Answers and Questions - Yes, there are spoilers.

Terry Drosdak, Daytimer, Office Manager

Hi, I've lurked for a while, but this is my first post, so please be gentle. I couldn't decide if this belonged in another thread, so I started a new one...mods, please move it if necessary. I have some theories and some questions. Please forgive me if these have been stated elsewhere.

Theory One, as to why Green Taylor Simms waits for so long to start killing off his ancestors:

Simply, he waited to start his killing spree until Rant was old enough to have committed the murders. I have several branching theories as to why. Possibly he wanted to cast suspicion on Rant, in case GTS was caught...the DNA would be the same. Maybe he wanted to demonstrate his power to Rant, to get him to do his bidding and kill Irene. Maybe he wanted to be able to blackmail Rant into doing the same. It's also possible that he did it just to screw with Rant, or to toughen him up, getting him used to violent death so that when it came time to kill Irene, he'd be able to do it.

Theory Two, as to why Chester/Rant are so different from Green Taylor Simms:

We know almost nothing about the "unaltered" time line that existed before Charles Casey went back and started messing with history. At the very least, he had a different father than in the Rant timeline. Very possibly the Irene Casey in the unaltered timeline was NOT raped at age 13, and may have had a more normal life. Of course, she could have ended up marrying anyone from a nice guy (doubtful) to a crazy abusive asshole (I think, more likely). So Charles Casey's home life would have been very different than Rant's. Even if Irene was raped and abandoned, she could have ended up a single mother, without any male role model for Charles. In the Rant timeline, at least the youngest Casey had a stable (if odd) home life.

I also think that Irene's rape in the Rant timeline had the effect of sort of arresting her personality, so that she never really became an adult...her endless artistic efforts and spiking her food with trash seem like something that a teenager would do, rather than a fully grown woman. And she seems to me to have a rather undeveloped and squeamish attitude about sex, and understandably so.

Those are my theories, please try not to laugh too hard. On to the questions...any answers would be greatly appreciated.

1) What happened to Chester Casey? If he flashed back, where would he go, what would he have done? Chuck gives at least theories as to what the other characters that dissapeared would have done, but no mention that I remember of Chester.

2) What was the point of Rant going to Waxman's dentist, other than the obvious pain it would cause?

3) What was the point of the Waxman character at all? Just to elaborate on the mechanics of flashing back? Is there some literary purpose the character fulfills? Otherwise he just seems like a throw-away sort of character, to me.

Thanks for reading, and any answers or discussion would be great appreciated!