#experiment 42

one of my favorite plot lines was the mystery on who alice was and what was her connection to kate warren, one of the main characters.

it started when whenever they travelled to different dimensions, the people in those dimensions would call her “alice” instead of her actual name, while her other friends would never get misnamed.

kate is actually my favorite characters because while she is kind, calm, gentle, and demure, she is one of the smartest of the group and is not afraid to stand her ground and/or fight back when needed. knowing that, she would’ve probably let that slide… (because maybe they were mistaken or something) but when she was called alice for the first time, something had awoken in her.

she had started hearing voices. seeing and remembering things that had never actually happened in her life. over the course of the first season, she acted a bit ooc, becoming more bold, reckless and adventurous, just like her friends.

my favorite part of this whole plot line was the halloween episode. the main characters all dressed up for halloween, and they went to a dimension where everything was the same in the human world, but everyone wearing costumes actually becomes their costume. for example, in kate’s case, she dressed up as a vampire, so she became a vampire. keep that in mind.

weirdly for kate, she suddenly saw a random note stuck to their wall calling for someone named alice. the thing is, she doesn’t know who alice was YET and she doesn’t know anyone named alice. she picked up the note instead, and other notes started appearing, calling this “alice” and leading her somewhere. kate followed the notes until she reached this room with a mirror and a note (still calling her alice) was attached to the mirror. when she took the note off the mirror, she saw her reflection.

people criticized this shot, saying that “since kate was a real vampire in this dimension, she shouldn’t be able to see her reflection in the mirror”. but that’s the genius part. her reflection in the mirror was foreshadowing the fact that alice is actually a version of HER from another dimension and kate was never supposed to be her real name.

that’s just one of the genius moments from experiment 42. and don’t get me started on the characterizations and character development of the other characters!!

i fuck with the complexity of lydia clark’s character HARD, because if u know me i have a penchant for the trope of women living with the guilt of killing somebody (or in lydia’s case, almost) to the point that they push their loved ones away and villainize themselves in the guise of ‘protecting them’.

i love how perry o’brien (lenny’s cousin and lydia’s best friend) was initially introduced as a dumb, childish comic relief character, but over the course of the series she becomes the only one who is able to see ‘visions of the future’ and is able to help her friends avoid becoming the worst version of themselves through it.

and lenny, ugh don’t get me started on lenny. being the inventor of experiment 42, he has constantly expressed his dislike of his friends using it due to it being dangerous because of it being a failed experiment. he had barely any confidence in himself and his abilities because he HAD NEVER created a successful experiment before, plus the fact that he considers himself ‘the odd one out’ of the group because his friends constantly ignore his warnings about experiment 42 and is kind of left out on their adventures during the first few episodes. but over time, he grew to be the MOST important character of them all, especially since he is the creator of 42.

i have mixed feelings about noah (kate’s boyfriend and fiance by the end) asdfghjkl, but that’s a story for another time