SPOILER DISCUSSION

1. How did Martin get the magical ability to force Steven into this awful game? It feels relevant, because Martin had been okay with Steven up to this point as long as the latter spent time with him and acted as a surrogate father of sorts. Was acting in this function the equivalent of serving out dues for having killed Martin’s father in surgery? By failing to fulfill this task, did Steven force Martin’s hand or was Martin’s decision to make Steven kill one of his own inevitable? If we knew the source of Martin’s power then any of these questions could be potentially answered which would make themes more coherent.

For example, in the third act Martin talks about how it’s an eye for an eye, as he brutally lets his arm get mangled up. He wants to demonstrate that pain requires an equal pain that balances it out. However, his method progresses over three painful stages which isn’t reciprocal to how his father died. If he made a contract with an entity that only allowed this kind of ritual, then the equivalency would make sense. It would also mean that he decided to punish Steven for breaking off his duty and he saw the two actions as equivalents. However, if he picked this ritual because it maps the way his father lost his medical battle (in some twisted metaphor) then it would make Martin an incoherent arbiter of justice, and bring him into the foray of characters to critique. Furthermore, killing a family member is obviously an issue that would get you sent to jail. The police would find out, especially if a child disappeared. If this was factored into the revenge scheme, ,it’d be especially interesting. If not, then it’s some kind of karmic comeuppance for never taking responsibility. Unfortunately, none of these issues can be resolved because the nature of the “curse” is left 100% ambiguous.