Episode 3 of Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams seems like a supernatural version of Brie Larson’s 2015 film, Room. In the third episode, Joko Anwar introduces a character named Rania Dewi, who is struggling to write another best-seller after the success of her first book, Poems and Pain. As the episode begins, Rania is seen promoting her second book, “Period,” which doesn’t go well with the public and the critics. But her publisher and close friend, Hendra, requests that Rania work on the Poems and Pain sequel. Rania doesn’t want to write anything like Poems and Pain again because the writing process on her first work left her emotionally and physically drained. It was a dark phase in Rania’s life, and she started to lose her mind, which was why she didn’t want to continue the story of her lead character, Laras Andini. However, after the success of her first book, Rania took out a few mortgages from the bank, which she needed to pay. In the end, money became the driving force that convinced Rania to finish the sequel soon. However, as soon as she began the writing process, Rania started getting bruises on her body, just like the character in her book. So, was Rania possessed, or was it something else?
Spoiler Alert
Who was Laras Andini?
For a major chunk of the episode, it seemed like Laras Andini was just a fictional character in Rania’s story. But when Rania started getting real bruises while writing the book, I thought Laras’ was some kind of spirit that had been possessing Rania’s body to tell the story about her abusive husband. However, it turned out that Laras was not just alive but also related to Rania. She was her twin sister, who was given up for adoption by her parents as they didn’t have the means to raise them. His journalist father had also given up Rania for adoption but later realized his mistake and brought her back to the family. Unfortunately, they never found Laras, and she was lost forever. Now, in the present day, Laras had been able to create a connection with her twin sister, Rania, but even though Rania wanted to save Laras from her abusive husband, she didn’t know anything about her sister or how to reach her.
What was Agartha?
When Rania found out that Laras was no one else but her twin sister, she decided to save her at all costs. The next time she entered Laras’ body, she persuaded her to fight against her husband, Adrian Rajasa, who had locked her and her young daughter in a basement cell. However, when Rania used Laras to attack Adrian for the first time and screamed at him, an unusual event took place. Adrian’s hand was branded with a magic circle, because of which Rania got control of his body for a moment. In the very next shot, she caught a glimpse of a red city called Agartha.
In folklore and mythology, Agartha is said to be an advanced kingdom situated somewhere on the hollow Earth. Yes, you might have heard the term in Warner Bros. Monsterverse. But we all know that Earth is not hollow, so that shuns the possibility that Agartha exists in real life. In some texts, we have also heard about the mighty Atlantians, who are also closely related to the myth of Agartha.
So as the lore goes, Agarthans are a superior race to humans that ruled over the surface of the earth. They are believed to have better infrastructure and technology and are rumored to be physically, mentally, and spiritually more powerful than human beings, which perfectly describes our antagonist, Adrian Rajasa. And yes, they also have flying cars, which could be seen in a brief scene in Nightmares and Daydreams episode 3. It is believed that Agarthans once dwelled on the surface and maintained peace and order, but as things got worse, the entire race went underground and has been waiting for the right moment to take back the surface from the inferior humans before they can destroy the planet. However, the question here is: why did Adrian lock Laras in the basement?
Did Adrian kill Laras?
I suppose Adrian was banished from Agartha for his violent nature and psychopathic tendencies, after which he arrived on the chaotic surface and continued doing what he did best. And why not? The savage human world seemed like the best playground for his activities. Adrian took on the disguise of a happily married family man who worked as an expert staffer for the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, but in reality, he was a demon hiding in sheep’s skin. Somewhere in the past, he lured Laras and promised her that he’d make her his wife, but it turned out he wanted to make her a prisoner. After giving her a wedding ring, Adrian brought Laras to his magical basement and locked her for life. He started abusing her physically and sexually. Later, Laras gave birth to a daughter named Asti, and Adrian wished to abuse her as well when she came of age. However, things went downhill when Rania established a connection with Laras and persuaded her to raise her voice against her perpetrator. When Laras attacked Adrian for the first time, he understood the fact that someone had been controlling her body and therefore tried to kill Laras with a hammer.
In the end, even though Rania had located Adrian’s house and spotted his hidden basement in the library, she couldn’t save her sister. Laras believed that none of them would survive if she left the basement, which was either a lie fed to her by Adrian or a freaky truth. Rania had to choose between Asti and Laras, so she took Asti and left the cell so that she could take the young one to the hospital and save her life. Later, Hendra and Rania reported the incident to the police, but the authorities neither found the mysterious dungeon nor Laras’ dead body. It seemed like Adrian had changed its location and the decor of the room overnight, but how could it be possible? Well, as per the myth, the Agarthans had created an intricate network of underground tunnels to spy upon their human counterpart, and maybe the dungeon too was a part of that tunnel. Adrian belonged to a superior race, and even though he wasn’t a demon in the literal sense, he did have the means to trick the inferior human beings and get away with murder.
The ending of Nightmares and Daydreams episode 3 suggests that the fight between Adrian and Rania is far from over. Adrian would try to take Asti back from Rania, and we just have to wait and see how Raina will protect her from the monster. On the bright side, Rania has enough material to finish her sequel book, and as the ending implies, she might have to consider a third sequel as well if Adrian strikes back. Additionally, if we ever get a sequel to the episode, then maybe Joko Anwar would explore the myth of Agartha and answer the question on our minds: Why did Adrian actually kidnap Laras? And what did he really want from her?
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