Personal theories you hold?
I’d like to ask what your personal theories/headcannons you believe are.
I’ll start.
I think that that part of the dog thing escaped the kennel through the hole it busted out in the roof.
We can safely assume this (although some debate it?) because there is a solid +20 seconds between it fully going out of frame when climbing up and Childs torching it.
This explains multiple things.
1-This piece possibly infected Palmer.
If Norris was slowly taken over, and only fully assimilated later in the movie, he wouldn’t have likely infected Palmer. Palmer also was not infected early, as he shared the joint with Childs (who was later found uninfected via blood test). I also think this is the case, as Norris is wearing the same coat in the early movie as he is during the paranoia scene after the blood is tampered with.
2-If Norris was fully assimilated when the dog met him in the hall, he likely wouldn’t have had much of a chance to assimilate Palmer fully (remember, his longjohns were torn indicating a fast assimilation) as he goes to the space ship crash site with MacReady, and when they get back Nauls find Palmer’s shredded longjohns (so somehow he was infected while Norris was away, likely the escaped dog part)
3-It likely infected/assimilated with Blair, as Palmer is somewhat accounted for during a large portion of the film before he goes missing (all the scenes between the blood being found tampered with until the blood test scene (where he is found out and then killed). When Blair turns into the thing at the very end, he also shows a part of his body is a dog-thing right before MacReady blows him up.
I also like to think that Palmer was the most influential “Thing”
-he likely sabotaged the blood, as he had been unaccounted for prior to it being sabotaged (like, a LONG portion — where was he when Blair was destroying the radio room?). He was not even one of the crew outside when they were locking Blair away, prior to the blood being found tampered with which is when I think he did it.
-he caused a large amount of paranoia with his remarks among the crew before and during Norris’ death scene, and tried to stir the most division between people like MacReady and the rest of the crew or with himself and Windows
-there is also a possibility that he infected Blair, but I prefer the dog thing as it makes the most sense.
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