Oh something that AvenueX said in one of her partial reviews, that may answer the question about why it does not seem exactly like China as we know it, where firearms are rare … show is set in a fictional place where the people come from various regions.

We hear mainly Mandarin and Cantonese used interchangeably in the same place, hence this is not our typical China. In Episode 6, I did wonder why the girls spoke to each other in English (because they knew each other when they studied abroad??) when they could both speak more fluently in Chinese.

Hi @WE! I was asking in our last Rewatch thread if we might like to take on this show for our next Rewatch or first Watch party.

A bit of a challenge in that everything is so fast paced, we’ll be watching with bated breath and not have time to comment!!! LOL.

What I like about this series is that it’s actually kind of explaining how the loop is possible. That’s more than we ever get with any other time jump/travel or loop shows. This one does not leave it up to the supernatural. I appreciate that!

@pkml3, yup… Ep 11 is where more things become clear.

I just really appreciate it when a show connects the threads. Coherence and consistency are the descriptors that I hope I’ll use for this show when I complete the 16 episodes. (I notice that there are even 16.1 – 16.6 episodes but I will only check them out after I’ve watched the main episodes.)

Hey @Unnie!

I have seen Mobius’ trailer when iQIYI posted their program and I was waiting for it!

You should embrace yourself because it has a great ending… I won’t say more. I most likely re-watch it!

Hey @Packmule3!

We were watching Reset every Wednesday with @GB Unnie back in 2022 and If I remember correctly @WE after some episodes came along as well. We were discussing it afterwards.

Did you like it? I still think, it is pretty good.

In the iconic ending scene of the classic movie Casablanca, Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) says to Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), “But it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” It’s a mindset that hints at fatalism: on a global scale, personal issues are trivial.

Mobius envisions a world that is antithetical to Rick’s belief. In Mobius, even one person has the power to radically alter the world. I suggest the subtitle for this drama could be: Bad Science Upends the Space-Time Continuum. It is the butterfly effect without the guardrails of a closed system.

The butterfly effect theory posits that something seemingly insignificant at the beginning of a closed system can have huge non-linear consequences as the system develops. A theoretical example is that in a weather system, a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can lead to a tornado in Texas.

NOTE: Stop reading now if you’re spoiler sensitive. I’ve watched the whole show, and want to comment on it as a whole.

In Mobius, a scientist searching for a genetic cure for cancer greedily cuts corners in his research by using himself, then a terminal cancer patient, for human trials. After he injects himself with his experimental genetic goop, he becomes aware of intermittent time loops. Once this realization dawns, and he perceives others in the time loop are not aware, he uses the time loops to his benefit. However, side effects he experiences convince him that genetic manipulation is too dangerous, and he dumps his concoctions down the drain of the lab sink (adding disregard for toxic waste protocol to his disregard for research protocol).

It turns out that all who are exposed to the genetics-altering material–either by direct injection, or indirectly in highly diluted form via exposure to tainted water–gain awareness of looping time. All the world goes through the time loops, resetting for five days in each loop cycle (except coral, which inexplicably continues developing as if time isn’t looping, showing evidence of “leap days” in its growth). People not genetically altered to be aware of time loops may retain dream-like impressions of what happened to them before a reset.

The role the unaltered growth pattern of coral plays in the plot is that it alerts one scientist that something strange is going on. The number of days he experiences in a year and the number of calcium carbonate layers secreted by coral in a year no longer match. In what he experiences as one year–365 days–coral now displays more than 400 layers of daily secretions. Why isn’t coral subject to time resets that even bring the dead back to life? I don’t know, and the show doesn’t give an answer. But variations in coral’s expected growth patterns flag the discrepancy in number of days, and also the start of the change. The coral growth pattern discrepancy starts around 2016, which coincides with the unscrupulous scientist’s first experiments of genetic manipulation of humans. (I feel compelled to point out that correlation does not imply causation, but Mobius is a work of fiction, so logic and science can be suspended, up to a point.)

Why would one scientist doing genetic experimentation in humans change the nature of time? The only clue given in Mobius is the lecture repeated by CEO Mo, during which he boldly claims he’ll continue advancing genetic research, even it it goes against nature. Maybe nature is signaling that it still has control.

Thanks @Welmaris. Food for thought here.

When it comes down to a few specific persons exposed to the genetic changing solution, it’s hard to understand why time should be affected. I was thinking of the history of creation and our world and how all came to be because of us…but the us here is humanity and not just a few random individuals.

