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Obsession Special Part 2: The Screaming Basement · Divine Dialogue

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome listeners to the Divine Dialogue Podcast, where we dig deeper into the trove of wisdom and guidance stories have to offer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever watched a movie and felt moved?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Felt called to make a change or reflect more deeply on your own life?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: If so, this podcast has a lot to offer you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween listeners to those of you returning for part two of my obsession breakdown.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to be moving from the beautiful house analysis into the screaming basement analysis.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you are new here, you have stumbled upon a special.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I typically only release episodes on Fridays, but since this was a Halloween decision to review Obsession, this will be part two released on Halloween.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So happy Saturday to all of you joining me.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't yet, please like, share, subscribe, and comment.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also don't forget to follow me on my social medias in the show notes, as well as if you'd like to continue a lengthier divine dialogue about any episodes or show suggestions.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: My email is in the show notes as well.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I will go ahead and get into the screaming basement analysis of obsession.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So previously I had talked about the beautiful house, which was essentially Bear's fantasy that he built over.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would say originally his own screaming basement as a pretty miserable, you know, underdeveloped man.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: He tried to grab, you know, external power, external pleasure, and build over his life that he wasn't all too thrilled with.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so the screaming basement really is from beginning to end the truth of the movie and the lesson of the movie.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the heart of the movie, it's what makes it obviously horrific.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we see this from the very beginning.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Bear, you know, lives in a pretty dark house.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: His cat has died, and we can kind of piece together that it is negligence.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I say cat, my cat meows, she's so silly.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's negligence because the cat gets into medication and overdoses, and then Bear comes home and the cat is dead in his house.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: He cleans, you know, then he's sobbing and he's like really depressed, and then he's in his bed looking at pictures of Nikki.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then he decides to go to a, I guess you could say like a magic shop or like a whimsical type shop, and he is looking for a replacement necklace because Nikki loses hers while they're on the phone talking earlier that night.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets sidetracked by a one-wish willow box, and he decides to buy that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's where, you know, the screaming basement really infects Nikki as well.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: It ends up infecting everybody, and that's why I really like the approach of analyzing it from the view of his fantasy and also the really like the rot underneath that ends up spreading to everybody in the movie, the four main characters.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, he ends up taking Nikki home.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very interesting, and I'm kind of curious what you think.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to comment and talk about it in, you know, the the comment section, or if you want to email me about it.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys think that Nikki liked Bear, because I personally think that she might have.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because there's there's definitely evidence both ways, and I did when I because I did do a bit of a deep dive into, you know, behind the scenes and the the intention of the script and everything of Obsession, and they did say that they shot the scene in the car with the two of them where it was obvious that she liked Bear, it was obvious that she didn't like Bear, and then it was not clear whether she liked Bear or not, and they went with the unclear because it definitely makes the movie more interesting because you can read into you know her original feeling state, like as Nikki unaltered, if she would have given Bear a shot or not, and it makes the movie much more interesting.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's definitely evidence that she doesn't because when Ian says, Oh yeah, take your girl home, and she says, You don't say it like that, like that definitely puts Bear in more of a friend box there.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But then she'll say certain things like like when he when he drops her off and calls her freaky Nikki and she comes back and she's kind of frustrated, she's like, Do you like me?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Because if you do, now's the time to tell me.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was very interesting wording if she wasn't into him, because we know that she's looking to move on from the music store.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so why would she ask a question like that if she wasn't maybe telling him, hey, like, you know, don't pass up a don't pass up a good thing, like don't, you know, be snoozing on something that could be something if you would just have the guts to say how you feel.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I wonder if she was just, you know, giving him the opportunity because he was acting like a little boy who was like teasing a girl he liked, and she's like, be a man and like tell me that you like me, you know, stop being so worried about your frag fragile ego and just talk to me directly.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think he might have had a shot if he had been not so lost in his screaming basement and so attached to his fantasy and such a coward.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think he might have actually had a shot.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But obviously, when he makes the wish, you know, that's where the basement of his that's really rotted out and you know, dark starts to spread.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then from the beginning, it's obvious that there's something off about Nikki.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, she starts acting weird, she kind of snaps in and out of it, more so in the beginning, more often, it seems like to me, you know, and he just kind of goes along with it because he's very passive.