Debris similar to that in Episode 2 was used to fake George Jones' death.
The clones of Eric were flawed, but that wouldn't matter here since the clone's only purpose was to serve as George's Body Double, which had to be perfect to fool his daughter. However, the debris and its effects can be unpredictable, so to be on the safe side INFLUX, who apparently abducted him, replaced the clone with a more conventional body double, in case the clone corpse melted or exploded or otherwise did something bizarre at an inconvenient time. Whoever was responsible for the replacement corpse missed a small detail, which is why the replacement is still wearing a watch when Finola took the original. The switch was made during the missing time from the morgue video, after which the clone corpse was destroyed.The aliens who made the spacecraft are telepathic.
Or at least they communicate with their ship telepathically, as most of the debris we've seen so far interact directly with the mind: The debris from Episode 1 can scan memories and bring certain strong memories to the surface, even giving them physical form and exerting mental influence on those it "imprints" on, while the clones from Episode 2 embody strong memories and emotions from the person it's copying, and even the "nacho" seems to function solely on mental commands to cue the teleportation, possibly requiring the user to visualize their destination.The 'missing persons' from Episode 3 were trapped in that parallel dimension thanks to the debris.
Yes, despite the fact that they went missing before the debris started to fall. That particular piece of the ship is speculated to have been part of its "warp drive," allowing it to traverse space by traveling through dimensions. Time and Space are intrinsically connected, so the debris' impact on Earth jarred it into activating and opened tears into the other dimension in several different points of time simultaneously, resulting in unlucky individuals from 2019, 1989, 1973 and maybe even farther back in time slipping between dimensions and getting trapped.Debris is an Alternate Universe Roadside Picnic.
Bizarre artifacts that wreck bizarre changes on their surroundings appear on Earth, where various countries race to collect and catalogue them and smugglers sell their scavenged goods to whoever can pay, despite the sometimes-unfortunate effects of actually using these things. Despite the potentially Earth-shattering effects these artifacts might have on Earth, the objects themselves are little more than trash from a technologically-advanced species. Rather than aliens actually landing on Earth, they got as far as the space above the planet; given that the spaceship is an apparently derelict wreck when it appears, it's possible that the entire craft is just an enormous piece of space-garbage that happened to drift into Earth's orbit. It's also possible that the lack of actual Zones is due to the relative scarcity of debris: Unlike the objects from the Zones, which were small and apparently more numerous, the debris we've seen have been larger, less numerous and spread out over much larger areas. It seems that debris retains its abilities, at least to some extant, when reduced to smaller pieces, so if the wreck starts to fragment and the falling debris breaks up, scattering many smaller fragments over a given area, something like the Zones of Roadside Picnic might eventually form.The alien spacecraft was intentionally abandoned.
Like dumping a broken-down car on the side of a country road, the ship was either too badly damaged or just too outdated to be of any use to the species that made it, so they programmed it to warp to some out-of-the-way part of the universe where it wouldn't get in their way or clutter their own skies with space-trash.The alien ship was intended to colonize worlds.
All the debris we've seen so far could have a direct purpose on such a ship:- The debris from episode 3 was part of the ship's engines, allowing them to travel vast distances in search of suitable worlds.
- The debris from Episode 4 allows them to terraform a world and its native fauna, making it habitable for the aliens.
- The debris from Episode 2 is intended to mass-reproduce via cloning without transporting them via ship, allowing the colonists to rapidly spread out on landfall and perform necessary duties in as little time as possible, like constructing settlements and stamping out local resistance. Presumably typical clones wouldn't be unstable; the debris we saw was damaged and thus malfunctioning.
- The debris from Episode 1 might have been intended to telepathically glean knowledge from other lifeforms, like from the planet that's being colonized, but was also likely malfunctioning due to damage.
- The debris that allows people to teleport might be intended for travel between facilities and/or settlements as the initial colony expands.
- The debris from Episode 4 that puts people in stasis might be for crew members and vital passengers on the ship, and/or for preserving live specimens that will be studied at a later date.
