Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the one you know. I am The Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me and ponder the question: What if?
I am the Watcher, watching over infinite realities...
In one such reality, a man you know as Neo. Neo Anderson is given a choice...
"What truth?," asks Neo?
"That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind," responds Morpheus.
Morpheus leans back in his chair, with a smug grin on his face, his body language make it clear to both Neo and the audience that he knows what decision Neo's going to make next.
"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself," says Morpheus.
He leans forward, extending his hands, opening his palsm.
In the right is a red the left, a blue pill.
For me, as the Watcher, I've seen this scene unfold in the same way thousands of times.
"This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe," Morpheus continues.
With that, Neo looks up at us watching him, he doesn't see anything, but he senses a presence...
"Is someone there?," he says.
"But in this universe," the Watcher says.
"Wait a second," Neo says, " this isn't right.. something is... "
Morpheus's smug grin diminishes, but he continues, unabated, as we see the pills in his hands reflected in his glasses and an ethereal and almost completely transparent form of the Watcher watching, as he says.
"You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes," Morpheus says.
We all know how that story ends.
Neo takes the red pill, and becomes the one. Or so he believes.
"This can't be coincidence," Neo says, as he looks at Morpheus.
And with that, Neo sees the reflection of the Watcher in Morpheus's glasses.
On seeing me. Something no mortal is supposed to be capable of. Memories of noe's past come rushing back like a flood. In that moment. Seeing the impossible. He knows it's not his first time. But he's determined to make it his last.
Neo glances behind him, seeing nothing.
But as he turns back to Morpheus, he realizes time in the world has slowed to a crawl.
A lightning bolt, remains bright, Morpheus frozen in time...
And it's in this instant, a lifetime of choices made by a man dependent on the binary nature of reality, that it dawns on him that the real choice to be made wasn't one or the other...
In that moment, with time slowed to a crawl, Neo reaches forward, and grabs BOTH the red and blue pill, so fast Morpheus can't react, and by the time he does, Neo already has both pills in his mouth, swallowed.
And with that one act, a system dependent on the binary choice of an individual bound to binary decisions, the Matrix expands to infinite possibilities. It was both.
... As we answer the question.
What if Neo had swallowed both the red and blue pill?
Time resumes, as Neo looks in Morpheus's glasses and the image of the Watcher fades.
Morpheus looks at his hands.
"How did you?," he looks up at Neo, who is now drinking a glass of water and swallowing
Surprised and somewhat angered, Morpheus stands up.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?," he yells.
"Deja Vu...," Neo responds.
"What did you say?," Morpheus responds.
"I had to do something I knew I would have never done before. It was never an either or choice," Neo says.
Looking visibly shaken, Morpheus says "Follow Me"
Morpheus, trying to maintain composure, walks with Neo to the next room.
"Apoc, are we online?," Morpheus says, handing Cypher a phone as he wakls through the open doorway.
"Almost," Apoc responds.
"Terminate the connection," Morpheus responds.
Trinity looks over at him, "What?"
Morpheus continues walking with Neo, and sternly responds "I said. Terminate the connection."
He looks around the room, making sure his words have been heard.
"He didn't take the god damn pill again, did he?," Cypher says.
"Again?," Neo says.
Morpheus points to the seat, and says to Neo "Please. Take a seat there."
"I don't understand. You knew?," Neo said.
Trinity looks at Neo then Morpheus, she's thoroughly confused.
"What happened in there?," she says.
"Time," Morpheus says, " has never been on our side"
"But for Neo, this doesn't seem to be the case," he says, smiling, placing his hand on Neo's shoulder.
Cypher, antagonistically says "I KNEW he'd say no!"
Morpheus smiles, knowingly.
"No Cypher, you're wrong. Not only did he say yes. But he said yes to both without giving me the chance to respond or prevent him from doing so," Morpheus said, as if he was proud of his child's first steps.
Apoc "Holy shit"
Morpheus smiles "Is right"
Cypher says "You mean he stopped time?"
"That's precisely what I'm saying," Morpheus says.
Trinity, leans down at Neo and says "I need you to be honest with me, did you?"
Neo looks, nervously at the others.
"I don't know how I did it," Neo says, "But. Everything was stopped I remembered... Everything from before."
Cypher, visibly nervous, walks over, "You're lyin. Either that or you're .."
Morpheus appears a little frustrated with Cypher's confrontive attitude.
"Cypher. He's not lying. He had the pills out of my hand and in his mouth and my eyes were open the entire time and I saw nothing in between," Morpheus.
A tear streaks down Trinity's face.
