#sp7 meta

[waveridden]

having a sp7 relapse is such a feeling because it’s not even nostalgia for who i was at the time. i was 20 and so very fucking depressed. the show had its lows alongside the highs. but it was so beautiful. edgy surrealist comedy with meta commentary on how fucked up it is playing a fictional version of yourself. they had a gaming youtuber who got a disney channel show about gaming and he couldn’t be a regular anymore so they shot him in the head and it rewrote the brain chemistry of me and every other 20-year-old i knew at the time. there were even beautiful women there

[sugarpinecrews]

       Lately, there have been some pretty symbolic songs used, at least for Parker’s resurrection arc. I’m only going to focus on one of the songs in this post, the iconic “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, used in the beginning of “Autumn’s sick...”. Let’s start, shall we? 

( note: this is gonna get weird, but I promise I don’t make a single daddy joke in this entire post. Promise. )

         Firstly, let’s recall what Jeremy said regarding Parker’s...upbringing ( or lack thereof ). In “No more Jeremy.”, he explained that Parker was a “laboratory baby”, created with “genetic modification and research”, along with “goat DNA...a lot of UV rays, and soil”. The whole process apparently took “two years”, prompting Cib to stutter out “so you’re his...[...]...dad?”. That’s all fine and dandy, except Parker spoke about having a dad, even going so far as to apparently have one. You could maybe argue that Jeremy constructed this fake life for him, but that isn’t what this post is about. For simplicity’s sake, let’s ( regrettably ) believe Jeremy.

          So. In season one, we never saw Parker actually acknowledge the fact that Jeremy supposedly made him, so we can probably assume that Parker had no idea he was a little boy made of goat DNA and soil. However, in “Autumn’s sick...”, we see the camera focus on Parker ( who is facing Jeremy at the time ) in time with the line ‘I’m gonna be like you, dad, you know I’m gonna be like you’. In accordance with what follows in the next videos, you can probably assume that Parker, at this point in canon, knows all about the whole Jeremy thing. With that concept in mind, let’s get into the analysis ( note: again, for simplicity’s sake, I’m only going to use the lyrics that I believe apply most to the characters ).

          My child arrived just the other day, he came to the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away, and he was talking before I knew it, and as he grew, he’d say, “I’m gonna be like you, dad, you know I’m gonna be like you”.

          Firstly let me tell y’all I never realized it started with ‘my’ instead of ‘a’ and now I need to have a moment. So...’my child’. Jeremy’s son, which is a weird way to say it, is now back from the dead. When he comes home for the first time, he seems...lost. He looks around, looks genuinely in wonder at the fact that he’s here; while he was gone, a lot has happened. We can assume based on the interactions in “Eye for an eye.” that Andrew eventually moved on and, at least partially, got over the grief and loss. Jeremy presumably moved on, as well, as we saw him throughout the season doing his usual charades. When Parker comes home, he almost immediately balls up a fist at the sight of the table, and that action alone is much different from something that the old Parker would do. Since coming back to life, he’s learned to be angry, learned to fend for himself; he’s learned to walk, metaphorically speaking, without Jeremy’s assistance. He’s seemed to have hardened just a bit, to be at least a bit more reflective. He doesn’t say it out loud, but the next few videos can attest to the fact: he wants to be like Jeremy, at least to some extent. With the burst of ( almost ) violence, the dark outfits ( as opposed to the soft pastel looks he was servin’ up last season ). Whether this be in some attempt of protecting himself emotionally, physically, mentally --- we don’t know, but for some reason or another, Parker wants to be like Jeremy.

          My son turned ten just the other day. He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on, let's play. Can you teach me to throw?". I said, "Not today, I got a lot to do", he said, "That's okay.” And he walked away but his smile never dimmed and said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah, you know I'm gonna be like him.".

        Again, we’re assuming here that Parker is aware, at this point in canon, that Jeremy created him. Even without being aware, though, we can still look back at season one and immediately recognize the difference in their friendship. We’ve come a long way from Jeremy taking Parker’s presumed dead body home, Jeremy apparently killing Parker once before, and...well, you get the idea. It was always just Jeremy being in charge and Parker winging it from there; there was never any deep, familial bond, never any heavy friendship. In fact, Jeremy doesn’t even seem that attached to the guy past his usual creepy ways until he’s asked to help bury Parker’s dead body. He then goes through this whole elaborate plot, defending later that “[he] want[s] restitution” for the loss. We don’t see anything even remotely emotional until “My dad’s new girlfriend.”, when the two finally reunite ( and, despite literally dying and digging his way out of his own grave, Parker’s smile still doesn’t dim when he sees Jeremy again ). You can possibly argue, based on Parker’s response seeing Jeremy again for the first time, that he possibly thought more of Jeremy than he did of Parker, though that is mostly up to personal speculation at this point.

