This is in no way what I should be writing.

[rymenhild]

I took an evening off from end-stage dissertating last weekend to read a novel, Mira Grant (seanan_mcguire)'s Deadline. I would now like to babble about conspiracy theories relating to Deadline, but I have explicitly told the person with whom I would normally babble about conspiracy theories not to read the book. (I liked the book very much. You might like the book too! It's just that my friend wouldn't like it, for reasons of her own.) Here, then, are my thoughts. Please note that this is not a book review. If you haven't read Feed and at least some portion of Deadline yet you probably shouldn't read past the cut.

The inverse of Chekhov's law is true:

In a well-designed mystery, the gun which goes off in the third act must be visibly displayed on the mantelpiece during Act 1.

This foreshadowing works best when viewers don't immediately recognize the implement as a gun.

A person or persons unknown is/are commanding the conspiracy in the Newsflesh trilogy. Who's the guilty party, and have we seen them before? I've been thinking...

I will avoid spoiling major end-of-book revelations in Deadline, but I will spoil developments in the middle of the book. I will not name my actual, current guesses about who might be guilty. I will, however, provide strong hints which eliminate all other candidates. Read at your own risk.

Let us, in time-honored algebraic notation, call the commander(s) of the conspiracy X. Please note that X may consist of one or more people, and read accordingly. (I got tired of saying, "He, she or they" in every element of the list.)

1. X is neither Tate nor the visible villain in Deadline. Both of these people are dead and unlikely to reanimate.
2. We learn in Deadline that the conspiracy has been going on for years -- over a decade, at least. X must be older than our protagonists.
3. X is guilty of mass murder and disease dispersal in order to maintain the climate of fear and the social and political rewards provided by the status quo.
4. Therefore, X is both sociopathic and has something to gain in the climate of fear.
5. That gun must have been on the mantelpiece the whole time. We've seen X already, and we haven't recognized X.
6. The thing about the gun being visible in Act 1? X must have appeared in Feed.

Those are the propositions which set up my guess for X. Additional details that convince me I must be correct (but still no names), in ROT13:

1. Fbzrobql vf zrffvat jvgu gur zvpebovbybtl bs Xryyvf-Nzoreyrr. Bar erdhverf n pregnva nzbhag bs xabjyrqtr bs ovbybtl gb znxr gurfr guvatf unccra.
2. Gurfr obbxf ner pragenyyl nobhg gur ebyrf juvpu arjf naq gur zrqvn cynl va uhznaf' pbaprcgvbaf bs gurzfryirf naq gurve fbpvrgl. Vg znxrf frafr gung K jbhyq or pbaarpgrq gb gur zrqvn.
3. Rira zber prageny gb gur _Arjfsyrfu_ frevrf guna zrqvn: snzvyl. Gurfr obbxf xrrc pbzvat onpx gb gur shpxrq-hc erfhygf bs n uvtuyl qlfshapgvbany snzvyl fgehpgher.
4. Vs V'z evtug, Funha znqr na rabezbhf, rabezbhf zvfgnxr arne gur raq bs _Qrnqyvar_. Rabezbhf vebavp zvfgnxrf ner whfg gur xvaq bs traer pbairagvbaf Zven Tenag yvxrf gb cynl jvgu.

If you want to talk about who you think might be guilty, or guess at my candidate(s) for X, or spoil developments after the middle of Deadline, please use ROT13 to encode any spoilers.


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