So one of the most brilliant parts of “The Creeping
Shadow” was Quill Kipps receiving the Orpheus Society’s ‘prototype’ goggles.
And as we know, he was (adorkably) rather excited upon finding out they actually
worked and used every spare moment he could to see the spirits lurking around
Aldbury Castle.
So, did anyone notice that after Steve Rotwell’s visit, in
the next chapter when Kipp’s is describing the ghosts he was seeing, he pointed
out one haunting that Ithought was
particularly interesting.
‘And there!’ Kipps rotated, squinting through the goggles. ‘Two
cloaked figures on the green. They’re standing close together, hoods down
huddled like they’re sheltering from the cold. Ghost-fog’s rising from their
capes. Now they’re breaking into a run…..They’re gone!….’
Upon first reading this, the capes he described brought
to mind Lockwood’s parents’ Spirit Capes. Later however, when Lucy and
Lockwood are, unknowingly, on the Other Side and begin to discover they haven’t
made it back to the human world, their actions begin to mirror what Kipps addressed
earlier.
‘As one we began to run. We pressed close together, hoods
low over our faces against the cold. We cut across the green, boots thrumming on
the hollow, frozen earth. Smoke poured from our icy capes, extending behind us
like a comet’s tail.’
The sheltering from the cold, the smoking of the capes and the running across the green all match with Kipp’s earlier sighting!
As we know in the Lockwood and Co. universe, and as recently reinforced
in “The Creeping Shadow”, the Talent that the children possess actually
allows them to, essentially, enter the parallel land of the dead.
When they utilise these gifts they connect with the world of spirits, however
this travelling is less immersive and dangerous compared to Lucy and Lockwood’s
accidental arrival through the Iron Chain. All of this is told to Lucy by the
skull.
‘You sense the other world all the time – you’ve always had
glimpses of it…’
We’ve also addressed in “The Hollow Boy” George’s ‘time
sickness’ theory and his hypothesising and affirmation of Lucy’s question at
the end of the third book, that yes, it is possible for ghosts to show both past, present and future. This reiterates the idea that time, for the children using Talents and
the spirits that are haunting them, is circular.
‘They’re fixed in a particular place, but able to roam back
and forwards across the years. If you follow that argument, why couldn’t they
make predictions? Why shouldn’t they see things we don’t?’
So yeah, I definitely think Kipps had a prophetic
sighting of what was going to happen to Lucy and Lockwood hours before they actually
ventured into the ‘place of blood’ or Rotwell facility and then later on with the Iron Chain
to the Other Side.
Anyone else notice this?
p.s after lurking the Lockwood and Co. tags for like 3
years, I have finally decided to make a Tumblr account to share stuff like
this and be involved with the fandom before the last book comes out, so hi.
Am I allowed to bring back how heartbroken Lucy was in TWS when she thought George was dead. Can we remember how she kept saying that he wasn’t dead, he was just asleep. And can we also talk about how George heard all of this and had to sit perfectly still while his best friends heart was breaking.
