analysis/theory abt three, tpot spoilers underbelow....!
no, three is not randomly evil.
i havent actually seen anyone say that yet, but i can sense it a mile away, i can smell it, i can TELL people are going to accuse three of being secretly evil or out of character, of having been rooting against her friends the whole time. so i would like to squash those thoughts before they end up getting too big...hopefully. this post is, more than anything, going to delve into WHY i think she attacked six.
the first thing id like to point out is the fact that three Seems to prefer low stimulation post recovery-when shes first placed in the EXIT, we see her visibly relax, going from tense to curious.
we see her body language open up, and we can see that her blanket is lifted away from her eyes. seeing as the fourest is very dark and quiet, i think we can pretty safely gather that three doesnt very well handle bright lights and loud noises. she also seems rather jumpy, with a distaste for interaction..
..and we see six first introduce herself to three, after 16 years of not seeing her, by being loud and sudden in her approach.
threes inital response is NOT aggression, but rather very very clear fear.
NOTE I WILL BE GETTING BACK TO THE FOUR THING LATER.
three isnt acting out of aggression here, she isnt trying to attack six, shes asking questions, shes confused, shes scared. this has been a safe and relatively undisturbed space for her for 16 years, so to have someone she hasnt seen in almost 2 decades suddenly rush her...is very concerning! six is entering HER space HER home and cornering her, and three is Backing Away.
six doesnt bother answering anything beyond the first question, and asks if three is "any better"-the immediate implication of, after 16 years, she is checking in exclusively to see if three is "better", if shes "fixed." this is absolutely not what six was intending to imply but like dear god i can see how three may have gotten to that train of thought, especially considering we can very much tell she is actively having a paranoia episode. Three closes herself off to six in the most obvious way possible, once again demanding to know why theyre here-
-to which six gives maybe the worst answer humanly possible, bombarding three with the fact that her abuser is out and about and leaving her own stance on one painfully ambiguous in one fell swoop. we as the audience know six means well, but so far, to three, the reunion has been: six loudly barging into threes home and cornering her, ignoring her requests to be left alone, telling her to calm down, and following that up by randomly namedropping the person who ruined her life.
six then starts escalating, losing patience and Rolling Her Eyes at three, and three tenses, putting her guard up as much as possible, and we now know she is FULLY under the impression six is working alongside one.
needle interjects (integerjects?) that six is here "to help", and we can see three panic as she does the math in her head and visibly has a flashback. the information she has is six's friends have met with One, that six is hoping to see three "better", that six is here "to help." all of this, in threes mind,
cements the idea that Six is working alongside One, that shes trying to "help" three by making her "better", "fixing" her. three makes it VERY VERY VERY CLEAR SHE WANTS TO BE LEFT ALONE,
and six responds, clearly lashing out at the rejection, by instead standing her ground and yelling at three, tensing her own body language, and pretty clearly..projecting onto three? ("were stuck here TOO" despite having 0 indication that three is "stuck" here..despite the fact that three could have also just...went through the doors any time she wanted. this is Her Home.)
she then makes the fumble of the century and says this
echoing threes own words back to her, weaponizing the worst mistake three had ever made, intentionally or not. i do not at all think its intentional, to be clear, i think that six is, again, lashing out at the fact shes being rejected, but the effect is the same-shes insulting three by repeating back the same words that caused the worst moment of her life. notably it is in fact also all about her because six spent multiple months tracking her down in her own home and also litearlly all of this is happening because of what happened between her and one but six isnt great with vulnerability shes coping.
three somehow makes it MORE clear that she wants to be left alone, pushing six out the door, to which six, likely assuming three is planning on further attacking, retaliates and attacks back. but i think six severely misunderstood, and three was, in no way, planning on further attacking prior to this point. three just sort of floats there for a bit before six attacks, and it very much reads to me more as warning and intimidation than a threat she is 100% planning on following up on.
three THEN attacks, as she has now has even MORE reason to believe six&co are out to get her, and she chases them down-but it doesnt seem like shes out for blood for the sake of blood so much as wanting them GONE. understandable! fuck em up three!
she blasts at six &co and ends up hitting 15 COMPLETELY unintentionally-in fact, i dont even think she knows she was ever there.
she doesnt try hunting them down, instead quietly asking herself if she succeeded in defending herself...and then just...goes back home.
ive been struggling to focus during htis but basically im saying three isnt fucking evil so much as shes acting in what she believes is self defense. shes adamently refusing to be a damsel in distress and is choosing to have autonomy and to defend herself against what she percieves as danger and i think more than anything she is dealing with being overwhelmed by so much sudden noise and so many people who are like sending 15 nuclear bombs of ptsd triggers all at once ok idk how to finish this yay