 During a conference call with journalists , actor John Noble called " 6 : 02 AM EST " and the next two episodes of the third season an " epic trilogy " . He elaborated " All year we 've been heading toward the fact that there seems to be an inevitable conflict between the two universes . And we 've gotten to know the people on both sides now , so we now bring it to a conclusion starting with ' 6 : 02 . ' By the next episode we start to deal with the issue because our earth starts to deteriorate . Events start to happen here which indicate that our world is degrading . And so everyone has to move into another gear and say , ' Okay , this problem is not going to go away . It 's now affecting our side . We do have a machine which we believe can assist in the resolution of this problem . ' And so the episode basically deals with the lead @-@ up in the first part of that trilogy , leading up to the use of that machine . " In the same interview , Noble called the episode 's title very critical to the series , stating " That time frame plays through the three episodes . Very important to remember as we get to the finale , that time frame . " 
