Game Theory - The Disturbing Lore Of Lily's Garden

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

We've talked about how mobile games are weird in a previous episode. Well, this is a game that proves it. Welcome to the disturbing world of Lily's Garden! A place where our titular heroine is up to more than just tending to some plants. This game is DARK! Which means, of course, that I needed to cover it. It is time to untangle the mystery of Lily's Garden. 

Matthew, what are you doing? It's late. I know, it's just after a long day of theorizing, I needed to unwind with a mindless mobile game, you know? Are you playing Lily's Garden? Isn't that that game that's like random tile matching with those crazy ads? What do you mean crazy ads? Huh, that does seem really random. I wonder if there's actual lore there. Eh, it's probably just a marketing ploy. Ah, good night. Matthew!

I need to know, Steph! Hello internet, welcome to game theory, the show that isn't afraid to get down and dirty with hidden lore. And I know what you're all thinking, why? Why on earth am I choosing to talk about the random tile-matching mobile game, Lily's Garden? Gotta be honest, I hadn't really ever heard about this game until we did our episode on why mobile games might be illegal. In that episode, we talked about potential false advertising used by mobile games, and all of a sudden my comments section and my Twitter blew up with requests, for Lily's Garden. So I started looking into it, but then I got busy with other projects and it just kind of fell to the bottom of the pile. That was until Bijou Mike called us out in his video reacting to our Grubhub episode.

And would you look at that? We've suddenly come full circle. The fires of theory were burning again and I got to work. So here we are! Don't say I don't do anything for you. As I said earlier, Lily's Garden is a surprise surprise, tile matching mobile game. These mini games earn you currency in the game, which in this case are stars. With them, you get to redesign Lily's new estate from its building to its, you guessed it, gardens. But the reason we're all here is not because this is the game of the century. It's because of the ads.

That's right. This is the part of Lily's Garden that set the internet ablaze. There's drama. There's heartbreak. There's sexual implication. All the things that keep us going back to those trash TV reality shows. This game is using to draw us in, and boy am I in it now. But something bothered me.

It's the same thing. that was bothering most to you, which was why you kept asking me to make a theory on this thing. There is no obvious timeline. The official YouTube channel, Lily's Garden Confusing Universe, tells you that just with the name alone. But in their description, they explained that the episodes are coming out, quote, not in any particular order. Even in the description of the video, How Could He? They say, quote, we'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that you have no idea when this took place. As one of the channel's most recent videos, this implies, to me, at least that no one has yet figured out the order of events correctly, and that sounds like a challenge,

one that I accept. Today, dear theorists, we are going to solve the mystery of Lily's Garden Confusing Universe and make it once and for all, the Lily's Garden solved timeline. As the name implies, this story is about Lily. Every character we meet is intrinsically entwined in Lily's life. There's her mom, Holly, her ex-fiancee Blaine, her neighbors, Luke and Rachel, and her best friends, Regina and Whitney. Some of these characters have drastic impacts on the timeline. Others are there just for filler, but as any good theorist knows Nothing is ever just filler. So with everyone introduced, let's get started. In the video, all of that in one day were introduced to our titular character Lily and the life that she leads. To put it simply, it's a bit of a mess. She's living in a rundown home as evident by the mirror falling off the wall, the dirty ripped wallpaper, and in a later video, we see she hasn't even gotten a table for her TV. It just sits on a moving box. From this, we can tell that she recently But why? To start afresh, to be closer to her mom, or simply to find the one thing that drama relies on

Love. It's never really made clear by the videos. What is made clear is that Lily doesn't have much luck in the love category Even with the, ha-hem help of her mother Holly. Lily tries to make the best of her situation Taking yoga classes and practicing self-care. Enter Blaine Van Dyke or at least enter his booty. This is where the ads begin their descent into the drama and sexual innuendo that we've come to associate with them. Blaine and Lily hit it off and have some adult time together, which if Lily's expression is anything to go by, was disappointing. But it's fine because by accident when her laundry machine won't shut, she discovers a beneficial side effect. However, Lily's life takes a dark turn quickly when her entanglement with Blaine turns into an unwanted pregnancy, leading Lily to go to the doctor to terminate it. Notice her feet up in the stirrups,

followed by the purchase of a bottle of wine, big pregnancy no-no right after. Despite this devastating event, Lily still tries for an actual relationship with Blaine. If you haven't guessed by literally everything about him, he's kind of the worst. He's self-absorbed, he's a cheap skate, and as we're about to discover, he's also a cheater. Despite all of that, at some point they get engaged. I say some point because there's no clear evidence as to when it happens, but he is noted as being her ex-fiancee, so an engagement does happen, and it helps to explain some of the things that happen later in the story.

