On Steven and Lapis

WARNING: The following contains spoilers to Seasons 1 & 2 of Steven Universe, as well as speculation on future episodes.

One of the things that makes Steven Universe such a fantastic show, and by far the quality which I believe makes it so accessible to older viewers as well as younger ones, is the tremendous attention that Rebecca Sugar and her creative team pay to detail. There is often as much told through hidden clues and undercurrents as as there is through the overt narrative.

It's a story with multiple layers. Some of these will only be apparent to older viewers, such as the sexual undercurrents between various characters (Greg and Amethyst, Pearl and Rose Quartz, etc.), or the fact that Sour Cream may or may not have been conceived in the back of Greg's van. Others reveal themselves only upon multiple viewings, like the following line from Steven in The Return that pretty much predicted Peridot's arc in the second season:

No detail in a show like Steven Universe should ever be written off as inconsequential, because you never know what might be important later, and often times what's happening below the surface is as important as what takes center stage. That's what makes the show great. In a word:

Now a quick clarification before we begin, yes this what you might call a fan theory about the relationship between two characters, and yes part of it is going to be speculation on what might be romantic undertones therein. That being said, I'm not trying to "ship" these two characters per se. Not that I have a problem with shipping in general, but let's be honest, Steven is a 14 year old with the body of a 9 year old, and Lapis is an alien being that's thousands of years old. Any idea of something sexual between the two of them now is entirely creepy. This post isn't going to be about how great a couple I think they will make one day either, or anything subjective like personal chemistry. This is specifically about what I believe are contextual clues throughout the narrative that the writers may be planting as breadcrumbs to something of significance happening between the two eventually.

While Steven Universe does play around a lot with sexuality, I'm going to be keeping this as PG as humanly possible. That being said, we are going to be discussing sexual undercurrents as used as a plot device, so young'uns, ye be warned.

Beach Summer Fun Buddies

Lapis's introduction in the episodes Mirror Gem and Ocean gem is a pivotal moment in the series. It represents a turning point, both for the viewers and for Steven himself as we find out that there are other humanoid gems out there besides the Crystal Gems, and that not all of them are nice. This shift is symbolized at the end of the previous episode, An Indirect Kiss, when Connie removes the no longer needed pink lenses from her glasses and goes about wearing the empty frames (no longer seeing the world through rose-colored glasses).

One of the first things that Steven does after receiving the mirror (which contained Lapis's gem) from Pearl, is to go show it to Lars and Sadie. As they are all talking, Lars and Sadie each go on about their desire to find a romantic interest for the summer (Lars to be sleazy and Sadie to make Lars jealous). With his typical obliviousness to the sexual aspects of the conversation, Steven refers to it as a "Beach Summer Fun Buddy" (a play on the phrase "summer love" perhaps?) and leaves the two to argue, speculating that perhaps the mirror would guide him to his own BSFB.

It's shortly after this that Lapis (through the mirror) starts talking to Steven, and he refers to her (it) as his Beach Summer Fun Buddy. When the Gems find out that the mirror is talking to Steven and try to take it away from him, Steven (accidentally) slaps Garnet in the face and yells "No! It wants to be with me!" Before running out of the house and out onto the beach with the mirror.

This scene is significant for a number of reasons:

• Steven refers to the mirror as his Beach Summer Fun Buddy, a phrase that had previously (albeit unknowingly) been coined based on a reference to Lars's sexual aspirations.
• This is the first time we really see Steven rebel against the Gems (his parental figures).
• The phrasing "it wants to be with me" has romantic connotations, especially when taken with the context of adolescent love and rebellion.

Once Steven is out on the beach we see him choose his Beach Summer Fun Buddy over the Gems when he decides to free Lapis rather than surrendering the mirror to be bubbled. Again this parallels the puppy love trope where teenagers will choose a new infatuation over their parents or family. A theme which is continued when Lapis tries to take Steven "home" with her into the ocean, saying "They won't let us leave together" (a play on the phrase "They won't let us be together"). The first of the two Lapis episodes ends, in the typical style of teenage love stories, with Steven being grounded for his actions.

Healing Lapis and Sexual Undertones

Now by far this is the section where I most expect to be called a pervert. I'll just begin by reiterating what I said earlier, that subtext is a tremendous part of the storytelling in Steven Universe. Oftentimes this takes the form of sexual innuendo, like Garnet's half of the fusion dance that forms Sugilite, or Amethyst's reference to having "seen Greg's junk" in the episode Maximum Capacity. Children's show or not, sexuality his big part of the storytelling here, and it's used to convey a number of messages, from LGBT acceptance to positive body image. And sometimes, it's used to convey something about two characters without overtly stating it, as I believe is the case when Steven heals Lapis in the following scene:

Watching this scene, there are a number of things that I'd like to focus on. First off, I found it to be somewhat suggestive that we never actually see Steven's hand touch her gem. Not that I'm suggesting that Steven did anything other than apply his healing spit to her cracked gem, but the camera work is reminiscent of the way that sexual (or violent) scenes were often depicted in the cartoon shows of the 90s and early 2000s (which Rebecca Sugar came up on and often plays Tarantino-esque homages to). We see Steven move his hand, and then the camera cuts to Lapis's reaction. Now compare that to this scene from Justice League. It was a common way of getting around censorship rules to convey something that only older audiences were ready for back in the day.

The general awkwardness of the scene is also reminiscent of the way that young, first time lovers interact. When Steven offers to heal her, Lapis is unsure of what she's supposed to do. She turns around to expose her gem for Steven, and in doing so also exposes the knot that holds her dress together. When she does this Steven acts abashed and rubs the back of his head uncomfortably. Their mannerisms could just as easily be applied to two teenagers in a hayloft, or in the back of an Oldsmobile parked above some starlit overlook. The fact that they're literally sitting above the entire world with the stars all around them also makes the scene seem pretty romantic.

