The TV Series:
- Fridge Brilliance: In the pilot, the Meyerists seem like a fairly benign group of hippie do-gooders. In Real Life, Cults typically seem kind and attractive to new recruits, and only gradually do members learn the full truth. Similarly, viewers learn the truth about Meyerism over the course of the series: it has its good and bad qualities.
- Another bit of Fridge Brilliance: One of the first things we see Cal do is deliver a terrific beating to a lowlife shitbag who's been sexually abusing his daughter Mary, including hiring her out, since she was a child. His action is profoundly satisfying — the man's guilty as hell — but seems oddly personal. It is. In the latter episodes of season 2, we learn that Cal was himself molested by founder Steve Meyer.
- Before his suicide, Richard walked all through the community with his knapsack and suitcase, shouting denunciations of Cal and confirmations of Eddie as the proper leader. In the following episode, as a memorial service for Richard is held, in the background a young black woman marches resolutely off with her knapsack and suitcase. She's had it. Three guesses where she's off to.
- Fridge Brilliance: In Episode 2 when Cal is at John Ridge's mansion he stares angrily for a moment at the painting of the Roman god of wine 'Bacchus' by Reubens. At first it seems like distaste for John Ridge's decadent billionaire's lifestyle... Until we learn that Cal is an alcoholic.
- It's also another sign of Cal's gift for art, which he renounced to devote himself to prepare to replace Steve and be guardian of the light. Cal responds with a kind of angry, frustrated yearning mixed with love whenever he sees great art.
- Telling that he decorated his and Mary's apartment with Van Gogh and Picasso prints. The sofa cushions, curtains and so forth have big, bright flowers.
- Also Fridge Horror: the implication that he stopped painting as a child after his first visit to the cave with painted flowers. As he enters non-Meyer counseling to confront his memories, he begins drawing and painting again. His studio apartment in the last episodes is filled with his colorful flowers and pictures of Mary and Forest.
- Fridge Horror: Cal only ever approaches or visits Mary after someone reminds him of his childhood. Also the reason he reacted so strongly to her father in the pilot.
- Fridge Brilliance: There are 10 episodes in season one. One for each rung on the ladder. There are 13 episodes in season two. One for each rung including the three new false rungs.
- Fridge Horror: Cal's comment at Vera's funeral That as a child, when she stayed on the compound for a month Steve was "like a real father" to him implying that that month was the only time in his childhood that Steve wasn't raping him.
The Video Game:
- Fridge Brilliance: The Girl in White is the Woodsman's daughter. This could be as glib as saying "they're both black," but watch how the Girl in White interacts with the Woodsman's camp. She goes in and out of the tent as if it's hers. As the Woodsman is also the hero of the traditional Red Riding Hood story, this might also imply that the Girl in White was the real Red Riding Hood, rescued from the wolf by her father, which could explain why she now attempts lead the Red girls back to the path—she knows how dangerous the woods really are.
- Or, in a darker interpretation, the Girl in White is Little Dead Riding Hood, from one of the older endings where she did not survive, and the Woodsman ignores her presence because she's a ghost.
- Fridge Horror: Three of the "wolves" are (or are in the form of) adult men, and combined with the imagery of broken or impaled beds at Grandmother's house, and the girl in the dog tent at the Woodsman's camp, the goal of the game has been interpreted as having each girl be raped. The game files refer to it more as murder. Although it's most likely not happening literally, and they come back at the end.
