In case you haven't heard, The OA is canceled. And that is a hell of a bummer. Netflix is a company that seems very comfortable with pushing the boundaries of it's original content, and it's the home base for a lot of unique ideas that probably would never see the light of day otherwise. And The OA is undoubtedly one of their most unique offerings ever. The Brit Marling series is nearly impossible to sum up in a sentence or two, but it's essentially a show about people who discover that they can travel through the infinite dimensions that exist in the universe because they all have near death experiences.
The OA is a show that always asked more questions than it had answers, so it comes as no surprise now that the show has been canceled (after only two seasons!) there are a still ton of questions that we desperately want the answers to.
What Happened To The Others?
So, spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch the second season of The OA, but key members of OA's crew, Scott and Rachel, wound up being killed by Hap. However given what we know about traveling through dimensions, did they really die? Or did they jump into another dimension somewhere? And what's an even more interesting question, if they did jump dimensions then did they jump into the dimension that Prairie, Hap, and Steve wound up in at the very end of the season? It was awful to lose those two (especially to Hap desperation and mania) but the idea that they could reunite with their friends in another world is awesome.
Why Was She The OA?
Okay so on some level it's understandable why Prairie/Nina decided that she was now the OA. She believes that to be her true name, or at least the truest form that her name can take, and she says that it stands for the original angel.
And Khatun basically straight out tells her she's the OA. Given what we see in the early stages of season one it's easy to understand why she might think that she had transformed into some kind of angel, but the notion of angels as simply humans who have learned how to travel through dimensions is a unique idea that they never really explored, and they definitely never explained what exactly made her the original.
Who Was Khatun?
We know that on the surface Khatun appeared to be some sort of spirit guide who was directing Prairie and the rest of Hap's captives towards an escape from their seemingly never ending captivity. But it's still a mystery as to who or what exactly she was. We know that apparently normal people can figure out ways to travel into inter-dimensional versions of themselves, but while Khatun appears human she seems to be stuck or chooses to remain in a kind of bridge between worlds, and we never really learn why she's there or why she's guiding people through the multi-verse.
What Was That In-Between Dream World?
Khatun herself is a mystery, but that dimension that she appeared to be living in is even more of a mystery. It seems like it may be a kind of transition dimension between worlds, but because it's so radically different from any dimension we see it also seems like it could be a place that isn't even a dimension at all and a place exists outside of traditional time and space. It does seem like time and space are all relative there, and it's hard to even say whether or not it's a world that just exists in the minds of those who are in a state of death or near death.
Why Did Nina And Prairie's Journey Deviate From Each Other?
In season two the girl that we have come to know as OA/Prairie Johnson actually manages to slip into another dimension and into another version of her own life. In this version she is still Nina Azarova, a Russian woman who's origin story matches up with OA but deviates in a lot of key ways.
Namely, she never becomes blind, never loses her father, and is never adopted by Prairie's American parents. And while the theory behind multi-verses is pretty clear, it's unclear why exactly the major life events that happened to OA didn't happen to Nina Azarova.
How Does Death Get You Where You Need To Go?
The whole traveling between dimensions thing still is (and apparently always will be) a bit of an enigma. The theory behind it sort of makes sense, but what we're still wondering is why exactly death is the key to jumping to another dimension. It's understandable why that might trigger many people to jump dimensions, I mean if your body is about to die then the last hope for your consciousness would be finding another host, so that could be down to luck and survival instinct. But why is it that the body someone is leaving behind absolutely has to be dead before moving on to another one?
How Did Steve Follow OA?
There are hints here and there about how exactly people can direct themselves towards certain dimensions, or, if their determination is strong enough, towards certain people. And OA's connection with her squad of inter-dimensional students was probably strongest with Steve.
But it took a seemingly Herculean effort for OA to follow her soul mate Homer to his next dimension, and they were kind of only "one world away" from each other. At the very end of season two OA transitions into another dimension that is even more radically different than the last one, and Hap manages to land in the same world as she does, but miraculously so does Steve.
How Could The Real People And Characters Be Different Dimensional Versions Of Each Other?
So it's one thing to ride with the idea that there are multiple worlds in which the same people exist but where their destinies seem to take forking paths, and where their experiences in life can differ from one another. However the very end of season two completely changes that game up when OA and Hap, our main protagonist and antagonist, transition into a world that seems to theoretically be closer to "our world". In our world OA and Hap are just imaginary characters, being played by actors Brit Marling and Jason Isaacs (who are married in this current world, unlike our own). But even in a world with infinite universes, how is it possible that two beings could be entirely different people?
What Happened To Homer And Prairie?
The series ended on a suspenseful note, with Prairie still seemingly in the clutches of her inter-dimensional captor Hap, and with the added shock of Steve jumping dimensions and finally coming face to face with Hap himself. Clearly the driving force between a potential season three (that obviously isn't happening now) would have been what it's been before, OA trying to rid herself of Hap for good. But the real driving force behind the story from the very start has been OA's desire to be reunited and happy with Homer, and there wasn't even an inkling of how that might happen at the series end.
Why Were Their Fates Intertwined?
For the sake of storytelling it's definitely convenient to have all of your characters interconnected, even across dimensions. But the series itself has alluded to the fact that these characters were all kind of destined to be with each other, even though it never (and apparently will never) explain why. Even if they desperately want to escape each other (which is obviously the case with Hap and literally everyone else) they seem to be bound together in ways that cross many dimensions and many lives, even if those lives seem to be completely disparate. The idea that even in this garden of worlds there are people who seem to always grow together is a fascinating one that was tragically under-explored.