Continuing along with the "young lovers" analogy, Steven's healing of Lapis is, like many a first time experience with physical intimacy, overly brief. Once it's finished (and not to be too gross, but the animation of her wings emerging is also pretty suggestive) the scene is presented in such a way as to be deliberately uncomfortable. Steven makes a joke that falls flat, and his eyes shift away from her face as if he's uncomfortable looking her in the eye. Lapis then flies off, departing Steven with nothing more than a brief "okay... bye." Such an abrupt departure seems strange, given the lengths that Lapis is willing to go to later to warn and protect Steven from Peridot and Jasper. I believe that it's meant to be uncomfortable, as two people can often be after a first intimate encounter, especially if one of them is inexperienced.

Do it for Him, That is to Say...

Moving on to something a little less PG-13, there are a number of parallels drawn throughout Season 2 and the latter parts of Season 1 that seem to foreshadow something deeper than friendship transpiring between Steven and Lapis. Most of these center around Steven's own parents.

The romance between Greg Universe and Rose Quartz set the stage for the majority of the series. Literally, their union produced the show's titular character. As such, a number of important plot points are linked to Rose Quartz, and to her relationship with Greg. Over the course of the show we're given the details of how they came together in bits and pieces. The above song, from the episode We Need to Talk, shows us a number of things. This was the episode where it was established that Greg and Rose first fall in love, emotionally "fusing" as Garnet described it. We also see the resentment that was brewing between Peal and Greg over the relationship, but the importance of this scene for our present purpose is in the repeated phrase "what can I do for you."

This is very similar phrasing to a song that Peal sings later when she's teaching Connie how to fight in the episode Sword to Sword.

Pearl's infatuation and loyalty to Rose Quartz has been well established throughout the series, and towards the end of this episode she breaks down and screams at Steven, accidentally calling him by his mother's name:

Later, in the episode Chille Tid, Lapis shouts the same thing at Steven while he pleads with her to tell him where she is so that the Gems can free her from Malachite:

Lapis's dedication to Steven is pretty clear throughout the series. We see here that she's even willing to trap herself at the bottom of the ocean with Jasper to protect him, despite having spent (presumably) thousands of years trapped inside of a mirror, and then once again spending time locked in a cell aboard Peridot's ship after her return to Homeworld. The fact that she uses the same phrasing as Pearl may be significant, as Pearl clearly harbors a more intimate infatuation with Rose Quartz than merely that of her "knight" and confidant.

This scene is actually only one of a number of clues in that episode that I believe are significant. The first time that Lapis shows up it's in one of Steven's dreams where she takes the place of Connie. Steven, in the dream, is expecting Connie to come pick him up for "the prom." When there's a knock on the door, presumably from Connie, Steven opens it to find Lapis standing there instead. This isn't the first time that a parallel is drawn between the way that Steven sees Lapis and Connie throughout the series, but more on that later.

The second time that Steven has a dream about Lapis, he wakes to see Pearl projecting images from her own dream out of her gem. In the dream Pearl tells Rose how wonderful it is just the two of them, without Greg around to get between them. The central image (left) from the dream is also a reference to one of the most iconic scenes from the movie Titanic, which tells the story of two people from different social castes that meet and fall in love, only for one of them to slip beneath the ocean and drown (at the time that this scene happens, Lapis is trapped beneath the ocean in Malachite). At the end of the movie, the female lead stands on the edge of a ship and drops a large blue gem called "The Heart of the Ocean" over the edge to slip beneath the waves.

What's important to remember when examining parallels between Pearl and Lapis, is that Steven and Rose have a more complex relation to one another than a normal mother and son. Steven has Rose's gem in his belly, the same place where she had it before she gave up her physical form. Pearl refers to a gem's physical form as an illusion. Gems are, to quote Yoda, ethereal beings. Garnet refers to them as being made of light, not flesh. The gem in Steven's stomach isn't just Rose's gem, it is Rose. And since he is half gem as well, that means that at least half of him is Rose as well. We see this referred to by Rose and Jasper, and eventually Steven tells the "cool kids" that he might be his own mother.

This is important to keep in mind when we go on to discuss what the future might hold for Steven and Lapis, and how his own journey mirrors that of his mother's.

Greg and Connie

Before we move on to the parallels between Steven and Rose, however, I want to take a moment to look at Lapis through the two humans in Steven's life, because the contrast between gem and human mentalities is an important part of the series.

In the episode Ocean Gem, Greg sees the pillar that Lapis makes of the ocean and says that it gave him an idea for an album cover. We eventually see the cover in the episode The Message, where he writes a song about her called "Water Witch." Steven takes issue with Greg's interpretation, saying that Lapis was only misunderstood. This continues the theme of all Steven's parental figures disliking Lapis while Steven defends her. Again, this hearkens back to the trope of adolescent love and the way that it often comes into conflict with the authority figures of a teenager's life. 

"I don't want you around that blue girl anymore, she's no good."

"Daaad, you just don't understand her!"

You get the idea.

In response to Greg's misinterpretation of Lapis, Steven writes his own song about her and about their friendship together:

Again, I think that this song is suggestive of something more than just friendship, in particular the final line where Steven sings that she "came around to me." It's also worth noting that one of the first things that Greg does after meeting Rose Quartz is to write a song about her.

Things start to get interesting as well when you examine the scenes where Lapis and Connie are both in Steven's mind at the same time. Oh, and before we move on, let's make it clear that Connie is Steven's girlfriend. They refer to each other as friends, but that's more U.S. sensibilities regarding children's shows than anything else. It's the same way that Rose Quartz says she wants to "play" with Greg, when it's pretty clear that they intend on doing a lot more than that. Steven is 14 years old and Connie is almost 13, kids date at that age and that's what they're doing.

The first thing that Connie says when she and Steven ride up to Lapis's ocean pillar together is "That's some magical destiny stuff right there." Steven's mysterious destiny is something that's constantly brought up by the Crystal Gems, though often without elaboration. During the ensuing battle, Steven and Connie try to fight Steven's water clone together, which almost kills them both. I've always found this fairly shocking, considering what Lapis is willing to do to protect him later, but this is also before Steven heals her.

