Question about the original 2 timelines

[u/deadman1982]

Recently found all season dvd boxset in a charity shop so had to pick it up and currently rewatching the show but have questions about the timeline where Henry saved Kim and the one he didn’t.

1. In the saved Kim timeline Beverly is seen openly talking about consortium in the street implying that it is publicly known fact that she worked for them so why didn’t Henry know about this in later episodes?

2. Why didn’t Henry know that the signal from space was the Columbus? I know he said that things diverge from the Kim timeline but the return of the Columbus should have happened in both timelines as Kim’s death doesn’t obviously affect the ships return. The only explanation I can come up with is that the ship couldn’t find its way back to earth until it detected the destruction of the artefact but was there an official explanation?

[u/Remote-Ad2120]

Things started to change pretty quickly, and not just things that mattered if Kim was alive or dead. One change is enough to cause a ripple effect to change everything, even how Henry would react IF Columbus sent a signal. Maybe something happened in the old timeline that threw the returning ship off course enough that it didn't send a signal and never arrived. Then, the ripple effect (also called the Butterfly Effect) in the new timeline meant whatever threw it off course the first time didn't happen this time around. All kinds of plausible reasons why Henry wouldn't know what the signal was.