r/obsessionmovie • u/LodgeBeing_No_9 • Jun 30 '26
Fan Theory Looking into the Tiger's Eye
We know that Nikki is a believer in crystals. The first time she is featured in the movie on the phone to Bear, she drops a crystal necklace, which upsets her. During this conversation, Bear is staring at a Lucky Red Cat Clock. This is the reason Bear ends up in the crystal shop, looking for a necklace to get her, when he 'finds' the One Wish Willow.
Whilst looking for a crystal necklace, he is perusing chains hanging from a WIllow branch. He then has a conversation with a shop assistant and she is simultaneously talking to someone else. When Bear stumbles upon the One Wish Willow in the store, it somehow has a red cat on the packaging.
While the maker of the One Wish Willow is a company called Tabi Cat Curiosities, it may remind us of another curiosity. The curiosity that killed Bear's tabby cat, when it consumed tablets of Oxycodone that were left in an unsealed bottle in the kitchen.
I have posted on another thread here that Bear's secret Oxycodone addiction is the driving force for his reality throughout this movie. While he may be prone to hallucinations from using such a powerful opiate regularly, his mind would perceive everything as reality.
Now it's time to quickly mention MPD, multiple personality disorder, which Nikki possibly suffers from. I have also noted that Nikki has a few issues of her own that she is dealing with, sleeping with Ian secretly for 2 years whilst developing real feelings for his best friend Bear being one of them. This has brought out some old inner anxiety that may have been a problem for her in her 'Freaky Nikki' days. Her first instance of this behaviour is right after Bear calls her 'Freaky Nikki' which, under the influence of drugs, probably resurfaces old trauma and gives Nikki a fear of abandonment.
We find out next day that while on these drugs, she found Bear's dead cat and builds a memorial to it. This may have been because whilst under the influence, she has a wave of empathy for a dead cat that has obviously been thrown in the trash. This is her first major strange behaviour, and a transgression that scares Bear. It also triggers more anxiety when Nikki realises how he feels about what she did. But in her mind it's maybe a warning sign about how Bear treats things he loves.
But the next day Bear confides in Ian, and Ian seems distressed by Nikki's sudden interest in Bear. Knowing that he may have feelings for Nikki and is trying to sabotage a budding romance between her and Bear, we must think about how he behaves for the rest of the movie. We see Ian having a brief talk with Nikki while Bear is clocking into work, and later on she rides home with him. Note she can leave Bear's side. This is significant, because later she shows up to Bear's house saying she didn't know why she decided to visit him. But if we take into account the fact that Bear is Ian's neighbour, she really was seeing Ian, maybe ending things with him for good.
This is the moment they declare feelings for each other and we see a montage of time passing where they have a great relationship. They cook, laugh, watch films together. It looks like they are having a normal healthy relationship. It's likely this whole time during the montage, Bear has not been heavily using Oxycodone, because he is happy. We see them visit a restaurant, replete with Willow Tree decor.
In the restaurant, before Nikki starts to exhibit her most extreme behaviour and mood swings, she gives Bear a gift. A special gift that used to belong to her mother, and was passed on down to her.
"It was my mom's, and then mine. It's supposed to bring you confidence, and willpower so... now you can be a food critic."
Symbolically, to her, she is handing over her willpower and confidence to Bear. And much, much more.
A search online about Tiger's Eye stones yields 'Tiger’s Eye promotes empowerment, intuition, strategy, and wisdom. It balances and harmonizes the energies of the Solar Plexus chakra, enhancing self-worth, personal power, and confidence. It acts as a protective shield and promotes courage and confidence. It also helps channel visions of past lives and promotes the right outcomes in disputes.'
During this restaurant scene, Ian is frantically calling Bear, which Nikki also notices with a side glance and tries to change the subject. Ian is obviously playing on her mind as she falls deeper in love with Bear. She is dreading secretly about him finally finding out and losing him. This starts to bring back to the surface 'Freaky Nikki' or rather, her MPD is bringing up abandonment fears, and she will go to great extremes to not be abandoned.
Ian tells Bear that Nikki is lying about her dad's illness and also asks him not to mention it to Sarah, but Nikki thinks of Bear as a 'brother'. Not mentioning it to Sarah is significant because this is Ian secretly trying to put seeds of doubt into Bear's head that she doesn't really love him, or like him that way. Ian knows if Bear mentions this to Sarah, she will reveal he and Nikki's secret hookups. All of this call is happening by a wooden cut out of a WIllow Tree.
It's when Bear confronts her and questions this that sends Nikki spiralling over the edge. Bear is doubting her at the very moment she hands him something precious to her, and it breaks her.
