A BREAKDOWN of ALL Symbols, Themes, and the Ending of Obsession EXPLAINED

Bro I’ve been watching your shadow movements and I am creeped out

4:22 I’m actually one to believe that Nikki did have a thing for bear. From a girls perspective there were a lot of moments that could pass off as both sisterly love or romantic affection but there are certain points that really sell the idea for me one being when Nikki seemed noticeably disappointed after bear said he only saw her as a friend especially coupled with the fact that she knows Sarah has a thing for Bear. The reason why she never attempted any clear moves toward bear was because she would’ve been betraying her friend. Perhaps she thought if bear was the one to make the first move on her than maybe perusing a relationship with him would be more justifiable which is why she asked bear directly if he liked her. I also think it would’ve added to the tragedy of the story and a very noticeable theme where characters suffer a debilitating loss right after obtaining their wish. Sarah lost her life after getting accepted into university, Ian loses his life after winning a billion dollars, cursed Nikki loses bear right after he starts to obsess as much as she does, and finally the loss that started it all where bear was given a chance to start something with Nikki which he loses and in turn loses the real Nikki.

I don’t think Nikki was ever possessed by an entity or anything. We don’t see her transition but when Nikki makes the wish we do see bear change. In the bathroom you can hear the one wish snap and immediately bear changes. It doesn’t look like anything takes over him it looks like wish made him instantly narrow minded to the point he forgets or doesn’t care about anything else including taking the pills. While it seems like there is Nikki and something else I believe it’s two versions of the same Nikki, the normal Nikki and the Nikki who’s free will is taken by a supernatural force.

this is the second vid of yours that i watch. i like how you break down what ull talk about in a video. it sounds so organised! ill subscribe :>

I don't understand how and why at the beginning the cat dies by eating the pills too, is it just a hint to the ending or has it more hidden meaning??

It reminds me of the premise of a twilight zone episode

On the codependent theme, she speaks and screams like a child sometimes

He entered the state of euphoria because Nicki made her wish. How did you not catch that? If she didn’t he probably would’ve died trying to throw up in the bathroom, you think hydrocodone kick in a minute flat? A lot of you “film interpreters” are slow

I’m not sure if you were comfortable discussing it or it didn’t cross your mind but Nikki’s suffering is more than just mental. She’s being violated 24/7. The sex scene was so uncomfortable. Nikki had a blank stare on her face while moaning. He’s r*ping her. He’s stolen her bodily autonomy and her mind. I would have liked more of a deep dive into Nikki. There’s also the aspect that Sarah has this major crush on Bear and she thinks he’s this great guy, she dies thinking that but he’s such an awful person. It shows that you don’t know someone. Kind of like how people are in love with that first version of a person.

Bear is awful because I would go to the witchy store immediately to freak out at them, but he didn't.

Where do you think she was ? She seems to not remember anything the other Niki was doing?

I disagree, with you stating that it is very OBVIOUS that niikki doesnt like him. She gives mixed signals and i think it is entirely plausible that she actually has some sort of feelings? She states no one ever knows when she likes someone and she also gives him an opening to confess by the car, she says she can only be open with him and i think it's left ambiguous whether she actually did like him at the start. to be honest i think it would be even more brutal if she did, it would mean bear was even more cruel and selfish. and only because he was a coward, too scared to step out of his comfort zone.

You can hear the willow crack the moment Bear snaps.

He wasn’t trying to save Nikki, he was trying to alter his wish

This movie tackles so many things that different people deal with in under two hours in an exceptional way. Much was intentional while other topics were unintentional but came across anyway

You got it all wrong 🤙

To be fair its not clear she doesn’t like him its more of a maybe but more likely not

I think Bear is a bad person. He is selfish. He seems quite toxic. He knew what he’d done to her, he knew what he had made her into, what she had become, yet he put his own desires first each time he saw the consequences of his actions. Throughout, to the end. Even when he takes those pills, he tries to go back on his choice. It was too late though, because the wish Nikki made takes over him. He still dies from the medication, because he could not get them out in time but he still would have gone back on his choice for his own desires if it wasn’t for Nikki at the end, who unknowingly put herself out of her misery. Only to then be thrust her into the reality of everything that happened while she was a passenger in her own body. Bear is not a good person.

