Unwitness Protection Program SPOILERS + THEORIES
Alrighty. Quick summary of this post: Lots of theories. I may have gone overboard. I originally did this for my self with no intention of posting it online, but figured no one's gonna see it anyway so may as well put it in the world. I'll start by putting all my physical notes in, then as they're probably not as legible (but contain more info than i will describe in this tumblr post), i will do my best to summarise the key points i found.
disclaimer before i start! I have no idea if any of these are right, obviously. Ive mashed together the memories of comments and posts ive read with my own crazy ideas and study of literary theory & religious history. Spoilers and use of photos from presumably episodes 2-4 of season 2, that were released on instagram. okay. here we go.
the first path i went down was that of mr abrams, specifically the name from the bible. Turns out there's significant imagery to this, as biblical Abrams had a ?non-biological son? (god intervened as wife couldnt convieve, he'd had a previous child with a maid so this was his second son). As a test of faith Abram's was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and he set up the pyre and everything, and was about to do it when an angel intervened and had him sacrifice an animal instead. All this is significant imagery due to the binding of isaac, where he binds his own son as isaac is carrying the wood for a pyre he doesnt realise he is going to die on. this is all seen as foreshadowing for jesus's death in the future.
God told Abram that if he sacrificed isaac, his lineage and the people of his home would be blessed and safe. I think that whatever is bringing these people back from the dead, mr abrams believes he is doing it for the betterment of everyone as he's been told this.
in the instagram teaser, there were shots of dead animals. either theyre being used for parts, or are part of a sacrifice to a god, that turns out wasnt enough. maybe mr abrams/whoevers behind this tried animals first after hearing the stories, and it wasnt enough.
also the binding of isaac - we see isaac in ropes in the teaser released on instagram. Bro's literally bound. ISAAC IS A SACRIFICE.
also unrelated mostly but i think that (common theory here) mr brooks was the one who apparently killed mr abrams son. and also im not sure but mr abrams might be isaac's father through cheating. additionally im curious about abram's wife, if she was a casuality or failed experiment or just got in the way.
from here i looked into christianity in deadwood a bit more, made the conclusion that the corpses were probably originally being taken from the church graveyard as its likely thats where lui's grandma was buried (confirmed christian in s1). Isaac's parents are also christian, but its unclear if his dad wouldve been buried.
next up i investigated the lead of the draugr, a norse monster. see my actual notes for this. overall i think there's not enough commonalities, and things that dont line up for this monster/thing to be a pure draugr, i think maybe Bizly took some inspiration from it or changed it a little - as there isnt enough evidence to suggest there was anything wrong with the bodies when they were buried for them to become a draugr. however, the smell in the house mentioned in the episode and the descriptions of the bodies as bloated and smelling foul lines up - but to be fair, theyre all descriptors of corpses. and a draugr is a corpse. but any corpse is not necessarily a draugr.
from here i went and looked into norse mythology. stories of odin hanging himself from a tree whilst being impaled, "sacrificing himself to himself", in order to gain the knowledge of the runes. This all matches up with what Lui said was in the books mr abrams was reading. I then went frame by frame and found the books in the video, and any relevant things - eg, there was bookmarks in one, mentions of highlights i also found, etc. I'll attach the book covers below. there was also a fourth orange book, that no matter how much i tried to find, with descriptions of spears on the cover, i could not track down. reverse image search, checking type fonts on the back, potential mention of subject matter, anything (i spent 6 hours trying to find it to no avail).
I also found the poem talking about odin's sacrifice, which was bookmarked in the video. Dude... isaac is SO GOING TO BE SACRIFICED. like, so bad. its not even funny. and hes gonna understand everything, but wont be able to convey it to the others because he'll be too far gone.
i did a bit more research into norse mythology, especially something Lui said about a wolf gnawing on human flesh, and it likely refers to the myth of odin being devoured by the great wolf fenrir during ragnarok.
more on the sacrifices: Isaac may not be Odin symbolically, as stabbing and hanging was a common practice of norse sacrifice as it mirrored the death of odin. however, it IS almost certain that this is all part of some big norse ritual, as one of the books mr abram was reading: "Hail the gods: selections from viking poetry for heathen rites" was specifically a translation of old norse rites into modern english with the INTENTION TO BE PRACTICED. he has a book of HOW TO PRACTICE NORSE RITUALS.
From here i considered the "words are power" sentiment conveyed by the poem, which i attach here:
from here i thought it may be as simple as just telling the corpses how they died, but also maybe not. I took a shot in the dark at norse runes, of which there are two kinds - younger and elder futhark. In the episode, they mention a series of words: grave, patience, water, warm, lover, birth, closing. I look at the translations for what these words might be in both elder and younger futhark and find that elder translates the words much better, and has clearer associations. In an attempt to make sense of the words, or find a code hidden in the words once translated, i have listed the translations for all of the words as best i can in elder futhark in my notes, as well as the symbols and phonetic sounds (yes i learned viking runes for this). Im convinced that some system of runes will be used, especially after clips in the teaser, its simply a question of how. I'm thinking they likely have to translate/ interpret/write the runes themselves, or speak the phonetic translations to either stop the corpses (eg, the words of how they died) or to solve a puzzle.
Im unsure of if its going to be purely elder futhark runes, though, as while some matched in the teaser, others were definitely not from either elder or younger futhark. Here is the translation i used and screenshot from the teaser.
phew. okay. nearly there.
I know i havent mentioned the eye colour thing yet. From what we've got the closest links i can make are to mythology of Odin losing an eye, as well as theories of amalgamations and harvesting people for body parts, or using vision/connection to the brain to control into a hivemind. Obviously both Mr abrams and mr brooks have it, but lui's grandma didnt - maybe she was a rouge in a way, or the eyes are a way to connect to someone and pilot them and she was just individual. or it wasnt mentioned.
my final lead before i decided we did not have enough information to accurately predict the entire plot and monster in the first episode no matter how hard i tried (wow shocker that), is the story on the back of the promotional text for the pins. This was found by @whimsyhat in https://www.tumblr.com/whimsyhat/812711168422641664/even-more?source=share this post. As this references the story of ligeia by edgar allen poe, im inclined to believe that the reincarnation of loved ones has twisted severely, and what mr abrams started out doing/seeking has either morphed into, or already was (and he is just a victim of) an existential and mythological level threat.
one things for sure. Isaac's fucked. He's gonna be a sacrifice, or hes gonna die. But either way, he's going to somehow make it back to the gang, dead or alive. or undead. and im gonna be all here for the angst that follows. also NORAH BETTER MAKE IT THROUGH THIS. THIS IS NOT A THEORY, ITS A THREAT. dont let my girl die :(
If you've read this far, thank you for listening to my insane ramblings. I felt (and according to my friends, acted) like a conspiracy theorist putting all this together, and genuinely felt like i was one of the gang solving the mystery. Sorry this was posted so close to the next release, I'm not sure if im gonna do another one of these for the next episode (we'll see how wrong i was), cause i wasn't even planning to post this until tonight.
photos of my desk for reference of.. something. autism probably. thanks bye!
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