Source
r/TheOA•
irenarose

Things I've noticed watching episode 1 back; Lampshades, Upstairs, Backpacks, Objects

I've tried to only include things I don't think have been mentioned mainly or maybe haven't been addressed fully;

  • Lights switched on inside when it's still light. Specifically horrible old dated lampshades. We see it next to Praire when she's questioned by the FBI and we see another by Steve's Mom's head in the living room.Then in Russia, it's a lampshade with two bulbs in the school, and a red one in the brothel. In public buildings, it's a row of lights. I know lighting is important, but the lights stand out for me. There's the phrase 'follow the lights' which comes up a lot on twitter and instagram, which seems to relate to the rows of lights in corridors and streets, but there's something different about the lampshades.
  • When OA drops her camera it even looks like there's a lampshade on the floor. see here
  • Characters often stand underneath lights in significant moments (e.g. Steve is under a light when he opens the door to see Buck and Miles singing. BBA is under a light when she shouts 'my boys!'.
  • Some acronyms and letters which come up: ASAP, J (Jaye) OS10, CEO, ASHEV, OA. I'm sure there are more. Has anyone done a post on this?
  • Animals come up, often out of context; Turkey, 'bear' with it, dog
  • People are described as stammering a lot in the subtitles. - Admittedly it's an emotional time.
  • Important things happen upstairs. I think this is connected to the imagery of the birds, and of course the ground. Something about choosing to stay grounded, or free/ free will/ escape like the birds? Maybe the predetermined routes don't work off ground? Hence why Nina could be chosen (wasn't supposed to happen) and the 5 could learn the movements.
  • Characters look to the sky a lot. Again a sign of freedom?
  • Birds appear on people's shoulder's a lot.
  • The windows suddenly appear behind BBA and the OA with a mountain scene which looks out of place
  • Natural things behind plastic and glass (food, animals, cellophane around the flowers)
  • Men appearing in twos (ashville men, fbi agents, two men appear when nina awakes and two men open the doors for her)
  • Shapes (Diamonds, circles, stars, semi circles,
  • Things coming in threes (windows, months)
  • Backpacks! Backpacks are so significant. How did I not see this before? There's one mentioned in the bus from audio description, they're zipped up, and I keep seeing this boy with a backpack but that's outside of episode 1
  • Prairie loves the foetal position. That is her default stance.
  • Prarie seems to look for things when she records, rather than deciding. She 'feels' the shot. We see something move in the window, she zooms in. Later she seems something while recording her face, and again pans up to reveal weird blue markings on the wall (someone has mentioned both these things)
  • The word famous
  • Maroon clothing
  • the word Axel (the dog, Axel described by audio description as where prairie stands on the bike)
  • OA wears a lot of fleece (sheep's clothing)
  • the word time comes up a lot, as does right. I wonder how many times the character choose right as opposed to left.

Posted May 30, 2017, 6:12 PM UTC · edited

237
dootsSecond Movement•

Keen observations!

  • Lights; very significant
  • Animals; huge in the show, especially birds, often being eaten
  • Stammering; very noticeable even w/o subs
  • Upstairs; the floor where events occur is usually highlighted
  • Mountains; appear in other scenes featuring BBA's classroom (Ep 3 & Ep 8)
  • Glass; everywhere
  • Shapes; the story is enriched visually through shapes and symbols depending how/where/when they interact with characters and locations
  • Backpacks; everywhere
  • Blue markings; interpreted by others as wallpaper border with a repeated airplane and person image
  • Fetal position; everywhere
  • Maroon; most noticeable on the Crestwood Five in E8 ambulance scene (affectionately referred to here as the Maroon 5)

EDIT: Glanced through your Tumblr...

  • Exit signs; appear in a staggering number of scenes
  • Reincarnation; my personal belief is not that we experience personal reincarnation of self, but reincarnation of human consciousness, repeating over and over through our collective offspring. I am you are they are us, as it were.
  • Empathy; a major theme in The OA, told beautifully
3
irenaroseOP•

Thanks! I've just found the pilot script someone else posted today too. It's interesting having made notes now going through that and seeing what from here seems to pop up in the descriptions like men in two, book bags, colours and clothing.

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dootsSecond Movement•

Im reading through it too. The descriptions, alternate dialogue, and changes from draft to screen say a lot.

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damiana9Second Movement•

Again, wonderful post!! Its really got me thinking about some things!

When OA drops her camera it even looks like there's a lampshade on the floor. see here

Also, the camera is still running throughout the scene with steve. She never turns it off, so it was recording the whole time. We know that Nancy watches her videos..because she admitted it earlier in the episode. I wonder what that all means??

