Two Distant Strangers (Review)

I just saw Two Distant Strangers on Netflix (Spoilers ahead). It's only 32 minutes so it's a quick watch. It’s weird and slightly unsettling as I suppose it was intended to be. It’s like Groundhog's Day except imagine living the absolute worst day of your life repeatedly. Let me say upfront these are my initial impressions from watching it once last night. I need to watch it again to make sure I remembered everything correctly. I clearly have not done this all before like our protagonist.

The title doesn’t offer any real clues about who the strangers are, their backstories, or their motivations, but the movie is rich with symbolism that suggests some things to me. Most of it is obvious: showing the subways that we know run at regular intervals, the large industrial fans spinning round and round in the background, a bloodstain in the shape of the African continent. The apartment number is 9 signifying perfection and completeness that becomes unhinged and falls to a 6 which symbolizes falling short and the manifestation of sin. If you look at the mark of where the number was and where it is, you can make out an infinity symbol suggesting that he is indeed in an infinite loop.

The main character's (Carter) motivation is clear: It’s survival which, to him, means getting home to see his dog, Jeter. What’s less clear is the real motivation of the officer(Merk). Merk does explain why he became a "cop," but he repeatedly lies throughout the film. In fact, his first explanation is a lie that Carter sees through so you can’t trust what he’s saying or who he appears to be and that is probably the biggest clue about him. The pig was very much aware of the loop at least as long as Carter was and probably longer. He registers slight surprise when he first murders Carter which might lead you to conclude that he unexpectedly entered the loop around the same time as Carter, but here’s a potential problem with that: He’s part of the SWAT team when he murders him inside her apartment. How would he know what apartment he’s in? How would he even know that it was his plan to stay inside the apartment this time around? He likely knows more than what he eventually reveals to Carter. When he's "taking him home" in his squad car, he remarks that he's never talked to one of them this long. On the surface, he's talking about a black person, but it may specifically really refer to someone (Black) who's entered the loop. He clearly enjoys killing Carter, but he doesn't kill him every time. One time he lets him go and flashes a slight smile as he leaves. Carter is promptly murdered around the corner as he is grouped with suspects fleeing the police. His death seems guaranteed at this point which implies a controlled environment. He’s a modern-day Sisyphus in the Hell of his own memory. The pig is essentially a demon who only uses the truth at the end to torment him. If this is correct, then it does beg the question: What did he do to end up there? Of course, there is no answer to that question. But it is a question that I think most Black people in the U.S. have thought about at one point or another.

“What did I do to deserve this fate? Is this punishment for some crime committed in a previous life?”

The internal flaw with this thinking is in what it then signifies about (y)our tormenters. Are they being compensated, not in cash or heavenly rewards, but simply in their ability to be inhumane and cruel? If so, any notions of morality or karma instantly break down. What we are left with then is there is no reason for any of it. It just is what it is. They just are who they are. This has implications for how you should conduct yourself around and to them which most of them and us would rather not deal with (including Carter). More on that at the end.

Carter remembers each previous encounter and initially assumes that the pig(Merk) does not. At the end of the film, we see this isn't true. The pig does remember. But his “girlfriend”(Perri) doesn't seem to remember each iteration and neither do any of the minor characters as they keep repeating their same actions so it appears only the two of them retain their memory. I'm not sure if this is completely true though. We know the pig was lying to him about what he knew, but I suspect Perri might know a little bit more than she believes. Why? Well, he was able to convince the pig that they were stuck in a loop very quickly. But the pig was able to accept it because he already knew they were in a loop so it did not take much convincing. He actually had to act surprised at the information initially before quickly buying into the story. What’s interesting is it didn't take much to convince Perri which leads me to believe that she may also be aware, at least on a subconscious level, that she too is in the loop. She notes that he is predictable in naming his dog and is explicit in naming the number of times she wants to wake up next to him. She may not be consciously aware that she is in the loop, but she accepts his story as quickly as the pig did. Imagine if you tried to convince others that you were stuck in a time loop. They would think you were insane and it would take more than a single conversation to convince them otherwise unless they already at least suspected you were telling the truth and are ready to believe. Also note that when he tries to convince the pig, he’s able to name several things that will happen independently of the two of them as evidence. He would have far fewer corroborating details with Perri inside her apartment. Her character is highly observant and sarcastic. She doesn’t initially believe him about his reason for leaving, but she believes him about being trapped in a time prison? It only makes sense if she was experiencing at least some amount of Déjà vu herself. The other explanation is she's in on it as well. And that would explain why Merk new he was staying inside during one of his loops: she tipped him off. The problem with that is he let him go during one loop knowing he would still be killed. If he knew this, then he likely wouldn't need to be tipped off.

In any case, what she suggests as a course of action gets summarily dismissed by Carter, but it is the right course of action and one that many people like to avoid. She says she would try to kill the person trying to kill her. And she’s absolutely right. She also mentions that she has a gun. He should get her gun and try to kill the pig before the pig kills him. At this point, there is no reasoning with him. He's already let you know that trying to appeal to his humanity is pointless because he has none. Aside from that, the only other course of action would be to try to test the limits of this reality. For example, can you hide until the next day or will you always be found out? Does killing yourself reset things? I suppose these unexplored options are what fuels his hope at the end that he will get home to see his dog instead of staying in bed and feeding the cat. I would do both.