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

Dates, Dates, Who's Got the Correct Dates?

Ginger has just called to my attention the fact that Lyle's high school reunion was in 1983 (As proven in the episode "Crash.") if this is true, assuming Lyle was either 17 or 18 when he graduated, he would have been born in either 1966 or 1965, respectively.

If Ms. Parker really was born in 1959, how could her twin have been born 6 or 7 years later? Was he held back in school? Or was Ms. Parker in fact born in 1966 or 65?

The more you think about it, the more confusing and convoluted it becomes.

Were the different seasons working from different time frames?

Staceysedge also made me wonder something. What if, as she told me, Catherine Parker did not go to Raines' cabin in 1970, but in 1971? It's entirely possible that it wasn't until 1971, except that, one would think the reason that she'd faked her suicide was because she knew she was going to have the baby and she wanted to keep the baby from falling into the hands of the Centre. That was the explanation I though of when I saw it. She knew she would be killed after she gave birth to Ethan, so she "killed" herself before they could, only to later actually be killed by Raines. She figured that at least Ethan would be free, but Raines got his claws in anyway. But then, I don't think she ever said she left to keep Ethan from falling into the Centre's hands. However, again, another thing I've thought of, if she successfully vanished for an entire year, why would she go to Raines? Was she with Raines for a year?

Phenyx, I'm confused by what you said. I never commented that Jarod and Ms. Parker met right when he came to the Centre…where'd you get that from? Sorry if I confused you, I merely commented that given that they met in 1969 and Catherine died in 1970, the 1970 date made more sense because they were about the same age when they met as they were when she died. It just made more sense than Catherine dying in 1979 in this case. And, yes, Jarod could have started school earlier than most…perhaps he started with first grade and not kindergarten…hmm I hadn't thought of it before. It just worked for me because I was four when I started kindergarten.

Speaking of Jarod's schooling, something always confused me about that. His mother told him (shown in "Stolen") that he was going to a special school…did the Centre tell her that? Did she find out that they were lying and refuse to let them take him so they stole him? It's viable.

Pez 7701, you made me think of this one: Which episode tells us that Jarod was thirty when he escaped? I'm just wondering… was it the first one? I don't have it on tape so I can't check.

I think my VCR is getting tired from doing all of this work, but I love my tape collection…Sigh, the Pretender any hour, every hour. Particularly IOTH, which I even copied to another tape to keep from wearing it out…I think I've reached the area of certifiably crazy. Oh well!

Special note to Calypso, of course this is harder than quantum physics! I learned that years ago and yet I'm still confused by the Pretender…that should say something. You know, I once explained the theory of relativity to a teacher using a Braeburn apple, and she understood it…I'm very proud of that…now if only I could explain the Pretender…

I recently came across another date that doesn't fit. Father Thio's letter in "IOTH" has the date of 13-10-08. Since he's in Europe, the day is shown before the month, thusly, he wrote the letter on October 13th 1908. Now, if he wrote the letter the day he died, and he died the day that the cryptkeeper's family died, how does this work? Supposedly the cryptkeeper arrived in America 100 years later, that would mean 2008… What's wrong with that? I think that's one of the biggest discrepancies I've found.

I decided, to make everything a bit less complicated, that I should construct a timeline. Italicized dates have been calculated given information from certain episodes.

1901- The Centre was founded. (100 years prior to "IOTH")

1936- Catherine Parker was born. ( Tombstone date in "Toy Surprise" & "Someone to Trust")

1955- Ben meets Catherine (15 years prior to her death in 1970. 15 years is courtesy of "Exposed")

1958, January 3rd- Ms. Parker was born (Given Catherine's death in 1979 & that she's the same age when she recieves the Inner Sense in 2001.)

1963, February 4th- Jarod comes to the Centre ("Pilot" & first season opener says 1963)

1964- Ben meets Catherine (15 years prior to her death in 1979. 15 years is courtesy of "Exposed")

1965, January 3rd- Lyle is born (If he was 18 when he graduated high school in 1983. 1983 date is courtesy of "Crash")

1966, January 3rd- Lyle is born (If he was 17 when he graduated high school in 1983. 1983 date is courtesy of "Crash")

1967, January 3rd- Ms. Parker was born (Given Catherine's death in 1970 & that she's the same age when she recieves the Inner Sense in 2001.)

1969, October 7th- Jarod and Ms. Parker first meet ("Ranger Jarod")

1970, April 13th - Catherine Parker fakes her suicide (DSA from "Toy Surprise")

1970, June 18th- Catherine Parker enlists the help of Raines to give birth to Ethan ("Inner Sense")

1970, October/November/ December- Ethan is born (9 months after Catherine's "death," 8 months after, or 7 months after, depending on how far along in the pregnancy she was.)

1979- Catherine Parker death date (Tombstone "Someone to Trust)

1983- Lyle graduates from High School (Yearbook in "Crash")

2001- Ms. Parker is the same age as Catherine (Ms. Parker recieves the Inner Sense in "Pretender 2001" and is told by Sydney that Catherine was the same age when she received the gift.)

I'd love to add anything you've got for me! You should notice that I've italicized January 3rd in Lyle's case because this new information makes me believe it's possible that Lyle is in fact not Ms. Parker's twin… Does anyone know how old Angelo is? The episode "FX" gives the DSA date of 4-13-70 as the day he was turned into Angelo from Timmy, but he seems younger than Parker and Jarod at that point in time. Hmmm. The dates are so inaccurate!

On a completely non date-related question, in "The Inner Sense," as Raines is burning his things from the cabin, notice that he had his oxygen tank off. Was this to keep it from exploding when he lit a match, or what? It was highly confusing.

Also, did you notice that there's an entire line of text on Father Thio's letter that is never read? I paused it over and over to read what it said, but I can only make out part of it:

I fear putting such dow-

-ish to unburden my soul of this know-

-as soon as possible.

Later, when they show the letter again to see the part where it says "she holds the key to finding them still, you can fill in the ends of the sentences, though the first one makes no sense:

I fear putting such down on paper

-ish to unburden my soul of this knowledge to you

-as soon as possible.

Another thing with Catherine's gravestone: Did you notice how it's not in the same place in any of the epsiodes? In "Toy Surprise" there are gates surrounding the area, with trees beyond the gates, but the area around the grave is open. However, in "Someone to Trust" the graveside is surrounded by trees… What happened there? In "Corn Man" the grave's back in an open space…but the gates are still gone. If the producers couldn't shoot in the same location, they should have at least tried to make it look like it was the same location. Tsk tsk, the inconsistency of it all.

Just some observations… Anyway, thanks for reading this crazy ramble, if in fact you did actually read it. I didn't expect to have so many people read it because it's not a story. But hey, thanks for letting me ramble to you. Anything you have to add will be helpful in solving this little mystery. Send me comments if you've got them! Love Ya All! Buh Bye!