User blog comment:Cackling Shadow/Blue Beetle Betrayal/@comment-5624498-20130120205703

What we know so far is this: Impulse came back in time, in part, to stop Blue Beetle from taking over Earth, save Flash and neutralize Neutron. Thus far, we only know that Neutron's power was neutralized, but that's all we know.

Chances are, when Impulse was in the future, he only knows about Blue Beetle but doesn't know who he really is. When he goes to the past and joins the Team, he now knows that Jaime Reyes is Blue Beetle at that point. Impulse also knew nothing about a Green Beetle.

Also, we know the Scarab Jaime has isn't functioning and that the suggested means to get it to work was rebooting, which means Jaime has to be killed.

Consequently, I think the Blue Beetle, as Impulse described him, wasn't Jaime.

But that doesn't mean events won't unfold that result in the Scarab taking control of Jaime and still leading to the events Impulse knows about.

As an example: After John F. Kennedy became president, the following events took place: The Bay of Pigs invasion in an attempt to oust Fidel Castro from Cuba, the Soviets installing missiles in Cuba, plans to send man to the moon, JFK's assassination, Lyndon Johnson becomes President and the Vietnam War. You theorize that, if you go back in time and prevent JFK from becoming president, you will prevent all these events from happening.

But just because you find a way to keep JFK from becoming president doesn't mean all those events don't happen. The planned covert operative to oust Castro was in the planning stages before JFK became president, so there's no guarantee you stop the Bay of Pigs invasion by keeping JFK out of the presidency. And what if Lyndon Johnson ran for President in 1960 and gets elected? Or what if whoever ran in JFK's place picks Johnson to be V-P, wins election and then is assassinated?

What I'm getting at is this: Just because you stop one or several events from taking place doesn't mean you stop all related events. All we know is Impulse kept Nathaniel Tyron from keeping his powers as Neutron. For all we know, Flash could still die in a later event. Or Jaime might succumb to the Scarab. Or he could get kidnapped by the Reach again, killed and then the reboot takes place.

I will say that I think it is clear that the Blue Beetle Impulse knew about in the future is NOT Jaime, because if it was, then how come we know Nathaniel Tyron had his Neutron powers when Impulse left for the past, then the time stream changed so that the neutralization of Tyron's powers had taken place? I base that on this theory: If Impulse doesn't go back to the past, nobody finds Jaime on the Reach ship because even Kaldur wasn't allowed to see him and the Ambassador said Jaime was not even the business of The Light. So I believe what happened was Jaime was killed and the Reach found a new host for the Scarab.

But with all that said: Just because Jaime is still alive doesn't mean the Reach apocalypse doesn't come to pass. It's still possible it happens, but it could be that Jaime now truly does become responsible. That all depends on how events now unfold from this point forward.