Mystery at its best: Midnight Museum [Thai Series Review — Key Observations Only]

There is a lot to choose from when it comes to Asian entertainment. Here is a review of a 2023 Thai series.

Midnight Museum(2023)

Watch Midnight Museum on YouTube for free

Note: Not a complete review, this is a story analysis to interpret the plots and subplots for you to understand — if you didn’t understand while watching the series. Recommend you to watch the series and find explanations here.

CREDITS: Thanks to Reddit user u/dangrankeyi who has contributed in the breakdowns of episodes 1–5 and helped me to form my own observations and opinions. The rest of the analysis was done by me alone.

Hello buddies. Time for another drama review. This time I picked a Thai series — Midnight Museum. I was gonna binge-watch this show after it ended but somehow I kept putting it off until now. Also, it had mixed reviews on MDL, many saying they don’t get some of the scenes or the ending. But, maybe a brainy me could understand…so I decided to watch it.

Let’s explore the plot: A young barista Dome finds himself working at Midnight Museum after losing his job. He enters the restricted Zone 16 room where the cursed artifacts are kept. Due to a mishap, these artifacts gets stolen and it is now Dome’s duty to find the artifacts, while learning more about the stolen objects, the mysterious owner Khatha and also about himself.

I am gonna write this review in an episodic manner, to break down my key observations. Which also means the review contains all my right and wrong guesses. I recommend you to watch the series and come here for the story analysis as this is not a full-on review. Or best would be to watch the series and read this review alongside. There won’t be pros and cons of this show, because that will make the review longer. I am just helping out here for a better analysis of the plot. I’ll keep it as short and crisp as possible. Enjoy!

Key observations of EP 1 — The Bride In The Red Wedding Dress:

An old man enters the Midnight Museum with a cursed artifact

1. Khatha’s age: Khatha might be older than he looks, like our Kim Shin(MC of Goblin) or Jang Man Wol(MC of Hotel Del Luna). The old man at the first scene and the typewriter ghost both belong to an earlier time period, judging by their attire. And Khatha looks young in the past as well as at present. Also, Khatha’s chewing gum case looks very old. Not to mention, he has been collecting the cursed artifacts ‘all his life’, and Triphob dodged Dome’s question regarding Khatha’s age.
2. Dome’s psychic ability: Dome doesn’t seem to be fazed by strange voices and events. In fact, he looks curious rather than scared. He can pick every sound clearly, considering the fact that Khatha couldn’t hear the typewriter keys until Dome heard them.
3. The missing business card: Dome could be quite forgetful or distracted. He misplaced the business card twice, unintentionally inviting Jib to raid the museum. But, the hand which picked up the card had gloves on but Jib and his friends didn’t wear any while chasing Dome. So, who picked the card and how the card ended up with Jib? Also note that people who are invited only(possibly the ones having access to the business cards)can enter the museum.
4. Khatha and Dome: I guess Khatha and Dome are related in some way, because Khatha seems to care more for Dome. Khatha’s ‘Do you remember me?’ and ‘Who are you?’ lines might have a deeper meaning…like he wants Dome to remember something that he has forgotten(again hinting towards Dome being forgetful). And Khatha always orders coffee at Dome’s cafe but never drinks. So, maybe Khatha has known Dome all along(cause he planned to invite him to work for him some day) and the coffee was just an excuse to see him at work. Also Triphob might know the connection between Khatha and Dome since he addresses Dome as Khun(Mister), like he is as equal as his boss Khatha.
5. The ghost: There’s no explanation as to why the ghost has possessed the typewriter. Maybe, the ghost was a writer who died while writing and wants to complete the bride’s story that he had been writing. But, based on the maniac glee after seeing the bride, I wonder why he wished to write a sad or painful writing for the bride. Shouldn’t he be wishing the best for his main protagonist? You know, they say writers often write stories fabricated from their own lives(me included), what if the ghost was actually the one who made a mistake and lost his beloved, and to escape reality he was writing a similar story and eventually died? He wanted to punish himself and thus he tortures the bride as she was an embodiment of himself. Do you remember the scene where he was quite confused to write the next scenario when Dome sees him for the first time? He has now ran out of ideas to induce pain to the bride. The ghost was trapped in his own story. The ending for the bride was ‘the liberation from the past’, which freed the ghost as it is applicable for him too. That meaningful glances exchanged between the ghost and the bride at the end signifies that the bride knows that this had been the ghost’s story. She is now relieved that her creator can be at peace and the ghost acknowledges this ending as he had always wanted someone to free him.
6. The bride and June: I am not quite sure as of now whether June is a human or a spirit. In my opinion, she could be a real person possessed by the bride’s spirit — this seems to be logical since I have seen a similar story-line in Tamil movie Chandramukhi. Because if she was a really a fictional spirit she would have disappeared along with her creator. June said she felt connected to the wedding dress, much like the MC in the movie who was drawn to the girl dancer. Also, ‘the liberation of the past’ erased the bride’s existence and thus no one could remember June’s name. But, did the bride really have a name to begin with? The ghost didn’t reveal her name and addressed her as ‘bride’ only(again indicating this might be the ghost’s own story and he didn’t feel the need to name the character). June(possibly possessed by the bride) said to Dome that she had been at the museum long enough. The bride could have entered the museum along with her creator and his typewriter. She latched herself to the only female person present inside the museum — June. I think over the years, June had been possessed by the bride but she wasn’t aware, or maybe she pitied the bride and allowed the bride to possess her. The bride’s story influenced her so much that at some point, they became one entity — and one’s liberation of the past had erased both of their existence. Again, this is my own theory and I could be wrong.
7. The liberation of the past: Khatha wrote that ending as for him it looked like a happy ending. But just why the liberation of the past? He could have written ‘the bride accepted her fate and moved on’ or some other happy ending. I felt like Khatha could somewhat relate with the bride’s story, that he too had a horrible past where he lost someone and all he wants is freedom from that past.
8. The human figurine: Dome and Khatha have a mutual connection point: the human figurine. When Dome went into trance after almost touching the figurine, he saw someone in a strange realm. My best bet for now is, it was Khatha. Also, Khatha looks scared and uneasy in the vicinity of the figurine when even Dome isn’t afraid. And Khatha has flashes of looking over something or someone getting burned. And if you look closely at the figurine, you could see that the figurine also looks burned, maybe its really a burned corpse. There are many possible theories for this: 1. Dome was burned in the past life and Khatha witnessed it(that horrible past of Khatha from which he wants freedom ), the figurine is Dome’s body from his past life and it is Dome’s past self in the dream; 2. The person who appeared in Dome’s dream is the one who got burned and he’s a different person altogether or 3. Whoever was immolated turned into a cursed artifact and since this the only artifact developed from human, Khatha is looking for a counter-curse artifact by collecting cursed artifacts for ages.