         Well, he came from college just the other day, so much like a man I just had to say, "Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?". He shook his head and said with a smile, "What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys. See you later, can I have them, please?".

         On screen, we don’t see many interactions between Jeremy and Parker other than their reunion, but we can assume based on Jeremy’s individual actions and statements that he’s excited, or even proud, that Parker has returned. We see Jeremy actually showing emotion while shopping ( for snowglobes? We never got an answer for that one.), we see him staring in shock when Andrew tries to kill Parker, and we even have him very happily torturing Steven with the news. Parker, on the other hand, doesn’t seem all that thrilled. In the few scenes we have of him since his return, he’s seemed brooding, upset. He drives to Sami Jo’s apartment ( which is a discussion for another time ) and fails at his attempt to presumably murder Cib in his sleep, he scares Andrew half to death by just appearing out of thin air. He tells Andrew, “The last thing I remember, I was on the floor knowing that I was gonna die, and that was the last thing before I woke up. It’s not the same, though.”. The meaning of that last part is a bit vague, but the gist of the point is that this is not the same Parker that was killed back in July, and Jeremy has to recognize that. After all, we never see Jeremy freak out at the return of his dead friend; if anything, we can assume that Jeremy helped Parker to plan his reunion with the boys. If that’s the case, then Jeremy must, at least to some extent, be proud of Parker for his new persona, his new take on things. I know I would be if that was my...little fuckin’ dirt, goat, soil son.

[farklelucas]

i have… a couple questions

[parkermcghghy]

hell yeah ev what's ur Hot Take? I love theories

So,Hottake 1: this isnt the first time bb8 has been able to edit sp7 contentNow this, goes back to Boy Date in my gay opinion, where its ooc in the level of meta that this isnt a character playing a character this is a character just chillin. Now, cib getting jumped by those kids happened here. He was shot in the neck with a poorly edited dart which was lingered on for an awkward amount of time. It was a funny goof but on the other hand just simply looked fake. I don't have much articulation on this point other than, we know steve and autumn edit these videos, we Know that isn't either of their editing styles. We know this is out of the norm.More recently- the last alt life video as this is being written- we have footage we shouldn't have of Cib realizing he's fucked. Now this isn't out of the ordinary for sp7. The inclusion of dramatic clips has been- straight up amazing from an audience perspective, dramatic irony et al. This is in the previously established sp7 style but in the context of the video it makes one wonder where the footage came from. I cant propose an answer to this but its interesting to think about.Hottake 2: Michael Jarvis has personal connections to bitter bonsai 8. Dawg this is the one I'm more invested in pulling apart. Bb8 had a small pressence in early s3 and it grew and grew as James, FAJAM and Michael grow closer. Now FAJAM and Michael have a preexisting relationship, but Michael, having two sp7 boys is...something. Now to cut to the chase I'm not saying BB8 is a ploy to separate James and FAJAM from sp7, play the long game. Michael is a man who for a living studies trends in hollywood. Sees how things fluctuate. He sees the trends of web-based celebrities more times than not in the positive and, if these groups rise and can manage on their own- whats the point in keeping him around?Conquer the new frontier, manifest destiny on those who threaten the old way of life and get a bunch of your daughters friends to pick them off one by one.THATS my hottake at least.

[violetkatgrove]

well, there was a joke on the subreddit like "wow i can't believe sp7's becoming an arg" when they had a 'kidnapping arc/channel hacking' but there was 'serious plot points before', they do call it 'alternative lifestyle' so i'd say it's meta/ar w/o the "G" part

g OD

10/10 th o omg

[vivamoto]

The alluring Saroléa MANX7 electric motorcycle - 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds

The alluring Saroléa MANX7 electric motorcycle – 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds

In 2010, the Saroléa name was resurrected, after nearly 40 years, when it was bought by twin brothers Tortsen and Bjorn Robbens, who wanted to develop and build high-performance 100% electric race machines.

Up until 2014, the first SP7 race bike was built by hand at their workshop in Belgium. All components were designed and engineered by Torsten Robbens.

At the 2014 Isle of Man TT Zero, racer,…

[mariayenica-blog]

Iglesia de Dios Todopoderoso ——(V) - ¿Quién verdaderamente concedió el camino de la vida eterna a la humanidad?

Iglesia de Dios Todopoderoso ——(V) – ¿Quién verdaderamente concedió el camino de la vida eterna a la humanidad?

Iglesia de Dios Todopoderoso ——(V) – ¿Quién verdaderamente concedió el camino de la vida eterna a la humanidad? El Señor Jesús dijo: “Pero quien beba del agua que Yo le daré, nunca tendrá sed; sino que el agua que Yo le daré será en su interior una fuente de agua que fluye hacia la vida eterna” (Juan 4:14). El Señor Jesús es el…

[sugarpinecrews]

Okay, let’s go step-by-step through the Parker McGhghy death story. We all know the beginning ( end ? ) of the story — Cib breaks in, there’s a brutal fight, ‘Bell’ by the Chromatics is playing dramatically in the background. But what happened after that?