When Lapis later sacrifices herself to protect Steven, fusing with Jasper and then using her powers to drag them both to the bottom of the ocean, Steven shortly thereafter gets a phone call from Connie. Connie is hysterical on the other end after getting a message from Steven that they all might die, and she's shouting at him to find out what's going on, but Steven ignores her and only looks sadly down at the waves lapping at his feet. It's a small scene, easily dismissed, but in show that pays as much attention to detail as Steven Universe, no detail should be overlooked. It's later in this episode that Steven tries to break up with Connie, but ultimately can't go through with it.

Finally, there was the previously discussed scene in Chille Tid, where Steven is waiting for Connie to come get him for the prom, only to open the door and find Lapis waiting for him instead. Throughout the scene Steven dreaming about what his life would be like if his family were human rather than aliens. Each of the crystal gems shows up in a human form, and Steven is on his way to the school prom (he has never actually attended school in real life). It's when the door opens and he sees Lapis that the normalcy of the dream is shattered, and Steven's alien life is brought center stage again. I think that this is tremendously important when we examine the direction that Steven's life is taking him. But before we look into Steven's future, we must first examine his past...

Rose Quartz

I'm of the firm belief that Rose is the key to understanding Steven's journey. In many ways his journey parallels hers, which makes sense because in a way he is her. Consider the extended opening that was aired at SDCC in advance of the Season 2 premiere:

Look at the change that we see Steven going through over the course of the video. He and the Gems are running along the beach, with Steven lagging behind. While this is happening we see a montage of Steven unlocking his gem powers, fusing with Connie, calling out Rose's shield, etc. and then he pulls ahead of the others. And then when each of the Crystal Gems sings about their reasons for fighting, Steven's is to grow into his mother's shoes. Observe, also, how some of the same scenes differ here from the first opening, Steven now smoothly warping with the other Gems instead of tumbling, him smiling when they ruffle his hair instead of scowling.

Rebecca Sugar has described Steven Universe as a coming of age story. The show is about Steven growing up and coming into his destiny, and thus far his growth has marked, not by the typical milestones of adolescence, but by him coming into his powers as a gem and learning to control these alien abilities. The duality of Steven's nature as part gem part human is one of the primary sources of conflict and growth throughout the series. Nobody, not even the Crystal Gems, knows what Steven can do, how he will grow, or what he will ultimately be capable of. As such, his character growth moves in tandem with him developing the gem side of his being.

Now contrast this with the journey of Rose Quartz, whose arc, as we understand it thus far, is about a gem giving up her alien nature and embracing humanity. When Rose gives up her physical form to become half of Steven, she in turn becomes human (or part human) herself. Consider what we know about Rose and the way that she viewed humanity, and you'll see that Steven's most prominent attributes are likely those that his mother saw in the human race as a whole. He's kind, and open minded, and he wants to be friends with everybody, though he's also ignorant of the universe around him, and he's disproportionately childlike for his age.

Steven's journey is the reverse parallel of Rose's. While Rose gave up her life as a gem to create human life, embracing humanity over her own alien existence, Steven is progressing further from his human side with every milestone that he reaches. Or, when viewing the two as a single entity, one could say that Steven's story is part of a larger arc, that of the Rose Quartz Gem and how it's journey is now coming full circle.

So What Does This Mean? (Beware Sailor, Here be Conjecture)

Thus far Lapis Lazuli has played a comparatively small part in the series, but has a tremendous fan following nonetheless. I refuse to believe that this is just Boba Fett syndrome. To believe that is to do Rebecca Sugar and the rest of the brilliant creative team that brings Steven Universe to life a great disservice. Look at the detail that has thus far gone into her character, the fact that her animation flows, almost like water when she walks. And not only is she the most powerful single gem that we've seen on Earth thus far, but she also has a knack for showing up at many of the more significant events in the series. If you look closely, she was even there when Ruby and Sapphire fused for the first time. Lapis's character is meant for something important, some role of significance in the series, and that role is sure as hell not fusion and chill at the bottom of the ocean.

And while we're on that topic, what was the point of her fusing with Jasper at all? Why not just trap Jasper in the ocean by herself? Or why not let Garnet poof and bubble her, as she seemed to have no problem dealing with Jasper back on the ship? How does creating an absurdly powerful and potentially hostile fusion do anything to keep Steven safe? The only conceivable reason that I can see in Lapis fusing with Jasper is to keep her character in limbo until the show is ready to bring her back. But for what purpose?

For one, looking back on the "Let me do this for you" parallel, I could see Lapis playing the Pearl to Steven's Rose. She's already shown a tremendous deal of dedication to Steven. She was willing to sacrifice herself to keep him safe, and even betray her Homeworld in the end. Like Rose Quartz, if Steven's destiny is to love a human (Connie), then Lapis may play the part of his confidant as Pearl did to Rose. Though, if you think that there was nothing romantic between Rose and Pearl, you haven't been paying attention...

However, I don't think that this will be the case necessarily. While there is a certain degree of poetry in Lapis being Steven's "knight," I don't think that Connie will wind up playing the role of Greg. Frankly I would be kind of disappointed if a show like Steven Universe, which seems to pride itself on defying conventions, has its protagonist ultimately wind up with his very first love interest. This was disappointing when it happened with Ross and Rachel as far back as Friends, and it's been an annoying and predictable cliche ever since. Greg and Rose admitted to having other lovers before they met each other, and I somehow doubt that Steven's first love will be his last love.

And even more than this, I think that it would fly in the face of the path that all of Steven's character development has taken him down thus far. Steven is becoming more gem-like as the series goes on, embracing his alien side. So what does this mean for Lapis and Connie?

Let's go back for a moment to the scenes where Lapis and Connie share space in Steven's mindscape, and think about what each might represent in the context of his journey. If Connie represents a sort of grounding force for Steven, a tether to his human half, as I believe she does, then it stands to reason that Lapis might represent the antithesis of this. In other words, I believe that Lapis represents Steven's gem side, drawing him progressively further away from his human half.

