rae

That visual combo of the ring on Dani’s finger plus the pink sweater is one of my absolute favorite artistic choices in the entire finale (which is saying something). And I’m obviously not the first one to interpret the two together to mean that even if a part of Dani died in that sweater at the lake when she invited the Lady in, her life with Jamie was still more than real enough to become a part of the ghostly echo watching over Jame.

But I do think it’s also worth point out the connection between that final ring scene and the first one, when Dani proposes. In a way, the very presence of the ring in the final shot is a parallel of Dani’s line in the proposal scene, “And I know we can’t technically get married, but I also don’t really care. We can wear the rings and we’ll know.”

Dani and Jamie’s relationship is never recognized for what it is; by the law and likely by some of their blood relatives and acquaintances (if they ever find out about it in the first place). The rings they wear have no bearing in the context of the Official Rules of the wider world they live in—but they both know, and the people who care about them know, that the rings symbolize something much more significant and real than a lot of people will ever experience. This in and of itself is obviously a queer read on life and love, through and through. But it’s also not where the story ends.

That Dani’s ghost is wearing the pink sweater in the final shot says, “This is where it was supposed to end.” This is where Dani as we know her was supposed to end. Anything that happens after the lake happens on borrowed time. The Laws of Ghostly Mechanics don’t recognize Dani’s life after the lake as life in the same way that she was alive before the lake.

I’m not gonna be disappointed if it doesn’t turn out how I want plus I’m not going to fast forward and skip through large parts of it to find out what happens, which I’m embarrassed that I do I just don’t have the patience

Is that just a me thing or do other people do that too? Is that an adhd thing?

I just do way better watching things if I already know the entire synopsis and can predict kinda when things will happen like landmarks in a movie that help me through

so what did i do? I spoilered it. I said “hey this kid runs into some monsters that are gonna try to eat him, and then they chase him and it’s very suspenseful. You think that would be too scary?”

She considered it. “Do they eat him in the end?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“Then no,” she said. And then, when we were about to hit the Big Reveal that this person who had helped him was secretly actually a man-eating monster, she lit up and was like “IS THIS WHEN IT HAPPENS” and I was like “SHH yes!” and she was like “AHH YEAH” and loved it.

I don’t think spoilers are just for kids, though. I’m now so Tired of conventional media’s endless race for The More Shocking Ending that I refuse to watch shit when I don’t know how it’s going to end. It’s not that I don’t have the emotional resilience to handle unexpected things (well, sometimes I don’t, honestly, and have no shame about that), it’s that if the unexpected thing is the “fuck you if you liked these characters ha ha ha!” plot twist, I just don’t have the time to invest in your fictional world. If you can’t respect me as an audience then I have other shit to do with my time.