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When did the Three Dots first appear?

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When did the Three Dots first appear?
Jul 23 2010, 12:19 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 23 2010, 10:47 AM EDT
In Born to Run, the three dots are revealed to refer to John Henry, with the dots themselves appearing on the Turk 2 box. John Henry is confirmed as a key opponent to the most recent Skynet, which appears to have developed from the Kaliba AI.

Kaliba AI had hacked into John Henry and has been trying to destroy him, at first by taking over John Henrys Cromartie body and using it to attack Turk 2 in John Henrys equipment rack and also by sending terminators back to attack or replace Dr. Sherman (Rosie the pretzel girl), Ellison (Ellison term), and possibly the original Weavers, as well as John Henry himself (Water Guy term).

Wells, the Resistance time traveler who wrote the bloody wall, listed Skynet terminator missions primarily by target (Sherman, Greenway, Fields, etc.) and included the three dots to signify John Henry.

Since Sarah had been searching for the three dots for most of Season 2, I went back to identify when they appeared on Turk 2. Heres what I found:
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1. RE: When did the Three Dots first appear?
Jul 23 2010, 12:21 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 23 2010, 11:18 AM EDT
Turk 2 first was shown in Queens Gambit. Andrew Goode carried Turk 2 wrapped in bubble wrap to (BD index 4520) and from (5834) the chess tournament, but we could only see the back of it through the bubble wrap. We saw the front of Turk 2 in the back room (4737) where Andrew introduced Dmitri to Sarah, but there were no three dots, just a blue power on light.

During the chess match final game, we saw the front of Turk 2 on stage three different times (5304, 5505, 5737), but it only showed its blue light, no three dots.

There were three good closeups of Turk 2 in Samson and Delilah. We saw its front in the car with Walsh (1247) as he was reporting its acquisition to Weaver term. We saw its front again on Weaver term’s desk (1730), and we saw its side on the desk (1843) later on in the same scene. In all three instances, it was not powered on, and no three dots were visible.

In the Tower Is Tall But the Fall Is Short, we saw Turk 2 twice in its installed location in John Henry’s equipment rack (5639, 5648) while Weaver term, Murch, and other techs were conferring. The three dots were not visible, although the blue light was on. In Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point, we saw Turk 2 in its rack location (4208) behind John Henry during his first animation of the Cromartie body, while he was visited by Weaver term and Ellison. The blue light was visible, but there were no three dots. In Earthlings Welcome Here, we again saw Turk 2 in its rack with the blue light but no three dots while Weaver term and Ellison visited John Henry (22250) and while John Henry was playing a game of chess with Ellison (24034).
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2. RE: When did the Three Dots first appear?
Jul 23 2010, 12:22 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 23 2010, 11:19 AM EDT
The three dots made their first appearance on Turk 2 during the Good Wound. We saw them while John Henry was playing with his Toa figurines (30831) and later when he was talking with Ellison about ball joints versus hinge joints (30835). We see Turk 2 with no lights at all in Today Is the Day Part 1, apparently not powered on, while John Henry was playing his guessing game hide-and-seek variation with Weaver term and Ellison (23042).

After that, Turk 2 was shown with the three dots in every episode: in Today Is the Day Part 2, when John Henry was talking to Ellison about the eyes being windows to the soul (30442); in To the Lighthouse, when Kaliba AI was hacking John Henry (438), while Turk 2 was on a table as Murch was explaining the hack to Weaver term and Ellison (752), while Murch was reactivating John Henry (2324), while Murch was explaining John Henrys “death” experience to Weaver term and Ellison, and again later in the rack (3637); in Adam Raised a Cain, during conversations four times (5013, 5135, 10605, 11621) and at the end when John Henry and Savannah were singing Donald Where’s Your Trousers (12427); and in Born to Run, four times including the final scene (13029, 13120, 20056, 20415).
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3. RE: When did the Three Dots first appear?
Jul 23 2010, 12:23 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 23 2010, 2:27 PM EDT
So during the series, we have seen Turk 2 with no lights, with the blue light, and with the three dots and the blue light (and even a few times with the three dots but no blue light). The first appearance of the three dots in the Good Wound did not coincide with any particular development in John Henry. Ellison had replaced Dr. Sherman as a teacher much earlier. The Cromartie body had been installed earlier in Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point. And Kaliba AI did not hack John Henry until later, in To the Lighthouse.

The only development worth noting was that the three dots first appeared in the Good Wound, and this was the first episode aired after the long winter break of 2008-09. Remember Season 2 was initially ordered as a thirteen episode run, and the “back nine” episodes were tacked on as a reorder to make the full 22 episode season. The Good Wound was the first episode of the “back nine.”

This makes me think that the details of the “back nine” story arcs might not have been fleshed out until after the reorder came in. I speculate that after the reorder came in, the writers decided to close out the story by making Weaver and John Henry good guys and this tied in with putting the three dots on Turk 2.
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