Bookwild - BONUS: Explaining What Can Be Explained in We Used to Live Here *SPOILERS*

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

I just finished reading We Used to Live Here, and it was truly one of my favorite reading experiences ever! I was annotating and highlighting like a mad woman, and just had to make some content diving into as many of the intricacies as I could. This entire video is FULL OF SPOILERS, so if you haven't read it yet, this isn't the video for you. If you have read it, I'd love to hear any of your theories or questions in the comments! Links mentioned in the book:http://rare-toy-forums.net/http://rare-toy-forums.net/watching.html Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

So every now and then, you discover one of your top favorite books at the very end of the year, and that is what happened for me, 100,000% with we used to live here. Like, I thought I had my, like, top five kind of locked in for the year. And reading this one just has me all kinds of flustered about what I would remove from my top five, what my true favorite of the year is. This one was just so good. So if you're listening to this, as you see in the title, we are talking about spoilers. So I am going to assume that you've already read it.

But generally, what's great about this book is it is really a psychological horror that has time loop and alternate reality. elements as well. And that just worked for me. That just like really worked for me having those two together. Lately I've been noticing, especially with some of the movies I've watched recently, um, that when there's a lot to keep track of and a lot to follow and a lot to think about, it clicks in with my brain in a way that's so engaging, like so engaging gets me so obsessed with what I'm watching. And I've been noticing that with books, too, when there are lots of questions and a lot of things going on.

And especially in this case, again, we're talking about spoilers. The fact that alternate realities are the possibility you're paying attention to every detail because you're trying to find the inconsistencies. You're trying to figure out which reality Eve is in and who the family is. in that reality and who Charlie or Charlotte is in that reality, you're just so keyed in on picking up on every little detail that you can. And that is just such an immersive storytelling experience for me. So also to everyone watching or listening, if you have any recommendations like that, send them my way because I need to be this obsessed with books more often.

Like, I'm always obsessed with books, but this was like, I could not stop thinking about it during the times that I couldn't read it. I couldn't. My brain, my subconscious was like trying to solve the riddle of Old House while I was needing to do other things. So if anyone has recommendations, put them in the comments, DM me, whatever, I need more stories like this. but there are a couple cool things about this story I think it makes no sense to start with the fact that the author Marcus Clywer I'm hoping I'm saying that right um this came from kind of like serialized short story there's just a serialized story that he was posting on the subreddit no sleep so from what I've read or 18 million users on that subreddit. And the year that he wrote it, it was voted the best for that year. And shortly after that, he was approached, I'm assuming by an agent first based on how his

acknowledgments went and got a three-book deal. And Netflix bought the run. bought the rights to we used to live here. I believe it's going to be a movie, not a series. Which could kind of make sense. I could see it going either way because another sidebar is Marcus literally just did an AMA yesterday or two days ago on Instagram. And someone asked him like what it's like being involved in the movie in Hollywood. and his answer is hilarious.

I will put it up here for anyone who's watching. The gist of it is that he says, like, he's introverted. He doesn't have anything to do with Hollywood. They bought the rights. And he likes staying in his space writing his books. And then in parentheses says something about how the movie will be its own canon to itself. I think the question asked if the movie was going to give us any more answers or any more clues or whatever. And so I think that's why he was saying like the movie may have its own canon as well.

I can't wait. I don't right now know anything about the timeline of the movie. But I am so excited to see how they visually adapt this story. because again, if you're here, you know it's a spoiler video, so you've probably read the book at this point. Even just reading it as a book and trying to put the pieces of like old house together, whether you're thinking about the house that Eve and Charlie are renovating or the other versions that that house takes on or the cabin, it's going to be so fascinating to see how they can visually pull that together because that is another

challenging part of this book is actually envisioning the way that everything is because, well, because reality is shifting. So I, in case you couldn't tell, just thoroughly enjoyed this one. And when I was posting about it, I started having so many different conversations with people. about this book. There's just so much to talk about with it. It kind of reminds me of, so I didn't watch Lost when it was on, but I remember hearing about the frenzy of people trying to figure stuff out week to week. And that was back in a time where even our back in a time, back in a time where even like your long form 45-ish minute drama would do like 20 episodes a season. and they actually, the writers have since talked about how sometimes the stuff that fans were hypothesizing

affected how they kept writing the episodes. So that's like a whole other thing that I read about a while ago, about even just how TV writing has changed. I love to have all of my episodes drop it once so I can binge through a story for me. it makes me feel like I am getting to experience the story without lag. And like going a week between story points is just, it's not my favorite thing to do. I know that I said that as much as I dislike saying it, I was okay to tell me why I was doing it this year because we did have that same experience where all of us were theorizing in between the weeks. But like also, given the change, given the change. Given the choice, I'm always going to go for like, please drop all of the episodes.

When you do it that way, writers have talked about how you don't, you're not, you're not interacting with a fan base when you write for a TV now, which is just kind of, it's kind of interesting to think about that like, when shows were week to week, there just was more buzz that would happen in between them. and it's wild to think that that even like informed the progression of the show. It's kind of crazy to think about how there are the writers of Lost. And then there are the mega fans that influence the writing of Lost. Like that's crazy. But I need I need to not talk about Lost because there's a lot to talk about with this book. So I could see this be, again, I could see this being a movie or a series. I kind of feel like if they wanted to give us someone.

more answers, it could really work in a series form, like even maybe six episodes. But I think it's going to end up being a movie. And I can understand that too, because while it's definitely hard to try to say the timeline of this book, since there are alternate timelines, in general, the reader feels as if they're experiencing, for the most part, like 48 hours. in Eve's life. So I do see how that could work as a movie, too. So that was the one thing I did not research beforehand. And now I'm wishing I did, but I don't think there's anything out there for release dates. I just know from stocking his Instagram that when the film rights were picked up, Blake Lively was attached to star and produce. But that was in a 2021.

I believe or 2022. So I don't know what's going to happen there, but I'm very excited to see what happens. Now, to dive into everything about this book, I think I'm probably going to just talk through it in a very similar way that I did with Tell Me Lies, actually. See, not these shows that like, this isn't a show, but it's fun finding the stories that like weave so many things together that there's so much to talk about. Like, this is a fantastic book club book. I mean, maybe not for, like, everyone who reads contemporary fiction, but there's so much to talk about with this book.

And we were actually going to do it for our book club pick for the backlist book club. And then we realized this really isn't backlist. So instead, I'm reading it and just, talking talking to the camera about it. So the beginning of the book, we pretty much straight up open was someone knocking on Eve's door. And she answers. And she sees this family of five, two parents, three kids.

And they're like, hey, we used to live here. Actually, I don't know if they actually say that because they do actually end up talking. talking about how Thomas was one who used to live there. But for the sake of not having to be verbatim, it's like, hey, we used to live here. Could we, like, walk around? Like, we just want to see, show the kids, like, his favorite places or whatever. And Eve doesn't, wants to say no. And she should say no.

But there was a really funny reference later in the book where she, talks about how if charlie her partner had been there charlie would have been like no and then it's like roll credits which is like this really funny um trend on ticto do right now like movies that wouldn't happen if someone just made one different decision so uh eve doesn't want to let them in she was just charlie was there we get this info that basically eve doesn't like to stand up for herself she's a little bit of a people pleaser she's anxious she's nervous she doesn't like saying no and that's where she leans on charlie to do a decent amount of that charlie's not there she ends up being like um sure yeah i guess you can't come in and she's like 15 minutes they start kind of wandering around and thomas says something about like

was that always there and she's like uh yeah as far as i know um so then things start to get a little bit weird when her when jenny the daughter um disappears into the basement and she's just not coming out at all and eve thinks that's a little weird but she's like okay i guess this is like these are her parents if they don't think it's weird like i guess i can't really make too much of a deal out of it um and so um they just kind of leave her in the basement because Thomas is just not concerned about it, the dad. He, like, does a little knock, which never turn out to be anything either. I always wondered about the kind of, like, call and repeat knock that gets referenced.

Ginny's never knocking back. She's just kind of staying in this little Alcove area of the basement. I saw someone else talking about how hard it is to perfectly envision this house because of, like, all kinds of things. And I think because it's also the house literally changes. as well. So it is kind of hard to conceptualize the basement in a permanent way in your head. But she's in what they keep calling a concrete alcove and then kind of see where she is. But Thomas is like, yeah, she'll be done when she gets done.

A couple other interesting things that are happening here in what we would consider the first reality. Thomas introduces Newton and Kai, his boys, as headache one and headache two. And then he makes a joke to Paige about, or no, he makes a joke in general and says, Kai is the smug bastard. And Paige has a really big reaction about him calling him a bastard, which we then learn shortly after that that, like, Page is very religious. and she has like a cross necklace and thomas is obviously along with it because we learned at other parts too that they're part of a fast with their church right now that's why none of them have phones um so we know he's kind of on board but he also seems to like mock it with his prayer he curses um

so we get this that interesting dynamic between page and thomas kind of comes out and she's like don't say that word and it could be kind of related to the this religious undertone that we're getting. Or I'm also intrigued by that now. And I highlighted it the first time I read it. And I guess I'm not sure why. Like, I don't think it was, I don't know that I thought I would stand out totally. But now looking back on it with information that I know, it's very interesting to me

because I kind of feel like Thomas has even been. collecting and trapping his family, at least some of them. And then we also know that like Paige's life, Paige says something about how her life was so different before Thomas. That's after we noticed that she has a tattoo. But we've, we are told that her life was a lot different before Thomas. So it's also an interesting concept where like if he really is trapped, his family, trapping people creating this family.

I don't know why. I have no theories on why. It's just definitely a possibility that he's been trapping them. It's like is Kai not his son? Because like a bastard is like a son born out of wedlock. So is, I don't know. Now it's made me wonder, is that Paige's son from another person? Like, was it like he's, the writing is just so intentional and it seems like a lot of things in here are on purpose.

So it's just intriguing to me that she's really, uh, concerned about that word. Because like, I don't think just religiously she would have a problem with it. So that's another interesting thing that we, um, get kind of as we're just meeting the new family that is in her house. again um definitely a funny moment because i was even thinking about doing like a reel of like oh someone just showed up at my house and asked if they could come in introverted bookish girlie over here no so i was even thinking at that point about how funny it'd be to make a real or a tic talk where it then is like roll credits and then the joke it's made later in the book so we were just thinking the same thing. But Eve starts to wonder, like, maybe she should go check on Jenny.

