Here's A Theory for Everyone...
So after discussions with other fans and thinking about subtle details, I have come to frightening, farfetched, and yet fairly popular theory that seems to make more sense than it may seem at first:
Desert Bluffs IS Night Vale.
I know how ridiculous this sounds if first hearing of it, but just hear me out. Desert Bluffs is EXACTLY like Night Vale, only creepier, gorier, and much darker (in an oxymoronic sort of way). There are doubles of every citizen in Night Vale, and the only difference seems to be that Night Vale seems more socialistic and Desert Bluffs seems more capitalistic (and of course there's the whole mind control, missing eyes, bloody desk and horrible society that could make you throw up just hearing about).
But how did this all happen? How would Night Vale become Desert Bluffs, or our sweet caring Cecil becoming the dark murderous psychotic Kevin?
We all know that StrexCorp is a frightening company full of mind-control, death, decimating of human existence, and helicopters. They have been using suspicious activity and are suppressing what Cecil can say on the show, most likely threatening his life and making him dismiss other reports or broadcast misinformation. Cecil is trying to play it cool and act as though nothing is wrong, but it so obviously is.
So riddle me this, listeners.
What if, one day, Cecil broadcasts something. A story an intern made, or his own opinion. And it's too far? It's something that society should not have known, be it something about StrexCorp or Desert Bluffs (which we all have practically agreed owns StrexCorp) or the government of Night Vale, which just passes that line Cecil has been precariously dancing about? It would be chaos. Mind wipes all over the city, helicopters taking children once more, and citizens getting blipped out of existence every other second. They couldn't risk Cecil saying something like that again, so they must punish him and make it so that he can never observe things that he could report again.
(I will take this quick opportunity to explain that my headcanon of Kevin is void of eyes, leaving him with darkness in his eye sockets and minor blood dripping from where the tear ducts used to reside. And that large grin of course.)
Cecil, now void of eyes, is unused to this treatment and finds it hard to live and harder to broadcast. The only way he could report stories is through the headphones he wears in which a StrexCorp employee would read off the story to him from a secure location and he would repeat it back through the community radio. No need for interns, or personal calls, or his own needless stories. Simple.
Except…Kevin could see. He could see Intern Vanessa in Sandstorm, so, what about that?
(Again, I shall announce that my Cecil headcanon does include the third eye and is a big part of this explanation. You may skip over it if the third, ever-seeing eye is not part of your headcanon.)
Management forgot of his third eye. Of course they did. He doesn't flash it off much and makes no note of it to his listeners. For all we know, it could be a figurative third eye in which his senses are so over the top that he can sense as much without literally having a third eye on his forehead. The point is, he'd still be able to see, even after his eyes were removed. He would hide the fact that he could still see very well. Whilst he'd report on the things that StrexCorp was reading into his headphones, he'd slip in little tidbits of things going on in the town that wasn't given to him. At first, StrexCorp may be angered, but they'd realize that if Cecil didn't do these things, then it'd be too suspicious so they allowed him to continue. Of course, what he's really doing is quietly warning his listeners in such a way that only avid listeners would pick up on. For once, he'd be subtle and careful.
Now Carlos. What about Carlos? Does he have an evil double in Desert Bluffs? Yes. For the sake of this explanation I'm using the fan name Diego to refer to DB!Carlos.
If you don't recall, in The Deft Bowman, a member of StrexCorp seemed extremely interested in Carlos. Of course she would be upset that he put an end to their scheme with the oranges, but it seemed to be something else as well. She needed him for something. There aren't very many science-y people in either town, and simply killing Carlos would be far too suspicious for the citizens of Night Vale, especially with Cecil as the overprotective clingy boyfriend that we all love. So what is StrexCorp going to do?
Whenever StrexCorp gets their hands on him, he won't be tortured or 'taken care of'. He will be brainwashed and changed and turned into DIEGO, the man who makes sure Cecil works hard at his job and stays happy despite his eyes being gone. He is going to be controlled just as much as Cecil will be, except, because they know a citizen doesn't have to conform to what is being told through headphones, so they must change him completely and thus he becomes the first of a Desert Bluffs citizen.
But we have nothing to fear yet, listeners. He hasn't been taken yet. Cecil hasn't been punished. That's why they're still acting *relatively* normal. We haven't entered the transitional stage yet. We will know when it's beginning when…
When they have their first fight.
Carlos and Cecil are perfect for each other. We know it. They know it. Night Vale knows it. Everyone knows it. Cecil doesn't get angry with his Perfect Carlos, even if Carlos messes up, and Carlos doesn't throw a fit about if Cecil forgets to do something…but Diego would. Their first fight is the sign, either that Cecil has changed, or Carlos is transitioning into Diego.
Shifting to another note, StrexCorp has been around longer than Night Vale realizes. They've always been there, just watching from the shadows. They can get anything. They can manipulate newspapers. Kill off whole countries. Sink submarines. After all, what's a few lives in exchange for a whole bunch of money? Desert Bluffs could have sent that man to Night Vale to watch over what is going on there. They have a long term plan for him, but we don't know what.
Now for the big question: if Desert Bluffs is Night Vale's future, how is it here in the present?
Answer: they aren't. Take this for instance. Night Vale doesn't know 'when' Dana or John Peters is, right? They can see into the past, but not the future, or vice versa, and can't be noticed by certain time periods. John Peters is known for being in the house that doesn't exist, and yet his persona was used by StrexCorp to sell the oranges. So…what if Desert Bluffs is using that kind of house-that-doesn't-exist technology to see into the past and allow Night Vale to see them as well when in reality…they aren't there? They never were and it's just perception. As Cecil says, nothing is real and everything is a made up figment of another's mind. The best way to ensure that Desert Bluffs is a community that comes to be is to mess with the past. After all, time travel is illegal for a reason, right?
Now I bet you're wondering why, if Cecil and Kevin are indeed the same person, did his name get changed in the first place? What point would there be? How could he even transform into a person like Kevin, overly cheerful and bloody and probably murderous intentions, at all?
Cecil already has a large gap in his memory. He doesn't know why he doesn't like mirrors, he doesn't know what happened to his family, he doesn't even recall having a brother, and he doesn't remember what happened to him when he was fifteen along with most of his childhood. He just doesn't know why. So, what if StrexCorp is behind it? What if they have just always been there, just like how the government was always there or the Sheriff's secret police is always watching? They can take memory and for all we know, they could destroy parts of Cecil's memory so that he doesn't remember what kind of radio host he is supposed be and therefore they could conform him to their radio show standards and therein he would slowly change to become the cheerfully scary Kevin we know today.
Getting all of this written down, I know it may seem like a farfetched idea, but it almost all seems to click and it lands neatly like someone's pattern that was created and laid down since episode one. Joseph Fink and the other creators of the show probably had a goal in mind when they created Night Vale. A general plotline with a goal at the end of the road that would all come in to play at the end. Writers are usually known for their foreshadowing and long planning.
I fear for Night Vale. I fear for Cecil and Carlos, and what may become of them in the future. But I am also…intrigued, and excited for the upcoming episodes. I am also curious about your opinion about my long crazed theory. Thank you for taking the time to read this ridiculous theorem and I hope you may be able to add on, either with your own questions or theories that you have in mind.
