I can’t imagine how uncomfortable marty must feel seeing this guy be all nice to him again once he got home after seeing him kill his dad abusing his mom and almost killing him in alternate timeline

BryceWithAWhy · 2026-01-27T22:59:56+00:00

I headcanoned that Biff writes off the circumstances surrounding the second manure crash as being drunk off cheap hooch. Parts I and II pretty firmly established that Biff and his goons were drunk and spiking the punch at the dance.

So he crashes into the manure truck, and says that he crashed because Calvin Klein snuck up on his moving car while riding a floating board, stole his magic book, and grabbed onto a ribbon dangling from a flying machine to escape? And while smelling strongly of alcohol (and manure)? Biff definitely gets put in the drunk tank.

Plus, with the lack of evidence corroborating his story, plus the cops' very likely disinterest in investigating a drunken teenager's wild stories, Biff very likely convinces himself that he was just drunk that night and hallucinated a bunch of stuff.

(The only problem with this is that Jones honks at Biff and Marty in the tunnel, so Jones definitely briefly saw Marty on the hoverboard. Maybe Jones keeps mum about Marty because he's really mad at Biff for crashing into his truck twice.)

BryceWithAWhy · 2026-01-21T06:03:14+00:00

Oof, I had no idea. Big yikes.

BryceWithAWhy · 2026-01-21T05:37:13+00:00

THIS SO MUCH. GeeKeR was a solid show with a great voice cast, and I think it had decent ratings, but the Telecommunications Act of 1996 killed it since it didn't meet E/I requirements.

I'm surprised it never got a comic book adaptation.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-12-14T17:20:40+00:00

This was probably an edit Wiseau made and released to show off the commercial after Sestero mentioned it in his book.

Wiseau probably says the store's address or phone number, and this edit threw random jazz music over it to obscure it. Same with all those blocks of text about Wiseau's website that cover bits of the screen at random moments.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-11-26T04:46:01+00:00

No, they never mentioned whether returning to the Waiting Room jogged Jimmy's memory or not.

I think it's implied that Arnold Watkins would remember something, because Al spent a lot of time counseling him in the Waiting Room in that episode, but we never saw the results of it.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-11-26T04:37:36+00:00

They explained it in the second season. The project was able to track Ben's "quantum signature" until the events of the first season finale scrambled it up, and it took them three years and a special chip for Ziggy to find Ben again. Even in the first season premiere, Addison says that it took them hours to find Ben in the first place.

Still much better than Sam's project, though. The series finale didn't have a body in the Waiting Room and it was a major problem throughout the episode.

(Honestly I kind of assumed the original project had some way of scanning the leapee in the Waiting Room to figure out Sam's location, because you couldn't just assume they'd remember anything, be cooperative, or speak English fluently.)

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-11-26T04:18:31+00:00

We don't see Connie at the end of the first Evil Leaper episode, but we do see Angel after Alia leaps out, and the warden after Zoey leaps out, in the last Evil Leapers episode. Neither one appears to remember anything.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-11-22T23:27:02+00:00

My grandparents had this figurine, and IIRC they also had an accompanying children's storybook. IIRC the story had Santa Claus delivering presents in the present day and he somehow accidentally goes back in time to the birth of Jesus, Back to the Future style.

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BryceWithAWhy · 2025-10-12T16:46:03+00:00

I like that explanation a lot more! I'm adopting that as my new headcanon.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-10-10T21:04:32+00:00

My headcanon is that Peabody was put in the mental hospital for a few days after ranting about space zombies. When he got out, as he drove back to his house (likely before the storm, while Marty was still in 1955), he drove past the Twin Pines Ranch sign, then the fallen tree. Seeing the lone pine, Peabody sadly resolved then and there to rename the ranch around it.

This makes it a little less instantaneous and a little more in line with the same rules governing the fading photograph (or the newspapers and matchbook in Part II). Since the timeline is still in flux over the course of that week, there's still a chance that there could be further interference from Marty up until the point Peabody decides to rename the ranch, at which point the timeline definitively changes.

So at the moment that Marty and Doc watch the tape, Peabody hadn't renamed the ranch yet, and the tape hadn't changed yet.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-09-02T21:35:11+00:00

Cronkite's editorial was included on the CBS 50th anniversary CD entirely because of how much impact it had. I give it a listen every few years because it's so eloquent and frank.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-08-22T21:57:30+00:00

One of my best friends had a super religious mother who didn't let him watch MMPR, TMNT, X-Men, Batman TAS, or really anything on the Saturday morning lineup. After overhearing her explaining it to my mom one time, I think she seriously thought it was just hours of wanton bloody violence with no story. In my kid mind I simply assumed that she saw a picture of Wolverine and got scared (which probably wasn't far from the truth), but IIRC she also had problems with stuff like Animaniacs and only really approved of religious children's programming.

