aloue.

Again, I did most of my research and notes on paper. For the best understanding/theory experience, please read the notes!

However I understand that some people might not wanna decipher my scrawlings, and my non-linear thought process might be too much, so I'll summarise the main things I found/theories I got in text. The text doesn’t cover all the routes I went and things I researched, but it will cover the biggest portions and main parts. As most of this was done as I rewatched the episode, noted down something, researched, and then resumed the episode, in the span of about 9 hours, the explanation for notes will be organised mostly chronologically. Here we go.

Firstly, I analysed the conversation the group had with Mr Abrams. He never explicitly confirms that the god he consistently references is the christian god, although he does reference the bible and quotes extracts from it. One of these is book of judges, 11.31, which refers to a passage in which a man, Jephath, makes a rash promise to god that if he allows him to defeat is enemies, the ammonites, he will offer up the first person that greets him when he returns home to the lord as a burnt offering. Mr Abrams only quotes the bit about burning people for the lord, and does not mention the passage after where it is revealed that the person who greets him, is infact, his own daughter, who is a child, and Jephath is forced to kill and burn his young daughter as he promised the lord so. I find this interesting as it both served as a threat in the moment, but potentially foreshadowed/referenced the involvement of fire in the ritual - as at the end of the episode, he drops a lit match on his son's body wrapped in cloth. This biblical reference can also be intepreted as a commentary on Mr Abrams mental state, being his rashness and willingness to sacrifice anything to achieve his goal without actually thinking about the fact that hes fucking KILLING A CHILD to do this.

This then got me into research on other forms of human sacrifice in the bible, one of which being the binding of isaac previously talked about in the previous post and which parallels to this biblical reference, and another being where Judean Kings sacrificed their sons by burning them in order to pray to the pagan god Molech, who the lord had strictly forbidden. While I do think the common themes of burning, and paganism align with a lot of the other UPP content, I'm unsure of if Molech is or could be related to UPP's happenings. I think it’s a bit of a stretch considering many, many rituals across pretty much every religion globally in some way mention burning as part of rituals, and sacrifices are pretty common. It's not completely off the table, but I deem this connection maybe serves as inspiration at best.

Keeping on going with the conversation with mr abrams, I noted several quotes - one being that he says he has talked to god, but god doesn’t speak - instead, god shows. Mr abrams says "I have seen god through his works", and when asked talking later, says "There is power in blood and words". In the bible, there is quite often references of god communicating with people, speaking and otherwise - which makes me think that while mr abrams may believe that he's talking to a christian god, he probably isnt - and either hes going crazy and justifying to himself the atrocities hes committed, OR there is another being taking advantage of his belief in a god and merely keeping up the charade of god because its convenient. More on this later.

During the conversation, Mr abrams is consistently asking them for information about themselves, which makes sense later when the gang links his magic stick breaking ritual to his saying of lui's name - however I think this is merely a demonstration of the major overarching mechanic of this magic, being INFORMATION. Now to some extent this is obvious, but for someone who's been theorising more than anything, it took me longer than id like to admit for me to make the connection between the use of information in magic being majorly overarching. While the gang does say some stuff about it, its not emphasised yet that the connection between how much you know about something or someone, the more power you hold over them. Although not confirmed, its highly likely that it’s the same magic system/rituals that allows the "returned" (what bizly has called the undead) to be banished back, as the better you know how they died , the more power you have in banishing them (proven by the penalty die william took when he tried banishing mr brooks without being specific). This would explain why Mr abrams was constantly asking for information about them - eg, he asked norah how old she was, which, if it just required names for the stick ritual, wouldn’t be necessary. He was trying to obtain more power over them. And maybe this is why the curse over Lui didn't last as long as he expected - because Mr Abrams only said something surface level - that being his last name, Duponte.

