A Deeper Look – Does Shimmer Lake Give Us Enough Pieces To Assemble Its Puzzle? (Spoilers)

*************SPOILER ALERT****************

 

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s begin!!!!

I’ve watched this movie twice since the review. Each time I watch it, I notice a few more things. Today, I would like to take a much deeper look into Shimmer Lake. There are two things I would like to accomplish with this post. First, I want to ask the question does Shimmer Lake give you enough clues to figure out who killed Andy before it is revealed in the film’s conclusion. I want to analyze the film day-to-day just as it was presented to us. Finally, I just want to point out a few small details you may or may not have noticed when you watched the movie for the first time.

After watching this movie twice, I thought I could say with confidence that the audience is given enough information to identify the killer before it is revealed. However, there is a small detail that was thrown in at the end of the movie that ruins everything. So, I’m going to present you with the clues that I found and at the end, you tell me if it is enough information. I’m pretty sure I’ve missed tons of clues. Feel free to tell me what clues I missed in the comments below.

 

Foreshadowing

It feels weird mentioning foreshadowing in a movie that starts at the end and progresses backwards. However, there are a few instances worth pointing out.

A) “The bullet didn’t hurt as much as you think.” – On Friday, towards the beginning of the movie, Zeke offers the mailman a ride to work after his car is stolen by Andy. During the ride, the mailman asks Zeke how his shoulder is feeling. Zeke replied with the quote above. I remember watching the finale of the movie thinking, so he is just completely unaffected by that gunshot. Look at Mr. tough guy.

B) The person who it shows violently jolt awake at the beginning of each chapter will die in that chapter – I didn’t even notice this until Some Gal Named Elaine pointed it out, but it definitely checks out.

Side Notes aka random things that stood out to me

• On the surface, everything about Zeke says trust me. He has a strong sense of justice. He wants to rid the town of its bad apples. Even though Andy is his brother, he tells him he needs to turn himself in and face the consequences. He even looks after Andy’s wife and daughter while he is on the run. You can tell that he cares about Sally.
  The movie does a great job of portraying Zeke as a guy with this strong sense of dignity, and this really helps to steer the audience away from connecting him as the shooter. Although, at the beginning of the movie, we get a small glimpse into Zeke’s “other” side. When the mailman tells him his car was stolen, Zeke shows little concern or inclination that he plans to help the man or that he actually cares. His reaction was extremely nonchalant for a police officer. His reaction was so lackadaisical that it prompted the mailman to respond, “You should be more surprised.”
  After watching the film, we have a better understanding of why Zeke reacted that way. He knew his brother had stolen the car. However, when you see the film for the first time, it is strange to see a police officer respond to a crime in this way. He didn’t even care enough to PRETEND to show concern for the mailman.
• I don’t feel as if we know much about Andy’s character. We know surface things, but I don’t think we have a level of understanding where we know what makes him tick. From what we do know, he is a pretty messed up person.
       A) He’s possibly cheating on his wife (Martha) – When Stephanie picks up Andy, she says ” Hey babe.” There were other times in the film where Andy addressed her in a manner that made me think they already had been messing around or that he hoped they would soon be messing around. (She definitely was manipulating him, though).
       B) He was going to receive a payoff to drop manslaughter charges against a guy who killed his son. 
       C) He’s pretty mean to his daughter – He shouted at his daughter because she wanted to go to school…yeah
  Was Andy just a person motivated by greed? In the only scene we got of him and his family, he didn’t really seem as if he wanted to be there. He didn’t seem as if he enjoyed their company. Granted, he was about to rob a bank, so I can understand how he wasn’t particularly involved in that moment. Yet, he didn’t know his daughter had an imaginary friend and that seems to be indicative of someone who doesn’t spend much time with their kid.
• Here is a situation where you have to watch the movie twice for a scene to make sense. At the very beginning of the movie, when the mailman’s car is stolen, Zeke offers him a ride to work and allows him to sit in the passenger seat. When Zeke pulls up to his partner Reed’s house to pick him up for work, Reed notices the mailman in the front seat, gets pissed, and awkwardly screams in frustration. The scene is really weird and bizarre. It prompts the audience to think what’s up with that and was all that really necessary? The audience finds out later why he reacted this way (and the reason is absolutely hilarious) but at this moment, in the beginning of the movie, we have no explanation and are left to speculate.

