[MASTERPOST]
#masterfiles.tag: all metas, notes and theories
#detlogs.tag: notes on movie details and screencaps
> #visualcipher.tag: visual language and symbolism
#imgdata.tag: my gifs and art
> #subjectnotes.tag: post-movie Simon headcanons
#reply.tag: commentated reblogs and responses
#signalreception.tag: simple reblogs
#pong.tag: silly stuff and crack
I will use this blog for posting original content and for reblog commentary, but I might also reblog cool shit from others.
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May contain Bloodymary/Project Hail Mary crossover content. Block #contamination.tag to avoid!
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[hornets and sacrificial blades] is my ongoing qpr bloodymary fic, where Simon brings all the horrors with him and we have ourselves some cosmic horror/hope genre mishmash.
It's horror, it's thriller, it's absurdist comedy, it's two guys trying to figure out where to go from here for Big Science and for kindness. Also the Hail Mary is haunted and a huge telepathic tree has opinions on your music taste?
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whumpee who should be getting better, yet theyre getting worse. theyre safe now. they should be recovering. but their panic attacks just get more frequent. their paranoia is through the roof for no reason. and caretaker has no idea how to fix it.
i know it's a small thing but the Pinhole God has some funky lightning stuff going on too. lightining has always been symbolic of divine might and power, smiting and punishment.
it could just be the ambient lumination, but i do feel that the lightining colors being different (white v yellow/orange) matters. same power, different sources. plus, Simon's eye changed colors when he dared the Eel about her wanting to eat him. the red eye effect with prominent veins in the eye whites mirroring visually with the lightning....
mmmmmm consumption as a theme.... god i need to make my post about consumption and erasure as redemption.
I'm taking the fine tooth comb to this shit cus Mark said nobody spotted any secrets on it so, let's see what we can scoop up! I'm starting from the moment Simon leaves the crawl space after restarting the sub engines until contact with the Voice.
Part 1
Yknow the drill, image heavy so get readmore'd!
FURTHER READING: @dessathealien pointed out a few things about this scene trhat I didn't catch! [1], [2]
First - Prev - Next
We see him use the paper strip for I assume, measuring out the map scale onto the paper. Which is funny cus, he'd have measured them out while making the lines instead, not now? But maybe just a bit of extra double checking, who knows!
This bit of continuity kills me in the best way. When we see the eye in the porthole, the Eel moves over the sub towards the back of it and we don't hear from it again. Until now. Simon is doing a 360 of where he is, and when he turns backwards and takes the shot, he finds the Eel. She's been sitting there behind the sub staring since she moved!
And of course she moves again to leave, causing the sub to tremble. Simon introduces himself and we get this combo which feels rather poignant. Are Xs tied to survival, or resilience? Let's keep track for later.
Somebody please tell Simon that if he wants to maximize the strenght of the tape, then he needs to NOT do this TAT Given his reaction and the mound of wasted tape on the floor, he's been trying to crack this for a while.
Given the expansion on the earlier map, he's been driving for a while now. Probably got fed up with stopping all the time to check for walls and map out the environment. Also in comparison to his earlier driving attempts, he's been moving in longer, more confident strides.
Current coordinates: 927, 802
It's also worth noting that the shots have significatly gone wider. We see more of the ship overall, there are slightly less close-ups, and the shadows don't seem as opressive and limiting. Compare these two shots from before and after the stranding.
It matches the shift in Simon's mentality, he's no longer detached from the sub and seeing as just another prison, a tool to be used as quickly as possible and then be freed of it. The sub is now his domain for as long as he needs to survive, the awareness of the camera matches his awareness of the sub's space and mechanisms. He knows this place now, and he'll make use of it as much as possible.
He gives up on the tape (or more acurately, runs out of it) and puts his trust on the sub's proximity radar. The music picks up, and the shots get cut faster to show how anxious he's getting. His mind wanders to all the other things he could be doing rather than being sat driving, and he snaps to attention when the proximity bleeps so he doesn't crash. Both times, he almost looks sheepish in a "yeah that was a close one" way.
