“Absolutely Fruitastic” - bonemoisturizer

The photo Phil holds of Clark at the end seems to be Clark with a censored out Clark Still Life. You can vaguely see a peg leg and regular leg at the bottom of the black box.

Mary's Still Life sitting at the end really unnerved me for some reason on my first watch. On my second one, I think it's because she reminds me of how her mother was sitting in the wheelchair during the one flashback.

I'd noticed this the first time, but the Still Life of Clark's wife running away when Pirate Clark came in has implications. However, on my second watch, I noticed that she was holding her head when she first shows up by the Christmas Tree.

The Christmas Tree almost looks like it's an explosion, with the people/statues stuck in the floor shielding themselves from the light.

Pirate Clark/Still Life Clark stumbles slightly from his peg leg. Which, of course, is similar to when he's filming the commercial. However, if thought about the right way, it's also like he's drunk or tipsy.

Also Clark didn't NEED to have a peg leg when you think about it. His store's mascot didn't have a peg leg. Why did he have a peg leg?

The first room of the backrooms that has all the furniture is empty when Mary steps in. So Clark either moves all that furniture somewhere else, or he took all that furniture out of the backrooms like he did that stool in the beginning.

I personally interpreted that he took that stool as him trying to replace the chair he broke in the beginning, because he first picked up those two connected chairs and tried to disconnect them when he first entered. That and trying to prove it was real, but like... I think that chair was at the forefront of his mind.

The piles of chairs, furniture and clothes are somewhat similar to Mary's Mother's house during the flashbacks to Mary as a child. There's all the hoarded furniture and clothes, the barricaded door, and the rotten food. Which explains why Bobby said it smelled awful in that one section. The backrooms isn't just trying to remember how that house looked, but also how it smelled. With dirty clothes, rotting food, and whatever else might not be visible there? I can't imagine the place smelled nice.

I think the section where Clark and Kat are talking through a wall that's also a one way window was slightly foreshadowing to Phil talking to Mary. The one way window there is much more obvious, but it's still there.

Clark's obsession with the backrooms also feels somewhat foreshadowed? Like, he was already obsessed when he tried describing it to Mary, but it definitely got worse towards the end. However, before that (if I remember correctly), there's a brief scene of Clark doodling some sort of building design. It's pretty nonsensical, and even as somebody who isn't an architect, I felt like it was at least a very difficult design to actually build, and at most impossible. Yet, that's clearly a design he wants to make... And the backrooms kind of remind me of that.

Speaking of the scene where Clark tries to tell Mary about what he saw, I think there's some clever parallels to what little we see of Mary's Mother to him. Which works, because I think Mary's way of going about being a therapist and treating her clients is shaped heavily by that. She keeps mentioning windows, which were a big part of her childhood. Clark seems very energetic and fidgety in that scene, which are common signs of anxiety. Mary's Mother definitely was anxious to the point of being paranoid. Then, Mary's Mother mentions "them" being everywhere, which could explain why Mary specifically asks Clark if there's people in the place he found. I could go on, which I might do in a separate post, but you get the idea.

My personal experiences with psychosis is limited, but i caught a glimpse into something interesting. The fact my friend who has experienced the issues i perceived here irl, agreed with my analysis whole-heartedly has me very invested.

But i havent seen one other person mention the themes of psychosis!!!! People seem much more eager to look at the misogyny present. See Clark as a Bojack Horseman type. So heres me trying to put words to something i caught a whiff of in this movie but have no real experience in. Also only seen the movie once about a week ago. so sorry and beware.

Things people gloss over or excuse:

There is no mention of a divorce or a restraining order. Just a separation. Ive seen people say that Clarks therapy is court ordered but theres no mention of the law anywhere. He's returning to it reoccurringly (he and Mary have roleplayed the argument enough for Mary to have it memorized) and has her cassettes that he listens to on repeat. He is making an attempt to be better. At the beginning, hes trying to reach the window of a better life, being a better person. About half way we can see that despite his efforts, hes falling into impulses. Hes stalking his house, hes drinking. The inability to let go are his roadblocks. His walls.

