Last Five Season Five Episode Titles Feature Mind-Blowing Connection

There’s a bizarre literary link between the episode titles of the last four episode titles in this season, and it all has to do with dear departed Dale.

This theory is currently being discussed on our forums in this thread, started by member jwcoombs. As has been revealed, the last five episode titles are:

Episode 512-“Remember”

Episode 513-“Forget”

Episode 514-“Spend”

Episode 515-“Try”

Episode 516-“Conquer”

The theory is that they all refer to a speech about a watch Dale made in the season one episode “Vatos,” when asked why he was always winding his watch. Dale tells a story about a watch, paraphrasing William Faulkner in the novel “The Sound and the Fury.”

Dale’s version is: “I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire. Which will fit your individual needs, no better than it did mine or my father’s before me. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.”

The image below illustrates the scene, to refresh your memory. Click to make bigger:

There’s a clear call back to this scene in “Remember” itself. When Deanna is trying to convince Rick to stay in Alexandria and she says its time to decide, Rick takes a moment to wind his watch, a link to civilization that he’s been carrying with him.

Faulkner’s version is a bit more eloquent than Dale’s paraphrase, and includes a passage about victory being an illusion that might foreshadow events at Alexandria:

When the shadow of the sash appeared in the curtains it was between seven and eight o’clock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather’s and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it’s rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

So there you go. The titles are referencing Faulkner by way of referencing Dale. Is there deeper significance in the connection to “The Sound and the Fury,” which is about an aristocratic Southern family that gradually falls apart over the course of 30 years? We’ll just have to watch to find out.