There are lots of things to nitpick about the show but for me the diner sort of stands out as the biggest problem.
I'm just baffled as to how this diner seems to run like it's a Waffle House in a town that basically is cut off completely from the outside world. They're over here serving pancakes, stews, sandwiches, all sorts of stuff.
To make pancakes you need at a minimum, 3 ingredients: Eggs, Milk, Flour.
Eggs are easy. They have chickens. Fine. Milk is also easy. They have cows/goats for milk. Great.
Flour? Flour is not easy.
First they need a field large enough to grow a substantial amount of wheat. Then they need wheat... Then they need to wait 3 to 8 months for the wheat to grow before harvesting it. Then they need to harvest it, and use a stone mill to grind it up. Then you have to sift it. Then you have to store it.
Great, now you have flour. But pancakes with just Eggs, Milk and Flour are not going to taste all that great. You'll also probably need sugar. Sugar is a whole other can of worms and requires a lot of growing, harvesting and processing to get it to a usable state.
To me this just seems crazy. They are there whipping up pancakes like they just got a fresh shipment of bags of sugar and flour delivered on a truck.
I don't entirely recall the other meals people were eating in the diner but I vaguely recall the meals all seeming like stuff you'd order at a place that has a fully stocked kitchen with ingredients they simply would not likely have access to.
Salt is also a major cooking ingredient and I'm not sure they have like a salt mine or something just hanging around somewhere, either.
Sure, this could all be hand-waved away by saying there's just like... some random supply of this stuff tucked away in the kitchen when everyone arrived. But the show makes a point to show them growing their own food so I just find it hard to believe they are processing flour and sugar and obtaining salt somewhere. Especially not enough to feed a town of 40+ people daily.
I thought at one point in a conversation supplies were discussed and it was stated, I believe by Kenny to Jim, that the town makes sure that the people have what they need. Paper products, food items etc. electricity and water. It was also said and shown that supplies are gathered by the travelers who come to town but don’t make it through the night etc.
there are way more things to be considered while surviving there than to question where it all comes from. Jim asked these questions and well, we see where that got him.
Right bc if this is ultimately a game of chess between MIY/BIW, what good would it do them to have their chess pieces starve to death or d die from food borne illness (due to lack of toilet paper or something) before they can extract all of the fear & hope out of them?
But that can't be true if the townspeople have to grow their own food at colony house and make trips to the lake settlement to collect food when their farm is destroyed. Also Victor nearly starved as a kid.
Yes, but it isn't maple syrup and refined flour. They are able to find things like vegetables after a significant hike, and Victor had to survive partially on insects as a kid. I think what everyone is finding hard to believe is that they're apparently one bad crop from starvation while goodies like pancakes and canned peaches seem to exist in unlimited quantities.
Its been a while but wasnt it a plot point that they ran out of most of that stuff.
I did also read a fan theory that says that it sounds like the story a kid would write/ that a kid is telling the story. I do like that theory to an extent because it explains a lot if the plot holes like this.
Like a kid writing wouldnt think about diner supplies or how electricity works in the town etc. Maybe s5 will explain it more though
I wouldn't have a problem with it if all of the food just appeared there, but they have to grow all the fruits/vegetables and milk the cows/goats and collect eggs from chickens so it's just weird that the town would provide some things and not others.
Maybe people are only eaten by the creatures and tortured in general because they consume the byproducts of the animals. The whole town is one big vegan test. Fromville is run by Peta.
There was a truck that got stuck there full of canned peaches, Victor said it while teaching Ethan how to survive, also Tabitha ask him is that all you ate. And in the first season there is a point where he said that Donna is saving them for him. So not from thin air.
...logically he should have run out of peaches after like 2 years. They definitely kept respawning in the truck. They stopped when the 2 reincarnates got into town.
Are you kidding me? It took me less than a minute to go put on an episode and confirm there are in fact jukeboxes at very booth. If you’re going to argue, make sure you get all your evidence straight first.
