#…here i was thinking my genloss fixation had worn off

[raynestormss]

As the episode goes on, Ranboo finds Charlie again. Apparently, even though Charlie “died” in the last episode, Showfall was able to bring him back. Charlie doesn’t have any memory of the last 2 episodes (he was also in episode 1 btw), and it’s unknown if Ranboo remembers them or not, as he changes the subject every time it’s brought up.

Eventually the two stumble on a room where they find Hetch dying. Showfall found him, and it seems they weren’t too happy with his plans to stop them. Hetch tells them where to go to find a (suspiciously convenient) big red button to completely shut down Showfall.

Along the way Charlie is killed by “Security” (basically a big wire monster?? it hasn’t really been explained yet lmao), but Ranboo is able to press the button, causing the whole mall to shut down.

Ranboo walks to the exit door. He turns around to make one final bow before leaving. As he does, the lights behind him flicker on to reveal Hetch standing behind him. Hetch grabs him and drags him away.

As the camera comes back on, we, the audience, see Ranboo’s head trapped in what is basically a small iron maiden. As it zooms out, we see the rest of him.

You know how my original post mentioned Ranboo being crucified? This is what I was referring to.

Hetch explains more: him hacking Showfall and working to free Ranboo was all a trick. The person who died wasn’t Hetch. Ranboo being “freed” from the mind control, the glitches, everything was just to make the show more exciting for the audience.

Speaking of the audience, they are given a choice. Either let Ranboo continued being mind controlled and preforming for Showfall until he dies, or kill him now.

While this is happening, Ranboo is regaining memories from his past. (Note: this isn’t noticeable in the episode itself, and will be something added in the Founders Cut. Since this sequence (and most of the show) was done live, the actor (also called Ranboo) likely just forgot to say something referencing it.)

Ranboo looks at the camera and pleads with the audience to just let him die, to not let him be trapped by Showfall for the rest of his life, and the audience votes to kill him.

The episode ends with the box closing on Ranboo.

…so how do we get a time loop out of this?

Well, Showfall has repeatedly shown their ability to bring their “actors” back from the dead. Charlie had died in both episode 1 & 2, yet he was still present in 3.

On top of that, Ranboo’s pose while being crucified (shown above) closely resembles the pose he’s seen in when first waking up in the very first episode.

(it’s a bit hard to see, but look at how his arms are sprawled out. The creator / actor (Ranboo) drew attention to this in their “director’s commentary”, so it was intentional.)

ALSO during the ending when Ranboo is asking the audience (and maybe Showfall as well) to let him die, he specifically says “I don’t want to keep doing this.” This could just mean something along the lines of “I’ve done this once and I don’t want to do it again”, or it could mean something like “I’ve done this so many times and I can’t keep doing it. Let this end.”

IN CONCLUSION: GenLoss: TSE being a time loop, while not explicitly confirmed, is quite likely due to a number of reasons.

Also you should still totally watch the episodes yourself. There are so many things about them that I couldn’t talk about, from humor to horror aspects, and (almost) all of it was done live & with only a basic script. (some of it had to be prerecorded to have it all happen in the same episode, such as multiple scenes before the crucifixion.)

(also also: the social experiments is only the first* of many “generations” that are planned! currently there’s only generation 1, a couple of teasers that came out before it (considered generation 0), and the Chronicle 0 twitter posts. you don’t need to watch anything before or after the 3 episodes to understand TSE though!)

thinking about how generation loss: the social experiments is a time loop.

thinking about how ranboo can’t remember anything before the resets until his crucifixion. does he remember the previous loops then? does he realize that even if when the audience chooses “die” that he’ll still be trapped?

“let me die” isn’t a plea to the audience, it’s a plea to showfall. a plea to just let it end. let them find a new hero.

“let me die and let it be permanent.”