Key observations of EP 2 — The Poisonous-Animal Dagger:

Dome becomes Punn for a moment

1. Dome is a special person: Through June, we now know that Dome can tune into the frequency of any objects(like Namtarn from The Gifted series, who can know the past of the objects by touching them). In episode 1, he heard peculiar sounds just a moment before June first met him(which indicated the bride/June is a cursed artifact). He wasn’t aware of his powers till now. Also, his ability can be at peak sometimes, he saw a ghostly figure in his flat. I guess that ghost was there in his house all the time but only now Dome was able to see it after knowing how to focus on the frequencies. I don’t know why the ghost kinda attacked him though.
2. The thieves and the dagger: Snake, scorpion, spider, centipede and toad are used for the Kodoku ritual. All the thieves affected by the dagger showed certain animal behavior of the ones used in the ritual. Petch is the snake, It is the scorpion(the scissors implies the scorpion’s pincers, notice the clucking sound of the scissors), Boss is the toad(he has poisoned tongue which burnt Mike’s character’s face), Mike’s character is the spider and Jib is the centipede. And just like in the ritual, these poisonous animals possessing the thieves’ bodies fight each other for survival. Mike’s character as spider was quite talkative compared to others, I did some research and found out that spiders use their webs as vocal cords while other species don’t have access to vocal cords. Only Jib has escaped after turning into monster, which also implies he was the creature who survived the battle. I wonder if he has now become the most vindictive animal like the one used in the ritual. However, in the ritual, all animals are put in a container to let them fight and there was no means of escape. But, Jib survived by escaping, so he might not be the most venomous animal, we need to figure out what happened to him in next episodes.
3. The ostrich reference for Khatha: When Dome asked Khatha why he helped Dome at the factory, I felt Khatha wanted to say to protect Dome, but he refuses to answer. Khatha tells Dome to focus on Dome’s own survival, yet Khatha is here helping out Dome, forgetting his own survival. As per June’s reference to ostriches, they bury their heads in the sand to protect something valuable, which is also a survival instinct. To conclude, Khatha is protecting Dome because Dome is precious to him.
4. The ostrich reference for Dome: Jib is a centipede and centipedes get easily afraid, which might also be a reason for Jib to run away for his own survival. Dome also had two options: run away or face the fear. The location is an abandoned factory and I guess it was shut down due to some accident. The ghostly shadows in the factory might be workers who died due to that incident. Though Khatha tells Dome multiple times to run away, Dome uses his hidden ability of controlling these factory ghosts to protect Khatha. This ability is his survival instinct, but he uses it to protect Khatha, just like an ostrich protecting something priceless.
5. Dome being forgetful: This episode confirmed that Dome might really have forgotten his past. Jib admitted that Dome was acting as a good guy and not like a bad guy he used to be. Dome had been a ‘focus-on-my-own-survival’ type. What could have changed him? For me, Gun with his normal black eyes looked scary than all the monsters and ghosts combined. But, when he entered the Punn mode from The Gifted, I lost it all. So, now I have a theory that Dome has a split personality disorder, and this good Dome is his twin persona, and this could be Dome’s way of ‘liberating from his past’. Maybe at some point, bad Dome regretted being himself and just like the k-dramas Kill Me, Heal Me and Bad and Crazy, bad Dome created a good persona for his survival. The Punn mode might be his original persona which got activated because he wants to protect himself aka Dome. And this theory can be reversed too: good Dome tired of his life created a bad Dome and Jib was only acquainted with the bad Dome, but now the good Dome persona shows up while Dome interacts with Jib, confusing Jib.
6. Dome’s glitching figure: I think this has to do with his psychic ability. The more he uses his ability, the more he fades. Also, I think Dome could be an easy target for the ghosts, because of his specialty. Khatha warned him not to pity the poisonous animals because he could become their next victim. Khatha knew about this, that’s why he kept him away from Zone 16 and the human figurine. But, then why invite Dome to the museum at the first place? The work in the museum looks quite dangerous then why recruit a human? I hope they explain why Dome was chosen.
7. Kodoku and the human figurine: When the Kodoku ritual was explained, the most powerful animal that survived while fighting other animals has red eyes, the same as the figurine. What if that creature is possessing the human figurine? Or maybe the figurine was a monster impacted by the dagger? Either way, I feel like the dagger and the human figurine has a connection. Also, that most powerful animal which survived the ritual could be a snake, judging by the dagger’s skin and the fact that the first person affected by the dagger turned into a snake.
8. Who is Chan?: The only possible explanation I can now come up with, is that the person who Khatha witnessed burning in the past was Chan. Now, Chan is a gender neutral name and judging by how Khatha addressed himself as Phi, Chan must be someone younger than him.

Key observations of EP 3 — Moths of Memory:

The moth sucking the blood of its host

1. Khatha is immortal: Again, like Kim Shin and Jang Man Wol, Khatha had died but he exists. As declared by Annop, Triphob’s grandpa, its possible that he died protecting someone(the one who died in fire). Or maybe he didn’t die at all. He has to endure all the suffering and infliction of any pain, until someone frees him from this world. He had been searching for that special person who can rescue him. And he doubts that the person could be Dome. Our ‘the liberation of the past’ theory is hence proved.
2. Dome knew Khatha: Khatha had been keeping a watch on Dome a long time, as he looks similar to someone from his past, might be the one who named him Khatha in the first place. So, Dome might be a reincarnation of that person(though Khatha doesn’t believe in rebirths). But, he can also be a descendant of that person who looks similar to them, which also seems rational at this point.
3. Triphob and Khatha: The roots of the bond between Triphob and Khatha go very deep. Khatha sees a memory or rather a dream where Triphob’s wheel-chaired grandfather, Annop, speaks with him. Khatha is injured and by the looks of it this old man is a sort of doctor(Khatha wakes up alright from the stab of the dagger after the old man says ‘wake up’). Maybe Triphob’s whole family was involved in healing(in episode 2, Triphob took Khatha to the museum much to Dome’s shock and kept looking at the time until Khatha woke up; think Khatha recovers alright when midnight 12 AM strikes). Again, I have a feeling that just like Kim Shin had many generations of a family servicing him, maybe Triphob’s family line is also obliged to work for Khatha, until he gets his freedom.
4. But why moth/butterfly?: Moths and butterflies are often associated with change, renewal, rebirth and immortality. Caterpillars transform into butterflies(rebirth). You can notice the same butterfly symbolism used in k-dramas like Goblin and Doom At Your Service and also in Finding Soul c-drama. Also you can see Khatha a couple of times wearing a butterfly emblem or butterfly buttons or a butterfly brooch. This might signify that he is waiting for the next phase of his life — release from his curse or rebirth.
5. First victim of the moth: When Bam and the cops retrieve the dead bodies, one moth from a dead body flies away and enters Moth’s condo. We witness a memory when the moth feeds on Moth. Apparently, the memory is from Mike’s character’s POV, which means that it was his dead body from which the moth flew away and the moth has collected his memory. A Reddit user u/Virtual_Tadpole9821 has translated the exhibit description of the moth, which explains more about it:

Memory moth description from the exhibit(Source: Reddit)

6. Moth as second victim of the moth: The moth flew away from the factory, flew to different places and then ended up at Moth’s place. It is as if the moth knew that this guy shares its name, 😆. After being bitten by the moth, Moth fed the memory moth to his lizard and now the moth’s memory bank is transferred to the lizard. I assume the moth only retains the memory of its last host only. At this stage, the moth only has Moth’s memory, before it was fed to the lizard.

7. The lizard as third victim of the moth: Now, the moth fed to the lizard, has already laid eggs in the lizard’s body. These newborn moths again feed on the only host available in the room at that time — the lizard and the lizard dies due to excessive blood loss. The moths now carry Moth’s and the lizard’s memory as well and they fill Moth’s room.

8. Moth becomes victim to moths again: Moth hits a moth, but since the moth has his own memories, he gets high on them(he has now more memories with Rin because of the lizard’s POV). Also, at that time, he was searching for his drugs and eating the moth gives him the same effect and his old memories of being together with Rin surfaces. As shown in Dome’s vision, Moth allows the moths to feed on him and then he eats those moths. He is now addicted to eating the moths so as to dwell in his memories of Rin. At this point, all the moths have Moth’s memories of being with Rin in both Moth’s POV and the lizard’s POV.