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably partially why he has a screaming basement because he's he allows everything except for the truth.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: He allows everything that fits his ideal, like his fantasy, but he doesn't really seem interested in the truth.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, the main kind of points of the screaming basement I want to touch on are as things get progressively more disturbing, but we can even start with like the first night where, you know, he wakes up and Nikki has made a ceremony of his cat on the floor.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a very creepy, you know, indicator that something's going on here.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he's already suspicious of the one wish willow because he takes a long hard look at it in his back seat right after he curses her, anyway.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So he's already, you know, and the thing about making a wish, which I think is one of the main takeaways of this movie in general, is he makes a wish from a state of fear.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So he makes a wish from a state of lack, from a state of desperation, from a state of a screaming basement dweller, you know, and that's gonna bring a lot of fear and and anxiety and just a feeling of uneasiness.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he's uneasy throughout the entire movie, even when he's getting what he wants, because there's this current attached to the curse and the wish.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you violate someone's free will, there's always fear in that sense.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're taking someone who is, you know, decently well put together, like she actually had a beautiful house life, like a real one.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like she had dreams, aspirations, she was pretty regulated, she was centered, and you bring your screaming basement into it, you know, it's just gonna compound.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, he notices her acting weird, the cat on the floor, her kind of staring at him creepily at the music store after when they both go to work, her showing up at his house then the night after work.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I did briefly touch on that in the Beautiful House part one, but you know, when she's standing in darkness, that's his indication, that's our clue too.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, she is a sh is in her shadow self, she's in her in her state removed from her divine will because he has altered that.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So she's no longer Nikki, she's she's the version of Nikki that prioritizes Bear above anyone else.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And she even says this in the restaurant, you know, that she loves him more than anyone in the world, and you know, that essentially she would do anything for him and he's her center, like she's made him her everything.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say where the screaming basement really starts to take over, though, is when he violates her after the dinner because that's really his that's like I would say the threshold moment where he could have really still, you know, salvaged his wish.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know that he probably would have had to, you know, take his life, but he could have reversed course at this point, and he could have, you know, gone back on his desire to keep this fantasy going if he wanted to.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was kind of his last stopping point because after that dinner, when he confronts her about her father having cancer, and then he gets preoccupied with calming her down and keeping things running smoothly enough for him to enjoy his fantasy and ignore the screaming basement.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then that's when we start to see the screaming basement.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We literally start hearing it too, because you know, he goes home with Nikki and he violates her in his bed.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's really when things really start to ratchet up because he wakes up, she's in the corner, you know, in the shadows, acting very strange.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: She starts crying and she says, I don't like my dreams.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you don't love me as much as I do.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something I touched on in part one.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't listened to part one, please go listen to that first.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That she, I really think that the reason why their their relationship, quote unquote, worked for a little bit, and we see that montage is because his initial being in love with her, like falling in love with her, was close enough to her obsession with him.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because falling in love with someone is kind of a like obsession in the sense that like we're super overtaken by someone.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's close enough in frequency that it didn't bring out freaky Nikki as much.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But when we start to see freaky Nikki because he is showing signs of like not having blinders on, like he's more his, I guess, prefrontal cortex is coming back online because he's not super infatuated with her.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's moving more into the calm state of the relationship, and I think she can feel that because she can't, she can't move, she's tethered to that curse.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's when she starts saying, like, you don't love me as much as I do, it's not mutual, because it's not.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's starting to, he's starting to be able to have a distance from her that she can't choose, and because she can't choose it, it's causing this huge rift, and the screaming basement is starting to energetically overtake the beautiful house.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see her act very strange.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: She tells him to go back to sleep, he tries, but then she screams, you know, why don't you love me?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he she, you know, brings the flower pot back and gets back in bed with him.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: He tries to get up, she screams at him to stay, and then we're kind of off to the races here, and then we start seeing more and more and more elements of screaming basement.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like the next day, she had duct tape the door shut, she stands in her mess while he goes to work, she put the cat in his sandwich, you know, she is like the screaming basement is is overflowing, like it's starting to show more and more and more.