I am rewatching the show - and them not making backups of stuff they had access to is a glaring plot hole lol wondering if it was ever mentioned as to why or if it was just glanced over for the sake of story.
Did they ever say why they didn't make scans or backups of the flash drive or bible?
SpoilerSpoilerJesse says something like, "this is THE hottest potato I've ever seen."
They wanted nothing to do with the flash drive. Copying it is suicide.
Yeah I remember that part. A huge part of that season was them trying to find someone to give it to asap
yeee I just wrapped season 4! :)
Awesome! Honestly the golden age of the show IMO
when jesse comes in, stuff goes downhill - the charm was bruce and jeff being not vin diesel or rock clones and still getting down - kinda felt like the end lol
yup i just seen that episode yesterday! I also am referencing the bad guys doing it more so than mike and the gang lol
Regardless of how encrypted it was, they clearly had the ability to read it. Writing a copy in a notebook was certainly possible.
Yeah I responded to the other guy about it but I am pretty sure I’m just mistaken. It had the encryption at one point, which is why they needed that computer guy but when they had it it wasn’t encrypted. They really just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.
it was paper encryption with a key code - they needed the Cryptographers - basically physical encryption ;)
YES THIS ENTIRELY - there was a conversation towards the end of season 4 where they just needed clearance to digest the agent numbers to line it all up right? that would mean they had physical access, and could see it - the bible is just a blunder, they even talk about document scanners in earlier episodes, you can high quality scan a book in an evening if the dude i know that tells me he can do manga issues in an hour lol
Video recorder and turn the pages takes perhaps two hours
we have books lost for a long ass time where the right people would go into the private place and go to the book and do just that with a gopro or similar lol oftentimes higher end libraries
i mean there are entire archive org groups that scan books larger than a bible? we have people scanning and cataloguing old encyclopedia sets - folks r wild lol
No encryption that i recall, just nobody wants it cuz of the chaos - the flash drive is the book decrypted essentially.
I agree its dangerous to have, I always assumed that was the case, but had to ask to see if my adhd missed something lol
I know there are archive groups like that, but they are not that. Those teams have a lot of equipment, money and time that the group does not have, not to mention the necessity of keeping it a secret.
About the encryption i think I am just wrong. I swear there is a scene where they discuss the encryption somewhere but I must just be crazy. The reason they don’t want a copy is because that flash drive is about as dangerous as possible and they do not want a copy
No your right. There is a line where Jesse say this thing is encrypted six ways from sunday so youd need a supercomputer to decrypt it. And michael says thats probably for the best. Its the conversation they have right before they go to hand it off to marv
There is a convo right before jesse and michael go to hand off the list to marv whdre jesse says. This thing is encypted six ways from sun sunday so wed need a supercomputer to copy it and michael says thats probably for the best then
They said in one of the episodes that it was encrypted to hell. They'd need a super computer to duplicate it. As far as the bible, it was only part of the code. You could've had as many copies of it as you wanted but only Barrett had the appropriate files to go with it. Without it, the bible was worthless.
This is completely correct
they clearly read it on a computer towards the end of season 4 and remark how theyd just need the agents id to line them up to crimes though? the flash drive is the book decrypted, if you have a scene to show me where thats ever said otherwise, would be cool!
You're right, the flash drive was made using the bible and Barrett's documents by Justin Walsh, the Intelligence expert Mark Sweeney was referred to after at the mid season finale. Those numbers turned out to be the federal ID numbers of all the agents working in the secret organization. All they had to do was, to quote Brennen, "turn those numbers into names and turn those names into corpses".
lol i mean in any sort of agency, or shit even a LEO at times - in documents, you often just end up a number so if stuff is copied its hard to cross reference - without the initial database.
They say the drive is encrypted and left it at that. Somehow it’s encrypted enough to not let you make copies, but access to it is as easy as plugging it into any PC.
As for the Bible, they don’t really address it, but from a rational standpoint I think duplicating it in private would be slow. There are book scanners that are fast (even in that time), but then you risk bringing it out in public. So that never bothered me.
okay so the writers just had a very weird relationship with accurate knowledge? they read the thing on screen towards the end of season 4, and it showed the agency members as just numbers, and they needed a way to line the names up and needed clearance - sam remarked this - what was on screen and talked about made me wonder if they couldnt always read the drive or if it was plot armor lol
youd need to have a specific bible from the era of your family bible, in my case that would be over 100 years, the bible sort of makes complete copies often lol they had the bible at Michael's loft for a day or two didnt they? im happy you brought up document scanners - the black and white ones these days are insane but deff were still good back then, and a 16" one would cakewalk two pages of that bible at a time and get the table - show is edging on perfect but that sinkhole bugs me lol
Well making a copy of the Bible would be really difficult seeing as it’s a large book. Scanning it would take ages and wouldn’t even guarantee that it goes well/ copies all the code accurately.
As for the flash drive, it thought they couldn’t because it was so heavily encrypted? Either that or they straight up didn’t want to because it was such a dangerous thing to have. I can’t remember exactly