9. Rin becomes victim to moths: We don’t know whether Rin was killed by moths or Moth. But, judging by the head wound on Rin, Moth might have beaten her to let the moth feed on her blood. Thus, the moths now have Rin’s memories. Moth intakes the moth that sucked Rin’s blood to see her memories. And the memory Moth sees his how Zen almost sexually abused Rin. Attracted by the blood from Rin’s body, all the moths keep feeding on her ignoring Moth, until she died. Moth kept consuming the moths to relive the memories.

10. Zen’s death: When Zen falls down at Moth’s place, he accidentally gets injected by drugs. Moth was already high by eating moths and Zen could have easily fought him if not for the drug. He dies at Moth’s place, but whether the moths sucked his blood or not, we don’t know.

11. Dome’s powers: Dome’s special ability is becoming more powerful. When he focused on the moth’s location for the first time, he seems to be physically present at Moth’s place(which wasn’t the case with the dagger’s location) and when a moth comes towards him, he awakens from the vision only to find a moth coming from his own mouth. He can now bring things from his vision to the real world. The moth vanished in thin air as it was was just a figment from Dome’s vision and not the real thing. Also, his power now has adverse effects on people around him(Khatha and June heard the sounds which should be heard by Dome only). If not that, then maybe when Dome focused, there were too many moths in Moth’s house and when he synced his frequency with theirs, it was too loud that even Khatha and June heard it. The second time he focused Dome was seeing everything in Rin’s POV(probably because by this time moths have fed on Rin), and there were no moths around in Rin’s memories so others weren’t affected by the sounds.

12. June turning into the bride: Again going by my theory of June being an actual person possessed by the bride, I guess the bride didn’t disappear entirely. When the typewriter ghost died, the bride might have only gotten freedom from the ghost and his story, but she couldn’t free herself from June. Like I said, June and the bride had now become one entity. So, the bride is keeping a watch on June though she’s a free spirit and helps June when she’s in a potential danger.

13. Rin as the moth: In the last episode, we witnessed how the thieves transformed into animals because of the dagger. Rin was the only human who died because the moths sucked up most of her blood. Remember the scene where the lizard’s eyes bleed because of eating the moth? Because, eating the moth was too much for the lizard, since it wasn’t a human, unlike others who consumed the moths. Just like the thieves took the animal forms, Rin also took the moth’s form.

14. Dome and Rin: When Dome gets drugged by Moth, he could no longer have controls over his power. He somehow managed to tune into the moth’s aka Rin’s frequency. Just like how Dome summoned the ghostly figures to attack Mike’s character in episode 2, Dome could now even awaken people from dead to do his deed. I think a drugged Dome accidentally touched Rin when he fell on the bed(there’s a split second where Dome’s hand is shown) and thus Rin came to protect Dome just like the ghostly figures did at the factory. Guess Dome couldn’t turn on his Punn mode because of the drugs.

15. The moth and the fire: Generally, moths are drawn towards light sources even though they are aware that some light could be emitted from fire flames. June explained(she knows way too much!) that the moths don’t die if their body remains intact. As long their body is there, they are good as alive. This explains why Khatha burned moth Rin. And if the moth’s body remains forever, its immortal just like Khatha, who isn’t truly dead as his physical body still remains and he will exist until his body perishes.

16. Moth and Rin: I still can’t make out the story of Moth-Rin-Zen. At first, I thought Rin ditched Moth for Zen. And Zen doesn’t seem to be treating her right. Rin is still keeping the photos of Moth. But at the same time, she seems scared of Moth. From the backstory, Moth wasn’t a maniac. In fact, he looked sweet when he presented the moth necklace to Rin. But, Rin was unhappy with him because of his innocent and reserved personality. So, did she break up with Moth for this reason? Moth doesn’t seem to be the type of guy to ditch his lover. But, then why he killed Rin if he loved her so much? This is where I was totally confused, so I invite you if you have any explanation. One thing is for sure, Rin after awaken from dead behaved like moth — that kiss was actually her sucking Moth’s blood, which caused pain to Moth. And Rin’s ‘It’s you who should let go of me.’ line, I interpreted it as Rin saying to Moth that he should stop using her to relive the memories via moths and let go of her. And why Moth was unfazed by the fire and embraced Rin when she was burning up? This only makes me think that Moth might not have been a human at all(considering that he was a homebody guy in the past and Rin always looks scared of him). If this theory is true, then it explains that he could have left Rin to protect her, but he wasn’t able to move on from Rin. And this also explains the apologies. But, it seemed like Rin didn’t want to be with Moth. While Rin was burning, Moth was the only one who kept saying that he wants to be with her, and Rin neither agrees/disagrees. Their story messed my head for sure!

17. Bam and Khatha eat moths: After the fire incident, Bam intakes the moth that survived the fire. Take a closer look and you will find an injection beside this moth. Bam’s blood was fed to this moth. Two hours of memories were missing for Bam and the other cops at the factory, and during this time the other cursed artifacts were stolen by people looking like nuns. Could be exorcists in my opinion. Khatha also consumes a moth which fed on Dome’s blood. And, he couldn’t deep dive into Dome’s memory because his memory is limited to only recent events. Feeding the blood to the moths proves my theory that the moth will have memories of its last host only.

18. Dome’s memory lane: While Khatha revisits Dome’s memories and rewinds them, we see Dome in a blue shirt in his flat. His flat somewhat looks disoriented. Dome wakes up in shock, looks around, feels his face and check his hands. Then proceeds to wear his barista attire. This is his first memory. No wonder Dome seems to be forgetful, because he has no memories at all. Makes me doubt if he was also ‘liberated from his past’. But, we also get to see a blurred moon like thing in the memories. Is Dome an alien, hailing from a distant planet? And if this alien theory is true, then we can figure out Dome’s special ability of tuning into frequencies as just a natural feature for his species. Maybe the Punn mode and the glitching body are also traits of his species.

19. Who is the real Dome?: Jib looks at his phone wallpaper where he is with someone wearing blue shirt — the same shirt as the one Dome wore in his first memory. So the Dome we have been watching all along isn’t the real Dome. But, for Jib and the cafe owner, he might look like the old Dome, that’s why they didn’t seem to notice anything weird in his appearance. But then Khatha had been watching over Dome many days, and all the pictures he had taken belongs to the new Dome. Is the new Dome intentionally hiding his past? Also, the ghostly figure who attacked the new Dome in his flat, I guess he is the real and old Dome, and his spirit is wandering in the flat to return to his own body.

20. The crystal ball: Oddly, the spear ball that turned Jib into ashes looks very similar to the blurred image of the moon from new Dome’s memories. I got an interesting idea now: The new Dome is an alien who has lost a special glass ball, that ball was in Zone 16 before it ended up with Jib. The new Dome’s mission is to get that ball and return to his planet. Since the new Dome knew how to get to Zone 16, he somehow manipulated Khatha to think that the new Dome looks familiar. The new Dome went into Zone 16 in search of that spear ball, but was influenced by the human figurine and the rest is history.