Like, these parents don't seem to care, but she'll go down into the basement. And so she goes down and sees Jenny in the basement and is like, okay, she's just, she's just not going to come out. She's like, I guess this kid is okay with being there. So then Eve comes back out of the basement and we have our first inconsistencies, which then to me, I would consider this that we've gone into reality to at this point. And that it's just a little, it's only a little bit different. And so if you're not thinking about it when you're first reading it, it might be, you might not catch the inconsistencies your first time around because you're not thinking about obsessing over inconsistencies yet. That's the interesting thing.

the synopsis doesn't talk about it it's very vague about how inexplicable things start happening in the house so you're not going into the book thinking like i need to be paying attention to every single detail you kind of get there like 10 or 15 percent anyway where i think things shift here when she comes back from up from the basement from seeing jenny uh her phone screens cracked and she just doesn't think it was before. So, which could just seem like kind of an ominous detail, like, oh, something happened. But then she also sees that this stained glass window is in a different room than it was, basically before she went into the basement. So, again, speaking about this, because we're explaining it and we've going into spoilers.

there seem to be, I can't remember which one it's called, um, hatches or portals. There seem to be areas where the timeline switching happens most frequently and maybe only in those places. So the basement and it's mysterious. Sometimes there's a hall at the back. Sometimes there's not. Um, the dumb waiter that goes from the asses. to the basement and then the attic definitely feels like it's a portal as well where you can be shifting between stuff in these locations so at the beginning not what we're thinking like oh she came out of the basement in my opinion like looking back on it now I think when I think she was somehow involved in a switch there and the other interesting thing though is then later in the book when

the woman in the hospital gown, who we assume is Allison, is like walking around with a hammer and finds her in the basement hospital hallway that does exist at that point. She tells her to hide. And then that is when there's another switch. So it's possible that hide and seek have something to do with. switching the realities or the timelines that they're in. So it's like Jenny going down there and staying down there and then her going down there. And then we have the moment where Thomas, because Thomas is in the basement with her too,

the moment where Thomas goes like super still and is just like holding his arms at his sides and is like not responding when she's saying stuff to him. It's like, is he experiencing the shift in that case? I guess we'll never know. No, we really might know, but we also don't know if we'll know. Because Marius did get a three-book deal from this, but he also recently posted about how one of those books is going to be the caretaker. And he said it is not the man in the cabin, the old man in the cabin.

which like I was so excited thinking that that was possible. But he says it takes place in the old house universe. But there's nothing about sequels or prequels. So I don't know. I don't know if they'll ever get answers. And this is one for me where it still worked for me to be obsessed with it, even though there are still questions lingering at the end. So there's that.

So we may never know why Thomas sometimes just, like freezes up but it definitely seems to be related to what's everything that's happening in the basement and then new reality when we come back out so she comes back out her phone is cracked and the stained glass window is in a different spot the other interesting thing to me about this is basically charlie does come home and eve is explaining like oh they wanted to see the house like i'm imagining her like giving her the eyes like so get them out of here hold me get them out of here um and charlie's kind of accepting of them and is like i should we could all have dinner together and so everything the reader has learned about charlie up to this point has been

through eve we haven't physically interacted with charlie um at all but we've gotten bits of understanding her character from Eve. And Eve, really, the depiction she has of Charlie is like, Charlie is the opposite of a people pleaser. Like, she is willing to say, like, no, I don't want you here to this family. She assumed once she got back, like, this would be done. They wouldn't have to deal with this anymore. And that Charlie's, like, not sentimental and, like, does not buy into, like supernatural stories that people like to get into. It's very pragmatic and not sentimental. Like these are just things we learn about Charlie through Eve thinking back about Charlie

and like hoping I just have to wait it out and then Charlie will come home and tell them to leave. Well, Charlie doesn't tell them to leave. And I think it's another thing where I wasn't totally aware of at the time. I remember being like, but I thought I thought Charlie would have like, like come home and said no. But I wasn't thinking about portals yet because we hadn't gotten to that hoax document that I will get to that really helps you conceptualize the story and start to at least kind of think about the mechanisms of how it's working.

We hadn't gotten there yet. So I didn't know to be like, oh, she's in the basement. What if the reality already switched? But it is suspect that Charlie is like kind of being nice and not that Charlie's not nice. It's just, so if you're watching this, not just listening, a beautiful, we'll call it a beautiful irony that happened while I'm making this video about a book where inconsistencies are really important. And shifting realities are really important. If you're watching, you'll notice the camera angle is different. Everything looks different.

I'm in a different shirt. So 25 minutes into the two hours that I recorded yesterday, the camera just comes. completely cut off, like just turned off, went to black. And so then I proceeded to swap out cameras, use a different camera, and recorded another 90 minutes finishing my thoughts about this book. Went to go edit it last night. I was planning on even releasing it that day because why not? And all of the hour and a half after the first 25 minutes that I had recorded did.

not record with audio because it switched away from my mic to the camera as the audio source and the camera's microphone was all the way down. So I look different. I might sound different even if you're just listening to this. And I wasn't trying to play a trick on you, you know? I wasn't trying to make you think that you were in a different reality, but here we are. So I am re-recording the last hour and a half that I did on this book, which was most of the book, because as you know, most of what I was just saying to you was kind of set up. So, yeah, we're here. We're here to restart and go through all of it again. Thankfully, thankfully, I have five pages of notes that I am working off of. So at least when I went to edit and realized I didn't have any audio,

at least I wasn't totally freestyling. And I'm able to just work off of these notes that I have. So when it cut off, we were talking about how Charlie was not, she was not getting rid of the house guests the way that Eve expected that she would. And it's one of it. We're in the beginning of finding inconsistencies. We haven't read the hoax document. So we're not entirely sure what's happening. we're just in a horror thriller is what we're thinking.

So it might not have been as obvious when you're reading it at first. It wasn't for me until I looked back on it with the information that I have now. I was like, okay. So she went into that basement. She came back out. Charlie came back and Charlie doesn't seem like the Charlie that she's been, that Eve has been telling us about. So this is our entrance into reality number two.

I can't remember if I kind of already said that before in the first 25 minutes. But we are officially in reality too. Her phone screen is cracked. Charlie is acting different. And the stained glass window that interestingly has an apple tree on it, which is just so fascinating when her name is Eve and our deep. demon-ish character, Thomas, his last name is Faust, and Thomas as well as a biblical name. I thought for sure that all of those had something to do with biblical references, because religious is so heavily referenced in this book. But Marcus actually did an AMA recently, and someone

asked if, I think they just asked about Eve and Faust, and if there's biblical meaning there or how he chose that and he put that it was a happy accident. So who knows if that plays into the story at large? Because it sounds like he's saying he wasn't planning it to be that way. But at the same time, he says happy accident. So it's kind of like, does that mean that does that mean that it kind of does mean that it kind of does contribute to the story like he didn't do it on purpose but he's saying it does actually kind of matter who knows i was like so looking at all the biblical references in this

totally thought that the apple tree her name being eve like all of that felt like it mattered um might have just been a happy accident might have just been he knew some of the topics he was writing about so eve was uh top of mind for him i don't know um But I do think that's interesting. So the other thing that we run into that's a little biblical is Charlie's like, yeah, sure, why don't you guys stay and just have dinner with us, which also does not seem to fit with the Charlie we've learned about. But they're all having dinner and Paige is kind of playing with her cross necklace. That happens a lot.

Again, not sure if that ends up meaning anything. But if we're paying attention to objects that seem to get extra attention, her necklace is definitely one of them and it is a cross necklace and um she basically asks thomas to pray for dinner pray over their dinner and he kind of does like a mockery of it uh like the good food good meat good god let's eat i think that's what you said um and page is upset so we're getting this interpretation of their relationship where she seems very religious he seems like he's kind of mocking it. It seems very important to her.

And she starts asking Eve and Charlie, some uncomfortable questions. And it's like, so you guys are partners. I'm not doing this verbatim. And they're like, yeah. And she kind of asked like if they go to church or something. And Eve mentions like she did grow up. That's not for her anymore. And she was like, what about your parents?

do they know about your lifestyle? Which, like, is someone who grew up in the hate the sin and not this then or when you're still being hateful. For someone who grew up in that ideology, the whole, do they know about your lifestyle? Such a weird way that Christians, you like get to be judgey by using a word that they're pretending is like kind of neutral. Like, do they know about your lifestyle? So annoying. I've seen an interpretation that someone was like, what if Paige has been trying to get them to leave? What is she trying to instigate, like, them to be annoyed and have them kick them out?

I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that one. I can't totally tell. But she definitely has some very religious vibes. Who knows how that technically plays into the explanation of everything or doesn't? It might not. It might not technically have anything to do with it. So eventually, Jenny comes upstairs from the basement and she's screaming, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, over and over again, which seems a little bit odd considering like the family didn't seem worried about her being down there.

They're not like yelling at her, like she doesn't need to be so upset and saying sorry, sorry, sorry over and over again. but later in the book again hopefully we've all read the book sure made it this far into this video later in the book the woman in the hospital gown who we most likely believe is alison she's also saying sorry sorry sorry sorry over and over again which is just an interesting thread there um similarities happening there with both characters the longer we get into the book there are multiple times where like Ginny's bright green eyes are referenced as well as Allison's. And so there's definitely something interesting about a possible relationship between Jenny and Allison, not like a literal relationship, but like do they relate as characters? Are they

the same character? You could kind of see that because I do think Thomas is trapping people. And you also kind of get the vibe that maybe he's even trapping his family members because we also we we notice at this dinner that Paige has something that kind of looks like a tattoo on the side of her neck. From E's perspective, it almost looks like it's blurry, like the black lines that are left behind. And then later in a doc, we get like an explanation. about tattoo heal or tattoo removal and how when you really go through removal it does get removed and it might leave like a scar behind but not um it doesn't like necessarily leave blurry black lines um so it's interesting it catches her attention she kind of mentions it and page mentions how she had a whole

different life before thomas which also is very fascinating in the context of understanding everything that we know now. So it's like how different was her life? And again, are we seeing a version of her being trapped with him? Was her very different life before him a different timeline? Like, very plausible thing to be wondering at this point. The other interesting part is in our finale moments or our finale chapters, Eve holds the corkscrew up to her neck.