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And to the point that, you know, he calls the customer service line, and we literally hear Nikki scream, and then he hangs up the phone because he's too scared to deal with you know what he's actually created.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to actually face what he created, and so he comes home, she's standing there in his mess or in her mess, and like all he can think about is having a conversation with her about how you can't cook the cat, you can't give me cat sandwich, you know.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Completely just uh missing the bigger picture.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, he's afraid to tell her well I want to go to a boys' night, you know, and and you know, she has this like crazy scream.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, she just starts screaming more and more and more.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I like to call it the screaming basement, because it just keeps coming up more and more and more.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so eventually she goes with him because he doesn't want to have a conflict, and then we see honestly one of the funniest scenes at the party when Bear gets the block that says kiss the person to your left, and Nikki's like frown.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that face that she makes is so so great.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: But she like pulls Sarah's chair back and kisses Bear, and she has this moment where she snaps out of it and she takes a beer bottle and tries to, I think, take herself out.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like she smacks herself in the face with it, and then she snaps back out of it and goes back into freaky Nikki, and she's like, I'm so sorry, you know.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Bear's just sitting there completely catatonic, like just ignoring what's going on, and that's just a theme that's consistent throughout the movie.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: He just ignores all sorts of things that don't fit into the picture that he wants to see.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: He just doesn't acknowledge them.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so he tries to take her to the hospital, they won't admit her, presumably, because she denies treatment.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: They go home, and this is a scene that I really wanted to spend a lot of time on is when you know he freaks out and tells her, just be like Nikki, just be Nikki.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she, you know, is crying and desperate because he's suggesting things like we need to take some space, like, you know, this is a little bit too enmeshed, like, and she just freaks out and doesn't want to take space.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's desperately trying to gain some control over the situation because everything is getting very chaotic and he's getting more scared.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, she says, I'll be anything you want me to be, and then he says, Just be Nikki, and she screams at him, you know, I can be Nikki.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he has the first little bit of realization because he says it's not real, you know, this isn't real, and and then she says to him, like, I love you, bear, and every reality, and he says, I love you too.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to focus on this specific little scene here because I think it's it was such brilliant storytelling that when he says I love you, she backs up, and I think she literally backs up because it's backwards, the whole thing is backwards.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: What he's created is backwards, his love for her is backwards because it's not it's not primary to her, it's primary to the fantasy.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so her walking in reverse is like a physical manifestation of that backwards wish, that backwards desire, the backwards idea of love that he has, which I thought was such a great touch that they had her, you know, back up and walk backwards.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I really, really liked that choice to have her do that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And also once, you know, he says that he loves her and she backs up, then she's in the shadow again, and then she's coming towards him, and then he's, you know, sitting terrified, backed up against like this little table by the door.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then she goes into this whole like really creepy monologue, which I thought was also really great because she he basically says, like, you know, we'll sleep separately, like you take the bed, I'm gonna go somewhere else.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then she gets like a knife, and you think, you know, oh, she's gonna hurt him, but she's actually threatening herself, and she gives this whole speech about like having the bed to herself that she'll be warm until she's cold because he's not there, and like that feeling like when your arm falls asleep.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that she talks about she talks about like letting go, but she's obviously talking about like you know, ending her existence, like because she's just miserable without him, she has no purpose.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But she talks about how there's like nothing in the darkness, which I thought was very interesting because when you so I really think like when you do like a deep meditation, it kind of you kind of drop into a sense of nothingness, like a sense of you're just breath in a body, you're just being and it, you know, darkness is not like scary because a lot of times when you meditate, at least when I meditate, I close my eyes.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a sense of darkness, but it's not terrifying like you're in danger, and it's not fear-based, it's more like darkness in the sense of like the womb state, like you know, how most of the energy, like you know, they even say, like physicists say is dark matter in the universe, right?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's what most of the universe is made up of, and we're of the universe, and so it's like she's talking about the end of her existence, and the catalyst for that is a very, you know, screaming basement type thing.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But what she's saying, you can actually apply in a divine way of it's not darkness, you're in nothingness, and it's like, yeah, like you actually can drop into that, it doesn't have to be in this state where you're a freaky Nikki.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought it was a very interesting monologue that she gives, you know, and he's just sitting over there petrified, and then we cut to this scene where he's in bed, and Sarah is texting him, and Nikki is rightly labeling that Sarah, you know, likes him because Freaky Nikki knows that, because freaky Nikki picks up on every little bump and tremor and subtle change in frequency, and so she's very aware that Sarah likes Bear.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Sarah is texting him, you know, she wants him to go meet her at the park, and Bear obviously is terrified to get up, but he does.