mira

This is the moment that sets up the actual horror of the rest of the film (because there has been NO horror before this point). Even without the wishes, this is still the turning point. Bear was given an opportunity to confess like an adult, so that he and Nikki could handle it like adults. Nikki asked because she was telling him it had passed the point of awkward/cute/whatever and they needed to talk about it and he refused to! If it hadn’t been for the wish, Bear would’ve spent the next however long longing for/lusting after Nikki and it would have only gotten more and more uncomfortable the longer he refused to admit it and also refused to let it go. The wish is a plot device to highlight and exaggerate horror of those sorts of situations. He’s behaving childishly and selfishly and it’s going to harm himself and all of his relationships—but more than any of that, it’s going to harm the person on the other side of his obsession.

One thing about Obsession (2026) that I enjoyed was that it almost asks you to feel empathy for the entity possessing Nikki as well as the real one. Like, obviously the things she's doing are horrific and fucked up, but I think the scene where Bear is asking her to "just be Nikki!" and she eventually just desperatly screams "I can't be Nikki!" does a really good job of showcasing the entity's inner feelings. She's been created with the sole purpose of loving this guy more than anyone else but no matter how perfect it is or how much he claims to love her, its not her that he loves, its Nikki. And any time she stops pretending to be Nikki, he reacts (albeit rightfully) with disgust and horror. She can't be Nikki because Nikki would never love Bear, and so Bear will never love her.