mari

I was theorizing about Nathan's suicide with oomf. The reveal was such an interesting and gutwrenching shift in his characterization but it was also vague enough to make you think, how did Nathan actually kill himself anyway?

(Also my tone may be blunt and a bit brusque when discussing this; I apologize. As someone who has troubles with suicidal ideation, I think I talk about this topic in this way because copium so yeah)

I think it's fairly established that when Nathan inherited the hotel, he found out shortly after that it was haunted, and that if you die there you manifest as a ghost. So my question was, if a depressed and suicidal person wants to end their life, why would they do it in a place where their existence would become eternal instead?

So my two leading theories are that:

If pills were his way to go which is a common hc/theory about his death, either Nathan, in an extremely depressive state, went on some sort of self-sabotaging bender and accidentally overdosed (accidental suicide).

Or (if we interpret the hotel's rules that it's not that you just die and become a ghost, but instead you manifest as a ghost because you have unfinished business) if Nathan thought that his being was truly so worthless and unfulfilled, in his death he wouldn't have any unfinished business to even manifest as a ghost and therefore went through with it.

I think both of these theories also kind of explain why he's so okay with being dead, hoping that his death day would be celebrated by his family when most ghosts view their death as trauma that haunts them in the afterlife. Before Kathy revealed to him how he actually died, he had probably convinced himself that he was finally okay, being dead and free of life's responsibilities.

I definitely thought about this for a little bit too, just bc it’s so interesting to me ! Like, not all suicidal people are the same of course, but the genuine consensus is that it isn’t really wanting to die, but wanting things to stop, for life to just be over with because being alive is too much to bear. Committing suicide in a hotel that you know brings people back as a ghost is an odd choice, and I think there are a few explanations , that make varying degrees of sense:

1. Nathan didn’t know the hotel was haunted (impossible, absolutely no way to not know the hotel is haunted)

2. Nathan wanted to see the aftermath of his suicide (I think that while this is certainly possible, judging by Nathan’s emotional nature, I don’t think this makes sense for him. Katherine didn’t tell him he killed himself for a reason- though I don’t think that wanting to see the aftermath of your suicide is a toxic trait, because it’s a symptom of mental illness, I personally don’t think Nathan would be the kind of guy that enjoys seeing that, especially considering he would potentially have to see how abbadon, Katherine, or worse case scenario Esther and Ben react to his death.)

3. Nathan didn’t think he would become a ghost: I think this is fairly likely, actually. The concept of unfinished business is silly, and I think that everyone would become a ghost if the only criteria is that you have something you wanted to accomplish in life that you didn’t manage to, but I also think that Nathan is the kind of guy who would have unfinished business but not realized it. After entering a suicidal mindset, it’s fairly likely he didn’t realize that he would become a ghost because he doesn’t think that he has anything for him in life.

4. Nathan committed suicide in a state of distress : this is what I think is the most logical scenario. As someone who has attempted suicide, the mindset you enter is pretty toxic. You’ll do things you wouldn’t do normally, because you’re really in distress. Considering that Nathan had lots of familial / mental health issues and that he ran out of a medication recently (likely lexipro, an antidepressant), I’m guessing he entered a really bad mindset and committed very suddenly.

I think we’ll find out more about Nathan’s suicide in S2, but these are my theories for now.