The main thing that broke this barrier down for PG is Priscellie’s observation in my LC fix timing topic (Required external reading #2) that since Jim spent ink on explaining temporal issues in PG, something in that book required a temporal anomaly. Yet we didn’t see the temporal Chekhov’s gun get fired, so if the reasoning is sound, it happened off screen.
Devil's Advocate: We did see time travel, in the sense that Maeve manipulated the time-stream around AT. I think that was the first time we saw such a thing in the series, and needed at least some sort of setup before Murphy's job is all but lost at the end because of it.
2) Summon the Murk during the Phage attacks
A, the cold nature of the Murk wards in these attacks screams Winter
B, Harry does briefly sense something familiar about the magic involved when he reaches out towards it
Negative: It's hard to imagine Harry submitting to casting a spell that would facilitate the carnage the phages were wreaking, and also the blowby damage that was done by the confused people.
There's a lot more to the Reaper attack than just that.
- The murk actually helped him hone in on where the attack was taking place.
- There was a ward that seemed to be keeping him away, to the point he could barely walk through it. As Rawlins says nothing, and the civilians aren't affected, it seems to only affect Harry... but possibly other magical creatures? It takes them a minute or two to get there, and the phage had only attacked 3 people, killing 1 and injuring 2. Did the murk and ward also slow it down?
- It seems like the Reaper was already inside the theater, but the door was slammed open hard enough to wrench it off one hinge. Was the phage inside, which was presumed since it seemed to have attacked from the front? If so, who (with near-super strength) could have torn the door open in their haste?
- Who was the shadowed figure that fled the room after the fight was over? Someone casting the murk until the phage was killed?
- As previously mentioned, there was a cold nature to the spell, and murk is a tool of Winter, as exhibited by the hobbs in SmF.
TTH could bring a side kick. This has its own hazards because it's now 2 elephants in the temporal china shop, but may be doylisticly necessary.
I'm hoping for Maggie, and she has the Calvin & Hobbes book in her backpack. She amuses herself while Harry fixes LC, and then when he hastily puts things away, he either leaves the book because he remembers finding it later, or he hastily puts it with the others, not realizing what it was.
Detail Mysteries from Proven Guilty: These aren’t as huge as above, but insight on them might shed light on the others.
Other things of note that aren't actually mysteries:
- PGH prepares to use LC, and is interrupted when the phone rings. He's surprised he forgot to unplug the phone, and blames it on hurting his head. I prefer to think that PGH actually did unplug it, but TTH was there in the apartment with him and plugged it back in so that he wouldn't miss Molly's call.
- Harry has partial intellectus in SmF when he first arrives on Demonreach. The "wizard foresight" might explain it, but it might also be a temporal side-effect of Harry having already been on the island as Warden because of time travel back to the events of PG.
- I like the idea of Mab's wink at PGH mirroring a similar wink she gave TTH.
- The reason the Scarecrow gave Harry a look of recognition when they first met in the parking lot was because he'd already met TTH.
- It's speculated in the book that the reason the phages were allowed inside was because they might have assumed the shape of someone familiar, to get an invite. As we saw no evidence of the phages or Fetches being able to do that, TTH might have been at the door to oversee Molly's kidnapping, to limit collateral damage.
- I like the idea of Harry creating a time-bridge on Demonreach that allows him to come back in time. Just like Merlin merged five times to make Demonreach once, Harry and his allies might merge time on Demonreach between the TT book and PG, meaning that the two times were always linked (non-linearly) so there was no version where Harry didn't time travel.
