A House Divided? Rough Thoughts on Frank, Barnaby and the Buggle
The latest update has presented us with this absolute fucking Creacher™️ and has framed it in a rather sinister light. It comes out right as Julie's horrible feelings reach their peak and seems to taunt us. But what even is this thing?
If we take the Buggle at face value, it's a chimera of a dog and a bug. Its gormless face, big paws and stubby tail evoke Barnaby, yet the rest of its body looks like Frank's beloved, colorful bugs. It's a mixture of the two, a bug-beagle – a Buggle.
But Frank and Barnaby aren't on great terms. The tension between them has been simmering in the background, often played for humor as Barnaby eggs Frank on and tries to make him lose his temper. And it's very funny Muppets-type stuff, two guys getting heated in a laughable way.
But it really is kind of nasty, isn't it? Barnaby outright implied that Frank should leave town during the phone call, and Frank later told Julie that he would have liked to "knock his block off." These two aren't friendly in their jibes at one another. Barnaby does not respect Frank at all and thinks he's fun to toy with, and Frank considers Barnaby a loutish bully who gets away with far too much. Barnaby constantly takes things too far, and Frank has made several borderline bigoted remarks about dogs as a whole. These guys really do hate each other and only keep things in check for the sake of their neighbors.
These two are also both sympathetic people. Barnaby, despite being a bully, is gentle to Wally and is a calming presence in his life, almost a therapy dog of sorts. Frank is dutiful in keeping up with the welfare of his neighbors and is shown to have been an amazing influence in Julie's life in particular, grounding her through an uncertain time when she was new in town. Neither of these people are "bad," despite bringing out the bad in each other.
So what does the Buggle signify? Maybe it's too simplistic an answer, but I think it's hinting at a culmination of the conflict between Frank and Barnaby. That tension keeps building, and I feel like it's only a matter of time before Frank loses his cool and does something he can't take back.
As a messy final note: I notice there's a lot of talk about burial imagery with Frank, and that one Game Theory video posits Wally will be burying him or something. I'm not sure about that, though. I think there's a lot more active animosity between Frank and Barnaby, and I think, if someone's to be buried, one or both members of this conflict will be involved.
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