If You're Still Confused About The OA's Interdimensional Ear Plants, Read This

There are a lot of “WTF?” moments during The OA Season 2, and if you want to hear about all of them, where do we even begin? There’s a mysterious house with powers, a telekinetic octopus, and at one point there’s incredibly meta scene in a new dimension where the actors on the show actually play themselves. But honestly, all of those pale in comparison to the reveal from The OA's Part II involving a “seed” inside everyone’s brain, just waiting to sprout with interdimensional, edible flowers. Out of all the crazy twists in the second season of the show, this one might be the most out there.

That’s a major question that the season slowly answers, as more and more information about this seed comes to life. Hap is the one who provides all the backstory for this seed, so what he tells us we're going to take as truth. He’s studying them, after all, and he’s eager to collect as many of these seeds as possible. The only thing is, though, that the only way he can get these seeds is for them to become “activated” so he can harvest the seeds... and do some other things with them, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

There’s a house on Nob Hill in San Francisco that’s activating these seeds. How? That’s just one of the many unsolved mysteries of the season, but from what we know, if you head into the house in hopes of solving the puzzle inside this seed will then sprout when activated by water; this explains why the seed come to life for Zendaya’s Fola, but not for Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Karim when they’re splashed by a passing car.

Hap is taking those who have entered the house, and died, back to his lab. Using a tank where only their head is submerged in water, the seeds sprout. It’s weird, but it’s about to get a lot weirder.

According to Hap, when the seeds sprout and produce flowers, if you eat the flowers you can hear into another dimension. It’s easier just to accept this explanation than try and fight it, whatsoever. We actually see Hap eat a flower, and hear muffled voices from this other dimension as people cry out for help — foreshading what happens in the final episode where Hap/Jason Isaacs and OA/Brit are rushed away in an ambulance.

But it’s what we see happen between Hap eating a flower and this final dimension that is really disturbing. During the second episode of the season the (sadly deceased) Rachel stumbles into another room in Hap’s lab and what she sees is shocking. However, we don’t see it ourselves. All we see is a watery reflection on Rachel, and her distressed look. In the season finale we finally learn what’s in the room: It’s a pool of dead bodies who have all sprouted flowers, and now float lifeless in the water like a botanical garden.

Hap calls this an “invisible river,” since it’s a gateway to dimensions we can’t see yet. It also maybe only exists in this dimension, because, come on, how many other dimensions have San Francisco houses that activate seeds inside your brain? I’m willing to wager none.

By using the edible flower petals from the activated seeds, Hap is then able to control where he, Prairie, and Homer (...and Steve?) travel next, which is to Scott’s NDE. Hap ate Scott’s flower, so that’s where they’re going. We’ll need a lot more trial and error tests to figure out exactly how this flower works, and how it influences, and if there’s any sway in it, but we’re not going to get those answers right now. While an intriguing plotpoint, let’s hope that Season 3 includes 50 percent less edible dimensional flowers.