Lily is ecstatic about her new engagement only to discover lipstick on Blaine's collar, and eventually catches Blaine in the act with none other than her mom. This whole time, Blaine has been cheating with none other than Holly La Rosa, Lily's mom. It all started when Blaine came over one day to discover Holly doing jump rope exercises, which led to an attraction to her, um, assets. We also know Holly to be quite flirtatious. Given in the video, there's just so much tea. After Lily rejects the idea of getting it on with a random guy,

Holly adjusts herself and swoops on in. We can also tell it was Holly's lipstick on Blaine's collar, as in the video too close for comfort, we see him sneaking around trying to not get caught by Lily and Blaine's face is covered in the same red lipstick. Surely finding your fiance cheating with your mom would end your relationship, right? Right? Yeah, no, apparently that wouldn't lead to an interesting enough story. With their wedding on the line, Lily takes Blaine back. They try to settle into a normal life, but that doesn't sit well with Blaine, being uninterested by couples' activities with their neighbors, Luke and Rachel. Seeing Luke and Rachel's relationship thrive leads Lily to fantasize about leaving Blaine and being with Luke, which isn't helped by Luke putting his hand on Lily's leg during a couple's movie session.

Whoa, ho, ho! Now we've got ourselves a love triangle friends! Despite Lily's efforts to make her relationship with Blaine work, she once again finds him cheating. This time, with a mysterious blonde. But instead of confronting him directly or taking him on a daytime talk show, She takes another approach, getting pregnant again. Or, so Blaine thinks. This news causes him to run away. He's not ready for the dad life, but wait, what's this?

Lily fake the test. That's right, another plot twist in this riveting soap opera all designed to promote some random tile-matching mobile game. Blaine is out of her life once and for all, for now at least. This is when we meet Regina and Whitney, Lily's gal pals. Regina is actually part of the intro sequence, being described as a carpenter. Not that this ever pays off in any meaningful way, and Whitney doesn't even get an intro card, she's just kind of there. Even her wiki entry has very little to say about her.

Anyway, the girls have some fun, get into some trouble, and, uh, bond over common interests. Got these ads. But here we are at New Year's, and as the New Year comes around, Lily is left with no one to kiss. We know this goes here, as Regina is currently with the guy from the video Regina to the Rescue. Blaine is still hooking up with Holly, and Luke is still with his wife, Rachel, but not for much long. Which means it's time to talk about Luke, Lily's neighbor. Sometime after New Year's, Luke has hired a private investigator to spy on his wife, and as he regretfully suspected, she's been cheating on him.

And with his own neighbor, Blaine, of course. I mean, come on, this guy's the village bicycle, and that blonde wig was not fooling anyone, Rachel. Luke shares this news with Lily and the two go to a bar to drink their sorrows away. The two hit it off and go back to Lily's place, but wait, there's a knock at the door. Blaine has returned, and despite his cheating, still thinks that he lives there. When Lily invites Luke into the bedroom, Blaine has snuck in through the window and is waiting on the bed trying to win back the battle for Lily To which the three all look at each other and decide to continue on as planned with the evening's activities There's a couple videos in there where Luke and Blaine continue to fight for Lily's affection

But their rivalry seems to lead less to fighting and moored toward a blooming bromance leading them to go on a camping trip together with some not so subtle implications Unbeknownst to them, lily sees the whole thing and kicks them out over it She deletes their pictures and it looks like she finally might be deciding that she is enough for herself. There's a small side plot here where Blaine proposes to Regina to get back at Lily, but Whitney is in love with Regina and they eventually get together and have a baby. It doesn't really directly impact Lily's story, but it is a heartwarming moment, and then Lily's house burns down. Yep, that's right. Is it a stove burner left on? Is it arson? We don't actually seem to find out. We only really see the aftermath

of the disaster when Lily has to leave home and stay with her kindly neighbor, none other than Luke. Now, I gotta be honest, I took some creative liberties at this point, as I couldn't find anything to imply Luke and Lily got back together, but the series of videos seems to imply that kind-hearted Luke lets Lily move in until she gets her life back in order. And then just over time, they get comfortable living with each other. Their fallouts are kind of cute, and their cute moments lean toward romance. They definitely have disagreements, but life is about to change in pregnant again when Lily lets Luke know that she's got a bun in the oven. Contrasting Blaine, Luke is excited to be a dad, and all the preparations are made.

Unfortunately, there's a twist in this fairy tale because there's always a twist in Lily's garden. While Lily is having an ultrasound, she makes a phone call. But the phone is left unanswered next to glasses of wine and some underwear. Luke! How could you? Is what they want us to think, but hold on to your shorts because this is going to get wild. As Lily makes the final preparations to give birth, she calls the phone one last time. Luke, who's actually on his way to the hospital to see her, is trekked.

tragically hit by a bus while riding on his moped and subsequently dies. Or so they would want us to believe yet again. Turns out Luke is alive and the man on the other end of the phone this whole time was not Luke, but Blaine. I told you this thing was crazy, but this out-of-nowhere curveball actually makes a lot of sense. Blaine was on his way to the hospital because Luke, you are not the father. Lily knows this and so called Blaine on a few occasions to update him, but he was busy womanizing. He does head to the hospital, but is less than true. tragically hit by a bus after ruining the lives of countless women and supporting this theory is none other than the baby itself

Long-term viewers of this channel are gonna be familiar with the idea of punnets squares and how they can help us determine to some degree what features a child's gonna have We see that Lily's baby is fair-skinned with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair Lily has fair skin brown eyes and red hair But Luke has dark skin dark eyes and dark hair all of these are considered dominant genes which means that their baby would more likely look like like Luke, then Lily. On the other hand, if Blaine were indeed the baby daddy, you'd expect a baby with light hair, fair skin, and maybe blue or green eyes. Kind of like this one. Obviously, this kid is going to grow up with some daddy issues. But we're not going to address any of those here because the story timeline doesn't mention it at all, and instead we're going to have to shift gears abruptly to Lily's mom Holly, who's been floating around in the background the entire time.