The first time that Steven meets Lapis, it's immediately after he heals Connie's vision, both unlocking a new gem ability, and removing the "rose colored lenses" from Connie's eyes. When the two of them are alone together, Lapis tells Steven that his family doesn't care about the gem species, and that she never believed in the Earth. The next time that Steven and Lapis come face to face after that, he also comes into contact with Peridot and Jasper, the the first two "bad" gems that we meet in the series. Again, we see Steven moving further away from his human half, as he tries to break things off with Connie when dealing with the fallout from this incident.

My own personal theory (and this is pure speculation on my part), is that the romantic undertones between Steven and Lapis may become more apparent as he comes to further embrace his alien nature, unlocking more of his latent gem abilities. Steven is 14 years old currently, and Cartoon Network already renewed the show through three more seasons. The issue of him being a teenager trapped inside of a 9 year old's body has already been addressed (again, through romantic connotations, this time with Connie). The more the show progresses, the more he will mature mentally, and I believe that this will eventually manifest through his physical form. I would be surprised if the "coming of age story" of Steven Universe completes its run without Steven ever physically growing up.

I think that Lapis represents Steven's alien half, the part of himself that he's been growing into since he came to live with the Crystal Gems. In the same way that he moved away from his human father to embrace his alien family, I think that so too will he and Connie eventually drift apart, and as this happens, Lapis will loom larger in his life as a presence. Do I think that the two of them will eventually be "together" in that way? I don't know. As I said from the beginning, I'm not here to "ship" anybody. But I think that the future does hold something in store for Steven Universe and Lapis Lazuli. Whether this is romance, fusion, friendship, or something else remains to be seen. For the time being, we'll just have to keep watching.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Fan Theory: Dennis Killed Brian LeFevre

*Be Advised* The following post contains some graphic material, including references to sexual violence and murder.

For more than ten years now, FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has pushed the boundaries of comedy, network sensibilities, and good taste in general. When Sunny first came on the air, the network billed it as "Seinfeld on crack," taking the four utterly repugnant main characters and their rampant drug use, violence, and general debauchery and putting it center stage. And of all the maniacs that have stood behind the bar in Paddy's Pub, none are quite so frightening as the self-titled Golden God himself, Dennis Reynolds.

Longtime fans of the show are by now all too familiar with Dennis's constant brushes with sexual depravity, and his occasional forays into outright psychopathic behavior. For years this was simply one of those thematic undertones peppered throughout each season like breadcrumbs, similar to Mac's repressed homosexuality and the sexual tension between Charlie and Dee. Fans have often speculated on just how far Dennis may have taken this off screen, and upon a recent re-watch of the series I believe I've discovered the first actual murder that he committed. The victim? Brian LeFevre.

Before examining this theory, however, lets briefly go over Dennis's history and the lead up to why I believe that he killed Mr. LeFevre.

The Implication:

This charming little scene actually tells us quite a bit about Dennis's character, and it does so on a couple of different levels. First and most obvious is what we see on the surface. Dennis exhibits some disturbing behavior here, revealing a plan to get women alone in the middle of the ocean and making them afraid for their own safety for the express purpose of pressuring them into sex. This isn't the only time that Dennis would use fear to get women into his bed either. In the season 10 episode The Gang Group Dates Dennis blames his low rating on a dating website on the women feeling "too safe." Later in that same episodes he flies into a paranoid rage in a crowded restaurant and starts pointing at women and screaming "I'll rate you, I'll rate you!" He does this in such a way that the word "rate" sounds strikingly similar to the word "rape." When explaining the first "N" in the D.E.N.N.I.S. system, he's shown calling a woman up and threatening her life with a voice disguiser, so that he can get into her apartment under the guise of protecting her.

What I find to be of even greater significance here, however, is his word choice in the above video. "The implication," in addition to being a strategy that he employs to get women, also perfectly describes the way that hints are dropped about Dennis's character over the course of the series. These are at first subtle in early seasons, such as the season six episode The Gang Gets Lost in the Woods, when Charlie compares Dennis's methodical nature to that of a serial killer, which Dennis takes as a compliment, or the season three episode Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender (the title of which speaks for itself). However as the show progresses we are more and more directly shown that Dennis may be capable of real violence, culminating in the season 10 episode Psycho Pete Returns, where Dennis is diagnosed by a psychiatric doctor as (according to Dee) an "actual psychopath."

Part of the reason for this is likely chalked up to the show's general descent into chaos, airing material that pushes the envelope a bit more with each season. However, it also fits in with Dennis's character to slowly and methodically work his way up to something. We see this in the season seven episode Thundergun Epxress, where Mac criticizes how long it takes Dennis to sleep with women (we also see this on one of his sex tapes in the season eight episode Charlie Rules the World), and in the season ten episode Ass Kicker's United: Mac and Charlie Join a Cult, where he describes manipulation as a process that takes years of patience. It makes sense then, that Dennis's progression from fantasy to actual murder would be a slow process that happens over the course of several years. Take, for example, the following clip which contains two scenes from seasons seven and eight respectively, and see how he slowly progresses from fantasy to reality.

Dennis and Skin:

As far back as season three, Dennis has shown himself to have a disturbing infatuation with skin, both human and otherwise. The most disturbing example of this is in the video below, from the season ten episode Psycho Pete Returns, where he threatens to skin Dee and turn her into a lampshade. In the season eleven episode Frank Falls Out the Window, Dee confronts Dennis on his dream of being a veterinarian, saying that she thinks he only wants to become a vet so that he can "keep the skins." The conversation quickly devolves into a screaming match when she follows this up by telling him that he's going bald, but not before Dennis admits that he is indeed very fascinated by skins.

One of the earliest references to Dennis's obsession with skin, which I think a lot of people miss, is in the season three episode The Aluminum Monster vs Fatty Magoo. In a brief scene towards the end of the episode, a number of parallels are drawn between Dennis and Buffalo Bill, a serial killer from the movie Silence of the Lambs that wears the skins of his victims.

