As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Where did Gabriel/Madison's super-strength and power over electricity come from? Was that ever explained?
- Maybe it's something like what happened to Professor X (in some versions of his backstory, anyway). He was a twin, but his brain got all the processing power and his brother was born brain-dead, but physically alive. Maybe something similar is happening here; two brains sharing one body, and the additional "processing power," so to speak, enables Gabriel to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum by thought. Madison can't use it because she simply isn't aware of what Gabriel is. Could be the same thing with the super strength. If Gabriel has enough control over their shared brain that he can override Madison and force her into a low-level Lotus-Eater Machine, maybe he can jack up the amount of adrenaline being produced by her body.
- The film all but states that Serena was raped during one of the interviews. However, it never discloses who or what perpetrated it. Maybe the Devil was in the details all along.
- During the tape where a doctor is showing Gabriel cards and Emily is describing them, another kid can be seen in the background levitating a green apple. It's possible that the hospital researching Emily and Gabriel was researching other supernatural phenomenon besides them.
- Madison's adopted sister tells her (out of the blue) that Gabriel has been consuming her fetuses to "build himself up." I think that's supposed to be the explanation for why he (and she by extension) has super physicality.
- What happens to Madison after the end? Hard to believe the police would let her go free after all the officers she/Gabriel killed.
- Maybe (and I'm a sucker for happy-ish endings so this is canon for me) a judge will consider exigent circumstances? Now they have video proof of what Gabriel used to be, and a pretty routine surgery would show proof of what he is now. Plus the recording on Detective Moss's phone captured Gabriel's voice, multiple eyewitnesses saw what he could do, and Madison herself has a (presumably) clean record. It's a long shot but at least it's something.
- I'm of the theory she's gonna become a superhero. Film's practically a superhero origin story with extra steps.
- How did Madison instantly learn the techniques that Gabriel has presumably spent a lifetime developing?
- As she say near the end, they share the same body. There's no need to train it up to acquire Gabriel's agility and inhuman strength. Why she was normal for her life up to that point is unexplained, but that could be perhaps tied to Gabriel's awakening.
- We were told that Gabriel was dormant until Madison's husband slammed her head/Gabriel's face into the wall. So how was he consciously feeding off her pregnancies?
- It could be that he was unable to interact with her at all, and was even perhaps barely aware of his surroundings, but could still notice changes in her body and capitalize on that.
- How did Shaw do well enough in a fight with Gabriel to send him on the run, when Gabriel later tore through dozens of cops with ease?
- When Shaw fought Gabriel the first time, Gabriel was trying to escape. He wanted to keep his body-hijacking a secret. He did try to kill Shaw several times, but Shaw was too good a fighter, and eventually Gabriel just figured he should get out of there. When he takes on the cops, his secret is more or less out, so he doesn't bother holding back.
- Gabriel appears to be a conjoined twin; why is he also referred to as a cancer?
- Gabriel was malevolent and the doctors at some point speak of him hijacking Madison's body eventually. He's pretty close to a cancer physically and metaphorically-speaking because of his harmful nature.
- As above, they're probably using the term in a metaphorical sense. But, if we accept that Gabriel is a teratoma, those are technically a type of cancer.
- How was the back of Madison's head not bleeding all the time from Gabriel coming and going? Is healing another of their unexplained super-powers?
- The movie does put some focus on there being blood after her "visions", and the hole is indeed shown closing whenever Gabriel recedes, so it would seem that healing is a part of their powerset. Madison also seems fine even after she got shot at the end.
- Wasn't it bleeding every morning whenever she woke up? They let the camera linger on the bloody pillows to emphasize it.
- Did no one ever ask about the massive head-to-lower back scar she should have from the removal surgery? Did they give her a cover story that it was from some other surgery?
- Madison's adopted mother says that they were aware that she had gone through some serious trauma before she came to them. Maybe she (correctly) assumed that the scar was part of whatever had happened to her and avoided drawing attention to it. Madison probably wouldn't have been able to see it herself under normal circumstances, given where it was located.
- When Gabriel is haunting Madison's husband, Gabriel appears sitting on the sofa in the dark. When the husband turns the light on, Gabriel disappears instantly, providing a red herring that he's a ghost. Later portrayals of Gabriel's abilities don't show him being able to move so fast he can seem to disappear.
- Since Madison only hears the this afterwards, it's possible this was a part of her vision, and Gabriel didn't want to reveal himself yet, so he made it appear as if he were invisible/a black silhouette. In real life, it looks like there's enough time between the TV light turning off and Madison's husband turning the light on for Gabriel to slither under the couch given his twisty crawling nature shown later in the film.
- What's going on when Gabriel confronts Madison after killing her husband? The scene plays out like a haunting, providing a red herring that Gabriel is a ghost, but it doesn't make a lot of sense once Gabriel's MO is revealed. He locks her in a mind prison so she doesn't realize that he's taken control. Why is he chasing her around her mind prison in this one instance and never again? And why does he let her get away if he was going out of his way to torment her?
- He obviously wanted Madison to know it was him committing these crimes, and since he had been dormant for so long, it's possible that he saw this as his grand reentry to Madison.
- He's trying to keep her emotionally off-balance enough to continue to take over easily. If she thinks she's being haunted or there's some kind of psychic vibe going on, then she's NOT actively fighting him for control. He wants her too scared to sit down and think about what is actually happening, and he succeeds brilliantly until Madison's sister finds out the truth and tells her.
- The ending is meant to be happy, with Madison having locked away Gabriel in her mind again, but the sudden buzz of electricity in the light bulb brings that into question. Did she really beat Gabriel, or is she living in another world he made for her? Or are they both trapped by the other with their body now comatose?
