Why and how does Missy hypnotize Chris?

Missy initially hypnotizes Chris under the pretense of helping him quit smoking. However, her real motive is to make him easier to control. During their conversation, she forces him to relive the trauma of his mother’s death. Because he opens up to her, she is able to use his emotional vulnerability to weaken his resistance to hypnosis. Once he falls into the Sunken Place, Chris loses control over his body while remaining conscious of his surroundings. This process ensures that he will be fully submissive when the Armitages perform the Coagula procedure, which will put Chris’s consciousness in the Sunken Place forever. The hypnosis—triggered by the tinkling sound of Missy’s spoon against her teacup—removes his ability to fight back, allowing Dean and Jeremy to subdue him.

What is the Sunken Place?

The Sunken Place is a void where Missy Armitage traps Chris’s consciousness by using hypnosis. She tells him to “sink into the floor,” leaving Chris aware of his surroundings but unable to move or speak. He falls into darkness, watching the real world through a small TV screen as his body functions without his control. When he’s in the Sunken Place, Chris is forced to be a spectator to his own life. Georgina, Walter, and Andre have also been forced into the Sunken Place by the Coagula procedure. Their original minds have been buried beneath the consciousnesses of those who stole their bodies. The Sunken Place represents Chris’s loss of autonomy, and on a broader scale speaks to the way systemic oppression and violence have silenced or curtailed Black voices. When Chris escapes from the Sunken Place by blocking out Missy’s hypnosis, he’s also demonstrating his rejection of the Armitages’ control over him. 

Why does Chris take Georgina into his car during his escape attempt?

Earlier in the film, Chris tells Missy that his mother died in a hit-and-run, and he blames himself for not calling for help in time, so when he hits Georgina with his car during his escape, he instinctively tries to save her. Seeing Georgina prone and helpless on the ground evokes the memory of his mother, and he can’t bear to let another woman die while he does nothing. However, when Chris puts Georgina into his car, he doesn’t yet realize that she’s fully controlled by Rose’s grandmother. Despite his good intentions, Georgina attacks him, causing the car to crash. This moment emphasizes how the Armitages have erased the real Georgina almost entirely. By forcing Georgina into the Sunken Place, they have made her Black body into a husk of its former self. She may remind Chris of his mother, but the woman in control of Georgina’s body is nothing like her. 

Why does Rose pretend to love Chris?

Rose pretends to love Chris in order to lure him to the Armitage home, where her family intends to forcibly subject him to the Coagula procedure. She tells Chris that he’s her first Black partner, but it becomes clear later that Chris is just one of several Black men whom Rose has lured to her parents’ house. Before he comes to the Armitage house with her (and for the brief period of their stay that the Armitages keep up their pretense of friendliness), Rose plays the role of the supportive girlfriend; by “defending” him against subtle racism and microaggressions and repeatedly challenging her family’s behavior, she creates the illusion that she’s on Chris’s side. This only makes her inevitable betrayal more painful

Why does the camera flash affect Logan and Walter?

The camera flash’s shock of bright light disrupts the Coagula procedure by momentarily allowing the suppressed consciousness of the original Black victim to resurface and regain control. When Chris takes a photo of Logan, the light triggers the consciousness of Andre Hayworth, who has been trapped in his own body (and forced to exist as Logan) since Missy and Dean imprisoned him in the Sunken Place. The shock causes Andre to regain control of his body for a moment, during which he panics and tries to warn Chris, screaming at him to “get out!”. This suggests that the Coagula method is not foolproof. It also reinforces the terrifying idea that the “imprisoned” Black person whose body has been stolen can see and hear everything that is happening to them, with no hope of true escape. Toward the end of the movie, Chris deliberately uses his camera flash to “wake” Walter up. Walter is able to briefly regain control of his body, and he uses the snatched moment of freedom to shoot Rose and then himself, allowing Chris to escape.  

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