As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- According to Episodes 19A and B, Cecil and Kevin have pictures of themselves on their desks. This would be considered strange in someone without major narcissistic tendencies.
- Then you remember that Cecil sometimes doubts his own existence, and Kevin might too. Perhaps the photos of themselves are meant to remind them that they are, in fact, real.
- Or the two photographs showed Cecil or Kevin with someone else, a friend or family member, and the narrator fixated on the person in the photo who looked identical to them because, hey, wouldn't you?
- In one episode, Cecil advises the citizens to keep a photo album with them in case of memory loss, so maybe he and Kevin keep a photo of themselves in case they forget who they are?
- It's revealed in Episode 33 that Cecil keeps the mirror in station's the men's bathroom covered due to a weird "flickering" movement that first appeared after he obtained a tape recorder, and which may or may not have hurt him at one point. What if he does this with any mirrors in his house as well? And if that's the case, what's the best way to know what you look like without using a mirror again? Oh that's right, photographs.
- Also in Episodes 19A and B, one might not notice on the first listen but "The Weather" for both episodes is the same song, performed quite differently by two different bands (The Ventura Klezmer Band, then Disparition).
- This might be just Fridge Logic but also in 19A and B the two shows mirror each other with even getting info from the local twin of people. Except for the Conspiracy Theorist letter. That's from Night Vale resident Steve Carlsberg on both... does this mean that he doesn't have a twin?
- In Episode 18, Cecil describes The Traveler's jacket as "similar to the marching band uniform of the Desert Bluffs Cacti prior to The Incident," save that The Traveler's jacket is not "scorched and soaked with blood." It's not until you re-listen to the episode after finding out what Desert Bluffs is like that you realize said scorches and blood may not come from the Noodle Incident in question...
- In Episode 25, Carlos says, "Sometimes things seem so strange or malevolent, and then you find that underneath it was something else altogether. Something pure and innocent." This could just be a statement about Carlos' changing attitude towards the entire town, but since Cecil and Carlos start dating shortly afterward it's also an apt metaphor for Carlos discovering that he's misread Cecil's intentions and is no longer conflicted about them.
- Why do we hear so little of StrexCorp's takeover until episode 36? Because in episode 36, Cecil's new supervisor Daniel has a breakdown and can't exercise his usual editorial authority. Until Strex shuts the entire station down to reassert control.
- Fanon example: The next-most-common portrayal of Cecil after "Tim Gunn with living tattoos" is Native American. This offers an excellent explanation for his hatred of the Apache Tracker. The cartoonish racism would make a decent person of any background uncomfortable, but if Cecil is Native American himself then it's a personal affront (and indeed, he is more hostile about AT's racism than Mayor Pamela Winchell's prejudice against dragons and multi-headed beings).
- There's a Running Gag that whenever Cecil reads off a list of horoscopes, the one for Scorpio is always extremely hostile. Why the hatred of Scorpios? According to a tidbit from one of the live shows, Steve Carlsberg is a Scorpio. Or perhaps it's the other way around. This seems to be confirmed in "The Promise of Time", which shows that now that Cecil and Steve Carlsberg have gotten over their differences, the Scorpio horoscopes have suddenly become highly flattering.
- Episode 46 was released on May 1st - a date that in many countries
is traditionally associated with parades and demonstrations against, for instance, "corpocratic regimes", along with calls for unity and solidarity. - Why does the town of Night Vale constantly deny the existence of mountains and angels, to the point of angels telling the mayor to shut up about them when she was trying to say they were real? Because the angels are fighting against the Smiling God and StrexCorp, and their staging ground is the other-world mountain. They were trying to remain hidden from StrexCorp until they were ready. It... just seems to have worked a bit too well.
- Incorrect. In episode 67 it is revealed that people of Night Vale forgot about the mountains because of the hooded figures and even after Strex was defeated they kept denying the existence of Erika.
- In Episode 34, during the Computer's monologue about making the world perfect for Megan, it offhandedly mentions that "Desert Bluffs will no longer exist." At first it seems like a callback to the running gag of Night Vale residents hating Desert Bluffs for no real reason, until we find out that Desert Bluffs is the headquarters of StrexCorp, this universe's manifestation of the Smiling God.
- In Old Oak Doors we also learn that Strex 'fixes' people with disabilities, which Megan is. A perfect world for Megan would be one where she would be happy without having to change at all.
- Carlos' character page mentions that he is occasionally resistant to the phenomena that affect the rest of Night Vale, such as in "Lazy Day." Whatever separates Carlos from native Night Vale citizens in this regard is probably related to why the old oak doors won't close if he comes back to Night Vale during Episode 49.