And it's interesting because that kind of like wound or whatever area, same area is where she's holding the corkscrew when Paige then stabs her with a butcher knife. So there's something interesting there, but we notice Paige has some kind of tattoo, which seems a little bit surprising given everything that they know. At this point, we also get, because Faith is a good. brought up we learn about Eve's faith and how she lost her religion when she was around 17 and even though she stopped believing she started having really terrible dreams where she's like at the gates of heaven because of course there are gates but that's that's another conversation from another story I watched recently um she gets to the gates and the angel or whoever is standing out front is like yeah your name's not on here and then she like falls and like plummet's really far

into hell so I mean there's something there with all of the conversation about religion that's happening but I'm not entirely sure what we're supposed to take from that again when I was reading it and her name is Eve I was just like oh my gosh this has to mean something not totally sure what it means but she's been having nightmares in relation to Christian religion for a really long time now. Another interesting thing that happens is Jenny. I'm going to pull it up because it's worth it to see. It's worth it to hear is what I meant to say.

But literally page 21 and 22, if you read Kindle, I don't know how well that translates. But Jenny has been writing down things in her notebook. which also seems like a sign that Ginny has caught on to maybe the multiple realities they're being in. At first it was kind of like, oh, it's a kid with a clue journal. Just having fun. But it's like she's literally writing down the things that she sees. It seems like she's trying to keep track of universes.

So Jenny has been writing something down. And then she turns to Eve and says, thanks Emma. She said, Thomas corked an eyebrow. Her name is Eve. No. and then they apologize for her calling her Emma and you says yeah it's okay if he hadn't said anything she would have just gone with it accepted Emma as her new name for the duration of the family's tour like what that's a really easy one to not have caught on to when you don't know anything

thing. Like, why would you, why would you care that she called her Emma? But that sentence, if he hadn't said anything, she would have just gone with it, accepted Emma as her new name for the duration of the family's tour. Total other level of creepiness when we know what happens in the finale moments and knowing that Eve is stuck in a psych ward in a timeline where people are saying her name is Emma, naive. Very interesting little breadcrum. We're getting so early, page 20-ish. Again, I don't know how that, how well that translates to physical books, but in terms of Kindle, that is where that happens. And so when you're first reading, you don't think anything of it. Doesn't seem like a big deal. Then the family kind of leaves for a second. I can't remember exactly where the family goes.

but Eve notices Charlie's wearing a locket and she's like, what's this locket or what are you wearing basically? And she was like, oh, my locket. And she opens it and shows her. And it's this one photo, Eve apparently doesn't like being in pictures. Also interesting. Eve doesn't like being in pictures. And so they joke that this picture that Charlie took of her a couple years ago is the only the one and only photo of Eve Palmer. Very, very intriguing. Like, I highlighted it back then even because I was like, I mean, that seems like something really specific to be pointing out.

But it's like this photo of her. And like because she doesn't like being in photos, like her hand is like out a little bit. And it's like a little bit blurry. If you're watching the video, you can see me trying to reenact this right now. There's like part of her face is hidden and it's kind of a blurry photo but it's in the locket and there are a couple things from that one definitely seems to be

drawing attention to this idea of the one and only photo of eve palmer seems important the other part is we just got done hearing how charlie is like not sentimental um not mushy not those things um and so even eve is surprised she's like why would she have a locket of me and try to was like yeah i got it in town today so again this seems to be more evidence that we actually never met the charlie like charlie one in reality one of eve's uh of eve's like eve's like timeline throughout the book uh i don't think we meet charlie one in person i think we are in reality too at this point very firmly i mean i already said that but this is just kind of that other interesting part that or piece that like i don't think we met

charlie one and i think we get a perspective of hers literally in the very very end in the epilogue um i think that's the most we come in contact with her though so we're totally with um charlie too we're in reality too um and then eve like gets up from the table and sees that her Bible has been like moved onto a table that she didn't expect it to be on. And we find out that I can't remember what her middle name is, but it has like her whole name inscribed on the inside Evelyn, something Palmer. And that just matters. It matters because we've got some relic that has at least stuck with her. I do think she references that the Bible has turned red and she used I think it was black leather.

So yeah, it's interesting. We have this locket. We have this Bible that is significant to being owned by Eve, essentially. So she, they basically, they hear something, I think. I don't know. Eve and Charlie realize that something sounds like the front door is open. They go that a front door is wide open. And Thomas has, like, wandered out in the middle of the snow.

and is like kind of in a trance and he is mumbling something about Allison and they're like who is Allison and like what is he talking about out here and it's like it's like he maybe was talking to Allison I don't know don't totally know and so they convince him to come back inside and they ask him about Allison and he says that his sister slowly went mad in this house that they're now in. And he said she started thinking that things were changing in the house. She thought like windows and doors and couches were different than they had been. And she also started to feel like she started to feel like the people in her life were imposters. And so she would ask them questions to try to like trip them up to see like if they were her real parents or if he was

her real brother. And she just went totally mad. And it was just a really difficult experience for him. It was basically what he tells them. And then he just kind of stops. He just kind of stops telling the story. And there's even something in the book that mentions, like he stopped there, loosens and all, which is really fascinating because that's how a lot of people feel about

the ending. I don't not feel that way about the ending. There definitely are things that I, I don't, questions I don't have answers for necessarily. Um, so it's interesting that his telling of Allison ends with a sentence that's kind of along the lines of like, and that was it. He was done. Loosens and all. Um, fascinating. Just fascinating because there are like a decent amount of stories and the story as a whole that also function that way. So now Eve and Ann's, uh, Charlie are like, okay. Um,

So a lot of weird shit happened at this house. They are going to stay the night because of the winter storm. They know at this point. And they're like, okay, let's just get through the night and then they'll leave it in the morning. So they go up to bed. And then at three in the morning, Eve is like, I hear something. And because she's Eve and just makes decisions like this, she goes to. downstairs to see what the sound is and finds the basement doors open again. And she like looks and

she kind of thinks she sees like like the stature of a child, assumes that Ginny is back down there again. Kind of says like something to her along the lines of like Ginny like get out of there, come back up here. And nothing's happening. And then the figure like stands all the way up and we realize it's an adult. and that this is, and that she kind of looks like she's wearing a hospital gown. I think this is the first moment that Eve sees the woman in the gown, who we probably think is Allison. And she freaks out, runs back up the stairs, runs up to her bedroom, tells Charlie, like, there's someone in the basement.

Charlie's like, yeah, yeah, whatever. She just doesn't seem too bothered by it. I think she has known that Eve's a little bit paranoid at times. And so she's like, don't worry. about it, we will deal with it in the morning. And he's like, you don't want to go like, investigate this now. And he's like, and Charlie's like, just go to sleep. And she's like, uh, okay. Um, so she goes to sleep. So Eve falls asleep. And when we wake up, we, I believe, are in another reality again. We wake up and Charlie's not in bed with her anymore. And

And she's like, that seems really odd. Like, Charlie knew I was, like, worried about this person and why wouldn't, why would she, like, get out of bed without waking me up? She smells food. And so she's like, maybe Charlie's making food. She goes downstairs. And the family is just, like, making eggs and bacon and coffee. Like, she's, like, got into their food.

Just like, whatever. And he was like, hey, guys, what's up? And they're like, yeah. We just made breakfast. And she's like, I'm looking for Charlie. And Thomas says, oh, she went into town. I thought she told you. And he was like, this doesn't seem to make sense.

I don't think she would have gone into town. But Charlie's obviously not there. So she's like, I need to find my phone so I can call Charlie. She starts looking for her phone. And her phone is now missing. So a couple of inconsistencies at this point. First, we have Charlie's just not there. And it doesn't fit with everything that they had been talking about the night before,

that she would just leave and not tell her. So Charlie's not there. Now Eve can't find her phone anywhere. And when she's in the process of looking for her phone, she discovers that someone has put Charlie's locket above the fireplace on a on a nail that's in the wall and it's a nail that Eve feels like she remembers removing all the nails that were in the walls and so she's also like why would someone put that nail back in? Why is the locket on it on there? So kind of have two

inconsistencies there. She had taken nails out of the wall. They are flipper. So she's like, I've already done that. Why is it there? And now the locket's not with Charlie. And it's like nailed to the wall. So now she's really starting to freak out. And she's like, I think I forgot to mention they don't, the family doesn't have phones because they're on a digital fast with their church congregation. Whatever.

So they don't have any phones. And she's like, I can't find my phone. I'm just going to, she tells them, like, I'm going to go to the neighbor's house. I'm going to try to call Charlie from that phone. I just, like, want to talk to her. And they're like, yeah, totally. And she kind of like asked something along the lines of like, so like, you guys can leave after you eat, right? And they basically say, yeah, that they are, that they'll probably be gone by the time she gets back.

So she ventures off into the snow with Shiloh from her house, 3-7, 2009 Heritage Lane and she is expecting to walk to 3708 the neighbor's house. Before she can get to that, she gets to a house that is 3708 or is 3707. And it seems like 3708 doesn't even exist anymore. So again, we have another switch here where something new is happening. happening. And so she ends up at 3707, which is Heather's home. And Heather is an old woman who knew Thomas when he was a kid. We find that out over the course of her being there. But she ends up at Heather's house. She tells her, like, I'm just trying to call my partner and Heather

basically welcomes her into the house. But before they go into the house, Eve saw a light turn off in one of the windows. So she assumes she doesn't live alone. So then when they get inside, she's like, oh, you live alone. And Heather's like, yeah, what do you mean? And she's like, I thought I saw a light turn off while we were outside. And Heather is like, oh, I have my lights on timers. probably not the case um and so basically she like shows her where the phone is and eve goes to call charlie and when she calls her it's a weird call like there are a bunch of voices in the background um someone calls her charlotte uh not charlie and eve kind of keeps asking like when are you going to come home and Charlie is just like confused. It's like, what are you talking about? And then the call ends. And Eve tries to call it back and just go, it goes straight to the voicemail

beep. The other interesting thing about that is that in the first chapter, we get this really interesting detail that Charlie has, when we were reality one, Charlie has a voicemail that's like, And it makes like how people used to prank with their voicemail message or recording or whatever where it would sound like you were talking to them. And then they're like, just kidding. This is my voicemail. So Charlie had something like that. And now when she's calling Pax, she's just getting the like, leave your message at the beat. So we've got another inconsistency going on here.

