My take on the Flawed Copy of the Lighthouse:
Cat note wrote:mid october 05
Today a strangest thing has happened. When I woke up there was a black cat inside the lighthouse. I clearly remember locking all the doors and windows before going to bed - yet - there he was. I have no idea how he could get inside. That bothers me. I named him Einstein, since he's apparently capable of breaking the time and space barrier as he wishes. Probably all cats do, but this particular one did that in front of my very eyes. Well, not exactly, but it's undeniable that he's here now. Just wondering if that has anything to do with my ability to build cross-dimension door with my karma arm. Guess we'll see in time.
This seems to suggest that Einstein the cat has special powers. But what if that cat is in fact an ordinary cat? Then how would he be able to get in and out of the Lighthouse?
Unless...
It wasn't the same Lighthouse.
Vortex brought my attention to the theory going around that the Lighthouse is a 'flawed copy'. Maybe it is, one that was created when Mur first started to test his karma abilities on it. Not only did it make a copy, but that copy left the Core and formed in the Root. That's where it gained the coordinates nearby the Root. The flaw? 304.
How did 304 become part of the Root locations via the Lighthouse? It was a glitch made from using the unrefined karmic powers on the Lighthouse. Somehow the teleporter formed in those blue rooms was geared to 304 when in reality it was supposed to be geared to something closer to 45-something or 55-something.
This flaw could also affect Murtaugh himself. It's possible that because the Lighthouse was now in two locations, the Submachine systems tried to compensate by trying to put Murtaugh in both places at once. Maybe he didn't notice that he was switching between the original and the flawed copy all the time, maybe every couple hours or so. In his haste to refine his karmic powers and build the portal, he wouldn't notice little changes, a misplaced brick here and there. Einstein, however, remained in the original Lighthouse, and Mur only saw him when he himself was in the original Lighthouse. Notice it doesn't specifically say in the note that he checked the windows and doors
after he saw Einstein, but only
before he saw Einstein. This means that he could have checked the flawed copy's windows and doors, switched to the original, and found Einstein inside.
Liz could have known something like this would happen. That's why she didn't want Mur to leave, because there was a fifty-fifty chance that he would end up getting lost outside the Core. Mur misunderstood Liz's intentions and left anyway, and as a result he spent a good chunk of time finding his way through the rest of the Subnet.
The Player also ends up in this flawed copy in Sub2, which is why we never see the Core after we leave until Sub7, because throughout that whole time we were following Mur's path.
---
As always, please leave comments and suggestions
