MovieChat Forums > The Returned (2015) Discussion > Creepy Kid Victor/Henry

Creepy Kid Victor/Henry

posted 9 years ago by writetopcat
11 replies | jump to latest

I don't get this kid. The other returned people don't have any special powers, but Victor has a weird power to do harm to people. What is this supposed to mean in this show? The rest of the returned serve a purpose in the show as a metaphor for dealing with loss; I think that is how the story is supposed to make sense, like the French series this show is based on.
Anyway, it doesn't make any sense to me that this kid should have these special powers to cause people to hallucinate and see people who aren't there and so on. The other returned people are normal for all intents and purposes except for a strange capacity to drink buckets of alcohol without getting drunk. Scratch that, Lucy can hear the dead; but she could do that before she died apparently, at least a little sometimes.

[–] Haleyun 9 years ago

I agree, Henry seems different. Spoiler ahead:

He caused the bus to crash four years earlier as if he just has evil intentions. He was reported as being seen in the past so he was already back whereas the others came back on the same day. I assume he killed the nosy neighbor, or made her hallucinate enough to kill herself (probably not).

I must say though that Lucy admits she couldn't hear anything before her death. She was just a fraud.

[–] writetopcat 9 years ago

Yeah I guess you're right about Lucy. I don't know how I thought she had some ability before returning.
That is another mystery they left hanging, her special ability. Did she get this ability as some sort of karma thing? She lied and faked it before and now she gets the ability which is not always so pleasant to deal with, in a kind of 'reap what you sew' thing?

That would make sense, but it doesn't work with Henry. Yeah, he has a history of showing up and hurting people when they reject him or threaten the 'angel' he adopts. Plus he did stand in the road in front of the bus making it swerve off the road. Why?

This was an interesting series, but the weakness to it is all the unanswered questions it raises. There is a kind of unspoken promise that things will be revealed or make sense later in these kinds of films. That is one of the hooks that keeps the viewer interested.

[–] Haleyun 9 years ago

Totally agree that the unanswered questions is a turn off.

[–] SaliceMcD 9 years ago

I guess maybe it was cancelled - unexpectedly? - and they had no opportunity to provide answers, which may have been planned for the second season?

[–] radonys 8 years ago

The reason why Victor stood in front of the bus is explained in the series. He came to life looking for fairies to adopt him. And when the fairies realize he has some evil, dark side, they try to get rid of him, and he punishes them (mostly by killing them).

One of the fairies was the lady who burned when the house was set on fire. Victor burned too, but he knew he would come back. So he committed suicide to punish her.

Another one was the teacher who asked Camille if she was OK, in the bus, at the very beginning of the show. She left Victor in the woods 3 days ago. So he killed her by making the bus fall from the cliff. This is the reason why he stood there.
And I think the bus killed him too, making him return together with Camille and Adam, but I'm not sure if I recall correctly that scene.

The last fairy was Julie, the doctor. When she left him, he tried to kill her, but for some reason, he decided to let her live.

So at least this question is fortunately answered.

Vacation's when you go somewhere ... and you don't ever come back.

[–] writetopcat 8 years ago

Thanks Radonys, that is a good explanation and makes sense to me. If I had actually thought about it for a while instead of impulsively making that post, the explanation may have come to me.
I have come to realize that I have a tendency to pop off at the mouth sometimes before really thinking an issue through. This was one of those times.
It's funny, because I never thought of myself in that way until I kind of looked at myself objectively. I guess I need to work on that.

Anyway, thanks for the reply. Kudos.

[–] jl201 9 years ago

https://manicgeekydreamgirl.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/ancient-aliens-guy-728x637.jpg

[–] tb-sch 9 years ago

Maybe his abilities just manifest themselves in a more obvious way, since he has a kid's imagination, while the others' traits seem to be part of their personality. At least I get this vibe from the french version.

The sad reality of mysteries which never get finished: there could have been a good story explaining it in there...

[–] writetopcat 9 years ago

Right. The series was well done and interesting. But shows like this make an unspoken promise to the viewer that the questions raised will be answered later on. The viewer keeps watching to see not just what will happen next, but how it comes together, what the strange comments actually meant, and so on.
We get hooked on it partly for that reason. The writers keep giving us a piece of the story here, and a little bit more in another episode or the next. I don't necessarily expect every little thing to be explained, but the big questions raised I do want to have answered.
I thought the French series did a little better job of tying things together at the end and giving you a sense of it all meaning something.
It is a little disappointing when big parts of the story are never really explained.

[–] dmc101 9 years ago

These shows always have unanswered questions to keep you watching. It's like Blacklist that has layer after layer of "ah thought you knew didn't you, but there's another layer".

There can never be answers to these series and if there was it would be something that's been worn out in the movies for years like love or some revenge thing some spirit feels or some contaminated water source that affected the bodies after burial or even the kid himself might have been evil from the start, before he was shot. We could sit around and throw out tangents and build our own story, it would make about as much sense.

I just love how we see the same people in every series though.

[–] cjmarbutt 8 years ago

My impression is that returning amplifies existing, sometimes almost latent, psychic abilities. Victor has multiple such abilities. Camille mentions her link with her sister before she died and returns as almost as a psychic vampire, Lucy was intuitive enough to fake being a psychic before her death and came back as the real deal.