The Tunnel Discussion Thread [CAUTION: Spoilers!]

[doomplayer]

So, we've all had enough time to watch and rewatch "The Tunnel" a couple times, so its time we express what we liked/disliked, and discuss what exactly went down.

 

I thouroughly enjoyed this episode. It provides a good ammount of comedy while still maintaining a creepy atmosphere. Is it the best? Not sure, but it's pretty damn near best! The lighting was good, the acting was great, the scripting was awesome (loose ends and all); the episode was just fantastic and well executed. If I had to criticize it, I'd have to agree with Ross and say the pacing was a bit slow. I kept thinking "When's something gonna happen?", but it was all worth it if you stuck through. I also would've liked to have seen the loose ends tied up, but there can always be a sequel.

 

My rating: 9/10

 

But more importantly, what can we infer from the episode?

 

There are many questions left unanswered, so lets try and answer them by making inferences.

 

Here are what I think are the key components:

What was in the tunnel?

How did the tunnel get there?

What was with the crazy journal man?

 

Keep in mind:

The car

The journal scene

The lack of power when Dave and Mike arrive

The flashing lights that appear in the sub tunnels

The body Mike stumbles into

The crazy man

The final scene with Dave and Mike

The final stare scene

 

The car

Early in the episode, Dave is nailed by a white car. This happens before they go investigating the tunnel. Its kind of a random plot scne to include, wether it has any revelence to the tunnel at all, I don't know. It could have been a bit of comedic relief, or it could have been a message, trying to ward the duo away from the tunnel. You decide what you want.

 

Journal Scene

This, in my opinion, is the most important scene. We learn a lot about the tunnel in this time. We know that it was once powered, it did have some sort of "civil" inhabitants (the food and antechamber), and there is something in the tunnel. In the journal, he's depicted as an ordinary man who strikes gold when he finds a tunnel. When evicted, he moves into the tunnel, livin life as a happy mole. But, he is soon awakened in the middle of the night by scratching sbehind a giant metal door, which leads to what I call the sub-tunnels. He eventually gives in and investigates, but his next entry a blotch of blood. I do believe that the tunnel drove this man to insanity, which I will go more in-depth into later.

What I would have liked to have seen was maybe he does return, sane, and makes another journal entry about what he finds. Mabe he discovers the same light, and he decides to investigate further. But with each passing entry, he becomes more and more insane. That would've amped the creepy factor a bit.

 

The lack of power

If you notice, when the journal man is telling his story, the tunnel has power, but when Dave and Mike arive, the tunnel appears to have been abandoned and deserted with no power. Could the journal man have disabled all power? Did the tunnel simply run OUT of power? Are there other paranormal forces at work? Maybe..

 

The lights

At various times in the episode, a light flashes in the distance and is confirmed by one of the characters. They resemble a vortigaunts lightning attack, but that may be Ross just using what resources are available. However, I have reason enough evidence to think that its a ghost or some sort of paranormal spirit. When you think about it, what else flashes on occasion and disappears from view when you chase it down. Sure, a firefly could do those, but it can't omit enough light to make it that noticable. That doesn't mean it is surely a ghost, but it's a definate possibilty that the tunel is haunted.

 

The body

The boy serves two purposes: to distract Mike when Dave gets whisked away, and to scare the living shit out of you. A well placed horror effect, and it could also be the body for the spirit that could quite possibly be haunting the tunnel. Perhaps..

 

The crazy man

 

Mike decides to head top side and call in backup, but is stopped by an insane man. It's pretty obvious its the journal man, and he's snapped. What cause him to go insane? Whatever was in the tunnel obviously, but what was the exact cause? Was it an arcane insanity (by that I mean whatever is in the utnnel did something and it made him insane), or a result of the tunnel itself. Also note his ares are red around the edges, from lack of sleep. He's also got blood (or some kind of foreign substance) on his clothes. Whatever has happened it's kept him from sleeping and he's been doing nasty things. he also traps Mike in thetunnel, so he must be serving some dark purpose, or is at the point of insanity that he believes that anything is his enemy. But hat would not explain why he was smiling like a maniac. Normally an insane person would treat a hostile by ignoring it or seeking shelter. But I could be wrong.