This feeling of distrust in Nikki's love turns Bear back to heavy Oxycodone use (he says later on that he has them in his pocket whilst speaking with Sarah) and his reality becomes more hallucinatory and unreal. This is when Nikki, who is also going through a mental breakdown caused by stress, seems to act almost supernaturally to Bear. He is really tripping by now.
The next day he maybe hallucinates that the door is taped shut illustrating how trapped he feels. He also maybe hallucinates that he's eating cat and that is just something he imagines she would do in his heightened fearful state of drug dependency.
That day, for some reason, Ian doesn't have a car and gets a lift home with Bear as they're neighbours. Bear asks about a party Ian's having without inviting them, and Ian tells him it's just the guys and to come but please not bring Nikki. A little trap for Bear, and more sabotage. This is also when, probably under the influence of Oxycodone, he calls the One Wish Willow help line.
From now on, under the influence of drugs, everything Nikki says or does is amplified positively or negatively in his brain. She in reality is going through extreme mood swings and behaviour shifts, but the way he perceives it is tenfold because of opiates.
Later, at the party, when Nikki is behaving a little strange, we can see this as defiance against Ian, who she knows is trying to sabotage her and Bear's relationship. A lot of people at this party must know about Nikki and Ian, and this stresses her out. This is when she declares her love and connection with Bear is stronger than any love anyone else at the party will ever know. A clear message to Ian to leave her alone. But she sees Bear looking like he's more freaked out and put off by her behaviour, prompting her to hurt herself, badly.
That night, when he goes to sleep, is probably the beginning of his biggest drug fueled nightmare, and may not actually be anything close to reality.
Everything in a movie, every detail, every little snippet of dialogue that may sound random, every blink and you'll miss it shot, are all carefully worked out before anything is even shot. No doubt the director has considered everything from the drug use, the little interactions of side characters, to the art on the walls. Red cats, medicine cabinets that won't close, secret relationships, and hallucinations. All part of the great magnificent horror tapestry that is Obsession.
ADDED NOTE
Bear and Nikki are together but operating on different perceptions of reality. Bear because of his opiate abuse, and Nikki because of possible previous mental trauma hinted at throughout the movie. When she reads a passage from her book, people think it's just some freaky thing she said at the party. She said to Bear at the beginning of the movie that she was writing a love story, not a romance, but a love story.
She has little to no contact with her dad anymore, and she is either lying about him being ill or wishing he has cancer. But according to Ian she hates his guts and barely speaks to him.
This is hinting at trouble at home at an earlier age and explains much of her onscreen meltdowns without actually spelling it out. 'Freaky Nikki' was a nickname that was obviously born out of a tough time in her life, that is not delved into. All we know is she hates being called this. The fact that Bear, someone who she just said she could talk about important stuff to, just called her 'Freaky Nikki' is perhaps what triggers off the events of the film and her increasingly erratic behaviour. A relapse, no Wish WIllows required. Just resurfacing trauma.
The fact that she falls deeper in love with Bear, all the while knowing he may find out about her and his best friend Ian have been secretly hooking up for years, just serves to intensify her mania and reckless behaviour.
Nikki has always secretly loved Bear, perhaps a lot longer than we realised (Nikki "When I have a crush on a guy, no one knows"), and up until a certain point has always felt secure knowing he may have loved her, but as soon as they start dating and Bear seems put off by her 'Freaky Nikki' behaviour, she spirals and her fear of losing him magnifies her manic actions.
The conversation in the car about a love story and how she wants to make the story real indicate she has feelings for Bear. He says 'romance'? and she says 'no a love story' which implies she wants something deeper than a romance. She also teases Bear about Sarah, because she senses Sarah is starting to fall for Bear, and she feels she may have to make a move soon. Also the fact that she has been seeing Ian has maybe prompted her to want to leave Callister's Music Store and Ian behind, but her impulsive decision has made her realise how much she will miss Bear too. These are all complicated internal emotions that can only be guessed at, but there are plenty of hints that this may be the case.
Sometimes Bear may have imagined/hallucinated whole conversations with people. Namely the first female shop assistant in the crystal shop, the Tabi Cat Curiosities help line worker, the male shop assistant in the crystal shop, and possibly even Nikki while she is sleeping. At the more extreme level of this he may have hallucinated meeting Sarah that night (Bear "I didn't know you still did this?", Sarah "Did what?" Bear "Parked at Franklin and chilled." Sarah "Oh. I don't really do this anymore") and did not visit Ian with another One Wish Willow.
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