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Mister McTreats and his freshly baked pastries. Lossless version under cut.

because the entire movie of stay is just a dream sequence of Henry’s final moments I feel like the personalities of Lila and Sam are projections of Henry’s idea of life and what it means to live. we don’t get to know Henry that much throughout the movie but I think it’s obvious he was still depressed in real life, along with the dream sequence.

Sam is empathetic and wants to save Henry but he doesn’t know how, his actions are from the stereotypical neurotypical individual (for example, immediate resort to a psychiatric hospital visit and “fixing” Henry just through medication), giving me the idea that Sam’s actions throughout the movie are a representation of Henry’s struggle with understanding his depression and his want to live but not knowing how to stay alive basically; he represents a more logic based side of Henry’s ideas

Lila however shows the more emotional side of his ideas of life; she’s more in tap with Henry and even asks Sam to talk to him because she will understand him more. this whole theory of mine literally came from the fact that the movie focuses a lot on Lila’s past attempt, which leads me to think that Lila’s attempt is a reflection of a possible attempt done by Henry himself which he survived. (Also the brain does that thing where your life flashes before your eyes in order to find a method of survival, and bc Henry survived his past attempt, his brain projected the attempt onto Lila, trying to survive the way she did.) Lila shows a more emotional view on why Henry wants to keep living. As an artist, Henry knows, “there’s too much goddamn beauty.”

anyways yeha it just makes more snese for Sam and Lila to be projections of Henry’s ideas on life, considering the real sam and Lila were the ones trying to save Henry’s life.

If Sam and Lila are him navigating through his depression, his relationship to Athena and his parents is how he viewed the few relationships he had in life during that time.

Athena is the most interesting one to me because I feel it's the most open to interpretation to what their actual relationship was. They could have been dating. They could have been just friends. They also could have -like in the movie- not known each other. I'm more inclined they were at bare minimum friends, if not dating because of the scene of them sitting together at the start of the film. Whatever you think their relationship was, he didn't think it was legitimate in his dying few minutes to the point no one in the dream really considered them even having a relationship. Even when he got the ring, he had his doubts about doing this too soon and what their relationship actually meant to her.

I think the relationship between Henry and his father might have been strained before the crash. Maybe they simply just didn't see eye-to-eye, maybe he was in denial of what happened or of Henry's mental health. There was something he wasn't acknowledging, which is why he was literally blind. I think Henry curing his blindness (or being seen by his father) is something he desperately wanted before death.

His mother I think was probably someone that cared a lot about Henry. I think it was as simple as he kept distant because he didn't want to bother her. I think he might have done something in the past that he regrets and feels horrible about. That's why when Sam talks to her, she abruptly changes tone and topic and is essentially a ghost in his own dream. He's conflicted on his own image of her, as he knows she cares, but thinks he's trouble for her.

I don't think he wasn't loved though, if he really was as distant as he tried to make out he was with his parents, they wouldn't have been in the car with him. I can see him maybe jumping to the topic marriage a bit soon with Athena only because he doesn't really seem to have many -or any friendships- but I would still think they were at bare minimum friends and she did care about him.

The PHM to the RGCU pipeline is real and Holland March has captivated me with his Pathetic ways