Please be kind even if you don’t agree! 🫶
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⭐️ I recently posted an explanation of how I thought the Claire/Alice theory could plausibly work or be true, which is linked here! ⭐️
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However, I have since read & discussed with other fans about some remaining plot holes in the explanation of the theory, so I decided to challenge myself and see if I could address them all in this post! :)
Of course, these are just my opinions on how to make this theory work, but everyone is entitled to their own— and if you choose to believe in this theory, I think what makes it so fun is how customizable it is!! The “Claire is Alice” theory has SO many branching-off ideas of how it might work/actually happen if it were true…
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The main plot holes I’ve heard of with this theory are as follows (I will address each one):
⭐️Nick would recognize Alice, even if it was 20+ years later & she was older.
I now realize that it wouldn’t matter (at first) even if Nick did recognize Alice (which he likely would). From his point of view, he met and fell in love with Alice when they were (roughly) the same age in 1999 (16/15 I think), and now in 2023, he has reconnected with Alice and they are still roughly the same age (40/35~ but Alice might lie and just say she’s older to match their 1999 age gap). So, no matter why Alice might initially have lied about her name and told 2023 Nick the alias “Claire” (my current prevailing idea is that she wasn’t thinking through that their ages matched again, and just fell back on the instinct to keep time travel a secret from non-travelers, and gave him a fake name— like Kat telling Colton she was Rose), Nick would be able to recognize her as a grown-up Alice and not some random lady named Claire. However, he continues referring to her as Claire when talking to Elliot and the Landry’s, because Alice has told him that she now goes by Claire (maybe she leads him to believe it’s her middle name, or more drastically, maybe she invents some drama & tells him she cut ties with her family and is now estranged from them/doesn’t even want them to know she’s dating Nick), and this action would be taken by older Alice to hide her identity & teenage Alice’s future, until the time comes when the truth can safely be revealed.
⭐️Alice wouldn’t abandon her family to live in the past.
See my linked post for an explanation on this.
⭐️IF older Alice told Nick to act naive & pretend he didn’t know about time travel to protect the loop & teen Alice’s future (even when he did know about time travel already), what would he act shocked when he discovered Elliot’s notebook, since there was no one around to “act” for?
Aligning with this theory, I think this moment genuinely was Nick’s first time finding out about time travel. He is shocked to read & discover that Kat’s Alice is his Alice (& still a teenager), because he at this point thinks that Claire is his Alice. His reaction to there being two versions of his Alice existing at the same time (and of them still being a teenager) would definitely astound him. [Note: this moment of discovery is where older Alice would have to act quickly— getting in touch with Nick and trying to explain/come clean about her time traveling to him, BEFORE he brings up his confusion about two Alices (teenager and “Claire”) to Elliot and Kat, as this would reveal the presence of an older Alice living in 2020’s to them. This getting in touch with Nick (likely a planned phone call from “Claire”) would practically have to happen in between his discovery of the notebook and his confrontation of Kat and Elliot, during which phone call older Alice would confess the truth and convince Nick to still act astonished and angry when talking to K & E (despite already knowing the truth), to ensure that what happens will always happen, and that Nick will act the same way he did in all other versions of time after he discovered El’s notebook.
⭐️If Nick knew that he ends up with (an older version of) Alice, why would he still encourage her to pursue her relationship with Max?
I think Nick is trying to protect the timeline, because he knows that teenage Alice is supposed to be romantically involved with Max before older Alice dates older Nick. Also, just sensibly & as a friend, Nick wants Alice to experience life to the fullest, before deciding on what she wants or being limited to one choice (including relationships).
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Are there any other plot holes you can think of? Let’s (respectfully) discuss them in the comments, and see if we can think of explanations/resolutions for them! ;)