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I had talked about this in part one, but you know, freaky Nikki asks him to kill her, and that is, you know, a direct confrontation of the screaming basement.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: He still wants to hold on to the beautiful house, so he's still just trying to ignore this.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's trying to, you know, give himself some distance because he can't tolerate discomfort and anxiety and conflict, and he's created such a huge conflict at this point, but he is just trying to escape it.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes to meet Sarah, they're talking.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah has her last letter, you know, and she basically says to him, like, you know, I was on your left, I was supposed to kiss you, and she's flirting with him, and you know, she only has part of the picture.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And to to outside people, you know, I'm sure you've experienced situations like this or you've seen situations like this, like what's going on behind closed doors, people don't know, they just look at what's being shown on the outside, and they can have a completely different understanding of what the reality is.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: But she basically says to him, you know, that Nikki is overburdening him and he should be with someone more chill because he's a cool guy, and you know, it could be like me.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where she does tell him, like Ian and Nikki had been hooking up, and you know, that maybe Nikki's just doing this to get back at Ian.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bear knows better because Nikki's behaving, you know, way more differently than just being petty towards Ian.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like she's behaving very, you know, psychotically.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like you wouldn't bang your head with a beer bottle if you were just trying to get back at someone you were hooking up with.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's really extreme.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, freaky Nikki just comes running towards the driver's side window, and then we just see like her take a brick and just smash Sarah's head into it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so Sarah's dead, and Bear's just sitting there not doing anything to stop it.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nikki sees that he's, you know, very terrified.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's got blood on him, and she says something so great.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: She says, I'm so sorry you had to see that, but it is kind of your fault, you know, because you wanted this, you wished for this, and I'm so happy that you did.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then she goes over to him and she's trying to comfort him because she knows that, like, he's, you know, she's picking up on all the frequencies.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's very, very freaked out.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he just saw one of his friends, someone he was considering potentially to maybe replace Nikki with or cheat on Nikki with, get, you know, defaced next to him.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he's having a moment.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, again, and that this is so now obviously the screaming basement is front and center.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: He to still try to hold on to this because he doesn't know what to do, because he's too terrified, like you know, the customer service had told him, like, as long as you live, this wish persists.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he helps her move the body.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So now he's aiding and abetting like a homicide.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's just committed to keeping this Going as long as he can.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's very disassociated, but he wants to keep this going.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then he reads, you know, the letter and finds out that Sarah got into the college.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're seeing all the consequences of his choices because Nikki has lost all of her aspirations and dreams for obsession with him.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah got into the school that she can't go to now because of him.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then he has like his first, you know, because we we see him as a very passive, like stoic almost, although stoic is probably not the right word because he's not nearly set, like steady enough to be stoic, but just very passive, very meek, very mild-mannered type guy.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then he has like a rage scream in his car.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then he goes to the store, and they had moved the one wish willows.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was really interesting.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell me what you think about this too, because I wonder if this was like an adjacent screaming basement choice that they made with the the store manager change.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the beginning of Obsession, when Bear goes to the store to buy the One Wish Willow, it's a woman that sells it to him.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in the second time he goes, it's a man who's there.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the man says something interesting because Bear tries to get him to make a wish to reverse his wish, but he's like, Oh, I've used mine already.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was wondering, like, my thought was maybe he used his wish to take over the store.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if there's any connection with them, or if it just happened to be like that was his night to work, and maybe he didn't.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I was always wondering like what his wish was because he says, Well, I've already used mine.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Bear, I love that the the you know, store guy tells him, like, you can't come in here with this energy, like, you know, this is not acceptable.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Bear's blaming the store for selling it to him, and you know, he says, 'Fuck you,' and he's like, 'Fuck you, man.' And then Bear sees himself in the mirror, which I thought was such a great little touch, because it's like, yeah, if you want to blame someone, look in the mirror because you created the screaming basement and the evidence of it in bloodstains on your sweater and your absolute loss of your center, and the fact that you're free-falling into fear and anxiety and dread and depression and all of these terrible emotions.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like you created this because you made a wish from an altered state.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You made a wish from a state seeking external power, external desires, you know, to violate someone else's free will.