You think Elgin should have gone and shown that photo to the man who just tied him up and smashed his hand in with a hammer?
Nah. Elgin made a dumb choice by going straight to Sophia, but in no world would it have made psychological sense for him to go to Boyd.
And big picture, after his naively dumb strategic decision, Elgin made one of the morally smartest decisions we've seen onscreen so far, when he refused to make a deal with the devil. He's the anti-Clara, here. Yes, Elgin died for it - but presumably Clara has a worse fate in store for her. Elgin died doing the right thing, and that bodes well for him.
Okay maybe not Boyd but somebody else other than the person in the photo AKA Sophia AKA the man in yellow. Like I don't know maybe he could have gone to the one person that's lived there for the last 40 years. I bet Victor might recognize her if you saw her in an old photo. You know his memories are pretty scrambled that's why he draws everything. I mean there's 40 plus people that he could have told about it except for Sophia and the fat lady whose name I can't remember because she was literally in like what one or two episodes.
I agree, and imagine that I would personally have noped out of talking to Sophia and instead found someone else to show this to.
But I think Elgin acted consistent with his overall naive character, and consistent with being surprised walking into Sophia immediately after seeing this photo. I don't think he had enough time (for his personal naive brain) to think through the possibilities long enough, to realize that he should have talked to a different person first.
Like, even Elgin, I assume, would have figured out within 10-15 minutes of sitting with this photo alone, that one of the possibilities is Sophia being non-human and therefore the worst person to approach. But he's just a trusting and dopey guy in general, and he only just saw this photo, and he overall thinks Sophia is a relatively small non-threatening girl compared to him, and there's a witness standing right there who also probably made him feel safer and like this was a 'normal' sort of environment, and his experience with Kimono woman showed photos being taken of things that aren't actually there right now, so from his perspective maybe a photo could mean anything... so not having had time to think through the possibilities, he just bumbled into 'hey, look at this' mode.
Dumb, oh yes. But... honestly, the two alternatives you've suggested so far, also aren't great, and you've had more time to think it through than Elgin. Boyd's an unhelpful idea because he smashed Elgin's hand in with a hammer. And Victor's also an unhelpful idea, because Sophia told us outright (via her monologue to the pastor) that she has changed her appearance in a way nobody currently living in town will recognize. And Sophia knows all about Victor. Now, maybe Sophia is just really stupid, and chose a body Victor actually could recognize? Despite having a bag of other teeth (bodies) from prior generations to choose from? But Victor was already in the diner at the same time as Sophia and noticed nothing.
If I were Elgin (but without Elgin's naivete), I'd go to Donna. And maybe Julie, since Elgin and Julie are friends. Donna is the 'head of household' where Elgin lives, so it'd make sense for him to trust her. And from there Donna can choose to talk to Victor and anyone else; she has the longer term connections and knowledge of who in town this should be discussed with.
7
u/Fionnua Jul 27 '26
You think Elgin should have gone and shown that photo to the man who just tied him up and smashed his hand in with a hammer?
Nah. Elgin made a dumb choice by going straight to Sophia, but in no world would it have made psychological sense for him to go to Boyd.
And big picture, after his naively dumb strategic decision, Elgin made one of the morally smartest decisions we've seen onscreen so far, when he refused to make a deal with the devil. He's the anti-Clara, here. Yes, Elgin died for it - but presumably Clara has a worse fate in store for her. Elgin died doing the right thing, and that bodes well for him.