I have to rewatch to see what that lecturer said more slowly… that the change in the growth patterns of the coral took place only from 2016. I was under the impression that there was no start date for the extra loop days. For the fun of it, I used Chatgpt to find quotations on time:

Albert Einstein:
“The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
(Which some interpret as time being less linear and more like a whole — potentially looping or repeating.)

T. S. Eliot (Four Quartets):
“Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.”
(Suggesting time is not linear but circular, each moment folding into another.)

Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, 2nd century CE):
“All things are the same, familiar in experience, and transient in time. A little while and all will be over; and yet again it will renew.”
(Suggesting cycles of repetition, that time brings back what has gone before.)”

The concept obviously intrigued and inspired several thinkers, writers, etc.

@Packmule3, I was thinking about time from the Judeo-Christian perspective. Eternal God, the Creator, exists outside time. In Genesis we read of the creation of day and night. The process of creation itself is divided into sections, called days: six during which God worked, and the seventh on which God rested. On the fourth day of creation, the Creator set lights “…in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). So in Judeo-Christian belief, time is a result of the creation process. Outside of time, is eternity.

Mobius asks the question, Are those who tinker with genetics playing god? Are they making a new creation? It seems to suggest so, since time is disrupted when a human, the unscrupulous scientist, genetically manipulates himself. But because the scientist has limited understanding, his act of creation has unintended consequences. He is not in charge. He does not control the occurrence or length of the time loops. He is unable to control the effects of his genetic experiment on his own body, horrified to learn that he is aging rapidly. If I interpret this action-reaction within a Judeo-Christian worldview, I’d say time was corrupted by the scientist’s shortfalls, just as nature was corrupted by Adam’s sin. The dictionary definition of sin is “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.” What was Adam’s sin? He disobeyed and willfully rebelled against what God commanded him. He, along with Eve, wanted to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

What did the scientist do that was a sin so great it disrupted creation? Mobius doesn’t make that clear, but hints at willful disregard of nature. The scientist knew human experimentation was wrong to do at that point in his research, but he did it anyway, claiming it was for the greater good. In truth, he was motivated to rush his process by greed and pride: he wanted to be the first to unveil successful genetic solutions to medical problems. Except his knowledge wasn’t advanced enough, his human experimentation wasn’t successful, and it wasn’t for the greater good of humanity: it caused more harm than good.

This fear of damaging or destroying humanity makes me think of anxiety experienced worldwide following the introduction of nuclear technology. In 1964 director Stanley Kubrick released a satirical movie that explored those fears (Dr. Strange love or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). It leaned into the butterfly effect theory, showing how a series of small human choices and mechanical errors could lead to annihilation of the world.

Mobius is not created from a Judeo-Christian worldview, yet there is a guiding force that prevents chaos. There are discoverable rules governing time loops:

–One day of a time loop is a 24-hour period determined worldwide by the timezone of the fictional city where the drama is set.

–A time loop cycle consists of four days, each followed by four resets. Resets happen at the stroke of midnight. The fifth day, following the last reset of the cycle, is the final version of the day.

–All of humanity is included in the time loop, although most people are unaware of it.

–A few people, made special by genetic manipulation, are aware of looping time.

–For those who can perceive the time loops, memories on the fifth day of the previous four reset days provide knowledge that can change consequences.

–Only on the second day, after the first reset, are “loopers” aware they are in a time loop.

–The occurrence of time loop cycles is unpredictable.

–Actions to change consequences, even if well intended, can lead to negative results.

–The only “supernatural” gift conferred on loopers by their genetic modification is the ability to intentionally recall memories from reset days. This gives them predictive knowledge. People not genetically modified may retain vague memories from reset days, perceiving them as dreams.

–Unexpected changes from one looped day to the next are the result of actions of multiple loop-aware people. Variables, introduced by others, diminish each looper’s predictive knowledge from reset to reset.

Who is the being that supplies structure, keeping the world of Mobius from falling into chaos? Since this is fiction, it would be the scriptwriter. Since the writer isn’t perfect, and may not build a perfectly organized script, there may be plot holes. I can think of a few in Mobius, but I’ll wait for another time to comment on them.

@pkml3, I went back to Chatgpt as you could as well, and found many Chinese sayings about time. Most, though are about how quickly it passes, that we must seize our opportunities, that there is impermanence and that time is irreversible.

I can’t recall where I read the analogy of how we are in time but yet can never be part of it, however I return to the words of Heraclitus (500 BCE) and Confucius as a couple of the closest to what I read elsewhere:

Heraclitus
“You cannot step into the same river twice.”
→ The river (like time) is always flowing; you can touch it, experience it, but never hold it still.

Confucius
“Time passes like a river, never stopping day or night.”
→ You can draw water from it (live in the moment), but you can’t dam it or change its flow.