History Series / Debris

* CloningBlues: Episode 2 involves multiple copies of a man named Eric appearing in a debris-affected town. Each copy represents an aspect of his personality. After Bryan finds the debris, it starts cloning him too.

* ForTheGreaterGood: [[spoiler:George]] and INFLUX have this as their rationalization, justifying everything they've done as being for the betterment of Mankind.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: When the debris responsible for TheLonelyDoor is found in episode 3, the lead scientist argues against using it to free those trapped within because it represents the first real proof of interdimensional and intergalactic travel, secrets that might be lost were they to deplete its remaining power in a rescue attempt. Finola counters that if they aren't willing to rescue those in trouble using it, then they don't deserve to have it at all.

Enter Bryan Beneventi (Jonathan Tucker), [[ShellShockedVeteran plucked from a military prison]], and Finola Jones (Riann Steele), whose [[DisappearedDad late father]] was the leading expert on the debris. They travel across the United States, [[TheyFightCrime investigating debris-caused incidents]], while the member organizations of ORBITAL balance cooperation with national interests and attempt to thwart a ring of debris-smugglers known as [[TheConspiracy INFLUX]].

* AssimilationPlot: Turns out to be INFLUX and [[spoiler:George's]] plan, using debris that can connect directly with human mands to link all humans into a single HiveMind gestalt, thereby ending all conflict between individuals and enabling Humanity to 'ascend' to their full potential.

* ForTheGreaterGood: [[spoiler:George]] and INFLUX have this as their rationalization, justifying everything they've done as for the betterment of Mankind.

* AssimilationPlot: Turns out to be INFLUX and [[spoiler:George's]] plan, using debris that can link minds together to link all humans into a single HiveMind gestalt, thereby ending all conflict between individuals and enabling Humanity to 'ascend' to their full potential.

* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:George]], potentially, depending on how much of his current worldview is influenced by his resurrection.

* TinfoilHat: When Bryan, Finola and [[spoiler:George]] hole up in a motel, the latter acquires a roll of aluminum foil, pulls out a sheet large enough to cover the bed and pulls it over himself entirely, presumably to keep ORBITAL's detectors from picking up the debris [[BackFromTheDead that was used to revive him]].

** INFLUX revived [[spoiler:George Jones]] by inserting a fragment of debris into his body through his right eye, rendering it milky and potentially blind.

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Finola's father]], whose body was replaced with a convincing double, confirmed by missing security footage and the double wearing a watch that had been removed from the original.

* HappierHomeMovie: At the end of Episode 5, Fin's sister Dee Dee sends her one from their childhood where they're happily singing and dancing to an old song as the voices of their parents are heard. Fin and Dee Dee are estranged, their mother is deceased and their father [[spoiler:was believed to be dead but has apparently been abducted]], with the stark contrast bringing Finola to tears.

** [[spoiler:George Jones]] believes this wholeheartedly, claiming that only the alien technology and the beings who created it can save the world humanity ruined.

* InternalReveal:
** Finola learns in Episode 4 that [[spoiler:her father is alive, and that Bryan knew about it]].
** The two admit their shared deception in Episode 6.

* KidnappedScientist: [[spoiler:George Jones]] was kidnapped by INFLUX... or rather, he died and was resurrected by INFLUX, who forced him to work on a machine that can track a specific debris that's vital to their plan.
* KnuckleTattoos: The [[TattooedCrook leader of INFLUX]] has a series of numbers and letters tattooed on his knuckles and across the backs of his hands.

** It becomes clear that [[spoiler:George Jones]] is one due to his knowledge of debris and his scientific background, as ORBITAL has been searching for him and INFLUX went to great lengths to acquire his expertise; after [[spoiler:Finola and Bryan]] rescue him, both [=MI6=] and the [=CIA=] continue to search for him.

** WordOfGod says that Bryan sees Maddox, ORBITAL's lead CIA representative, as a father figure, which may explain why Bryan's in ORBITAL at all [[spoiler:and is initially willing to keep Finola in the dark about her father despite his misgivings]].

* SweetTooth: Implied with Bryan, who waxes rhapsodic about sugar-coated Peeps marshmallows in Episode 2.

* InSpiteOfANail: The iterations in have small differences, like the number of siblings Shelby has or who Bryan's partner is, but the overall world appears to be essentially the same: ORBITAL still exists and Bryan and his partner arrive to investigate Shelby and the debris.