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: You made this wish in a state that produced this type of result.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So look in the mirror because it's because of you.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a really humbling moment, I think, where we kind of see him finally see himself, and then he, you know, has this breakdown and starts crying, and you know, the shopkeeper makes a suggestion like maybe she could make a wish, and you just need a wish that contradicts your wish.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he buys another one, but because it's a one-wish willow, he can't break another one wish willow.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So he tries, but he can't.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's trying to figure out a way to, you know, reverse this.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes to Ian's place, and Ian is freaking out.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, by this point, and you know, we're almost at the end of the movie here.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: The screaming basement has infected everybody.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah is dead, Nikki is on autopilot, not even in control anymore.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: She's completely in the sunken place.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Bear is very, very fearful, like magnified fear.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ian's very afraid because, you know, all this crazy stuff is going on.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Bear goes to Ian with the one wish willow because Ian, to his knowledge, has not made a wish.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: He tries to plead his case to Ian because Ian demands that Bear tell him what's going on.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I need you to make a wish.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I need you to wish that I never made a wish.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives him the one wish willow.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Ian doesn't really believe it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's like, What the hell are you talking about?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like he knows something's wrong, but this story sounds ridiculous.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so he takes it and he snaps it, and right before he snaps it, he says, I wish for a billion dollars.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, again, there's a lot of funny scenes in this movie, as disturbing as it is, but money rains down on him after he makes the wish, and he's like shocked, like his he like his face shakes, his eyes blink, like he's like, Wow, you know, okay, so this actually works.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we see Bear go home, and Nikki had built like a shrine, she's always hiding in corners and moving weird.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: She's doing that here again.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she had taken Sarah's dress and drawn like the tattoos, and she's like smoking because she wants to look like Sarah because she thinks that's what Bear wants, because Bear and Sarah were together, you know.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she had actually put Sarah's body in, I don't know, like the the dining room or the family room or something, like super uncomfortable, just in the middle of the room in a chair.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And Nikki is behind him, he sees her, turns around.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: She's basically, you know, completely unhinged at this point, like just smoking, looking at him, like trying to get him to say that he likes her better.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's trying to still, you know, negotiate with her.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I need you to do something for me.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then she's like, Why can't you love me?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she's just screaming at him.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's full-blown screaming basement, why don't you love me?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then she starts, you know, hurting herself.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it's she's hurting herself at this point because Nikki is surfacing.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think she's actually hurting herself because the freaky Nikki feels very like like Bear is slipping away from her.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so she can't tolerate that.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like freaky Nikki can't tolerate that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: So she starts hurting herself.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what's going on here.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: But she, you know, is kind of closing the gap with him.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Ian starts pounding on the door, and he's like, dude, I got a billion dollars, it's real, you know.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she she's getting more and more frustrated because Bear is obviously, you know, distancing because she's acting psychotic, and Ian's bugging Bear and you know, secondarily bugging her because he wants to say, Hey, I got a billion dollars, you know, and she doesn't give a fuck.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she like takes, she has this gun, and she's like threatening to kill herself, and then she just whips around and shoots Ian right in the head when he says something at the wrong time.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so Bear sees him dead.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: So now Sarah's dead, Ian's dead, Nikki's absolutely certifiably insane, and he is trapped in this hell with no way out except to kill himself.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so then she like does this, you know, classic demon possession type thing where she just like vomits on him, and then he just says, I love you, and then he screams, I love you.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so now even the words I love you have become the screaming basement.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we're a hundred percent by this point, like the the beautiful house is dead.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean the thing is it was always an illusion, it was always like you know, an oasis in a desert mirage, it was never real, but you know, he's like, I'll make this work, and she's like, You owe it to me to make it work, but then she's like, I'm sorry for the theatrics, and you know, they're making promises to each other, like sounding like a super toxic, codependent couple, and he tells her like how beautiful she is, but then again, she's like the the longer this movie goes, like one really nice detail touch that I like about this is freaky Nikki notices the most subtle of signals and most subtle of like body language changes or like you know, eye contact or anything like that, and like he he barely, you know, maybe he's not even shaking his head because he's just shaking, period.