How Fred got to Pylea

[following felix]

I’ve been watching the series again and just put this together. In Belonging, they go to the library, find the Pylea book and see that it had been checked out and, a day later, checked back in before Fred disappeared. In Season 4’s Supersymmetry we find out that Professor Seidel was “the son of a bitch that sent [Fred] to Pylea.” Belonging explains how! Seidel checked out the book, then returned it so that Fred, whom he knew worked at the library, would have to reshelve it to that spot in front of the portal. (Maybe he even changed the card catalog number to that spot, though they do mention that it’s the foreign language section. That’s the truth!) (Or maybe he made the checkout card himself and brought the book to the library for the first time when he “checked it back in.”) Regardless, that’s how he got it into the hands of his star pupil, knowing her well enough to be pretty sure she would be curious about it and try to read it aloud when it got into her hands. I understood the connection to the date Fred disappeared, obviously, but always vaguely thought the “checked out and then checked back in a day later” seemed like an odd and irrelevant detail, but now I get it! Was this obvious to everyone else?
 
Okay, also: I’ve always wondered about the fact that Lorne came through a portal “five years ago” at this point in the story, same as when Fred disappeared. It couldn’t have been the same portal/opening/event because they were in two distinct places (library vs future Caritas). Also over the course of the episode (Belonging) each portal only opens one way at a time. But maybe Seidel did a test run to bring someone from Pylea before he sent Fred there? Is Seidel the reason Lorne came to this dimension, too? Is that supposed to be obvious? If so, it’s slightly strange it isn’t addressed at all in Supersymmetry, but that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker if it’s just something the Lorne steadfastly refuses to think about (“gift horse, mouth.”)

Thoughts? Is this all stuff everybody knows and I just figured out? ☺️ For the record, I’m new to this forum or really any like it, but I’m a big fan of this show! And don’t know where else I might find answers to these questions. I hope I’m not doing it wrong!

 

[following felix]

Edit: I don’t see a way to edit my post from before so I’ll just have to add: got through a couple more episodes and remembered it’s implied that Fred may have opened portals without knowing where and that one of these presumably sent Lorne to our world shortly after her arrival. But my first question about Seidel getting the book to Fred still stands. Thanks!

 

[thrasherpix]

Lorne did seem really disturbed by their lingering in the library. I did presume he was just anxious about the beast creature, but looking at it again, it seems like he wasn't wanting Angel Investigations to dwell too long on the disappearance at the library, like he knew there was a connection.

As for Fred opening a portal...she sure did it all too easily in revenge without any rigamarole, as if she was a full fledged witch rather than a dabbler like Giles or Ethan or Jenny Calendar. Only Willow in season 5 Buffy on should've had that kind of power (which now gets me to thinking that Willow could've averted much of what happened by sending Glory home without the Key, and for that matter, why Glory didn't find someone to send her...though perhaps she did rightly fear the Senior Partners in her current form, and it would be frustrating to arrange given the strange magic around her protecting Ben by making sure no one could know Glory was hiding in him, and Ben could've sabotaged her efforts, especially as he'd realize he'd likely get sucked into Hell with her).

 

[following felix]

True! Well, Lorne had just come and asked for Team Angel’s help when Cordy got the vision of Fred and a portal, and they all assume it’s the same kind of portal that the drokken came through into Caritas. Even if there’s only a chance they’re right, Lorne doesn’t want anyone going anywhere near (literally or research-wise) the whole subject of where he came from and how he got here. I think, yeah, he’s pretty sure that’s where they’re headed in the library, and that his drokkens have come home to roost! (I’m so glad I joined this message board, just so I could make that joke for anyone who might appreciate it )

Good point about Fred being able to open the portal in Seidel’s office - did that just happen to be a hotspot? Certainly possible, since he was something of a portal expert - he had just brought another demon through a different portal, also just by speaking an incantation, minutes before. Regardless, I take it that there’s a spectrum of difficulty in traveling between different worlds, ranging from maybe even easier than Pylea (do some not need a hotspot at all? If so Wesley could’ve helped Fred choose one of those) all the way to at least as hard as Quortoth. I don’t remember Buffy quite as well, but I’d say the place Glory was trying to connect to was very much at the Quortoth end of the spectrum: the fissure Buffy dove into was a lot like the one Sahjhan opened, wasn’t it? Which, for example, even he could only open once. And as for just getting rid of Glory, I’d guess anywhere Willow was powerful enough to send her to would be a place Glory would be powerful enough to come right back from. Wasn’t the whole Ben thing about her being earth-bound, anyway?

Maybe the blue-haired lady that closed the second Quortoth fissure could’ve helped them out in Sunnydale, though. If they could’ve pinned her down long enough to get her there