As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- A good foil between Elisa and Strickland: Strickland has an obsession with compensating himself with physical gifts rather than liking himself, to the point that he overlooks the contexts of his self-help books. Elisa, on the other hand, learns from the Asset that she doesn't need a voice to be a worthwhile person because he loves her for who she is.
- Concerning the ending: there's contrast between how the Asset ultimately rewards each for their actions towards him (both to the throat), and how each action reflects different facets of the creature's nature. Strickland is rewarded with his throat torn out, a show of the Asset's violent capabilities. Whereas Elisa is rewarded when the Asset's healing abilities give her gills, fitting of his more peaceful powers and disposition.
- Strickland likes to compare himself to Samson, believing himself is superior to all other men. However, a much better character to compare to Samson would be Giles, as he has shown to be bald and has to wear a toupee when in public. After he helps the Asset escape the lab, the Asset uses his Healing Hands to bring back Giles' hair. At the film's climax, he's able to knock Strickland down with a large stick, showing that he'd regained his strength.
- After Elisa fingerspells the F bomb at Strickland, she claims she said "thank you". The ASL signs for "thank you" and "fuck you" are visually very similar: fingertips under the chin instead of on the chin.
- Giles has to live his life in the closet and pretend to be straight. He's in love with a diner owner, and Giles discovers that the diner is a franchise, so everything from its mascot to its name to its food to its ambiance are all a manufactured front. The diner owner even puts on a Southern accent as part of the gimmick. Giles is a fake out of necessity, but the diner owner is a fake to earn a buck. The more we learn about the real diner owner, the worse he's revealed to be.
Fridge Horror
- Giles' van clearly ties him to a theft from a Defense site, the sabotage of that site's power supply, the murder of a US Army MP, and several dead Soviet spies. There's no mistaking it; it still has the phony laundry service livery and several bullet holes from Strickland's revolver—and there were multiple eyewitnesses who could identify it. He's also going to have to explain why, exactly, he was found so close to the freshly-killed corpse of a Military Police officer. There's a very real chance that Giles will be facing the death penalty. At the very least, he'll probably be spending the rest of his life in a federal prison.
- One has to wonder how things could've gone wrong if Dimitri didn't come to Elisa's aid. 1) Elisa would not have a way to free the Asset since she doesn't have a key or anything to pick the lock with. 2) If Elisa did manage to free the Asset, her plan to keep him in her bathtub would not work since she doesn't have or know about the material needed to create the correct water conditions for the Asset to survive in. 3) Giles is quickly found out by security, and it's Dimitri's murder of the guard that solidifies the rescue's success, meaning Giles, Elisa, and Zelda would've most likely been caught and severely punished if they managed to make it that far into the escape attempt. 4) If Dimitri never decided to help them, there's a chance that he might've diverted Strickland's suspicions of him over to the group and get off scot-free, while probably figuring out a way to free the Asset himself. 5) If Dimitri doesn't manage to come up with a good escape plan, especially if security tightens up after Elisa's attempt, then it's most likely that he'll fail to save the Asset from being dissected, and he'll eventually end up being killed by his superiors for his failure.
- No matter how it ends for Giles, he will be left alone in a world where no one truly understands him.
