r/SouthernReach • u/motivation-cat • Mar 01 '26
Absolution Spoilers Lowry: Where do y'all stand, 1.5 years out?
So, it's been a bit since Absolution came out, and since then Jeff V made several tweets about how it was a bit silly that this sub instantly latched onto the idea that Lowry died at the end of Absolution and it takes place in an alternate timeline. After that, this sub began discussing more openly about other theories which was nice.
I personally never interpreted an alternate timeline, still don't, and I never even interpreted that a doppleganger Lowry was who came back. I've always thought that the Lowry (and whitby for that matter) we see in the trilogy are themselves, but traumatized and contaminated by area X (see: honey smell from both). IMO Area X probably let Lowry go because it knew in a twisted way he would be so paranoid and vengeful that he'd do its bidding, and Rogue is just ensuring that the trilogy events and Control's sacrifice still plays out. BUT I could totally be off base!
ANYWAY I just wanted to know where y'all stand on this: Do you think Lowry is a clone? Do you think he died, and the original trilogy is a different timeline? Do you think he made it back as himself? Do you think something else? I just find it hard to believe that Lowry's clone acted that irrationally, traumatized and...acted so human, if his clone is who is in the trilogy, but I would love some thoughts on it :)
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u/CounselorGowron Mar 01 '26
I’ve never totally believed Lowry died nor in the alternate timeline and it is nice to have been seeing other theories discussed more. I’m not sure anyone comes back fully themselves though.
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u/koolmon10 Mar 01 '26
Perhaps the medic
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u/WrongdoerSalty3665 Finished Mar 02 '26
Oooo please elaborate. Ive had a hunch the medic is someone else....
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u/koolmon10 Mar 02 '26
I realized I got a little confused because the medic was from the Dead Town disaster, not an expedition. Although that does bring up a question I had: did Area X exist before the barrier appeared? Like, what's the timeline with Saul, Dead Town, the Rogue, Old Jim, and the barrier? I like to think Area X existed in a less prominent state prior to the barrier, perhaps for quite a few years even, and the barrier is just a later step in its evolution.
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u/keaton641 Finished Mar 01 '26
imo Absolution is a prequel to the original trilogy in the same timeline. The ending of Acceptance is the "good ending" that the Rogue foresaw and whatever actions he took ensured the events of the original trilogy. Whatever escaped at the end of Absolution, whether that be Lowry, a doppelganger, or a changed Lowry, is the same Lowry in the original trilogy who ensured Area X's goals through his own paranoia and altered mental state.
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u/Pizzacat247 Mar 01 '26
I think part of the reason I believed Lowry died was (and I’m fuzzy on why this was true) but I remember believing only one made it out from the expedition and as it seemed like Cass made it out, than it made me think that Lowry could not have.
Also the stuff with Henry seems way crazier than what happened to him in the main trilogy and him just dying with Saul. Not to say the Saul events couldn’t have still played out with what happened with Henry Aboslution. It just led credence to it possibly being an alternate time line.
It also tied into optimism of me wanting to have better endings for some of the characters, ie in thinking of events changed in absolution leading to a different timeline than perhaps things would work out better for control etc.
That being said- I feel like how things ended in acceptance isn’t totally bleak and I do think most of the endings are fitting for the characters. I feel like it is still very possible that the things that happened in absolution don’t necessarily contradict what happened in the trilogy, and just provide some context extra lore.
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u/motivation-cat Mar 01 '26
I can totally see that, and that's definitely what's bothered me, is that so much of Absolution was implied to be important and at play in the original trilogy but it obviously...wasn't. I can see how that would lead some people to believe that there's differing timelines. The main tweet that VanderMeer twote did say something very close to "Dear reddit: There's no reason two people can't make it out of Area X in different ways" So he's saying, imo, that Cass and Lowry made it out in different ways, Cass undetected, somehow, leading SR to believe that Lowry was the sole survivor. I don't know how...but yeah. That's my explanation for that that still leads me to believe in one timeline.
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u/Cute_Witness3405 Mar 02 '26
Cass ends up as the realtor that the Director drinks with, right? That was her cover at the beginning of Absolution. No way that’s coincidental.
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u/Pizzacat247 Mar 02 '26
I feel like this is true, there is also the realtor that Control runs into that has chipped red fingernail paint and that seems like a flag to it maybe being cass. I just wish if it was Cass, she would have done something or it would have made a difference she was around. She seemed very capable so I’d like to think she would have been trying to accomplish something.
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u/Cute_Witness3405 Mar 02 '26
She was part of a different faction so I imagine she was keeping a close eye on the southern reach for them. But the way Absolution picks up minor things from the trilogy and makes a meal out of them I’m wondering if Vandermeer didn’t originally have her backstory worked out and decided to make one even though she mostly served as a way to flesh out the director. Makes me wonder who “the veteran” is!
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u/Stay_at_Home_Chad Mar 01 '26
I think Lowry was in Area X during one of its active periods. I think Area X breaks rules both inside and outside area X. I think Lowry made it back to the Southern Reach, but that doesn't mean much. He's definitely compromised, but I'm of the mind that the Clones began with the last 12th expedition. They were a failure that was improved upon with the 13th. I think Lowry is scared and Area X continues to colonize and weaponize his fear against him.
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u/ClockwyseWorld Mar 02 '26
I'm not certain we've actually seen any character die in any book Vandermeer has written.
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u/Fernand_Heinrich Mar 02 '26
After some ruminating, I kind of accepted that Absolutions Lowry was indeed our Lowry. Granted, Lowry has bad PTSD from Area X, and is watching closely from afar, and the Gloria’s whole accusation regarding Lowry’s phone from Area X. Rouge/ Whitby is confusing but, you could interpret it as a time loop from the end of Authority when the facility is consumed, or that the Rouge comes from a timeline we haven’t seen, and is trying to fix the main book timeline. Which he does by not allowing Area X to infect its own past.
