❤︎ eden 🐰.

clip from ria on x

After being forcibly dragged from the car by grown men, from behind a locked door, we hear Naim yelling “get off of me”, “stop touching me”, and then just wordlessly screaming as he struggles against the people holding him, before he’s grabbed by the face/ throat (the first time isn’t by entity Ryan!) to stare into the flame. I’d say this is allegorical for sexual abuse as well- a child losing their bodily autonomy and physical agency at the manipulation of others for a harmful purpose. Not only does Naim know that there are monstrous forces at play if the ritual is done to him, but now he knows no matter how hard he protests, adults think he’s so deeply corrupted by sin any violation of his body and mind becomes justified.

Some are saying it’s kind of Arlene to spare him the public humiliation, and I suppose that it was a kindness, in her way, but I would argue that it’s less about Naim’s emotional welfare and more she doesn’t want the town to know the shameful secret that her son is also part of the degenerate homosexual class they’re all so afraid of.

This isn’t to diminish what happened to Hunter and Ryan in a public environment as less traumatizing. After all, public humiliation and being made the town “example of” IS deeply abusive, and being in a room of their peers and church community who stand by and watch it happen is a deep act of betrayal that extends beyond their parents.