As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Why does Coach Schneider, upon finding Jesse at a bar illegally, drive him all the way to the (currently closed and deserted) school at force him to run laps as some kind of punishment? It's implied he might be planning to rape Jesse but in that case why go to the school? Couldn't he just do that in a back alley somewhere?
- Given that he goes for the gym equipment, it could be for that. Also, as you say, the school is deserted, making it less likely for someone to stumble on them and stop whatever Schneider had planned for Jesse. A back alley still has that risk and has very little cleanup opportunity, unlike a school gymnasium which has cleaning supplies and lockable doors.
- Why does the family's parakeet just explode? Remember, this is in the real world so Freddy shouldn't be able to do such things.
- Freddy's gaining more power at this point, as shown in the scene just after that when he uses Jesse to kill Schneider. He can't come out physically but I guess it could be meant to symbolize the beginning of the dreams bleeding into reality. It always read to me like a classic poltergeist scene - a ghost using the body/hormones/mental waves/whatever of a teenager to do stuff in the real world.
- Why, near their end, are there some guard dogs which have semi-humanoid faces? Is it just meant to represent the dream world seeping into the real world or what?
- Yeah, pretty sure. That scene's messed up even considering that, though.
- It makes no sense that Freddy would want to go into the real world permanently, as, judging from the first movie, he's completely vulnerable there and loses all his Reality Warper powers (and Nancy kills him (maybe, it's deliberately vague) with just some mundane traps). Now, a bunch of weird stuff does start happening once he's in the real world (such as the aforementioned dog monsters), so does he start out Brought Down to Normal and then slowly get more powerful the longer he is in the real world?
- Following the events of the first film, it is probable that Freddy was too weakened to target teens in their dreams en masse as he had before (aside from using most of his minimal remaining energy to target Nancy one final time at the end of that film). However, when the psychologically vulnerable Jesse moved into Nancy's old house, Freddy's residual presence in that location was able to gradually latch onto and eventually outright possess Jesse, and (going by the logic of the later sequels) use his physical body as a conduit/vessel to murder Coach Schneider, Grady, and various other teens, thereby accumulating enough souls to regain the power to target multiple teens in their dreams in a less geographically-restricted manner once again from the third film onward. Therefore, it was likely out of desperation to regain his nightmare powers on a grander scale that Freddy would have wanted to kill several random people in the real world that were unconnected to his initial vendetta against Nancy, her parents, and the others associated with the circumstances of his original death (people he resumes targeting after regaining his full abilities). His increasing capacity to import his dream powers into the real world throughout the second film was a sign of his gathering strength. One factor that may have contributed to Freddy's ability to accomplish more ambitious reality-warping feats in this film when compared to the first is that he had the advantage of preying on Jesse's insecurities and repressed sexuality (until Lisa gave him the courage to suppress Freddy's influence at the end), whereas Nancy was more self-assured when she defeated him the first time, giving Freddy less to work with in the physical world.
- Did the victims see Jesse or Freddy?
- Some people theorized that the coach, Ron, and the kids at the party were seeing Jesse terrorizing them, and not Freddy. It's possible what we see is not how people in the movie see things. For example, the terrified look on Ron's face could be that he is seeing his best friend attacking him. That might also explain why the partygoer thought trying to reason with Freddy would work if he looked like a normal teenager and not a burned and scarred, Obviously Evil, knife-wielding madman.
- Assuming that is the case, was Jesse arrested and prosecuted for the murders that Freddy committed using his possessed body by the Springwood authorities (since, at the very least, there were multiple witnesses in the case of the party, and possibly other evidence in the case of Schneider and Grady's murders)? If not, was it because Jesse and Lisa were actually themselves killed by Freddy in the Downer Ending (in their dreams or otherwise)?
- It's left ambiguous as to whether the final scene is a harmless (as in harmless to life and limb) nightmare, or a deadly one bleeding into the real world. Therefore, Jesse's fate is in the eye of the beholder.
- Some people theorized that the coach, Ron, and the kids at the party were seeing Jesse terrorizing them, and not Freddy. It's possible what we see is not how people in the movie see things. For example, the terrified look on Ron's face could be that he is seeing his best friend attacking him. That might also explain why the partygoer thought trying to reason with Freddy would work if he looked like a normal teenager and not a burned and scarred, Obviously Evil, knife-wielding madman.
- How did Freddy get a new hat? In the original, Nancy snatches the hat off his head and brings it into the real world as proof, and we never see him get it back. So how does he have a new one in part 2? Did he just sew a new one out of whole cloth in the dream world (granted, that would be pretty funny)?
- Freddy projects himself into people's dreams, everything you (and the characters) see is a projection from Freddy's mind or spirit or whatever. He can re-manifest another hat if he wants. In different movies he manifests all sorts of clothing, objects and even modifies his own body.
