sooo i came back from seeing bugonia for the second time about 3 hours ago and im still buzzing about it
but i really wanna delve into just how terrifying and tragic teddy is??? (also shoutout to jesse plemons you da goat)
SPOILERS FOR BUGONIA BELOW + TW FOR MENTIONS OF KIDNAPPING, SU*CIDE, VIOLENCE, MENTAL ILLNESS, AND SA
there's so much stuff going on with his character and you can't help but feel a bit sorry for him tbh;
his mom was in a coma until he injected that antifreeze in her iv drip which would eventually kill her
his dad was seemingly pretty awful and just vanished
he works a crappy warehouse job (and speaking as someone who used to work one, i definitely understand hating said job)
the only person close to him, his cousin and confidant, don d1ed and he never got the peace of knowing what truly happened and just thinks that michelle was behind it
AND piecing together the dialogue between him and casey, he was probably sa-ed or overall taken advantage of in some sort of way as a child
it really is just so tragic, because when he blames all of this on aliens, it's not even really too far from the truth (aside from casey f him frl) but it can also be read as a way of trying to cope with everything by blaming it on some sort of higher being
however, don't let that distract you from the fact that he is genuinely the most terrifying one in this film (imo anyway),, more so than the aliens themself
at first when he's setting out his plans and whatnot, you obviously know he's gonna kidnap michelle but there's still a sort of silliness and sincerity to his character, as shown through how he treats don (which I'm still debating on whether or not he was serious of just being pushy) and the fact that he's just seen doing funny things! the scene of him 'training' with don really reflects that when he's doing the high kick and is laughed at for it looking stupid
even down to the scene where he's trying to actively kidnap michelle, he keeps spraying a spray and just overall failing miserably, and you cant help but just laugh at it a little bit because damn he really sucks lol
this carries on into the first basement scene where he is talking to michelle and while getting pretty angry just keeps it pushing and him and don share a sort of cute-in-a-messed-up-way scene of the two jumping with joy over their kidnapping being a success and it's just like haha
however, what makes him interesting is that he has these silly scenes, a sad backstory, and a shift that gave me a bit of whiplash tbh
kidnapping a person seems to already show that teddy is a bit of a violent person, as well as him saying michelle should be glad he didnt "gut her" (crazy ik), but for the most part, he wasn't shown to really be doing much
or this is the case until the second basement scene, where (as per usual) things arent going to well
michelle is basically ragebaiting him and, like last time it worked, a lot
but what makes this scene different is that we see the first big portrayal of teddy outright having deep rooted hatred and violence inside, 1st when he starts banging the chair on the floor and against the wall before throwing it in michelle's direction (she luckily dodged) and finally striking her in the face
THIS was where teddy's true nature becomes apparent, showing that he really is a deeply traumatized, mentally unwell, and VIOLENT man, as opposed to just being the first two, which creates an air of tension for every scene he interacts with michelle in
michelle could literally say one wrong thing and he'll just explode
he's quite literally a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at any minute (pun intended ifykyk)
this is made worse when he decides to strap michelle to the chair and turn up the voltage all the way
although there is a slight hesitation before, he's genuinely so far gone that he's still willing to go through with this torture method
even with don begging him to stop
even with michelle screaming her lungs out (phenomenal acting btw)
he just keeps going and the only thing that really stopped him was don physically unplugging the power
(+ i feel like basket case by green day was an elite song choice)
after this, teddy seems to be so far gone in his way of thinking that he's actively becoming more aggressive and letting his calm facade fade
you can especially see it when he's saying that the plan to save earth by kidnapping michelle was all his work as if don didnt help him AND when don asks to go to the bathroom he's just like "stay here" and as an autistic girl, i just know all of the conflict don had to witness and be involved in was soul crushing
(+ when don first says sorry, teddy says 'dont apologize' but he eventually stops saying that)
despite already being terrified of this man, the scene that really brought it home was him quite literally SPRINTING towards michelle across the table on all fours to begin to fight and try to kill her for speaking of his mother, because in this moment you really wonder if this is going to be it until the roles reverse, and i feel like this isn't just a simple 'haha michelle got u back' scene but also where the shift in power dynamics begin
throughout his life, teddy seems to just never have power over anything, and so when he captures michelle and can physically take out his anger on her, this gives him power over something for once
when he believes that capturing this alien will help him save earth, it gives him power over the way his life can go on, but also humanity
so when michelle takes power back from him and begins to fight back, it makes her dialogue of her being the winner and him being the loser all the more important
she represents the giant corporations so much through her fake care for her employees work-life balance and also with her seemingly not really providing many reparations for the condition of teddy's mother
when michelle starts fighting back, it (on a VERY meta level) seems to feel like a commentary on how even if you're on top for a while, capitalism and corporate greed will always prevail
(or maybe im reading too deep into this idk)
this flipped power dynamic is later pushed when a grieving teddy points his rifle at michelle, thinking she killed don, and michelle is able to save herself by providing a cure to a problem she essentially created (the cure to teddy's mom waking from the coma) by saying that teddy needs to give his mother antifreeze
now, back to teddy, who at this point in the film, is just completely over the edge
at this point in time, he had just killed casey (good riddance) for catching on and lost the closest person to him to this 'alien' and despite everything he still believes her words and is a babbling mess and even with all the chips down and everything pointing to him being the problem he's deflecting in a weak voice and blaming the alien scum, making things easier to process
which feels like a reference to earlier in the film when he tells michelle how he isn't a child anymore, much like what an angsty teen would say to their mother
this childishness aspect of his character is further built on by the fact that michelle talks to him as though he is one and is now donning his mother's old gown, obviously he'd listen to her
as predicted the antifreeze, kills the mother and teddy has a new resolve, to kill michelle
as this is happening, michelle ventures through the basement and finds out the truth, with the truth being that she wasn't teddy's first victim, and that there were others
some taken photos of and kept in scrapbooks, paired with mad journal entries, and some who have been kept as wet specimens in jars
teddy returns to an enraged michelle and despite teddy being the one with the rifle, michelle is the one in power here
she monologues about how humans are ruining their planet and how her colony experimented on a handful of humans hoping to make them better
one of them including teddy's mother
this scene blew me away upon watching because it shows just how domineering michelle truly is, using her ceo prowess (if thats even real) and doesn't try to be cordial towards him anymore, with her asking him
"how many were andromedons"
which i feel like is where things get serious, because if michelle was just a random ceo, then why would these dead people make her truly so enraged? was it her humanity speaking, or something else?
to keep things short, crazy stuff happens, michelle IS an alien and decides to pull the plug on humanity, and oh yeah, teddy has a bomb strapped to his chest which goes off (tying back to that ticking time bomb comparison)
back to teddy, because this jusy turned into a plot summary
what starts off as a bit of a wacky character, delves into showing the true psyche of a man who is not just deeply disturbed but also insanely violent and what makes him so interesting is that for every scene he's in, not only did i flinch, but he's also just so unpredictable and wild that you really just are always guessing how much worse it can get, and this is made even worse when the only anchor he really had (don) dies, he gets so extreme to the point where he's willing to ride around on a bike in broad daylight with blood splattered across him and straps a bomb to his chest, on the WHIM that michelle might try something funny with him only for him to be right
teddy was essentially right
michelle was the alien sent to destroy humanity that he was so worried about and in a grand attempt to change fate for the better, his declining mental health and violent tendencies only ended up making things worse and dooming humanity, when michelle returns to the council and makes the decision to pull the plug on humanity
oh teddy they could never make me form an opinion on you....
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