Key observations of EP 4 — The Terrestrial Rock:

A new character who has a strange symbol on her back

1. Dome is an alien: As confirmed by a strange woman who seemed to be wearing the Indian attire chudidhar(assume she can see things others can’t see), a meteor fell at the old Dome’s place three months ago and the alien took the body of the old Dome and became new Dome. But, an alien who doesn’t remember anything? That’s something new.
2. Dome’s house: When Khatha visited Dome’s place, he saw a crown pendant and a part of a horse painting behind wall panels, as revealed and clearly explained on this Reddit thread. And whenever Dome tries to focus in his flat, he sees the ghostly figure we observed in episode 2. Our yet another hypothesis just got proved — the ghostly figure is the old Dome. Based on his distorted screaming at Khatha and Dome, I think he wants help to send the alien back so as to return to his own body.
3. Changes in the photos: I believe the photos of the old Dome changed into new Dome only at his condo. This phenomenon was not explained, but guess its new Dome’s power that changed the only photo that was around him. In third episode, Jib had the photo of himself with the old Dome and in this episode, the contract obtained from the landlady has old Dome’s photo only. Jib and the cafe owner and other acquaintances of old Dome didn’t seem to know the difference because externally the new Dome looks like old Dome for them(except that strange woman). But, for the people who got to know Dome only after new Dome took the old Dome’s place, like Khatha and his people, they see him as the new Dome. When Bam showed the pic from Jib’s phone, the old Dome’s photo changed to new Dome since new Dome was in the vicinity.
4. June is born out of story: Khatha keeps telling that June is formed from a story and is spouting nonsense. So, she is not human, maybe since she belonged to a cursed story, she might not get freedom at all. She just exists. She is very knowledgeable though, she reminds me of Hermione(Harry Potter MC), a human encyclopedia, except that June isn’t bossy or an insufferable know-it-all.
5. Dome’s mission: I guess we are on the right track with ‘an alien with a mission’ hypothesis. When Dome finds the rock in the evidence room(Dome is so powerful that he can even easily open a digital lock without meaning to do so), he seems to be looking at a galaxy or a universe or something related to space. A voice says that Dome and itself belong to the same home and that Dome has a mission. The mission is unclear, but we have some random letters with spaces in between. The English letters are ‘N 3 W’ and ‘ 9 O d’. If you mirror the digits alone, we get something like ‘N E W’ and ‘G O d’. This is followed by Thai letters and since I am not a Thai native, I googled them, so blame Google not me if I am wrong. The Thai letters are ‘พร เ า อ หม’ and ‘ะ จ้ ง ใ’. I know the spaces needs to be ignored just like we did in the case of the English letters to form the words, but I tried the Thai letters with spacing just for fun. Oddly, the first Thai word translated by Google said ‘blessings’ while the second one said ‘yyyyyy’ which doesn’t make sense. After removing the spacing, we got ‘ready’ and ‘inform me’. I then combined the Thai words like a phrase ‘พรเาอหม ะจ้งใ’ and it was translated as ‘ready to inform’. And when we combine both English and Thai words to make sense, I interpreted it as ‘The new god is ready. Inform me.’ One theory is that there is some kind of superpower or God out there who is ready to conquer earth and Dome’s mission is to inform the voice when its the right time to invade(which makes Dome a bad guy). The other theory is that a God like being is gonna rise on the Earth and Dome needs to report to the voice, so as to defeat the ‘New God’(which proves Dome is a good guy).
6. Auto and Jay belong to a cult: Auto and Jay have a kind of crescent moon(not the normal C shaped crescent, refer the image before episode 4 recap starts). This strange symbol has a lotus thing like flower and above it another small crescent moon is there. It is repeatedly conveyed that Auto is a kind of a monster, rumored to be a part of a cult and even the teachers fear him. This is because Auto tends to behave weird and he doesn’t interact with other classmates. He doesn’t try to behave ‘normal’ like Jay. When Auto and Jay fight after Jay almost kissed him(I was shipping so hard), Jay tells him to act normal to survive in school. In the background, a couple of boys wonder how Jay knew Auto. So, we can conclude that both Jay and Auto belong to the crescent moon cult even before they came in contact with the rock, but Auto is being obvious about it while Jay tries to fit in the school by hiding it. This also explains why Jay keeps protecting Auto from the bullying. (I still believe he loved Auto. Sorry, I’m being delulu).
7. The terrestrial rock: We don’t know the source of the rock but I believe it is from the meteor of the alien of Dome(since Dome was able to communicate with the rock unlike others). Or as told by Khatha, it is just a rock that holds the entire universe within it(and Dome connected with the rock because of his special ability). The rock has the potential to bring one’s inner dark side and can destroy everything. The interesting part is, the ones who survived the rock’s flames were Auto, Jay, Dome and Khatha.
8. The battle of rock’s powers: The rock contains the power of the universe and anyone possessing it has the control over the universe. The only possible explanation for Auto and Jay to survive the rock’s flames is because they belong to that crescent moon cult. First, Auto burned everyone including Jay at the party. But, Jay resurrected because of the rock’s power and now he is more powerful than Auto(because the rock brought darker side of him which is more dangerous than Auto’s darker side), easily destroying Auto with the rock. Enter Khatha and Dome, and Khatha accidentally touches the rock. Since he is immortal, he is more powerful than a resurrected Jay, so he almost burns him. But, Dome takes the rock and burns Jay instead. Now we have different possibilities with regard to Dome — 1. If the rock is really a part of Dome’s meteor, it recognizes Dome as its owner and he can literally destroy anyone(unless there’s an immortal Khatha on the other side who is somewhat immune to the flames) or 2. Dome’s special ability makes him powerful than others as he can tune into the rock’s frequency(and again an immortal Khatha is bound to survive.)
9. The cult: The crescent moon cult might be something anti-God. Auto and Jay are official members of the cult, since they have the symbol on them. Auto escapes the cops with the rock and goes to a white building with the crescent moon symbol. This might be the cult leader’s residence or a meeting place for all cult members. And Jay also comes to the building, since he knew Auto would go to the leader. Both Auto and Jay were unnerved when they found the powers of the rock, which confirms that they might have probably known more about the rock. In the end of the episode, we see a woman with the crescent moon symbol on her back, and I believe she is the leader of the cult. Since the rock has the entire universe’s power, it can possibly be used for the rise of the ‘New God’. And remember how Auto said if the rock can really bring dead people back, then it should be given to the cult leader…I guess the cult leader gonna use the rock on a dead person to make the person ‘New God’, if she could lay her hands on the rock.
10. Dome belongs to the cult: This might sound a very silly idea, but let me put it out here. Dome was sent on a mission. And the mission could be to join this crescent moon cult and inform the updates on the ‘New God’. Yes, he doesn’t have the symbol on his wrist because he isn’t a member yet. I also checked the wrists of old Dome if he was into the cult(since he is surrounded by weird and scary neighbors) but he has nothing to do with the cult. But, new Dome can also be a good guy. The voice that sent him to this mission might want Dome to inform it when the ‘New God’ in the cult becomes ready, in order to destroy it.
11. The hand in gloves: In episode 1, we saw the business card being picked up by someone wearing gloves and in this episode too, someone picks the rock in gloves and rolls it to Auto who escapes with it. The only person wearing gloves so far is June(she wears them while handling the artifacts), but June doesn’t wear trousers, so this is totally a new person. However, this person seems to know everything that is happening. It is like he(guessing its a male) is moving the story the way he wants. And my guts say this person is the one who was in Dome’s vision of strange realm in the first episode.
12. Dome on a boat: In May 1820, Thailand(then called Siam) witnessed a cholera outbreak that killed most of the population. More about the epidemic is in the below image. Back to the scene, we see a boat on a river floating with dead bodies. These dead people might be victims to cholera. Khatha is also here at this era, slightly limping and with shabby clothes on. The boat draws nearer to him and we see new Dome with a baseball cap which has a Libra sign on it. And the crescent moon of the night is focused and this crescent is pointing downward rather than upward(the cult symbol was pointing upward, again refer the image above episode 4 recap). Dome in this era brings us to two possibilities — 1. Dome is some kind of angel who needs to appear on earth when disaster happens and complete his given mission of protecting the planet; and in the present day also, there is a potential threat about ‘New God’ and thus he is here to prevent the ‘New God’ to take over the universe or 2. The new Dome time travels to May 1820 accidentally or intentionally; there seems to be many theories with this possibility. Let’s sleep on it for the time being.