Moving on to the stick ritual, I must say Bizly was very accurate about what you'd find on the internet about it. I couldn’t find many clear links, but in asking literally everyone I know about anything they’ve ever heard about anything like this, eventually one of them said "omg that sounds like the thing from the movie Weapons!" - which I looked up and is SO TRUE. I think this has got to be Bizly's inspiration for the specific stick ritual, as in the movie the stick with hair wrapped around is broken and used to control people, even to the point of self harm and manipulation of others by extension - just like in UPP. While I think that this movie served as inspiration, I don’t think any more lore-related stuff can come from it than we already know. But its pretty cool.

Other things about the stick ritual included looking into why the hair is involved, to link yet another aspect of the nature of this ritual stuff: sympathetic magic. Hair in some folklores, specifically cultures like paganism, considered hair when wrapped around an object a "taglock", which tied the person the hair belonged to with the object or totem it was bound around. This is similar to a voodoo doll, another form of sympathetic magic. Sympathetic magic is defined as a type of magic revolving around the connection of people, objects, and actions through symbolic links- and the manipulation of those links or one of the linked things being how the magic is performed.  Salt, which is present in UPP in both episode 2 of empty graves during the ritual, and which is scattered across the table in a clip of the instagram teaser, is another form of sympathetic magic tied to belief. Manipulation of information, as previously explained, could also be considered a form of sympathetic magic - I can't quite put it in words, but it's in the same vein of manipulating connections between people through non-physical means (but with physical impact).

Next we see the corpse of Ms Abrams in the basement, which apart from being completely gruesome and awful, links exactly to the norse descriptions theorised previously  - being hung, with spears/stakes piercing the body. As the body is described as having an odour, despite the cold environment (speaking of cold environment, see THIS

https://www.tumblr.com/darth-emerald/813576484579098624/upp-empty-graves-theory-time-spoilers-for-empty

wonderful post) - the body must be at least 2-3 days old. And the fact that she is not a "returned" fuels the themes that are stated by mr abrams - "You must give to receive".

A quick sidepoint about this - the pustules that keep appearing on his face are linked to his use of magic. More pustules grew as he cursed lui, which is probably a symptom of the magic/occult practices taking from him, for him to "receive" his use of magic in a way. Also, they're growing towards and covering his eye. The eye symbolism is a whole thing, we'll get there.

 Back to Ms Abrams, she is clearly what has been given - just like how isaac, who is bound the exact same way, and has his clothes torn off of him just the same, later in the episode, is to be given. Mr Abrams is giving these lives, these sacrifices, just like the animals lives, in order to bring his son back - but if his wife's sacrifice did not work, then why will isaac's? This makes me think that his wife died in order to potentially do something else, or was simply a failed sacrifice - but maybe her death was like a practice run, a test trial - and instead of bringing his son back, he brought back mr brooks instead. But then who died to bring back Lui's grandma?  this theory, that ms abrams died as a test trial, or in someway links to mr brook's resurrection, hinges on knowledge we do not have - if mr abrams has sacrificed another person. If so, that would explain how Lui's grandma returned (but maybe not how he's harnessing the magic? The next point isnt mutually exclusive to this fact). If not, then something bigger is at play.

Multiple things have pointed to the fact that there is something much bigger than Mr Abrams controlling the scene. If Mr Abrams is trying to resurrect his son, where did Mr Brooks and Lui's grandma's resurrections come from? And why didn't the trees shake when THEY were resurrected? Maybe Mr Abrams is trying a different type of resurrection, a more complete one, for his son, and that’s why the trees shake. If it was this inconsistency by itself, I wouldn't be as convinced of something bigger - but its not.  another thing that points at something other than Mr Abrams being in control - The second page, the second clue that Lui rolled occult for.

This story is clearly supposed to parallel Mr Abrams as "The rider", as he is the one taking people into the woods, and the one gaining boils. However, the woman described at the beginning likely also parallels someone, and given the woman is described as redirecting the rider's plea for help in reference to the gods. Earlier, I mentioned mr abrams being potentially a puppet, maybe  believing he was sacrificing to god but perhaps was sacrificing in the name of god to someone or something charading as such. The story links this perfectly, as although not explicitly stated, it is implied that the rider never reached the king (just as how mr abrams never reached god), and therefore could neither check if the king/god could infact not help, nor if the sacrifices he was being told to make were actually in the god's interest. But in their desperation, the rider (again, parallels to mr abrams) trusted the strange entity, and followed instructions to sacrifice, believing it to be beneficial in the long term.