Note: this post contains heavy discussion of death, decomposition, funeral procedures, homicide procedures, and Disney. Read at your own risk.

        First, let’s clarify the connections Parker had, in canon, to people outside of Steven’s circle. We have Jeremy and Andrew, roommates who were mysteriously absent that night, and we have a confirmed attachment to Disney. That’s right, Parker Plays was a canon thing in this universe (see: ‘The third wheel’, ‘This is why you shouldn’t fall in love.’ ). In ’What do we do with the body?’, James says they’ll make a big post, tell everyone that Parker “is working on a secret project”, that he “went to another country”, that “he told [Cib]” because they were friends, but he didn’t tell anyone else. We see Jeremy being asked to bury the body, but Andrew doesn’t learn about it until later. If James and the rest of the gang did in fact make that post, then that could shed a negative light on them once the truth comes out, but we’ll come back to that.

         With that out of the way, we move on to the first attempt of a burial. Parker is buried in Jeremy’s backyard, and later, in ’Don’t listen to the news…’, it’s explained that a body was found outside of an apartment complex somewhere. The body is described as a young male between the ages of 20-25, with a cause of death being possible trauma to the head. Sound familiar? If it does, then that’s because you’ve seen the video before and know the rest of it; Jeremy tells SP7 that he told the authorities the body was Parker’s, and the reporter even says they’ve “[since] closed the investigation” and that they’ve “sent the body [for] an autopsy”. We aren’t told if Jeremy personally told them or if he attempted to do it anonymously, and we’re also not told if his death and his connections with Disney were ever matched up. 

         …and this is where things get a little tricky.

         In ‘No More Jeremy.’, it’s explained that Parker was created by Jeremy, using goat DNA, soil, and a whole bunch of other weird ingredients. He defends that it was an “expensive product and [SP7] ruined it”. Since Parker was a “laboratory baby”, would he even be in any database or system at all? Would his DNA even exist as human? If the authorities could possibly ID the body using the usual methods, would that even work? We’re assuming that, despite Parker being man-made, he did still live a normal life ( presumably with Jeremy feeding him lies? Maybe fabricating an elaborate backstory for the guy? ). I mean, Parker is confirmed to work for Disney, and that may be just the loophole this plot needed…but let’s come back to that.

         The body, anonymously or not, was revealed to the LAPD to be Parker’s, but we don’t know exactly what happens next. If Jeremy didn’t give his name or identity when giving this tip, then he wasn’t immediately attached to the body. If a body isn’t immediately claimed, then it’s held by the city for a certain amount of time until someone does claim it ( be it by a family member, a friend, etc. ). Usually it’s open to be claimed for a few days before the city makes a decision. If it’s not claimed in this time frame, it’s usually given away for science reasons, but that’s typically more applicable to fresher cadavers. Parker has been dead now for…two weeks? Three? So his body is not going to be super useful. If this is true, then the next step for unclaimed bodies is a trip to the local potter’s field. That’s called different things in different places, but the gist of it is this: a place where unclaimed cadavers are buried three deep, countless across in unmarked graves.

         However, that adventure is reserved for human bodies only, and keep in mind that Parker was supposedly made from a whole lot of not human things. It’s entirely possible that, if DNA testing was applicable to the pile of skin and extremities presented to them, it would come back inconclusive ( which would be fucking weird, testing a dead dude’s body and getting back nothing but goat DNA and some dirt ). So if the body was said to be Parker’s, then really all they would have to go by is word of mouth on this one, especially considering standard testing isn’t working and the body is severely decayed at this point. Now. Remember what I said about unclaimed bodies? Yeah, forget all of that.

        In ’Day of the dead dude.’, we see a real, official burial site, complete with a tombstone and some flowers. This means that, one way or another, the body was not only claimed, but someone also paid to have a proper burial of the deceased. Hell, someone was even visiting the site. So, regardless of whether or not Parker was a real person or not, the body was still claimed and buried properly. Of course, you can argue that maybe Jeremy buried the kid himself, maybe he didn’t get into contact with a funeral director or anything ( which would be pretty difficult considering the local authorities had, at one point, possession of the body ), but hey. This is Jeremy, he’s a constant outlier to those death standards. Remember what I said about Disney being a saving grace? About that message James said they would put out eventually coming back to haunt them?