Hes paying for the house his wife kicked him out of. (If we are to assume hes stalking Barbara (his wife) when watching their old house, then we are to assume she still lives there. She cant pay for it herself. He respected that he should leave and sleeps in the furniture store despite having the power to force her out.)

He broke the glass before she got up. Theres no mentions of violence in this encounter. Just a resentment. A resentment that has been building since he didnt go to school for architecture, instead sponsoring Barbaras law school. Since he started selling shitty furniture.

He has no friends, only colleges. No mention of close relationships outside his wife. This leads me to believe he is isolated from other people and completely lacks a support system.

Hes only shown to get violent when he has been exposed to the backrooms for who knows how long. Its agreed that the backrooms represent the corridors of the mind. And we know from Marys speech at the beginning of therapy your mind follows familiar paths that kept it safe as a child. That the more you walk these paths the harder it is to break out of them, even when they no longer serve us.

Barbaras damn still-life is the only one that can fucking move. There were three still-lives in total and two of them started to tweak when Captin, the lifeform, emerged. (Lamp boy in the wheel chair). Also Still-Barbs approached human Clark in the christmas biome. [Also what the fuck was the floor people about? Anyone want to talk about that? please?]

My main critic of this movie is it keeps too much up for interpretation, preventing anything of actual substance to be derived from it. We dont know about Clarks youth, where he would have built these paths. We just know now he cant move on and accept accountability. So everything here-after is me stretching for a concrete motive that just doesnt exist in the movie.

The Backrooms are a manifestation of a mental break from reality that occurs when one refuses reality. Every memory we review rewrites itself to fit our perception of events. The more you comb over a memory, the more it changes. The more its plain wrong. The longer Clark stays in the backrooms, the more he adapts to it. The longer Marys Mother stayed disconnected from reality, the more her home effected the backrooms (sun stained glass, hoarder clothes piles).

When the human mind refuses to take another path and ruminates on a concept, it manifest in the backrooms. The longer one mentally 'enters' the backrooms, the more that disconnect grows, until the voyager is not recognizable as who they were before.

Clark is at the lowest point in his life. He is no contact with the only person he had a meaningful connection to, and is sleeping in the furniture store he loathes. A store (at this point believes) he never wanted and got solely for his wife. He goes to therapy where his therapist who (from his perspective) refuses to see his pov. Just reinforces hes in the wrong. Clark only talks to his employees who dont think much of him. While recording an ad he breaks a chair and falls on his ass. Crawls around pitifully, begging for the camera to be shut off, while Bobby records laughing. Clark is a man who has lost complete and utter control of his life. He is lost at mental sea.

He first runs to Mary. He admits he hasnt done anything but explore the rooms since finding them three days before. Mary recognizes his grip is slipping, as she saw in her mother, but as a good therapist she tries to confirm other reasons for his behavior. She asks if hes been drinking. Clark gets offended and runs off to prove the backrooms reality to her.

In the electrician scene we know that the backrooms was effecting his power before (lights flickering) but only after the ad does it manifest irl (the additional breaker lights). Its Clarks breaking point. That night, while watching an ad for a different furniture store (one made by wife and husband together) a door to the backrooms manifests. This is where all of his unresolved resentment got him, a labyrinth with no basis in reality. A total disconnect from his life. A total escape.

Clark hates his real life and escapes it through drawing abstract architecture. The backrooms exactly what Clark enjoys thinking about. Its a situation that is right up his warehouse, unlike his reality. Its welcoming to him.

He runs to his employees home and offers them an overtime bonus if they help him with something. Both easily see hes freaking out but agree anyways.

Thus he leads them into the backrooms. At this point Clark has reason to believe something is roaming the halls, but doesnt tell them. If we go back to my metaphor, he got the only two people he has contact with to analyze the labyrinth of his ruminating. Hes acknowledged he cant understand it fully on his own and hes got help from the only people he has access to. Bad choice. Kat, assistant manager, is very vocal about wanting no part in this. Bobby is just curious. They joke hes trying to kill them before the backrooms door reveal. They felt uneasy about his mental health before that.