He needs to keep track of his positioning, so he places one of the folios on the forward throtle and heads over to the map to update it.
I also noticed this dent on the ship panel. From an earlier shot, this is post-stranding, so it's likely this is damage from one of the Eel's teeth when she dragged him to the cave system.
Simon's face at the alien bullshit will never NOT be funny. We also see that at this point, the bandages are starting to get bled through which is kind of wild for a scrape injury. Even with constant movement the bleeding wouldn't be bad enough for this, especially since it's a pretty thick bandage coverage. It makes me wonder if the mutations had already begun even back then.
Current coordinates: 939, 854
Navigation continues and we reach the in-the-zone section of it. We see the depth meter dipping further as he travels. Boredom and exhaustion are setting in. We also see how much he's used the stick so far, as the bend is far closer to his grip than before and the tip is well-rounded.
I LOVE that in some shots we get a full view of the x-ray photos and they seem to cave into themselves. We're in Simon's POV as the pictures stop being flat objects but rather actual, tridimensional, visualized space. There's no middle ground between him and his understanding of the geography anymore, he might as well be looking through a window. The camera might as well be his eyesight.
Current coordinates: 899, 824
The camera goes off while he's sitting on the console. Remember there is no tape, Simon is losing track of time and order of events. The action of going to the button and back is being omitted in his perception.
We get a sudden cut from him holding the throttle forward (something he's already figured out how to avoid doing by using the folio) to him sitting at the console, staring at nothing, before he shakes himself and seems to realize he's drifted off-task. His breathing is weary. His line are growing curved, tilted like his perception. The camera is bobbing from side to side like a head heavy with sleep.
Current coordinates: 704, 678
Simon begins to drift asleep, and we get the Dream Sequence. I've gone over it on another post so I'll omit it here. I will say, there's an almost subtle smile on his face as he drifts off.
We cut right back into it and the music picks up again. Simon almost crashes into something, and that's where he finds the SM-8, and the computer connects with the black box.
While he does, the console bottom panel spits out some sort of code, I have no idea if it means anything or if it's that legible but here are some frames if you feel like giving it a go?
He goes through the photos his own sub took, only now seeming to realize the freaky shit on some of the images. Apparently he was way too out of it to see anything but the path ahead, or he might have taken the pictures and not looked at them for some reason or another.
Current coordinates: 725, 501
He's gone in a circle. Worth noting, his depth meter shows him some notches higher than the last time we've seen it before. Also, another dent on the opposite wall. A few scenes after, it's gone back down again. Continuity error? Simon's perception being weird again? Who knows.
Also, another dent on the opposite wall.
When Simon takes the other tunnel, we get another view on the depth meter and see it go up about halfway into the red, when the Voice starts to static in through the radio. It's been shown before that he need to be barely in the red for signal to be clear, so that's already a foreshadowing the radio shouldn't be working besides the bonkage.
Just to add on the blood through the bandages: It could be mutations, yeah, but I'm right at this moment at 1:45:45 and the SM-8 researchers recording say "We only saw it with the samples we took from near... The Light." regarding the blood being human, which may imply that the blood isn't capable of causing mutations all around. I think its also possible that, with the overall subnutrition that would run rampant in Iron Lung, Simon's injuries may not be healing at the pace they should, with problems for blood to coagulate (after all, vitamin C defiency can cause old scars to open); add in the constant movement, and it would be feasible for some of his injuries to bleed.
Regarding the injuries, it'is true that coagulation may have been affected, but the counter to that is that both his lip cut and the forehead scrape (both facial injuries which are known to bleed a lot!) have scabbed at a reasonable pace. Meanwhile if you look at the scrapes on his arm, they are extensive but overall superficial. The thick layer of bandages he put on would have been sufficient to stop the bleeding if they were given a decent amount of pressure when wrapped.
The stain pattern is close to what you might see in IV needle bandages, if the pressure wasn't enough to stop the bleeding. If that was the case, we'd be seeing the scrapes drip blood on the depicted scene, but instead we see it only raw and bright, likely oozing plasma and other clear fluids. Not blood.