         In the aforementioned video, we get a good look at the tombstone, but we can really only see two things: part of the last name, and the death date. The latter, of course, is July 28th, 2017, and the last name, as most people on this site have already figured out, is probably ‘McGhghy’. If you watched Anti-Social, then you’ll remember the name, but if you didn’t, you probably don’t have any clue what I’m talking about right now. That, my dear reader, is the saving grace Steven Suptic prayed for every night: a last name for Parker is never said in Sugar Pine 7 canon. Never, in any video he was ever in or not in, is his last name ever spoken; now, we can assume, for simplicity’s sake, that he used his ‘real name’ when working with Disney — we can also assume that Jeremy is a sneaky little man who knows the ins and outs of aliases and alibis. So, although Parker (Coppins?) is a Disney boy who went missing, Parker McGhghy’s body was found brutally murdered outside of an apartment complex. With me so far?

          With that in mind, let’s think back to what James said they would tell the world; “he’s working on a special project, he went to another country, he didn’t tell anyone”. That would sound shady if he was referencing, say, a Disney boy, maybe the star of Parker Plays, but Jeremy could easily ensure that Parker’s name and story were completely different in those two groups. Remember, we have confirmed evidence that the body was in fact decomposing at a semi-normal rate, which means that by the time the body is revealed to the public, it’s pretty fucking gross. Like, real bad. Bad to the point of it probably not being too recognizable if you didn’t really know the guy, and bad enough to where if someone claimed it was a certain Disney boy, you couldn’t really prove that statement true. Now, if a roommate solemnly claimed it to be that of his loving friend, Parker McGhghy…well, then that’s a little bit more believable. Especially if Jeremy, as we could probably expect, had an entire lifetime of details and information on Parker on the ready.

         So. Parker (McGhghy) is presumably buried and given a proper service, though we aren’t sure exactly how much was spent on the ordeal. We can probably assume not much since, in ’Treasure hunt.’, it’s confirmed that Jeremy and Andrew lost their shared house. Either they went into debt without Parker’s end of the rent coming in, or they spent so much money on the burial that they went broke on their own — either way, Parker is buried, and either way, that body is in a box buried beneath some dirt. That’s a given fact, not counting Jeremy’s many variables: it’s nearly impossible to bury a body without an official of some sort involved, no matter the circumstances at play here. So Parker is put in a box and put in some dirt, buried at least a few feet deep. These boxes aren’t extremely air-tight, but they also are usually secured shut, meaning that if you woke up inside of it, you wouldn’t have much time before suffocation started to sink in.

         Assuming Parker didn’t get reborn with super-strength, he would probably have a hard time pushing the top off of this thing…if it was secured shut. Knowing Jeremy’s connections and creepy persuasion, however, we can probably assume that it wasn’t. So Parker wakes up, shoves the top open, and has to literally dig his way up out of his own grave, all before he suffocates. The rest of the story — Cib resurrecting him with a demonic ritual, etc. — is totally up to interpretation and future videos, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. 

[sugarpinecrews]

I know what you’re thinking. “Bell, are you really making another Parker meta analysis post?” 

Yes.

       I figured now is as good a time as any to put out my lengthy discussion of Parker and his abuse and, hopefully, recovery. This post contains detailed talk of emotional abuse, physical abuse, PTSD, depression, murder, and death, so please do not read if you are uncomfortable with any of those topics. Special thanks to @nicedynamites and @parkermcghghy for helping me compile everything !!

       So. Let’s get started, shall we?

       Before we begin, first let me lay out the basics of what emotional abuse means. One definition states that it is “any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, infantilization, or any other treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth”, and most other sources will agree on a similar definition. With that, many instances of emotional abuse involve the act of gaslighting, which is defined as “a form of manipulation that seeks to...destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief”. Sound familiar? If not, read this article detailing what a victim would feel in a gaslighting situation. Remind you of anyone?

         To save you the challenge of rewatching the entirety of season one for evidence, I’m going to supply some highlights of the gang being manipulative towards Parker. Cue the montage...

          Cib, to no one’s surprise, may be the one to do it the most. He questioned Parker’s ability to do something with Parker standing there, told Steven to leave Parker behind, refused to invite Parker on a group outing, and, along with the other boys, was just straight up rude to Parker throughout most of this video. Not to mention the video literally titled, “Heaven is a place called: Anywhere Parker isn’t.”, in which Steven belittles and berates him. Steven even installed security cameras in Parker’s house and admitted to following him around, in defense of just wanting to keep up with whether or not Parker was doing what was asked of him. In the same video, Steven seems to fake a genuine compliment, to which Parker responds, “I feel like you’re lying, but I’m fine with that”. Steven, on a separate occasion, confronts Parker, says that breaking into his house should motivate him to work on the things he needs to, and James, after putting Parker through hours of useless ‘training’ and such, told Parker “I won’t put you through this shit anymore unless I see fit”. There are many more instances, but that’s just a handful of the sort of emotional abuse Parker was put through. Now, on to the physical abuse he was put through.

