Headscratchers / Beyond the Black Rainbow

• How did Barry breathe while submerged in the black liquid during the 1966 experiment? He was submerged in the pool for several minutes and was not wearing a breathing apparatus.
  • The liquid clearly has eldritch, supernatural properties of its own. It could easily have simply allowed him to breathe through the liquid.
• Why did Dr. Arboria leave the room during Barry's psychedelic experience in 1966? The experiment was the pinnacle of his life's work. Also, Barry would have needed supervision during and debriefing after the experience, and it would have made little sense to leave only one person (Anna) in the room to oversee the experiment in case anything went wrong.
  • He could've been observing everything from outside the room and allowed Barry to act the way he did because he felt it was worth the sacrifice. This is the same man who expected Barry to "bring home the mother lode" and "baptized" his infant daughter in the same black substance afterward. Bear in mind that the Arboria Institute is, for all intents and purposes, a cult and cults are not known for being careful or ethical. Dr. Arboria himself is their cult leader and an abusive parent to boot.
  • Arboria's wife wasn't observing Barry either and had her back to him when he emerged from the pool. She also was clearly not trained to handle the situation.
• Why did the Arboria Institute's experiments have such wildly different results? Elena is the only person who emerged from their experiments with psychic powers and an intact body and mind. Barry came away with mild mutations and insanity; the Sentionaut came away with physical mutations, and the man in the straightjacket was hideously mutated and reduced to an aggressive animalistic state.
  • Perhaps because the specific circumstances were wildly different. We only see what happens to Barry and Elena in 1966. Barry consumed a drug before being immersed while Elena wasn't given anything. The length of time spent submerged may have been different as well. We never see the methodologies or events that led to the creation of the Sentionauts or the man in the straightjacket. They could've been entirely different projects with different goals. Or the man in the straightjacket was either a failed attempt at creating a Sentionaut or a former member of the Institute's staff that was converted into a Sentionaut but later broke down.
• Barry has a wife named Rosemary. How did Barry find a wife? He's a psychopath with an unsettling demeanor who sets off alarm bells even when he's wearing the mask of normalcy. He's incapable of love or warmth, and clearly does not like his wife. How did he woo Rosemary, and why did the two marry each other? Did they get married before the catastrophic psychedelic experience in 1966, when Barry was much saner? Or was it a marriage arranged by Arboria on behalf of his cult-like institute?
  • One could theorize that Barry was a very laid back and normal guy prior to 1966 and a happily married man. Even though they stayed married, they drifted apart. From the few items we see in their home, it's implied that Rosemary was as much a follower of Arboria as Barry was hence why she didn't leave him. She also appeared to have fallen into drug abuse as Dr. Arboria had. Prior to her death, she clearly knew about what happened to Barry and regrets not being there for him and he loves her enough to be honest with her by saying "no, I'm not okay".