I might be going crazyy but I can't help but see a pattern in ALL of their skits and the fact that it's proving one of your theories right is WILD!! (this is also referencing their latest r&l video btw)

Hey. Sorry for the late reply, it's been crazy lately.

👀 But it does, doesn’t it? Glad you see it too.

For context: the theory Anon refers to is “It Has Always Been One Story”.

Like every other time so far, the latest video was symbolic. I was very busy these days so I didn’t have the clarity and time to get all the symbolisms as well as in previous videos, however I adamantly agree with you that it was again an allegory and of course once again it was part of the same one story. This video had many similarities with a lot of their scripted work, most notably Hazel, We Dug A Medium Sized Hole, The Quest for the Brown Diamond and The Puzzle, which are IMO among their symbolically most significant works.

Before continuing with the analysis, I would like to comment on the technical aspect: I loved this video. I see growth in their cinematography, in their direction and the stylisation of the video. Nice work in the spooky moments. It became an instant favourite for me, although it still doesn’t top my all time fave Hazel, which was very inventive both as a concept and an execution, let alone the wonderful haunting song it had.

Anyway, let’s go:

Rhett and Link decide to spend a night in an unhaunted house. There is resolutely no mention of the intent behind it other than the requirement for it to be unhaunted, although their own houses are also - hopefully! - unhaunted. Of course, the cynical part of the explanation is that this is relevant to Halloween approaching. However, it still doesn’t explain why there isn’t a plot mention of the need behind going together to a house and why it is supposedly so hard to find an unhaunted one. The key question is: apart from the marketing connection to the upcoming Halloween, what does an “unhaunted house” mean in Rhett and Link!verse? Let’s remember that technically according to Hazel, the Creative House is haunted too after all.

As usual, and in complete agreement with both their recent scripted and their real life behaviours, Rhett is semi-anxiously leading the search for a 100% ghost-free house. Link is relaxed, not taking this as seriously, searching instead for luxe houses with special amenities such as spas and fire pits. So we see that not only the true intent is not explained but in fact there are discrepancies between the intents of the two of them, which is something we also see in We Dug A Medium-sized Hole. So, Rhett is focused on finding a ghostless, unhaunted house to go with Link and little else matters to him, whereas Link apparently wants to spend the night with Rhett having spa and sitting by a fire pit and well 👀

Link rejects Rhett’s first house suggestion with the reasoning that a house with very large windows can very likely be haunted as ghosts can push you out the window. This hint made it easier to get what "unhaunted" means in their context. A house without “ghosts” watching you. In short, a house with very good privacy, far from eyes and unwanted witnesses, nosy neighbours, even cameras and monitors nearby in the street 👀That’s what Rhett was anxious to find. Privacy. Link, far less stressed about it, opts for very specific amenities that can heighten his experience while spending there the night with Rhett 👀

If you watch the House Tour vlog of the Creative House, you'll notice that it is a private residence. It seems to have another building (garage? store room? something else?) in front of the fascade of the house and all windows at the front and at the sides are small and frosted, apart from the kitchen's. The only large windows are the ones which look to the back of the house, the yard with the pool, where it seems there is no visibility from the surrounding houses. Yet again, I am not sure it is 100% an allegory of the Creative House, although that's where I lean. It could also be their prerequisites when renting Airbnbs.

There is the title of an article in the house pinboard, reading "Death Valley's Crying House shows no signs of leaks or water presence". I didn't manage to find a meaning behind it however I googled it and I did not find anything about a crying house in Death Valley so it seems oddly specific if they made it up. If anybody knows that this is a real thing please tell me about it. Just as a sidenote.

When I heard that one of Link's suggestions had spa and a fire pit, I knew this one would end up being the one they would go to. Not only because obviously Link would get his way with his wants as usual but because in real life the Creative House has similar amenities: a pool and a fireplace, both luxe amenities, especially the fireplace in LA and especially either one when a house is supposedly needed only as a space for isolation to “work”.

Do I really have to comment anything here? I will only remind everyone that this is scripted, so Link is scripted to misphrase like this and then Rhett of course is scripted to correct him. Is this a scripted gay joke then? Rhett saying they don't queerbait flashing before my eyes Not really. It is what it's been in all those videos so far - conditioning. Not coming out and taking the world by storm but planting progressively the idea and the image to the viewers again and again until they get used and more open to it.

..... By the way, Jane Phillips is real. So is her business Geyser Energy Clearing Services. I kinda hoped it was an actress but... Of course she was told to suggest the ranch house. I love that on facebook (yeah I searched it, not proud) she says her services are cheap and then she charged them 997$ to do nothing XD Of course, I assume this price includes having her on camera, the implication that her presence would be used in a comedic manner and that she was told to suggest the ranch house no matter what. But still. And why is this price so particular, like, why 997 lol It's interesting though that this psychic claims to summon Jesus, Mary and the Angels (!!!! is she for real, honestly, wtf) so technically Rhett and Link go there supposedly with the conviction that Christianity protects them. But as we will see soon, Christianity did not protect them after all.

Rhett being super equipped for ghost detection reminds me of Horst in the Brown Diamond being super equipped with healthy snacks for the quest. Not a very particular symbolism, but just the pattern of Rhett being the anxious one and the one who prepares for everything that may go sideways during what they do.

