Warning! This article may contain spoilers for The Crowded Room’s future episodes.In The Crowded Room‘s episode 4, Danny claims that Ariana and Yitzhak abandoned him after the shooting incident, but many clues suggest that Danny’s account of his past is more complex than he realizes. In The Crowded Room‘s opening episodes, Danny Sullivan gets arrested and finds himself in an interrogation room with a young woman named Rya Goodwin. During the interrogation, Rya patiently listens to Danny and his account of everything from his past that led him to the crime. However, time and again, she also challenges Danny when she finds evident gaps in his narrative.
As Danny Sullivan recalls how he tried visiting his father in London in The Crowded Room‘s episode 4, Rya tries pushing him even further to help him understand the truth. However, towards the end of The Crowded Room episode, Danny tries reassuring Rya that her did not kill Yitzhak and Ariana. Instead, they conned him and then left him by himself after getting him involved in a grand conspiracy. As The Crowded Room‘s episode 4 reaches its conclusion, Rya’s stance towards Danny’s story seems to explain what actually happened to Ariana & Yitzhak.
Did Ariana & Yitzhak Really Abandon Danny In The Crowded Room?
Rya’s demeanor towards Danny in The Crowded Room‘s episode 4 suggests that she knows Danny has Dissociative Identity Disorder. By asking him the right questions and pointing out inconsistencies in his narrative, she only tries to make him aware of his alternate identities. Rya does not keep asking Danny about Yitzhak and Ariana because she believes he killed them. Instead, she asks him because she knows that they, too, are his alters, who have not necessarily abandoned him but only appear during specific times.
For instance, according to Danny’s recollection of his backstory, Yitzhak usually shows up when someone bullies him. He first came to his rescue to save him from school bullies, later helped him confront his father, and finally showed up when he needed a new passport to travel to London. Jack, too, emerges when Danny is in dire need of advice or assistance. While the exact reason behind Ariana’s existence remains unknown, she seems to stem from Danny’s childhood trauma. Therefore, although Ariana and Yitzhak may never appear again, they have not exactly abandoned Danny and likely still exist as his alters.
The Crowded Room’s True Story Inspirations Hint At Yitzhak & Ariana’s Fate
Danny Sullivan’s narrative in The Crowded Room is inspired by Billy Milligan’s true story. His alters, Yitzhak and Ariana, are also loosely based on two of Billy Milligan’s alternate identities, Ragen Vadascovinich and Adalana. Like Yitzhak and Ariana, Ragen and Adalana were reportedly held responsible for the robbery and rape charges against Milligan. After learning about Billy Milligan’s Dissociative Identity Disorder, his defendants had pleaded an insanity defense in court, which eventually led to his acquittal. With what followed, Milligan spent decades in many different state-run psychiatric hospitals.
In 1988, after experts agreed that Milligan’s alters had fused, he was released from the psychiatric hospitals. If The Crowded Room closely follows Billy Milligan’s real-life story, Danny Sullivan’s narrative will likely reach a similar conclusion. This would mean that towards the end of The Crowded Room, Danny will seek therapy for his Dissociative Identity Disorder, which will help him “fuse” his separate personality traits from Ariana, Yitzhak, Jack, and others into one consolidated identity.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
