OMG I Feel This Is Absolutely Right And I Have Some thoughts About How This Fits Into Lore. I Think

OMG I feel this is absolutely right and I have some *thoughts* about how this fits into lore. I think Matt is showing us that history is repeating itself. Lucien literally said that only after he was SHATTERED that he decided he wanted full control over the city himself.

He might be obliterating the central, divided nine ways, nervous center of Cognuza, but his center has already been broken into pieces. One of which we knew as Molly, but with how Lucien talks about Molly, we can infer that after breaking, his consciousness was split into many parts not simply two. Even if Lucien rises to power with the intent to solely rule, the corruption of the place will undoubtedly pull and exaggerate where he is split, even without the m9. The m9 actually serve as the only barrier to what Lucien will become.

Left alone with the insanity of this liminal consciousness, Lucien will be fully split into his pieces just like the 9 somnovem. The streets will be populated by HIS parts. His anger, arrogance, love, and memories will become bulbous red eyes that see themselves as individuals. I wonder if Molly might embody something like “emptiness.” Cognuza might form places it tries to remember, like the grave Molly crawled out of and the circus. Given time he will warp so far away from one “Lucien” that the pieces he became will wish to reunite and return to the material plane after suffering for so long in this listless, timeless, unreal place. A place of rotting memory and a place of one consciousness shattered and screaming. Lucien’s parts might even seek out an individual in the material plane who they can have unite them and open a gate to reality once more, believing they are bringing some destroyed notion of joy to the material world.

This is what is happening now, and that is why I feel like Matt has taken care to show us Mollymauk breaking through. Why he mentioned Lucien’s shattering after his first death during the ritual just before destroying and taking over Cognuza. Because in the grand scheme of things, despite thinking he is acting alone and changing the city, Lucien will leave this place no better than we find it to be now.

Okay but, before Lucien made it this far, before he put his grand plan into action–Matt made sure the Nein saw that glimpse of Mollymauk still in there somewhere, still fighting for control. Lucien thinks by obliterating the Somnovum, he can end this hivemind of conflicting beings all tied to one another in constantly quarreling turmoil. Take all that power for his own. But there’s already a war within himself, someone else that’s still trying to pull free.

And here, in this place where dreams are manifested into reality? Where the Nein were able to connect to Yussa’s consciousness and pull him free? Who’s to say they can’t do the same with that lingering shard of Mollymauk? Because even as Lucien’s power heightens, Matt still showed us that there was something breaking in him, that Mollymauk’s soul can still be reached.

Like Laura said, it feels like a puzzle. Like Molly’s so close, and if they can just put all the pieces together, then they can see him again. I don’t think Matt would have given them that hope–the most striking reaction we’ve seen from Molly yet–if it wasn’t something on the table. And we know that there are members of the Nein that are certainly willing to try.