 

Final DAve and Mike scene

In the penultimate scene, our two protaganists are dangling from the cieling, encased by what seems to be giant barnacles. Dave has gone insane and is spewing random jibbrish. Some people believe he's speaking Bulgarian since it was hinted in the first part that he knew some Bulgarian. I don't believe it actually is Bulgarian, but if we could get some confirmation, that would be nice. I'm pretty sure that Dave has just gone of the deep end and is just saying whatever he can say. Something cacooned those two though, and I'm pretty sure the crawlers in the end are the culprits. But that doesn't explain why they swarm in suddenly and decide to attack Mike long after he's been cocooned. I do believe this is that spirit at work again. The spirit is controlling those of weaker and feble minds, dictating wether they attak or remain docile. It also explains why the creatures didn't atack Dave or the journal man. The spirit gained control of their minds, driving them to insanity. Seeing as how he had them under his control, he didn't want to dispose of them. Thestalkers purpose is questionable. It may be there to help conduit the flow of the scenery, or it may serve a deeper purpose. Post what you feel.

 

The final stare

The final stare, in my opinion, serves only one purpose. It's a warning: you're next.

 

So where does that leave us? My hypothesis: the tunnel used to be a mining shaft, beinmg used frequently to gather resourcs. During the excavation, there was a death (the body) and a collapse. The workers couldn't do anything about the body, thus abandoned it. from this body cae a spirit, cast into turmoilas it cannot escape the tunnel. Its trapped state is unbearable, so it breaks an easy to acces entrance that someone would spot and be lured in. With its first victim captured (the journal man), it decides to lead more in there. Queue Dave and Mike, who are lured into there with a curious disposition. The power outage was a result of the spirit, adding more mystery to the tunnel. They find a journal, retelling the story of the journal man. It says his last known where-abouts were in the subtunels. So, Dave and Mike go t investigate. It leads them to the body, where when Mike is distracted, it steals Dave. When Mike decides to head topside, the spirit manifests itself as the journal man and traps him in the subtunnels. The spirit then capture mike, and has the creatures that it enthralled deep in the subtunnels cacoon him along with Dave. Mike, being too tough of a nut to crack, is useles to the spirit, who's only goal has been to torment the lving, and thus disposes of him. In the ned we see the spirit, manifested yet again as the journal man. He looks at us, giving us one clearcut warning. We're next.

 

There you have it. My thoughts on the Tunnel. You'll have to forgive any spelling errors. This forum software is terribly glitchy and jumpy, so I can't truely watch my spelling. Please, feel free to add to, combat, or support my thoughts on the Tunnel, and also telel us what you liked and dsliked about the episode.

 

Until the spirit gets you,

doomplayer

[doomplayer]

I'll try and edit any errors I find. I may also change somethings, as my sentence syntax my not be worded correctly

[wherriot7]

im pretty sure it was a black car. (not important but i thought i should mention it)

 

 

and what i was thinking about was that the journal guy must have found the creatures but why didn't he get put up into the cocoon things? i guess he could have put mike and dave in there but that doesn't explain where the little creatures came from.

[GustauveVIII]

Mike was speaking R'lyehian. I am certain.

[Luis]

There were some references to Ross' previous work, for example Mike Says : "You've been hanging with Eddie too much" when he's talkimg about stealing the diary men's stuff. Freeman said in episode 10 in the vents that Eddie can get him a human skull for pretty cheap. Eddie seems to be the guy who steals crap (not only objects, but also bones as some people collect them). I noticed another couple of references but i'm way too tired to remember, i'll watch it again tomorrow and see if i can remember.

[Blue]

I thought I saw some kind of spite type appearance in the flash, not just lighting. Like some random allocation of bright static.