Explanation of the cholera outbreak at Siam(Source: Reddit)

Key observations of EP 5 — Salt:

A closer look at the cult leader’s tattoos

1. The Hermit tarot card: Khatha receives an upright The Hermit tarot card at the auction venue. This tarot card doubles up as a key card to enter the room and also as a credit card for the auction bid. The Hermit tarot card in an upright position symbolizes introspection, self-reflection and seeking the truth. Note that the old man in this tarot card also carries a staff just like Khatha. And oddly, the word ‘Khatha’ also means staff or scepter.
2. The Chariot tarot card: It really took me a while to zoom in and study that tiny frame where Triphob shows his card. The Chariot tarot card, if its upright, signifies willpower, ambitious, confidence and control. This tarot card also has two upward pointing crescent moons.
3. The High Priestess tarot card: An upright The High Priestess tarot card denotes mystery, spirituality, trusting intuitions and holding secrets. The owner of this tarot card is the cult leader and for now let’s call her High Priestess. If the tarot card is observed carefully, you could see the elements that make up the cult symbol — crescent moon and two lotus like flowers on top of B and J pillars.
4. The tattoos on the High Priestess: When you study the tattoos on the back of the High Priestess as shown in the picture above(and also the image from episode 4 recap), you can see some pretty intricate details. In bold letters we have something like ‘IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN’. We have a partial sentence ‘…PEOPLE ARE SO INTERESTING’. There are some mountains with trees and clouds hovering above them. Within one mountain is a horse. To its right, it seems like there are some huts and a partial face of a tribal man. To the extreme right, we have a wolf-like creature. Not sure if these details are important, but its fun to know.
5. Fabergé Egg in the auction: Fabergé eggs have been featured in many films and series. Back then, the Russian emperors used to gift their wives/mothers bejeweled Easter eggs as presents. The Royal Danish Fabergé egg is one of the six Fabergé eggs that were lost.
6. Sunflower Number 2 in the auction: When they said this painting is by a famous painter, they meant the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Sunflowers is a two series of paintings: the first series depicts sunflowers on the ground while the second series shows sunflowers in a vase. Sunflower Number 2, the one in this auction is an oil on canvas painting and belongs to the first series. It is currently displayed in a museum at New York.
7. Rock salt crystal jewelry in the auction: There is no clear evidence of such an object. But, lets break it down to understand better. Generally, rock salt and especially Himalayan rock salt are used to ward off evil or negative energies. There are still people who sprinkle salt on themselves to purify their souls and eliminate the dark energies. Onmyoji was a sort of technical officer with an expertise in divination, astrology and performed rituals to ward off evil spirits. During the Heian period in ancient Japan, the onmyojis began to go beyond their duties and thereby had control over the imperial court of the emperors. The rock salt crystal jewelry in this auction supposedly belongs to such a technical officer from the Heian period.
8. Other auction items: Apart from the above three, we see a glimpse of two more artifacts. One is a set of four canopic jars — During mummification, ancient Egyptians store and preserve the human organs(stomach, intestine, lungs and liver) of the deceased for the afterlife. The other one is a musical instrument, a violin or a double bass. To conclude the results of the auction as shown to us audience — Fabergé egg and double bass was won by The High Priestess while Sunflower Number 2, canopic jars and the rock salt crystal jewelry was won by The Hermit aka Khatha.
9. Dome and Khatha are brothers: Triphob makes a statement that Dome looks like the younger brother of Khatha. But, who knows? They might be not blood-related, maybe they are step-brothers. Or they were raised together since childhood and had this Phi-Nong bond. Triphob thinks they are brothers because Khatha told him as such, thereby hiding his true relationship and also his past, which might require too much explaining.
10. The Book of Revelation: Remember that Reddit thread about the white horse in Dome’s room? The white horse reference also came from the Book of Revelation. This book is the final book of Bible, which describes possible future events, mainly an apocalypse that would result in a new world. After the auction, the High Priestess gives Khatha this Book of Revelation. I guess you can see a link here — both Dome and High Priestess follow and believe in the Book of Revelation. Not to mention, we have just deduced that the High Priestess also has a horse tattoo on her back. This connection only solidifies the theory that Dome is a bad person who will be helping High Priestess for the preparation of the ‘New God’.
11. Nisa and Ratchanee: Nisa’s odd behavior and Ratchanee’s association with the crescent moon business card already raised my suspicions of them being the cult members. But, neither of them have the crescent moon tattoos on their wrists. This is because both of these women aren’t real people, but avatars of High Priestess, who are tasked to bring more people to the cult. I find it amusing that Nisa told to Ing that she sits on a higher position and knows everything, which was a clear foreshadowing of the power held by the High Priestess.
12. The role of Bee’s mom: Bee’s mom committed suicide, either because her husband cheated on her or because of a different reason altogether. We briefly see her in the storage room when Ing leaves the room. And someone attacks Ing in the storage room, but this unknown person is wearing a flowered shirt and short hair unlike the mom. This person possibly could be Bee herself(since she is also wearing a similar clothing after the attack on Ing). And in the end, when Bee and other people go to the terrace, we see Bee’s mom smiling. Maybe Bee’s mom could have been a member of the cult(we can’t see her wrist though) and she regretted it which compelled her to die. Or Bee’s mom was also an avatar of High Priestess, stationed at the storage room after Bee’s mom died. Maybe this avatar was there for spying on the family — since Nisa and Ratchanee introduced themselves to Ing and Bee only after we saw the ghost of Bee’s mom in the storage room. That’s why the Bee’s mom(the avatar) looks over when Bee and others fly in the sky.
13. The salt and the cult members: The charmed salt that Nisa gave to Ing and others was made of tears of people who suffered their worst pains. We can’t say if this was really true, since the main motive is to recruit the members for the cult and the salt was just a medium. However, cooking the human flesh seemed real and Bee and others surely have eaten it(look at their blood stained mouths). What the High Priestess has really done is send her avatars to bond problematic families with the salt, then anger them with the shortage of the salt and at last, break the families by brainwashing them, leading to bloodshed. Her primary target were the kids of the families and not the families themselves, maybe because youngsters can be easily manipulated. These kids once they have the crescent moon symbols will become official members of the cult. Now we know why teenagers like Auto and Java were a part of this cult…the High Priestess must have broken their families and lured them into this cult.
14. The stolen artifacts are with the High Priestess: When Bam and the cops investigated at the factory, the artifacts were stolen by some people dressed as nuns. These people are actually the cult members and we see the human figurine also in the High Priestess’s residence. High Priestess at the auction only bid for items that she was really interested in. I believe she is collecting items that can help her resurrect someone and make that resurrected person the ‘New God’. And by the looks of it, the person she wants to resurrect is the human figurine. Maybe Khatha knew this figurine could be awakened, as he was so protective of it. I assume this figurine person could be an evil one, and High Priestess might have been well-acquainted with that person. We have slight chances that this figurine person was the one called Chan, and who was immolated in the presence of Khatha.
15. Dome wearing the rock salt crystal jewelry: There is no statement made that this jewelry should be worn on ankle, since it looked more like a bracelet. But in some cultures, including Hinduism(not particularly jewelry, but black threads instead), jewelry are often worn on ankles to ward off evil spirits. And since Khatha’s intention is also the same, he put the jewelry on Dome’s ankle.