The parallels to this story don’t just stop there obviously, as in the first period since the rider's return they did not take humans into the woods, just a knife. This likely also happened with mr abrams, which would explain the animal sacrifices - he started with animals, which no one would know about as they are found and killed solely in the woods.

Also, in the story, the rider drinks something given to him by this woman. Mr Abrams, during his entire conversation with the gang, is repeatedly emphasised to be drinking SO MUCH ??water??. He offers the group some, but they refuse, which is probably for the best if this is some sort of potion that brainwashes you into thinking worshipping god by sacrificing kids is okay.

Now who or what could be giving these instructions, I hear you (and my past self) think? Well, unfortunately we don’t know yet. The story was called "The witch of Heidendorf", which gave the woman at least in the story a title. In researching, I concluded that this, like the first poem, is an original story written for this show, as I couldn't find anything like it online. I did however find that the word "Heidendorf" is an old germanic word, referring to a village in Bistrița-Năsăud County, Romania which was renamed to Viișoara in the 1950's. Why this village was later renamed makes significantly more sense when the word is translated. "Dorf" is a word meaning village, and "Heiden" means "Heathen". The word "Heathen", which is already interlinked with UPP due to its appearance in the title of one of the books in episode one of empty graves (again, see previous post), originates as a label (and later morphs into an insult) for practicers of norse and pagan religions due to the spreading of religion/stories occurring around the "hearth", aka "open fire".

With EVEN MORE links to Norse mythology, I go back down the same internet rabbithole that lead me to learning the Elder Futhark Rune system last time, and do some more research into folklore and stories. The animals sacrificed and hanging from trees, specifically the pelts and heads, align perfectly with norse rituals performed often in worship of the gods. This ties again to devotions to odin, in mimicking his "sacrifice to himself", with hanging and spears, in the same way that both isaac and ms abrams are being sacrificed. If it is any consolation, in sacrifices such as these, the subject of the sacrifice (mostly animals but I guess humans are on the menu in UPP) were killed quickly, often with knives, and the parts which were not to be devoted to the gods were to be eaten as not to waste anything. Perhaps this is why Ms Abrams blood was all in a bathtub, so it didn't go to waste.

Back onto the "Witch of Heidendorf", there is a niche tale of Norse Mythology, specifically of Scandanavian origin, in which a deity/witch enters the hall of Odin. "Heide", as she is referred to, arrives as a spy or emissary for the Vanir, rival gods of prosperity. In finding this out, Odin and his company skewer her with spears, and set her alight. She is reborn, and this happens again, and again. Despite burning, she continues to live, and this leads to an eventual pact between pantheons. From this point, the name "Heide" is often used to refer to any Norse woman conducting magic. While this piece of mythology is interesting, there is not enough evidence yet to link it to UPP - at this point it’s a stretch, but I felt like including it anyway :)

There is SO MUCH of norse mythology for this post, some of which has already been discussed in the UPP community, but at this point I cant separate my own links from that of a random comment with 1 like under the UPP audio version. I might be in too deep.

ANYWAY! the tale of fenrir and the loss of Odin's eye is heavily symbolic, and probably links to the weird eye thing going on currently. And the symbolism of blindness in the face of the divine. More on that shortly. Also, the trees shaking thing, not only is it in a story with a title referencing norse myths, but it also occurs within the folklore itself in the form of the great tree Yggdrasil (aka the world tree) being prophesised to shake as Ragnarok (aka, the end of the world) approaches. So the trees shaking potentially represent the incoming end of the world.  I had several other mini-theories involving the ideas that the trees shaking might mean enough has been sacrificed to achieve the end goal (in the story end of plague, in UPP revival of Mr Abrams son), or the links to Aspen trees in christianity cursed to shake forever as they didn't mourn the passing of christ. But overall, my general conclusion/theory is that the myth/monster/deity behind all of this originates or first appeared in Norse times, but now is utilising belief in other faiths by playing into them to manipulate people like Mr Abrams.

