S01.E09: The Creator

[mxc90]

Quote

First Aired: April 20, 2020

Simone, Peter, and Janice explore new interests, while Fred Wynn finds it hard to let go.

 

[LittleIggy]

Who is the weird kid? How does Simone afford her fabulous wardrobe? Is Octavio real or not? Where is Clara? What is Fredwynn’s last name? I LOVE this show!

[mxc90]

The second half of the episode saved it as I wasn't too invested in Peter/Simone and Janice's class.

Towards the end. What was with the TV picture scrabbling as Peter was talking to Simone? Are we inside someone's IDEA?

It's real and it;s not real! Thanks for clearing that up Octavio! 

I thought Octavio was one of the Chucks/actor? Who is that man in Fredwynn's transcended place and the man who introduced Clara/Lee to the group?

Hmm! No death certificate in Philadelphia for Clara.

Lee pretended to be Clara? Clara looked like she was drugged. Maybe she is locked in a room lost in her VR and can't return.

So the game was for Lee to remember who she was and not in Clara's memory?

Did Fredwynn finally get his sleep after being awake for 100 plus days straight doing the puzzles and calling all over the world looking for Clara or did he go into a sugar coma after eating all that candy?

Fredwynn couldn't at least find one "Clara Torres" when he made calls to Ohio or Texas? His phone bill must be insane!

Did Simone get her hands on Clara's old paint and rope climbing equipment to do the painting of Peter?

How much did the "Presto School of Magic" charge Peter and AbracaDebra for lessons? They made sure to ruin his reputation with their performances.

The real magic trick would have been if Peter ate the sushi in the fridge and lived.

If I was in the workout class, I probably would have fallen over the side after two spins.

[Dowel Jones]

Since the credits listed this as based on the documentary "The Institute", I looked that up, and, lo and behold, there's a Wiki article on it.  It was a real life alternate reality game that stretched out over three years and involved over 10,000 people in San Francisco.  But there was no word on what happened to Clara.

That was definitely the weirdest episode yet.  Fredwynn taking us in and out of the reality of the episode was jarring but gripping.  What the hell is going on here?

I think that Lee invented Clara to help create the Augmented Reality program, and when it running deep into the red, she sold it to the corporation.  They in turn dumbed it down to sell it to the masses, and she "killed" Clara off in her despair.  The boss (Octavio?) did call her Clara at the meeting.  Just my hunch, though.  What do I know?

Did Peter go off to live his past life with the little boy?  There was just a flash of someone putting on a hat between the scene of him leaving and the scene in front of all the televisions.

This reminds me so much of Brazil.

[tennisgurl]

Fredwyn gets to narrate this week, and is having a grand old time at it! With all the talk about him believing that they arent real, I half expect him to pull out the script and tell everyone that they are all characters on a television show! 

I am super happy that Simone and Peter got together, they are super adorable, and I am glad that they are both in the mental place now where they can give it a try. She painted a giant mural for him! Glad that Janice was there to give Simone a pep talk and drop some knowledge on her. She was right that a relationship with Peter would have complications, but she was really just running again out of fear of being rejected, and thats just not a way to find fulfillment. 

So wait, Lee was Clara?! Clara was Lee?! So Lee was once Clara, who had all of these idealistic dreams of adding magic to the sad monotony of the lives of the people around her, but eventually compromised her ideals, dumbing down her vision, making it more commercial to make more money, sold out, slowly lost her wonderment of the world, became miserably depressed over it, and Clara the artist savior "died" and Lee the pragmatic architect took her place? Thats what I think happened anyway, Jason Segal liked my Tweet last night when I posted that Lee was Clara all along, so I think thats what is happening. I so did not see that one coming! So what happens next?! Why the small clown boy? 

I really like this show, and with the season finale coming up next week, I am officially Fredwyn. "I like it here, I dont want to leave." 

[cardigirl]

I'm so tired of my DVR cutting off the last 30 seconds or so of the show. What happened, please?  I've enjoyed this show quite a bit, although I have no real idea what is going on, the characters are great!  

 

 

[slaterain]

2 hours ago, cardigirl said:

I'm so tired of my DVR cutting off the last 30 seconds or so of the show. What happened, please?  I've enjoyed this show quite a bit, although I have no real idea what is going on, the characters are great!  

 

 

This keeps happening to me too and it is so frustrating!!!

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 hours ago, slaterain said:

This keeps happening to me too and it is so frustrating!!!

@cardigirl -- At what point did your DVR cutoff ?