I like your interpretation. These parts in the movie stand out to me, too:

1. Ian tells Bear that, "All you have is time", referring to finding the right moment to confess to Nikki. While it's left ambiguous if Nikki really has feelings for him, we know that at least, at the beginning of the movie, she views him as a brother. That could've changed if he waited and conquered his character flaw of cowardice and resistance to effort, but he doesn't wait. I think the cat being shown as dead almost immediately after Ian tells Bear to wait sets the tone for the movie that he's going to go about the wrong way.

2. Cool mirror of the cat dying by swallowing the pills and him dying the same way.

3. The Magic Eye, the Tiger Eye, and one of the character's eye tattoo, I don't remember who, very interesting.

4. Also, with the Suffering in Private, Bear suffers in private over the death of his cat until Sarah asks about her. He also appears to have suffered in silence about his grandmother until Nikki reached out. We're also told that he's a private person, which is why Nikki's kindness toward him effects him so deeply.

You doin too much imo

I think it’s quite possible that she may have considered it and it makes it even more tragic. I know several of the actors thought so at least

i’m surprised the symbolism of “nikki” giving bear the tiger’s eye isn’t mentioned at all. the meaning of tiger’s eye, naturally foreshadows many events of the film. remember, tiger’s eye is meant to represent courage. nikki giving him this can foreshadow how she gives him the "courage" to die by snapping the OWW, making it so that the choice wasn't even his in the first place. it's also the thing that OG nikki wished he had more of. but i do think the tiger eye has a double meaning: giving her autonomy away. this is because tigers eye also happens to symbolize a clear mind. so the tiger's eye represents a lot of themes and pivotal points in the movie... how OG nikki gives him the chance to be courageous (to confess)... how bear's wish ultimately takes away her "courage"... and how that courage is once again given to him by fake nikki, except he has no choice to accept it since the tables are now turned on him.

13:20 he didn’t ’enter a state of euphoria’, there’s a small snap sound in this scene from Nikki finding the one wish willow and using it to wish for bear to love her back and that was the moment it took effect

can someone tell me why does when bear calls customer service a scream from nikki is heard??? idkkk please someone help me with that

When Bear went back to the store, he bought the last TWO willow sticks & Ian used one for the billion dollars & “Nikki” used the last one right when Bear was tryna make himself vomit the pills which is why he stopped mid attempt. Thats why he seemed “euphoric” bc she made a wish that he loved her back the same.

The film can also be interpreted as symbolic of free will versus being a follower or a leader. Had Bear taken the right risk of just saying how he felt maybe things would’ve panned out differently. Then again who’s to say he wouldn’t have just gotten the one wish and make the same wish after being potentially rejected.

You could hear the one wish willow music like when the box opens up, and could also hear it ‘crack’ while he was in the bathroom

I think this is a poor analysis. Bear did not call the number on the box to save Nikki. He just wanted to make her "normal" so he could continue having an idealized relationship with her. He makes it clear that he never actually cared about the real Nikki because he refuses to put her out of her misery even though he knows she's suffering. Despite having the girl of his dreams trapped in her own body, he goes so far as to start an emotional affair with Sarah right after leaving real Nikki tortured and suffering. He couldn't even be bothered to help her dress her wounds after the dinner party. Fake Nikki's obsession with Bear is just a reflection of his original obsession with her.

What if the alter version of Nikki wished that they would be together forever, even after death... that would probably be the most creepy ending

Just for some constructive feedback for yourself; you separated the video into three themes, and introduced them as if you were going to give a full analysis for each, but as the video went on, particularly in the third theme, you barely assessed the theme of suffering in silence outside of just stating the facts of the curse, and basically just gave a “what happened in the movie”.

i feel like you are defending bear a little too much

I wonder if Sarah being accepted to the Tatoo school was One Wish Willow as well.

From my perspective Bear never truly loved Nikki, I feel like they weren’t even close friends, he just liked the idea of her

One of the thing that really bothered me about Bear was that he didn’t care that Nikki was harming herself and slowly falling apart for her, he cared that she was “embarrassing” him

This is not about codependency. It’s about narcissistic abuse, sexual exploitation, and spiritual kidnapping.