This parts a super stretch but how are two employees, not even friends, meant to help Clark regain his grip on reality? Kat may have been the first concerned but once seeing the door she realizes how far beyond her help Clark is. Bobby has never seen something like and insists they explore it. In the movie neither show concern for Clarks menatl health cause this is a real room they can enter, but for my metaphor maybe neither cares for Clarks well being cause hes not close to them? Like the hell are they supposed to do?

Mary finds a voicemail from Clark about opening a window and not coming back. Important to mention the cassettes main selling point is going through a window to self actualize. The only thing stopping you is yourself. Mary is not comforted by this. Next scene shes outside the furniture store. Theres a months worth of mail stuck under the door. Clark has been gone for a while.

The last time we see Kat alive is when she says she can see him through the glass, but theres no glass on Clarks side. Kat then sees Captin approach from behind. At this point she is seeing both Clark for who he is and his inner turmoil but he is blind to it. We never see what gets Kat, just that he "tried to help her."

If this section is a manifestation of Clarks mind, Kat is resistant to his perspective. While Clark is accustomed to what goes on here, shes horrified after seeing it for the first time. I imagine she wanted to leave, maybe get the authorities involved, but Clark couldnt let that happen. He likes it here and it cannot be taken from him.

Apon wondering the rooms she finds a mural of Captin lifting someone towards a window. It was hidden in a corner with the entrance blocked off by chairs. Lots of shit going down in this mural but the one thought im confident in is that Clark sees Captin as his avenue to self actualization. Keep in mind Captin exists in such clarity because the rooms mirror what those near it obsess over. Clark views the manifestation of all his self hatred as what is going to raise him up as the best version of himself.

Mary observes the mural while Clark sulks out from an adjacent hallway. Hes hiding from her. His posture is giving 'mom i threw up'. Someone forced to be vulnerable and scared of negative consequences. I for the life of me cannot remember what they talk about other than "Holy fuck Clark are you okay?"

While they talk he walks behind her. Mary can hear Captin coming closer. Clark grabs her by the throat and chokes her out saying, "stay calm, its only me. you know me."

The dinner scene. Yay the dinner scene.

First time the viewers see Clark get violent. Hes demonstrating that the still-lives feel nothing. They arent real and hold no agency. They are better than people in the way that you can treat them how ever with no consequence. Clark is so desperate to spend as much time as possible in the rooms that he learned you can eat them.

Clark has Mary tied down so hes in full control. Hes forcing her to reenact the argument he had with Barbara but this time she has to 'listen' (take his perspective). We know Mary wants to help others and sees that her previous attempts arent reaching Clark. Infact hes worse now cause hes getting physically violent. So, she complies. I feel this represents how when a loved one breaks from reality, it is tempting to reinforce that their perspective is correct. Confronting that your perception of reality is false is scary, and who knows how the person will react. It feels safer to just go along with them.

But then Mary gains her confidence back. Tells him that he is the root for all his problems. (its said barbs left because of the whining. If there was physical abuse happening i feel Mary would have mentioned it here) And this confrontation is what grounds Clark. This is where he comes to his senses and realizes what hes doing.

What comes next is where i feel least confident in my theroy. Clark says he hates doing this dance. Where he gets all caught up in his own reality and emotions and looses attachment on whats real, hurting the people around him. But he feels he cant change. That this is inherent. That its "how hes wired." And this is the point in Marys character arc where she accepts she cant help him. That if he doesnt want to change, nothing can force him to. Hes going to continue the cycle of mental degration and lashing out and hurting people untill he decides he doesnt want to. He can ignore that the window to becoming his best self is open, that there is no latch.

But he still lets Mary go here. If this movie was only about male violence, why would he untie Mary? Because she finally told him what he wanted to hear? I guess.

Now Captain approaches. This is the first time Mary has been exposed to his self hatred and shes scared. Clark doesnt flinch, hes comfortable with that side of himself now. He joyously tells Captin that they dont have to strive for better anymore. That its just the way theyre wired. And Captin raises Clark up, and eats him alive.