Disclaimer: Ownership, lawful claim, possession, control, deed, or any other synonym for "This is mine" would be wrongly applied to the characters/title of the Pretender. They belong to someone that's not me. Consider it like this, the characters and situation of the Pretender are paperdolls, I merely provide a new costume for them from time to time. I'm the friend next door who likes to come over and play with your stuff…sorry if that bothers you, I promise I'll help clean up afterward. In other words, no infringement is intended blahdy blahdy blah, my apologies to anyone who is offended.
Summary: This is a Preamble to the fiction "What's My Age Again," which is yet to be written. It merely deals in a complex theory of how old Parker and Jarod are, using various dates throughout the series. It's not actually a story, but if you've got the time, check it out.
Author's Note: The following may become intensely confusing as you continue to read it, so feel free to stop at any point in time. This is merely an introduction and is not necessary to read the story and fully understand it, when I finally finish writing the story.
Note: Any dates that you have to offer will help immensely! Correct me on anything I've miscalculated or misrepresented.
And The Winning Date Is…
By Bec-Bec
An Introduction
The dates in the Pretender are highly important to the progression of the story. However, as you watch the series, you may begin to notice that several dates are contrary to one another. For example:
In the episode "Someone to Trust," Catherine Parker's gravestone reads Born: 1936 Died: 1979.
The 1936 date also appears in the episode "Toy Surprise." However, in "Toy Surprise," a DSA with the date 4-13-70 is shown as the day of her death.
Given the 1970 death date, Catherine was 34 when she died.
Given the 1979 death date, Catherine was 43 when she died.
In "Pretender 2001," Sydney tells Ms. Parker that her mother gained the Inner Sense when she was her age and died shortly after. Thusly, in 2001, Ms. Parker was either 34 or 43. Meaning, she was born in either 1967 of 1958, respectively.
Jarod was brought to the Centre in 1963. However, in "Pretender 2001," it is amended to say merely that he was brought in the 1960s. Assumably, in 1963, before he came to the Centre, he was starting kindergarten, as is proven in the episode "Stolen." This would make him either 4 or 5 years old. Given that fact, he was born in either 1959 or 1958.
If it's 1958, Parker and Jarod are the same age, something we already believed to be true. In this case, the 1979 date is Catherine Parker's correct death date. However, this puts in question the DSA date of the death. It also means that, when she died (1979), Jarod and Ms. Parker were both 21. Seeing as this is not true, it's still flawed.
All of which means…someone botched everything up big time.
If Catherine Parker had in fact died in 1970, then Ms. Parker was 34 in "Pretender 2001." This would make Jarod either 8 or 9 years older than her (Given that he was born in 1958 or 1959). In this case, he was either 11 or 12 when Catherine died. This is viable, except that, Ms. Parker would have only been 3 or 4 (Given that she was born in 1967).
So, did Catherine die in 1970 or 1979? And, was Catherine really the same age as Parker in "Pretender 2001?"
More questions arise in the episodes "To Serve and Protect" and "Exposed."
In "To Serve and Protect," the DSA date is given as 9-7-74. On this day, Jarod informs Sydney that he will never give up looking for his parents. In a phone call to Sydney, during this episode, he informs us that he was 11 during this DSA, meaning he would have been born in 1963. If he was isolated by the Centre in 1963, how could he have been born at the same time?
In "Exposed," we are told by Ben that he and Catherine knew each other for 15 years before she died. So, Catherine would have met Ben in either 1955, or 1964, depending on the 1970 and 1979 death dates, respectively. Given that Catherine was born in 1936, she was either 19 or 28 when she met Ben.
If Ms. Parker's birth year is 1958 (From Catherine's 1979 death date) then three years passed from the time Catherine met Ben and the time Ms. Parker was born.
If Ms. Parker's birth year is 1967 (From Catherine's 1970 death date) then, again, three years passed from the time Catherine met Ben and the time Ms. Parker was born.
Ben says that it was many years before his and Catherine's lips touched, any way you spin it, how is three years "many years"? In other words, is Ben really possibly her father?
"Exposed" also gives us other information. Catherine Parker went to Ben's for the first two weeks of every April. If Catherine Parker was "murdered" (faked suicide) on April 13th, 1970, (a Monday), calendar dates provide that she would have completed her usual two week stay with Ben. On the other hand, if it was April 13th, 1979, (a Friday), calendar dates show that she wouldn't have finished her stay with Ben yet.
The writers were incredibly inconsistent with their dates and I believe they realized this because, by the fourth season, they either didn't use DSA, but memories to show the past, or avoided placing a date on the DSA. Notice how in "The Inner Sense" the date Broots pulls up for the DSA is not displayed in the bottom left hand corner but on a completely different display. June 18th is the date displayed, two months and 5 days after Catherine's supposed death. During these two months, where has Catherine been? I propose that she was with Ben…i.e. he knows more than he's telling.
"Exposed" offers another interesting tidbit regarding the fact that Jarod's age in 1967 DSAs looks to be the same in 1974 DSAs, one would expect a seven years' difference. Casting wise, I understand that they'd want to stick with only one actor, but they could have changed the DSA dates to fit that. The time frames are remarkably inconsistent.
Further revelations come from the episodes "A Virus Among Us" and "Ranger Jarod." In "A Virus Among Us," it is confirmed, by Raines, that Jarod was four when he came to the Centre. Thusly, Jarod was born in 1959 (Four years previous to 1963 when he came to the Centre.) "Ranger Jarod" shows that the first day that Ms. Parker and Jarod met was October 7th, 1969. This 1969 date fits with Catherine's death in 1970.
So, what's right, and what's wrong?
Anyway, if you're still with me here, look for the story soon…I hope the muses decide to talk with me and help me along. I wanted to have the story ready today because it's January 3rd and that's Ms. Parker's birthday, but when I can't write, I can't write. GRRR. I hate writer's block. Thanks for wasting your time on my pathetic observances about the Pretender. Please send me any dates you feel are relevant! I'd appreciate it immensely.