MovieChat Forums > Les revenants (2013) Discussion > Season 2 Theories and Questiions, spoile...

Season 2 Theories and Questiions, spoilers!

posted 9 years ago by BrightEyes83
8 replies | jump to latest

Here are my theories and questions regarding season 2:

Milan orchestrated Victor's removal before he knew Victor was a revenant not long after the first flooding... People in the town really trusted him and many went crazy after so much loss looking for answers, believing Victor to have caused the flooding, death of Mrs Costa, etc due to his drawings. Somewhere in Milan's crazy mind, he thought killing Victor would save the town. After Victor is a revenant and living with his adopted father, Milan believes he came back for a divine purpose and so Milan convinces people in the town they will be saved through death and come back right after, and thinks it is all under Victor's thumb somehow. He still believes this up until his conversation with Victor at the police station. It was implied Victor was kept in hiding for 35 years but I think Milan started thinking this way after Victor likely dreamed of the suicide cult in the clearing and came to him to try to stop it from happening once he had come back from the dead. This event probably shook Milan into believing in an eternal return that is free of suffering and tried to "save" those who did not die in the flood. I do wonder what Lucy told him, if anything, relating to being a revenant before his suicide? Considering they knew each other so well...

Serge went crazy from watching his father kill people and from his obvious abusive conviction in achieving his missions. Perhaps he saw zombie revenants in the Forrest as a child eating animal's internal organs and this created psychological damage. Also, his dad killed himself after orchestrating a suicide cult, Serge may have believed all of his victims would be redeemed somehow after death. After seeing that they woke up with no purpose seemed to be when he really started to feel the weight of his actions.

His ending was subtle but so interesting in the tunnel, as he could not allow himself to join the others as he finally faced the horrors of what he had done after seeing the faces of those he had hurt.

No idea what that zombie in the cave was... Super confused there. Is it the same creature that grabbed the camera under water? What exactly is the connection of the water to the revenants? I noticed when Victor woke up after Etienne told he can change things as Julie believes him, the hole the revenants were standing over had suddenly filled with water and the others were gone, implying they found their place back in the water. Also in Camille's coffin, level in the lake lowering as the dead returned. Was this ever explained?

For overall themes, I find the raft guiding the dead as a link to Kharon in Greek mythology (taking them from the land of the living to the dead and vice-versa) Virgil as a link to the guide through hell in Dante's Inferno, and even the fact that Julie decides to call our dear Victor by this name symbolizes that with her he can become just that, a Victor over his circumstances, which is proved in the finale. And of course, the eternal return that we are destined to relive our circumstances infinitely.

Also, the notion of the butterfly effect with the butterfly awakening at the same time as the revenants is a possibile theme. The butterfly that awoke had "victorina stelenes" as its species and was written underneath. Some have speculated that Nathan/Victor are the same person, that he tells Lucy that Nathan cannot cross over on the path and that she needs to look after him as though if the baby crossed over, he could never exist and history would be rewritten. Some clues were given, such as Victor's fearful expression when the baby is left with adoptive parents, that either the child is like him or is him. Also that he may be the zombie in the cave as it wears a similar red sweater/pants. In this case, season 3 would very much be needed to explain ce bordel! I hope that is not the case and that the past/future aren't interlinked that way but maybe a symbol of something else more simple.

I feel like a good amount of questions were answered, enough to gather a general understanding from in the case there is no season 3. Otherwise, it seems as though these answers have peeled away many layers of an onion but a good portion of the nature of the "how" still remain underneath.

Some questions... Where are Victor and Lucy from? How is the water linked to the dead? Who are the other zombies and how long have they been alone in the forest? What pulled Serge into the water last season, the same creature that appeared on the camera? I'm stumped there. What caused the fire those animals ran from? Would love to hear some ideas.

[–] dtaylo-37397 9 years ago

I've posted my theories about Lucy and Victor in another thread.

I think the thing in the lake that pulls down Serge/is caught on camera/is eating the deer/is seen taking Adele into the cave is Mr Costa. My reasoning is below...

The ghosts/zombies cannot enter the water. They have to wait for the raft to ferry them to the 'domain', but Julie, being human, is able to swim away from the 'domain' and return home. That is why Lucy tries to keep Milan away from the others by anchoring him in the lake; he only escapes when the police divers inadvertently let him free.