[Psychotic Ninja]

Ok, so I re watched The Tunnel, pausing, taking notes of things I thought was important. I broke them down for part one and part two, here are my notes:

 

PART ONE

 

[*] Dave is doing karate so it must be Friday

[*] Area is foggy, and there's no one around (also later in part two, we learn that it's in the morning)

[*] They're stationed In Europe, probably Bulgaria (Dave knows a little bit of the language)

[*] At 1:57 a crow is seen flying and landing

[*] at 3:08 weird sound (howling) and the crow flies away

[*] at 3:33 black car (black photogenic(?) sedan) runs over Dave, whereas Mike dives out of the way (also car has no license plate, not sure if that's important or not, but I wrote it down)

[*] At 5:55 Mike notices the hole in the tunnel, also note debris is on the "outside" of the tunnel, including part of the railing for the sidewalk.

[*] Dave doesn't use/have is flashlight cause he's an Aquarius

[*] At around 7:ff Dave and Mike find the Journal Man's place (also tunnel has no lighting)

[*] at 8:01 the door to "back tunnels" is open

[*] at 9:11 Dave finds the journal

[*] September 26th: Journal man finds out he could be kicked out of his apartment at the end of the month (no fog, people outside)

[*] Note of interest (probably means nothing, but something I noticed): during the flashback to the left you can spot G-Man, and two Civil Protection cops (probably Mike and Dave) walking, also to the right, two Vortigaunts can be spotted

[*] September 27th: Journal man finds tunnel, network of tunnels, working electricity and plumbing (dude looks normal, face clean, no blood, etc. etc.)

[*] September 28th: Journal man finds his new home (either this was a glitch or something but it seems like some of the lights go out while he's in the tunnel)

[*] September 30th: Journal man moves his stuff to new home

[*] October 2nd: Journal man discovers back tunnels (probably man made/dug out)

[*] October 4th: hears weird noise (howling) night before

[*] October 5th: wakes up to scratching on door leading to back tunnels, he opens the door, to find nothing there

[*] October 6th: Something really is there, he's woken up by pounding on door (these things are happening at night...)

[*] At 14:03 noise (howling) distracts Mike and Dave

 

PART TWO

 

[*] October 7th: More interruptions when he's sleeping also, this is the last entry in the journal, as the rest have dried blood, also Oct. 7th was more than a week ago

[*] at 0:37 a scream can be heard

[*] Dave can't contact anyone while down in tunnel

[*] At 1:18 camera is still in the room, that Mike and Dave left, it's concentrated on the steel door's general area, now at 1:22 we're now following Mike and Dave

[*] at 1:38 they take the right path, which leads to a dead end

[*] At 2:35 we have the first green staticy light flash, also it kinda looks like a "C" also, only Mike sees it

[*] At 2:42 Dave does a weird shake/movement (kinda subtle, also possible glitch)

[*] At 3:33 same green light as before, lasts for a sec. Both Dave and Mike see it, (it was hard to pause the video in the right spot to study the light, but it looked like a different shape)

[*] At 3:53 Mike sees the dead body, falls, and we can hear a gun shot. Now I'm guessing that Mike passes out, at least long enough for Dave to get kidnapped.

[*] Take note around here is when Mike says something along the lines of "weirdest patrol this morning"

[*] Also sometime between 3:53 and 4:25 Dave is kidnapped

[*] At 5:53 we see Journal Man at the entrance to back tunnels

[*] At 6:18 we can clearly see that he's in a rough/creepy shape, red eyes, blood on his outfit, messy hair, yellow teeth, beard is messy, also he's smiling

[*] At 6;25 journal man closes the door on Mike

[*] At 7:37 another green staticy flash (again, I couldn't pause at the right spot to study the shape)

[*] At 7:49, yet another green staticy flash, this time it kinda looks like a n (or an upside down v)

[*] At 8:04 something happens to Mike

[*] Around 8:15 Mike is wakening up

[*] Mike is in a giant Barnacle like thing

[*] At 8:51 Dave starts speaking gibberish (possible Bulgarian) also Dave is also trapped in another giant Barnacle like thing

[*] At 9:10 Dave speaks "Hutt" (If I'm not mistaken, it's a direct quote from Return Of The Jedi)

[*] At 9:49 a Stalker walks in

[*] At 10:13 a weird sound (different this time) Stalker gets startled (I guess only they can hear said sound) and he walks away

[*] At 10:47 the weird monsters start coming

[*] From what I can tell, they all ignore Dave, but only three attack Mike

[*] At 11:47 Journal man is setting in his room, still grinning

[*] At 11:51 he looks at the viewers

 

That's all I caught, there's probably some things I missed. My conclusion? The Tunnel's creepy, and I'm more confused than before.