Things get a bit tricky and yet interesting in the upcoming episodes. Midnight Museum was planned to have 15 episodes, but they cut it down to 10 due to unknown reasons(budget issues?). It was very difficult to break down these episodes with minimal or no references to cross-check and verify. Apologies for my wrong deductions and please comment your theories or observations.

Key observations of EP 6 — The Mannequin:

Ton returns to his mannequin form

1. The landlady and Ton: Earlier, when Khatha visited Dome’s condo for the first time, we see the landlady cleaning what looked like blood. In this episode, we saw Ton living in the same condo, and the landlady was nowhere to be found. The landlady seemed to be living a normal life, except that blood part, so maybe Ton was secretly present in her house and also killed someone to get his leg back without the landlady’s knowledge(maybe he killed the landlady to replace his paralyzed leg too but then her leg was a misfit). Maybe the landlady went on a vacation(since she didn’t pester Dome who had returned from the museum about his unpaid rent) and Ton decided to stay here for the time being.
2. Who is Ton?: We get to see an animation of the Garden of Eden before we dived more into Ton’s story. Does that mean Ton was Adam? Both Adam and Eve were pictured as mannequins in that animation. Then he could have gone by the Adam name only, why choose Ton as his name? The only thing we can confirm is that Ton was initially a mannequin, a cursed artifact who escaped during the break-in at the museum. And he somehow managed to find a job at a mannequin manufacturing company, so that he can collect discarded mannequin parts for his needs.
3. The flyers with crescent moon: Personally, I have received many flyers from the Christian community about the near arrival of doomsday and to join in the prayers to ask forgiveness to the Lord for a better life. In this episode, we see a couple of girls(with some white ribbon around their wrists, where possibly the crescent moon symbol is present) handing out flyers, though this time the crescent symbol is pointing towards right instead of upward. The flyers might be a new strategy to recruit more people for the cult.
4. Lily of the valley: As mentioned in the series, the Lily of the valley symbolizes return of the happiness or rebirth. It is also said to be poisonous if consumed by humans or animals. Dome giving High Priestess these flowers might indicate the rebirth of the world, as per the Book of Revelation. Also, when Dome and Khatha met for the first time(that is after the old Dome was replaced by new Dome), we see Dome carrying the same Lily of the valley bouquet outside the cafe while Khatha looks at him with shock.
5. High Priestess turning black: Because of the rock salt jewelry, the High Priestess turns black/burned when she tries to touch Dome. I am just wondering what would happen if she touches Dome when he’s not wearing the jewelry. At this point, I have come to the conclusion that Dome is more powerful than Khatha or High Priestess.
6. The jewelry’s inefficiency: Khatha bought this piece for three billion USD(😵), for which it should probably keep Dome guarded as intended. Dome somewhat screamed at the High Priestess to stop the illusion of doomsday outside the florist shop, which caused his jewelry to crack and revealed High Priestess’s face for a second. I am sure it was Dome’s powers combined with the power of the jewelry that did this to High Priestess.
7. Anthika as High Priestess: We now know the name of High Priestess aka cult leader. It seems like she went into a confession room and discussed about Dome to someone, probably a priest(who could be Tay Tawan by the looks of his lips and jawline). Anthika has immense faith in her God and wants to prove that Dome is the New God. Though, the priest thinks otherwise since he seems to have met God in real life. Anthika let Khatha win the bid for jewelry as the duo believed it will absorb Dome’s powers, but seems like the opposite is happening — it is Dome’s powers that is draining the jewelry’s powers.
8. Dome’s safety: During the auction, Triphob told Khatha that how the world is dangerous and Dome has to face the dangers just like everyone in this world. Khatha thought Dome would be much safer in the outside world rather than being with him, and so he freed him. In this episode, June expresses the same thing, but in a different manner. It is best for Dome to stay with Khatha instead of fighting the dangerous world all by himself. Anthika would have had difficulty approaching Dome if Khatha stayed with him.
9. The thieves and Anthika: Khatha discovers that Jib and maybe the other thieves had contact with High Priestess aka Anthika. This explains how the cult members found the factory and stole the artifacts, since Anthika must have been the client of the thieves, to whom the goods were to be delivered and she was tracking those thieves.
10. Ton and Dome: Earlier, I thought it was because of the human figurine that the cursed artifacts began to react. But, now I think Dome might have been the reason. The mannequin came to life and ran away, and Ton thinks Dome is a spy sent by God and that he is being imprisoned by God at every place. Dome was influenced by the human figurine and his own powers must have affected the artifacts.
11. The disfigured legs of Ton and Anne: Both Ton and Anne have disfigured right legs. I assume it was because of assembling the mannequins with disproportionate pieces. Ton’s leg could have been disfigured due to some mishap or maybe the person who assembled him used the wrong piece. The disfigured Ton in the museum awoke because of Dome’s powers. Ton used the discarded pieces to assemble the lady mannequin and so, Anne also has a disfigured leg when she came to life. Note that when Anne scratches Ton’s hand, it doesn’t bleed(but seems like the mannequins that came to life have hearts but not blood…weird).
12. Anthika as Anne: Anne didn’t come to life because of God’s grace. It was Anthika who made Ton believe that he had given life to Anne. Anne was another of Anthika’s avatar. Somehow, Anthika knew the ways to approach Khatha and Dome. She knew Ton was a mannequin desperate for a soulmate all along. So, she decided to use him to destroy Dome. Logically, Anne should have asked for June’s leg instead of Dome’s leg when the girl’s leg couldn’t fit her. But, Anthika disguised as Anne planned to get rid of the jewelry in Dome’s leg.
13. Dome is a God: So far, we have been believing that Dome is an alien. But, there’s a development now — Dome might be the ‘New God’ in question. As per Anthika’s prophecy, the ‘New God’ will return on a blood moon night and Anthika will be the one standing beside him. And we often see the moons throughout the series — we even witnessed a blurred moon like picture when Khatha visited Dome’s memory through the moth. So, is Dome a God, probably a moon God? But how God can have amnesia and forget everything? Dome doesn’t remember anything at all. Or will he show his true colors only on that blood moon night? And the priest who is with Anthika said he has met God and Dome isn’t the one. That’s why Anthika and the priest are testing Dome to check if he’s the God or not.
14. Moral from Ton-Anne’s story: I don’t know why but I had a feeling that Ton-Anne’s story emphasizes on how greed can destroy us. Even in Adam and Eve’s case, if they were not greedy for the apple, they could have been out of trouble living happily. Here, Ton was a mannequin yearning for a human life. He wanted a human partner and his own family. Anne was greedy to have a perfect and complete body. They both were greedy.