One of the other rules we learn about the ghosts/zombies is that if they are physically separated from the others, they become covered in sores. At one point someone says that if they stay away too long they will become like the 'thing in the forest'.

One of the third rules we learn about the ghosts/zombies is that they cannot join the others without being redeemed. Hence why Serge is left trapped in the subway; his brother tried to get him to redeem himself by asking forgiveness for his murders, but he couldn't do it. So he was left behind. As were the parents of the boy who befriends Camille in the 'domain'; his parents committed suicide – a mortal sin in the Catholic religion – so he is waiting for them in the domain so they can travel on together, but knows they cannot be redeemed because of what they did and that's why he sinks into despair. You'll remember also that the members of the Milius cult did not commit suicide, as such – they shot each other; the only person who was left to kill himself after shooting Milan was Pierre, but he could not bring himself to do it.

OK, the reason I think it is Mr Costa is because he committed suicide by jumping off the dam and into the lake. He had just murdered the ghost/zombie of Mrs Costa – in episode one he has tied and gagged her then set fire to the house after she returns, not understanding who she was – and then jumps from the dam. His body enters the water, so he cannot escape. When the valley floods and the sinkholes all open, he is swept into the cave, but he has been separated for so long that he has become monstrous.

He finally gets the chance to redeem himself when Simon takes Adele into the cave. Mr Costa helps her to travel to the other side to be with Simon and that is his redemption. Which is why he finally is able to join Mrs Costa by the side of the sinkhole. She has been waiting for him all this time to go on the place Lucy is taking them. Heaven, presumably.

Similarly, Milan finally understands what he has done when he is confronted by Victor/Louis in the jail cell. He is redeemed and he too can then join the others at the sinkhole at the end.

Only Serge remains, unredeemed.

[–] songoty 9 years ago

..what? Old Mr. Costa was seen in the finale meeting his wife again, that's not him.

Besides, for all we know there is not only one "zombie". Lucy refers to it as "them" a couple times, like when she says they protected the cops' bodies from them.

When Lucy and Virgil are talking about "them", it is implied that's what happens when the dead revert to an animal state, after being left by themselves and far away from the others. You know, like Audrey, who ate her mom.

Now...why that zombie in the cave was so friendly and helped Adelle? Was it because she's their Maria, a woman who gave birth to the baby like them? What happened to Adelle and Simon? That was the most intriguing sequence in the finale, and the hardest to crack.

[–] CaroElisa 9 years ago

I think Adele was revenant's snack, and in her death she could be together with Simon, forever as they always wanted.

[–] pardik 9 years ago

Weren't both Serge and Simon swimming away from the domain? One of them definitely did, but I think that both of them. Most of them were just really passive and didn't have many goals expect leaving this world, so they were waiting for Lucy to lead them.

[–] dtaylo-37397 9 years ago

No, Simon was seen going on the raft and Serge went overland through the forest. The one time Serge tried to swim across the water in Series One was when he was dragged down underwater.

I admit that Mr Costa being the creature in the cave is only my hypothesis based on the reasoning I outlined, but that was definitely Mr Costa that joined his wife by the sinkhole right at the end! He was the person she was waiting for.

[–] AHundredGreenBottles 9 years ago

Simon swam it in the first episode of series 2. Lucy had already taken the raft to the domain and there's a shot of him wading in and then diving. We see him again later when he's soaking wet. He used the raft later on in the series, when Lucy told him to go check on Adele.

I thought that was Mr Costa too though. The man that holds her hands by the hole, right?

[–] BrightEyes83 9 years ago

Also have been thinking about the zombie in the cave a bit more, it seems that Simon committed suicide earlier in his life from depression, one can imagine as a result of never knowing his parents. It's as though when he comes back, he is more alive than Adele, who attempted to take her own life before and is already very dead inside despite the fact she has children to look after. Whether or not she was dead before she entered that cave, part of her had been for years and I think the zombie leading her deeper into the cave was a symbol of her choice to die and become a cave zombie with Simon rather than moving on without each other as a manifestation of unhealthy, obsessive love. It's as though she accepts it when she starts to follow him and like they ended up in a place between life and death just like they started.

I am still wondering about the link between the water and the zombies! Is that where it all starts?

[–] ryansassy1 9 years ago

Although the link between water and the returned is never explained in this show, I recall old legends about spirits/faeries being restricted from crossing running water for some reason.

Also, there is the side of water that symbolizes baptism (death and rebirth).
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