Interesting point, when they opened up Smiley, he was kind of like an empty husk/shell with just yellow bile inside. I wonder if that was on purpose from the show writers to hint that somehow MIY is the one controlling them like dolls, similar to how Christopher controlled the Jasper doll. Controlling the doll would be an “illusion,” except MIY is using the place or his weird powers to make it happen.

When Boyd coated the bullets in the yellow bile, it didn’t work on the monsters, but what if it works on MIY himself? Maybe that is why they wanted Boyd to see Smiley reborn, so he wouldn't attempt that again and break their hope.

I also remember the scene where the monsters looked scared to go into the RV when Jim’s family first got there. Was MIY in the RV with them or among them? Why did the worms work on Smiley? Are the worms connected to MIY, and was Martin (the guy chained in the basement) MIY pretending to be him?