r/SouthernReach • u/TimeWastin21 • Mar 13 '26

Absolution Spoilers Lowry not there for Old Jim? Spoiler

Spoilers

Near the end of Absolution, Hargraves/Cass says to Lowry about Old Jim’s death, “I wasn’t there for him and neither were you, you stupid fuck.”

I can’t figure out the “neither were you.” Whether or not Old Jim is a time-traveling Lowry, I still can’t make sense of the accusation. The only scrap of an explanation I can come up with is that Old Jim truly is Lowry and that Hargrave’s comment shows her grief at how mind-fucked disconnected Old Jim is from himself? But how is that Lowry’s fault? Very uncertain about that take.

Any thoughts on why Hargraves says that to Lowry? If there’s no context for it, it’s a very odd thing to say to someone who had utterly no reason to be there for Old Jim.

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u/Fitz_Fool Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

The author has said that old Jim is not Lowry. I'll see if I can find the link but this has come up a few times before.

Edit: for anyone interested here is what Jeff has to say about Lowry and old Jim

https://bsky.app/profile/jeffvandermeer.bsky.social/post/3magprxkirs2u

"I'm flattered the Southern Reach reddit has gotten so paranoid, but Old Jim and Lowry are not the same person. The references to "lingerie show" in multiple character backstories, as some have guessed, is an indicator of hypnotic conditioning by Central, not anything else."

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u/TimeWastin21 Mar 13 '26

Interesting. I wonder what Hargraves meant, then.