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Generation 1: The Social Experiments
The Spirit of The Cabin
While it's mostly more on the comedy side, the first episode still has its moments.
- Ranboo wakes up in the cabin and is understandably freaked out. He briefly looks around for a clue of where he is, but when the mask is activated, he lets out a Rapid-Fire "No!". Suddenly, he gains a different personality, and continues to act like that until the end of The Mastermind of The Warehouse.
- Whenever Hetch appears, the screen glitches and he speaks with a deep, distorted voice. Squiggles also seems to be affected, with their suit turning red and their speech becoming glitched out.
- Sneeg getting mauled to death by the Create-A-Creature from the beginning. His screams are very gutwrenching.
- After Ranboo defeats the Spirit, he leaves the cabin, but this time ends up in a warehouse. Before he can go any further, two people with rat masks grab him and knock him out with a needle, complete with a Scare Chord. It's a very jarring ending for such an otherwise comedic episode. Then again, Ranboo did say the series was horror...
The Mastermind of The Warehouse
To say this is where the show takes a dark turn would be an understatement.
- Ranboo wakes up yet again in a strange place, but this time he's strapped to chair with an electro-shock therapy machine on him. The Puzzler then appears on a TV and tells Ranboo he has an hour to find the right key for the lock on his chains. If time runs out, he gets electrocuted to death. If that wasn't enough, The Puzzler then gives Ranboo "a little juice" of the electric machine that almost kills him.
- Speaking of which, Ranboo later confirms that he actually did die, but was somehow revived.
- On a rewatch bonus, when Ranboo wakes up from the shock, his mask is briefly turned off. Before it turns back on, he has a more frantic behavior about what happened to him and where he is. It's very similar to the early part of the first episode the first episode.
- In the second room, Ranboo is forced to cut open Patient Charlie to find a key (though it turns out to be useless since the key was in the toilet). While it's mostly played for laughs due to Charlie's carefree attitude and Ranboo stressing out, the mood does a complete 180 when the screen suddenly glitches. We are suddenly shown the slime guts in Charlie and his nonchalant chatting is replaced with him screaming in agony as Ranboo hyperventilates and backs away from rummaging through his organs. It comes out of nowhere and gives a subtle hint of what's truly happening.
- In the third room, there is a group of people (including Frank and Sneeg) strapped to a carousel with bombs strapped around their necks. The Puzzler appears and forces Ranboo to choose one of them to live.
- This is somewhat migrated when all of them manage to make it out of the room... though they still die in the other rooms later on.
- Niki's cheerful introduction as being nice is quite sudden when just a moment ago, she was sobbing hysterically and begging someone to save her.
- The Puzzler takes a familiar hat out of Charlie's stomach and places it on Sneeg's head. The screen glitches yet again, and Sneeg quietly looks on at... something that isn't shown to the audience. Whatever it is, Sneeg tries to escape by excusing himself to go to the bathroom.
- Squiggles' Oh, Crap! when the Puzzler pulls out the hat.
- After a few moments, Squiggles suddenly says, "Please hold." and everyone in the room freezes in place. Sneeg is dragged back into the room by two Squiggles' masked people, screaming to be freed before one of the people places a mask with the Showfall Media logo on him. This causes Sneeg to stop and move back on the carousel. His hat is placed backward on his head, and everyone suddenly resumes what they're doing like nothing happened.
- If you look closely, Sneeg is not strapped back onto the carousel but doesn't make an effort to escape again. What did that mask do to him?
- All the deaths in the episode, while Played for Laughs, are quite horrifying. It's especially terrifying after The Reveal that Ranboo's mask is altering his perception of reality:
- Although it's unknown if he died, Charlie being gutted open isn't a pleasant way to go.
- Niki being shot in the head by The Puzzler. She does survive and desperately calls for the others to help her, but the Puzzler quickly shoots her again to put her out of her misery.
- Vinny having his head caved in by an anvil, just after he survived being thrown through lasers.
- Ethan getting crushed (or something worse judging from the sounds) in the closet room. It's implied that he was attacked by the Security in Episode 3.
- Both Sneeg and Austin getting crushed in the Hole-In-The-Wall game, complete with a Sickening "Crunch!".
- Even The Puzzler dies when he accidentally drops a detonator button... but it's for another bomb that happens to be near him. He gives the camera an Oh, Crap! look before the screen cuts out.
- The ending. Dear God, the ending. The Puzzler leaves Ranboo a key for him to find the truth, but before Ranboo can leave, Hetch appears on a monitor. Hetch asks if anything throughout the show has made sense, then reveals that everything was a show for a twisted form of entertainment. Hetch then shuts off Ranboo's mask, then comes The Reveal:Hetch: Okay now, Ranboo... you can see.
(Ranboo looks at the camera)
Ranboo: ...What the hell?
(Ranboo gets up from his chair and walks towards the camera, where many show cameras and light are positioned. He walks outside of the "room", and is revealed to be in a mall with a Showfall Media tapestry hung up)
Ranboo: What the fuck... what the fuck is this place?- Some Fridge Horror sets in when you hear Ranboo whisper "Did I kill all of those...?" when his mask flashes on and off. Was he aware of everything that was happening, but couldn't control himself?
