Okay, but did anybody else notice this
Spoilers for The Creeping Shadow ahead.
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 I thought 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.
Steve Rotwell - don’t break into my institute or I will end you
Anthony Lockwood - ✔️ read at 1:13am
“If you did ever want to come back to Lockwood and Co […] we’d at least have the pleasure of each other’s company for a bit before my untimely end…“
Can we just appreciate The Lucy Carlyle Formula™ from the first chapter of TCS because Jonathan Stroud has now included a meme in his books
the only thing i want from the hollow boy is lucy mentioning that she and george still stayed in contact and went out for breakfast occasionally after she quit
you know that make me sad?
The fact that this is the second time Lucy runs away from what’s supposed to be her home.
okay so i was listening to some beautiful piano pieces last night as i was falling alseep and i had the greatest idea for the intro (to a movie, yes i know) for the creeping shadow (yes i edited it - i’m sorry!).