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Poppy's chapter 5 teaser is here and the mysteries it holds for the upcoming chapter can all be solved thanks to one thing. Fortnite? Hello internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that is determined to uncover the secret of the ooze. Not the ninja turtle kind mind you, the Poppy playtime kind. Because after a lot of radio silence, we've got on our first glimpse for Poppy playtime chapter 5. At the end of chapter 4, we were abandoned by Poppy. We got split up from Kissy Missy and we ended up locked inside the lab surrounded by Poppy flowers and a broken yet still terrifying, huggy-wuggy. We've been told that this is the domain of the prototype, the big bad of Poppy playtime. So naturally, the hype for this next chapter has been real and thankfully this teaser did not disappoint. The teaser begins with more shots of these anticipated labs. There are cute drawings of characters on the walls and the equipment is brightly coloured. It almost looks like a children's hospital, which I guarantee you is more for appearances than to actually reflect the horrors that go on here. Because we quickly start to see what look like surgical rooms filled with old dried blood, a mysterious bubbling goo covering the floors and a cut out of Poppy burning as this mysterious goo spreads across the walls. I've gotta hand it to Mob, they nailed the creepy, unsettling vibes for these teasers. And of course, this one is filled to the beaker brim with that stuff we crave, lore. Lore, which I believe not only gives us insight into the foundations of playtime co's whole experimental process, but also might be warning us about a surprise return from a villain you wouldn't expect. As I've mentioned, this facility looks more like a children's hospital than a lab. A lab is typically somewhere where scientific experiments are done. Sadly, however, as we've talked about many times before, the playtime co, children's hospital and scientific experiments go hand in hand. Over the previous chapters, we've learned that the orphans that come into playtime co's care are tested in the game station, tortured using the nightmare red smoke in the playcare and eventually taken away to be turned into the living toys we've encountered throughout the facility. On the operating table in one of the scenes, we can see two huggy-wuggy mitters strewn across the lab, surrounded by blood and surgical equipment, proving that this lab is absolutely where these transformations happened. Where Harley Sawyer, the mad doctor who came up with the idea for the Bigger Bodies Initiative, did his finest work. What's even more concerning is that we were told in Chapter 4 that this is where the prototype is keeping the orphans who survived the mass extinction event known as the Hour of Joy. The orphans weren't killed during the Hour of Joy. They're below in the labs, the prototype's home. Fortunately, it doesn't look like the surgeries happened recently. The blood on the floor looks old, dry and faded. Much like the blood we've seen in previous chapters from employees killed during the Hour of Joy in 1995. Plus, we know that the prototype didn't allow Harley access to this part of the facility once the Bigger Bodies took over. That would give me lab's access. That is out of the course. So it's not like you could continue experimenting on the kids even if you wanted to. But while the prototype seems like it's trying to protect the orphans, that doesn't mean there isn't any experimentation going on. After we get shots of the surgical rooms, we are shown a room with the prototype's shadow creeping past in the hallway. But that isn't where the camera's focus is. The camera is instead drawing our eyes to the bright pink and orange bubbling goo that covers parts of the floor. Much like the gas mask in Chapter 3's teaser, this being emphasized shows us that this is going to be important to this part of the story. So what is it? Well, just like with Chapter 3's teaser, I don't think it's wild to assume that this has something to do with poppies. They are basically the MacGuffins of this series and have always been part of the scientific process for Playtime Code. All the way back in Chapter 2, we got this note on Elliot's desk about Experiment 814. Where they were trying to revive rats by submerging them in poppy gel and then sending a current through it. This was where my brain immediately went when I saw the bubbling goop on the floor. That this is the poppy gel that we read about all those years ago. Obviously, that gel didn't work. Experiment 814 is considered a failure, but the writer, most likely Harley Sawyer, believed it would be possible with larger subjects. We then never hear about this gel again. So it is entirely possible that Harley was right and that this gel derived from poppies did work to revive its subjects once they switched over to children. And that is therefore the gel that we are seeing on the floor here. However, something definitely feels different about it. Originally, the subject was just put into the gel, as in around the outside of them. It was more of a conductor, with electricity being sent through the gel to try and bring the subject back to life. With some help from the poppy flower, of course. But now, it seems more active, bubbling on its own, which is never a good sign. And in the final scene, as well as in the thumbnail for the teaser itself, the gel seems to have these