Edited April 22, 2020 by ottoDbusdriver

[cardigirl]

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

@cardigirl -- At what point did your DVR cutoff ?

When Janice asked if Peter had to go alone and Fredwynne said no. 

[Dowel Jones]

That was the actual end of the episode, I think.  The next scenes were next episode previews of Peter watching that bank of televisions, and a few brief scenes that I still don't understand.  Next episode is the season finale.

I think you can adjust your DVR options to record a few minutes past the scheduled ending of a show.  Producers pull this stuff to encourage people to watch live, which boosts the show ratings.  That's my conspiracy opinion anyway.

[Kdawg82]

On 4/21/2020 at 12:43 AM, LittleIggy said:

Who is the weird kid? How does Simone afford her fabulous wardrobe? Is Octavio real or not?

I believe the little boy is Peter as a child.  I think we'll learn more about Peter's past as time goes by (next episode?).

LoL! Simone is a size 000 I'm sure and therefore easier to get cute clothing whether vintage or designer sample.  Dammit.

I believe Clara *is* the architect and she's referring to herself & who she was before she sold out to "the man" in general AKA corporation. 

I'm still loving this show and the message I interpret from it.

[grawlix]

8 hours ago, cardigirl said:

When Janice asked if Peter had to go alone and Fredwynne said no. 

This is what I think you missed...

 

Fredwynn states “Life is so weird.  Let’s go” and heads in Peter’s direction.  Janice asks “Wait, wait, wait.  You mean we can go with him?  We can help him?".  Fredwynn then responds “Of course.  Don’t you see anything is possible.  We are Team Blue… and our story is our own."  Picture scrambles as the camera pans away and upward from the group, towards Peter’s direction.  Camera passes by a white wall with some faded gray streaks in it (maybe the remnants of Clara’s waterfall mural?).  Picture scrambles and the scene is now shot in black & white.  The camera continues downward and catches up to Peter and the clown boy as they cross the street.  The camera maneuvers so that we see a side view of the pair.  Camera moves closer to the two with the focus on the side of the boy’s head.  The camera then moves closer to the boy's head with the focus towards the boy's left eye. 

 

Scene changes to a darkish room shot in black & white.  You see the top of a dark, brimmed hat being held by two hands on either side of the hat.  The hands move the hat slowly upwards as if someone is putting on the hat.  As the hands move upwards, it starts to reveal that the person holding the hat is the clown boy (?).  Scene ends.

Edited April 23, 2020 by grawlix
use mxc90 more accurate picture description

[cardigirl]

Thank you, grawlix! That’s a lot! And I’ve set the DVR to tape an extra 10 minutes for the finale! 

[buttercupia]

I adore this weird, wonderful, creative show and hope it never ends.

[grawlix]

On 4/20/2020 at 10:54 PM, mxc90 said:

 

Towards the end. What was with the TV picture scrabbling as Peter was talking to Simone? Are we inside someone's IDEA?

 

 

I was thinking about if the Team Blue was in a IDEA augmented reality.  It would explain a lot about the inconsistencies we see from reality.

Octavio is an avatar for authority.  That is why we see him as both the actor and the chairman.

Clara is a construct of Lee's.  Someone to help her actualize her initial vision.  Clara was no longer needed when she completed the first phase of the IDEA project so she was phased out.   That's why Fredwynn couldn't find any death certificate of Clara Torres in the region, the United States, or the world (there were multiple maps of widening scale shown during his search for confirmation of Clara's death).

It would explain Peter's absurd attempt to reenact a death defying Houdini trick after only a few weeks of schooling.  It would also explain the clown boy suddenly appearing (i'm assuming he is Peter's younger self).

I also noticed that when Fredwynn was eating the candy from the urn, he was eating only the blue-colored pieces.  Perhaps a Matrix reference?

Anyways, just a thought.  Feel free to disagree.

[meep.meep]

If Fedwynn  was only eating the blue pieces, it's because he is on Team Blue.  I didn't notice that.

Because I'm anal, I kept wanting them to bring in all of Fredwynn's packages.

[SoMuchTV]

Oh man, this show!  I normally have a few shows where I can follow the twists and turns, but this one is just making me feel stupid!  I'm jealous of the folks who keep posting stuff like "I love this show!"  I really want to, but I always feel like I'm missing something.  I keep watching, though, because I really like the actors and there are a lot of things I enjoy.  Maybe it will all fall together for me in the last episode.  Or maybe I'll go back and rewatch and it will all click.