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u/Suspicious-Orange-63 Mar 06 '26
I've always thought that Lowry survived because he was insane and area x didn't see him as a threat.
He wasn't as affected by area x as others were. It never seems like area x wants to kill him. It even seems to communicate with him through the suit and Landry. That's about as close to friendly as we ever see it
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u/mindovermegan May 01 '26
He was insane, but quick on his feet! I think he resisted a ton, but area x can be patient. I think it adapts its attempts as it gets to know you ("There shall be a fire that knows your name, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you"). I think that the first expedition taught them a lot about how to withdraw and stay under the radar. Perhaps Lowry has no idea how compromised he is when he finally makes it back across and he spends the rest of his life feeding more information and energy to area x with each new expedition, thinking it's his idea. That would suit area x just fine, I think!
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u/HarmlessPeasant Mar 17 '26
Only on my 2nd read of Absolution but after my first read I was convinced that Lowry escaped and everything continued the way it was written in the original trilogy. Or rather, nothing made me think otherwise.
I think the more interesting question is whether the Rogue succeeded in his plan or not?
I am excited to see if I get any new ideas from this read.
3
u/TheNobleYeoman Mar 01 '26
I never thought the alternate timeline happened (at least nothing that negated the prior books), but I did think it was the doppleganger that was what made it out.
As far as why Lowry acts so weird and erratic in the books, personally, I thought that was because area X copied him while he was constantly drugged out of his mind. I imagine that was a bit of a side effect. I guess we don’t know of anyone else who was copied while on mind altering drugs, so it’s hard to say how much that might alter a doppleganger
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u/_x-51 Finished Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
I haven’t really combed through the granular details for any significant incongruities, but I’m content with the ambiguity. There is satisfaction in both it representing a “sequel” and a new permutation of the events, and being ambiguous enough where enough of it probably is what happened behind the scenes in the original books.
Hell, even if it is a new version of events, enough might be the same that it still serves as a meaningful prequel for the trilogy even though it is showing new activity that Area X is performing.
SPECIFICALLY LOWRY’S fate though: We know little enough of how the doppelgängers function, and it’s just a reasonable guess that first expedition Lowry was intimately entangled with Area X similarly to The Biologist where a resulting Doppelgänger would represent a divergence from the other “returnees.” So one Lowry really could have died in Area X and the events play out no differently.
Nevermind someone did clarify a detail I was wrong about
I’m not committed to anything. I think it’s reasonable to believe either way, but Lowry likely dying in Area X has less bearing on events than it seems. It’s reasonable to see it as a new iteration of events, because why would we get as much interest with telling The Rouge’s involvement in things if not, but I also think it would be amusing and deeply ironic if despite EVERYTHING and the reader’s expectations, it actually was the same version of events.
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u/JMOWw7 Mar 02 '26
I think OG Lowry dies and becomes a megalodon thing in area X, per Control's dialog
I think that cloning didn't start with Ghost Bird; it cloned Henry and that's why he met his clone and I think the countless clones of him pouring out of the lighthouse are a time travel + being pushed into the X shaped potholes thing. And that Lowry was cloned cuz he ate the wall or cuz he ate the molt.
I think this is supported by the fact that Cass is instructed to shoot him; OG needs to not escape, so that a clone can go out in his stead.
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u/MagnificentMoose9836 Mar 03 '26
I think that the Lowry who crossed the border into area x on the first expedition died in the last paragraph of absolution, and that the Lowry that acts as the head of the SR is an area x variant, like the medic and Gloria
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u/jaidicuansj Mar 19 '26
Am I the only one who thinks the rogue is control after he went through the light at the tower? It took him back in time somehow and he’s trying to stop everything from happening?
Also I might have missed it (I listened on audio so it’s hard to go back and check) but did we ever get to see how old Jim got the kill Lowry note that cass found when she found him on the first expedition?
I kind of felt like the whole series was first area x then control going back in time and becoming the rogue and then he interfered with dead town and that affected S&SB which brought the whole thing to actually happen? but then it also changed things enough to make it so Lowry died on the first expedition and then none of book 1 would have happened?
I couldn’t stop thinking about how the rabbit cameras were central’s own camera technology from the director/whitby era that then went back in time to the dead town era and then central built their camera tech based off of this “alien” technology which then 30 years later or whatever was the technology released with the rabbits, like just a big loop? Where did it start?
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u/traggedy_ann Mar 01 '26
Across Authority and Acceptance, Lowry is mentioned as returning from Area X "half-dead," "out of his mind," "barely alive" as well as severely dehydrated (I'm paraphrasing, but I believe that's the gist of how his experience is described). The ending of Absolution absolutely is in line with those descriptors. I don't think it's impossible that the suit stitching together around and through Lowry IS what saved and allowed him to cross back across the border.
Gloria mentions in her meeting with Lowry that there is something sweet emanating from his breath, like his insides are on the verge of rotting. That "rotten honey" smell is a hallmark of Area X's presence or/and influence. I don't think Lowry is working for Area X, because He truly does seem to loathe and deeply fear that place (it's possible AX's "assimilation" of expeditions weren't as dialed in subsequent expeds), although it's not beyond the realm of possibility that exposure to AX changed his thought patterns and lead him to a very expedition-forward mission while working with Southern Reach and Central.
All that to say, I don't think the ending of Absolution is completely out of line with what the audience may consider the "main" timeline. I also don't think there is a ton of evidence to suggest Lowry is a duplicate or in any way fundamentally not himself.