MovieChat Forums > Counterpart (2017) Discussion > Questions? (Spoilers)

Questions? (Spoilers)

posted 5 years ago by r5d4d2 (694)
5 replies | jump to latest

Nearly done with Season 1.

1) Why is there not extra security to prevent people from switching worlds like Howard Silk did?
- A unique password for each person. A number sequence. A microchip implant.

2) Why isn't the embassy car followed to the embassy to make sure no one gets out?
- So a team of assassins says they are going to work in the embassy, but instead they get out and rent an apartment. Why would they not be followed the whole way?

3) Why would security on this side not keep better track of the Visas they issue?
- Clare comes over as an embassy employee, murders and replaces her counterpart. Gets married and has a baby. Lives here for years, and border security doesn't wonder why she never crossed back over?

Just seems to me that the border would be locked down TIGHT. When they first revealed that people like Baldwin crossed illegally, i thought there must be other secret crossings.

4) Why are there so many British and American people working for the company on both sides?
- Just odd since the crossing is in Berlin. Howard Silk A and Emily Silk A worked for the company for 30 years, in Berlin, without ever explaining why they were living and working there in the first place. They didn't even know what the company did.

[–] mobocracy (893) 4 years ago

The security protocols were weak. I'd go even further and suggest that people crossing over should be branded with a cauterizing gun, with the opposite side body part used on each side. This is pretty difficult to fake or obscure and allows for easy visual identification. I'm also surprised there wasn't a maximum number of "in play" visitors to make tracking them easier. You might also require them to wear tracking bracelets so they could be traced while on the other side.

I just assumed that the British/American presence was the result of infiltration/takeover by NATO. The whole project mostly started under Soviet rule, but that ended soon after and I'd guess in the process it was discovered by Western governments who turned it into a major intelligence section.

[–] Phids (774) 3 years ago

Branding them would be a good form of security. Also, you'd think that no person would be let through the portal if his or her counterpart held a sensitive position. In fact, that seems pretty downright obvious.

And yeah, I don't know why they didn't hunt down Clare once she passed through the portal and never returned.

Also, with all the diplomats going back and forth, you'd think that knowledge of its existence would clearly spread to the public.

[–] mobocracy (893) 3 years ago

I think in some ways they started going for the long game, training people to assume the lives of their counterparts at a young age so they could be used for deep cover/infiltration. If you're swapping out people at the "promising young college student" stage of life, you can infiltrate the system without the more difficult process of an adult swap. Not every one of these people will become important in the other side, but I'd guess you deal with this by targeting people likely to advance (college choice, financial background, grades, intelligence, etc) as well as whatever interventions you can manage that do enhance their ability to climb the ladder.

And how they keep a secret like this for so long is kind of remarkable. I'd guess the sheer unbelievability of it probably helps. I mean, "there is a parallel universe with an underground passage into it" is more or less a subtext to a lot of conspiracy theories.

[–] Phids (774) 3 years ago

But for someone like Clare, her father was a high-ranking diplomat. You'd think that when bad Clare passed over to the other side, this would have been flagged.

Also, why were people who crossed over and never returned not hunted down? If overstaying one's visa is a crime, why didn't the authorities try to hunt them down? So when bad Clare didn't return to her home universe, why wasn't she put on a watchlist somewhere?

[–] liscarkat (18410) 2 years ago

Most countries in the real world today have strict immigration, visitation, and border security rules. The United States, however, currently allows literally millions of undocumented foreigners to walk over the southern border with little or no vetting, releases them into the population, doesn't follow up on them, and has no means of tracking them down. So back-and-forth travelers between the worlds in "Counterpart" with individuals falling through the cracks is completely plausible.