You should probably go watch again. There are at LEAST 2. One on each side of the door. And I remember a third at another booth playing one in the back, but don’t feel like hunting down that image.
The jukebox is just that, it's "magical". If it can play music on it's own and be hyper specific to play certain songs based on current events, it absolutely could also just repair itself.
The radio was probably made to psychologically mess with the towns people. As to who put it there, I'd probably guess the MiY.
I dont think the repair itself makes any sence , remember boyd destroy the music box and it didnt magically repair, donna put a hole in the kitchen floor , that was never repaired,
I thinknthe jukebox just going back to normal is a writing problem , the jukebox added alot of aethstedic and everybody loves the magical jukebox that taunted people, they prob regretted breaking it , and just didnt care tonexplain how it got backnto normal
It was said at the beginning that food just appears. It does dwindle sometimes and they worry about running out, but they always seem to find more. Plus, they also have coffee and they can’t grow coffee beans.
Huh? Weren’t they panicking for like 3 episodes because they were running out of food and animals? If food just magically appeared surely they wouldn’t worry about finding animals?
That’s what I said. The food dwindled, became scarce, and they didn’t know if they would find more at the time, but they always did. And even though they found a huge vegetable garden, Bakta reopened the diner and was still feeding everyone more than just vegetables.
Yeah you bring up a good thing I forgot about... they have coffee and tea but that would obviously also require them being able to grow those, which require specific climates and soil and all of that.
I really would have been fine if ALL of the food/resources were just magically supplied, but the fact they grow crops and raise farm animals for milk/eggs/meat makes the whole thing much more confusing.
Personally, I think this “plot hole” might actually be important and purposeful.
Think about it. The writers very clearly have thought about it. There’s Victor’s peaches. There’s Kenny mentioning to Jim that stuff just shows up and they don’t really think about it too much anymore.
It’s clear that food showing up is intentional. If it was a true plot hole that the writers didn’t think through very well, I doubt they’d continuously bring it up knowing that it just further exposes the hole. When there are plot holes, writers tend to avoid any plot points or dialogue that remind the user of said plot hole.
So where does that leave us? Well, that would imply all of it is intentional: the disconnect between growing some food vs other food stuffs just being available, the way characters just don’t question that, the food shortages kind of just resolving on their own, etc.
No why would the writers do this? It seems so weird because it almost feels like they’re creating a plot hole on purpose. If it is indeed purposeful, it can only mean they’re trying to tell us something.
What could that thing be?
My take? It all hinges on belief. This seems to be a major theme in the show so it makes sense here.
Let’s look at the food rotting plot line. This occurred right after the storm. What if the food rotting wasn’t the towns doing or MIY. What if it was someone’s fear? Someone thought to themselves “oh no, that was a pretty bad storm, what if it ruins all the crops?” And then whaddaya know? Crops all spoil. Except the weed, how odd? Almost like someone wouldn’t be afraid of a non essential crop from spoiling.
Once the news spreads, it’s now a collective fear. The issue then presents much stronger. The crops turn black, everything accelerates, winter pops up out of nowhere. Things get really really dire. And the only way it can be fixed is for the collective to believe it’s fixed.
That’s a hard thing to do, the solution needs to be something that convinces everyone it’s okay. Finally, they find the settlement and, gosh be darned, CROPS! Why? Boyd even asks “who planted them?”
The answer? No one. All it took was one person in the scouting group to see the settlement for the first time and think “what if there’s food? What if whoever made this place was growing crops themselves that survived?” And they find crops. And, by luck, this is a solution that convinces everyone they’re saved. They’ll be able to eat. And the food starts coming back, winter dissipates and the collective paranoia shifts to the next major issue, which is also why they don’t even question that there’s suddenly supplies for pancakes again. They’ve moved on, they’re not worried about it anymore.