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: But she just starts to pick up on any little shift, and he's like, Well, you know, we should go freshen up because they're all bloody and gross by this point, because it's been like a double homicide and and potentially double suicide.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you know, they're they're a mess.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes into the bathroom, he's got the gun from her because he took it when she was acting crazy.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like bang on the door, and then she stops banging on the door, and it it's it's like a you know, a very dramatic, like a very dramatic like depiction of just a relationship completely off the rails, like just completely insane.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, you know, maybe we should break up, maybe we should take some space, you know, because she's trying to like freaky Nikki more and more throughout the movie tries to figure out what Bear wants, you know, from her.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's got the gun, like he's pointing it at his chest, he puts it in his mouth, can't go through with it, he can't shoot himself.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's standing in front of a mirror, probably wasn't the smartest thing to watch himself do it, but he can't do it.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: So he finds the pills in the medicine cabinet from the beginning of the movie that his cat had overdosed on, takes those pills out of the cabinet, and he swallows, you know, quite a few of them.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he's sitting in the corner, and then he's you know, again, still too still too chicken shit to go through with it.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: He, you know, tries to throw them up.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens right before he does, like he's put his fingers in his mouth, but he we hear like a snap.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the one wish willow stick has been broken, and we hear the snap, he takes his fingers out of his mouth because now he's cursed and he's bound to Nikki.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see him go from terrified to like smiling like a doofus in love, you know, and he walks out the door and they look at each other and they have the this like I don't know, 30-second moment where they're both equally bound to each other.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, ironically enough, like I guess you could say this is like the last little gasp of the beautiful house, because it's like, yeah, that frequency would actually work.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: I talked about this in part one, like, as sick and twisted as it is, like they're screaming basements.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you flip that over, it's like the beautiful house frequency lines up because they're both cursed, like in a really twisted way, that would actually work.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he is still, you know, his system has all these pills in them, so he's overdosed, and like they share a kiss, and then he sinks to the floor, and she's panicking, trying to figure out you know what's going on, but then he dies, and then she's about to kill herself.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a classic kind of Romeo and Juliet ending where you know Romeo dies, and then Juliet wants to kill herself, and she is like sobbing, you know, and freaking out, and then when he finally completely dies, then she snaps out of it and she pulls the gun out of her mouth immediately, and she's just horrified, like she's looking around, like, what the fuck happened?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because she was in the sunken place, she was not conscious for all this, so she, you know, bear's dead in her arms, Ian's dead on the floor by the door.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: She's like her body's all different because she drew tattoos on herself, she's wearing the dress.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I also did hear that she's wearing Sarah's hair as well on her head, so she's killed, you know, two of her friends, and then her other friend accidentally killed himself, and she's left with all of this trauma.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, bearhead literally by the end of the movie managed to infect her with his screaming basement to destroy her real beautiful house because he wouldn't work on cultivating his own beautiful house.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's essentially the the over like the overarching kind of lesson I take from this movie is you can spread your energy, whether it's like toxic or divine, so be very careful the energy that you decide to pass on.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I also wanted to just briefly go back to one other scene because I didn't cover it before when Nikki reads her poem at the boys' night, which shocks the crowd because she does lay out for everybody who doesn't know what's going on exactly what's going on.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she reads this poem and it's or not really poem, it's like part of her book that she's writing.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the voice changes are so great, and she's basically talking about how you know and I guess this is this is more insight into maybe how actual Nikki feels about the situation, but it's a really twisted spin-on Hansel and Gretel.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she's basically saying, like, you know, Bear will be inside me tonight, like brother, you you will be inside me tonight.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she we know that she kind of looked at him as her brother, and so that's evidence against the fact that she would have liked him, but she is basically telling people, like, yeah, like I'm cursed in a in a creative way, because she mentions like the kind of love only a a wood the branch of a willow tree could conjure.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: So she's telling us like this is a false love, this is a cursed love, and she's looking right at Bear when she says it, and of course he's looking down, and he knows, like you can tell by the expression on his face, like he knows that he created this, you know, completely unnatural version of Nikki.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I wanted to go ahead and I guess go into the personal mirror here for the screaming basement, just briefly touch on this.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say when I watched this movie, you know, it's a horror movie.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't really say it's a it's a movie that necessarily would make most people cry, but there was a scene that I cried a lot at when I first watched it because I could really relate to Nikki in this scene because I've been in that position.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously not cursed by one wish willow, but like where because I would say in psychological terms, I definitely had anxious attachment to romantic partners.