"I don't understand how this is possible," Trinity says, " what do we do now?"
Cypher backs off, and walks to the other side of the room.
"The tracer program, he's gonna go under, we can't have him do it alone," Switch says.
Apoc, "I'm disconnected. It would take another five minutes to spin back up. "
Trinity looks at Morpheus, nervously, then at Neo, as a woman who is clearly in love would for someone she's concerned about, as she leans in to Neo as if to ask him if he's ok. Before she can say anything, he says...
"You did all this?," Neo says.
"Not like this," Trinity says.
Trinity looks at Morpheus, as if she's about to plead for Neo's life.
Then she looks back at Morpheus "What have you done?"
"The red pill you took is part of a tracing program. It's designed to disrupt your carrier signals so we can pinpoint your location to detach you from the Matrix."
"Why do I know what that means?," Neo says, still puzzled by why he knows what he knows.
Morpheus smiles at Neo, and looks up at Trinity with a knowing smile.
"The blue pill you took is part of a tracing program as well. Like the red pill, it's designed to disrupt your carrier signal, unlike the red pill, the blue pill disconnects you from our world."
"What does that mean?" Neo says.
"It means buckle your seat belt, Dorothy.. because Kansas, is going Bye Bye," Cypher says.
Neo breathes heavy, and leans back in his seat, as he looks at the broken mirror next to him.
The broken mirror mends itself...
Neo looks at the others, then at the mirror and asks...
"Did you," he looks at the mirror again, and then reaches out to touch the mirror...
But it's solid.
Perfectly solid.
He looks around the room, and it's then he sees every face in the room is frozen, in time.
Neo looks back at the mirror, and touches it, almost as if he's trying to make sure it's doing something that he can only vaguely remember how it responded before...
It doesn't move.
Neo stands up.
Shakily.
He then wretches, clenching his stomach as he falls to the ground, trying to throw up, but nothing is coming up.
He realizes he's sweating.
As he wipes off the sweat and the little bit of bile that had built up, he stands back up.
But no one is moving. The world around him has stopped.
He walks over to Morpheus, who is staring at where he was at the chair.
"And you then tell me, Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real, and what if I was unable to wake from that dream... ," Neo said.
He walks over to where he was sitting and the mirror.
"And I pull my hand out of the mirror, but I have a piece of the mirror still on me... "
He then points to Morpheus and says...
And then you ask me "How would I know the difference between the dream world... and the real world?"
Neo stands there, soaking it in.
Then he walks over to the window, pulls open the curtains, trying to open it, but it won't open. It won't even budge. He knocks on the window, and hears the familiar noise of knuckles on a window, and decides not to bust it open.
He walks to the door out.
It won't open either.
He tries, HARD to move the door. It just won't budge.
He then walks over to Trinity.
For the first time, he looks at her. Really looks at her. Looking at every curve of her face, looking at her hair, as he touches it, if anything just to see if it's as solid as the door and window is.
It moves. Freely.
Neo then touches her hand.
Lifts it to his mouth.
And says to her.
"I remember everything, Trinity. And I promise you. This is the last time," Neo says.
And with that, he sits down on the chair he just got up from, closes his eyes, as the world springs back to life around him when he opens them again.
"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that... "
Neo interrupts.
"I'm not the one, Morpheus. The Oracle wasn't lying, but I... we just didn't want to hear that. "
And with that, the entire room collectively gasps.
"But if you're not. If Morpheus was wrong," Trinity begins to say...
As Neo interrupts "He wasn't wrong. But he is now. It's... "
Neo shakes his head, "Hard to explain."
"Then would you care to explain it, because ya sure have a lot of people waiting on pins and needles for you to spit it out," Cypher says.
Neo glares at Cypher.
Cypher realizes he knows his truth.
The glare is enough though, as Neo stands up, and looks at Morpheus, who is standing motionless, dumbstruck.
Neo stands in front of him. Looks at him. And through the reflection in his glasses... He sees...
Us...
And then Neo says "But I do know who is. And I think this is his way of asking for our help,"
We pull away. Faster now. Our heart beating for the first time in a millenia.
... As the Watcher...
I've watched countless stories told across infinite worlds. But unlike every story I've ever come across, I have never come across a story where I've played an unwilling participant in where I cannot predict the outcome.
Where does this story go from here?
The Watcher looks at Neo in the reflection, and we see the sleightest glimpse of a smile appear on the Watcher's face...
I suspect in those eyes might be the answer to that question and more...
In a story that has only begun to unfold.
And with that, as the room around him stirs, unsure how to react, Neo smiles knowing back.