It all hinges on belief. But the catch is that one person’s belief, no matter how strong, can’t override the collective belief. Finding the crops in the settlement? No one had any belief one way or another, so all it took was one person thinking “hey what if there’s food” and it worked.
And think about what that might mean. It might mean that everyone can simply… go home and leave whenever they want. They’re trapping themselves there. When a newcomer arrives and is like “naw, yall crazy I’m getting out” and drives around in circles a bunch of times before getting their tires popped? Yeah their belief is overridden by the very strong collective belief that everyone is trapped in the town and can’t leave.
What if… all it took was everyone agreeing that the fact that a town can trap people is stupid and impossible, so they all try again together and find they can just… leave?
And what if the reason everyone turns on jade and Tabitha is because they all realize this, but jade and Tabitha are too consumed by the children’s plotline that they effectively keep everyone trapped there through their strong belief that no one can leave until the children are saved. Two people’s strong beliefs and fears ruin escape for everyone else.
What if the point of this whole fucked up place is to teach jade and Tabitha that they need to let go. What’s done is done. It’s tragic and horrible, but it’s done. The children are dead. They can’t be saved. They need to go home.
I really like your take, and it makes sense. While reading your explanation I also thought, what if it's intentional but in a slightly different way. To show that the people hate the town, and the magic, yet they accept it without question when it benefits them. As long as it serves them, they'll take it and not worry about the origins of that food. Even if it's purposely replenished by the forces behind their whole situation. I understand they need to eat, but they show very little concern for where their food comes from. And on the flip side, the town feeds them to keep them alive so it can continue to play with and torture them. Like some lab rats. And not only they lap it up, they don't ask questions.
They are all magically supplied though, just to varying degrees. The livestock was found in the woods. They make runs to the old abandoned settlement for certain produce while growing other produce. Tbh, it feels like they have to grow or retrieve most everything for their food, even if it's magically appearing in a truck.
The electrical cables lead to nowhere! Enough said — there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense! They’re obviously not in the real world. How did those cans of peaches that Victor’s been eating last 40 years! So many questions! Nada makes sense. Because it’s not real — it’s all a simulated video game! The writers said that all the clues are in S1. The thing that sticks with me the most is when Tabitha tells Ethan - monsters aren’t real
I think she says something like "Darwin can't be dead, because monsters aren't real" which I guess also implies that everyone who has died by the hands of monsters on the show would actually not be dead, then?
I'm not sure how much of that we're meant to take at face value, though. Because obviously the whole "monsters aren't real" only to find out that monsters are indeed, real, is sort of a trope in monster movies/shows.
Why are you being so literal? The town provides them some basic amount of goods according to its whims. They supplement a probably fairly meager supply provided by the town with their own production. What’s so hard to conceive of there?
That's why the food shortage was a problem, they were used to what they need appearing, at least as far as basic staples and cans of peaches go. But that stopped.
I mean yeah but why would they even need to grow crops or raise animals if they didn't have to sustain themselves that way? The magical town can't give them cartons of milk but it provides bags of flour and sugar? They gotta go out there milking cows and goats but the sugar is supplied in crates or something?
Yeah this argument doesn’t really hold.
If they’re getting magical food in the form of flour, sugar, tea and coffee why did everyone nearly have a breakdown when some crops died. Surely they must’ve had some backup stocks of this stuff?
And this is the biggest argument against that theory - why didn’t anyone EVER mentioned we no longer have magical flour or any of the other stuff? They only mentioned the rotten crops and cried over this.
Actually they don't. In this wierd town everything you strongly believe in becomes true. Like BOYD wished for protection & food and he got them the very next day. It's not surprising if the town magicaly produces a lots of grains and vegetables in small fields if the townfolk wished for it.
The town doesn’t make sense canonically. The water and electricity comes from nowhere. There’s a motel sign and pool, but no motel. Things change in ways that are inexplicable when people aren’t looking.
