HM: Dark Hearts

I'm gonna start with Chapter 9 and see where it takes me.

Chapter 9 begins with her in a black dress approaching the Mansion (the nice lived in looking version). Looks like something she'd wear to a funeral. When she enters the house she is greeted by her Mother who is dressed in a similar fashion (parallels!). Her Mother then turns into the Old Lady. I'll get into who the heck she is later. After some screaming we are zipped through some twiggy imagery and we pop up above Melissa.

Melissa wakes up on the floor of the warehouse dressed in a leather jacket which is not typical for her from what we've seen. 

Next to her is a sheet of paper with some of those alphabet symbols that have been popping up all over the place. 

It kind of looks like she was dropped there, especially with the camera angle from above. Maybe she was  " FedoraPorted™ " to this spot.

The dark and mysterious version of Melissa wakes up and, in quite the shocking DSE, walks out past herself. I don't think this is just a cool idea for a shot. I'm thinking either we are getting an overlapped glimpse of 2 different timelines or a representation of the light side being left behind while the dark one walks out. Melissa and i dunno... Helissa?

Melissa is sitting on the floor in a manner that reminds me of someone stuck in this room and has resigned herself to just sitting and waiting to get out. 

So... when in time did the Mansion scene happen and when did the warehouse happen? We know that later in the film she goes back there again and a pretty intense ritual scene plays out. When Emma goes there the place is clearly in a state where no one has been keeping it up at all. 

On the podcast I brought up the possibility of either a TIME differential or a DIMENSIONAL one. I still haven't landed on one side or another. Time seems to be winning out for me though especially if the Farley Mason Mansion Mayhem happened not toward the end of this film but actually in between Haunting Melissa and Dark Hearts. I may have gotten too caught up in thinking of time linearly.

It would be kind of interesting though if Emma was standing in the room while simultaneously the Farley situation was happening all around her in an alternate dimension and Fedora turned her iPad into a window to that side. Imagine that... an Augmented Reality app where you could hold up your iPad and see the other side happening right in your living room. Perhaps electronics can ever so slightly tap into the frequencies needed to peek in.

That would certainly explain how Emma could see Fedora approaching Brandon but only through her iPad.

It's no wonder that Melissa can't remember what happened during her lost time. I think any of us would block out such a mind bending event like being in that room with Fedora and his crew. 

Before I go too far off the rails I am going to rewatch Dark Hearts with a different perspective and I'll continue this in another entry. 

Portal:

Faces (see above graphic) I'm still not sure who ??? is and there is something peculiar about the two faces of the Visitor. 

We can see Melissa has adopted a rather extreme style of eye makeup.

Portal Objects:

The usual floaty items but no discernible attached objects.

Character:

Emma Zeiden

Willis Pipes

The Visitor

Melissa Strogue (Extra Dark)

Did you see that?

Emma is spending time at Casa de Pipes... Where does she live normally?

I think Emma and Willis have a very interesting history beyond just working together at WYOJ 102.

They don't call him The Visitor for nothing...

He's brought a friend

They don't just walk away... they vanish!

Questions:

What is the history between Willis Pipes and Emma Zeiden? Perhaps they have known each other since way back to when her mother vanished and she was presumably left alone.

Melissa has fully accepted her Dark Heart existence, where are they off to? More deals in other towns?

Will Emma pursue the Visitor and Melissa right after this scene ends?

Is Willis' Fender Super-Sonic 22 amp head just for show or does he like to bust out his guitar on those lonely nights? 

....More questions to come!

Thank you so much for going down the rabbit hole with me as I try to make sense of the mysteries of Haunting Melissa. This is the last chapter based entry but it is not the last post. There is so much more to dig through as well as new information that may come to light on the podcast "A Dark Companion"  ADarkCompanion.com 

Portal:

Farley Mason

Portal Objects:

Upper Right - The flash drive that was taken from the desk in the warehouse (see chapter 10)

The bag that was placed over Farley's head (see chapter 23)

Characters: 

Farley Mason

The Visitor

Did you see that?

In an amazing reveal, our Pixel Face suspicions are confirmed!

A fireside chat with out friend Fedora the Explora. A clearer view of the flash drive.

Evidence is destroyed but Farley must have another back up right? At least Emma has the information on her iPad. Fingers crossed for her iCloud backup.

When The Visitor takes a seat we hear his signature creepy laugh... In episode 10 of "A Dark Companion" it was mentioned by Tom Carey that perhaps the laugh in this scene isn't a happy sound. What do you think? Listen in adarkcompanion.com 

Questions: 

Linking back to chapter 10... How did the Visitor know that the flash drive was in the desk? One could suppose that he got this information out of Farley by means of torture, threats, creepiness...

If the TRUTH is what they FEED THE BEAST, and feeding usually is a good thing for most beings, do the Beast's keepers actually want people to dig into their mysteries?

Is the Visitor a tortured person? I used to think he was puppetmaster but the solemnity of the final scene in this chapter leads me to think he is also having his strings pulled. Something has forced him into this line of work and it's actually a miserable existence for him. I sort of get the impression he misses someone...

Thank you for reading the analysis for chapter 24 of Dark Hearts! If you have found anything you'd like to contribute please do so using the link at the top of the page for submissions.

Mansion staircase, fairly sure that it's Emma ascending the stairs. The outline of a missing painting tells me it's her.

Orange flare next to the 3 is a floating artifact of the menu and some weird timing on my part :)

Portal Objects:

Some sort of rope in the top left corner, possibly draped over the iconic Fedora. Likely its the rope over  black and white version of the head bag

A strange grey form across the bottom edge. Can't figure it out...any ideas?