vein-like structures coming out of it. Almost like it's a living thing. Maybe this is how they created the physical biology for the bigger bodies. While they used some human parts, as we've seen in previous notes, a child isn't going to have enough muscles or organ material to stretch over something as tall as Huggie Wuggie. But that's entirely speculation. We have no way of really knowing exactly what this gel is. Or that's what I thought until I found out that there is very important poppy law pertaining to exactly this in the most unlikely of places. Fortnite. Yes, you heard me right. Fortnite, the free-to-play battle royale, has poppy playtime law. In October, Fortnite held their Fortnitemares event. Man, that name is almost as confusing as the poppy playtime line. But regardless, as part of a preview, the week before the event, mob entertainment released a map called poppy playtime escape trials, which included Huggie Wuggie and the ruined critters as enemies to avoid. It's pretty straightforward in that regard. However, hidden throughout the map were poppy playtime's iconic notes and VHS tapes. At first, I thought this was just going to be stuff we already knew. Repeats of notes and VHS tapes from previous chapters. You know, just trying to get new fans hooked and caught up. But oh boy was I wrong. These notes cover so much new stuff. Stuff that feels way too big for a random collab. For example, they just casually revealed poppy's real name. Yep, the real name she had when she was a human before she died tragically in the 1960s and was turned into a toy by her father, Elliot Ludwig. Guys, we've been over this. Putting law in a spin-off game is one thing. Expecting audiences to solve complex ARGs to keep up with the story is another. But this! There are so many people who just won't know about this stuff simply because they don't want to play Fortnite. You're an indie horror game. Battle Royale's an indie horror game so don't always have the best crossover audience. What's next? Does your Minecraft collab have crucial lore? Oh, please don't tell me your Minecraft collab has crucial lore. Anyway, there's a note you can find that is a diary entry from her. Telling us she's 11 in March of 1960 and she even signs her name. And that name is... Drumroll, please. Poppy. Yep, it's just the same name. I guess even the most creative minds have their off days. However, that isn't the note I wanted to focus on. Instead, I wanted to draw your attention to this document from Eddie Ritiman, the head of research, that was sent to Leith Pierre and Harley Sawyer, other executives at the company. Quote, Poppy Seed Isolate, Strain N12, times 100, Organize Fertilizer, Synthetic Amnio, 18 Drums. As always, we made sure to source materials for the growth medium from our carefully selected vendors. No issues to note. I believe these amounts should suffice for our initial steps. Okay, a lot to unpack there. Like, what the heck is Organize Fertilizer? Did they mean organic? Or is this some kind of fertilizer that's able to arrange itself? Fertilizers? Get in line. Single file. You head over to sector C quadrant 12 now, or it's the compost pile for you. I'm kidding, of course. The main thing that actually stood out to me was that these materials are being sourced for a so-called growth medium. So not only was I right about this definitely being Poppy related, with Poppy Seed being one of the three ingredients, but it also seems like we were on the right track with the idea that this goop is in fact used to grow something as part of their experiments. So great theorist instincts for the win, but as this franchise loves to do, we can go a level deeper. See, there's one other ingredient on that list. Synthetic Amnio. Amnio is shorthand for the term amniocentesis, a procedure that involves taking a small sample of amniotic fluid for testing purposes. However, given the term is preceded by the word synthetic and they're ordering 55 gallons of the stuff, I have a feeling that they aren't referring to the procedure, but the amniotic fluid itself. Amniotic fluid acts as both a protective cushion for fetuses growing inside the womb, but also helps deliver nutrients, water, and biochemical products to the fetus, which is interesting to bring up given a huge part of my previous theory was about the study of embryology. So, embryology is the science of studying embryos, sex cells, and fertilization, and how you can alter their development and evolution through external factors. And we learned about that from a document that we found in Harley Sawyer's possession during his time in the Young Geniuses program, a program run by Elliot Ludwig many decades ago to help continue the push for scientific advancement. So, I theorized that this was how Elliot, and therefore Harley, at least in part, were creating these living toys like Poppy, altering embryos that would grow into whatever toy body they were given. But not only is amniotic fluid connected directly to the idea that embryos are being used, it would also imply I was right about that last bit. Wanna know a fun fact about amniotic fluid? The fetus doesn't just swim around in it, it ingests it, and doing so helps form things like the gastrointestinal tract. Now, remind me, what particular part of these living toys keeps coming up? Oh yeah, their digestive tract. In the original Poppy trailer, we were told that the prototype has a digestive tract like all the others, it just didn't need