• Both men are naked and applying lipstick in front of a mirror.
• Both men are about to dress up as women.
• Both men are listening to a song from the 80s about love.
• Both men are softly whispering affirmations of self-confidence about how sexually attractive they are.

Additionally, Buffalo Bill, according to Hannibal Lecter, wants to wear the skin of his victims to become another person. This, along with Dennis's infatuation with human skin, will be very important in Dennis's possible murder of Mr. LeFevre. But before we get to the reasoning behind Dennis's killing fantasies, let's go back to where they may have started...

Gary the Serial Killer:

Dennis starts out in the beginning of the series as an overly vain womanizer with a frat boy's mentality toward sex. It's only in mid and latter seasons that we are given hints that he may in fact be dangerous. When wondering about the reasons for this, I found myself thinking of a story I heard about a thirteenth century serial killer named Gilles de Rais. De Rais was a French nobleman and the right hand man to Joan of Arc, and by all account a virtuous individual (at least with regards to the way that the gentry viewed virtue in the middle ages). He became one of history's most notorious monsters quite by accident, after a group of con artists masquerading as alchemists convinced him to murder a child while experimenting with necromancy. De Rais discovered from this that he enjoyed killing, and went on to become one of histories earliest recorded serial murderers. If Dennis is the Gilles de Rais of our scenario, then his alchemist would be Dee's former neighbor, Gary.

We first meet Gary in the season three episode, Mac is a Serial Killer, where the Gang suspects Mac of a series of murders that we later find out were committed by Gary when the Gang discovers "about fifteen severed heads" in his freezer. Though Gary is only around for the one episode, after which he is most likely either in prison or dead after Frank attacks him with the chainsaw, I think that the experience had a very profound effect on Dennis in a number of ways.

For one, during the episode itself Dennis and Dee try to "get inside the mind" of the serial killer in order to find out who it is and clear Mac's name. They manage to do this by purchasing (stealing) murder weapons, dressing up as a painter and psycho clown, and going out to stalk a victim. In addition to coming up with a surprisingly feasible backstory and methodology for his killer, Dennis becomes extremely excited about the idea of strangling and dismembering the Waitress. He then gets overtly disappointed when Dee says that they can't really kill her.

We see the episode with Gary referenced most recently in the season eleven episode, Chardee Macdennis 2: Electric Boogaloo, where Dennis sculpts a woman's head in a freezer when prompted to mold something that represents "love." His excuse is that "it represents the preservation of love for ever and ever" (this is important for the section regarding Dennis's psychotic break).

Some have speculated, based on this last fact, that Dennis may have been the real serial killer all along, and that he framed Gary. Personally I don't think this is likely. The whole misunderstanding with Mac and Gary happened because Dennis pointed out that Mac came home late the previous night, causing Frank to suspect that Mac was the killer based on him being out while the most recent murder was taking place. This means that Dennis was home while the murder was happening because he knew that Mac wasn't. I also find it hard to believe that Dennis could have been so easily dispatched by the Waitress with a can of pepper spray if he'd already killed up to fifteen women.

More likely, I think, is the idea that Dennis was inspired by Gary. Almost all serial killers start out fantasizing, and when that doesn't do it anymore, they graduate to the real thing. I think Dennis got such a high off the stalk and planning that he and Dee did to fake-kill the Waitress that he kept running with it, crafting more and more elaborate fantasies, such as storing zip ties and plastic wrap in his car, and describing to Mac what they could potentially do with women trapped out on the open ocean. He did this for five seasons until the opportunity arose for him to kill his first real victim: Brian LeFevre.

Brian LeFevre:

In the season eight episode, Frank's Back in Business, the Gang finds the wallet of a man named Brian LeFevre. After boosting the cash, credit cards, and baseball tickets found inside, Dennis, Mac, and Dee soon find themselves in a luxury box with a pair of business executives that are in town to court Brian LeFevre. Dennis takes this as an opportunity to become Brian LeFevre, posing as him for the rest of the week. Dennis also invited Mac and Dee to "get off" with him by taking part in the charade. Some, as it turns out, were willing to take this farther than others...

Dennis describes the experience of "getting off" as the thrill of becoming another person by "getting inside of their skin." The wording of this, "getting inside their skin," recalls to mind Dennis's previously mentioned fetish. Considering this, when we find out at the end that the real Brian LeFevre was murdered right outside Paddy's Pub, it isn't that much of a stretch to suspect that Dennis may have had something to do with it. With this in mind, consider Dennis's reaction to hearing Charlie and Mac recap LeFevre's death.

As Charlie and Mac are describing the circumstances of the real LeFevre's death, Dennis becomes progressively more and more aroused, finally "climaxing" when they show his severed finger (which Charlie cut off in the morgue). This is very similar to the way in which real serial killers gratify themselves when reliving their crimes (also the reason that many of them take trophies, such as the severed finger). Furthermore, his choice of Dee as a companion reflects what may have been his original fantasy, when the two of them stalked the waitress in Mac is a Serial Killer.

Now all of this is plausible, but still probably seems like a stretch. However, the show does drop one MASSIVE clue as to Dennis being the real murderer. When describing how the police believe that the murder went down, Charlie says that the real Brian LeFevre was stabbed to death by "a crackhead." Now you may hear this and assume that there's no real mystery to LeFevre's death and that it was a simple mugging. But let's not forget, Dennis is a crackhead. He became addicted to crack all the way back in the season two episode, Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare, and he's had multiple relapses in Frank's Pretty Woman and Frank Falls Out the Window. While I don't necessarily think that Charlie knows or suspects that Dennis killed LeFevre, I do believe that the show is dropping a hint that points in Dennis's direction.

Dennis's Psychotic Break:

Usually when a serial killer first begins killing, or resumes killing after a period of inactivity, something happens that sets them off; a death in the family, getting fired, getting divorced, something of that nature. In this situation, the event that sets Dennis off is as traumatizing as any of those.

