‘Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future,’ is a quote attributed to a great many people but seems to have been originally coined by Niels Bohr.
And you will see in a moment why it makes sense to start off this text with a quote by the great Danish physicist: Because we, too, will tentatively venture out from the seemingly fixed structure of the storytelling atom to the much, more more uncertain quantum mechanics of prediction and speculation. And in the end, we might discover that our mode of observation influences the results we believe to see in the particles we observe…
Nonetheless, predictions are always fun, don’t you think? So, I thought I’d try my hand at compiling a little list. (Many of the items on this list will seem familiar to you, yet some of them might look completely new and surprising).
Obviously, some of the predictions on the list will also turn out to be wrong and others might turn out to be right, or so I hope. (We can examine the right-to-wrong ratio afterwards if you like. Let’s hope it’s not too atrocious for my confidence in predicting future outcomes of other TV shows based on subtext and metaphor.) But as I’m sure you all understand, I don’t have a crystal ball, and I can’t really predict the future; I just know a few things about screenwriting and cinematography. That’s it. So, please take the entire list cum grano salis.
A lovely commenter had asked me quite a while ago how confident I was in my theories, which ones I felt unsure about and which ones I was very certain of. I never got around to replying (and I apologize!). But I hope this will make up for the long wait:
To at least gauge my confidence level in each of these predictions, I came up with a little eval system for today:
A=very confident this will happen
B=somewhere in the middle on that one
C=not sure at all this will happen
Shall we begin? Here’s the list:
(I think we will start with a cute prediction, just so we don’t get swallowed up by the whole dark stuff immediately, okay?)
1. There will be a marriage proposal between Wilhelm and Simon on the show. Confidence level: (You all know why I have bumped this up to B rather recently. I used to be more C-ish on that one, i.e. I used to be more cautious and thought this might just be the writers’ subtle way of telling us about their headcanon for what will happen after the show ends. But I’ve progressively got more confident in this prediction.) So, overall a B right now.
Wilhelm will propose to Simon, not the other way around.
Confidence level: (If there is, indeed, a proposal at all, then I’m very certain it will happen this way around.) A
Simon will be very surprised.
Confidence level: (If there is, indeed, a proposal at all, then I’m very certain Simon will be ‘shook’, as the young‘uns say.) A
(Quick disclaimer: The next one will deal with a difficult topic. In case you are specifically avoiding reading anything related to the topic of suicide, please just skip over bullet point 2) in its entirety, okay? Thank you.)
2. Wilhelm will try to commit suicide. I really regret we didn’t manage to discuss this one. I had a whole post about the subtext planned, but some other post just ate up all my time. So, this bullet point will have to do.
Confidence level: Used to be C because I had originally thought the writers might just offload that whole suicide storyline to one of the mirror characters, but turned into B after that on-the-nose ‘book discussion scene’ in season two.
The more interesting question is the one I would have discussed in the post I never got around to writing: How is Wilhelm going to do it?
You see, in a fictional context, the method a character uses to end their life (or at least attempt to do so) has to be metaphorically plugged into the rest of the subtext. This is not real life, after all. It’s fiction. So, everything about the suicide attempt should reflect not just the character but also the reason why the character is trying to kill themselves. (Macabre, I know. But that’s just how storytelling works.)
And while there are sadly far too many ways in which a person can try to end their life; in Wilhelm’s case, things aren’t that easy: I don’t think he would throw himself in front of a horse, for example. For the simple reason that this is basically Erik’s death-coded-as-suicide already (the show introduced a minor variation with the Ferrari and its infamous horse logo, but ultimately this is all ‘death by allegorical horse’).
Wilhelm’s suicide attempt will most likely not be a ‘suicide by allegorical horse’ because the ‘horse allegory’ won’t be the problem that’s (subtextually) causing his breakdown. Which leads me to the following speculation: If Wilhelm, indeed, tries to take his life at all (and please remember that I’m kinda B-ish on that one to begin with), then…
Wilhelm’s suicide attempt will be directly caused by the revelation of Simon’s backstory. (Although Wilhelm’s otherwise pretty shitty life as Crown Prince will certainly contribute to his decision, as well.) Confidence level: A
Now, as for the ways in which Wilhelm might try to do it:
Wilhelm will try to drown himself in the lake.
This is the only method I could come up with that would truly make sense on a metaphorical level (because of the ‘water’ metaphor): If Wilhelm’s suicide attempt is caused by the revelation of Simon’s backstory, then Wilhelm will feel like his life is not worth living anymore because that great love, those wonderful feelings that he had had for Simon all turned out to be treacherous and wrong. Well, ostensibly…The lake method would mean: Wilhelm would literally be drowning in his feelings.
Confidence level: C
(i.e. not sure at all; this is just me spitballing, trying to come up with something that makes sense in the subtext.)
Wilhelm won’t try to hang himself.
Confidence level: A
While we do have a ‘neck’ metaphor on this show, the conflict of him speaking out about his own sexuality has been (at least somewhat) resolved by the end of season two with that speech. Hanging would have made more sense in season one and two when he was literally forced to lie about himself. Wilhelm’s suicide attempt (if it happens at all) will be brought on by the revelation of Simon’s secret backstory.
Wilhelm won’t try to throw himself in front of that horse.
Confidence level: A
See above: We have a ‘horse allegory’ on this show. It means something else. (Boy, do I hope I’m right on that one.)
Wilhelm might try to shoot himself with one of the rifles at the shooting range.
Confidence level: C
(i.e. not sure at all, could make sorta, kinda sense; we have a ‘shooting range’ metaphor on this show, which is why the revelation of Simon’s secret might fit in here)
It would also give us a cool structural parallel:
Wilhelm almost shot August (a mirror character for Person X) at the shooting range, almost but not quite eliminating the dark force in the narrative that needs to be defeated. He didn’t shoot him, which is why there needs to be a season three.
If Wilhelm tries to end his own life in this way, this would give us the darkest moment in the story where it looks as if August (read: actually Person X) wins the subtextual ‘competition’ in the narrative because of our ‘competition metaphor’, remember?
Perhaps you can think of some more ways in which Wilhelm could try to end his life? (I don’t mean methods plucked from real life but specifically methods that fit the subtext of the script.) If you think of any, please let me know in the comments.
(Sorry again for bringing up this very disturbing topic. But fictional stories confront us with horrific imagery all the time; usually this is done to convey meaning through metaphorical means.)
Quick side note before we jump to bullet point 3): Did we actually ever discuss what Person X’s real name could be? I mean, this show clearly loves to hide a great deal of subtext in the names of its characters. So, it stands to reason that it would do so with the Big Bad™ of its story. I haven’t closely examined this question at all yet. (Perhaps we could get there by looking at the names of all the various Person X mirror characters? But that’s not to say that this has to be the path to finding the answer.) If you want, you can just throw me a comment with your speculation (just one line with the given name of Person X would suffice). I promise I haven’t looked at this question at all yet, and if you’re usually too shy to comment, this could be your great ‘coming-out moment’ on this blog (it’s just one name, after all).
Oookay, I’m going to stick bullet point 3) and the rest of the list under the cut for your reading pleasure. If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you might know most of them, but I’ve included a little something about ‘Mirroring with Side Characters’ at the end that you might find amusing.