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I remember saying and definitely feeling this sentiment of I'll be anything you want me to be, she says to him when she's on her knees, like just sobbing, like trying to figure out how do I get you to stay, how do I get this distance to go away so that I know that the connection is safe.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of us who have like, you know, very insecure and very what's the word, unstable connections.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can relate to this where we just try to grasp at straws of, you know, what can I do to make you want to stay?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can I do to remove this space?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because the space is making me feel very unsafe.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I really think a lot of that comes from childhood.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, we learn that our caregivers like are not as stable as we need them to be, because when you're a kid, you rely on your parents for everything.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to take that, you know, need to be taken care of and to be loved unconditionally and put that on other people.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I actually do believe after all the healing I've done, I think unconditional love is unrealistic and highly like unreasonably romanticized.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think unconditional love is real.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think unconditional love for yourself is real.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you can expect other people to love you unconditionally, and I only say that because there are certain conditions that if someone has enough respect for themselves, they would not put up with.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: But that scene with Nikki bargaining reminded me of my screaming basement because when I couldn't bear to be alone in my 20s, I would do the same kind of thing.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would find myself in a bargaining state where I would try to figure out, you know, who do you want me to be?
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because, and I've talked to my therapist about this, I was very good at being a chameleon.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was very good at shape shifting and trying to figure out, okay, you know, who do I need to be to hang on to this connection?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I can't figure out who you need me to be and I can't hang on to this connection, then who am I without you kind of thing?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had gotten comfortable understanding who I was in relation to my romantic partner, like whatever girlfriend I had at the time, that was who I was.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: That was my identity.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if that connection was shaky, then it would cause me to be in a huge state of fear.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now I was never like an aggressive type when I would get like that.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was much more like just kind of, you know, putting my tail between my legs, like crying, you know, just being very scared, very emotional, but very quiet about it.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because I also learned this when I was a kid to get to become quiet as if conflict rose, because especially in relation to my dad, it was much easier to just go quiet.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know they talk about, you know, fight or flight and then freeze or fawn.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would say I froze and I was fawn, like most of the time.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because it seemed to help with his temper the quieter I got.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I didn't fight, because I think had I been a fighter type or like more outspoken, he probably would have beat the shit out of me on more than one occasion.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: If I would have poked the bear, I think he might have done that.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of learned to be very passive and accommodating and just tried to, you know, soothe his temper.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Nikki's kind of doing the same thing here, it's not his temper, but she's trying to soothe his discomfort to get him back to a place of wanting to be near her.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's actually not for him, it's for her because he's she's trying to get him to calm down so that she can be calm.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that like little tricky thing because a lot of people who are like very codependent, like I was, and anxiously attached, it can kind of look like you're very selfless and like, oh, you put everyone first, but actually you're trying to calm the waters because your own boat is rocking, and that's very uncomfortable.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's actually a very selfish thing.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: It just looks like it's selfless, but it's actually not, it's just kind of covert selfishness.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of want to throw that in there that I could really relate.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: There was one relationship I had, like in my very early 30s, like this was the last relationship before I really started to heal.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: But my ex said to me, like, I'll never forget the moment because I was like, we were at my house, and we I don't even know exactly what we fought about.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember the feeling and the body posture I had because I was sitting on the floor, like in like my knees up to my chest, like my head, you know, down, like a little kid.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I went into like a little kid state of like just this fear of being abandoned, you know, that's what it felt like.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: And she was talking to me, like standing up and like walking towards the door, but she was like, you know, I could leave you right now if I wanted to.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like she was threatening to end the relationship.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just sitting on the floor, like kind of rocking, trying to like soothe myself, but probably also disassociating because I still hadn't discovered that my divinity and my inner strength, my worth was all within me.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't attached to anyone outside.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that yet.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I was sitting on the floor rocking like a kid, you know, trying to soothe myself.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't say anything.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: There were so many feelings I had.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had so many emotions in me, but I really couldn't vocalize them because in my childhood, when I would vocalize my feelings, it was often met with judgment, more anger, more distance.