Timeline Question - Help!

[orockthro]

So I'm trying to unravel the POI timeline for a fic I'm working on, and running myself aground.
Halp!

Ordos China happens because of the laptop, right? Which means it happens after Nathan dies? Do we know that for sure? I ask because it'd be really, really handy for my fic if it happened before Nathan's death. 
Also, if the laptop only happens after Nathan's death, what is up with the 2008 NYC CIA op that has the man in the bathtub who sold software to the Chinese?

Dudes, I'm seriously working myself into a confused froth. Anyone really good at this stuff?

Comments

[orockthro]

Okay, so thanks to Kindaoffkilter's screen-capping powers, we know Orods (or at least Reese's exudes from Ordos) was in May.
http://i.imgur.com/Tjh1KVj.png
But then that means the laptop was pre Nathan Ingram's death in September. Right? Even though Finch implies the laptop (and Ordos) were because of Nathan's death at the end of God Mode?
Oh my head.... @_____@

[felis]

I took his words in God Mode differently: Harold just says that he realized that the people he and Nathan gave the Machine to were the wrong people and that's why he put the virus out there, but I think he already realized that before Nathan's death - we have a flashback where he talks to Nathan about the research he did, when he tried to get him to stop with the Irrelevants, and he also knew about Weeks' attempts to get into the Machine from the beginning. So I think that the laptop was probably before Nathan's death.

[orockthro]

Thanks!
Re looking at it, I think that's what Reese assumed, but Finch never confirmed it. I think Reese says, "You'd lost a friend," clearing thinking Finch and the laptop were reactionary. We should have taken that as a clue! lol.

I think it's interesting, because Finch appeared to want to separate himself so fully from the machine after it was up and running and doing it's thing. He had his relationship with Grace and when Nathan started poking around, it made him so uncomfortable. It's a very, very big step to then write the code and "set it free" without a catalyst. I'd incorrectly assumed that catalyst was Nathan, and it makes it almost more interesting to know it wasn't!

8D
Picture me now cackling and doing evil jazz hands.

[hedda62]

Oh, wow; that really is interesting. Thanks for being nitpicky and investigating! And yeah, it's typical of Finch to let Reese assume that Nathan was the catalyst. I wonder if it'll come out? (Assuming the writers have the same timeline in mind; just because it's the one that makes sense…)

[orockthro]

We might still get answers from canon on this? IDK. @__@ It's kinda a mushy mess. LOL.

In sum this is what I have so far:

At some point before May 2010 Finch writes and disseminates the code that will set the machine free. PRESUMABLY.
05, 2010 - Ordos, China
09, 2010 - Nathan is blown up, Finch is injured and goes to ground
12, 2010 - Jessica is killed
02, 2011 - Reese goes to New Rochelle to find Jessica and runs into Finch at the hospital

[hedda62]

I'm just thinking Finch's code must have felt really… conditional at the time. Like, a very remote chance it would come into play. But still, there must have been something specific that caused him to do it, not just a vague ominous feeling. *shrugs*

And yeah, it's a looonnng trip back from China for Reese, and we still don't know why he had blood on him on the bus.

[pendrecarc]

I honestly can't read the gap between Ordos and Arndt's disappearance as anything but a continuity error, much as I wish I could handwave it with a clever canonical explanation.

[orockthro]

Yeahhhhhhhhh..... 8-9 months is a long ass time. Granted, I do think it would take some time to extradite himself from China without paperwork, a support network, and while on the run from the CIA and gut-shot.
I'm going with the May 2010 date for my fic because it's the convenient choice (at least for now. I'll possibly change my mind later), but in terms of the show itself, that does seem the most likely explanation. It would also simplify the pre-Nathan/post-Nathan laptop issue.

[felis]

Ooops, I'd forgotten about that Reese/Finch conversation. And! It would be very easy for Reese to know that Ordos was months before Nathan's death, he investigated Nathan and had a news article about his death from Fusco, he should know exactly that Ordos was before. So. I have to admit that the timeline is quite hazy in my head, and I'm afraid that's the same for the show itself, but I guess we have to assume a different order of events?

[orockthro]

It's..... yeah. <__< I'm going to go with May 2010 for the fic, and that's what canon has down too, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was possibly an error? There are some very, very wide open windows. That is then 8 months between Ordos and Reese getting himself to New Rochelle after Jessica's death, which is a long-ass time. Another thought is that Finch was letting Reese assume it was grief, and Reese was letting Finch have an out by not doing the math during their conversation.

[hedda62]

Yeah, that wasn't a math face there; that was a *hearteyes* face for sure. :)

[enemyofperfect]

It looks like you've got this pretty well covered, but I'll link this pre-2011 timeline anyway, just because that wiki is a fabulous resource and I use it all the time.