No. Any analysis that doesn’t frame Bearcas a predator that is abusing Nikky, is wrong.

i haven’t seen anyone discuss this in terms of the scene where bear goes to work and nikki stays home and stands staring at the front door for hours.

so i think fake nikki’s only purpose is to love bear right? so when she can’t do that bc bear told her to stay home, the fake nikki has no purpose so she only waits for him to come back. without him, she has no direction or purpose, so real nikki has a little more power to try to fight the fake alternative version that the wish created. so when fake nikki stands there for presumably at least 8 hours while bear is at work, fake nikki is in a catatonic state bc she has no purpose at that moment. real nikki is trying to fight for autonomy, causing her body to go a little haywire where she throws up and defecates on herself. the fake nikki still has more power, so the real nikki still can’t take full control. when bear gets home, fake nikki immediately snaps out of the catatonic state bc bear is back and so her purpose (loving him) is back. she has direction again. she seems surprised at the disgusting state she is in, like fake nikki didn’t know what happened for the past 8ish hours when real nikki was fighting for autonomy and fake nikki was in the catatonic state due to lack of purpose created by the wish.

Vocal fry

This might've been commented already but Bear was definitely not interested in saving Nikki, not even at the end. You can tell from plenty of scenes, namely:

1) When he tells fake Nikki everything is okay except the weirdness and then has her promise to stop (taking note that she stated she "can't" be Nikki because.. well the real Nikki doesn't like him so "being Nikki" would contradict the wish).
2) During the call to One Wish Willow, where he asks to adjust the wish first before anything. He has no intention to cancel it until he's told he couldn't adjust it.
3) When the real Nikki asks him to kill her and he completely dismisses her by asking something along the lines of "what's so bad about being with me?"
4) Literally every scene where the real Nikki shows up completely confused and/or reacting in terror and his first thought not being "oh my god she's trapped, let me get her out."

Even at the end, we can assume he just wants to end this whole affair not because he wants to free Nikki, but because he wants to free himself. He actually buys more than one One Wish Willows and we know this because after Ian's wish, he comes back home and immediately asks out loud if Nikki would do anything for him (out of her obsession) and we also see it fall out of his lap when he stands up to use the bathroom. At this point, he goes to kill himself (that he then tries to stop) but fake Nikki finds the One Wish Willow and we all know what happens at the end. He essentially just takes the easy way out and leaves Nikki with all the consequences of his actions/wish.

This movie was insane, in the best of ways. Definitely left that theater in silence. I especially loved fake Nikki's movements throughout the whole thing. She moved like a willow tree. I've seen people say she moves like a puppet but if you've ever seen a willow tree, it's got these haunting branches and she poses a lot like one when she's doing those creepy scenes. Really fits the whole "One Wish Willow" - like it's a spirit of a willow tree posessing her.

the lesson is: nobody is perfect except for Sarah and Bear is a dumb stupid idiot

Nikki is obviously possessed by a demon. The Willow is witchcraft. I kinda wish Curry hadn’t said it wasn’t. I guess he didn’t want a bunch of loser atheists attacking the movie

i feel like cursed bear (bear after nikki snaps her willow) did know what he had just ingested. it's shown that cursed nikki shares all memories with real nikki. i think the movie having cursed bear show no interest in throwing up the pills is just a way it shows the power of the willow and the effects of loving someone more than one loves oneself.

I believe when Bear calls customer service, he’s actually talking to the devil. The guy on the line is funny, unhelpful, and provides dark advice. We forget how cunning and powerful satan actually is. The devil has access to Nikki’s soul, and the only way to get her is back, is an eye for an eye. People sometimes treat God as a genie in a bottle, and the devil takes advantage of this ideal and the opportunity of instant gratification i.e One Wish Willow. I honestly think, if Bear put in the TIME and took advantage of his opportunities, I think there’s a world where Nikki, actually likes him.

I think that the one wish willow isn’t inherently cursed— it was the wish itself out of desperation and anger that Bear had that Nikki wasn’t his yet, “I wish Nikki would love me more than anything in the world” that cursed the relationship