Mostly I'm just being nitpicky about the makeup team's choices here ahjdjawbdh
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... The Pinhole God says "I See You", and the camera shows both Simon AND the Seedling Pendant (it is Alive, it is being seen). (this will be very rambling, beware)
Simon says "I See You", and as others have pointed, the way it is shot Simon looks blind ("the light - it illuminates and it blinds) and we don't see the Seedling. The Seedling is being Seen, but doesn't have EYES to see back and to be blinded, even if, as a plant, perceives the Light.
Then we have "Agreed", a flash of the Light-Portal, and a flash of something human-shapped in green shades. Two living beings crossing the Light, maybe?
In this reblogs here, it was pointed out how The Eel in the Blood Dimension and the Shadowman lack eyes and how The Eel is begging to see and we can assume Sees the Pinhole God => Is blinded by the Light => sight is taken in some sense that you can't ever go into the Light again and see whatever the Pinhole God showed, probably per the design of the Pinhole God itself.
But the Seedling is a plant. It can perceive Light and methabolize it, but doesn't have eyes to be blinded. It can only be illuminated. In the Blood Dimension, the Eel sinks back, eyes lacking, telling Simon to open his eyes. And Simon has eyes and is looking around... And the Pendant is in the Blood Ocean, the cord around Simon's wrist holding him in place, and Simon literally can't pull the pendant off. He sees his reflection in the blood, right above the seedling, and when it vanishes, it looks like the Seedling has roots spreading (the thing is, once roots are strong, the tree can burst up, and I have thoughts on this but not for this post).
Earlier, when the Lead Researcher talks "The Light - It illuminates and it Blinds. It thinks and therefore we are", it immediately cuts to the Seedling as Simon speaks about a miracle. Earlier yet, when Simon says "Yeah. I never had anything to begin with." regarding if he would give anything just to survive, he purposefully looks at the seedling pendant. It appears Simon doesn't think of the Seedling as HIS, despite its importance and how Simon cherishes it and protects it, and how it clearly represents Simon's hope. But in terms of material possessions, it's not Simon's for him to give it. (it is very curious that it focus on the Seedling and not on the knife holster, also)
Then we have the Blood Dimension. I risk saying that the Pinhole God may need to *blind* someone to be able to go into "it thinks and therefore we are" levels of transform someone. The Pinhole God can't blind the Seedling, there's no eyes to blind; also, I think it's possible, at this moment, that the Seedling is aware: be by the belief Simon's has, be because it methabolized a supernatural Light, be a combination of both, and holds on to Simon in the Blood Dimension.
Simon didn't consider the Seedling his, as a material possession, but... In the Blood Dimension, the Seedling holds him in place. And Simon sees his reflection in the blood, the same way he sees the Pinhole God in the blood after he vomits, after leaving the Blood Dimension. Simon sees himself reflected in the porthole glass that was salvaged from Filament Station, something with deep connections to him, that he insists he tried to stop, but is deeply triggering.
I would risk saying, in this point, that Reflection is a mark of *possession* over something. The porthole glass represents Simon's guilt and anger regarding FIlament Station, it's Simon's, but it's not Alive, and it's the first thing cracked in multiple ways: by the pressure, and then by the Light. The Seedling, on the other hand, represents Simon's hope and wish for home, and while I noticed a crack in the glass in the "it thinks and therefore we are", it only really cracks significantly after the Blood Dimension. Also, while Simon claims it's not his, I can interpret what happened in the Blood Dimension almost as the Seedling choosing to be Simon's: he may not consider the Seedling his, but the Seedling def considers itself Simon's. His hope refuses to leave.
And the blood Simon's vomits show the Pinhole God. The Blood is ITS, and it was inside Simon.
All this to say that my thoughts are: Simon doesn't consider the Seedling his to give. The Seedling very much considers itself Simon's and it WILL hold him down. The Red Eyed God most likely wants to make Simon Its, but apparently for this needs to blind Simon.
Love these tags @trinikins! I AM noting down the "God and Devil fighting over Moses body" to check and reflect and write!
