NICOLE SCENE FIT

So I've been thinking about the two different endings for the Nicole Wallace storyline on 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'. The East Coast got to see the ending in which she escaped; the West Coast saw the finale where the femme fatale was finished off.

For nearly a week both endings were available for viewing at NBC's web site so that people could vote on whether or not Nicole Wallace should live or die. And after the votes were tallied, it was decided she would be back to bedevil Detectives Goren and Eames another day. So in the official canon and timeline of Toobworld, her heart - or lack thereof - will go on.

However.....The most basic tenet of Toobworld is that if it's broadcast, it's part and parcel of the TV Universe. Both endings were broadcast, so who could they both be part of the same TV Universe?

Easy. Same universe; different dimension.

We can thank 'Sliders', one of the Toobworld essentials, for the escape clause. What the West Coasters witnessed was the alternate version that played out in a parallel dimension. Perhaps it was the 'West Wing' World, so they can be assured that Nicole Wallace will never be a threat to President Jed Bartlet.

Or it could be the evil mirror universe made famous by the 'Star Trek' franchise (and "prequelled" in an episode of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"). Now, one might think an evil universe might be the place where such a vile character (Nicole was a child-killer!) might flourish. But as every life has a ripple effect in others, perhaps Nicole's death better served Satan's purpose by removing that influence.

But there is yet another theory to splain away both versions of Nicole Wallace's fate; one that would technically keep them both in the same dimension.

We know that the ultimate decision was for her to live. Perhaps originally she did indeed die as seen by the people on the East Coast, but something cosmic intervened to go back in time and change history.

In the version in which she died, Detective Eames shot Nicole twice in the chest. (The pathologist even congratulated her on her shooting skills.)

But what if somebody from the future did a bit of quantum leaping and entered Eames' life; making the choice to miss her target? Somebody with a holographic partner armed with a "Ziggy" computer which worked out the analysis and knew that everything would be better off, surprisingly, if Nicole lived. Once their places were traded back, and the visitor from the future (maybe Sam Beckett, maybe not) leapt out, Alexandra Eames would have not remembered what had transpired.

Well, as Mushrat used to say to Deputy Dawg, "It's pozz'ble, it's pozz'ble."

BCnU!
Tele-Toby