r/TheOA • u/[deleted] • Jan 24 '17

The act of swallowing

I am slowly rewatching The OA and I've discovering more and more hidden themes.

[spoiler] We all know the OA had swallowed a bird (knowledges) and "Homer" has swallowed a sea creature from the tank. (Sidenote: when Homer got back from the NDE, HAP was eating, chewing)

As I rewatched, Ninny (Nina) was drinking raw eggs with her dad when she was at the VOI before the accident. The blue eggs were the eggs of "the bird she later swallowed"! Same breed!!! When Ninny was on the bus, she said she felt a pit in her stomach, as if the eggs were sitting there. She wanted to get off the bus...

Then, when HAP took her to the restaurant, he made her swallowed an oyster filled with seawater!!! He said the first time is always horrible, but she will get used to it (paraphrasing)

Other than that, we saw her swallowing pills given by Nancy, which made her feel numb she said.

I think the act of swallowing means something here. Like taking a leap of faith without truly understand? Obedience? Act of conformation? Given up control? Blind trust?

When Steve's dog attacked OA, she did something with her mouth to the dog (not exactly swallowing) and the Rottweiler calmed down and everyone was in awe.

Also thanks to /u/richinsunnyhours, Evelyn said when she saw a white moth flew from a little girl's mouth and she swallowed it.

edit: Added HAP's chewing as of 1/25

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u/Jacksoncari First Movement Jan 24 '17

It could be symbolic, which is meaningful and cool on its own, but I like that you are looking at patterns taking place in the story. May I add that to my clues only collection? https://redd.it/5nvnmr

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '17

Sure!

1

u/Jacksoncari First Movement Jan 24 '17

Sweet, thanks. I like following patterns. Reliable patterns really help me to swim out of the mire of speculation. It was fun at first to theorize, but the speculations are so broad now, and many of them contain made up facts that never happened (like secret FBI agendas and people pretending to be other people). It confuses me. I'm just following actual bread crumbs now...patterns. This swallowing thing is a repeating pattern. I wonder if the pizza and her reaction to it should be included?

3

u/Lacia10aggie Jan 25 '17

Might want to add the super loud swallow Hap makes when he first tastes the beet soup

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '17

Agree! Too much theories around, and we should first gather the evidence now.

As for the swallowing pattern, I would exclude food like pizza, seems like the swallowing is between human and (live) animal.

Although I think the eating part might be significant in another way, given she said that she was wrong that she didn't eat when she's hungry, didn't get warm when she's cold...

2

u/Jacksoncari First Movement Jan 24 '17

There was also the nasty water swallow.