I love the thought of the Seedling being smug af, it's amazing lmao
Also after a night of sleep, I add on the "needing eyes; it illuminates and it blinds; it thinks and therefore we are; sees through a pinhole and thinks understand": the Pinhole God didn't try and look again beyond the Light after the Quiet Rapture, it seems. It's not worried about discovering more, about the possibility of needing to see more. It considers ONE LOOK enough to understand.
The Eel and Shadowman lacks eyes, possibly because the Pinhole God, in the "it illuminates and it blinds", is able to look inside the mind *by looking into the eyes*? And this is what causes the blindness, with the "the eyes are the windows of the soul", and after the Pinhole God sees ONCE it thinks it saw everything it needed and those windows can be closed/taken off, thus Blindness, methaforically, spiritually, no need to have means to look into one's soul again?
Eyes ARE very important and Simon's eyes are constantly in focus. Windows to Simon's soul. The Pinhole God closes the windows once it sees and thinks understand and tries to change. Did this with the Eel and intends to do with Simon. The transformation by the Blood may cause something else, that causes the blindness from the Eel in the Blood Dimension.
The Seedling lack eyes, and per some, would lack soul, but does it really? For all we know, Simon's belief made it have a soul and awareness, for all we know it created a soul for itself once methabolizing the Light, but in lacking eyes, whatever soul/mind/awareness can't be sifted through by the Pinhole God, there's no windows into the Seedling soul. The Pinhole God can't destroy the Windows into the Seedling's Soul because they don't exist and the Seedling doesn't need them, and thus the Seedling remains a mystery to the Pinhole God that it can't change accordingly to its thoughts. There's no pinhole through which to watch the innards of the Seedling.
I am loving the "eyes are the windows to the soul" themes we can draw. Eyes and Understanding are evidenced many times in the themes for the movie.
And the Pinhole God is definitely one who reads something once without any previous knowledge on the subject and believe It understands what It just read. And It won't take any criticisms that no, actually, It deeply misunderstood everything It just read. For as much as It thinks It Understands everything, It's just as blind as all It's creations. Quick edit for the Pinhole God using eyes to see into!!: Simon is told to open his eyes before he's peeled open by the God, which I think ties into that imagery.
And maybe the Seedling, the one who never had eyes to begin with, is the one who can see the clearest out of everyone.
And just an addendum for the fighting over Moses body: I slightly misremembered and it's said that the Archangel Michael disputed his body with the Devil, and not God altright - though I think the point still stands.
In Jude 1: 8-10, in a warning agains false teachers, we have "8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively."
But I also remembered another very interesting passage about Moses' death that I think has pretty interesting connotations in this reading: "5 And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is." Deuteronony 34: 5, 6.
Which mmmmmm. The Seedling making Simon a grave after winning him in the image of the ones he grew with. His body both soil and new life.
This is me with you aditiong now! GOD, what an adition!
"Quick edit for the Pinhole God using eyes to see into!!: Simon is told to open his eyes before he's peeled open by the God, which I think ties into that imagery." TOTALLY. Also, the Pinhole God also says "Look" towards Simon, and Simon DOES, and then is called "Butcher": the Pinhole God, apparently, NEEDS to be looked back to see and understand in some way!
"And maybe the Seedling, the one who never had eyes to begin with, is the one who can see the clearest out of everyone." Most likely, yes! It is not even Seeing, exactly, it is just making the Light and whatever capability to understand that it grants a part of it
It's alright misremembering slightly, we're just human and our memory is not perfect. But one of the passage you brought, just Urgh: Jude 1 - "10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively." This like... It really, REALLY can sum up the Pinhole God and the Eel: the Pinhole God blaspheme what doesn't understand (doesn't understand everything not-Butcher about Simon and a lot more, and because it doesn't understand it tries to change to fit what it can understand), and the Eel is destroyed by all that it understand instinctively. It's not only about how they're fighting over Simon, it's about how the knowledge and lack of knowledge shape both of them.
GOD the part about where Moses is buried. WHERE. The Land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor. Where people adored Baal-Peor and not the Lord. "Which mmmmmm. The Seedling making Simon a grave after winning him in the image of the ones he grew with. His body both soil and new life." THIS but also he IS being buried in the "Land" of the Pinhole God, opposite the Light we can assume, but also we can assume The Tree will grow BEYOND the Blood Ocean, will leave the realm of the Pinhole God.