            Unlike the aforementioned sort, James is the one most guilty of physical abuse. According to Steven in this video, “James has a history of hurting Parker, both emotionally and physically”. He’s shoved Parker away from him, randomly started punching him, socked him in the face when Parker genuinely asked if he was liked, and accidentally punched him this time, too, in which Steven’s narration was “I just knew Parker would make a big deal out of [this]”. As soon as Parker left the room, Steven told James, “You need to apologize to Parker, otherwise we’re never going to get him to do any more merch”. Later in the same video, James admits to being physically abusive, though says that he both 1) isn’t sorry, and 2) believes that most of it is Parker’s fault, anyway. 

            I’m not going to discuss the Sami Jo plot too much because we all know every detail of it already; the gist of it is that Parker fell in love, expressed this concern to Steven ( and only Steven ), and yet Steven thought, “I never knew Parker would tell me his deepest, darkest secret, so the least I could do is tell Cib immediately”. In ‘This is why you shouldn’t fall in love.’, Steven tells Parker that he told Cib about it, and his narration later adds, “Karma does come around, bitch”, and later on in the video, he adds that he was getting sick of dealing with Parker’s issues so he offered to let Parker leave him alone. He even says that, “[Parker] is nervous, and I can’t blame him. Oh wait, yes I can, because this is entirely his fault”. In the end, he abandons Parker completely. The rest of the story goes as we all know it does; Parker and Cib try to talk it out, Parker walks away, and Cib breaks in days later to confront him once again. 

            “Are you a good listener, Parker?”             “I don’t --- I don’t know what that means.”             “It’s a simple question.”             “Are you drunk right now? You can’t --- you can’t be here,”

            Cib tries to push him, and Parker, shockingly enough, stands his ground. 

           “Stop, stop, stop --- “

           And then, well. The rest of it isn’t a story you narrate over. Parker stands up for himself against the abuse, the possibility of violence, and he is, just like always, punished for it. He pleads ( “I didn’t do anything!” ) and yet Cib still doesn’t stop; Parker dies that night and, as we learned in ‘Autumn’s sick...’, he remembers everything. He came back to life through mysterious circumstances, but he seems to remember everything that happened to him. No videos have come out since then, but I can only assume that this trauma could cause a case of PTSD; according to this article, some of the risk factors for developing PTSD after a traumatic event include getting hurt, feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear, and having little or no social support after the event. Sound familiar so far? Of course, this last part was just me speculating, and there’s also a good chance of Parker doing the opposite of lashing out; maybe he will remain soft-spoken, remain fearful and afraid of his friends and their hidden actions and motives. Only time will tell. 

            ( Personally, I would love to see Steven and the gang admit to being abusive to their friend, both physically and emotionally. I would love to see Steven own up to this, and I would love to see Parker’s response, whatever it may be. )

[sugarpinecrews]

            Wait, here’s a parallel no one’s discussed here yet.

            First, let me point out a line we all focused on in the beginning of the season but have probably forgotten about by now. In ‘What do we do with the body?’, Cib shows up in one of Steven’s shirts, proclaiming “I can’t be me, I’m not a murderer”. We all thought it would lead into Cib being more obvious with copying his friends, but that hasn’t really happened much. We’ve seen him become aggressively affectionate, we’ve seen him start to branch off and do more without the main crew, but that isn’t really mimicry behavior. That isn’t Cib not being ‘Cib’, but more just his coping methods developing into something tangible and a little more reasonable.

            Now, in the new video, Steven says the line “ever since we, I... no, we killed, no, Cib killed Parker...”, and that really isn’t anything new. Steven, for a few videos now, has been flubbing that line and saying that they killed him rather than Cib alone ( a much different story than in the season premiere, where he plainly says “still, you killed him, though. We helped bury him. You killed him”. Throughout the season now, he’s gone from ‘you killed him’, to ‘we killed him’, and now, for the first time, ‘I killed him’.

            A few people have already pointed out how strange Steven’s behavior was in this new episode. The way he grabbed wood he knew wouldn’t fit, the way he drilled directly into glass because ‘the glass is the strongest metal’. Maybe you can attribute his stupidity to his recovering from mono, or you could remember what Cib said in the season premiere: ‘I can’t be me, I’m not a murderer’. 

           Who else do we know who does dumb shit like that? Who else would drill into glass, would google ‘how to stop evil doers’ when faced with possible murder --- who do we know that’s constantly been an idiot when faced with troubling situations, and who do we know that’s escaped danger just by being an idiot? If you guessed Cib, you were right. 

[sugarpinecrews]

     The new episode was a wild ride, so here’s the long anticipated James analysis post. This post discusses the two big points of his characterization, both his depression and his childhood spent in the foster care system. All information is from research and personal experience --- if you have more you would like to add, feel free to reblog with your addition!

