"Time travel. That takes me back. Or is it forward?"

Pardon me as I butcher an old Who quote. There are some lovely ones from 2005 Who s3 too. "timey-wimey" (not plot-spoilery) comes immediately to mind, from Blink.

At first I thought askeye was right about how things are supposed to be, but Zenkitty makes a good point. For some reason, Henry seems to remember more of Timeline B than he should.

Henry should definitely remember Timeline A. Henry should remember the attempt at Timeline B. However, after Carter interferes, he should only remember up until the point that Carter stops him from saving Kim, generating Timeline C.

On the other hand, Henry knows that he was successful in saving Kim, but the universe began to unravel, requiring Carter to go back in time to stop Henry from saving Kim. And considering that supposedly they're best friends, maybe they've talked about what happened in the other timeline... a month did elapse. (Maybe this is the explanation?)

Then again... it could be an inconsistency. Wouldn't be the first time that a scifi show got it wrong.

Eureka. How I missed you!

I wonder if he will somehow keep that savvy, maybe subconsciously, or if he lost it with his memories?

It will be interesting to see if little bits come back from time to time.

Does Henry only blame Jack? Jack couldn't have gotten back to that timeline without other people's help, and presumably if there were no Jack, Stark or someone would have done it. Maybe going to work for General Dynamics is a plan to get all of them.

Perhaps the combined effect of all the things that happen by random chance perhaps not happening that way again would lead to fairly significant changes in short order?

That's a pretty common assumption in time-travel fiction, such as Ray Bradbury's "Sound of Thunder." Allyson being head of General Dynamics and the boy absorbing something from the Artifact are already big changes.

I came up with my theory at work when I should have been filing, so I forgot that Henry shouldn't remember Timeline B.

Then I also wondered if maybe Henry's messed with the time lines before this and we aren't really on Timeline E or G or something.

It will be interesting to see where the show takes this.

It would be totally cool if we find out later that Henry's actually tried many times to save Kim, and it never works out, and he's remembering a hundred years' worth of different expressions of those four years, and he's the only one who knows all the things that have happened/not happened. And he's wiped out Jack's memory like twelve times.

Cool, and scary.

It would be totally cool if we find out later that Henry's actually tried many times to save Kim, and it never works out...

Wouldn't he age? Time travel is so confusing.

If he were Teal'c, sure. Actually, I don't know. I think that's a wriggly bit that I would exploit however best fit my story. Just make up a different mechanism for travel.

Seeing as, yes, Henry does in fact remember those four years of bliss from Timeline B, and with Henry's "I would do it again, even knowing what I know now", I wouldn't be surprised that after saying goodbye to Kim, he sent his memory back in time as well.

I was still holding out hope for the "Stark sent his mind back" theory, but his attitude just doesn't fit that of a man who's gone back in time for a second chance at a life with his lost love. Or maybe he's still reeling from having caused Kim's death with his obsession.

As for aging, it's the mind that went back, not the body, and not the brain. So I'd say no to the aging. Trying to remember the Mind/Brain argument from Philosophy 101... but my mind is going. Or maybe it's the brain...

I'm thinking that Jack's interest in that book of sonnets indicates that somewhere deep down there is some residual memory. (Just because Jack doesn't really seem like he'd usually be a sonnet reading guy.)