And as she's giving up on, uh, getting up on, uh, getting, on Charlie answering a second time, she can hear Heather talking on the phone to someone in her kitchen. And she hears something about the name like Alina. And she's like, huh, that's interesting. And so she's like, hey, who are you on the phone with? And she's like, oh, no one. And she was like, I just showed you talking about someone or whatever. And she's like, yeah.

And so then she starts asking her, like, what she knows about Thomas. And Heather knows a lot. She remembers when the family, like, moves in. And she tells the story of how it was just Thomas and his parents. And then this girl, Alina, not Allison, this girl, Alina just, like, emerged from the woods one day. and um started living with them and they took her in they became her guardians he considered her his sister and then she stabbed him 37 times with a um fountain pen foundin one of the calligraphy type pens so knowing what we know um Heather even kind of implies that like as she

was losing her mind, Alina came to the conclusion that like the only thing she could do to get out of it was to stab him 37 times. Now 37 becomes very, it's just a very interesting number at this point because we experience houses 3709 is the house that Eve and Charlie purchased and we're flipping. Now she is in home 3709. 2009, which seems to be Heather's home, at least in this reality, after she thought she was looking for 3707 or 3708. Now she's in 3709. And then at the very end in our finale sequence, when Thomas calls and says that Eve slash Emma is attacking them, when he calls the police there, he says 3710. So 10.

point being all of these addresses start with three seven so there's something very interesting about the fact that Heather brings up that she stabbed him 37 times now we kind of are understanding it looks like he had like pockmarks all over his face and kind of down his neck now we know where those come from but eve is also kind of like this interesting that he told us that story about his sister alison he didn't say anything about her stabbing him and like that seems like kind of an important detail so now it's intriguing that he left that detail out um and then that he got stabbed 37 times it had me wondering because there's all these biblical references in this book and three and seven are numbers that show up a lot in

the bible for different reasons um but it did make me google uh like the biblical means that of 37. It says, according to early church starters, 37 is a symbol of Christ. And according to Jamotria, the numerical value for the words, I am, is 37. And that's Jesus calls himself the great I am, or God does. And as well as Alaea, A-L-E-A, which means Word of God. So there, it could be biblical. It could be. Maybe it's another happy accident. I guess we'll never know.

Maybe we'll know. I know that he, Marcus, talked about in his AMA literally a couple, just like two days ago. The second book that will come out is called The Caretaker. And he said that it is not a sequel, but it will take place in the old house universe. So who knows? When I get to this, to the old house and the old man, there's definitely references to what seems to be different addresses and places. So I think the old house universe, we might be dealing with multiple homes or entities that do this in different locations. So that's that's clearly a possibility.

So who knows if this 3-7 means anything or if it's just it's just there, but it's there. And so then the phone starts ringing and, sorry, not right, but right before that, EVEC is a monkey underneath the couch. And it's essentially like Moe, but. It's furze brown instead of white. Have we talked about? I can't remember if I did it in the first 20 minutes. Eve has always been super anxious and something that she started to do to kind of like

give a visual to her anxiety or give it like an identity separate of her. Is some of her more anxious thoughts she thinks about it as being Moe in her mind. which is very interesting. There's definitely something here with monkey, the monkey. Something's going on. It's mentioned so many times. I don't know 100%, but it could be this reference to the fact that maybe Eve has been in different timelines

in her childhood. What if this is not the first time this has happened? Because when she sees this monkey under the... couch at Heather's house, it spawns a memory of the day that she lost Mo. She was seven years old, and it mentions being in her parents' rusty hatchback. And they were going on a trip, and they basically, like, got, they stopped to, like, stretch. And so she gets out of the car very briefly and gets back in. And the spot where she had Mo seatbelted in, the seatbelt is still there but Mo is missing.

And so her parents look for it and they can't find it anywhere. And the other interesting thing is then when they go to try to replace it, the company that made it doesn't exist. They can't find it anywhere. There's Riley's something toys. Also, cool fact, the websites that are mentioned in some of the docs, there's the toy site and there's something else. they're actual live links so like you can go it goes to a site that's like kind of like Riley's toys

and then there's another site I can't remember which one it was I'll put the links in the show notes if you want to go to the websites that are mentioned in the book that actually are live websites anyway her parents can't find a replacement because now it kind of seems like the company that made it doesn't exist, which I guess in some ways would almost allude to the idea that when Mo was lost, she had brought him from another reality. So there's that. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on with this and the monkey and how it talks to her and how it could possibly be related to this entity because it definitely seems to know some stuff. And speaking of stuff that it knows. Then the phone starts ringing. And Heather's like, aren't you going to get that? And she's like,

I don't know, she's starting to kind of freak out. She goes towards the phone and then sees that there's this door that is open at the back of the house that was not open previously. And it looks, she kind of mentions the shadows look like there's someone almost like standing by the door. but it's only open a little bit and her curiosity is definitely peaked but as we've talked about doors are definitely portals sometimes um and she's not thinking along the lines of portals at this point but she's like this is just getting freaky she's also been hearing these sounds that sound like weird footsteps in hether's house it sounds like there is someone else there and she's officially so freaked out that she's like, I am done with this.

Like, I, like, I've got to leave. And so then Heather even says, again, she brings it up twice. She's like, I never get calls. That must be a call for you. Like, come answer it. And Eve has finally just decided that, like, she's not really safe here either. And so she ends up leaving shortly after this. A couple of interesting things about this visit with Heather.

Um, one, when they are talking about Thomas and Alina, she asks, can I get you something to drink water tea? That's the phrasing of that. What's interesting about this is the Amif interview, that interview with the kid, um, who went into the house with his friends and he came back out. None of his friends are with him. And they also don't seem to exist. That transcript that we got with. detectives. One of the first things they say to this kid, I think his name is Andrew. I know it starts with an A. One of the first things he says to the to him is can I get you anything water, Coke. And then later at the very, very end, when Eve, the transcript we have of Eve, Emma, Eve slash Emma in that reality with the cop interviewing her.

One of the first things he says to her is can I get my guys to get you something to drink water? Pepsi. I am not 100% sure what that means, but the fact that that phrase showed up three times with tea, Coke, or Pepsi being the thing swapped out. There's something fascinating there. There's something going on there. And also, the fact, if you, I'll really get into this more when I get to Eve's interrogation, but the interrogation transcripts we have from that boy, a myth, and Eve's transcript eerily similar. They behave similar ways. The answer similar ways. Very interesting. So that's something to go look at, look back at is both of those interrogations. because the other interesting thing that we find that we now learn once she does exit Heather's

house is we learn about the hoax document. So we're into this document that is breaking down the mechanics of how this story works essentially. It's kind of like we've been in this confusing reality long enough. We kind of kind of have a foothold on what's happening. And now we finally get this doc that explains theories about how humans and objects and entities interact with the old house system as a whole. So I am just going to read directly from these because all of them are very important to know. So host, person who's been trapped or willfully residing in old house for longer than one year. If trapped for longer than a month, it is essentially impossible to escape. So we've got someone who's been trapped willingly or willingly has just been in an old house for more than a year.

It's also important to know this little bit of information that we have that once you've been in there for more than a month, it's really hard to get out. A guest is a person who's been trapped for less than one year. so or they can be willing willingly there so you're just a guest if you've been there for less than a year a guide is a person with intimate knowledge of one or more old house wings and can safely bring tourists inside without getting lost or trapped hopefully so now we've got this idea of someone who could possibly understand all of these complicated connections happening in this old house ecosystem. And then a tourist is a person who enters old house under the ward of a guide,

generally for exploratory or personal reasons and spends less than a week inside. But many tourists unwittingly become guests or hosts. So this is someone who's almost going in for fun. It kind of reminded me, this kind of reminded me of west world, like the people that go in for the fun of killing. not humans that look like humans. Kind of reminded me of that. And then in Westworld, not to give a spoiler,

but at this point, we do have some characters in Westworld who are outsiders, who do kind of get stuck in that world. So that's probably where that came up for me. A trespasser is someone who enters old house without a guide, usually by accident or with nefarious intent for monetary gain or otherwise.

So that one's interesting. I don't know that we run into any trespassers, but it seems like it's this concept that someone could maybe know about the gist of Old House and would want to go try to do something for monetary gain or something else. Then we have the anchor, also known as a trickster, spirit, demon entity, presence, or specter, either a non-human entity or a host who has been trapped for so long. they are essentially no longer human. Some are neutral, some are helpful, most are incredibly dangerous.

Then it also says anchor motives are often incomprehensible, seems like some feed on terror, confusion, or chaos. To me, this helps us understand Thomas in a lot of ways. I also feel like this parenthetical that they have here that says the anchor motives are often incomprehensible. and it seems like they feed on terror, confusion, chaos also kind of helps inform our understanding of like the end of the book where I feel like he's kind of taunting her in the psych ward at the end when he gives her the locket.

But one of the main questions I think we're left with at the end is why has Thomas been doing this? And we don't totally know. There's definitely an interpretation that he made a deal with the devil. That could be a fascinating concept here. And like that's how he got tapped into this and traps people and all of that. There's definitely that concept. But I think some of this talking about how the motives are often incomprehensible and they just kind of want terror and chaos.

