Question: We see Biff groan in pain as he returns to 2015 with the stolen DeLorean. In a deleted scene we actually see Biff fade away as he is erased from existence by his actions. I assume this is because an alternate Biff now exists (or could have been killed) and so he is erased from time. If this happens to Biff, why doesn't this happen to Marty, Doc, and Jennifer? They too are replaced by alternate versions of themselves when they return and even before they return to 1985a. 1985a Biff even says in the film that Marty was in school in Switzerland, and Doc has been committed, so they too should fade away as Biff did, shouldn't they? I would say "time" was giving them time enough to correct things like in the 1st movie, but Biff faded away almost a soon as he arrived back in 2015a.
Captain Defenestrator
9th May 2009
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Chosen answer: Biff faded away because he completely changed his own past. When Marty, Doc, and Jennifer return to 1985, they're returning to the alternate timeline that Biff created. They still exist and remember their own history because without it, Biff's timeline couldn't exist and a paradox would be created.
Answer: The comics answer this question. In 1986 in the alternate timeline, Biff forced the committed Doc Brown to send him forward in time to get more sports results, but Doc tricked him and sent him back to 1884 instead, where he was shot by his own great-grandfather Buford. When he reappeared in his current time (that's how the time machine worked in this timeline), he was dead. Old Biff faded from existence because Biff never grew up to become Old Biff (because he was dead), so Old Biff no longer existed.
22nd Feb 2017
King of the Hill (1997)
Corrected entry: Hank asks Peggy if she has her bridesmaid's dress from "one of Luanne's mama's weddings." In the episode "Leanne's Saga", Luanne's mother is just now getting out of jail for attacking Luanne's father, while they were married. She could not have left jail and had any other weddings.
Correction: We don't know if or how many times Leanne was married before she met Peggy's brother. It would be a safe bet to say she's gotten married more than once.
Why would Peggy be attending any of Leanne's weddings before Leanne met Peggy's brother? Leanne doesn't seem like the type of person Peggy would be friends with.
I don't have the ability to go back and re-watch the episode currently, so don't recall if Leanne is from Texas too or Montana like Peggy. If they went back as far as Montana, it might've been a case of being a small-enough town that she didn't have a lot of choices in friends. If after, they could've met young enough for Leanne to have had a couple weddings before setting her eye on Peggy's brother. Peggy's a bold, friendly person by nature; she probably has a number of friends whom you wouldn't expect. After all, she considers Minh one.
Leanne was married to Peggy's brother. Peggy probably feels enough family connection left that she lets herself get dragged to Leanne's weddings.
28th Jan 2016
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: My question is regarding the first shot of the film. You see the back of a henchman holding a clown mask with a suitcase. Later you realize that this is the Joker, however he is in full make up. So does this mean he was standing out in broad daylight without a disguise on at the very beginning?
Answer: Yes. No reason not to. Nothing's happened yet and people in a big city like Gotham would just walk past the guy with the weird makeup and not think anything of it. (And since they wear masks in the holdup, nobody's going to think that the guy in the mask is in weird makeup under it).
Batman was shown a joker card in an evidence bag at the end of Batman Begins so would not at least some of the police be looking for him?
This doesn't mean that the general public is on the lookout for a guy in makeup.
16th Aug 2016
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: In this episode, Potter and company are being introduced to white phosphorous that is starting to be used. But in Season 2, Episode 1, "Divided We Stand", as Henry and Hawkeye come out of the O.R. a wounded soldier is brought in on a Jeep with white phosphorous burns, and they knew what to do.
Correction: Even if they knew how to deal with it at the time, the information might not have been common knowledge. As WP came to be used more frequently, the Army would send instructors to field hospitals to make certain everyone was up on the latest technique for dealing with it. (Col. Potter was also not in the earlier episode you mention, and he wants to hear the information).
Understood, but Potter was there in Season 4, Episode 24 "Deluge" when a WP case was brought in.
Remember that the main plot of this episode is that Col. Potter made a rookie mistake that almost cost a kid's life, and is fearing that he's too old to hack it as a doctor anymore. If the Army's learned something he doesn't know, he wants to know it.
Correction: "New" to the doctors on the front lines and "new" to the doctors back at HQ could be two different things.
It might be old news to the 4077th but new to the Army in general. Without asking a real Army doctor, Instructional briefings like this aren't optional. They don't ask if you already know it. The point of the scene is NOT "How many times has the 4077th already done this?" The point is "Potter thinks he's too old and can't hack it anymore, so IF the Army has learned something new, HE wants to hear it." And also shows us "Potter is on edge about something. Maybe we should call Sidney Green."
You could be the world's top expert in White Phosphorus, but if you're in the Army, and they tell you "You're going to attend a lecture on White Phosphorus," That's called an order and you do it, Mr. White Phosphorus, whether you like it or not.
Correction: Captain Simmons said the new weapon is "white phosphorus rounds." Phosphorus before then was likely used as part of artillery shells.
Correction: I know you can't worry about MASH's timeline or you'll go insane, but six seasons pass between this episode and that one. The Army medics could have learned some new things about treating the injuries in whatever time passed. And again, Col. Potter thinks he's slipping in this episode, so he wants to hear every word, and that's the main point of the scene.
10th Dec 2008
Monk (2002)
Question: I haven't yet seen this episode, but why is it called 'Mr. Monk and his 100th case'? Natalie and Julie gave Monk a hundred trophies at one time for doing 100 cases. Doesn't that break continuity, then if THIS is his 100th case?
Chosen answer: It's his 100th case for the San Francisco Police Department. When Natalie and Julie gave him the trophies, they were for cases overall. The total was actually a few short, but they gave him 100 because it's a nice, even number, which Monk likes.
Actually the total was a few more not less. They said it was 104 and they rounded down to make it an even 100. And Natalie and Julie explain they talked to captain stottlemyer and he let them look at monk's files, insinuating all of his 104 cases were for the San Francisco police dept so it is a continuity error they ignored for the 100th episode.
I'd meant the total number of trophies. Julie and Natalie tell him that it's only been 94 or so, but they got Monk 100 trophies because he'd appreciate the nice, orderly round number over having an accurate amount.
Answer: I read somewhere the reason Biff faded away was Lorraine shot him in the alternate timeline for murdering her husband, George.
I hadn't heard that one, could be in a novelization or something. This is entirely my own speculation with nothing official to support it; however, it could be that because Doc and Marty are trying to correct the timeline, he and his siblings' removal from history happens gradually, as they get closer or further from the act of their trying to set things right. Biff doesn't know or care and is actively trying to change history, so the moment he returns to 2015, he vanishes all at once.
Captain Defenestrator
If you have the DVD or Blu-ray, watch the deleted scene of Biff vanishing and turn on the commentary. It will confirm that Biff was murdered, which is why he was erased from existence.