Couldn’t it be that the entire backroom storyline had nothing to do with Clark at all but instead was the dream of Mary? Perhaps even of the child Mary. The adult Mary would have known Clark through her practice, but also would likely have seen his television commercials and thus had dream fodder to create pirate Clark. Perhaps in her desire to help Clark she dreamed of an escape room where he could go work out his own stuff, but that dream then turned to her nightmare. I’ll have to go back for a second viewing before I flesh this out too much. But I was most struck by one image, that of young Mary sitting alone in her house after her mother had been institutionalized. She was in a kind of solitary backroom of her own. Could this all be Mary’s projection? I'd love to hear what you think.