The Choice
As the Grand Finale, this episode has big shoes to fill after the shocking Cliffhanger of Episode 2. And boy, does it fill them.
- From the Twitch VOD, the starting soon screen. The first episode had an infinite red portal and the second had the peppy Showfall Media theme and logo (and a small appearance from Squiggles). This one has a black background and a red countdown for the stream to begin, with Hetch's theme
playing in the background. It leaves the viewers with a sense of dread for what's to come. - The Showfall Media Employees, in general. They all wear a Squiggles mask and don't say anything. Even worse, some of them are Ambiguously Human because while some can bleed, others happen to have electric wiring for innards.
- The Security monster. It takes the form of a tall, robotic... thing with a TV for a head and very long claws. Ranboo even mentioned that up close, there were pieces of flesh on its skin...
- In its first appearance, Ranboo approaches a closed-off entrance to a store in the mall. There isn't anything to be seen in it except for light and smoke... until the Security runs up and tries to attack him.
- The office scene gives off some pretty horrific revelations.
- When Hetch takes control of the employees and puts them on standby mode, they all sit very still and give off an unnerving feeling. One can't help but feel like one of them will jump out and attack. It's no wonder Ranboo locked them up in the office the moment he left.
- When Ranboo talks about the Showfall Media employees:Ranboo: So are these like... people or machines or...?
Hetch: My best guess is... they were once people. Then something moved in and... kind of repurposed them to be, you know... whatever the company needed. - Pretty much everything that happened on the show was planned from Day 1. Every choice and action Ranboo made was set up by the company to be part of their show. If you look very closely in the background, there's a whiteboard that has plans for Day 3. Ranboo was still under their control and he didn't know it.
- Ranboo begins to question why the company chose him to be their puppet of entertainment. Hetch responds by saying they must've seen something special in him, which sheds some new light on an earlier teaser:Hetch: I mean, they set up these missing posters just on the off chance that you managed to escape.
(Ranboo stops in place)
Ranboo: ...How long have I been here?
- After Ranboo gets the password wrong, an alarm goes off and compromises Hetch's control of the facility. He runs away to the same place where the Security monster was. The door has been opened from the security being triggered, and there's a trail of blood outside.
- Ranboo comes across a group of people who appear to be live streamers. However, he's unable to get their attention as they appear to be brainwashed to be entertaining their audience. It's very alarming.
- If you look closely, there's a sign in front of one of the live streamers saying "WARNING: VIDEO GAME IN PROGRESS. ANY UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY WILL BE ELIMINATED".
- Ranboo comes across Charlie, who appears alive and well while streaming, despite Ranboo having watched him die many times. Ranboo struggles to get his attention before finally ripping off his headphones, which Charlie's brainwashing to be undone... and causes an alarm to go off.note
- "STOP. WATCHING!"
- The Puzzler's memorial, which reveals that he was possibly the only one in the cast who got Killed Off for Real. Seeing the memorial causes Charlie to regain his memories from the past events and briefly have a panic attack.
- Ranboo and Charlie finally see a map to look for an exit. After confirming their whereabouts, Charlie sees on the other side of the map that there's a dead body of a Showfall Media employee... and then the camera focuses on the Security looming over Sneeg's body.note Cue Ranboo and Charlie bolting out of there.
- A dying Hetch reveals to Ranboo and Charlie that they were given false memories to be puppets fro Showfall Media's show, and they can't even remember their past life before Showfall. Charlie is understandably distressed as they're leaving, questioning his whole existence and wanting answers from Ranboo. Ranboo, on the other hand, is purely silent with a Death Glare on his face. Ranboo ignores Charlie's pleas for answers as the latter's voice sound muffled. It all culminates with a Showfall Media employee trying to grab Ranboo... and Ranboo stabs with with a knife he got earlier.
- The set from the Spirit of the Cabin is shown, and Charlie could only muster a shaken "What the hell is this...?" at the sight. For all we know, Charlie was brainwashed into thinking he lived his life in a cabin, and now that he see's his childhood home is nothing but a mere TV show set, he may as well be suffering a silent Identity Breakdown. Unfortunately, he's too distraught to see the Security monster approaching in time, which leads to...
- Charlie's death from the Security monster. His screams are already unpleasant to hear, but when he warms Ranboo to press the button, his voice briefly sounds distorted from the attack.
- When Ranboo finally pushes the button, he turns around to see a Showfall Media employee who was mere inches away from grabbing him. If he had been any slower...
- After all the hell Ranboo goes through, it seems he's finally managed to gain back his freedom and takes a final bow towards the whole mall... but right behind him is a very alive Hetch. Ranboo rises from the bow, with his mask turned on, and Hetch drags him into the darkness of the doorway.
- The ending. Sweet lord have mercy, THE ENDING:
- Ranboo wakes up with a piece of his mask chipped away to reveal blood coming from his mouth. Word of God confirms that this was from the struggle when Hetch knocked Ranboo out.
- Hetch talking like a game show host is very unnerving when before, he was a much more serious character. Then again, that could be because he was acting as port of his role for the show.
- Hetch talks about how he was chosen by The Founder to create the experiments to find someone from Ranboo's world who was worthy of joining the shows forever. Ranboo is deeply horrified and begs to be let go.