ALSO, other parallels/similarities with Moses I was thinking: Moses first speaks with God through a burning bush (Exodus 3:2) (Simon's contact with any divinity prior to the Light: a Tree and then a Seedling of the Tree) (as far as I remember, Moses is the only one to speak with God is such a manner), AND when the people made the golden calf, Moses managed to persuade God out of destroying all them (Exodus 32:9-14). The Seedling's experience with humans, speciallys after gaining awareness, is through Simon and everything he does, including his pain at the hands of COI and Eden, BUT in the end he's still "It's bigger than us". I'll finish the rewatch now, but I can fully see a mirror in how Simon behaves and chooses to influences the Seedling, because it doesn't turn into a Tree imediatelly.
God there are so many Moses-Simon parallels we can draw now we mention itttt
Growing away from his home (being taken from Mars to Eden), his exile in Midian post killing the egyptian (imprisonment post Filament Station), meeting God in the burning bush in a sacred place being asked to take off his shoes (seeing the Pinhole God naked in Its domain), the 7 plagues (this is more in HC/theorizing territory of Prophet Simon but had he become the Shadowman it'd bring nothing but more misery to the rest of humanity, and turning the sea into blood), leading his people out of slavery (bringing back hope with the black box), not getting to see the promised land but being taken by God into Heaven (not seeing if the black box truly made it but having the Seedling protect him from the Pinhole God's vision)
A small thing I finally took the time to catch when responding to this, but I adore these sequence of compositions. This happens during the cave driving scene, when things are beginning to blur together for Simon.
Went back a bit on the driving scene and finding the SM-8 scene and Wooooops. @water-activated-light I could remember you talked about the driving scene a bit and tried to see if you noticed but as far as i found on your post, no, so come chew on walls with me
01:03:58 Simons starts nodding off. Attention to the map to the top right of the screen: Simon already taped the paper for it there, but it is EMPTY
Then we have these and these posts, regarding the coordinates when Simon is nodding off, wakes up, and then as he watches the SM-8.
Simon goes to input the present coordinates
01:07:08. The lower paper, empty while Simon nodded off... Is filled. FILLED. Simon doesn't notice ONLY that the coordinates are different from when he woke up, he's most likely being like "I don't remember putting these here"
It could be that Simon just... Forgot, started seeing wrong coordinates. As someone that played Mass Effec 3 24 hours without a pause the moment it was released and reached London and then later couldn't remember A SHIT of the mission despite completing it... I could see it, Simon doing all this while literally sleep walking and just really waking up when close to the SM-8 because of the proximity sensor. It really could be.
At the same time, I remember the freaking tape roll that disappeared, and the fact that Simon is seeing himself in different moments of time, and I'm like... Did he do this sleep walking, or some space-time bullshit happened?
Thanks for the tag!! And yeah, while I'm sure there are some continuity errors in the movie (I've clocked a few by now), I do think there are some intentional messing up of items to indicate misremembered things as well as space-time bullshitery.
Your catch of the tape roll is awesome, btw!!
Timestamps: 1:02:30 > 1:02:56 > 1:03:18 > 1:06:55
However prior to the nodding off, we can see him draw some of the lines of the lower portion, and we see the moment he moves to the lower square by the gap between paper sheet. Therefore, he Does draw them during the trip, but like you said, it's probably been left blank as a continuity bungle to throw us off.
Honestly when it comes to this movie, I just assume by default that more than one thing is true and that it was made intentionally ambiguous for us as the audience. They want us chewing on these walls forever u.u
People, especially games, get eldritch madness wrong a lot and it’s really such a shame.
An ant doesn’t start babbling when they see a circuit board. They find it strange, to them it is a landscape of strange angles and humming monoliths. They may be scared, but that is not madness.
Madness comes when the ant, for a moment, can see as a human does.
