In which I make a hastily-written case that a) Logan isn't going to turn into Orange, but b) Orange/Wrath is about to make a very spectacular entrance with Logan's "help" and c) The eye/vision motifs surrounding Orange are hella cool.
- Virgil told c!Thomas not to let “[Janus] or his friends” back to cause trouble ever again. Friends plural, so there must be at least one more pre-existing darkside in addition to Remus. Makes sense that it’d be Orange, filling out the rainbow.
- The end credits allow a glimpse of Orange after the camera has long since cut away from Logan. The two glowing eyes imply an onlooker hiding in the shadows, not a change in one of the current six.
- From a showrunner perspective, consider the logistics of it; as fun as a punk/wolfish wardrobe update on Logan would be, I'm not sure how c!Thomas would function with Wrath taking over Logic's place entirely.
2. The Anatomy of a "Dark Side"* Entrance
- I don’t think Logan’s eyes glowing is Logan transforming into Orange so much as it’s him allowing anger to occlude his judgement, thus giving Wrath/Orange some form of control over him. Remus operates the same way—he has power over sides who are susceptible to his particular “poison,” believing that he’s worth fearing. Thus, he can deal damage to Roman and scare Virgil while Logan goes unscathed. In the instances that they serve as negative influences, Janus and Virgil work similarly—Janus has sway over more naive, easily manipulated characters (often Roman), while antagonist-Virgil in early season 1 could get at characters who were panic-prone (often Patton, or Thomas himself).
- Notably, Logan is immune to much of the above. Of course he’s a very flawed character, but My Negative Thinking, SvS, and DWIT show that when directly confronted with a “dark side”, Logan is consistently able to identify Virgil’s cognitive distortions, Janus’ machinations, and Remus’ bluffs. It’s telling that instead of trying to talk him round, the three all gain the upper hand by drowning him out or benching him—they have to get him out of the picture, because he simply isn’t susceptible to the emotions that give them control.
- Unfortunately for Logan, one emotion to which he certainly *is* susceptible—arguably the most susceptible of the main cast—is anger. From the highest swear count to the only (non-Remus) instance of physical violence in the series, Logan is harboring a fair bit of pent-up rage that this episode only highlighted further. In other words, his emotional state is ripe for Orange to capitalize on and get his foot in the door, just as Virgil did with Thomas’ fear, Janus did with Roman’s ambition, and Remus did with Patton and Virgil’s doubts.
(*While we know Virgil, Janus, and Remus have positive traits that genuinely help Thomas, the encounters discussed above refer to instances when they are serving as unequivocally negative/"toxic" influences--think Virgil debating Logan to convince c!Thomas that a friend who left him on "read" must hate him. The so-called Dark Sides, imho, aren't united because they're all "bad" so much as they're all in the shadows--they aren't given a seat at the table by default, and thus each has to work his way into the group by finding an emotional opening)
- I’m delighted with that little touch of Orange peeking through via the eyes. It wasn't initially obvious to me, at least—Janus’ control over the mouth (source of lies/information) as Deceit may seem more intuitive—but there’s an absolute wealth of idioms that associate anger with eyes: one might “see red,” have “fury in their eyes,” or have their "eyes flash with anger," for instance.
- Another popular saying is “eye for an eye” and its association with vengeance and violence, as discussed when Learning New Things About Ourselves not-so-subtly showed Logan hitting Roman square in the eye in a moment of fury.
- I think most pertinent, though, is the idea of one being “blinded by anger”—perfectly apt for our cool, clear sighted Logan losing his temper and opening the door for… well, who knows what? Looks like we'll have to wait and see, and I for one am excited for the ride :)
