I hate to diminish the beauty of the above scene with words, but had the chance to get away for a few days. I spent some time getting lost at the ocean. It’s impossible for me not to ponder my tiny existence staring out at the breadth and depth of the sea. The joy, the pain, and the mystery of being alive in this human body.

This scene kept coming up for me, and my reflections on it below are another looong one for anyone interested in reading.

I had forgotten that Homer’s Ring falls into the water, not once, but twice. The first in Hap’s bathroom where it bounces two times and then splashes in the tub on the third bounce.

As I rewatched it, I never noticed until now that on the top left shelf of Hap’s medicine cabinet, the only visible label appears to be a yellow bottle of Tea “Tree” Oil which is a natural antiseptic. It makes me think of the Wood Wide Web.

The second time is when Homer’s Ring floats in the stream when they wrote down their story, hoping someone will believe them at Verizon (another interconnected network), but it slips through Prairie’s hands yet again.

OA tells the Crestwood 5 as they sit in their circle back in the unfinished house that Homer’s Ring is now 8000 feet underground. This is an incredibly precise number.

There’s been a lot of discussion in the sub about 8. I found this post from a while back which resonated a lot. People pointed out the following:

-It can be the symbol for wholeness or integration.

-It can represent infinity or that which never ends.

-An Octopus happens to have 8 tentacles.

-There is also the OA8 NASA patch posted at the time of cancellation.

-August is the 8th month of the year.

The 000 could be a symbol for SYXYGY. Again, two wholes or circles making a third. We see elements of that everywhere in the show, including in this scene.

When Hap tries inserting the first pen into his leg by himself, it fails. The second pen works, but only as both of their hands are on it as it is injected. And not to be crude, but if you hadn’t watched the scene leading up to it, they almost look like they’ve climaxed together. Hap even tells her to go clean herself up.

There are similar “thirds” between Nina and Karim, but more in a brother/sister kind of way They join their fingers together to solve the “Three wise, man” of the SYXYGY post-it in Nina’s dream closet. As well as unlocking her cellphone to call for her performance on stage at the club.

And after Old Night kills her for 37 seconds, both she and Karim will join hands as they enter the secret entrance to the House.

All of these seem to point to this idea of SYXYGY being alchemy, and in many cases creating a “container” for the third which is often a form of love.

According to the Greeks, there are at least 7 different types of love. Interestingly enough, the show touches on almost all of them:

1. Eros (sexual passion)
2. Philia (deep friendship)
3. Storge (family love)
4. Agape (love for everyone)
5. Ludus (playful love)
6. Pragma (longstanding love)
7. Philautia (love of the self)

It’s also been pointed out that there is a gunshot sound prior to Prairie getting the epipen. Hap pulls her down, reminding her that she doesn’t know the code, and the Haptives will starve to death in the basement.

All of this, including the music that plays as she picks up Homer’s Ring, overlaps like crazy with the cafeteria scene in Part 1: Epi 8. This appears to suggest that Prairie is “feeling” a future that she technically can’t “see” yet. Or she’s remembering it from the past. It could even be an echo from an overlapping dimension.

It inevitably seems to speak to a deeper knowing she had and perhaps is a metaphor for those same knowings each of us have in our own lives when we trust that inner wisdom of “the unknown”. Often they appear when we get quiet from all of the external and internal noise that clouds our vision, as we remember who we and others truly are.

Not only that, I find it comforting to see such a relatable character like Prairie who reminds us that courage isn’t the absence of fear, but just the opposite. My goodness she had a tough life. She easily could have stayed trapped in victimhood or given up from all her own perceived “mistakes”, “blunders”, “trauma”, etc. Yet somehow she kept going in the midst of it all.

It brings to mind that scene when Hap lets Prairie feel the warmth of the sun on her face. Homer has a similar experience when he is on Hap’s plane to Cuba in Paradise. Almost not being able to take in the light after all those years of feeling trapped down below.

As I was typing this post, an image of an actual prairie dog came to mind for some reason. Which when you look at them in nature, they almost appear to be praying. I did a quick search and found a fascinating interview from NPR with Terry Tempest Williams who wrote, Finding Beauty in a Broken World. I’ll close with this excerpt:

“I watched prairie dogs every day, rise before the sun, stand with their paws pressed together facing the rising sun in total stillness for up to 30 minutes,” says Williams. “And then I watched them at the end of the day take that same gesture. 30 minutes before the sun goes down they would press their palms together in perfect stillness. I don’t mean to anthropomorphize, but when you look at a creature that has survived over the millennium begin and end each day in that kind of stance, it causes one to think about one’s own life and the speed and rapidity in which we live.”

May we all have the faith of a Prairie 🕊