The Lost Room

[Killerbee256]

You know I wonder what would happen if you tired to exit the room through a door that is underwater, like say a door on the wreak of the titanic? Does the room flood and reset itself after the door closes? Would it drain the whole ocean into that snap shot of the world in the early 60s that exists outside the windows of the room?

[Fianna]

I can't recall, does the door open outwards or inwards? If it's outwards, the water pressure might keep the door closed.

Though another thought that occurs: suppose you open a door to the motel room, then, without closing that door, try opening a different door to the motel room. What would happen?

[Ranadiel]

You know I wonder what would happen if you tired to exit the room through a door that is underwater, like say a door on the wreak of the titanic? Does the room flood and reset itself after the door closes? Would it drain the whole ocean into that snap shot of the world in the early 60s that exists outside the windows of the room?

While it is never expressly stated, I've always assumed that the walls and windows in the Room were indestructible and there is no real world outside of the Room despite what you see in the window. So under that assumption, the ocean could not get drained into the Room. At most it would lose a rounding error number of gallons.

I think the interesting aspects of this question depend on one question that I don't think was ever actually specified. Specifically, when does an Object stop having weird effects on physics after entering the Room? As far as I can recall, every time that we see an Object not have its power in the Room, the door is closed. So that means the Objects could either lose their powers after crossing the threshold or after the Room is disconnected from reality. In the latter case, the Room floods, the current motel man is killed by water pressure, and the monkey paw nature of the Objects somehow end up with the door closed and the Key on a beach somewhere.

In the former case though, we end up with the room flooding and ALL the unclaimed Objects become destroyed by water pressure. Well okay probably not all of them as there is water in the pipes which probably counts as an Object too. So that would probably result in what would be considered a second Event as a fairly large number of new objects are thrown into the world. If the replacement object doesn't have to be in the Room, then we are looking at a lot of random objects across the world just gaining magic powers. If the replacement object does have to be in the room...well people might just start to ingest ocean water in the hopes it is the magic water that gives them super powers.

I can't recall, does the door open outwards or inwards? If it's outwards, the water pressure might keep the door closed.

Though another thought that occurs: suppose you open a door to the motel room, then, without closing that door, try opening a different door to the motel room. What would happen?

It opens inwards.

Another interesting thought experiment. Based what we know, I see three possibilities.

Possibility 1a: The limits of the key only allow you to open a single room at a time, so nothing happens when you try to open the second one (or the door on the first one slams shut as you turn the key in the second door).

Possibility 1b: The limits of the key only allow you to open one door at a time, and the monkey paw physics get mad at you for trying to get smart with them so something horrible happens (like when you step through the second door your pants disintegrate and a police officer just "happens" to be on the other side of the door).

Possibility 2: The Occupant establishes that there are multiple rooms, so in theory you might end up with two different instances of the Room connected. So if Person A and Person B entered two different doors that the Key had been used on, both of them would be in the Room, but they would not see each other as they are physically in different locations despite them both being in the Room (like how Joe could not see Anna despite her never leaving the Room). Where this would get interesting is if Person A brought an Object with them. If the Objects lose their powers at the threshold of the Room, then I would theorize that the moment that Person A brought an Object into the Room, it would also appear in its starting location in Person B's room. Then if Person B took the Object from its starting position and left the Room, it would disappear from Person A's possession.

1b is probably the most likely, but 2 is fun to think about.

[Fianna]

"Monkey paw physics" is a great way to describe this sorta thing.

[Maximara]

One thing I wonder about - would the photo show the original Occupant or the person that has now replaced him?

[PascalBof]

Yup, ive seen the whole series of it. Although he was fairly one-dimensional, i thought the show overall was fairly good. But it ended so badly.

[phantom000]

Did they ever figure out what 'the event' was supposed to be? I rewatched the review and I had a theory. Basically, some entity from a higher plane tried to enter our universe but it didn't work. Its body broke down and was absorbed by all the different items.

[Mabus]

Wasn't there some mention of "Death of God" or "Death of Heaven" that caused the Event?

[phantom000]

Wasn't there some mention of "Death of God" or "Death of Heaven" that caused the Event?

I've never seen the miniseries, so all I know was what's in the review. Several theories are mentioned, like the items being a test from God or maybe that God died and this is what remains or that this is the result of physics breaking down.

They were probably trying to leave the mystery in place for later while not seeming like they just hand waved it away.

[Ranadiel]

Wasn't there some mention of "Death of God" or "Death of Heaven" that caused the Event?

I've never seen the miniseries, so all I know was what's in the review. Several theories are mentioned, like the items being a test from God or maybe that God died and this is what remains or that this is the result of physics breaking down.

They were probably trying to leave the mystery in place for later while not seeming like they just hand waved it away.

The miniseries does not specify what happened just throws out theories that various people in universe have speculated on. And it is very possible that it would be impossible for anyone to ever learn what happened since whatever the Event was, it was unremarkable at the time it happened. The Occupant lived through the Event and did not even realize that anything was weird until he got home and his (pre-Event) wife did not know who he was. Basically the only person at ground zero of whatever the Event was observed nothing, so there are no clues to work off of beyond the objects themselves.

As I said earlier in the thread, my personal theory is that a multiverse collapsed into a single universe and the motel room is the only multiversal location left (as it is stated by the Occupant that there are multiple motel rooms). The reason for all the object properties is because the physics in the single universe don't know how to react to the multiversal objects.

Of course that is just a theory as to the what and not the why. And it will probably forever remain a theory since I doubt we'll see more content in the universe, which is a real shame since I love the setting.