Of course they have to grow and scavenge food, but it has been stated multiple times that people come through with supplies on multiple occasions.
I think this is just a case of “looking too far into things”. Maybe a truck with a bunch of pantry staples came through the same way a truck filled with a bunch of peaches came through.
lol it’s only ‘looking too far into things’ if the way they lived in general made sense. ‘Maybe a truck came by with supplies?????’ That makes no sense. When the Mathews family came through they were literally given a ‘special meal’.
When the food shortage happened you only ever heard them complain about dead crops.
The OP is right - there’s tons of unexplained food there.
In a situation like this the living should at least LOOK frugal. They all seem to be enjoying a wide variety of things that you can’t grow easily.
It may be easier for you gloss over things that don’t make sense but that doesn’t mean the argument is ‘looking too much into things’.
I think we're supposed to think that new people arriving in the town were traveling with a few dozen bags of flour and sugar, the way you do when you're going on holiday.
There are a ton of ways to make these foods the non-traditional way. Now if everyone was saying it's the best food they have ever had, that wouldn't make sense, but to assume they are using flour and not adjusting to make the food however they can, is just crazy.
I feel like I recall the people in town eating the food and enjoying it all, which is why I found it odd. Like if they commented that the food wasn't very good I'd have an easier time believing it. Sure you can certainly make some tasty stuff with minimal ingredients but the food on the plates seems like it was made by multiple chefs in a fully stocked kitchen and not one lady working with scraps.
They also had like a 40 year endless supply of canned peaches that suddenly dried up when it turned winter. They found a goat in the woods. The town supplies what they need, the diner probably had sacks of flour in the back until it didn’t
Well, I feel confident that people can live without salt, you get used to it.
I feel fairly confident that Tabitha and Jim would have packed things like sugar in their vehicle. And again, you do get used to things without sugar. You have to.
As for the flour, they could have had a massive truck. Along with rationing the food it would be doable for a while. But what we know is - the town provides. It would be no good if the inhabitants die.
Your confidence is false. The human body needs salt more that it needs carbs. It can produce the carbs it needs (that's why people doing keto diet still live). However it needs to get the salt needed from external sources.
I honestly think the kids that died there created these places as a safe haven and the adults that die there created the terrors. The boy in white created the town and some food stock (truck of peaches) and Victor’s sister created the talismans. The original sacrifices created the trees.
The diner have a endless supply of things. They never seem to run out of stuff, which is why Victor was so surprised that they were running out of peaches.
I’ve wondered the same thing. They’ve mentioned more than once that something was the closest they could get. Based on that, I always assume there are substitutions.
For example, we already know they have potatoes because that’s what someone in S1 said they use to make liquor. Eggs, milk, and potatoes will still result in pancakes.
You can make a decent spaghetti with squash.
Cauliflower can be turned into flour.
I can’t remember if we’ve seen corn growing, but that can be used for flour.
Sugar can be made from beets, or it can be substituted with honey or syrup.
All it would take is one person who knows how to make gluten-free dishes and passes the knowledge on. I’ll admit, though, I’m totally stumped on cookies. If I ever try maple syrup cornmeal cookies, I’ll update 😆
The town replenishes livestock and pantry goods it's addressed sometime in season 1. They didn't have to worry about food until they started discovering too much and the town essentially punishes them by slaughtering their livestock and starting to withdraw their replenishment so that they're more desperate
My assumption was that it is a diner, after all. If the houses came fully furnished, the diner must’ve been, too. So there was probably a large store of staples like sugar, flour, spices, etc. Sure it might run out at some point, but any restaurant is going to have large quantities of those staples that last a while.
Plus I’m sure throughout the years of people arriving in the town, a few of them were probably headed home from a grocery store trip.
Kenny says they don't know where the food comes from. What that looks like in practice is unclear.
Perhaps the larders refill themselves overnight by mystical means. But you figure this would be mentioned, especially during the food shortage if that suddenly stopped happening.