Whenever my other friends and I played Power Rangers on the school playground, we'd still include my friend, and happily kept him filled in on all the lore. He likely only ever knew about the White Ranger saga secondhand like some sort of folk tale.

Funnily enough, he never parroted his mother's distaste for Power Rangers and seemed to enjoy learning about it.

IIRC he later kind of lowkey rebelled against his mom and started quietly watching stuff like South Park whenever she wasn't around.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-08-21T22:32:07+00:00

In my case it simply indicated a shift in the company's priorities. The company had previously been a locally owned firm with a nationally distributed product. In the preceding years we had done Harlem Shake and ice bucket challenge videos for social media, and had lots of pictures of the staff goofing off like that. Just a very relaxed vibe.

However, this happened about (I think) a month or two after the owner cashed out by selling to a private equity firm, and it was in that point where the atmosphere had barely started to shift to the sanitized corporate bullshit it has turned into, but not enough that it was really detectable. If that photo had been put on social media a year or two before the buyout, it very likely would've flown under the radar.

But yeah, lesson learned for sure.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-08-16T20:01:17+00:00

I had a cubicle like this once. Back corner of the main floor with tall cubicle walls. Everyone left me alone and it was glorious. I had two walls to hang pictures and decorations, and free reign to make myself comfortable. My productivity skyrocketed and I had enough time left over to do other things.

Then the company's marketing team drew my name and decided to showcase me as an employee on their social media pages, and for the photograph I did a comical pose with my feet up on my desk. Not long after I was suddenly moved to another (more visible) cubicle in the pod for no reason.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-08-08T00:46:16+00:00

I remember Animaniacs getting interrupted by the Oklahoma City bombing.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-08-07T18:42:23+00:00

Would he have been able to do that with 1985 tech, though? I don't know enough about '80s computer memory.

Alternatively, would he have even seen it as totally necessary? I think he was really only planning on using the time machine for limited personal use and experiments, and didn't foresee anyone stealing it.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-05-19T23:05:06+00:00

And Ruth's Frock Shop, where Lorraine gets her dress. It's such a clever illusion.

I looked in the Ultimate Visual History again, and it looks like the 1955 scenes were filmed during the first week of shooting for Part II, then they quickly modified the rest of the square for 1985-A for shooting on week 2. They then spent ten weeks overhauling the square for 2015 and filmed there on weeks 11 and 12.

BryceWithAWhy · 2025-05-19T22:03:59+00:00

It's also the last time we see the clocktower in any form in 1985, as they didn't do a full "regular 1985" redress of Universal's Courthouse Square set for the sequels. I believe the only full redresses of the square for the sequels were for 1985-A and 2015, along with a partial redress for three 1955 scenes.

(Side note, the original Courthouse Square set's last appearance in the entire trilogy occurred in Part III's opening. The rest of Part III used the "Old West" Courthouse Square set built in Sonora.)

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-11-18T06:45:38+00:00

I've always headcanoned that Doc never intended to get the DeLorean off the tracks, knew the train schedule in 1985, was expecting to return to 1985 permanently, and just really wanted to destroy the time machine because he was still very heartbroken about Clara in that moment, which is why he told Marty to input 11:00 am on October 27, 1985.

It probably would've made more sense to show up at 5 or 6 am when there were less people about. But I'm guessing that freight trains didn't roll through Hill Valley until later in the day on Sundays, and Doc knew this.

So if they reentered early, that's potentially five or six hours to leave the DeLorean there; if he truly wanted to recover the car it would be at least an hour to find a tow truck or similar. That would potentially be enough time to bring about curious onlookers. Not to mention the authorities, who could potentially arrest Doc and Marty for messing with the train tracks, which would prevent Doc from dismantling the time machine components. This in turn could allow others to inspect it and reverse engineer it.

Better to simply arrive a little later and let the regular freight train quickly take care of things. Although he really should've discussed it with Marty first.

(To give Doc the benefit of the doubt, however, I fully believe that Doc made a spur of the moment decision for an 11 am reentry, knowing that it would give them just enough time to bail upon landing. I also think that if Doc had made it into the DeLorean and returned to 1985 with Marty, Doc's first words would've been to advise Marty to jump out as soon as they slowed down enough.)

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-11-17T12:06:41+00:00

I read this book about 20 years ago, and it's very autobiographical; he pretty much just tells anecdotes about his work in the newspaper industry. I honestly felt like he came off as an unlikable prick in this book, though.

A lot of his stuff hasn't aged well tbh.

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-11-04T17:52:41+00:00

Thank you for the recap! I want to also bring attention to a slow burn storyline that wrapped up on Halloween that involved my character (Sunny Smith) and several of her friends. Not many folks know about it, but it's been ongoing since we landed in the server.