* ItsAllMyFault: Julia, Maddox's wife, blames herself for their son's condition because she was driving when they got into the accident that left him physically disabled and apparently unresponsive. Maddox doesn't blame her, but she says that his forgiveness makes it worse; Julia's guilt and the difficulties of caring for their son has disrupted their marriage, leading to Julia secretly seeking a divorce.
* IWishedYouWereDead: A variant, where Shelby admits that he always felt outshined by his sister and sometimes wished that she'd never been born. After she disappears during a time loop, Shelby's desperate attempts to get his sister back is likely fuelled, at least in part, by guilt.

* MistakenForCheating: Having seen that Maddox's marriage is on the rocks, we're briefly led to believe that his wife is cheating on him after Maddox learns that his wife made a reservation at a favorite restaurant and he sees her there with another man. In fact, he's a divorce attorney and Maddox's wife is planning to leave him.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: This is Shelby's purpose in Episode 9: His sister disappeared after they used the debris-of-the-week, which can reset time to two days before they first encountered the debris, and he's obssessively resetting the loop in hopes of bringing her back.

** ORBITAL apparently conducted human testing of its own, as Episode 9 introduces Garcia, who was part of it, and confirms that Bryan was also part of the project and is taking medication to presumably control its effects, which is provided by ORBITAL. Unlike INFLUX's subjects, ORBITAL seems to have used volunteers, or at worst unfortunate victims that were then treated as best as possible.
* TimeCrash: The world is apparently heading for one of these as of Episode 9, where Shelby has been resetting time over a two-day loop in an attempt to find his twin sister, who disappeared during an earlier loop. Despite repeated warnings from multiple versions of [[spoiler:George Jones]], Shelby [[{{Determinator}} keeps resetting]] and it's starting to fray the local Space-Time, to the point where characters can glimpse alternate dimensions/timelines as ghostly floating images due to the universe breaking down.

* TimeTravelEpisode: A two-parter, actually, with Episode 9 and 10 filling this niche thanks to a large debris fragment that allows for limited time-travel

* AlternateUniverse: It's theorized that the debris in Episode 9 works like this, shifting its user/s to another dimension which is almost the same as the previous one but with various differences: For example, how many siblings Shelby has, who Bryan's partner is and whether [[spoiler:George Jones]] is dead or alive.

* EyeColorChange: Garcia, who was apparently part of clandestine experiments with debris, was left with stark white eyes and solid black pupils.

* FaceStealer: Ferris's operative is seen doing this in Episode 8, cutting off a layer of skin from someone and wearing it over his own face. It's suggested he does this on a regular basis because the face decays and he has to refresh it every so often. The victim has had it done enough times that there are obvious scars around the incision area.

* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: The debris in Episode 9 appears to rewind time by two days and is treated like a TimeMachine, but some of [[spoiler:George's]] theorizing makes it sound more like this, that the debris isn't so much rewinding time as it is moving its user/s to an alternate universe where many things are the same but some details are different. [[spoiler:Like how many siblings Shelby has, or who Bryan's partner is.]]

* LivingMacGuffin: Caroline, the little girl in Episode 7, has the ability to control debris with her mind.

* MistakenForCheating: Having seen that Maddox's marriage is on the rocks, we're briefly led to believe that his wife is cheating on him after Maddox learns that his wife made a reservation at a favorite restaraunt and he sees her there with another man. In fact, he's a divorce attorney and Maddox's wife is planning to leave him.

** [[spoiler:George]] shows shades of this, brushing aside Finola's charges of parental distance and neglect by saying that his work with the debris could improve the world; when he meets Garcia, who was left permanently altered by ORBITAL's experiments and clearly holds [[spoiler:George]] at least partly responsible, [[spoiler:George]] blames the [=CIA=] for ursurping ORBITAL but says that Garcia shouldn't blame anyone for his misfortune, as the benefits of conducting those experiments outweighs the risks to participants.

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Shelby always felt like this about his twin sister, Kathleen; he considered Kathleen smarter, kinder, and generally better than him, which sometimes led Shelby to wish that she'd never been born. This accidentally starts the plot of Episode 9 when the two encounter a debris that responds to the user's subconcious desires, resulting in Kathleen's disappearance.

** ORBITAL apparently conducted human testing of its own, as Episode 9 introduces Garcia, who was part of it, and confirms that Bryan was also part of the project and is taking medication to presumably control its effects, which is provided by ORBITAL. Unlike INFLUX's subjects, ORBITAL seems to have used volunteers.