Key observations of EP 7 — The Witch’s Game:

Chan dies by burning to death

1. The Limbo: The literal meaning of ‘limbo’ is ‘an intermediate state or condition’. In-between. And as per Catholic theology, Limbo is somewhere between hell and heaven, and it is even considered as the path to afterlife. In first episode, Dome visited the strange realm which turned out to be the Limbo and the person who he saw was The One. The One shares the same face of Dome and has control over the Limbo. But, Limbo is not a real physical place. It overlaps with the Zone 16 of the Midnight Museum. Note Dome visited the Limbo twice and both of the instances took place in Zone 16. Maybe The One has power over a certain cursed artifact(probably that Rubik’s cube like thing) and thus he have been at Zone 16 all along, like how the ghost was with the typewriter. That’s why he knows all about Khatha.
2. The Witch’s Game: The One makes use of a cursed artifact — a wooden Rubik’s cube with strange symbols. He proposes to Khatha that he, Triphob, Bam and June must play a game and find out who killed the witch without dropping dead. The One also tells that Khatha is the first Thai person who came in contact with a witch. And the witch is none other than Chan.
3. The storytelling of Khatha: When the game begins, The One shows them what happened in Khatha’s past, precisely in May 1820. However, throughout the past which is being played like a video, Khatha narrates his own story. It is strange since he uses ‘Old Bangkok’ while narrating since at the time, the name was obviously a different one. I think The One made the narration of Khatha easier to understand, and whoever playing Khatha in the video is not a real person but something like a simulation. But, once Khatha enters the game, he acts like the main character. Though the reactions of the past Khatha and present Khatha sometimes conflict each other(Like when the officer meets Chan first time, present Khatha curses him while past Khatha pleads him to spare Chan).
4. Chan is not Khatha’s younger brother: Chan saves Khatha from drowning in the river. Before this incident, Chan and Khatha haven’t meet each other. So, technically they are not brothers, but they became sort of siblings with time since both of them were said to be orphans with no families. Maybe Chan was really a witch from a faraway place who ran away since he was being ridiculed as a freak over there.
5. Cholera outbreak in May 1820: As already explained in the recap of episode 4, there was a cholera outbreak in May 1820. Many people died drinking the contaminated water. One of the villagers, Boon, was also affected by this disease. Khatha warned Chan not to help Boon as Chan’s powers are out of the ordinary which will garner attention from everyone and thus, Chan would be called as a freak or monster. Chan ignores the warning due to sympathy towards Boon and helps him and other people.
6. Khatha goes to past: Khatha and June, the only survivors in the game went to Khatha’s past. But, only Khatha could see it. Actually, they were still in the museum, but only June could see the Zone 16 room. It is like Virtual Reality — only the player with VR headset is transported to a particular environment although the player is physically in the same location as the environment. In short, the Limbo, Khatha’s past and Zone 16 are now overlapping at the same place just as if its a game simulation. But, eventually June was able to see the past of Khatha too.
7. Chan as The Magician: We already know that The Hermit is Khatha, The Chariot is Triphob and The High Priestess is Anthika. Chan saved Boon and other people from the disease and thus was called The Magician. This tarot card when it appears as upright indicates determination, resourceful, skilled and powerful. The magician in this tarot card has an infinity symbol over his head which symbolizes eternity.
8. Dome and Chan share same powers: Just like Dome, Chan also emits some distorted sounds while healing people. Chan can also enter the Punn mode — he did that to scare the officer. So, if Chan is really a witch, then by the same rules, Dome is also a witch. Not sure, if Dome has also the capability to heal others. But, if he can heal others, he wouldn’t be so weak as to faint a hundred times and wouldn’t have needed a jewelry to drain the rock’s energy. Anyways, Dome and Chan are connected in some way.
9. Who killed the witch?: Khatha admits that he killed the witch by betrayal. Chan curses him eternal suffering. He will return one day when the moon turns blood red and there are disasters everywhere, and that day he will destroy everything that Khatha ever had. Also note that Chan cursed Khatha with this line — “I curse you to stand there and witness all the pain that you have caused me.” In a way, The Witch’s Game made this prophecy come true — because of The One’s game, Khatha had to witness Chan dying all over again. So, in no time, the other prophecies are bound to come true as well.
10. Ton as The One: In my opinion, The One doesn’t have a physical form. Dome was in the Limbo for two instances — one when he was unconscious on the first day at the museum and two when he was unconscious after the attack on his jewelry. Both instances took place at Zone 16. The One took the form of Dome in both situations and let Dome stay in the Limbo. That’s why Dome saw The One looking just like him. When the game was over, The One possessed Ton, the mannequin. So, The One now looks like Ton. But Ton had a crippled leg but he seems to be fine when The One took over his body. Also, I see Ton’s story as foreshadowing of Khatha’s crippled leg.
11. The One is the ‘New God’: We can’t be sure if The One is the ‘New God’. If he is the next god, then why waste time playing a game? He might as well go to the cult residence, approach Anthika or the priest. But, he sure has superpower, since he is capable of creating his own delusional world. Maybe he is someone who is also going to help the ‘New God’ rise.
12. Dome is the key: The One said that Khatha has to solve the puzzle and that Dome is the key. But key to what? Key to answers? Well, we already know what happened between Khatha and Chan. Maybe key to Dome’s existence? Well, that’s possible, since we still have no idea who is Dome.
13. The time-travel theory: Chan wore a baseball hat in 1820. There is no way he belonged to that time period. So, did Chan from future time travel to past? Maybe that boat was a freaking time-machine! Let’s assume: New Dome of present world goes to 1820. Dome becomes Chan. Chan/Dome dies. Since Dome died in the past, he doesn’t exist in the present. The old Dome is at the condo of the new Dome, because its now old Dome’s house, as new Dome doesn’t even exist. But, new Dome returns from the past with his time-machine or whatever, but without his body. He overthrows old Dome’s soul and becomes new Dome because of his powers. That’s why new Dome doesn’t remember anything, because his existence was erased. But why did he time-travel? Did he wanted to change something? Maybe he read about the cholera epidemic and decided to go around time-travelling and save people. And died in the past…so he doesn’t exist in future or by the concept of multiverse, he exists or there’s a time loop. My mind is going crazy so let me stop my nonsense.

Key observations of EP 8 — The Payphone:

