#this could very well be the consequences of listening to woe.begone obsessively

[arthurtaylorlester]

you may have seen my previous theory on wtf is going on with john doe malevolent, but i have more proof this time to show for my hypothesis!

in episode one, we first hear someone turning on a radio, presumably in a car, listening to “You call it madness (but I call it love)” by Russ Columbo (not the 1946 version by nat king cole trio we all put in playlists lol), then arthur gain consciousness

afterwards, they are in bookstore when a radio starts playing the song again, the entity doesn’t see the radio, but he does recognise the song

both arthur and the entity recognise this is odd, since atp the entity had only been in arthur’s body for 20 odd minutes

but, if you’re caught up, you’ll recognise that this is moment directly parallels a scene in part 33

this, however is not the only time something like this happens. in part 5, john uses a turn of phrase

this moment is soon after arthur’s month-long coma, so unless lily had been reading robert frost to arthur (which john would’ve most certainly mentioned when arthur brought it up), he shouldnt have any way of knowing this sentence. 

the first time we hear the poem in full is in part 26

but even still, in the context of the moment, why does john know this poem? he’s had no moment since he came back to learn anything of the sort, even ignoring the time it’d take to memorise something like this.

before this, there are only two instances of 'miles to go before i sleep' appearing, once at the end of part 17 and just before arthur leaps of the edge in part 23

so now, my answer to all these questions is a bit weird.

in part 1, the entity says as follows regarding time in other worlds and the dark world as being timeless

which initially led me to reach the idea that john's forgetfulness in part 33 has to do with the time he spent away from arthur in s3, which he claims he does not remember.

i think he was actually sent back to the dark world and spent an indefinite time there, since there is none, causing him to forget finer details. but that raises leaves many questions unanswered, like why did the entity know the song before ever being with arthur?

i think it's time fuckery. the entity we see in part one could be some sort of future!john, at some point he could be sent back to the dark world indefinitely once more, than brought back via the book at a different moment in time that from which he left, the past.

this theory makes a lot of leaps, but it also gives reason to why john already knows call it madness and miles to go, i believe he might use both of these as some sort of anchor to not go mad himself in the dark world, thought he does end up losing parts of himself and of arthur. still, he isnt completely gone, which is why he's eventually capable of becoming john again

it also kind of explains the first sentence the entity ever says in the show

of course, on your first listen you assume he means what happened to arthur a few moments prior, but with the context of a timeloop, he could be referring to the whole shows events, even what we havent seen

later, when john says he doesn't remember who he is either, and arthur says

i understand that the entity knowing what he is might help them both, but it's still a weird thing to say. arthur has just woken up with a corpse and voice in his head, and acts like it's not his first time doing this? i'm not saying he'd remember, but it would make more sense if he was partially amnesiac to the future/past loops like the entity/john

also, i think it's important to distinguish the entity and john, the former being an amnesiac john who has only the potential to become john, but could just as easily become yellow.

last point is, obviously, also a massive stretch.

in part 9, after their first consequential argument (as in it nearly gets them imprisoned), arthur tells this fable to john

which yeah, could be foreshadowing john being the king in yellow in the s1 finale, but. it wouldn't make much sense since john doesn't permanently get him and arthur killed?

i think it goes like this, if it lines up with my theory.

john starts forgetting about the dark world, starts getting dicier and riskier with his and arthur's choices, whether it be about his deal with kayne or other future lies, but he pushes and he keeps pushing until both he and arthur meet their end. at some point, he gets himself sent back to the dark world and arthur killed/otherwise indefinitely unavailable, and as he does, he says "it is in my nature", so the last thing he tell arthur isnt sorry, but an excuse. perhaps they end on bad terms, after all he's promised to not let him drown.

he is left there to rot in his misery with only faint memories of his new self (significant moments, like him telling arthur the poem) and after he starts forgetting, a long time for a place with no time, he is pulled into the book in the past, eventually reaching arthur again. he might recognise arthur's voice, but he might not remember enough at this point, having turned back into the entity, no longer being john.

but hey. this is based on my relisten of s1 and little else. i love stretching the canon to make it make sense lmao

edit 05/12/23 — further proof i only now noticed in episode 30 “The Tenant”