It understands those markings are words, symbols with meaning, like a pheromone but infinitely more complex. It can travel unimaginable distances, to lands unlike anything it has seen before. It knows of mirth, embarrassment, love, concepts unimaginable before this moment, and then…
It’s an ant again.
Echoes of things it cannot comprehend swirl around its mind. It cannot make use of this knowledge, but it still remembers. How is it supposed to return to its life? The more the ant saw the harder it is for it to forget. It needs to see it again, understand again. It will do anything to show others, to show itself, nothing else in this tiny world matters.
Pretty much!! Honestly iirc, one of the short stories from The King in Yellow is about finding a way back to lost Carcosa, for example. It's a very very old theme in gothic and eldritch horror; getting a glimpse of something and desperately yearning to find it again, so you can understand or simply bask in that again, even if doing so means death.
The Demoiselle D'Ys has themes of entering a strange world in the far past, and being released from it by death (a snake bite specifically, a Christianity lens connects snakes to the trees in Eden), while The Mask describes a miraculous liquid that turns whatever creature submerged in it into a stone statue, explaining that it's a portal which sends the living spirit of the creature into a different world (the character demonstrates the effect using a goldfish, and one of the characters commits "suicide" by throwing herself in a pool of the liquid).
It's also curious that Carcosa is notably close to a great lake, and Ys itself is a city that was doomed to drown by the folly of its leaders, an absent king and a reckless, libertine princess. If you squint really hard, you can see related themes in Iron Lung.
It's not unlike themes of experiencing religious ecstasy and then craving for that brilliant, horrifying, maddening connection to the divine again. Meeting an angel and it tells you 'be not afraid' because you do, you fear this awful, awesome bright thing before you, but you can never be the same again after it. Likewise having a near-death experience is just as world-shattering, Simon drawing a connection to it isn't too far off. Ego death is a powerful drug! xD
Meanwhile I think about how we can't see the Eel's eyes AT ALL when Simon is in the Blood Dimension, as if they simply aren't. Pretty much the same thing happens with the Shadowman, who has only vacant eye sockets. It's not just having non-functional eyes anymore, the option has been totally taken from them.
Simon got to see the Pinhole God and it saw him back, but it never got to claim his eyes (his vision, his foresight, in a metaphorical sense). It never turned him blind to everything else.
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Iron Lung Details: The Race for the SM-8 Scene (Pt.1)
I'm gonna title this one too cus it's such an important scene. Image heavy, read more!
I will not be focusing so much on taking apart the audio, despite it being such a major part of the scene, simply because 1. my earphones are busted, 2 my pc audio is ass and 3. my auditory processing is also ass.
I will keep myself to what the official subtitles give, and the more obvious sound effects. If you'd like another source for the audio stuff, you can reference @ctrl-shift-alt-9 's transcript!
First - Prev - Next
Kind of dig for the arrow is obscuring Simon's face in the reflection. We can also already see several blisters on the pipes and walls, it's no longer a slow build up of what is coming. It's been happening way before Simon had the presence of mind to actively notice it, or care to notice.
This is not the first time the camera has gone off without Simon's input, but it's notable that it clearly points out the distance between them. In the previous scene this happened, it seems like a trick of his mind, his perception beind eschewed by exhaustion and boredom. Now? Now it's really calling attention to the sub's coming alive.
On my previous post I mentioned how the the photos seem way more visceral and detailed than before, and these prove my point. Compare these to the first few photos he's taken of the ocean, it's a stark change! It's like the ocean is coming alive as much as the sub.
Simon avoids stepping on the blood puke from before, even as he sways from the sub's movements and the delirium.
When Simon turns the control, you hear someone plead and then the crunch of bone. See, snapping a neck is a very visceral and common death in movies, but actually doing it is incredibly difficult! It's very likely we are running with Hollywood tropes and Simon did snap someone's neck.
But if we want to have some fun with it, the way he holds the control switch here could imply something more grotesque. A literal twist of the knife, or some sort of automation or machine to deliver the killing blow. It could also imply he did it as easily and thoughtlessly as a turn of a dial. Just one more task.
During this whole scene, we are either looking at Simon from above, usually with his face obscured, or we have the camera locked to his face, his gaze distant and dazed but face well illuminated. Any moment of darkness is very momentary.