[incorrectdigit]

Well the lighting flashes mostly I think were the lighting glitches mentioned in the post about the tunnel. You've done a really well thought out post, I just have a couple of theories to throw at it.

 

The Body - When I first saw this the first thing I noticed was 'no skin.' Then shortly after we see creepyman at the entrance/exit when he locks our favorite policemen in. I think perhaps something is well 'wearing' this man's skin. And the body was well, what's left of the man.

 

More Oddities - More odd unsanswered things is where are all the people, and why does dispatch think these two are on vehicle patrol? Why does the last place they're in look like a bathroom?

 

I have to admit it felt like a cliffhanger to me, partly only because I love creepy things, and the duo, and don't want to think of either as ending. But probably more because it has a very Penumbra/Amnesia (look these games up if you don't know them) type feel to it, and I want to discover the story.

[Lizard]

Ok, so I re watched The Tunnel, pausing, taking notes of things I thought was important. I broke them down for part one and part two, here are my notes:

 

PART ONE

 

[*] Dave is doing karate so it must be Friday

[*] Area is foggy, and there's no one around (also later in part two, we learn that it's in the morning)

[*] They're stationed In Europe, probably Bulgaria (Dave knows a little bit of the language)

[*] At 1:57 a crow is seen flying and landing

[*] at 3:08 weird sound (howling) and the crow flies away

[*] at 3:33 black car (black photogenic(?) sedan) runs over Dave, whereas Mike dives out of the way (also car has no license plate, not sure if that's important or not, but I wrote it down)

[*] At 5:55 Mike notices the hole in the tunnel, also note debris is on the "outside" of the tunnel, including part of the railing for the sidewalk.

[*] Dave doesn't use/have is flashlight cause he's an Aquarius

[*] At around 7:ff Dave and Mike find the Journal Man's place (also tunnel has no lighting)

[*] at 8:01 the door to "back tunnels" is open

[*] at 9:11 Dave finds the journal

[*] September 26th: Journal man finds out he could be kicked out of his apartment at the end of the month (no fog, people outside)

[*] Note of interest (probably means nothing, but something I noticed): during the flashback to the left you can spot G-Man, and two Civil Protection cops (probably Mike and Dave) walking, also to the right, two Vortigaunts can be spotted

[*] September 27th: Journal man finds tunnel, network of tunnels, working electricity and plumbing (dude looks normal, face clean, no blood, etc. etc.)

[*] September 28th: Journal man finds his new home (either this was a glitch or something but it seems like some of the lights go out while he's in the tunnel)

[*] September 30th: Journal man moves his stuff to new home

[*] October 2nd: Journal man discovers back tunnels (probably man made/dug out)

[*] October 4th: hears weird noise (howling) night before

[*] October 5th: wakes up to scratching on door leading to back tunnels, he opens the door, to find nothing there

[*] October 6th: Something really is there, he's woken up by pounding on door (these things are happening at night...)

[*] At 14:03 noise (howling) distracts Mike and Dave

 

PART TWO

 

[*] October 7th: More interruptions when he's sleeping also, this is the last entry in the journal, as the rest have dried blood, also Oct. 7th was more than a week ago

[*] at 0:37 a scream can be heard

[*] Dave can't contact anyone while down in tunnel

[*] At 1:18 camera is still in the room, that Mike and Dave left, it's concentrated on the steel door's general area, now at 1:22 we're now following Mike and Dave

[*] at 1:38 they take the right path, which leads to a dead end

[*] At 2:35 we have the first green staticy light flash, also it kinda looks like a "C" also, only Mike sees it

[*] At 2:42 Dave does a weird shake/movement (kinda subtle, also possible glitch)

[*] At 3:33 same green light as before, lasts for a sec. Both Dave and Mike see it, (it was hard to pause the video in the right spot to study the light, but it looked like a different shape)

[*] At 3:53 Mike sees the dead body, falls, and we can hear a gun shot. Now I'm guessing that Mike passes out, at least long enough for Dave to get kidnapped.