Also can help us understand the ending where it's also like maybe this dude is just an asshole who, fees off of terror and chaos and there's no way to understand his motives so i think that's interesting that that's there um then we have a hatch which is any structure or entrance manmade or otherwise that can be used to enter and exit old house that is very intriguing to me we are about to get our one and only reference of a hatch next when she goes to the cabin that says old house on it with the old man in it. That's the only time we get a hatch reference directly. So this hatch and then shortcut. The next thing is shortcut exactly that used to jump locations and extremely high risk. Those kind of things are the things that make me really want a prequel or a sequel. Now, I truly

loved the ending of this book. I'm very okay with how it ended. I was a little worried when people said there were so many unanswered questions. I didn't quite know what that could mean. but when you're going into this book you don't even know you're going into multiple realities like that's not even in the synopsis so like you don't even know that that's what you're going into so I was worried at first I was like I really hope that I'm okay with ending I'm good with it we obviously want Eve to be back in her timeline we want her to win but I also think sometimes what really fits horror is a horrifying ending and it is horrifying to be stuck in an alternate reality with this motherfucker mocking you essentially so i'm not saying i want a prequel or a sequel

because this book isn't good enough on its own it's these other things like hatches and shortcuts where i'm like we haven't experienced any of that and it would be fun to experience the lore that has been established so um and maybe that's going to happen with this caretaker book that he says is like a different character. Maybe we're just going to be in a different old house ecosystem. So like the way I have started to think about it is like I kind of feel like the cabin that says old house, Heather's house and Eve's house. So 3707, 3709 and then what ends up being 3710 at the end, it kind of feels like all of them together it almost seems like they're working as their own system it kind of feels like they're very connected and so what i'm intrigued by with this next book being um in the old house world as or universe as he set

i'm wondering if they're if like so here here's where i get stuck on how to explain it's a little abstract 3707 heritage lane is that old house or is 3707 heritage lane one world and a larger galaxy of old house systems and the reason that comes up for me is what i'll read next which is when we get to old cabin and the old man it references different addresses so there's still that possibility that like the caretaker the second book he's working on if it is in the same universe maybe it's going to function with these same things and maybe we are going to get to see a hatch or a shortcut so i hope we do the one other thing that is referenced in this hoax dock is a hook which is a room or section of old house that is impossible to escape without ritual replacement

And ritual replacement is crossed out. So I don't know why it's crossed out. But this is important. We know this is important. Without ritual replacement. And then it says the longer someone is trapped in Old House, the more dangerous they become to themselves and others. Some claim that symptoms akin to radiation sickness and psychosis can occur.

So there's a sense that the longer you're in there, the more dangerous you are even to yourself. But most importantly, with this hook, is this idea of ritual replacement. And I think that is very important and very key to multiple parts of this book. We get this hoax doc after she's been with Heather. But when we look back on her experience with Heather, I'm inclined to believe Heather might be trapped as well. And I'm also inclined to believe that Heather might have been trying to perform a ritual replacement. She keeps trying to get Eve

to go further back into the house. There's this door that like definitely feels like it's tempting Eve to go into it. It just gives the vibe that there is such a possibility that Heather was trying to

perform a ritual replacement in this scenario, which could mean that that room at the back or her house in general could be a hook. It could be something that does trap someone there the longer that they're there. A couple of things that also made me think about that is Eve sees photos of Heather and her family who aren't living with her anymore. According to Heather, her husband's died. But there's a picture of him on the wall.

are somewhere. I can't remember. And it's he's, I think he's, I can't remember what he's doing in the picture, but she mentioned Eve asked something like, oh, is that your husband? And Heather says something about, uh, yeah, that's Michael. He was a drummer. When I, like, looked at that after having read the hoax document, after just having more information when I was looking back over that, I was like, see that is interesting because Allison's parents we learn when she shares information with Eve later in the book. Her parents were like this like rock and roll, kind of like hippie vibes almost. And her dad had ring of eyes was the name of his band when she kind of shares her memory. memories with Eve later. We like at the very end of the book, we learn that there's kind of

like symbolism to ring of eyes that is a little bit like the circles that she's been drawing all over the place. So it's interesting to me, like we definitely have carvings throughout the house that we get to at different points where like Allison definitely is trying to hold on to what felt like her real reality to her, her home reality. And so it's intriguing that she was also drawing that symbol. Is it the symbol that was on her dad's like ring of eyes band shirt? Or I've also seen an interpretation that the circle and like all the intersecting lines are a nod to the kind of the time loop and how convoluted everything is. this time loop in old house.

Both interpretations are interesting, but we really learn that Allison's parents were not religious zealots, and they were very cool, and her dad had a band. And so then this detail that Michael was a drummer makes me wonder if Heather's husband, Michael was in the band with his name is Elijah, Allison's father. It just makes me wonder, and if that is how they got stuck as well in Thomas's orbit. Heather just definitely was acting odd. There were definitely odd sounds happening in that house, and she definitely seemed to be pushing Eve to go further into her house. It just kind of feels like she was trying to perform a replacement ritual as well. So that's an interesting interpretation that we're really only able to

get to after we read the hoax document that we read after we've been with Heather. So interesting interpretation about Heather. And then, but now Eve is like, I am getting out of here. I am done. Like, this is why. she leaves she um shiloh runs out in front of her and she's planning to just go home um and hopefully like charlie will just come back as kind of what's going on in her mind and then shiloh kind of runs off and essentially as she follows him she gets to this cabin um that has old house like written in script on it and she's like this is weird it seems abandoned but Shiloh goes in and so she goes in as well and what she finds in there is basically like

think like that conspiracy when you think of conspiracy walls like blueprints on the walls writing connections um all kinds of documents all over the walls um and she's like okay well this is really intriguing. This is another case where I'm going to read you directly what the notes were because I think the notes were also super important in this case. So first one, if you follow directions properly up to this point, Red Lake will be bone dry. At its deepest point, there will be a steel hatch in the ground that leads to a house of refuge. A middle-aged woman will be there to provide further instruction. If her son has passed away in the last year, leave immediately and backtrack your route to the last house of refuge. Ensure the woman does not, in caps, follow. So this first

note has a lot going on. One, I haven't gotten into colors. Red, green, and blue show up a lot. and it just seems to be something. I couldn't tell you what it is. But we have this red lake that he's referenced. If he followed directions properly. So someone's trying to figure out how to work through the Old House system and possibly the different realities of Old House. But this Red Lake reference is fascinating. Because we have the Red Lantern.

We have the red Bible. We just have a lot of red. Green, we have like the green hospital-ish hallway in the basement. We have Ginny and Allison's eyes. Blue, we have like hazy blue smoke is referenced. And then there's another blue reference in the next note I'm going to reference. So I don't have a perfect explanation. I can't tell if it helps you tag which reality you're in.

That's definitely impossibility. I don't know. Not 100% sure, but red, green, and blue, they mean something. The other interesting point here is the hatch. He talks about how there's a hatch, and we just learned that a hatch is a way to get out of a certain reality. So this is the only direct reference we have to a hatch. I wonder if there are other ones that are just not literally called. hatches in the books but we'll get there and then also this middle-aged woman will be there to provide further instruction it's kind of like does that mean heather because we see a younger version of heather later in the book um so it's kind of like does heather help thomas is heather an extension of

thomas um yeah it's really interesting and i just i want to know i want to know i want to know what the other house of refuge is that he's supposed to go back to if her son has died. And I want to know why it matters that he shouldn't follow her. Or he or she, whoever's there. The next note we have says, host who lives beneath Civil War Museum can transfer his memories by making eye contact. Highly unstable individual, be careful in his presence. So this is this first reference or whatever.

that we get to this idea that hosts could transfer memories, which is really fascinating because I mentioned a little bit earlier in the finale scene, like when Allison is kind of like hunting slash telling Eve to go hide, she locks eyes with her and we get a lot of Allison's memories all at once, which points to Allison being a host who, in my opinion, is like, like has been trapped there. It kind of feels like Allison was the first person that Thomas trapped in a different reality as what it feels like at least. And just heavily leans into the concept that if we were labeling Allison in this ecosystem, it's that she's a host. So that's interesting. The next thought says the anchor of 129 Orrello Avenue takes the form of a blue nightstand

capital blue blue nightstand when observed. So this part is interesting and I think it has caused a couple it has caused people feel differently about anchors. So in the hoax document that we were looking at it talks about anchors being human or non-human entity, which makes it see. seem like they're humanoid, at least, you know. So it's interesting that like a blue night stand is definitely an object. And so it's hard to imagine an object being an anchor because they're also kind of like tricksters, demons feeding on that. So what does that mean?

I don't know. But we also have another blue reference here. And earlier when she was at Heather's when Heather was smoking. Eve mentions like the bluish smoke, blueish gray smoke. There's some things of this red, green, blue. Don't know what it is. Then we have a few other notes. Time moves slower in the Brenda Mines.

Okay. This exit leads to a red sun overworld. Oh, that means. Makes it seem like the cabin has either a hatch or a short. shortcut in it. And then the last note says the guide in Lonsdale is a fucking fraud. Do not listen to a word he says. So this whole guide thing is fascinating to me too because the concept is that guides are someone who can navigate how confusing an old house system is who do bring people in for fun tourists. Very interesting. I want to know what I

what's up with this guide in Lonsdale? Like, what is he a fraud about? Why shouldn't we listen to him? So this old house cabin, someone has been trying to figure things out. And there's just enough here that we're able to tell, oh, someone's been trying to figure things out. We get a little more information, a few things to think about. But we still don't get really any complete explanations. of course um that is the gist of this book and as she's looking at it this is when the old man appears um he has a really rough ragged scar on one side of his face that just looks like a mess and i think is important that we know that i at one point thought this man might have been elijah who had been trapped i can't remember what it was

was, does he have tattoos? The old man? I can't remember. Something made me wonder if he was Elijah, who had been trapped there. But as we know, in the finale, Eve literally drags the back

of a hammer through Thomas's face. So satisfying, by the way. I cannot handle extended body horror. It's not my vibe, except in these cases. is where it is an evil fucking villain who deserves it and it's not the whole story.

That was so gratifying. Like, just like raking that thing through his face. And then when he comes to visit her at the end, it literally mentions that he comes back with a familiar scar. And she's surprised they were able to put his face back together. So we have this old man with this whatever. really nasty scar on his face and when he sees her he says you're not supposed to be here you're not supposed to be here yet which is you're like what also seems extremely important to note because when she sees the charlie in the basement um at the very end the charlie that has the aunts like

go into her um charlie says you're not supposed to be here yet and it's like what does that mean and like was Eve meant to go through the system and did it the wrong way? Like what does that mean? Why are these two people telling her similar things? So he says that to her and he also starts saying that family doesn't look like that and like kind of warning her about the family. And like how creepy. He's like the family doesn't look like that.