     Now. Let’s get started, shall we?

     In the new episode, James comes clean about his Water Warriors story, the truth being that, well, it’s a lie. After all this time, it only took Steven threatening unemployment for James to confess this --- that’s an important point that we’ll come back to later. As he begins to tell his story, he starts it off by saying “[he] always imagined [his] life would be different”. He wanted to have a family, to be loved; he ends this by saying “sometimes, you imagine something for so long, that it becomes real to you”. This confirms the story that follows: he has lied about being a Water Warrior for so long, that he started to just believe it. He wanted it to be the truth, because it was just about all he had.

      As he continues, he tells them that he doesn’t have a family ( covering up a previous lie about his father being a Water Warrior and occasionally sending him care packages and missions ). He explains that when he was an infant, his family left him at a group home and he grew up there. Depending on your sources, that story should send a chill down your spine: in more recent years, the average stay for a child in a group home isn’t but maybe a few years at best. Most end up hopping from foster family to foster family --- sort of temporary homes until something more permanent is found. There are many reasons why a child doesn’t find a permanent home, but the important point to note here is that James says he grew up there. This implies not only that he didn’t hop between temporary household to household, but that his main residence was a group home, presumably the only one he was ever placed in.

      Before we continue, let me share some information on what growing up in that environment must have done to him. Most sources will tell you that aging out of the system --- that is, reaching the age of 18 and no longer being young enough for the foster care system to take sole responsibility for you --- is detrimental to many factors in life. Children who age out are less likely to graduate from high school or higher education, are at higher risk of PTSD and other related mental illness, and may have more difficulty relating and interacting with people outside of that environment. Sound like James? 

      Even in the beginning of the video, we see a couple visiting, presumably in hopes of taking in one of the children. We don’t hear or see any of that happening for James; other than his one instance smiling at another child, we don’t really get the feeling he had a very pleasant childhood. As the recruiter speaks, we see James sitting behind the rest of the kids, looking rather disinterested --- the other children have hopes and dreams of being something, of being different, and what does he do? He just shrugs. It isn’t until the recruiter says that what he does is “super exciting and important” that we see James perk up a little bit. 

        Now, let’s tie in another big facet to his character: countless times now, he’s said that he’s depressed. We can attribute this to different things, sure, but growing up being abandoned and unwanted could surely contribute to that diagnosis. Most people, when in a depressive spiral, tend to reach for anything that gives them any semblance of hope or worth; remember when the recruiter made him an honorary Water Warrior? This was seemingly the first time James felt wanted by someone, felt like he was actually worth something. This lie gave him a solid ground to steady himself upon in life, probably especially so after aging out of the system. When he left, he “made sure that [he] was in control” of his own life. If that meant lying to people so they thought he wasn’t just some abandoned kid who never amounted to anything? Then so be it.

         James supported this lie for years. He lied to Steven, to Cib --- hell, he even told Parker about it. The only reason he finally told them the truth is because Steven threatened him with unemployment, which would probably result in their friendship falling apart, which would lead to, you guessed it, even more abandonment. Those are “literally [his] best friends”, and it only took the threat of losing them and being alone again for him to fess up. 

[sugarpinecrews]

If you're interested in giving Steven Suptic more attention than necessary, welcome to a meta analysis of his character in Sugar Pine 7.

I feel like the most important point here is the most obvious; let’s think back to the beginning of the series. What did every video end with? Even when the group came to have a name, even when we had a main cast and a lot of really important plots developing, what did every single video end with? The Steven Suptic Experience. Not Sugar Pine 7, not something about the group as a collective --- just Steven, who existed as a sort of focal point of the show. Even with other plots happening, everything still, to some degree, revolved around Steven’s narrative alone.

I made a previous post about Steven beginning to lose control of his friends' lives. Up until Akrasia, and even during very specific parts of Akrasia, Steven had complete control over the group's experiences; his narration guided the subjects one way or the other, and he often was the driving force behind plot lines. Plots he wasn’t involved in didn’t get too much attention, always playing background noise to whatever Steven had going on. Even during the Parker plot line, we see Steven driving a plot that very clearly doesn’t involve him. We see him playing peer mediator ( even though he insists that he isn’t one ), and we see him almost always being in control of what happens. 

The end of Akrasia begins to mark Steven losing that control. Cib runs off to do the unthinkable, and he later blames Steven for his actions. Of course, Cib is the one who physically did it, but Steven was always the one pushing the plot forward, right? Steven was the one who very proudly told him what Sami Jo did, Steven was the one who, up until this point, was always leading Cib down whatever road Steven wanted him to go down, so why would this instance be any different? Why would Steven not want to be the center of attention, if he’s always been just that?

