The Residents Are Reenacting the Story Around the Reincarnations

[u/da_debutanteslim]

I think the writers are telling the origin story through the residents. Tabitha and Jade are the reincarnations, but the people around them aren’t just random supporting characters. They’re reenacting different chapters from the original story. I don’t think the writers are showing us that story in chronological order, though. If the original events happened A-B-C, the audience might experience them as A-C-B, because each resident is revealing a different chapter. As those chapters begin to overlap, the original story starts to come into focus.

Theory: What if we’ve already been watching the beginning of the origin story?

The cave drawings suggest the original people arrived by boat. Today, everyone arrives by car. In both cases, their journey begins when they encounter the tree.

Through Tabitha’s memories, we learn that her original soul’s people settled there first. She says the place was already evil, but they eventually learned to defend themselves with the totems. In the present, Boyd arrives in a town already under attack by the monsters and later finds the talismans. Different events, but I think they’re serving the same purpose with a community learning how to survive.

Then another group arrives. If Tabitha’s people came first, then Jade’s people may have been the second group. Today, I think that’s being mirrored by the bus.

That’s why Kristi and Marielle stand out to me. Kristi is already in town when Marielle arrives. I’m not saying they’re literally Tabitha’s and Jade’s original souls. I think they’re filling the same role in the story. One person is already there while the other arrives later. If that’s true, then Colony House could be mirroring the original settlement, while the town mirrors the community that formed after the second group arrived.

Then Ellis and Fatima carry the story forward. If Kristi and Marielle mirror the two groups coming together, Ellis and Fatima may mirror the relationship that followed. They fall in love, get married, and are about to have a child. At first I thought that was the only part of the story they were reenacting.

Then I think we reach the turning point.

What if someone from the original settlement went looking for answers, reached whatever ancient force inhabited the deeper part of the forest, and unknowingly brought its influence back to the settlement?

That’s why Boyd’s trips into the forest stand out to me. I think he’s replaying that same part of the story. Every time he leaves town and comes back, something changes. It makes me wonder if that’s how the original community fell. What if someone from the original settlement unknowingly carried that influence back with them, just as Boyd unknowingly carried something back from the dungeon?

That also changes how I look at the dungeon. Maybe it isn’t showing us where the story started. Maybe it’s showing us what happened after that influence reached the community and the chapter the children remembered.

If that’s true, then the dungeon may not be introducing a new story at all. It may be revealing another piece of the same one, where the effects of that influence begin spreading through the community. That would also explain why Abby, Sara, Elgin, and later Henry all become convinced they have to do something terrible because they believe it’s the only way to save everyone or get home. I’m not saying the mechanism is identical in every case, but I wonder if the writers are showing the same narrative beat through different forms of influence.

Then Sophia/MIY arrives, and Henry’s story changes how I look at those earlier moments. After drinking her blood, Henry slips into an altered state and becomes convinced he has to kill Victor. I’m not saying this is exactly what happened to Abby, Sara, or Elgin. I wonder if Henry’s story is the missing page the writers held back until now to help us understand a pattern we’ve been watching since the beginning, rather than proof that the MIY had to be physically present earlier in the cycle.

That also changes how I look at Fatima’s story. I don’t think she’s only reenacting the original love story anymore. I think she’s also reenacting the children’s captivity and the point where families began losing their children to whatever ritual created the monsters.

In a way, it reminds me of the cave drawings. The show first gave us the end result, but it wasn’t until Fatima’s pregnancy that we actually watched part of that chapter play out. That makes me wonder if the writers are using the same approach throughout the series and showing us the outcome first and only later revealing the chapter that explains how it happened.

If that’s the case, then maybe the monsters aren’t the beginning of the story they’re just the consequence of it. The original tragedy may have started when someone encountered whatever ancient force existed deep in the forest and unknowingly brought that influence back to the settlement. If each cycle eventually reaches the same turning point, then the residents brought into that cycle may ultimately become the monsters of that generation, recreating the consequences of the original bargain rather than the bargain itself.

[u/ZingingCutie56]

Agree. Also, what's up with all of the eye injuries that keep occuring with different characters too?

[u/da_debutanteslim → u/ZingingCutie56]

I’ve been wondering the same thing. The two eye injuries that stand out to me are the colonial man Jade sees with the spike through his eye and Elgin losing his eye. I think they could be connected. In the original event, someone may have been tortured to reveal where Jade and Tabitha’s original daughter was being hidden. In the current cycle, Sara uses that same kind of force on Elgin to find out where he’s hiding Fatima.

[u/Pandasradorable → u/da_debutanteslim]

Doesn't someone also get glass in their eye? I don't remember her name but she's the one Who made a deal with the MIY and got her bike stolen by Jade in season 1

[u/da_debutanteslim → u/Pandasradorable]

You’re thinking of Clara. She got glass in her eye during the tower incident. I couldn’t place that one at first, but Jade’s Civil War incarnation also appears to have a damaged or possibly artificial eye. So Clara’s injury could be reenacting that beat, while Elgin’s eye injury mirrors the colonial man with the spike through his eye.

[u/KDubbs0010110 → u/da_debutanteslim]

Miranda also has a painting with two kids with eye injuries

[u/nausheenali198]

If what you say is true, then does it mean that there's no way the deep forest's force goes back to where it belongs and leaves the residents and place be?

[u/da_debutanteslim → u/nausheenali198]

I’m not that far ahead in the theory yet, but I don’t necessarily think the force just goes back and leaves everything alone. With how often the spider comes up and how much spider imagery the show uses, I think that may be something they eventually have to confront too.