Like what does that mean? It also makes it a little more confusing because, Because like, is Thomas, is this Thomas? It seems like we're pointing to it. But the other interesting thing that is going on in the book is there are these snippets of Morse code at the end of the doc chapters. And so I started realizing like, oh, I think when I started to realize it wasn't just like a decorative, like, oh, end of the chapter.

I started translating it as I was. reading it and it says the man in let me make sure I say it completely correctly the old man with the scar has lived in the cabin for centuries and goes by many names so that is what the Morse code in the dock sections translates to the old man with the scar has lived in the cabin for centuries and goes by many names so thinking of of anchors, thinking of Thomas definitely fitting the description of an anchor with everything we know about him. Is this a version of Thomas? It kind of seems like it. At the same time, the entity seems obviously a little bit larger than life and more powerful than humans. And so it's also like,

yeah, it's just an interesting one. one to chew on. It feels like it's Thomas. He's also, though, saying the family doesn't look like that. He's not saying my family. But he could just be lying about that. I don't know. There's a theory that some people have, too, that Thomas was possessed and didn't necessarily make a deal with the devil, but that he got possessed and that in some ways he wants out of the system he's in. But the way that he taunts her at the end doesn't feel that way to me but maybe this thomas maybe if old man is thomas maybe this is a version of him who had a change of heart i don't know i don't totally know but this person is definitely trying to figure out how to navigate old house so i don't know

there's that so um she leaves obviously she's a little freaked out she and shylo leaves she's like i'm just gonna i'm just gonna go home finally and really is hoping that charlie's gonna be there she gets there and is surprised to find that the family is still there and she's like hey guys i thought you were going to leave and they're like we didn't want to leave without locking the door and she's like okay well what about now now now you can leave i can lock the door behind you And they're like, well, I don't know, we're just still worried. We don't have snow tires. And she's like, okay, we have some tire chains up in the attic. I'm going to go up to the attic and find them. So she goes up into the attic and we get one of the most terrifying scenes of the book, for sure, hands down. She goes up in the attic. She is looking for these tire chains, goes kind of deep into this other hallway, hallway that's in the attic. Again, I can't remember if I've said. this or not since this is a re-recorded for me, but the attic and the basement sometimes are hard to conceptualize because there will be hallways that aren't there.

There's like the concrete nook that Ginny went to hide in kind of doesn't exist when the green door and green hallway exist. I can't remember if the door is also green or if it's just the hallway it goes into. So the attic in the basement seem to be shifting. They also very much seem like portals to different times or and also possibly feel like a hook. They seem to be they're connected by the dumb waiter. The dumb waiter goes from the attic to the basement. So it's kind of like are they one hook?

because we see the woman in the gown in both the basement and in the attic. So it's possible, like, are they one hook themselves that have trapped Allison? And because they're connected by the dumbwaiter. Yeah, because the dumb waiter moves seemingly without a human moving it. multiple times in the book so there's that she's in the attic she kind of goes down a hallway um oddly she sees thomas out the window he goes outside and starts smoking smoking's also there eve talks about how she used to smoke but she kicked the habit heather smokes Thomas is smoking um but before he starts smoking he like slaps his face a bunch of times it's odd it's odd

I don't know what it means. Like, if we go the route of him being unwillingly possessed, like, is he getting frustrated? I don't know. I don't know what that scene is supposed to mean. But shortly after she sees him through the window doing that, she finds a box that says Charlott's to donate. Which definitely seems to be another nod to the fact that this reality we're in, this third one, where when she called Charlie, she heard she was Charlotte.

It definitely makes us feel like we are in a reality where they are not together anymore. And there are multiple, there's another reality we're in later at the end where that's the case. That happens in multiple of the realities that Eve gets stuck in. So it's another inconsistency that is a nod to the fact that like she and Charlie are not. in they're not together in this one we're in a different reality because why she have a box that says Charlotte donate if they're still together definitely seems like just getting rid of stuff from a past relationship so she sees that in the attic and then she finds the tire chains and then she starts hearing footsteps that are like irregular and coming near her and her flashlight goes

out and she's in the pitch dark and is hearing footsteps coming near her. And we just have this gruesome depiction of Allison, super gaunt, super emaciated in this hospital gown, making her way towards her. And it is, it is terrifying. She's, Eve starts to like make a run for the exit out of the attic and what I realized is I don't think people call them hatches that go into an attic but like there's something to the fact that that door you would use to get out of the attic you kind of could call it a hatch um so she goes to try to get out and just as she's getting there the ladder and the like door to the attic slam closed she starts like being on it and screaming for help and like just as this Allison woman in a gown is coming toward her,

it opens and she like tumbles to the floor and hits her head and basically she's out cold. We definitely feel like we're now in a different reality when she wakes up and thinking about the attic and basement as portals, that seems like it could make some sense because now Paige is like sitting in a rocking chair, a red rocking chair. And she's like, I don't have a red rocking chair. Also red, more red. And Paige is like, oh, Thomas went and got it out of the moving truck for me. I just missed it. I wanted to sit in it. And Eve's like, okay, this is, this is strange. then she hears a sound that sounds like her phone notification upstairs and she's like oh my god i think i think i'm going to be able to find my phone runs upstairs and find kai i think in like an office

a study area finds kai holding a phone with a broken screen and she's like that's my fucking phone give it back to me she doesn't say that because she's not assertive um he won't give it back to her she kind of gets in a fight with him about it and is like trying to kind of like tug it away from him and he's kind of like smirking while it's happening and then shiloh runs in and basically attacks kai's ankle which is out of character for shiloh very out of character um and then to completely follow this train she gets the phone from him and looks and the phone screen isn't cracked, even though she just saw the phone screen was cracked. And it is his phone.

And he, like, looks at his parents who've shown up and it's like, I'm sorry, I just miss my friends. I couldn't do the digital fast. And they're like, they're freaking out. Page is freaking out about this like dog bite. There's a little bit of a puncture, a little bit of a puncture wound going on. Paige is ready to leave, essentially. But I want to make note of Shiloh going after Kai. because it's uncharacteristic of Shiloh.

We've never seen Shiloh do something like that. And there's also, to me, it's important to note that we got that doc about the chocolate lab who randomly became reactive and aggressive and they were looking for a new home for it. We had that doc. We also have Thomas talking to Eve at the end when she's in her Emma reality. he starts talking to her about how he had a dog that he loved so much that it was a lab and like for two years had like the most fun with him no problems and then one day the dog turned on him and attacked him the fact that we have two dog stories like that just seems like it means something to me. And the other thing is like we heard at the beginning with,

um, when Thomas is introducing the kids, Kai and Newton, he, he says whatever. And then he's like, Kai's the smug bastard. And Paige has this whole moment. I can't remember if this wasn't my first 25.

So I'm going to re-explain it briefly. Paige has that moment where she's like, let's not use that word. And to me, I couldn't tell what that meant either. Is it just because she's religious? And so she doesn't like those words or bastard literally meaning like a son, I think always a son or it's a child born out of wedlock. It's like, is he page's child and not necessarily? Thomas's child. Like that could be a possibility too, with her being so sensitive to that word.

Could just be that she's so religious, though, too. But anyway, he calls him a smug bastard, and he is. Kai seems to be kind of manipulative in the few scenes we have stuff with him. Kind of seems to be like a shitter. And to me, that fits the anchor description. So the anchor being a trickster, a demon. a demon, whatever. But that trickster one really stands out,

especially in this scenario where he's holding a phone that looks cracked, and then he's not. And it's like, is he an anchor who is fucking with Eve as well? And in that case, we would have two dogs who didn't normally, who weren't normally violent, attacking two anchors, Thomas and Kai. So there's that.

That's intriguing to me that we have these similar dog stories. Something about it stands out. The other thing that stands out to me is Shiloh has the witch eyes, like the green and the blue. Oh, we're back to green and blue. I didn't even think of that one. And so is Charlie. Charlie has green and blue eyes, and they call them which eyes? There were times when I wondered, is Shiloh Charlie?

I think we have cases, though, where Charlie and Shiloh interact, but there were times where I was like, huh, you know what I mean? Like, it's an interesting connection, and I did see in Marcus's AMA in regards to Charlie's mismatched eyes. It was going to be one of the inconsistencies where, like, Charlie would have different or like we would have the same eye color and that's where it came from. But like why the dog too? And it's like so basically he was saying it was a detail from a different draft when that was

going to be something she noticed was different about Charlie. But it's like obviously the details were kept in. So even though he changed something, I'm also just so intrigued by what it means that Charlie and Shiloh both have the witch eyes. So I don't know. Interesting stuff going on with dogs there. But post dog attack and Eve, Eve, like, trying to tackle Kai for what she thought was her phone,

Paige is like, we are leaving. We are done. We're headed out. So she really oddly, like, picks up her red hair. And the family walks back to their truck. and on the way their truck passes Charlie, who is also now coming home. We're in like a fourth reality at this point. So not entirely sure which Charlie this is because of how things then play out.

But we're in a fourth reality at this point. And Thomas stops and says something to Charlie. Like they kind of, their cars stop as they're passing. And then he leaves and Charlie basically comes in and kind of looks at Eve and she's like, so what's up? And she's like, things are changing. Like I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but like stained glass windows in a different spot. She just starts listing the things off that have been happening. And she's like, and I can't find my phone and I swear Kai, like, he's just telling her the stuff that really Thomas has already informed Charlie of at this point.

And the fact that he was able to tell. her multiple details makes it seem like he is someone who can travel between the realities and retain information from them because he's telling Charlie stuff Eve has been doing throughout realities where like one of the realities they weren't even together, Charlotte and Eve. Specifically when when, when, um, Thomas tells her show, she went to town. In that reality, as far as I can tell,

then when she goes to Heather's, that's all still that same reality. And then we kind of find out Charlie's Charlotte, and it doesn't seem like they're actually together. So Thomas knows things from different realities because he tells Charlie about them. There's also an interesting thing. Like, since he's a host, did he, like, transfer memories?

We don't know. Did he do it? But did when they stopped and were kind of talking, did he transfer memories to Charlie? We just don't know. And Eve has been seeing people in the basement and in the attic. And she's like, I just don't want to stay here. I don't want to stay here. And so Charlie is like, all right, we'll go stay at a motel at the Kettle Creek Motel.