[SoMuchTV]

22 hours ago, meep.meep said:

If Fedwynn  was only eating the blue pieces, it's because he is on Team Blue.  I didn't notice that.

Because I'm anal, I kept wanting them to bring in all of Fredwynn's packages.

I just figured he was leaving them out for three days before he brought them in the house, because of... oh wait.

[mxc90]

On 4/25/2020 at 4:24 PM, grawlix said:

 

I was thinking about if the Team Blue was in a IDEA augmented reality.  It would explain a lot about the inconsistencies we see from reality.

Octavio is an avatar for authority.  That is why we see him as both the actor and the chairman.

Clara is a construct of Lee's.  Someone to help her actualize her initial vision.  Clara was no longer needed when she completed the first phase of the IDEA project so she was phased out.   That's why Fredwynn couldn't find any death certificate of Clara Torres in the region, the United States, or the world (there were multiple maps of widening scale shown during his search for confirmation of Clara's death).

It would explain Peter's absurd attempt to reenact a death defying Houdini trick after only a few weeks of schooling.  It would also explain the clown boy suddenly appearing (i'm assuming he is Peter's younger self).

I also noticed that when Fredwynn was eating the candy from the urn, he was eating only the blue-colored pieces.  Perhaps a Matrix reference?

Anyways, just a thought.  Feel free to disagree.

Ever since Fredwynn told Simone "they are not real", I am starting to think an old, dying Peter is hooked up to IDEA (maybe a new version), reliving old memories of the game with Team Blue, and living the opportunities he never took a chance on. The little boy is his helper through this.

In the first episode, he was looking at his memories from different ages through many TVs (for each TV that was off, I guess it means a piece of his memory was gone). 

We'll see. Looking forward to this!

[Dowel Jones]

On 4/25/2020 at 2:54 PM, meep.meep said:

If Fedwynn  was only eating the blue pieces, it's because he is on Team Blue.  I didn't notice that.

On a side note, Skittles was a sponsor of this episode.

[FoundTime]

Also having DVR problems and will have to look into whether I can set it to record just a few minutes past the episode end. I usually don't have a problem even with episodes of odd lengths. Maybe it just says something about this show in particular that every second can contain potentially important information. 

I'm really sad for the season finale to be upon us. I never imagined, as much as I immediately was drawn in by the pilot episode, that I would become so fond of these characters and that the story could still surprise (and confuse!) me this far in. Kudos to all for such an imaginative, creative, provocative, and yes, heartfelt ride. Please come back!

[The Companion]

On 4/21/2020 at 1:22 AM, Dowel Jones said:

 

I think that Lee invented Clara to help create the Augmented Reality program, and when it running deep into the red, she sold it to the corporation.  They in turn dumbed it down to sell it to the masses, and she "killed" Clara off in her despair.  The boss (Octavio?) did call her Clara at the meeting.  Just my hunch, though.  What do I know?

 

That was my interpretation of the scene. She is Clara. Clara is Lee. Somewhat similar to Janice and Young Janice.

On 4/21/2020 at 10:23 AM, tennisgurl said:

 

I am super happy that Simone and Peter got together, they are super adorable, and I am glad that they are both in the mental place now where they can give it a try. She painted a giant mural for him! Glad that Janice was there to give Simone a pep talk and drop some knowledge on her. She was right that a relationship with Peter would have complications, but she was really just running again out of fear of being rejected, and thats just not a way to find fulfillment. 

I find their story so sweet. I liked that we saw both of their perspective. I liked that both of them worked on themselves. I really liked that ultimately it wasn't one sided. 

On 4/25/2020 at 4:54 PM, meep.meep said:

If Fedwynn  was only eating the blue pieces, it's because he is on Team Blue.  I didn't notice that.

 

They were not only blue, they were Team Blue blue.

On 4/26/2020 at 2:55 PM, SoMuchTV said:

I just figured he was leaving them out for three days before he brought them in the house, because of... oh wait.

Heh. I actually keep doing that. Cringing when people are in crowds on tv. Forgetting how recent this all is. 

On 4/26/2020 at 8:38 PM, Dowel Jones said:

On a side note, Skittles was a sponsor of this episode.

Well, it depends on your personal buying history. Some people got M&Ms. It has been personally tailored to you. Just click on the accompanying app to purchase with one click

 

I admit small possibly-Peter clown mime was not where I thought this was going. It was all I could do to not watch the last episode tonight. 😆