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I learned through experiences that sharing my feelings was dangerous.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would always lock up, I would always shut down.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it was never in a punishment way.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like, it was, well, if I speak, it might make it worse.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll just be quiet.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I literally couldn't speak.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the more upset someone got, the more quiet I would get.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: The more, you know, because fear begets more fear or negative emotion.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because if someone's getting more animated, more angry, more whatever, that's going to also inspire fear in you as well.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: If someone gets quieter, more understanding.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's funny because I saw this.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Interview with Martha Beck, who has written books, and she had struggled with anxiety, and she talked about like how you would approach a scared puppy.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, you know, most of us would get down and lower our voices and be gentle and you know, sensitive and calming, not more animated and more aggressive because that would scare the puppy.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like, yeah, if you think of yourself as having, I guess, well, it wouldn't be an inner puppy, it would be an inner child, but you know what I mean?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're dealing with a frightened part of you, the gentler, calmer, and more soft-spoken you can be to yourself, like the better chance you have of not falling into that disassociated state where you're held captive by someone much younger than you, because your inner children, when they pop up like that, they don't know how old you are.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: My inner child definitely didn't know at the time that I was 31 years old, had no idea.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really important to remember that too.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you can be mindful enough to remember that this is a moment that is kind of teleporting you back to a time in your life that actually was true, like where you were unsafe.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not a delusion or an illusion, that's true.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if you can remember that, then you don't have to stay in the screaming basement, essentially.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of what I want to leave this with here is you know, we don't know about Bear's life.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of touched on this in the last part, part one here, that we don't know his upbringing, but I would venture to guess that he's got some trauma in his childhood, being as passive as he is and agreeable and unable to express his emotions, he's probably got some trauma there.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the lesson I take from the movie is whatever created the screaming basement, because the screaming basement can also be looked at the fracturing of, and this is kind of gonna bring IFS in again, the fracturing of your parts.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to the podcast, IFS is internal family systems.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a psychologist, I've just studied this a lot because I think understanding myself as parts has helped me heal a lot.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That I think when you have trauma, you have parts of you that sever off and split off.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: And those parts, depending on how traumatized they were, can pop up in situations that remind you of when they originally were fractured off from you, and they show up not knowing how much time has passed because they're kind of frozen until you go back and bring them back.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: And to do that is, you know, reparenting, basically giving yourself the love, the consistency, the safety that you didn't get.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the path back to reclaim those parts.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that we can say in obsession, Bear definitely has parts that like led him into I would say a hyper fantasy state because he holds on to these ideal pictures versus going down into his screaming basement down into the depths, healing it, and building an actual beautiful house with a consenting woman, if that's what he desired.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: He instead tries to take external power to basically override the screaming basement, which is a very disastrous way to approach things because it always eventually circles back to the foundation, and that's what we see at the end of this movie to his own death.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I would take that from this absolutely brilliant, low-budget horror film obsession.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely love it when it first came out.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was literally obsessed with it.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: I watched it quite a bit because I was like, there is a lot in here, and I knew I was gonna make it part of my podcast series.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't sure where, but I figured since it's Halloween, I was like, it is technically a scary movie, it's a horror movie, like that's on theme for this time of year.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I also thought, as I said before, which I will go ahead and just reiterate this.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first uh experience with the podcast, thank you for sticking with the full episode here.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: The next series is going to be V for Vendetta, and I like that we're gonna have the same theme into V for Vendetta, but instead of a fixed relationship, it's going to show the damage of a screaming basement and a beautiful house built over it for an entire country.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I like the theme because it's gonna carry over into V for Vendetta, and of course, for those of you familiar with the film, remember, remember the 5th of November will be the first episode of V for Vendetta, so there will be two episodes next week as well.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh typically I only drop episodes on Fridays.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: But with that, Divine Listeners, I think I will leave it there.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: I do not have a divine dialogue question off the top of my head, but I will go ahead and put one in the show notes for you to chew on if you'd like to take a stab at answering it.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you so much for joining me, and I will see you on the 5th of November.