So we'll get to you in a second. She's like, fine, we'll go stay in a hotel. But I need to go get some things. And he was like, please no. And she's like, I have to. Like, I need to go get my things. She doesn't want her to go in there, but she does. And she's in there for a bit.

And then she comes out, gets back in the truck. And they head out and end up at Kettle Creek Motel, which now the sign has less missing letters. I think there are only two missing letters. And when we first heard about Kettle Creek a couple realities ago or maybe just one reality ago, there were tons of letters missing. So another inconsistency here. Kettle Creek is different. And they even kind of Charlie and Eve make a comment to each other.

Or Eve says to Charlie, this is so weird, this is operational. Like I thought when we drove past it, it was like abandoned and not working. And Charlie was like, maybe we just weren't paying enough attention. And she's like, okay. also eve is really distracted by a white hatchback that's in the parking lot of this hotel which is interesting because the only other time that we get a reference to a hatchback is when Mo went missing

when she was seven years old with her family could mean absolutely nothing maybe Marcus is just partial to hatchbacks. That could be the entire thing. But she's so distracted by this hatchback. It seems like it gets brought up multiple times. It seems like it means something. So yeah, she's distracted by that, but they go to the motel. They get in there. And Charlie's like, let's just get some rest. Essentially, I'm zooming through some of of whatever they talk about and then they fall asleep. But Eve wakes up at 3 a.m. It was the second time that's happened to her.

She also woke up at 3 a.m. the first night the family was there. And that was when she saw the woman in the gown in the basement that she thought was Jenny initially. So she does get woken up at 3 a.m. two nights in a row. It's also crazy to think that in some ways linearly, this takes place mostly over 48 hours, 72 hours, one of the two. But anyway, she's in the motel, gets woken up at like 3 a.m. because Charlie's phone is buzzing.

And she's like, who would be calling Charlie at 3 a.m. And she goes and sees her name. It says Eve Palmer is calling her. And she's like, okay, so somebody has my phone. She answers it in the bathroom. And she's like, hello. And this frantic sounding Charlie is saying, you can't trust who you're with like it's not me it's someone else um you got to get away from her

and eve is like what is happening like she's definitely talking to charlie and she's like it's not me who came back out of the house and we're like oh now eve is terrified who is she with because she's definitely talking to someone who sounds like Charlie. Then motel Charlie wakes up and it comes in and is like what what's going on like who you're on the phone with? And she was like she comes up with some lie about inspectors or something for the house. And she's like, I kind of don't believe you. Like that's apparent. Then she looks and Charlie's tattoo is not there anymore. And so Eve is like, oh my God, I actually am with a doppelganger. I need I need to get away.

So her instinct is to then run out in the parking lot where the other hatch where the hatchback is. It gets in Charlie's truck and is going to drive back to the house, which like, you're like, girl, no. Why? Don't do this. But she does. She's headed back to the house and I get it. She wants to save her Charlie. So on the way back to the house,

We also get this random sighting of a kid in the woods. I think it's the second time. And I think the main thing that's referenced is like green boots. So we have green showing up again. Who knows? Who knows what it means, but it's there. And that doesn't get explained, but she basically sees that kid on her way back to the house.

So now she goes back into the house and the table the dinner table is set for six people don't ever figure out why but that's definitely weird it's definitely odd and

um but she's looking for Charlie that's why she's here so she's drawn back to the basement and the doppelganger Charlie calls her from like an unknown number and is like, where are you? Like, I just want to talk to you. I can make you feel better.

But she essentially ends up hanging up on her and is still looking for this real Charlie. And as she goes to the basement, she sees the woman in the gown again. And the woman is telling her she needs to hide, which is interesting. We have this hide-and-seek thing going where Ginny would hide, and we've heard that Thomas would hide in the basement. And it's just like, is this a part of the replacement ritual? Is hiding part of it? Is going to pushing someone towards a certain location in the basement part of it? There's something there to hiding. So Allison is basically telling her hide and then starts counting down. So now we have Eve back in the basement, which is never a good thing.

And as she's running and trying to find a place to hide and also trying to find Charlie, she sees the ants that were explained in the dock that like they don't exist in at least this reality or the reality that the dock was written in. These Gelsheimer aunts. Every time Eve follows the ants, she gets into more trouble. She sees these ants, follows them, and now kind of runs into in the basement this really zombie-like version of Charlie. And Charlie's looking at her, and this is when Charlie says, you shouldn't be here yet. What does it mean?

What does it mean? How are there places that Eve should and shouldn't be at. certain times. Like, what does it mean? I don't know. But Charlie says that. And then the ants are like going into her. It's like from the way I read the scene, it's not like they're consuming her because she doesn't like, it just doesn't seem to imply that they are. It doesn't seem to imply that they're consuming her. But the ants like, it's just, it's a very horror scene of these ants like going into her eye sockets and her nose. And there's one at the end that's like trying to go through teeth and can't get through and then when it gets through it makes this plunk sound and I'm like oh

disgusting and then she starts to hear Allison's footsteps which I think I talked about and yeah I did in the episode that came out this week with Garen Steph I talked about how I have a dream where it's like footsteps like I just hear footsteps coming closer and closer to me and freaks me So anyway, always scary in a horror where you start to hear these like huge footsteps. And so Allison is coming for her and she, I think she might even say again like you better hide or whatever. At this point, Eve notices a door. I can't remember if the door is green or if just the hallway that she goes into, the hospital-ish hallway is green. or if the door was green itself but whatever we now she sees a door i think where the like alcove

that jinny was hiding in used to be which again kind of speaks to this like does this whole hide-and-seek thing play into the replacement ritual um because now there's a hallway there and i think it's where that they kept saying this concrete alcove that jenny went into um I think that's what has changed now. I don't know. But now there's a door in a green hallway and Eve just needs to hide. So we've got this other, similar to Heather's thing, there's like a force trying to push her deeper into the house. She goes into the hallway, turns into a room that essentially feels like a doctor's room, like where patients are seen by doctors, something like that.

I think there's like a wheelchair. it just has the vibes of like a patient's room but there are paintings there and there are paintings of Allison and Elijah and oh what is her mom Vera I think is her mom's name there are painted paintings of them and then Thomas is there but it looks like he's been added in which is little bit strange. So she sees that. So she sees those paintings and she's like, that's interesting. But then she hears the footsteps. And so she hides in a cabinet somewhat, a cabinet in that room. And basically when Allison does come into the room, she's like holding a hammer. This hammer has been

another object that shows up multiple times with Allison and in the house. But Allison is holding this hammer and she walks in and Allison is looking around this room trying to find her. Eve is holding her breath and then Allison seems to be walking out the door. And so she just kind of like inhales and it's just loud enough. Allison hears it, turns, locks eyes with her in the cabinet. That's when she shares all of these memories. which again is pointing us towards her being a host because of the old man's notes in the old house cabin where he talked about how one of, I think he said the one who lives under the Civil War Museum

is troubling and when he looks at you can share his memories and he calls that person a host. It seems like Allison is an unwilling host because she, she's able to transfer these memories to Eve. And we learn through her memories that Thomas came out of the woods. And that Allison and Ezra and not Ezra, Allison, Elijah, there are so many Bible names, guys. And her mom, Vera, they were the original family. They took Thomas in. they didn't take Allison in.

They took Thomas in as one of his own. And then we experienced the pain that Allison experienced as she basically saw her family crumble in front of her and turn into parents she doesn't even recognize, which this idea of like kind of like hippie rock parents or hippie parents with a band and all of that. And then religious zealots. don't typically have those two go hand in hand. So you just feel how disorienting it would have been for her to be having that happen. And how we know Thomas is the one who came out of that forest, which and all of this lends to this idea that Allison was the first person he trapped in a different reality. So we get this memory transfer.

And after she's looked at her and transfer these memories, she just puts the hammer down and she walks away and we're like huh so after she's been gone for a while eve's like i guess i need to get out of this basement but you know what tends to happen when she's in the basement we tend to be at the brink of a shift so as she's walking out the voice that she calls Mo is like you should probably grab that hammer because you never know what's going to be waiting for you up there and she's like you know what you're right so she grabs the hanger goes upstairs and it's described that like the house almost feels like 1950s decor now it's like has brighter colors in it um the house itself is just very noticeably visibly different

and she's like, okay, this is really strange. And the family is having dinner. Maybe that's what that dinner set for six people was. But we've definitely shifted into something different because Thomas comes around the corner and is like, what are you doing, Emma? And she's like, I'm Eve. And he's like, Emma, have you been taking your meds? And she's like, oh shit, I need to play along. And so she's like, yeah, I have.

And he's like, are you sure? Like, why are you holding a hammer? And she was like, I was going to hang up some pictures. And he's like in the middle of dinner. And she was like, yeah, sure, like just playing along. And he was like, I just really hope you are keeping up with your meds. And this isn't you going off your meds. And she's like, no, no, no.

that that's not it and he's like okay well how about you come back over and we'll finish dinner so she shows up and jenny is just kind of staring at her the whole time they're sitting there obviously um page has this very hostile attitude toward her um and they're kind of talking about like and when are you going to move out? And they make a reference to her breakup with Charlotte. That might have been why she moves in with them. But that girlfriend you had in the city is like the way they talk about her. And Paige just seems really hostile.

And then she notices that Paige is wearing the locket. And so she like kind of asked about it. And Paige is like, oh yeah, whatever I haven't decided what to put in it yet. But like everything just keeps getting weirder. and then Jenny says to her something about like the tattoo on her arm. I can remember what she says directly. And Eve slash Emma looks down and is like, I have never had a tattoo. And so she's officially freaking out.

Keeping with how Ginny was taking notes of everything at the beginning of the book, it kind of feels like Ginny might have also been trying to give her hints like, hey, pay attention with this whole pointing out the tattoo thing and calling her Emma at the beginning of the book. And now at the end of the book they're calling her Aunt Emma. And she supposedly is Thomas's sister in this reality. She's Emma Faust. But basically everything that's happening has just become too much for her. Same for us.