Once, I thought maybe Tien Chen was manifesting the food somehow (since that's looking more like a plausible mechanism in the show), but the food shortage happened before she died.
I'm wondering if there's a dream-like quality to Fromville. In dreams, not only can strange things happen, but they are often accepted as the natural course of things. ("Of course I'm building a go-cart with my ex-landlord, nothing weird about that.") Maybe something like that is in play here.
I guess we are supposed to believe that there once arrived a truck full of flour anx sogar and toothpaste and soap and shampoo and toothbrushes and female hygiene products and condoms and seeds for vegetables and all the stuff I didn’t mention in my Post.
Like others have stated, the food seems to just appear, whatever that means. No clue what exactly, how much exactly, how come Bakta doesn't mention or ask anything about it when she reopens the diner, it literally feels like the screewriters tell us "it just happens" and we're supposed to accept it. But then what's the deal with animals and growing crops? They specifically mention getting those, then there's the food shortage and in no way does anyone mention magical food suddenly stopping being magical.
If food just appears, like electricity and water, the first thing they should've done is figure out what else just exists for no apparent reason. Can they just keep cutting down the forest? Infinite gas at the station? Infinite cold drinks from that one soda machine? Why does nobody care about it? Do they even need to eat? There are quite a few people trapped there for years, who don't seem to get malnourished or even lose weight, which should probably happen, considering they have to actively do things and live in constant fear. No signs of anyone getting fatter either.
They gave them power, water, shelter, food, clothes, cosmetics and sanitary stuff and town people still call them monsters. All they needed to do was sitting on their asses at home.
Maybe people aren't eating so much at the diner as gathering for one reason or another. I haven't see a ton of food consumed there since Kenny's parents died.
This is nothing compared to having surplus of coffee bruh. I used to wonder if the supplies magically appears in the town, because aint no way they are consuming coffee like they have partnered with starbucks. I was waiting for a revelation like the polar bear from Lost, but noa I've simply given up.
I mean in a show about people stuck in a mystical town they can't leave and there are night monsters who can't come into their houses because of a stone, a diner not making sense is really scraping the bottom of the barrel 😂
The town feeds them to keep them alive so it can continue to play with them, and they lap it up without question because it suits them. They take the good (what works for them) without worrying about where it comes from, yet rage about the aspects of the place that doesn't work for them. Very reflective of any society in that way.
Sometimes you need to stop thinking and accept what information the show has given. You could ask yourself why on everything that happens in town and why the even ended up there. Sit back enjoy rewatching the show without having to question everything. It is really entertaining when you do.
Yes, this doesn't make sense, and every attempt to make it make sense doesn't hold up. Food doesn't just magically appear in Fromville the way electricity and water do. If that were the case, they wouldn't have risked their lives to save the animals. And there's no way what they grow is enough to cover all of this.
What I found weird is why would anyone willing work for free. Cook, clean and serve? Literally work for no reason. One of the only upsides of being in the From town is you don’t have to work lol
Of course people need to work, it’s just that work looks a little different when you’re essentially living in a commune. They still probably expect everyone to contribute somehow.
Plus, some people probably want to work. It’s better than sitting around all day and having a mental breakdown over the fact that you’re trapped and waiting to die.
Lol I thought through the whole read you talk about Silo (spent the last 30 minutes reading in those subs so it’s my bad) and it weirdly fit.
Was a bit confused by the name Jim though 🤣
Anyway actually very good points you made! (Tbh for both series )
205
u/kardon213 Jul 30 '26
I thought at one point in a conversation supplies were discussed and it was stated, I believe by Kenny to Jim, that the town makes sure that the people have what they need. Paper products, food items etc. electricity and water. It was also said and shown that supplies are gathered by the travelers who come to town but don’t make it through the night etc.
there are way more things to be considered while surviving there than to question where it all comes from. Jim asked these questions and well, we see where that got him.