We, The Infected

... or does Eli know?

This occurred to me the other night, and I went back to check in the novel, but it doesn't really help achieve clarity.

If Eli leaves after killing Lacke, what circumstances lead Eli back to the pool for the rescue? Was it just luck? Was Eli flying back for a last look? Had Eli's mind changed?

Was there some sort of vampire radar? How, or did, Eli know Oskar was in trouble?

I'm curious if people have mulled that over. I'm not saying it's a plot problem, but it just occurred to me.

In the novel, there's some more action that happens between Eli leaving and the rescue, but still.

Thoughts? Did I miss something?

Okay. Some here think she was keeping her promise to help Oskar if he needed it.

Others think that Eli tried to do her usual "get out of town" routine but found a joyless life no longer satisfying (or possible?).

Some think she found she was crazy in love with Oskar and came back because love compelled her to.

As for keeping her promise, why wouldn't she assume the bullies had moved on to another victim? After all, they stopped bullying Oskar at school. Well, in her long life, she may have accumulated wisdom about the nature of bullies. At the least, it wouldn't hurt her to come back and keep out of sight so she could check out the situation before she left for good.

Two holds up, in my estimation. She has lived like crap, doing a job she hated, but now has found joy.

Three works if she has so fiercely bonded with Oskar that she was compelled to return. Maybe she was in love with Oskar. Maybe Oskar came to love her (or would come to love her.) But the kiss tapped on the train is a pretty good romantic ending, even if there were very few overt signs of affection shown in the film.

Oh, your suggestion (and others) of a fourth possibility -- We don't know how Eli knows stuff. It could be a supernatural power. Unless someone has seen a clue about that, I don't know what to think.

If you're just going by the movie, you didn't miss anything. We don't know. One of the things we considered was "vampire radar".

I seem to remember the novel having hints that she was just going to be away for a little while, just trying to get some ducks in a row. She'd left most of her personal belongings in boxes hidden under Oskar's bed.

sauvin wrote:If you're just going by the movie, you didn't miss anything. We don't know. One of the things we considered was "vampire radar".

I seem to remember the novel having hints that she was just going to be away for a little while, just trying to get some ducks in a row. She'd left most of her personal belongings in boxes hidden under Oskar's bed.

Huh. I'll have to go back and look tonight.

sauvin wrote:... I seem to remember the novel having hints that she was just going to be away for a little while, just trying to get some ducks in a row. She'd left most of her personal belongings in boxes hidden under Oskar's bed.

Those hints would be that Oskar took care of Eli's toys and money. (Since the novel was brought up, I'll continue referring to the novel, even though this is the film section.)

We don't know why Oskar moved Eli's boxes to his own apartment, just that he did it. There is a hint that the plan was to move also the last and third of the boxes, the one with Eli's clothes within, but it was never done.

I don't think that Oskar and Eli had planned for Eli to return and pick the boxes up. We get a rather detailed insight into Oskar's thoughts and feelings the days after Eli left, and everything says that Oskar thought that Eli was gone for ever.

Neither do I think that Eli had planned to return, without telling Oskar. I think Eli was very open to Oskar about everything at the time, and concealing such a plan seems out of character. I see no reason for it. Eli knew he had to go, and Oskar couldn't live the kind of life Eli lived (unless he was turned, which he had rejected).

But I don't really know why moving Eli's stuff out of the apartment was important. Perhaps O&E just wanted to remove as many traces of Eli as possible. They knew that people were on Eli's tracks, and that the police eventually would go into Eli's apartment because of Håkan. So they decided that Oskar would dispose of the stuff that Eli couldn't bring with him. That's my best explanation, anyway.

Back to the topic:
I don't think that Eli knew that Oskar was in danger. I do think Eli went away, far enough to be reasonably safe, and thus he wouldn't have had time to return even if some kind of mental connection told him that Oskar was in danger. But he returned, for some reason. I think he went into a depression similar to the one Oskar felt, and against all wisdom returned to Blackeberg. He arrived at the very last minute, by sheer luck. But such is life, sometimes.

Even though they may not be the most popular view points round here, they do answer the question. By they I mean the manipulative take and the pool-scene-as-death-fantasy take.

In the manipulative take her leaving is her showing Oskar what life'd be without her and then coming to his rescue, all preplanned. This is the final checkmate.

The pool-scene-as-death-fantasy is self explanatory.

The other one is, well she said she would. How did she know? I see a spiritual connection myself like she's Oskars angel but you could chalk it up to her being supernatural and us humans not understanding things of that nature.

I'm not sure there are any clear answers, but I like to think she left and then realized she just couldn't leave Oskar.

The film does not show much on this question, but there are hints and foreshadowing. At the very beginning Eli tells Oskar she knows where he lives, hinting that she has been outside watching him through his window. The ending is foreshadowed in an earlier scene where Oskar is at the pool with the other kids and Eli is watching through the window, watching Oskar in his own natural habitat. I think Wolfchild's "A Tale Told by Hands" discusses how this is suggested with simple images.

So the inference is that Eli is like a guardian angel, shadowing Oskar to make sure his life is turning out alright when by chance she sees Jimmy trying to kill him.

In the novel, Eli is aware that the bullies have already tried to kill Oskar at the train station making this scenario more likely.

gattoparde59 wrote:[...]In the novel, Eli is aware that the bullies have already tried to kill Oskar at the train station making this scenario more likely.

The bullies didn't try to kill Oskar at the underground station. They played a cruel (and dangerous) game with him, though, that could easily have gone out of hand. But would that make it likely that they would eventually make a serious attempt to kill him? I wouldn't think so.

But this is all in the novel.

a_contemplative_life wrote:I'm not sure there are any clear answers, but I like to think she left and then realized she just couldn't leave Oskar.

Meanwhile, back at the film -- this is my most comfortable way of understanding Eli's return. Having experienced joy and an end to her soul-deadening isolation from children her age, she just isn't able to go back to her old way of life (which was almost no life at all, as sauvin has pointed out elsewhere). That could include the possibility that she has in some sense fallen in love with Oskar. And being in love does not preclude the desire to protect him.

This is a film point of view, and not the only possible film point of view. But there is a rich vein of interpretation on the forum suggesting that her friendship with Oskar has resurrected her long buried humanity, the ability to feel a range of emotions and to care for another human being. It had been a long time coming and would not be easy (or even possible?) to walk away from.