TSFHJ fan theory (SPOILERS THROUGH LATEST UPDATE)
So ‘The search for Henry Jekyll’ is probably my favorite webcomic (and i read A LOT) and i have read it way too many times to count. But all that rereading had lead me to notice many things, so I thought I would dump a big theory I’ve been working on here. Granted, this is prob not 100% right, its just what I notice as a writer.
*all artwork belongs to Midori and TSFHJ comic, I’m just using it like in-text citations for an essay*
This will eventually become a thread of more theories because I have so many theories about this comic
Let’s start with dear old Henry Jekyll and his wonderful invention HJ7. In the original story this comic is based on, Jekyll admitted to enjoying using Hyde and using him as a tool to have more freedom (while as jekyll he is forced to behave by society’s structure)
We know in the comic that HJ7 essentially brings out a person’s true self in the form of another personality
And its been shown that jekyll has a violent past
Here’s where the theory comes in
Starting from the very beginning of the comic, Hyde has always said one thing:
Jekyll wants himself to be a good person so badly that he shoves away facts of the past, rewrites the situation in his head, does anything to make himself look good. Usually in the comic this is represented by incomplete/false memories
Memory has always been a key theme in the story, and has gotten even stronger with the “there is something there” monster creeping its way through the story (I cannot wait to find out everything about what that is)
More recently, however, Jekyll has done something interesting:
He’s blaming Hyde for the memory issues. Still, this far into the story, he refuses to believe that he could be doing anything wrong, or be the one purposefully forgetting things. He is the character most adamant about his own innocence, next to one other:
Al has always been the one to do everything for Henry, has always been the first person to profess his innocence. He so badly didn’t want to believe Henry was a killer, and he still denies that Henry is at all guilty in everything
Now to move to the main point
Very recently, Henry started talking about his father’s death, and I was immediately suspicious. First off, the memory is in a completely different color scheme than any other flashback/memory in the comic
I pull this specific section of the memory out for two reasons
1) notice Al, how hes scratched out and just a silhouette. Look familiar?
Its more exaggerated, but its the same way people are scratched out in repressed/altered memories
its hard to see and inconclusive (could be a shadow) but a friend of mine pointed out that it looks sort of like a bruise on his neck from possibly strangulation
So what does this all lead us to?
Its pretty clear this memory isn’t 100% true. Molly even says so
One more thing: the phrasing here is slightly suspicious
“moving the body” typically implies either a doctor/police officer taking it to the morque OR someone trying to cover up a crime. There’s no logical reason for the staff to “move the body” without a doctor present (now of course one could have been present and it wasn’t shown on the page).
This little error, combined with everything stated above, has led me to guess that Henry Jekyll killed his father. It would explain the alterations in the memory, we know hes capable of violence, he has to be able to kill for hyde to exist as he is now (hyde is henry’s true self, remember.
Look whose leading the arrangements, taking charge- Al. We know he’s desperate to protect Henry, we know he has full knowledge of the incident at the University and of Henry’s own violence towards him (namely when he found out Al took the Utterson name). Its not a reach to say he found out what happened, figured it was a temporary loss of sanity, and desperately tried to cover it up.
Circles are another heavy theme in this story. Spirals indicate Hyde’s frenzies
these big circle eyes have to have some significance
Immediately when I saw them I was reminded of someone
Something else that’s interesting: All Henry;s life he’s been pushing away from being like his father (i mean in terms of personality they seem like polar opposites) but the truth is he’s always been following his dad’s path , I mean
And notice the shape of Henry’s glasses for most of the comic: rectangular. Not quite the opposite of circular, but close. However, he recently got new glasses. Guess what the shape is
not 100% positive on this significance yet but it seems like we’re getting closer to truly understanding who Henry is and well
Honestly my theory for the “there is something there” is that Henry saw something (obviously) and with the motif of circles I think it def had to do with his dad (the shape itself is more feminine which makes me less certain so we’ll just have to wait and see)
I have WAY more theories and each update gives me more Ideas. Maybe I should start putting up reactions to the updates? Lemme know if you wanna hear more theories some of them are really interesting.
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