* TrustPassword: Bryan finds himself in an [=AlternateUniverse/AlternateTimeline=] where he has a different partner and Finola is working at ORBITAL's London headquarters. He calls and attempts to explain what happened, asking Finola to tell him about "The Soldier and the Penguin," a story that, in their previous timeline, [[spoiler:George]] had mentioned as a possible solution. Finola is visibly startled, explaining that the story was written for her late mother, and seems to take Bryan's [[CassandraTruth crazed ramblings]] more seriously from that point.

* EyeColorChange: Garcia, who was apparently part of clandestine experiments with debris, was left with stark white white eyes and solid black pupils.

* TrustPassword: Bryan finds himself in an AlternateUniverse/AlternateTimeline where he has a different partner and Finola is working at ORBITAL's London headquarters. He calls and attempts to explain what happened, asking Finola to tell him about "The Soldier and the Penguin," a story that, in their previous timeline, [[spoiler:George]] had mentioned as a possible solution. Finola is visibly startled, explaining that the story was written for her late mother, and seems to take Bryan's [[CassandraTruth crazed ramblings]] more seriously from that point.

* TimeCrash: The world is apparently heading for one of these as of Episode 9, where Shelby has been resetting time over a two-day loop in an attempt to find his twin sister, who disappeared during an earlier loop. Despite repeated warnings from multiple versions of [[spoiler:George Jones]], Shelby [[{{Determinator}} keeps resetting]] and it's starting to fray the local Space-Time, to the point where characters can glimpse alternate dimensions/timelines as the barriers between worlds grow increasingly thin.

* AlwaysSecondBest: Shelby, the male half of a pair of twins, always felt like this about his sister; while they were on good terms, he felt that his sister Kathleen was smarter, kinder, and generally better than he was, which sometimes led Shelby to wish that Kathleen had never been born. This accidentally starts the plot of Episode 9 when the two encounter a debris that responds to the user's subconcious desires, resulting in Kathleen's disappearance.

* EyeScream: INFLUX revived [[spoiler:George Jones]] by inserting a fragment of debris into his body through his right eye, rendering it milky and potentially blind.

* NeverMyFault: Kurt in Episode 6 blames Bryan for the death of his friend, on the logic that he would have been fine had Bryan not caught him and allowed him to leave the range of the FountainOfYouth debris. On top of that, he then threatens to ditch his other two friends, intentionally letting them die, and says that would be Bryan's fault for not letting them go. His wife eventually talks some sense into him and he surrenders the debris.

* TestedOnHumans: Standard INFLUX practice, apparently, as we see their teleportation-based tests in Episode 5 and an entire group of test subjects in Episode 8, all of whom are likely to be unwilling.
* TinfoilHat: When Bryan, Finola and George hole up in a motel, George acquires a roll of aluminum foil from the front desk, pulls out a sheet large enough to cover the bed and pulls it over himself entirely, presumably to keep ORBITAL's detectors from picking up the debris [[BackFromTheDead that was used to revive him]].

* PhlebotinumOverdose: The teleportation "pills" used by INFLUX have long-term consequences and one member is reluctance to use them, saying that he's "jumped too many times"; when he takes it anyway, visible scarring appears on his head and face and he may have suffered internal damage as well.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The US and the UK are collaborating on ORBITAL, but neither side makes any secret about the fact that both have their own best interests in mind: Ferris warns Finola to remember this, as they know the CIA is keeping secrets, one of which is that [[spoiler:they have footage of Fin's supposedly-dead father]]. We later see that [MI6] is engaged in its own shady practices, including what's implied to be non-ORBITAL-sanctioned debris usage.

* CallBack: An Eric clone from Episode 2 mentioned a "ball of light" during his rantings, and a test subject implanted with a piece of debris says that she "doesn't know where the ball of light is." This is also noted in-universe, with Finola pointing it out to Bryan.

* FakingTheDead: Apparently the case with [[spoiler:Fin's father, whose body was replaced with a convincing double, confirmed by missing security footage and the double wearing a watch that had been removed from the original]].

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Finola is the Responsible Sibling, having pursued an academic/scientific career and taken on the task of handling their late father's affairs, while her sister Dee is the Foolish Sibling; Finola claims that Dee was their father's favorite who "got away with everythin," and is a recovering drug addict.

** Happens repeatedly to Bryan and Finola in Episode 7, where the episode's antagonist mind-controls them to believe that there's nothing unusual about the swamp on his property and no reason to investigate it, both of which are patently untrue. It's also how the antagonist keeps a woman away from her daughter, who he's using to locate the debris in the swamp; she later describes it as being made to 'forget' her love for her daughter whenever she would try to get the girl back.