Like at this point, we're even like, get out of there. Thomas, I think, says something that kind of makes her even angrier. And she, like, grabs a corkscrew and puts it up to Paige's neck. And is, like, just trying to get Thomas to, like, tell the truth. and she's like, I am Eve. Like, I'm not Emma, blah, blah, blah, blah, like, saying whatever. And then kind of at the same time, Paige stabs Eve Emma, Eve Emma's leg with like a butcher knife is what it kind of sounds like. And then at the same time, the corkscrew does go into her neck.

But the way it's described is that, like, even Eve doesn't feel like she actually did it. like she doesn't feel like she pushed the corks the corkscrew through so there's something there where we're like what really happened there so page is essentially bleeding out on the floor now thomas is freaking out is like wailing um just falling apart and when he realizes that he's not even going to be able to save her his sights now turn on eve he calls the police and says that he needs them to come to 3710 Heritage Lane. And now Eve, Emma is like the fuck, 3710. And we're even like, okay, where are we now?

That now he's coming for, he's coming for Emma. And, well, Eve. So they're getting in this knockdown drag out fight that leads them up to the attic. He's trying to kill her. And he starts saying these things. Like, we gave you life and this is how you treat us. We built the foundation. We grew the trees when there was nothing here.

he's saying all this kind of like old testament-esque shit that sounds more like he is a large entity more than a human at this point the things he's saying are not very typical of something that like a human would be saying and he's kind of like booming and like sounds different um and she kind of remembers one of alison's notes about like how you have to get him angry to kind of knock him him out of something, slams him in the face with this hammer. And then he starts kind of like mumbling like, we were, I was, we were like, he's then coherent. And so there again kind of is this thing where it's like, is he being possessed? Like was he being possessed? And now we're seeing the Thomas who's like, wait, what was I even just saying?

I don't know. He also just got smashed in the face with a hammer. and then she drags the hammer out of his face and teeth go flying. Just a wonderful little detail for this man that we just want to watch her beat the shit out of. Also, I'll get to that about the teeth. But she, prior in the book, one of the main descriptors of him is how perfect his teeth are. So she drags this through his face, which now gives us the, this concept of that scar, possibly.

And she's standing over him, and she basically could go for the kill shot at this point. And she hesitates. And she has this thought where she's like, I'm not a killer. Like, I don't even feel like I actually was intending to kill Paige. And so she can't do it. And so she doesn't kill him. And like, maybe it wouldn't have mattered even if she did because, maybe he's so non-human that like a version of him exists somewhere anyway and it wouldn't have

fixed her problems. But I wanted her to kill him so bad. And in her moment of hesitation, that's when the police arrive and say like, drop your weapon. And she's like, fuck. We're all like, fuck. So a couple things happen as she's being dragged out by the police. She, um, Jenny is standing and just doesn't seem very shook by the fact that she just watched her mom die and like all of the violence that she just experienced doesn't seem to care. So there's something interesting there. She mentions the green eyes on Jenny. Um, and then also on our way out, she sees. She seems. sees Allison outside looking healthy and vibrant, but also a little regretful. And so it makes one wonder, did Allison successfully perform that replacement ritual in the basement. Because we came back

into a different reality when we came out of the basement. And did she successfully perform the replacement ritual on Eve because she looks kind of regretful and sad. And he's just like, and it references her green eyes again too. So there's this interesting thing with Jenny. I mentioned it before, Jenny and Allison. Both of them have these moments where they say like, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Um, and yeah, it's just interesting. Like, is Jenny a younger version of Allison? I don't know. Did he trap a younger version of Allison as his daughter at some point? Thomas. So I don't know. I don't know. There's definitely something between them and there's something kind of between Emma and Allison because now she is in this reality

as the sister of Thomas who tried to kill him with a stabbing like incident. It was a hammer, but I don't know that Emma and Allison have kind of swapped spots. And then it's also interesting that Jenny and Allison have similarities as well. I don't know. I don't know what they are. So then we get that she is interviewed by the police. And in the transcripts, there are multiple things that are really similar to the kid who came back and his friends were missing. Or they didn't exist in that reality.

She, one, we have the police officer saying, can I have my guys get you anything? water, Pepsi. So we have that line too. That line comes up again, whatever that means. She's explaining like the same thing. She's saying like, but you guys checked the hallway corridor or the hallway in the basement, right? And they're like, there's no basement or there's no hallway that's just concrete. Very similar to that prior investigation.

She's sure that she's someone else. She's sure that she's not Emma. and the police officers are just like, yeah, but you are. And they're telling her, like, you did this violent thing to this family. And we know that you were about to get kicked out and that they were going to, you were not going to have a place to live. And we think you snapped. There's also a point in the interview where she, like, kind of like,

changes her body posture and, like, stares off kind of dissociatively. and then kind of snaps out of it. That also happens in the other interrogation with the kid. Something matters about this. And I don't know if it's common because Thomas is just constantly putting different people through the same scenario. I don't know if that's what it means. I don't know if it means she and that kid are at least.

are linked at all. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but it's like there's also this through line of like in one timeline, Allison is Alina and stabs him 37 times because she swears her name's not Alina and her name is Allison. And then when I think the replacement ritual is effective with Allison, then all of a sudden Eve is his sister, Emma. and she stabs him. She does stab him with a hammer.

So it's like we have interrogations that are the same. And then we also have this thing where sisters of his, even if they're different people in the role, try to kill him. So I don't know. There's something there. If you think you know, comment.

But basically, she is sent to a psych ward. And when she gets there, she is so set on convincing them that she's Eve. And when she realizes that's just never going to happen, she's like, oh, the way that I would get out of this, the psych ward, not the reality necessarily, is if I start playing along. So she starts playing along. She still thinks she's Eve. There are moments every now and then. where like the doctor is so sure everyone's so sure that she's Emma that she's like am I

Emma but it never completely convinces her she really is still holding on to like no I'm Eve and then she gets a surprise visitor they're like you have a visitor and she's like really and I like yeah and it's Thomas and this is when we hear that his face has been reconstructed and now it has a familiar scar. This is what could possibly tie back to old man in old house cabin. The other thing she mentions are his veneers and that his teeth have been replaced. And that's hella interesting because one of the details we get about Thomas a couple different times at the beginning of the book is how perfect his teeth are.

So there's something there about, like, the version of him that met her at one point, had perfect teeth. And, like, now when she ripped his teeth out, he gets veneers. I don't know. It's there. Whatever it is. He comes to visit her and, like, just tells her, I'm so sorry. You had a break.

Like, essentially just being an asshole. And then gives her this envelope at the end. passes it over and she like knows she feels 100% sure she knows what is in that envelope um and we think we know too i mean i did it is the locket she opens it it's the picture of her like putting her hand in front of her face a little bit it is the one photo of eve palmer that little section i highlighted at the beginning um and he says i know how much this meant to you and charlie he calls her Charlie and in this reality she had reached out to Charlotte to like try to see if she remembered her and this Charlotte is like I don't know what you're talking about and we broke up a long

time ago so in this reality where she is in the psych ward she's even had her doctor point out to her like Charlie isn't Charlie even so the fact that he says I knew this matter to you and Charlie and then it is a locket with the one photo of Eve Palmer not Emma Faust um is just it feels like he's taunting her it feels so much like he's taunting her like oh horrifying also why i'm like okay with the ending yes i want her to get out of it yes i would love a sequel where she does find her way out of it but for a horror novel it's a horrifying ending it fits then we get to the epilogue which has all kinds of information We get a document that is an obituary for Elijah.

And it says that he is survived by his daughter, Allison. It does not mention any other children that he had. I feel like that points to the idea also that Allison successfully performed her replacement. and this final reality, I think, that Emma is stuck in, Emma, Eve, is probably Allison's original timeline, especially because she's called Allison and not Alina. So it seems like Allison performed the ritual replacement. So we have that. And then later we also have this post.

on like a strange things forum doesn't say who it's from i think it's from charlie it's it's from a woman who says like help i came back to my home that i just bought with my partner the house looks completely abandoned it looks completely different than what i came than what i bought with my partner my partner's not there and our dog was just wandering around the front lawn Um, a couple of things here. This makes me think this is Charlie 1 and that it's the only interaction we have with Charlie 1. Um, but also she comes back to the house seeming different. So it also alludes to, to me that she also went through a portal somehow at some point too.

the other thing that makes me feel like this points to how we never met Charlie 1 like Eve's OG Charlie the other reason I feel that way is because she doesn't say there's this family that stayed in our house I want to figure out what they did to her or what they did to my house if she had if Charlie 1 had experienced that I think that would be in this post and all she's saying is I came back and everything was different. So I don't think Charlie One ever met the family. I think we were with Charlie two and three and four. So yeah, that's what this post seems to mean to me. It feels like it's from Charlie. The name's redacted, but that's what it feels like to me. And so I think she's

somewhere else. So then overall, that also feeds into to me what I think would be a cool interpretation of these documents. I think a cool interpretation would be that these documents were Charlie doing research on like Mandela effect, all this stuff. It'd be fascinating if these documents were Eve and Charlie trying to get back to each other. But yeah, Yeah, like the old man obviously has documents too, but it's a cool idea to think that maybe these documents were, if Eve got out of the psych ward by pretending to get healthier, it could be her going through stuff too. Because some of it, like the ants and the tattoos, it would make sense for Eve to be researching. So I'm not 100% sure who wrote the docs, but it feels like that last. we get is Charlie.

So so much to talk about with this book. I feel like somehow there's still even stuff I missed, even through re-recording through all of these notes, because I think there is a never-ending amount of Easter eggs in this book. In his AMA a couple days ago, someone was like, will we ever find all of the Easter eggs? And he was like, I don't think he will. Some secrets are going to go to my grave. So I don't think he's ever going to completely answer. But I am so intrigued to see what the caretaker is like, since it's apparently in this same universe, I'm very interested to see what questions it might answer.

If we're going to find out more about hatches and shortcuts, I don't know. I don't know if we will. but I think this is a good stopping point. Again, if I racked my brain, I think there's still more that I could talk about, which is the beauty of novels like this. I think it's what's so fun about stories, whether it's books or movies or TV shows that can be so open to interpretation. It's so good for discussion and obsession.

So if you have any other theories, share them in the comments. If you have questions, also comment them. And maybe I have an answer and it was something I just didn't happen to cover. But what a wild ride. And definitely one of my favorites of 2024.