@a-mag-a-day
I really like MAG 171: The Garden. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes. Perhaps my #1 favorite. It ties in really well with the overarching story, doesn't fail to terrify and unsettle the listener, AND it's one of those episodes with clear connections as a metaphor for real life issues.
I'll start with what each of the "flowers" represents.
Gristlebloom Orchid: Muscular body insecurity. Reese is never able to reach the obviously impossible body standards of society, hating himself for not looking muscular enough. Thus, he can only grow into something entirely inhuman.
Bone Rose: Fatphobia. Patricia is haunted by the idea that to be wanted you must be less. She develops a "grotesque horror of her own flesh," desperately trying to get rid of anything that stops her from being perfectly thin. Losing fat becomes losing flesh becomes losing blood. Until finally, she is like a delicate flower, made of nothing but bones.
Cutaway Tulip: Anti-aging. Leopold is deeply afraid of looking old. He seems to flee decay, carving and tearing himself to stay smooth and young-looking. He cuts parts of himself away, and they become petals.
It's important to note that for the first three flowers, "harsh, judgemental light" is stated as an important part of their cultivation. This is because the terror that drives this grotesque transformation really starts from judgement from others.
However, there is one flower that doesn't need this judgemental light to experience the terror of everyone else.
Lily of the Damned: Gender dysphoria. This fear comes completely from within. "Light levels need only be high if the preoccupation with its body’s presence has a visual component." There are quite a few details in the fourth section of the episode that prove as solid evidence that the Lily is a metaphor for the transgender experience of dysphoria. Maeve wants to hide her body from everyone including herself, which is why the flower must be pulled up. All of her fear comes from that of the development of her own body, new sensations she's uncomfortable with, and becoming something she doesn't want. "She is trapped in the same soft prison of skin she has always so despised."
It's almost poetic, the way the creatively woven words create thoughts and ideas about ourselves.
(I was going to make a second section detailing what makes this episode very effective and well-done horror, but I believe my quotes and descriptions from before have served that sufficiently. I'm also not going to go into its connections to the rest of the story, as to not spoil it for people who haven't reached this point but I still think should be able to read my analysis.)
In short, The Gardener is one of my favorite episodes because it uses body horror very very well, and serves as a very powerful and thought-provoking metaphor for body fears in real life. The Mortal Garden represents the world of beauty standards in which we find ourselves forced to dehydrate ourselves, lose weight, hate the future and our very selves in order to look attractive to others. It's where the desire to not be weak, or ugly, or fat, or old, or you makes us afraid, desperate, and starving to be attractive.
It is the worst place that has ever been beautiful.
And it should not exist.