• Later in the day, the FBI and Reed get a call that the bank robbery suspects have been apprehended. The officer on the phone gives them a description of the suspects, which causes the FBI agent to promptly say ” No no no, the Camaro is black and the suspects are white…You should definitely let them go.” This means the officers on the phone detained black suspects driving a white Camaro. The scene is funny, but as a black man from Chicago, it definitely brings back unpleasant memories. I can recall many times I’ve been wrongfully pulled over and accused of a crime I didn’t commit. I’d ask, “Officer, what did I do? Why are you pulling me over?”

The response is always one of two things:

A) Your car fits the description of blah

B) We got a call about a black male blah blah

So, the scene was funny…until it wasn’t.

Day-to-Day Clues

 

Friday – Andy heads for the lake

• There is a scene that shows Stephanie putting on makeup to cover a bruise on her eye. At least it looks this way to the audience; however, if you watch the movie again, it is revealed Stephanie is trying to make the bruise more prominent. She hit herself with an iron to make herself look like a victim. I thought this scene was extremely clever. If you play close attention to the way the scene is shot, I believe the director is giving us a clue into Stephanie’s character. Everything from the sinister music playing in the background to the way the camera slowly pans and zooms in on her face, it all seems to scream there is more to it than meets the eye (pun intended).

• We get the biggest clue of them all towards the end of the day. The arm that shoots Andy has a tattoo that says “State Champs back to back” on it.

Thursday – Judge Dawkins Calls An Old Friend

• “If I ate your mom’s breakfast, I’d end up a fat fucking bastard like everyone else in this town.” First off, this scene is messed up on so many levels. Zeke says this quote to his extremely young niece. It was shocking and really weird because it is out of character for him. It is so out of character that it seems as if the director deliberately threw it in there. This is the first time we see a sinister side to Zeke. There is no other time in the movie where he speaks in this way (besides the ending). He doesn’t talk like this to other adults in the film, so it is even more shocking to see him lose his cool in front of his niece. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. It could just be the main character venting. However, he also mentions cleansing the town in the same scene. He tells his niece that the town is dirty, and he’s going to give it a bath. I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear talk of cleansing people or groups needing to be cleansed, I always think religious fanatic and prepare for the worse. There’s nothing that suggest Zeke is a religious fanatic; however, the tone and vibes I got from this scene show possibly another side to Zeke.

Wednesday – Chris Morrow Gets In Over His Head

• Zeke tells the FBI that all of the guys involved played on the same high school football team – This little nugget of information gives us a few more possibilities as to who has the tattoo that shot Andy at the beginning of the movie.

Tuesday – Ed Burton Makes A Choice

• Ed Burton has an identical tattoo as the shooter – In the beginning of the chapter, you can see “State Champs back to back” on his arm.

• Martha reveals Andy wasn’t on the team when they won – This isn’t necessarily a clue, just an interesting piece of information. It doesn’t matter because Andy dies, and he didn’t shoot himself. It does bring about an interesting question though. Did any of the other suspects play football, but not on the championship team?

• It is revealed that Reed also played on the team – This is the bombshell that ruins everything.

Let’s Put It All Together

1. Zeke is the baby’s daddy – There is absolutely no way the audience could have figured this out. Unless there are clues that I missed, I didn’t see anything in the film that suggested this was possible. It borderline seems thrown in to give Zeke motive, but I digress.

2. Zeke is the shooter

So, we know that Ed has the same tattoo of the shooter. Zeke tells the FBI that everyone involved played on the same high school football team. Zeke, Andy (wasn’t on the team when they won), Chris, Ed were all involved and on the same football team. The judge was also involved; however, he didn’t physically rob the bank. We don’t know if he was on the team. The judge seems much older than the other suspects so he probably wasn’t on the football team. So, he’s eliminated. Andy didn’t shoot himself, so he’s eliminated. Chris dies on Wednesday, so he’s eliminated. All we have left is Zeke and Ed.

Well, we know that whoever violently jolts awake at the beginning of each day dies at the end. This means that Ed will die on Tuesday. If he died Tuesday, he couldn’t have shot Andy Friday. The only person still remaining is Zeke and therefore makes him the shooter. All of this information could have been used to identify Zeke as the shooter before the film actually reveals it. I thought I had it all figured out until…

The revelation that Reed was also on the football team.

Reed being on the football team means that there is another person who may have the State Champs tattoo. With the information we were given, it doesn’t seem as if Reed has any motive to kill Andy. Still, since Reed was on the football team with them, there’s no way to rule him out before Zeke is revealed to be the shooter…or is there?

Did I miss anything? You Tell Me.

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About the Author: Phil Purkett Jr.
Founder and Creator of Some Guy in Space. Second of his name. Real cool dude.

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