My theory is, the accident in 2008 was the end of Tyler’s adventures. I think both superstates had clairvoyance and remote viewing projects and except for some mildly liberal leaders both countries were ruled by very conservative people. I think the writers play on the notion that both superstates were in a stalemate, and wanted leverage the fast way. Sam’s actions caught atention and at least the CIA wants to bend the future in their favor
“Aries” is not “Mars. That’s “Ares.” “Aries” is “Ram” (the constellation).
I dunno–though I can well understand how interested the CIA/NSA/KGB would be in having a source from the future, I do hope that Sam’s presence in 1973 isn’t turned into some government/intelligence/corporate conspiracy. We have way too many of those shows already, and the idea is getting stale. One of the things I love about the British show (so far–only seen up to S1E5) was that they eschewed this conspiracy angle in favor of a more ambiguous and spiritual approach. That said, to me, the key questions re: Aries Project and the Voice are these: how did Sam work out the address, exactly, and why is it important? How did The Voice know when/where to call him? How are Ray and Eddie Carling involved? Was it all only to introduce the Werewolf?
I hope the gov’t tie-in is only peripheral, and that the LoMUS retains that eerie mystical ambiguity. Most of all, I hope the writers know where they’re going, and don’t choke. But that’s just b/c I’m a bit tired of X-Files-style plotting.
Well, the strangest thing is that in 1973 (during cold war) an american officier manage a Russian (CCCP) folder! I check and he left the folder on the desk when he leaved.
Good point, the caller could be Chris. I think Sam Tyler is a KGB agent specializing in remote viewing and ESP, which has also seen agents view different times. I also think it gets quite cosmic in that the experiments have agents wondering if they can discover the essence of who or what God is. How they can wrap it up in the coming weeks I am not sure!
I didn’t read every single reply to this thread but I didn’t see anyone mention it: When they took the stolen goods back to the Werewolf, he seemed particularly interested to have that wierd statue thingy back. He had a look of great relief on his face when he held it. Sam also said something like: “I don’t even know what that is.” I mention it because I thought it might have some signifigance.