Finding Home (From The Dark)

Out of the entire “Finding Home” story, the most fantastical part is Peppermint Park. A land of bright colours, candy trees and music. This entire part of the story is in stark contrast to the rest of the story, set in an old English country. For most parts, the story is believable, but what if… there’s a deeper, darker, more sinister story to this place?

After Claire discovers a clue about her home, she convinces her friend Olivia to run away together from the orphanage. Without any money, Claire decides to steal from Mother Superior – probably knowing the orphanage needs the money but she proceeds anyway after feeling she has been betrayed and lied to.

When she makes her way to the train station, she first meets the thieving Tom. Being gullible, she buys into his story and buys tickets from him not knowing they were fake. When they get forced off the train, the scene goes into a tunnel… it goes into a dark, dark world.

In Peppermint Park, they meet the Seow Ting Tong brothers, the Candyman and Tom.

But wait, why was Tom there? They were on a train and the likelihood that Tom was on the same train was slim to none. Especially since at one point, the Candyman reveals that Tom had stolen from them. So Tom had no reason to want to stop over at Peppermint Park.

And if we were to consider the older times… it would have taken a fair bit of time for Tom to be caught and brought over to the Park. So, it could be possible that both Claire and Olivia had actually been dropped off far from the Park and it when they finally found their way to the Park by foot, they were extremely exhausted and fatigued.

It’s over at the Park that they eat parts of candy trees – but can this really happen? Maybe they were so tired that they started hallucinating? But what could cause hallucinations?

See… from the beginning of the story to the end, we’ve come to believe that Claire is an excellent storyteller. She tells stories to help soothe pain and loneliness.

What if the entire thing over at Peppermint Park was a fabricated story by Claire to hide what really happened?

What if Peppermint Park was actually somewhere else totally? When they met the Seow brothers and the Candyman, what if… instead of clowns and brightly coloured people, they were actually part of a gang in this place they were at? They owned the land and literally had everything under their command. Candyman himself says that he had everything.

And when the girls “ate” the property there, what if they actually took something from the place and they were falsely manipulated into believing that they’ve committed some serious crime? Seeing how gullible they were (Claire says that they obviously know where they were going when they were following strangers who were hitting on them), it’s plausible that the girls were forced into a situation where they had no choice but to follow the Seow brothers into the Candyman’s home. 

In there, the girls meet the Candyman and he talks about eating them quite openly. About his emptiness and cravings. What could this really be…?

Then when Candyman says he was moving onto bigger things like Lollipop boy, we see Tom wearing a Lollipop and forced to do things he didn’t want. Perhaps, forced to do certain forced labour and was fed with some drugs?

Tom and the girls were likely forced into desperate situations. Claire hated Tom, blaming him for tricking them in the first place and causing them to be locked up. They were even contemplating murdering someone else but the fear of the Candyman was real, so they didn’t dare to assassinate him.

And at one point, Olivia reminisces about the past – what could have happened that she would reminisce about simple storytelling moments to ease pain and loneliness?

Later, the Candyman asks “What clever ploy have you devised to trick me, girl?” meaning to say that the sharp Candyman knows that they were trying to get out of the place. The plan falls through and only Tom gets out. When the Christmas story is shared with the Candyman, his change wasn’t permanent. Maybe this was a suggestion that some people just won’t be able to change? That they reject the gift of love, that is His birth and death?

After some time, when they finally escaped the place… the mere mention of Candyman scares Olivia. So what could really have happened? They might have been abused sexually, they might have drugs forced on them, they might have gone through some really dark times… but we won’t know the real story because it’s now all covered by a story that all three of them have come to agreement to tell. To probably explain why they were missing for so long (Mother Superior notices Olivia has lost weight even though they were in a place of candy and food) and to possibly hide the horrible things they suffered in “Peppermint Park”, which might even be a totally made up place.

So… if you rewatch the entire story, it might give you an alternative look into why they say certain things in the script.

A little dark, yes. But you clicked it 🙂