In the episode Charlie's Mom Has Cancer, which takes place immediately before the one with LeFevre's demise, Dennis is stuck in a sort of melancholy slump. He admits to Mac that he's distressed over his inability to "feel things" emotionally. Over the course of the episode he tries a number of remedies, including attending Mac's church and seeing a holistic healer named Doctor Jynx. Unfortunately none of this works, and Dennis resigns himself to feeling nothing, admitting that the church is running a scam and that Doctor Jynx is a "sorcerer" with the name of a monkey. At the end of the episode, however, in what can only be described as a horrific twist of irony, Dennis does manage to unearth his feelings. This happens when Frank tricks him into digging up his dead mother as a means of getting revenge against Dee for insulting him and stealing his money.

When the casket lid opens and Barbara's corpse is revealed, Dennis bursts into tears and starts hysterically sobbing, clutching Dee and screaming "I feel too much!" and "my mommy's a skeleton!"

This would explain Dennis's desire to slip into someone else's skin, as the flood of negative emotions that overwhelmed him upon seeing his mother's dead body made it too painful to be "Dennis Reynolds." The sight of Barbara's body without skin probably also triggered his obsession with human flesh, which ties into his psychotic impulses. This likely brought on some self-loathing, given that his mother is one of the few people that Dennis could be said to love, further contributing to his urge to become someone else. So when he saw LeFevre stumbling around behind Paddy's looking for his wallet, it was too great an opportunity to miss.

Aftermath:

In the episode immediately after the one featuring Brian LeFevre, Charlie Rules the World, we see some interesting behavior from Dennis. Throughout the episode he expresses frustrations with the Gang's lack of drive to go out and "live life." He wants to experience things on a more visceral level while the others are burying themselves in social media and online video games. He comes off as manic and overly cheerful, in a somewhat aggressive way. He wants to go out dancing, as if celebrating something, and winds up doing shots until he projectile vomits at the table. Later in the episode he spends some time alone in an isolation tank and comes to the conclusion that he's a god, and the episode ends with him deleting everyone else's game characters because they "irritated him."

Though not entirely new behavior on Dennis's part, he does seem to take his divinity to a more literal level in this episode, whereas in the past he referred to himself as a "golden god" in more of a metaphorical sense. When viewed in the context of our present theory, that he in fact committed his first murder in the previous episode, Dennis's progressing god complex can be viewed as more than simple narcissism, but as the self-aggrandizing mentality of a budding serial killer. 

Conclusions and Summation of Evidence:

For those without the time to waste reading this whole article, I'll sum things up here. Consider this the TLDR section.

1. Dennis is a diagnosed sociopath that harbors an unhealthy infatuation with human skin.
2. Dennis is addicted to Crack Cocaine.
3. Brian LeFevre is killed by "a crackhead" behind Paddy's Pub.
4. Dennis becomes sexually aroused by impersonating LeFevre, and describes the experience as "climbing into another person's skin."
5. In the episode directly before the one with LeFevre, Dennis is desperate to feel some sort of emotion, and has a psychotic break at the end when he sees his mother's skeleton.
6. In the episode directly after the one with LeFevre, Dennis wants to celebrate and go out dancing and in the end has a revelation that he's a god.
7. Dennis has, in the past, engaged in murder fantasies similar to the way he acted with Dee while impersonating LeFevre.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Fan Theory: Uncle Jack is the Nightman, Charlie's Mom is the Troll, and Mac is the Dayman

*Trigger Warning* The following post contains references to rape and sexual assault.

For over a decade now FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has, in equal parts, delighted, disgusted, and utterly horrified fans with its outrageous and deliciously depraved cast of characters. Perhaps one of the show's most interesting characters is the janitor and partial owner of Paddy's Pup, Charlie Kelly.

One of the longest running ongoing jokes of the series is a character called The Nightman that Charlie invented in the season three episode Sweet Dee's Dating a Retarded Person. The Nightman, as depicted in song, is a shadowy figure that sneaks into Charlie's room at night and seemingly rapes him. This is often described through innuendo and Charlie himself seems unaware of the implications of what he's singing.

As the series goes on we learn more about the Nightman, and are introduced to a number of other characters of Charlie's creation, such as a Dayman that fights and defeats the Nightman, and a Troll that sells a small boy (Charlie) to the Nightman. This is most expanded upon in the season four finale, The Nightman Cometh, in which Charlie writes a musical about the Nightman that seems to parallel his own life.

Based upon the cast of the musical and subsequent clues in the show, I believe that the following characters represent real people in Charlie's life:

• Uncle Jack is the Nightman and he molested Charlie as a child.
• Charlie's mom is the troll.
• Mac is the Dayman.

Uncle Jack and The Nightman:

It's fairly obvious to anyone that's familiar with the show, that Charlie's Uncle Jack is a pedophile. There are numerous references made to this effect, from him having sneaked into Charlie's room as a child to teach him "wrestling" to him having possessed "art photos" of children that were taken away by the FBI.

"We're lawyers!"

What first altered me to the possible parallel between Uncle Jack and the Nightman (other than the obvious) was Jack's infatuation with his small hands. He constantly makes references to his hands, revealing a deep insecurity with the way that they look, even going so far as to ask other people to cover his hands with their own (as seen to the right) for pictures. This is significant because one of the constant themes with the Nightman is the character's hands. Charlie sings about them on two separate occasions, referencing the Nightman first as pinning him down with "strong hands" and then later as being locked in a world of darkness without the Nightman's "sexy hands."

There are also a number of references made throughout the series of something untoward happening between Charlie and Uncle Jack when Charlie was a child. In the season five episode The Great Recession Charlie is reluctant to share a room with Uncle Jack because of something disturbing that happened when they shared a room during his childhood involving "wrestling." Furthermore, in the season one episode Charlie Got Molested, Charlie's family stages an intervention when Dennis and Dee falsely tell them that Charlie was molested by his middle school gym teacher. During this intervention Uncle Jack is seen sweaty and anxious, likely because he really did molest Charlie as a child, and he suspected that Charlie was about to reveal it. He's also shown becoming sexually excited when Charlie shows where on a naked doll the gym teacher allegedly touched him.