Characters (in order of appearance)

Melissa Strogue

Brandon Hessner

Emma Zeiden

Goth Girl

The Visitor (Fedora the Explora)

Old Hag

Farley Mason 

Mrs. Carroway

A cavalcade of unnamed weirdos in the room upstairs

Did you see that?

Brandon gets his iPad wallpapers from the same strange website that Emma uses

The division of Melissa's being is manifesting itself... *not covered by AppleCare

Emma has an Area 51 bumper sticker... the truth is out there

Emma is reviewing her data and/or checking this tumblr

Emma discovers a portal very similar to the one that represents each of our chapters. The geometric shape is also very familiar.

Goth Girl is haunting her iPad!

It's not a party without this guy

Melissa loses her mind and her footing

Things start to kick up a notch here. The Dark Hearts theme music comes in and we start crossfading between Emma and Melissa. There is clearly a correlation between them. 

The Old Hag, Gray Granny, Lost Lady, whatever you want to call her delivers some interesting news. They have been waiting for Melissa to come BACK, that Melissa can't run from WHO SHE IS, that none of US can, and also the BEAST needs FEEDING.

Upstairs we find that we've finally caught up to some of the promo photos posted by Haunting Melissa on twitter, instagram, and tumblr.

Cahoots Confirmed! We knew there was something up with Mrs. Carroway and now all doubt has been cast aside (not that there was much doubt left, she's nuts). 

Farley Mason! The Man in the Cloth Mask! Carroway looks quite pleased with herself...arghh! Who is that man in the back on the left?

Farley gets his first real look at Melissa #notStoked

At this point those crossfades between Melissa and Emma really start to show a divide. A dilapidated, unkempt version of the Mansion. Weathered and full of leaves.

Emma's trip up the stairs has far less artwork than Melissa's. This is either a TIME difference or a REALITY difference...or BOTH

More "similar" differences [DSE ALERT: I never noticed until this viewing that this chair starts sliding backward...]

We REALITY jump back to Melissa's dimension and FtE gives us some interesting information: Melissa ran away and tried to forget before, Katherine tried to hide from this, Melissa has a choice to accept what is inside her which is apparently a Dark Heart that is a doorway. Whatever it is, it's trying to come out of her!

WHO ARE ALL OF THESE PEOPLE!!! I see some of the usual suspects, Carroway, Fedora, Old Hag, Goth Girl, but who are the rest of these weirdos?

Emma can't handle this maddness

Fedora the Explora takes over the screen to give Emma an ominus warning about how Farley went looking for the TRUTH and the TRUTH is what they FEED THE BEAST!

Naturally Emma hits the bricks and when she falls down off the porch she sees (maybe she does maybe not) Melissa standing in the doorway...

and then she's gone!

Sitting in the very same chair that moved earlier we find Melissa...

So much awesomeness in one chapter! We're getting close to the end and it appears Farley doesn't have much time left. The existance of alternate realities and/or timelines is very apparent now. It's best if we all rewatch everything with this new point of view. After the chapter 25 entry I'll be doing broader analysis putting together all of the information I've gathered and received from submissions to attempt a more coherent theory. 

Portal:

A woman standing in the hall. She is opposite Katherine Strogue's room.

Taking a look at my files I realized that the above portal is actually the second one that this chapter has had... On 12/11/14 it looked like this

Portal Objects:

Crosses can be see at 12:00, 4:00, 6:30, 8:30, and 11:00 on the current portal

Characters: (in order of appearance)

Brandon Hessner

Emma Zeider

Jack Strogue

Katherine Strogue

The Visitor

Did you see that?

More of that sweet sweet aerial footage backed by the perfect score.

Emma's B and E game is quite strong

Brandon's got the kitchen covered 

...and Emma's going straight for Chapter 1 of Haunting Melissa 

She strikes gold! 

Oh hello little notebook of mysterious scribblings.

NORTH 6 and some more alphabet symbols!

If Emma is gonna take a photo of it, I am too. Any idea what that symbols means?

Batman and Robin, you know who's who. Emma tells Brandon all about her introduction to the weirdness in the world.

Jack is in no mood for uninvited guests and question asking meddlers.

Emma takes full charge and gives Jack the bizness and brings up the rest of the Maynard House Gang and calls into question why Jack is the only one left. 

Jack can't hang with the double barreled attack and calls up our problem solver Deputy Roy. Keep a sharp ear out for the weird sound that happens when "Roy" answers the phone.

After Jack makes his call Emma dishes out another verbal beatdown quoting Mike Cole' ominous message "These DEAD are not DEAD" "They come back for you...to take you to HELL" I think that got to him.

Jack's emotional tea kettle is screaming at this point.

Who's there?                                     

It's not looking good Jacky ol' boy

And then this guy joins the party so you know it'll be a bad night.

Did you hear that?

The amazing score does it again. Totally sets the mood. Cellos creating an atmosphere or immense depth.

Questions:

That strange voice on the phone when Jack calls Deputy Roy. What do you think it is? Is it really Roy?

Katherine says the same thing Mike Cole said through the TV. If Katherine can become corporeal again and presumably she is in the same place Mike Cole is... can Mike come back as well?

What do you think is happening to Jack behind that door?

Emma brings up a very interesting point, Jack is all that remains "normal" of the Maynard House Gang. Why is this? Was he the one who made the "deal"? Was he designated as the "manager" of carrying out The Visitor's master plan?

Has Jack accomplished what he was meant to and now that his usefulness has come to and end...so shall he?

 What motivated The Visitor to come and clean house?

Thank you for reading the analysis for chapter 22 of Dark Hearts! If you have found anything you'd like to contribute please do so using the link at the top of the page for submissions.