u/quiettimegaming

You know, I see a lot of talk regarding The Red Woman being a Still-Life of Clark's wife...

Personally, I don't think she was. The Backrooms isn't shown to manifest third-party recreations... It's shown to copy what it sees and has access to.

But beyond that, it seems more likely that there was a red-headed woman down there in a 90's power suit, and it reminded him of his wife and her ambitions, so he imprinted his wife onto this totally separate Still-Life.

I mean, Clark's wife had to "take a break from school" and she doesn't work, so why would she be in a women's corporate power-suit? But it is kind of a representation of who she wanted to be, I just think it's more of a coincidence than anything else.

And if she is supposed to be the same person, *why not just have the actress that plays The Red Woman pose in a photo with Chiwetel, and use that as the photo in the movie?* **Why cast a whole separate actress to pose in a photo and never appear in the film when you already have someon eacting in the film, IF she was meant to be Barbara?**

I think many good folks in this community have pulled a Clark and just imprinted on the idea that The Red Woman is Barbara.

I get why they use a Caveman, but its just not a good representation of the human race. I also think the pose, the expression, and holding what could be weapon doesn't make for a good first-impression.

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I'm half joking, but I just think there are a million things that better represent who we are today...

"We all have our loops, habits... behaviors that keep us walking in circles. Reaching for the same solutions over and over again, thinking each time will take you somewhere new... But they don't.

And still, it's the neural pathway of least resistance. The path YOU made.

It's the one that kept you safe when you were a child. You learned to push people away before they could hurt you. And now, as an adult, you're still stuck right where you started... Alone."

^(-Mary's Monologue)

That moment where Mary is chatting with Phil hit me right in the feels. She subtly cycles through so many emotions, but ultimately, you can see her letting go and accepting... I don't know if it's accepting her current set of circumstances, or the loop she's been stuck in.

I see folks talk about the closing images of the film, and everyone seems to notice or remark on Mary's childhood home... But it took more than that. It took all the places in her life where she was dissatisfied, unfulfilled, and most alone. Her large, sad living room. Her big, empty bed. Her book, filled with guidance that she doesn't even believe in, or at least can't follow. Her office, where she has been performing a job that really just seemed to cause her to have to revisit her own unresolved traumas.

She's as broken and alone as Clark, and despite her expertise, she's been stuck reliving her own trauma and is equally incapable of letting it go or moving past it. The only part of her own process that she can do is loop & path... But if the loop is unhealthy, we know where it leads back to.

And what those images suggest to me is that the Backrooms recreates more than just a shell of who we are/were or places we've randomly been to, it copies the "neural pathways" we walk... the loops we repeat, the things that we give space in our lives and minds.

It's almost like it takes a snapshot of everything you are... the places you've been, the things you've done, the circles you're stuck walking in, and manifests it via misremembrance throughout the Complex. Not necessarily accurate to who you are, but true to the angle from which you are being viewed from. Everything you are IN THAT MOMENT, or at least how you're 'seen' by the Backrooms in that moment is taken and boiled down to its essentials... absent of ego or pride, or self-preservation, or denial, with all nuance, context, and perspective stripped away... and it twists and contorts those raw, angular pieces of who you are into locations, and beings...

A Still-Life... which is, "an arranged, suspended moment in time"...

The part where he says; "Sometimes people deserve more... Sometimes people deserve to have their lore speculation affirmed" had me thinking of the sub... made me laugh.

I've been saying for a while that FF1 was never really meant to be the true start of the series. When Kane made FF1 it was meant to be a test, or a one-off... this is why his later works moved away from The Bacteria and towards Still Life's.

I've always LOVED the Bacteria *(legitimately making a whole ass video on it right now),* but it always felt a bit out of place to me. It's too direct and turns a subtle, creeping experience into a bit of a horror ride... and its not that I mind that, I just think it never quite fit with the tone of later entires in the series where nuance and subtlety was much more present.

It's scary, for sure, but it's a bit too... hokey? Obviously artificial? I don't know how I would word it, because again, I LOVE THE BACTERIA, but the more Kane formed and refined his image of what he wanted his series to be, the less The Bacteria seemed to fit into the larger picture.

It certainly still has a place in the canon, it just makes sense why he kind of left them behind and why they feel more out of place.

tl;dr what if Clark has lost it and is actually a (not THE) secret/unintentional antagonist?

I made my own edit and compilation of clips, that I tried to put into what I think is kind of in chronological order for Mary's journey as well as Bobby & Kat's journey... with isolated audio.

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"If the wind is right, you can sail away..."

A lyric quoted by Peter Tench while in quarantine that I think applies to Clark far more than it does Peter himself.

When I hear that; I think about what it means on the surface, meaning a strong enough breeze can fill the sails and carry the vessel into the deeper waters.

But as it relates to the Backrooms... I think "the wind" is the willingness to explore, engage with, and, unfortunately/potentially lose yourself in the depths of the Backrooms, that person might be carried away.

Everyone we've seen has either wound up there by accident and were seeking to escape, or worked there and their interest was mostly occupational (besides Mr. Beck, but he's not on an expedition team). That's not the right wind to be carried away on. Almost like secrets can only be revealed to those actually looking to find them.

But a few people have caught the wind JUST RIGHT (and also VERY WRONG), and were able to go deeper and see more, and have things seemingly "revealed" to them...

Peter is definitely one, but he still sought to "escape", so that's not quite right.

The trailer reveals that Naren Warne (the owner of the ID and duffle that Clark finds in the crawlspace) may have also caught the wind correctly... But the duffle tells me that he MAY have wanted to leak what Async was doing, so maybe he wasn't as invested.

But Clark is a different story.

In the clips, we can see Clark starts off sounding curious, but logical and in control.

But with each trailer, we're shown Clark becoming just a bit more unhinged, odd, and subtly mischievous... There's a devious undertone to his words that are unsettling.

And I see a lot of folks who seem to think Clark will eventually meet his end in the Backrooms... And while I agree, my question is when? And WHAT THE HELL IS CLARK REALLY UP TO?

We know he's gone in there several times by himself, likely without issue.

And we know he takes Bobby & Kat in there... And we get enough glimpses to know that doesn't seem to end all that well. AND we know that Clark takes a SEPARATE expedition in there with Mary. And we know that journey is not without issue and peril as well.

And we know from what Clark is wearing that these are 2 DIFFERENT days... And we know from what Kat & Bobby and Mary were wearing that their the events all take place on one day (meaning they didn't take multiple trips into the Backrooms like Clark did, at least not that rhe trailer reveals).

But how could that be possible without one group (Kat & Bobby, or just Mary) having already succumb to the threats of the Backrooms before the other group was taken in there?

Did Clark go in there with Bobby & Kat, "lose them", Not tell Mary about the danger, then take her in there like everything is fine a day or 2 later, or vice versa?

And if he lost Mary or Bobby & Kat in there, how did HE manage to escape safely, and why would he have gone back in there with the other unaware party?

I'm wondering if Clark's "research" was him taking people into the Backrooms, taking them deeper than they would be able to get on their own (because they wouldn't be able to "catch the wind just right") and essentially "feeding" them to the depths of the Complex to see what happens... Because something strange is going on with Clark's motivations. Even when Bobby was in danger, Clark was more concerned with asking him what he saw than with pulling him to safety.

And when he's talking to Bobby & Kat, he sounds like he's withholding vital information. At first I chalked it up to it being one of those "you've got to see it to believe it" things... but now I'm wondering if Clark's was somehow aware of some kind of danger, but he's already sailed too far out to care, and now he trying to drag other into the depths.