[*] Take note around here is when Mike says something along the lines of "weirdest patrol this morning"

[*] Also sometime between 3:53 and 4:25 Dave is kidnapped

[*] At 5:53 we see Journal Man at the entrance to back tunnels

[*] At 6:18 we can clearly see that he's in a rough/creepy shape, red eyes, blood on his outfit, messy hair, yellow teeth, beard is messy, also he's smiling

[*] At 6;25 journal man closes the door on Mike

[*] At 7:37 another green staticy flash (again, I couldn't pause at the right spot to study the shape)

[*] At 7:49, yet another green staticy flash, this time it kinda looks like a n (or an upside down v)

[*] At 8:04 something happens to Mike

[*] Around 8:15 Mike is wakening up

[*] Mike is in a giant Barnacle like thing

[*] At 8:51 Dave starts speaking gibberish (possible Bulgarian) also Dave is also trapped in another giant Barnacle like thing

[*] At 9:10 Dave speaks "Hutt" (If I'm not mistaken, it's a direct quote from Return Of The Jedi)

[*] At 9:49 a Stalker walks in

[*] At 10:13 a weird sound (different this time) Stalker gets startled (I guess only they can hear said sound) and he walks away

[*] At 10:47 the weird monsters start coming

[*] From what I can tell, they all ignore Dave, but only three attack Mike

[*] At 11:47 Journal man is setting in his room, still grinning

[*] At 11:51 he looks at the viewers

 

That's all I caught, there's probably some things I missed. My conclusion? The Tunnel's creepy, and I'm more confused than before.

 

I don't have anything to add but I wanned to provide some pictures that can help you/everyone }

 

this is screen of FIRST FLASH -- >

this is screen of Dead guy and mike shooting -->

this is screen of 2nd flash -->

The Third Flash -->

The Forth one -->

Mike Kiddnaped -->

3 of them attack mike (I rotated it so you can see clearly) -->

[Alyxx Thorne]

It definitely seems to hint at dark forces being at work. I loved the ambiguity of it.

[Glaive]

A very enjoyable episode...though, I've gotta say, I thoroughly expected both Mike and Dave to get mown down by a responding APC exitting the tunnel, after Mike called in Dave's hit-and-run...

 

Thanks for screwing with my expectations!

[icthulu]

I am disappointed.

 

As Ross said, the story was, meh. To me it was boring, pointless, trying to hard to be creepy when it wasn't.

 

The visuals and the animation despite what he said, were great and really well done. It was nice to watch. I give all the credit in the world to him here.

 

Sadly I didn't care about any of it and had to resist fast forwarding through the flashback with the nameless British man.

 

I'm glad it is done, I'm happy he managed to finally get this monstrous video off his desk, but he shouldn't have made it at all. I know there are those who would think that its great all around, but I can't. I'm very sorry.

[J.C.]

I wouldn't recommend any Lovecraft stories to you then. This was texbook cosmic horror.

 

I posted some questions in my comment on the main thread, I might as well answer them myself with what I believe.

 

Q: Who was the man in the car? Is he important to the story or was that just a random event?

A: I think comic relief (he honked a couple of times at the end as a final insult)

 

Q What was the G-man doing at that door (during the journal reading sequence)?

A: Ross likes to put the G-Man at random places in his CP videos

 

Q: Are Mike and Dave dead?

A: Nop.

 

Q: If they survived, how did they do it? Did Barney help them escape? Are we looking at a Kenny from South Park kind of deal?