The Troll:

During The Nightman Cometh, we are introduced to a Troll that sings a song about selling a young boy to the Nightman. During the musical the Troll sings that the Nightman must pay a toll if he wants to get into the "boy's soul." Unfortunately Frank's singing makes it sound like he's saying "boy's hole" rather than "boy's soul."

The narrative here is pretty clear. If Uncle Jack is the Nightman, then the Troll would be somebody that collected money from the Nightman in exchange for Charlie. As we know from the previously referenced episode, The Great Recession, Charlie's mother collected rent money from Uncle Jack in exchange for allowing him to bunk with Charlie when he was a child, which is likely when the aforementioned molestation took place.

While it's unlikely that she knew what was happening between Charlie and Uncle Jack (in fact, she flew into a rage at the idea of Charlie being molested in previous episodes), a young Charlie probably didn't understand all the nuances and implications of what was happening. Rather, he only saw his mother collecting money from a man that was abusing him. Since even as an adult he doesn't seem entirely aware of what happened to him, it's likely that writing his mother into the play as the Troll was done subconsciously.

Speaking of the subconscious, we learn in the season six holiday special that Charlie repressed another tidbit from his childhood that likely contributed to the Troll narrative. In A Very Sunny Christmas it's revealed that every Christmas when Charlie was a boy a bunch of men would come over his house dressed as Santas and, as Mac so eloquently puts it, "run a train" on his mother. The revelation eventually leads to a violent outburst in which Charlie brutally assaults a mall Santa, biting a large chunk out of his throat and savagely beating him in front of a group of small children.

As you can see, Charlie's reaction is completely over the top, even for someone that just learned his mother took part in a Christmas-themed gang bang when he was a child. I think it's more likely that Charlie was having a flashback of his own abuse. After hearing the story, Mac infers that Charlie's mom must have been a prostitute. This is something that's also hinted at in the season three episode, Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender, where she becomes Frank's paid "bang maid." Charlie's mom having exchanged sex for money may have been similar, in Charlie's mind, to Uncle Jack supposedly having paid the "Troll Toll" to abuse him, and was likely what caused his violent outburst.

In fact, as far back as season one, when the Gang first speculated on the possibility of Charlie having been molested, Mac made a reference to Charlie being "a bit of a psychopath" when he was young, and that nobody would come near him because when he got upset he would turn purple and start biting things. Charlie also first started abusing drugs during the Santas incident, when he began sniffing glue to cope with his troubled home life. Similarly, he's shown huffing paint while writing his songs about the Nightman.

The Dayman:

The most common theme in Charlie's songs, after the Nightman itself, is the Dayman. The Dayman is depicted as an inherently good figure of light and friendship that opposes the Nightman. In some versions Charlie himself is the Dayman and defeats the Nightman, in other versions Charlie becomes the Nightman and is rescued from a "world of darkness" by the Dayman. Upon first glance there seems to be no single person that represents the Dayman, but when examining the series as a whole there are a number of clues as to the Dayman's true identity . . . Mac.

The Gang in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have all known each other as far back as High School, but Charlie and Mac have been friends since childhood. Since Charlie was known as "Dirt Grub" in school and was constantly picked on, it's likely that Mac was his only friend. The two of them both came from dysfunctional families with absentee fathers, neither of them fit in at school, and they spent their Christmases together throwing rocks at trains. Being his first friend, I think that Mac pulled Charlie out of the "world of darkness" that he lived in when he was alone being molested by his Uncle Jack and neglected by his prostitute mother. There are a number of clues peppered throughout the series that link Mac to the themes that Charlie associates with the Dayman in his songs. Perhaps most significant, however, is the fact that Charlie originally casts Mac as the Dayman in his Musical.

The first and most obvious clues are found in the lyrics that directly describe the Dayman. The song refers to him as "a master of karate and friendship for everyone." The karate connection is obvious. Mac constantly styles himself as a karate master throughout most of the series, displaying bastardized karate moves whenever he's given the opportunity. At one point even doing karate across the stage when he's cast as the Nightman in Charlie's musical. He also spontaneously does karate when he's excited and he even incorporates it into his dancing.

The friendship link is less obvious, but it's there as well. In addition to being Charlie's first friend, Mac is also the character that links the four original members of the Gang together. He and Charlie were childhood friends, he's Dennis's roommate, and he's married to Kaitlin Olsen (the actress who plays Dee) in real life. Charlie and Mac are also on the same Chardee Macdennis team (the Thundermen) against Dennis and Dee, and Charlie refers to Mac as his best friend over Dennis.

There are also a number of even more subtle hints throughout the series linking Mac to the Dayman. Usually they are very easy to miss, as it happens through hidden imagery and double entendres. In the episode Mac's Banging the Waitress, for example, where the question of who Charlie's best friend really is is actually directly addressed, Mac dresses as Charlie while trying to bang the Waitress, who is in turn dressed as Dennis, a reverse parallel of Charlie becoming the Dayman in his songs..

This is seen again in the season nine episode Mac Day. Before the opening credits Mac is reading from the book of Genesis about the passage where God creates the sun. He ends his monologue by replacing the word "light" with his own name; "Let there be Mac." The Dayman is referred to as the "master of light" and the "champion of the sun." In this scene Mac likens himself to both the sun and light, and even the name of the episode Mac Day links him with the Dayman.

Conclusions:

Charlie is most often depicted as simple, and comparatively the least intelligent member of the Gang. However there have been a number of episodes (Mac Bangs Dennis's Mom, Charlie and Dee Find Love, and Charlie Work) where he shows himself to be hyper-competent and much smarter than anyone is aware of. Often times he seems almost willfully ignorant of the world around him. This likely started when he was very young, when he started abusing drugs and hiding himself from his own reality in order to deal with his molestation, but as an adult these memories resurface through his music and through the occasional violent outburst.