- In "Cassette", Cecil did a pretend version of Leonard Burton's show, opening with the sentence "The sun is actually cold, it's cold and empty and all is lost", which could be assumed to be an actual quote. Burton later used that same sentence to open [Best Of?]. Why would he do that instead of using a different sentence every time like Cecil does? Leonard Burton hates any sort of change, so he might be using the same opening sentence every show
- In episode 63, Cecil demonstrates 'strength beyond his stature' sufficient to hold down a golem, which explains how he was earlier capable of knocking a man out with a single hit from a cell phone.
- The water tower in the logo looks like a teardrop if you squint.
- Why is Josh Crayton unable to keep a consistent form? Because he's still a teenager, so he's still rather emotionally unstable! We can presume that he'll be able to retain a Shapeshifter Default Form when he's older.
- In "Yellow Helicopters", Old Woman Josie tells Cecil "If I fall, so does this town." In season 5, her failing health and subsequent death heralds the shattering of the barriers between realities.
- And why was Old Woman Josie so important? Well, "Matryoshka" shows that the way to restore the barriers between realities was for the Night Vale citizens to acknowledge the odd aspects of their town which they had been ignoring before. Old Woman Josie acknowledging the existence of the angels was what held Night Vale's reality together somewhat, and when she died, everything started falling apart until Cecil and others started doing the same.
- In "Wheat and Wheat Byproducts" the city council were prepared for the crisis due to prophecy, how do the citizens of Nightveil get rid of the Good Boy and his Strangers? By making them go into the dog park whose purpouse Cecil isn't supposed to talk about. So maybe city council had a prophecy about needing to build the dog park and it was a Chekhov's Gun the whole time.
- In Episode 19B, Vanessa and her double were building a shelf, but it collapsed. We know from that episode what building materials are favored in Desert Bluffs, and Kevin said they had no replacement parts. Desert Bluffs is all about productivity. One of the Vanessas was hurt and so couldn’t work to full capacity. StrexCorp doesn’t have room for unproductive people. What do you think the other Vanessa finished that shelf with? Kevin didn’t spell it out on the radio because everyone who lives there would have known what he meant.
- In episode 37, there is a Police auction of seized goods and Lot 37 is Cecil Palmer, who is bought by an unknown person (or persons). How on earth did Lot 37 end up as seized goods? This implies that Cecil was owned previously, without his knowledge.
- The community notices state that the secret police is holding the auction to buy party supplies, including "yellow cake and an armored pinata." Considering that yellow cake is a technical term for unrefined uranium, they are clearly seeking to buy the components of an atomic bomb.
- Presumably, in order to take over Night Vale Community Radio, StrexCorp had to get rid of the the previous station management. Just how much power do these people have?
- The implications of Tamika Flynn, a 13 year old, fighting an oppressive regime have not been lost on some fans.
- To be fair, the show has previously talked about the Night Vale NRA fighting for the right of children to bear arms in schools, as members of secret conspiracies and militia groups.
- In episode 48 Cecil finally reveals that StrexCorp's 'volleyball nets' were in fact electric fences—-the 'company picnic' is a labor camp. He also mentioned softball games and chili cook-offs—-what could THESE be euphemisms for?!
- The reason that Kevin doesn't identify Cecil's smile as such, when he first sees a picture of him in Episode 19A? Kevin has been so swamped in the fake, forced cheeriness of Desert Bluffs that, when he sees genuine happiness, he can't even recognize it. That is equal parts horrifying and heartbreaking.
- If you listen closely to Kevin and Steve Carlsberg's conversation in Episode 49, you can hear what sounds like a young lady whimpering in pain. Considering what Kevin says about "fixing" the wheelchair bound Janice, and what seemingly harmless terms tend to mean in Desert Bluffs, this seems to suggest that this "fixing" is extremely painful, if not torturous.
- The pained lady whispers some words too, her words seem to be "Cecil" and "Okay [unintelligible]"
- The events of A Carnival Comes to Town becomes a little more this when you consider how the automatic response of the townspeople to assume anything new is a threat is rather justified considering how Night Vale is.
- Dana's family reacting with terror when she suddenly appears in the future at her brother's birthday party (where her future self was already in attendance) in Episode 44 seems much more deserved after an alternate timeline version of Dana severs several of her mother's fingers and threatens to kill her brother in Episodes 128 and 129.
- Hiram McDaniels is an 18 foot tall, 3600 pounds five-headed dragon. He's introduced when he gets pulled over by a police officer and tries to pass himself off as Frank Chen while driving his stolen car. How did he even fit inside a regular sized car to begin with, or manage to drive the car without destroying the suspension?
- This one can probably be explained with "It's Night Vale, it doesn't have to make sense."
- Or, the car is Bigger on the Inside, which also wouldn't be so weird for Night Vale.