Especially in the newest video, we see him struggling with how independent his friends have become. James, who lied about his intentions and ran off to Hawaii, and Cib, who is beginning to lose himself completely --- these people Steven employed, these people Steven has put so much into, are finally beginning to branch out and leave him behind. And yeah, maybe his friends don’t realize how controlling Steven has been, maybe they aren’t doing this on purpose, but Steven must feel like they are. He must take this distance personally, because what has he ever done to make them upset? All he’s done is give them jobs, give them a friendship once in a lifetime. All he’s done is provide for them, and what does he get in return? A dead friend? A group of living ones who are starting to move on without him?

He struggles to be in control of what happens, and the story is slowly but surely becoming less of the Steven Suptic Experience. This isn’t his personal experience anymore, this is Sugar Pine 7. This is something he can no longer control, and I’m excited to see how that plot line progresses.

[sugarpinecrews]

I could go on forever about Steven losing control of his friends' lives, but the main point is the fact that all this really is his fault. This whole time, he's been playing puppet master with his friends; you do this, you do that. It's no surprise Cib is blaming him for Parker's death, because this is what Steven always wanted --- control of everything his friends did. Slowly, he's been losing those reigns. James left them ( lied to them, too ), Cib has made irreversible mistakes ( that Steven didn't mean to influence into causing ). Parker is dead because of cause and effect, but Steven didn't mean for that to happen, either, and now Cib is abandoning him. The one night a month they get together --- no bits or characters to hide behind --- and Cib bailed on him. What does Steven have left to control now? He doesn't have any friends available any time he needs; he lost that right when he indirectly killed Parker. tldr; Steven has always been obsessed with controlling his friends' actions, and now they're becoming more independent, leaving him behind, alone with the mess he made.

[sugarpinecrews]

A lot of people talked about --- at least around the start of the season --- Cib's character becoming more and more meta. In the season opener, we saw him very clearly putting up the facade we know him by --- the bro voice, the vaping, etc. --- as a defensive front, especially when Steven pressed him to be more serious. We see him using this 'character' as a coping mechanism, and that trend continues throughout the season, him flipping back and forth between the dumb character and a more serious, coherent one.

Now, we see Steven trying to tear him away from that. "We don't always have to do these little improv games", or the one night a month the two just hang out, no bits or characters allowed. He's trying to ground Cib back into reality, to force him to face what he did, and the saddest part about it is that Cib may not even realize he's doing it anymore. He may not realize he's coping this way, and that may be the worst tragedy so far.

[sugarpinecrews]

Can you in depth about how Jeremy was just okay with Cib? I mean it was weird I got the vibe that he was okay with Cib but still hates everyone else. But even that might be a cover up.

      Well, I’m not entirely sure Jeremy is being genuine here. If he is, it isn’t the sort we would consider to be friendly or kind.

              I would have to go back and re-watch some stuff to be sure on this, but from what I recall, Jeremy never really acted out in malice towards anyone. In fact, Jeremy was usually implied to be a part of the friend group — think back to the annual bi-weekly sleepover. Parker wasn’t invited, but Jeremy and Andrew were still there hosting it. They even implied they’ve done this before, which would mean Steven and company have gone out of their way to spend quality time with Jeremy ( and, maybe by extension, Andrew ).

              Despite Jeremy having creepy, mysterious quirks, we never really see him acting with ill-intent towards any of the main group. The first time we see this, to my knowledge, is in the season two premiere, when they ask him to help bury Parker. Jeremy thinks this over, and ultimately decides against helping them, and this is a change from our usual concept of his character; I mean, he brought tombstones on their camping trip. 

              ��Despite all of this, he decides against burying Parker. He also tells Steven and Cib to not bury him in their backyard. A reasonable request, considering he’s one of the few, at that point, who even knew of the murder at all — the boys do exactly what Jeremy told them not to, and then they’re faced with unfinished business; this is one of the few times Jeremy is being direct with his creepy persona aimed towards the SP7 crew. Personally, that video felt like he’d been planning revenge well before Cib and Steven showed back up, but that part’s up to you.

                Now, I’m not exactly sure what Jeremy had planned next. Maybe his whole plan was to just reveal the body and get his revenge — the news report did claim that they had suspects in custody, but everyone would could be a suspect was still walking around free. You can even see Jeremy’s computer screen in the new video, up on a Google search that reads ‘why do my friends keep dying’. Was him being open to an attack just a ploy? A way to get the boys all around him so that he can toy with them however he pleased? Maybe. It would explain how quickly he fell into such confidence ( it doesn’t explain the magic involved, but that’s a different discussion entirely ).

               In the new video, Jeremy explains that Parker was an experiment. This is odd, but nothing that isn’t already expected of him — Steven concludes that segment by saying he wanted to find Jeremy a new specimen, a new child to care for. He then promptly sticks Jeremy with Cib, which I thought was a little strange ( considering the fact that, for weeks now, Jeremy has been tormenting them due to the fact that Cib killed Parker ). 