to use it. Ever since then, we've been reminded again and again that these toys are hungry. My stomach, it hurts. Mine too. Who wins the last time you ate? And given this fluid is labeled as synthetic, it means it's man-made, therefore able to be modified to do so much more than just the digestive tract. That's why it's being shown with these vein-like structures going off of it. It's literally helping to grow these structures inside the toy bodies. It is a growth medium on a whole new level. But that wasn't the only big thing from this teaser. There's one very crucial detail that I've yet to mention that I'm sure everyone has been screaming at me to talk about. The flash frame right before the title card. In this flash frame, we see a glitchy message that reads, quote, A needle pulls a thread. The body rives on the table. Is this it? Is this life? Does this guy's echo off the manor floors? Or do I do now? Where do I belong? The eyes glue to the screen. Transformation and rebirth. You think you know what he wants. You don't know anything. Not yet. To me, this is clearly talking about Popple. Her body was writhing on the operating table as she was transformed or reborn as a toy. The writer questions whether this can truly even be considered life, which would make sense for someone who's literally just seen a person reanimate as a toy. Even if you were a trained scientist, this would be unlike anything you'd seen before. We theorize that Elliot may have used young scientists from the Young Geniuses program to help in Poppy's creation, which this would then align with. You then have the references to footsteps echoing off the manor floor. The only kind of manor we've seen or encountered, really, is where we originally found Poppy, which the survival logbook tells us is a replica of Elliot Ludwig's home. There's also the hallways that we walk through during Chapter 3, we are hallucinating hard at this point, hearing radio broadcasts about a dead body being found on the premises of the late creator. So that also tells us that experiments were being done at his manor, or at least the first one was the one to save his daughter. It's her footsteps that are echoing through the manor floors, unsure of who she is and quote, where she belongs. Plus, you know, there's also the giant empty Poppy mask behind the text, with the scene originally being the Poppy cut out bursting into flames. It feels like it is supposed to be about her and her unique transformation. The first transformation. However, I want you to take a look at that last bit. You think you know what he wants. You don't know anything, not yet. If this is from the perspective of one of the Young Geniuses, or even just a scientist working in the manor on Poppy's transformation, this he would then likely be implied to be Elliot Ludwig himself. He was the man in charge, and was the one that wanted to push science into the future. But if that's the case, then this line could also be assigned to our big bad, the prototype. The prototype has a huge amount of knowledge about Poppy, and seems to have some connection to her that goes beyond just being another toy. It's time to come home. Poppy. Which led me and many others to believe that the prototype isn't just another experiment that Elliot Ludwig now turned into a toy. I actually propose that it might be a clone of Elliot due to some timeline shenanigans, but that doesn't really matter right now. What matters is that this line about not knowing what he wants does ring very true for the prototype, especially amongst the theorist community. We've been theorizing about the prototype's plan since the very beginning of the series, so the longest time we've believed he's building something, something massive, a brand new, even bigger body. In Chapter 3, we saw Katnap worshiping what appears to be a recreated version of the prototype, made up of lots of broken toy parts. And in Chapter 2, right before Mummy Long Legs died, she gave us these parting words. One of you die, and you'll make me part of him. She then ends up broken on the floor and dragged away by the prototype, so naturally this felt like a logical conclusion, especially given we see her arm on the shrine Katnap is using. But now this teaser, it's made me go back and reconsider this idea. We're being told that we think we know what he's doing, making this bigger body out of broken toys, but in reality, we're wrong. And I'm kind of annoyed I didn't see it sooner, because right at the end of Chapter 4, we got the return of the infamous Huggy Wuggy. He's a little broken and beaten up, but he's back and from the screenshots on Steam, looks like he's once again going to be in hot pursuit of us throughout the facility. But if he's back, then he's been repaired, not made to be part of this bigger machine. Which means he might not be the only one. So what did Mummy mean by make me a part of him? Well, I wonder if it isn't so much physically making them part of him, but mentally. With all these visuals of the growth medium Poppy gel that seem to be branching out, it reminded me a lot of plants and funguses and how they share connections through neural networks, which drew me back to the note about the Poppy seed intake. My research revealed that the naming convention they used for the Poppy seeds doesn't really work that way, at least not typically. In a scientific setting, you'd use its given scientific name as all strains of Poppy have different names making