Stephen King Fan Theory: Carrie White Had the Shining, and Her Mother Foresaw the Events of The Stand

*WARNING* This post may contain spoilers for the following novels by Stephen King: Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Doctor Sleep, The Dark Tower series.

One of the most fun aspects to Stephen King's work is the way in which so many of his stories intersect with each other. Some of them are overt call backs or crossovers like the towns of Derry and Castle Rock, or the many Dark Tower connections. Others are more subtle, and are left to the reader to pick up on, such as Jake Epping's discovery of KA in 11/22/63. During a recent reread of some of King's early work, I think that I've found one such connection spanning primarily between the novels Carrie, The Shining, and The Stand, and even into King's recent novel, Doctor Sleep.

In the broadest strokes, it goes like this: Carrie White had the Shining, the same ability that Danny Torrance has in the novel of the same name. Carrie's mother, Margaret White, may have had the same ability, or she may have been receiving actual visions from Gan regarding the apocalyptic events of The Stand, or something similar. This is based on the following textual evidence:

• Parallels between Carrie White and Abra Stone.
• Parallels between Margaret White and Mother Abigail.
• Visions from Margaret White that seem to be about Randall Flagg.

Carrie and the Shining:

Though often unexplained, I believe that the Shining is actually one of the oldest and most commonly occurring hallmarks in King's fiction, right up there with The Dark Tower and the state of Maine. You see it in almost all of his books. Characters with unexplained powers, or who just seem to know things, like when they're in danger or which door has a trap on the other side. One of the first things that Dick Hallorann tells little Danny Torrance at the beginning of The Shining is that a lot of people Shine to some degree or another.

Carrie was King's first novel, and its titular character is either gifted or cursed (depending on your perspective) with psychic powers that take her down a disastrous and bloody path. Carrie's powers are studied throughout the story, but never explained. For years I never connected Carrie's abilities, which were telekinetic, with Danny Torrance's Shine, which was predominantly telepathic in nature. I hadn't made the connection, that is, until last year when I read Doctor Sleep, King's sequel to The Shining.

In Doctor Sleep we meet a girl named Abra Stone. Abra, like Danny before her, has the Shining, but if Danny Shines like a candle then Abra would be more akin to a bonfire . . . or a lighthouse. Her gift is powerful, and in addition to the precognitive and telepathic abilities that Danny had, she also displays an aptitude for making things move. It's in reading about Abra that we see a number of similarities with Carrie.

Abra had exceptionally strong telekinetic abilities when she was a small child, but they faded as she grew older. Toward the end of the novel, when she's a teenager, they come back to her and grow even stronger than they were before. The way Abra's powers wax and wane directly parallels the narrative in Carrie. We know that Carrie had powerful telekinetic abilities as a small child, slamming all of the windows in the house at once without realizing what she was doing, or calling down a rain of stones onto her house when she was scared. These powers completely fade away until the opening of the novel, when Carrie, also a teenager, unconsciously uses them after she gets her first period. From this point on, just like Abra, Carrie finds her abilities becoming more and more powerful, leading ultimately to the bloody climax of the story where she uses them to massacre everyone at her prom.

There were also situations where Carrie was upset or angry and unconsciously used her powers to break things. At one point she smashes some of her mother's kitchenware. Abra too, in Doctor Sleep, accidentally uses her powers to smash a number of antique dishes during a fight with her parents.

Margaret White, Mother Abigail, and Randall Flagg:

Carrie's mother, and by extension her upbringing, is by far the biggest distinguishing factor that separates her path from that of Abra, who ultimately uses her powers for good. Margaret White, evil, fanatical, and three kinds of crazy, is about as far from the kind and benevolent Mother Abigail that we meet in The Stand as one might imagine. There are similarities between the two however, the most notable of which being the religious visions that each of them claims to have. Both women claim to hear messages from God warning them, to various degrees, of an impending apocalyptic event. Most specifically, it seems that they are both having visions of Randall Flagg.

"There's a storm coming. His storm!"

Often times throughout the novel, Carrie and her mother recall visions of a "Black Man," described as a corrupting, Satanic figure bent on some kind of apocalyptic destruction. This is Flagg's modus operandi through and through. He travels from world to world, corrupting and destroying, felling kingdoms and governments like bowling pins. Even the name, "The Black Man," is synonymous with Flagg's titles "The Dark Man," and "The Man in Black."

There are three explanations that I can think of as to why Margaret White would be having visions of Randall Flagg. Either Gan (the God of Stephen King's multiverse) was sending the visions as a warning, as Mother Abigail claimed to have experienced, or Flagg himself sent the visions to drive her insane and by extension remove Carrie as a possible threat to his future plans.

Assuming that neither of these are the case, I think it's also likely that, if Carrie had the Shining, Margaret shared her daughter's gift. From the books that directly deal with it, we know that the Shining is passed down through families. Jack Torrance had it, which was why he was so vulnerable to the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. Danny had an even greater gift for it than his father, and his niece Abra has the most powerful aptitude of them all. Dick Hallorann also reveals to Danny that other members of his own family had the Shining as well, in particular his grandmother who taught him how to use his abilities.

If Margaret did have the Shining, then the visions that she experienced may not have been religious in nature at all. Rather, they were premonitions of future events which she confused as a message from God due to her own extreme dogmatic beliefs. As seen in Doctor Sleep, people with a powerful shine can foresee large-scale disasters, such as early in the book when an infant Abra had a premonition of the 9/11 terror attacks. If disasters that result in thousands dead can cause people psychic pain or distress, then an apocalyptic event like the Captain Tripps virus which killed 99% of the world's population, or the coming of Randall Flagg, could easily have such a powerful impact as to drive a person insane. With her religious upbringing, a young Maggie White probably attributed her shine to a sign from God, and the intensity of it may have been what contributed to her madness.