* MentalMonster: The reality of "Kieran" in the pilot episode, formed from the memories and the guilt of the real Kieran's grieving mother and given "life" by the debris.

* PhlebotinumOverdose: The teleportation "pills" used by INFLUX have long-term consequences and one displays reluctance to use them, saying that he's "jumped too many times"; when he takes it anyway, visible scarring appears on his head and face and he may have suffered internal damage as well.

* RecoveredAddict: Finola's sister, Dee, is revealed to be a recovering addict in Episode 7 and begs her to come home, afraid that she's about to relapse. [[spoiler:She's actually being forced to make the call by Finola's boss in hopes of making Finola return to London.]]

** Episode 7 has Luke, who was so traumatized and embittered by his experiences in Afghanistan that he joined INFLUX, forced his niece to "find" debris that let him mind-control people, then murdered his brother and mind-controlled Caroline's mother to stay away so he could keep using the girl.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The US and the UK are collaborating on ORBITAL, but neither side makes any secret about the fact that both have their own best interests in mind: Finola's superior warns her to remember this, as they know the CIA is keeping secrets, one of which is that [[spoiler:they have footage of Fin's supposedly-dead father]].

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: A variant in Episode 6, when the elderly couple surrenders their debris and disappears into the wood; they're last seen holding hands at the edge of a cliff and it's heavily implied that they jumped to their deaths rather than wait for their age to return and likely kill them. As the woman originally had dementia, this might also be a form of DyingAsYourself.

* FaceStealer: An operative is seen doing this in Episode 8, cutting off a layer of skin from someone and wearing it over his own face. It's suggested he does this on a regular basis because the face decays and he has to refresh it every so often. The victim has had it done enough times that there are obvious scars around the incision area.

* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The US and UK governments hope to use the titular debris to advance science and technology, and a scientist in Episode 3 emphasizes just how important the debris-of-the-episode could be to expanding humanity's knowledge.

* ParentalSubstitute: WordOfGod says that Bryan sees Maddox, ORBITAL's lead CIA representative, as a father figure, which may explain why Bryan's in ORBITAL at all [[spoiler:and is initially willing to keep Finola in the dark about her father despite his misgivings]].

* BackFromTheDead: What Amy Morrison and her husband initially think is happening when their deceased son reappears. He's actually some sort of debris-spawned projection that feeds on the energy of others to sustain himself.

* {{Intangibility}}: In Episode 1, a maid absentmindedly touches a piece of debris left behind by a black market dealer, rendering her intangible. She immediately falls through the floor, and the ones below, until she's dropped several stories and makes a fatal landing when she finally loses her grip on the piece.
** A test subject in Episode 8 acquires intangibility and the ability to control it after being implanted with a "nacho"-type debris.

* KidnappedScientist: [[spoiler:George Jones]], who was kidnapped by INFLUX... or rather, who died and was resurrected by INFLUX, who force him to work on a machine that can track a specific debris that's vital to their plan.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Happens repeatedly to Bryan and Finola in Episode 7, where the episode's antagonist mind-controls them to believe that there's nothing unusual about the swamp on his property and no reason to investigate it, both of which are patently untrue. It's also how the antagonist keeps a woman away from her daughter, who he's using to locate the debris in the swamp; she later describes it as being made to 'forget' her love for her daughter whenever she would try to get the girl back.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Finola frequently takes this stance, arguing for the use of debris to help people even when it goes against protocol and telling a man the truth of what's going on, allowing him to join his family, when she's been ordered to give him the cover-up version of the story.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Bryan was in a military prison in Afghanistan before being recruited and he carries a photo of an unknown woman he presumably met while stationed there; whatever happened left him cynical and unwilling to share his past with Fin. We get a little more in Episode 7, where he reveals that he lost friends in combat and struggled deeply before "someone" stepped in. That person is implied to be Maddox, explaining Bryan's loyalty to him.

* TeleFrag: A pair of INFLUX agents escape through debris-powered teleportation, but one winds up with half his body inside a concrete pillar, necessitating the MercyKill above.
** An INFLUX agent attempts to re-capture an escaped test subject in Episode 8 only to have her phase through him, taking part of a plastic body bag with her; the body-bag re-solidifies in the INFLUX agent, resulting in his death.

** INFLUX agents have metal shavings --presumably from debris -- they can swallow to provide a one-way teleportation several miles away. They just have to be careful about where they land, lest they TeleFrag into something.

* ChekovsGun: The "nacho" from the first episode, or the same type of debris, reappears in Episode 8, implanted into a human test subject and grants her the ability to control its {{Intangibility}}.