A: I'm leaning towards a Kenny situation here. We didn't get an explanation after "Halloween Safety" either.

 

Q: What happened to Dave, why was he speaking in tongues, mentioning Cthulhu at least once?

A: Possesion, mind control, trauma, etc. Classic personality alterations found in Lovecraft stories. Same goes for the man living in the tunnel.

 

Q: Will there be a sequel or at least a short explanation as to how they (if indeed they did) survive at the beginning of the next CP episode?

A: I don't think so. I hope there is, but I really don't think so.

[Hellion]

I don't know about a spirit in the tunnels because of a well-placed Lovecraft reference in the name of the tunnel.

 

"Miskatonic".

 

Warning:Lovecraft Nerdout ahead

 

In lovecraftian lore, The Miskatonic river fell in the town of Arkham and, more importantly, along side of the town of Dunwich. Those who know the story "The Dunwich Horror", knows that in the town was invisible creature that was the brother of Wilbur Whately, and who's father was The All-in-One and One-in-All, Yog-Sothoth, an Outer God, or cosmic diety.

 

Now, what if Journal Man was playing the part of Wilbur Whately, and is taking care of whatever is down there? Considering the visible shaken-state of the man, and the journal entry alluding to his explorations, he has to have seen what was in the sub-tunnels, the invisible light, the "body-mod junkie", and the bundles of meat and bone that seem to be writhing around in herds(packs, murders, whatever the hell you want to call it) about the hallways of wherever Dave and Mike are.

 

All and all, The story builds a fantastic aura of horror lovecraftian themes while it stays it's own entity. Bravo, mr. scott, Bravo.

[icthulu]

I wouldn't recommend any Lovecraft stories to you then. This was texbook cosmic horror.

 

Oh no, contrary, I really enjoyed the Lovecraftian stories. I just didn't like it sadly.

 

I'm in full agreement with your answers. Especially, I don't think this will be revisited. A good horror movie like a good sci-fi movie just ends at the conclusion of the main characters part. Continuing it only takes away from the story. For example: Matrix and any horror movie with a number after it. So I hope the thought never crosses his mind.

[Blightmare]

The wait was well worth it. I noticed there were like filler moments but I recalled that CP has a lot of tangents to begin with so I didn't mind that at all. But I love this episode. got my creativity working and makes me wanna go play Penumbra or something.

 

 

As for the light blurbs, I don't think those were glitches. if they were, then I applaud Ross's creativity of working a glitch into the actual story. best way to cover up something imo.

[kaboose102]

I really enjoyed it! The atmosphere was really great and watching this at night during a huge thunderstorm really helped i also found it to be a little funnier than i had expected. I am glad he isn't going to make another because i always find ambiguity to be a very good mind game. All in all i thought that it was really sweet and i'm glad he went for the horror aspect instead of just going with a comedy (althought i absolutely love Ross's comedy work!)

[Julie]

Thank you Ross for a very enjoyable episode.

 

I recently played Penumbra (and it's sequels) as well as Amnesia and I must say that this episode reminded me a lot of the type of story I found in those games. I've yet to read Lovecraft (although I do want to start), so I am not in any place to say if it is along his style, but it definitely mix humor and horror very well and I loved every minute of it.

 

Also, the first time we see the man with the English accent smiling... That creeped the hell out of me. Good job on that one. Now I have to explain to my husband why I, a grown woman, want to sleep with the light on tonight.

 

Julie

[jumpyed]

Thank you Ross for a very enjoyable episode.

 

I recently played Penumbra (and it's sequels) as well as Amnesia and I must say that this episode reminded me a lot of the type of story I found in those games. I've yet to read Lovecraft (although I do want to start), so I am not in any place to say if it is along his style, but it definitely mix humor and horror very well and I loved every minute of it.

 

Also, the first time we see the man with the English accent smiling... That creeped the hell out of me. Good job on that one. Now I have to explain to my husband why I, a grown woman, want to sleep with the light on tonight.

 

Julie

 

Just get him to watch the tunnel with you?

[crstewart92]

I loved it. I only wish there was an actual ending.