So Rhett buys equipment for the detection of paranormal activity. He checks the EMF on the fridge, dead. He checks it on Link's torch, dead. He checks it on his phone and whooosh

EMF detects the radiation from the phone, which is normal, except the phone wakes, we see the well known wallpaper of Jessie and we are hit with a spooky note of the score. Why? If EMF is just checked for detecting radiation in a clearly radiating device, then why is this treated as a scary moment? And why doesn't EMF respond on the fridge? So it can not be just that. Perhaps I am stretching this but it's interesting that the hour is 3:36. We just saw when they entered that it was a bright day so I am assuming he uses a 12 hour format, but the point is he makes it look like it's 3:36 AM, I mean, this is the instictual thought before you realise that "oh it's afternoon so it's 15:36 in a 12 hour format". If we combine an hour that looks like 3:36 AM with the scary score note and the fear of detecting ghosts, we get this implication:

Is Jessie or the mobile phone the type of ghost Rhett's fearing?

Anyway, a little later, after they are finally convinced the house is unhaunted, they go to the spa and apparently Link went in with his underpants because he forgot his swim trunks. I kinda think this might be real Link forgetting about it as he was going to the set!

About this scene, it didn't have something to analyze except that Link seemed to be all about Rhett's business, first with the placement of the legs and then when he get unnecessarily close to leave the voice message. Another thing I would like to comment on is that there seems to be steadily a female presence in their scripted works, whose role is ambiguous, and sometimes even treacherous, i.e Jane, Hazel, Brandy.

Anyway then they go to the firepit when they have this somewhat charged moment as they try to find how exactly to spend the rest of the night.

They decide to play a board game, which definitely gives The Puzzle vibes, and let's remember the Puzzle is a 2015 video... Anyway, they find a game in the drawer which is actually not a board game but rather a roleplay game. The game alludes to the well known phrase "When the cat's away the mice will play".

They decide Link to be the cat and Rhett to be the mouse (once again it can allude to the fact that Link was the initiator of this relationship or this arrangement, as hinted in most of their relevant skits) but it soon becomes evident that they are just the mice and someone else is the cat.

While we initially see Link trying to protect Rhett from the extermeowinator, which is a deviation from their usual script patterns, it actually isn't. Yes, Link rushes to defend Rhett, however in his effort, the extermeowinator actually injures HIM with the knife. So then we have a return to their typical pattern, which is that Link is in need and Rhett tries to get him out and save him. That's what always happens - Rhett tries to get Link out of Hazel's forest in the middle room, Rhett tries to get Link out of his head while losing control during the digging, Rex is [SPOILERS] saving Leif who's trapped deep in the monster's lake in TLCOBC. We still have the pattern of Rhett trying to get Link out of something and save him.

Link is hurt close to the heart. Rhett manages to get him out of the house and yet, ridiculously enough, Link reminds Rhett the owner charges a fine for not putting the dishes in the dishwasher and the sheets in the washing machine (did they use the sheets though...?). Outrageously, Rhett agrees to go back inside and do that stuff before leaving, which leads to their ultimate demise.

Two last notes here: One, of course we have the recurring theme of Rhett saving Link only for them to then fall even harder in the shitty situation, Rhett takes the final decision for them to go back in the house, Link was just reminding him about it but it was Rhett who made the decision. Rhett after stopping Link from digging, then is of the opinion to make a larger hole than the one Link suggests. Rhett is the one to be taken and then draw Link with him the second time Hazel attacks. Horst first persuades Sandy to let go of the Brown Diamond, only to immediately beg him to get his hand back there in order to retreive his phobias bracelet, which leads to their ultimate demise there too. We have the same pattern again.

Two, "death" seems to mean something very particular and significant between Rhett and Link. I started having thoughts about it in the "Valentine Compliments" GMMore a couple of years ago, the notorious episode where Rhett lost it at some point and blamed shippers for having too many expectations. And yet in that very episode, Link made the compliment "I love to remember when we died. This is heaven" to Rhett. Rhett does not treat this as gibberish but they keep discussing it in a coded language, according to which they both killed each other at some point simultaneously (with prods of some sort). They also tied it to their spiritual deconstruction, arguing humorously that it all happened at the same time so hopefully God lost track of whether or who was supposed to go to heaven or hell. Anyway, after this, I have indications (too many and too small to name and number) that they sometimes use death to symbolise a spiritual / religious death caused by a mutual act between them rather than their alleged mature decision to leave church. So, "stay in the house where Rhett and Link died", has three meanings; a) actual death in the context of the video, b) allegory of a spiritual death and c) symbolism of the act that caused the spiritual death. I have talked about this in my analysis of the aforementioned GMMore, it is IMO 99% a reference to both Le Petit Mort and spiritual death caused by sin.

What I can not figure out is what exactly extermeowinator is supposed to signify. Is he a plain killer looming in the house and there meaning behind him profiting from their death (as suggested by @mpay22 )? Is he a ghost from the ones they were trying to avoid? Does he symbolise an actual person or group of people they hide from or who have trapped them? Does he symbolise the unrelenting nature of love? Is he the personification of guilt? Is he God's judgement? Or as a demon (unbeaten by Jesus and Mary as we saw) he is the sin itself? It seems like extermeowinator has the most similarities with Hazel, but then again Hazel is portrayed somewhat more sympathetically than him.

In any case, the end is the same. Rhett and Link are killed by extermeowinator and never leave the house. Hazel drags them in her forest and they never leave the middle room. Horst and Sandy die trapped in the Bahau Moon.