them easier to identify, such as Papava Subniferum for the Opium Poppy. The only time you'd refer to a flower or seed with a letter number combo like this is during experimentation contexts for things like breeding, which does make some kind of sense for this context when they need a specific strain for their experiments, but this naming convention also shows up in the world of Agrobacterium. Agrobacterium is a single-celled organism that lives in soil specifically, and there is one study I found about Agrobacterium that was found in composted Poppy flowers. It's called R90, which is obviously not the same as the one we've seen in the document, but it does use a letter number naming convention. I mean, mob clearly didn't want it to be a real strain, lest they send the world into a panic when nerds like me come along and figure it out. But Agrobacterium is super interesting nonetheless. They are attracted to chemicals released by plant wounds, and once they infect the plant, they multiply. But before they even find the plant, they are able to send a chemical signal to communicate with the plant to get it to release a special sticky substance that allows the Agrobacterium to attach itself to it. Now, we're talking about toys, not plants, but they are made up of a strange Poppy-like concoction. So, what if this Poppy gel isn't just how they make the organic parts for the toys, it's also essentially a bacterium derived from the Poppy flower, one that has a chemical connection to others infected with the same stuff, allowing the prototype to know exactly where they are when they're injured, as we saw with Mummy, Catnap and Kissy, fix them up and even control them, making them a part of him or at least his chemical Agrobacterium network. But here's the thing, if that's the case, then who's next? Tuggy has already been revealed, but if 1006 is gathering up old toys we've defeated and bringing them back, maybe even making them more horrifying than before, which one of the many, many, many defeated monsters could it be? My money is the one who put us on this path to begin with. One of you die and you'll make me part of him! Yep, I believe it's going to be Mummy, Long Legs, and here's why. Bob cannot let go of this character. We defeated Mummy all the way back in Chapter 2, but since then she keeps showing up in other pieces of wider media. We get her appearing in artwork for things like Halloween, we see her continued presence in posters along with Daddy and Baby Long Legs, she even got an extra double page spread in the orientation notebook, unlike Poppy and Huggy who only got a single double spread each, which seems strange considering they're basically the faces of the franchise, but the big inclusion has been in the form of notes and VHS tapes. In the Chapter 3 ARG we got an incident report where a girl had a mental breakdown during the night due to the red smoke. That girl was Marie Payne, who would later go on to become Mummy, Long Legs. And now we've gotten a bunch more notes and VHS tapes about Marie Payne and Mummy, Long Legs, thanks to, you guessed it, Fortnite. We have a note introducing the Long Legs family of toys, there's another about how Mummy, Long Legs was introduced to Experiment 1, 2, 2, 3, a colour swapped counterpart that they compared to Huggy and Kissy, so likely Daddy, Long Legs. This actually ends up going badly and Mummy killed Daddy with a different note discussing her integration into the game station after that incident. And then we get a transcript of an interview Mummy does with an employee. She doesn't say much except screaming that Playtime Co took Maria from her, which feels like she's referring to herself, Marie, and how Playtime Co robbed her of her true identity, which kind of calls back to the ending glitch screen from the teaser. What do I do now? Where do I belong? She has literally lost her sense of identity, words that the scientists would have heard echoed throughout the halls. And finally, there are then three new VHS tapes, interviewing an orphan about the game station. In her second interview, she references how she likes Mummy, and in her third, she recalls how Mummy said she'll take care of them and won't let anybody hurt them. As we've seen in the past, when a chapter is building up to release, Mob goes all out putting emphasis on characters that will be important to that next chapter. We saw it with Catnap in Chapter 3's Teases and ARG. We saw it with Harley Sawyer in the Teases and ARG for Chapter 4. We were given more notes and audio logs about their backstory and character, but we never got back for Mummy Long Legs. However, we seem to be getting it now. Right at the time, Mob is ramping up for Chapter 5. This amount of emphasis makes me feel pretty confident that Mummy, and all this extra detail about her transformation has to be important to the story we're about to see play out in Chapter 5. It could be just as simple as, we're going to learn more about the operation process and understand why Mummy and Marie had such a negative reaction to the whole experience. Or, it's because we're getting a surprise return from Mummy, just like Huggy. Maybe she's been broken, or maybe she's been infected with more of this poppy gel, growing her into an even more horrifying monster, and making her a part of the prototype's hive mind. But, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, theorists, remember, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching!