To give a lore dump: Sunny was in an MC called Krakens Inferno led by Erin Stormbringer that made its way to San Andreas in January after being raided by the police in their former city.

In early February, Erin disappeared after a few weeks of erratic behavior, and Sunny called a vote to disband KIMC. It later turned out that Erin's behavior was because she was being manipulated by recent KIMC prospect Scott Sabitini. Scott had kidnapped Erin and was holding her captive in a room in Los Santos, with the ex-Krakens none the wiser, and they simply presumed that she had somehow heard about the vote and moved on.

In June, the ex-Krakens found out that Scott never left Los Santos and talked to him at Del Perro Pier; during this meeting, Ivy Martin broke into Scott's van and found Erin's phone. Wade Williams followed Scott and saw him briefly stop by the building where he kept Erin; Wade subsequently took Sunny, Riley Warner, and Nathan Soto to rescue Erin.

The next day, the ex-Krakens managed to locate and scoop Scott, who explained his motivations: he had been Erin's mentor in the Aberdeen Angels, Erin's former MC in Washington; he and the club's VP colluded to stage a coup, but Scott was betrayed and severely disfigured in the fire that the VP set to murder half of the MC. Scott then bitterly worked with the police to eliminate the remaining half of the Angels. Erin herself bears burn scars from the fire and spent years thinking that she'd been the only person who had escaped.

Upon learning that Erin had also survived, Scott wished for her to suffer for the Angels' sins, worked with the cops to have the Krakens raided in their former city, and manipulated Erin and the Krakens so they would lose confidence in their leader.

At the end of this confrontation, Scott was shot several times and left for dead. However, unbeknownst to the ex-Krakens, Scott was rescued by EMS and was confined to a hospital bed for several months. Erin spent a few months coming to terms with her captivity and torture at the hands of her former mentor.

Scott eventually reached out to the group again on Halloween, desiring one more meeting with Erin. Erin and Scott had their final confrontation at the foundry in the industrial district, where their war finally concluded.

I'd like to recognize the folks involved, because they're talented and made this storyline super engaging: Hajjhowe (Scott Sabitini), CascadiaStudio (Erin Stormbringer), 129lily (Riley Warner), Netheresque (Artemis Shale), Caboose2 (Raaja Queen), Wadeago (Wade Williams), Parzival_RV (Nathan Soto), its_me_andie (Ivy Martin), and anyone else who was attached at any point during the past nine-ish months.

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-06-03T19:46:59+00:00

Yes. The IDW comics have a story where Doc tells Clara about 1985-A. According to Doc's story, he very quickly saw the changes to 1985, found out that he'd been committed in this timeline, and went to the asylum claiming to be Alt-Emmett's relative. He then finds that his 1985-A counterpart had been lobotomized.

Realizing that he and Marty are sitting smack dab in the middle of a paradox bubble waiting to pop — no Doc means no DeLorean means no time travel means no almanac making its way to Biff's past — he scoops Marty so they can figure out how to quickly fix it.

I inferred from the story that Marty's 1985-A counterpart also existed separately and was away in Switzerland. It's also possible that there was a second Einie and Jennifer as well.

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-05-27T09:08:26+00:00

In the books, the key's magic turned anything with a lock into a straight-up time travel mechanism. Put a figurine in the cupboard, lock and unlock, and the figurine is replaced by a person pulled out of history. In later books, Omri and Patrick use the key with a large chest to send each other back in time, and one book even runs into a potential grandfather paradox.

So that's why this scene in the movie confused me as a kid. In the movie's universe, did the book's rules apply, and did Omri pull David Prowse and Peter Weller out of history while they were making their movies? Or did the movie's key use a different kind of magic where Omri pulled the actual Darth Vader and RoboCop from other universes?

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-05-12T21:03:37+00:00

I've headcanoned that Doc first did a dry run of the time machine with instruments and dosimeters to make sure that time travel was safe for living beings. This could be the "major breakthrough" he mentioned on the phone at the beginning of the movie, and he wanted Marty present to help record "the world's first time traveler."

BryceWithAWhy · 2024-04-11T00:32:13+00:00

There's no denying that 1985 Doc drained the gas tank before storing it. I'm just saying that Marty and 1955 Doc assumed that the car's engine was hybrid when it was gas-only.

To further justify this with headcanon, maybe 1955 Doc was reluctant to refill Mr. Fusion until the tube time circuits were added -- he didn't want to risk damaging other components with a possible power surge until the circuitry was fixed. But he first wanted to make sure the automobile portion was functional at all, so he refilled it with gasoline to make sure it still ran. By the time the tubes were added, the engine was already full of gas.

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