               Is Cib going to be Jeremy’s new muse? Is he a Parker replacement? 

[sugarpinecrews]

After the latest episode, you may be wondering what our good boy Parker’s body looks like. If you are, then welcome to Body Decomposition 101, with bell. If you’re easily squicked out, I wouldn’t suggest reading any further. I should also add that I’ve never formally studied forensics; I’m just a kid with a special interest in the study. If you have any specific corrections, feel free to add them!

Now, let’s begin, shall we?

Okay, so depending on where you’re reading, there’s usually four or five stages of this process. Typically, those stages go fresh, bloating, decay, skeletal remains. The progress between those first two can take anywhere from two to six days, depending on the environment. Warm areas tend to encourage a quicker decay, but we’ll get to that point later. 

We can assume the time between his initial death and the body being given to Cib is anywhere from two to four days. This gives them time to clean up the mess and to get with Jeremy, presumably, the following day. The narration in the same video probably happens the day following, which puts us at at least two days after Parker’s death. In this time span, we can assume the body is being moved around, hidden, transferred between people, etc. etc., and that brings us to Steven remembering they never disposed of the fucking body.

So. Two days is a long time for a dead body. As a quick Google search can tell you, decomposition starts becoming noticeable even within the first few hours after death. Organs will fail and begin to decompose, the body very quickly loses temperature. Skin pales and starts to have a sort of sheen to it, then starts to become discolored as time goes on. Rigor mortis --- a fancy way of saying ‘wow that’s stiff’ --- sets in within the first few hours, and that doesn’t end until at least twelve hours later. So when they meet with Jeremy the following day, we can assume it’s been somewhere around twelve hours since Cib killed Parker, and the body is beginning to soften again. By the time they drive to the middle of nowhere to dispose of it, the body is already beginning to become discolored, mostly in blood pooling at the lowest point of gravity, meaning that he’s pale everywhere except for where his body is touching the ground --- that part is where the blood pools, causing a purple kind of discoloration in that area.

The next part of the timeline is a mystery, but what we do know is that it’s at least a day or two later when they remember the body again. For those keeping track, Parker has been dead now for anywhere from two to three days. This gives the body time to enter into the second stage of the process, and possibly the grossest: bloating. It’s exactly what it sounds like: since the gases stuck inside the organs don’t have any form of release, they just pile up, causing the corpse to puff out and look even more grotesque. By now, the blood has completely pooled at the lowest point of gravity --- possibly either his back or his front, depending on which position he was left in the longest --- and his skin is starting to look even more unrecognizable. It would probably have a green tint to it, having gone now from pale, purple, and now to greenish blue. This is also the stage where the smell is most noticeable --- people walking past the office or past a car in a parking lot would easily be able to smell it, though they may not know the source.

And that brings us to Cib. We can guess that Steven gave him the body around the time he remembered it, so anywhere from two to three days after the initial death. The body, at that point, is at its peak grossness, and we can only assume that Cib has kept it in the trunk of his car this entire time. Remember what I said about warm places encouraging a quicker decomposition? Well, the trunk of a car that’s driving around in 100 degree weather is a perfect breeding ground for a speedy decay --- this environment probably causes the body to pass into the third stage at least two or three days later, possibly even sooner. For those keeping track, this means that Parker has been dead for anywhere between four to seven days when the next stage begins to take place.

This next stage is the one most people think of when they think of the word ‘decomposition’ --- active decay. Depending on the source, this part of the process may still be counted as bloating, but for simplicity’s sake, we’re separating it. The body is finally done overreacting, and it’s finally ready to settle in; the body starts to shrink back down to its original size as the gases finally release themselves, causing a lot of really nasty liquid to ooze out of every orifice available. That liquid is mostly blood, and the body changes color yet again in this stage --- it now becomes a reddish brown shade as the skin, muscles, and other organs finally start to fall apart. Skin starts to slip around, hair and other smaller parts of the body ( nails, mostly ) can easily be pulled off. This stage can last anywhere from a week to about three or four, and a warm environment could easily speed this process up.

So. Cib says the body has been in the trunk of his car for weeks. This means that the body has not only been still and unmoved, but it also has had ample enough time to get far enough into this third stage. By the time Cib opens the trunk with Steven, Parker’s body looks possibly unrecognizable. His skin is reddish brown, possibly even darker, blisters are either visible or, in some cases, already split open against his skin, which can very easily be pulled apart. The liquids leaving the body could very well have stained the inside of the trunk, and that smell is still very much noticeable. Transferring the body from the trunk to the backyard has to be difficult, considering how fragile and decayed the corpse is at this point, and Cib’s going to be cleaning remnants of skin, hair, and indiscernible organs out of his trunk for weeks.