Animals come up, often out of context; Turkey, 'bear' with it, dog

Turkeys: I wonder if are attributed to necks? BBA" You want to talk turkey", BBA-" I stuck my neck out for you". BBA- plays with her neck skin in mirror.

Backpacks! Backpacks are so significant. How did I not see this before? There's one mentioned in the bus from audio description, they're zipped up, and I keep seeing this boy with a backpack but that's outside of episode 1

You know what, on the OA instagram there is a pic of Steve's backpack which is labeled "Pack a Punch". A symbol of travel? Baggage? The weight of things you carry around? Or perhaps, it stands for the person who comes to help carry you on his back. Like French.... he carries his mother, brother(s) his schooling and jobs, his team and takes on the OA and unfinished house meetups.

OA wears a lot of fleece (sheep's clothing)

Totally! I don't know why, but because she also wears that Wolf hoodies, I cannot help but think : Wolf in sheeps clothing".

the word Axel (the dog, Axel described by audio description as where prairie stands on the bike)

Where did that dog go?? What wasnt he around when the Asheville folk came for Steve? So strange!

3
irenaroseOP•

Thanks for your suggestions, You've answered a lot of questions I had. I think you're right about the sheep in wolf's clothing and turkey reference. I also noted the camera keeps playing.

I don't know if you've seen the original episode 1 pilot script someone posted yesterday but there's a bit when OA describes the videos as a 'message in a bottle' flung into the universe or sea or something like that.

A lot of the time on the show's Instagram for example and season 2 trailer, or even khatun's hole we see the universe and possibly multiple dimensions being shown as a black murky ocean of almost electrical, dandy lion seed dots. My understanding of string theory is limited but I know there's an idea or logic that some forces, like perhaps electromagnetism can travel and flip over into another dimension which other forces prevent us from doing so (I've probably described this wrong). Anyway, if something like that is true then perhaps these videos and electrical photographs also follow rules physical matter can't like dimensional travel and OA understands and knows this which is why she wants so much control over these mediums. There seems to be a rule I don't understand however about who watches it first or sees it which I think is why she covers her face from cameras and grimaces when the girl takes her picture. OA's aversion to Nancy watching the video is also telling and seems more than just anger or embarrassment. Or perhaps she's hiding from someone.

I've also begun wondering if satchels, bags and boxes perform a similar role. Someone else on here mentioned the idea that the Amazon Prime box was never in that dimension originally which is exactly the crazy kind of thinking I like. I think they could be tools of the universe or 'Angels'.

Another crazy thought is that the kid with the backpack we keep seeing is one of these agents (have a look at the Twitter gifs and you'll see him pop up a lot)

2
damiana9Second Movement•

You explained the dimensional change well or at least I understand what you're saying! . I'm only mildly familiar with string theory also. I agree with you about the pictures/video! There's definitely something with that. Think about Haps bedroom with Evelyn in ep 8... Why did he already have cameras from multiple angles surrounding his bed? And a thermal camera no less! How often are people in his bed? It's the strangest thing... Perhaps he's actually recording himself at night... Why? What does he know about recording that we dont.? And like you said , What does OA know about it that we don't? Maybe it's a way to appear elsewhere... Like recording is time-stamping as we know it.. it's creating an inverse image (im thinking undeveloped film) and perhaps the negative image or inverse image is created on a different plane of existence at the same time an image is created here. So it will send a message. Not sure if I am explaining that well or not and I'm not sure I'm certain about how that might work in surreality.

I will definitely check out this backpack guy on Twitter. And think some more about this! Great topics!!

1
irenaroseOP•

I really like this idea! I'd thought of mirrors that way but I hadn't considered cameras. What about all reflective surfaces like glasses, and in some respect windows. Could they behave the same way?

I've wondered for a while whether mirrors literally are windows into another dimension in the programme. It's something I used to think about as a kid so I like idea that it's beings realised here.

Mirrors could represent a place where you could be certain of the events taking place in another plane because as we can see the other half is always the exact copy. The two halfs might be living different lives but the 'laws' of reflections will always bring them to the same point. Sort of like fate behaving like a magnet. As you say this could carry through with cameras, so if you knew this information and wanted to reduce any uncertainty of say someone's actions or position (like hap) you could force the outcome of a situation to a degree, at least in the sense that there would be less forking paths. Perhaps other worlds interfere more than we realise and Hap knows this?

I say all of this as if its certain but to be honest I'm still running through ideas.

One more thing though; on the Instagram there're three images of hap, oa and bbas drawing. For ages I couldn't work out what they were supposed to symbolise but underneath the caption is 'most likely to____'. If a reflection or a photo means you can be certain that there's only one outcome for both/many worlds then I suppose 'most likely to' sort of describes your chances. What do you think?

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