Except here.
"You're gonna have to kill your own brothers to stop this."
"You're not my brother."
This is the first time we hear him speak in this scene. We hear him before in his memories, saying he "didn't want them to die", but this is him responding to the GWTYCW in his head.
While yes, we could argue that means they knew each other and this is Simon disavowing GWTYCW because of how betrayed he feels about Eden abandoning him, I sincerely think they never knew each other. Christians call each other brothers and sisters regardless of personal closeness or relationships, it's just a signifier of shared community.
In my view, there are two possibilities. One, this is Simon separating this specific guy from the brothers who were there in the attack on Filament Station. Who's he to tell him what to do, they don't know each other, he's no one to Simon.
Two, this is Simon trying to shake off the accusation in his own mind. Mentions of Filament Station always stir a reaction from him, and now the hallucinated GWTYCW has touched on that particular nerve by parroting his own thoughts (maybe even words) back to Simon. Thus, Simon finally speaks up against the flashbacks haunting him.
"I'm just the guy who told you to cross the wires."
The way said wires are framed by the camera screen, which is also depciting the weird stringy-vein-nervous-system things in the ocean is masterful. It connects the visual of the sub's wiring to an organ system, further emphasizing the new life of the sub, while also further implying that the ocean is not just alive but haunted. The last message left behind by GWTYCW is as much of an eulogy as the hivemind in the blood.
Also, we're back to the usual X-Ray quality from before. Notice how the grain is way more stark here than in the other, fleshier ones! It's almost like the reply snapped Simon out of whatever mentality he was before.
This is such a phenomenal sequence. Notice the snap cuts of the background, and how the lightining matches the changes too. Really sells just how out of it Simon is, not keeping track of where he is in the sub, the coming and going melting together into a blurr.
It's all framed by the intense preachings of the Father, something that I can see SImon associate with an endless slog he has to push through, just as much as he has to push through whatever discomfort and hardship. It's both something he denounces but also something he's internalized.
Peak religious trauma representation if you ask me.
This is such a quick bit, but so bittersweet.
It's been well-established that the button for the camera makes a very specific, mechanical ka-chunk noise when pressed, followed by the sudden snap-buzz-click of the camera screen going off. We hear it a few times without the ka-chunk, but overall whenever the button is on focus, it's there. But not here.
Here, we hear Simon's Mother talking about their move to Eden, and Ava talk about the confiscated tree pendants. Both very vulnerable memories for him, given the associations. Here, he hesitates on the button, and his touch is so gentle. We don't hear a click at all.
Now, we barely hear the screen buzz either, so it's likely the sound was muted in his perception. But there's also something so sad about the possibility of him pressing it so carefully, it doesn't even make a sound.
Again, compare this to the previous, fleshy ones. Very different.
Once more, the audience receives information before Simon does. Notice that these sores are rather small as is, but nothing compared to what will come after.
Okay let's lock in for a second for this next shot.
"When the last Son of Eden joins the Grove, there will be a thousand trees!"
We hear the Father say this before the scene settles into the composition, but what a composition it is! Everything frames the pendnt which is in the very center of the screen.
The camera shifts focus while Simon and the Father echo each other.
Simon: You may think that there is no soil, but we know.
Father: We will die.
Simon: We know that when we die...
Father: When we die...
Together: Our bodies will become the soil.
I do find it interesting that the center focus shifts from the bloodied, broken pendant, soon after Simon admits the Last Tree is dead, to Simon's bloodied arm. While it's showing his right arm, the blood patterns reach out towards the pendant, which reach back in return with its leaf.
It's a striking foreshadowing of what part of Simon's body will be soil for the seedling. This scene is bascilly a recipe book for the Blood Tree!
It's also a weird blood pattern on his bandages. I've mentioned before that scrapes like he got wouldn't bleed as much, and not only that but not in this pattern. This is more like bleeding from perforations rather than abrasion of the skin. Even if we consider the mutations just under it, those are blisters rather than perforations. I do wonder what the makeup team had in mind when they did these like that.
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