Oh my goodness. I was going to type out my whole page I had about the eyes thing, and the symbolism, and the fact that theyre probably a manifestation of control over people which is why mr abrams and mr brooks had them and were doing bidding while Lui's grandma didn’t and was kinda going feral. And the disintegration of his eye at the end with Mr Brooks was him being severed from that connection and magic. And how all the animals had their eyes missing and Lui's grandma attacked williams eyes. Because the whole theme of this is having information about people and eyes allow you to gain that. So by removing their eyes its removing their ability to gain advantage through knowledge. And for fucks sake its called UNWITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM. You WITNESS with your EYES. EVEN THE LOGO HAS EYES. And those eyes have even more symbolism and - eyes go brrrrr.

Okay. I think that's the end of this tumblr post. I apologise for any spelling errors, and any incorrect information, I did the best research I could but I'm not an expert by any means. Shoutout to literally everyone who's ever posted an UPP theory, there's a 99% chance ive read your post, and its likely some little part of what you said lead me down one of the paths I explored.

  I've come to terms with the fact that at this point, releasing a day before the next episode isnt as much of a problem because while this is a theory post, it is also in its own way a literary analysis of UPP and picking apart its intertextual references in ways not limited to what happens in future canon. If you've read all of this, you're actually crazy, I can't even believe I would spend 13 hours researching and then another 5 writing this post alone, let alone believe anyone else would voluntarily READ this essay of a post. To end this, Here's another photo of my desk while writing this. Its definitely autism.

usually when i build character playlists im doing it with two goals in mind - choosing music that they would listen to, and lyrical significance

with norah in particular, despite her being a flautist and generally meek, quiet and non confrontational, she has desires and needs that aren't being met that are best represented through grungy rock and slow paced, meticulous melody; especially through acoustic picking. most of this playlist is very guitar forward, and often have a blown out, crunchy sound, or a disconnected floaty ambience that feel very deadwood to me. there's also influence from genres that i think the other characters would have introduced to her.

equally important to me, the lyrics have to represent the character in mind. obviously not every song will be 100% perfect, but there's often very obvious calls to her. ill give a few examples:

ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR - RADIOHEAD I want to be in a band when I get to heaven And anyone can play guitar and they won't be a nothing anymore

i've always associated this with her attempt + how unfulfilled she feels on her academic track. there's a lot of songs in this playlist that reference suicide, but i think this one is most representative of her escapist fantasy of joining a band and dropping the perfect student persona

DAGGER - SLOWDIVE The world is full of noise yeah I hear it all the time And me I am your dagger You know I am your wound I thought I heard you whisper It happens all the time

specifically i associate this with her and william. mostly to do with the words noise + whisper, but also her tendency to be at the head of physical danger because of her difficulty with communication

entire songs sometimes completely align with her or the entire UPP team, for example: Gnaw - Alex G: descriptions of childhood, occult, and communal secrecy (especially from adults)

Mass Anesthesia - Mediavolo: this is how i imagine UPP feels about the general population of deadwood's lack of awareness to the horrors they've encountered

Music Box - Leith Ross: despite this song's exterior being a calming lullaby, the lyrics stuck with me and have always been twisted into a creepily-calm recounting of mysteries they've solved

Free Treasure - Adrianne Lenker: yes, do you want to go to the river is maybe the most brutal way to start this song and a large part of why it was an immediate choice, but it also captures the calm and good of norah's life and interests- the love and care she found in her only group of friends and the importance of community, when otherwise occupied with unhelpful thoughts and feelings

15 Step - Radiohead: i mean man. what can i say. the pressures of being a perfect student and overachiever combined with depression, anxiety, late diagnosed autism and self doubt. being suddenly hit with every roadblock imaginable and going "what happened to the old me, where did i go wrong?"