Pulp Fiction doesn’t leave any loose ends, but that hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with a variety of theories, and there’s one that suggests Mia Wallace was used as a test by her husband, Marsellus, to measure his men’s loyalty. Quentin Tarantino has become a favorite among movie enthusiasts thanks to his unique style in narrative, visual storytelling, his doses of violence, and more, and his career began in 1992 with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs. However, his big break arrived in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, another crime movie but with the particularity of being told in a non-linear narrative and with different protagonists.
Pulp Fiction follows different characters in different segments that together form a cohesive story, and where these characters cross paths at some point. The characters leading the segments are hitmen Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), their boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), his wife Mia (Uma Thurman), and boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), and all of them are connected through Marsellus, either by marriage, working for him, or making deals with him. Even though these characters star in at least one segment, the marketing of the movie focused more on Vincent, Jules, and Mia, making them the protagonists to the eyes of the audience, and Vincent and Mia are at the center of a fan theory that explains Mia’s role in the story.
During the first half of Pulp Fiction, viewers meet Jules and Vincent and learn that the latter has been tasked with keeping Marsellus’ wife Mia company and taking her out for the night. Vincent, having recently returned from Amsterdam, didn’t know Mia, so it’s implied Marsellus and Mia got married while Vincent was on the other side of the world, and Vincent was very nervous about having to take her out. Jules made sure Vincent knew what he was getting himself into, and told him what happened to the last guy who had to keep her company: Tony Rocky Horror, who dared to give Mia a foot massage and was thrown off a balcony by Marsellus for it. This incident has made some fans believe that going out with Mia was a test by Marsellus, and poor Tony Rocky Horror didn’t pass.
A theory posted on Reddit explains that Marsellus tested those who worked for him by sending them to spend time with Mia. The author explains that Jules telling Vincent the story of Tony Rocky Horror was his way of warning him of what was to come, as he had already passed that test. This is reinforced during Vincent and Mia’s night together, in the scene where Vincent is talking to himself in the bathroom, trying to figure out what to do next. Vincent says “this is a moral test of oneself, whether or not you can maintain loyalty, because being loyal is very important”. Marsellus’ plan, then, is to use Mia to test how loyal his men are, and she “throws herself” at them not because she feels lonely but because it’s part of the test. The next piece of evidence is Mia’s reaction to Vincent questioning her about Tony at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, where at first she pretends to not know what he’s talking about and ends up getting defensive about it. Mia was an actress, and she would have known when to put those skills to good use, so she most likely pretended to be offended by the story of the foot massage when in reality she knew well why everything happened the way it did.
Now, other fans have questioned the theory by asking why would Marsellus put one of his supposedly most trusted men through the “Mia test”, with the author of the theory explaining that, as mentioned above, Vincent had just returned from Amsterdam and Mia and Marsellus met and got married while Vincent was traveling, and as they worked in a business full of betrayals, Vincent had to undergo the test as soon as he came back. Another viewer added that a deleted scene showed Mia interviewing Vincent with a video camera, which could have been part of the test so Marsellus could also see how things went. This theory fits with the events in Pulp Fiction, and it’s up to every viewer to decide if it works with the rest of the movie or not.