Now, bear with me, because we are wrapping things up here and it does get around to how Lily story ends. What we know about Holly so far is that she's kind of a narcissist and definitely a cougar. Flirts with Luke, breaks her leg trying to show off a ice skating, and generally causing some good old-fashioned shenanigans during family Christmases, where we also meet Luke and Rachel's daughter, Karen. When we catch up with the story though, Holly's time is cut short. She's hit by a bus and taken to a hospital, and during the night, her life support is turned off by a mysterious figure.

Who could this be? Who would do such a thing? And you know what? Turns out doesn't matter and has no implications on the story at all, and that's because of an ad that's been removed from YouTube called motor. Motor, it's like a brand safe way of titling it murder, I think. In this mystery ad, it turns out that Holly faked her own death, which Lily actually catches a glimpse of at the funeral, seeing her finger move. We know that this is Holly's finger because she's the only character we see wear a ring. And while I initially thought that the R on the ring must stand for Rachel or Regina, it actually stands for La Rosa, Holly's last name.

Why Holly faked her own death is unclear, but according to the wiki, she then lives out her days in a retirement home far away from all her family. Lily does eventually find her and confront her and time has definitely passed due to Lily's added wrinkles and gray hairs, but by this point, it's too late, she's passed on. For real, this time she's passed on. Lily reminizes about her mom, the stories she told of her and her sister Mary, what Lily was like as a child, and how Holly was devastated by Great Aunt Mary's passing, trying to fill the whole left behind in her life with men. Lily takes her mother's ashes and after a little accident, buries them in the yard. Then she's haunted by her great Aunt Mary for not looking after Holly well enough and dragged into the underworld the end.

And there you have it, a complete timeline of events. I may have skipped over some minor details here and there, but I believe this is the true retelling of this story. Now, before those of you who love the actual game, pick up your pitchforks and tell me that there's so much more lore hidden inside the actual game itself that I've missed, let me tell you the twist of this whole thing, the ads aren't real. Dun, done, done! See, I can be dramatic too. And I don't mean they're not real as in, it's a fictional world, because, duh, if that was the logic, then there would be no such thing as game theory. What I mean is that these ads are staged.

They're scripted. They're filmed like a TV show. The YouTube channel describes itself as a telenovela, but the real clues come hidden inside video descriptions. In the video, he's probably coming back right, the description says, quote, Blaine actually did ride off. He left a Lily and the whole film crew waiting. The end shot of Lily waiting in the dark was not in the evening. original script. A script, you say? A crew? That doesn't seem very real to me. Other videos have references to one take, staying in character, Golden Globe nominations, furthering the idea that all of them are actors. Also, the descriptions list the characters names like cast credits, Lily Roberts as Lily Roberts, with guest star Holly LaRosa. This to me suggests that the story we see playing out in the ads is actually just a scripted television show, where the characters are playing heightened versions of themselves,

and the game storyline is a separate story based in the real world. They allude to this kind of style with references they make to other TV shows. Notice that Lily actually works in an office that is literally the office, like the TV show that was pretending to be a real documentary, where some characters actually shared the same names as their IRL counterparts. That is where Lily exists in the show of Lily's Garden. Or on Instagram, where Lily's Garden parodies another not scripted reality show, The Real Housewives. Finally, Holly is often referred to as a guest star, and on some occasions, superstar, implying that she's famous from before or outside of the show.

To support this idea, in February of 2021, new ads got released for Tactal Games' new mobile game, Penny and Flow, with Penny being the main character. She owns a diner, she's engaged, she had a relationship with Luke at some point. Her fiancé cheats on her with Regina, she gets pregnant, and it looks like she'll go on to have a relationship with Regina's brother, too. So this drama and craziness ain't going anywhere. I'll leave all that for another day, but you get the idea here. We're at the tip of the iceberg, friends. There are so many other questions here, like what other IP this might tie into, whether there's a larger meta-commentary going on about us as players in this story,

and the ultimate goal of these bizarre ads to begin with, other than getting us crazy people on the internet talking about it. All of that is probably for another day, if, of course, any of you want to talk about this for another episode. Let me know down in the comments if this scratched your little little, But Lee's Garden Itch. Anyway, that's all I got for today. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to do something.

I don't know, academic with my life. Maybe I'll go read a book. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.