Tum and Khatha rescue Dome through the payphone

1. Anthika being punished: Anthika was remorseful for not having faith in her God. The priest must be having powers since we see her eye sockets being white. The priest also says that Anthika associated herself with the devil, indicating Dome as the devil, which is what turned her body black when she tried to touch Dome. So, is Dome really a devil? But, so far he has never hurt anyone.
2. Chan and Khatha’s names: Chan names Khatha because he can support himself without a staff. Khatha names Chan because he was found under moonlight(Chan means moon). Chan says that his name is outdated while Khatha has no idea what Chan’s talking about — this is where my time travel theory kicks in more.
3. 21 December, 2012: This date coincides with the end date of a 5126 year old Mayan calendar and it was rumored to be the end of the world. This event was also called 2012 phenomenon, which inspired the movie 2012. But, there was no lunar eclipse on that day, it was fictional for this series.
4. Future Tum calls past Tum: Phone dies on 20 December, 2012. The next day, Tum repairs a cellphone and gets odd signals. He remembers that Phone said to follow the signal. So, he follows the signal and sees a payphone. The future Tum calls on a date 4 April 2023 and he’s 31. He tells Tum to warn Phone as it is the only way to save him. Our time travel theory is solidifying. Also, note that future Tum asked the number of moons. But, at present time, that is when Khatha had approached Tum now to help in rescuing Dome, we are in March, 2023. Which means in a few days time, this present Tum will make the call to past Tum and ask him to save Phone.
5. Dome and Khatha in the Limbo: We all know how Dome has the ability to sync his body frequency to any of the objects, as per the concept explained by both June and Tum. I think he had just synced his frequency with Khatha’s and brought him in the Limbo(without having even the slightest intention of doing so). Remember when he coughed up a moth in episode 3? Now, I believe he might have synced with the moth’s frequency, but his powers were in the development stage so he couldn’t bring the real thing but just the illusion of it. Maybe Dome’s powers are based on laws of attraction. In the same way, he synced with the payphone to call Khatha to tell him that he’s in the Limbo. After the Khatha in the Limbo trained him, Dome is even capable of telekinesis. That’s how the half chewing gum ended up with Dome.
6. Tum calling Phone: When Tum first connected with Phone, Phone was in the year 2010, sleeping at 3AM — two years before he died. After that Tum had been talking with Phone whenever possible. One day, Tum calls him on 18th December 2012, when its New Year Eve for Tum(safely assuming that he had been making calls to Phone from 21th December, 2012 to 31st December, 2012 and each time Phone answered from a date furthest from the accident date). This date must have been the only closest date to the accident date, where Phone is still alive and could be warned.
7. Phone’s three different deaths: Though Tum had warned Phone, Phone still died. What was bound to happen, it did happen. But in a different manner. Tum didn’t meet Phone to prevent the accident. Yet, Phone again died at a construction site. Or he drowned. Does that mean Phone’s possible deaths could only be from these methods and it can’t be prevented at all? Phone’s death was inevitable. After many trials and errors, Tum gave up on it.
8. Khatha calls himself in the past: When challenged by Tum that the payphone won’t work to call his own past self, Khatha calls his past self. His past self which was with Tum at that time, ignores it as prank call. So, it worked…if not for the past Khatha,😞! But, now Khatha and Tum really think its impossible to call one’s own past self. In Tum’s case, he had no option other than to call Phone. Note that past Tum after discovering the payphone never tried to call his own past self because his phone was on repair and Phone’s birthday gift for him(a new phone) was given to him probably many years after Phone died. We could see that the phone was untouched. And since the payphone had also disappeared, he had no means to call past Phone again.
9. Dome coughs up a bolt and coin: I still don’t understand how this works, but I think the chewing gum ended up with Dome because it shared the same physical space. If you look carefully, Khatha was standing right at the same place in Zone 16 where Dome also stood in the Limbo. Zone 16 and the Limbo are the same physical space, overlapping over one another. So, it was easy to transfer the chewing gum using their overlapping hands. But, in the coin and bolt’s case, Dome was standing a few steps ahead from the payphone while Khatha was further away, behind the payphone. Since Dome is still developing his powers, his mouth is acting as the outlet for foreign things, just like how it happened in moth’s case. The coin was the one Khatha used and the bolt is a part of the payphone which came off while using, its very old, you know!
10. Tum’s analysis of past and present: Tum was intelligent enough to note down the dates and times of when he talked with Phone via the payphone. Tum’s mom didn’t remember her son dying at the construction site or by drowning, because Phone really died by car accident. But then, during the payphone calls(assuming that Phone’s mom called Tum after her son’s death; seems like Phone had saved the payphone number as Tum), she had said that her son died at a construction site. The present day Tum at Zone 16 tried calling past Phone again and this time Phone said that he could see two moons which was usual for him. Marvel fans rejoice! We are now talking about multiverse. This now seems like The King: Eternal Monarch k-drama(will write a review on it someday) and it has also had payphone concept. Seems like the names and phone numbers are universal though. All the three versions of Phone had Blackberry phones, which meant that all three must have died more or less around the same time like our universe Phone. So, how Tum connected with Phone(s) of parallel universes? I don’t know but I have read a lot of posts on this Reddit thread, about similar cross-talks and cross-connections from parallel universes, doppelgangers and all the things that would normally panic us! And seems like Phone and Tum are friends in every universe. So, before the payphone was taken by Khatha, Tum had been chatting with Phone(s) from three universes.
11. Dome’s soul is trapped: Tum was able to connect the payphone to Limbo, but since Dome’s body wasn’t there for him to return, his soul got trapped in something like a glass world. Someone disguising as Triphob had kidnapped Dome’s body and entered the Eternity cult place. Guess now the old Dome can go back to his body…but why he wasn’t trapped in the glass world? Old Dome was just hovering in his flat, why wasn’t he in the mirror or the glass windows? Is my ‘time-travel theory of Dome/Chan’ correct?

Key observations of EP 9 — The Hymns from Church:

Khatha destroys Chan’s body

1. The Eternity cult’s God is Chan: Anthika and all cult members including Bee pray for the return of their God. They used the exact words that Chan said to Khatha about his return to destroy everything belonging to him. So, Chan is the God and the human burned figure is Chan’s body. People outside the cult are upset since there had been no updates on the missing kids who have joined this cult. Anthika also says that this prophecy was made by the God himself and delivered it to his Prophet, which I assume is the priest Boon. So, Chan is the ‘New God’.
2. Bee wishes to play music for God’s return: Bee is confident that she can play the hymns far better than anyone else, though she is still doubtful about God’s return. Anthika doesn’t want someone lacking faith to play music to welcome the God and rejects the idea. Bee anonymously receives a letter and a piano key. The letter is from that Prophet or priest Boon. The piano had a symbol which looked a lot like the Marian Cross. In the letter, the Prophet says that everything comes with a price and Bee needs to bargain everything she has for her desires to come true. Bee agrees and interchanges one of the piano keys with the one she has. Then, she cuts her hand to let the blood drop on the key and plays music on it. I think the priest had lost his faith on Anthika when she started doubting the God, and maybe he now wants someone or Bee to take her place. By the way, the piano key is also one of the cursed artifacts that was stolen from Khatha’s museum(in the first episode, the piano key is shown briefly when Dome explores Zone 16).
3. Anthika’s copy of Book of Revelation: June explains to Khatha, Tum and Triphob that Anthika’s copy of Book of Revelation was entirely modified and rewritten. It also contains strange rituals and magic spells, just like Codex Gigas. Codex Gigas, also known as Devil’s Bible, is said to be a Bible version written by the Devil himself. June is worried the missing children in the cult would be used for sacrificial practices.
4. Anthika is shocked by Bam’s sudden death: Bee played music from the now modified piano and caused Bam’s death. Anthika was clearly shocked by it, but why? Anthika had already seen enough of the bloodshed while recruiting members for The Eternity. She didn’t feel sorry for them at all. Is Anthika related to Bam in some way?
5. The music effect on Khatha and Triphob: Since June is a story, she can hear the soul of Dome from mirrors or glasses. She is not impacted by Bee playing the piano, but Triphob and Khatha are affected by it. This music is said to bring the hidden deep emotions of the one who hears it. Triphob is engulfed in red color showing rage while Khatha cowers in fear with purple color around him.
6. Anthika believes Dome is her God: Anthika performs rituals to awaken Dome thinking he’s the God. But, she fails since Dome is not the God. The priest/Prophet addresses her as his granddaughter and says that Anthika had believed in what the devil has showed. He believes that Dome is the Devil.
7. Bee performs the rituals: Bee being the praise singer for the returning God asks the cult members to drink blood. They show their deepest inner emotions once the music from the piano starts playing — green for inexperience or envy, light blue/grey for sadness, yellow for happiness and purple for fear. The full white moon turns blood red and the cult members are sacrificed as energies to the moon.
8. Boon is the priest/Prophet: The person who had been masterminding The Eternity and had control over Anthika was Boon. Yes, the same Boon from Khatha’s past. How he can live till this day? He wasn’t cursed by Chan like Khatha, then how he became immortal? Maybe he asked Chan to make him immortal, or something like that after brainwashing Chan that he will be with him forever.
9. Boon and Anthika: We cannot be so sure if they are really a pair of grandfather-granddaughter. When Anthika lost her powers, she remembered how she saw a purple like space(the same one that Dome saw when he interacted with the rock). The scene somewhat looked like the little Anthika had opened a cupboard only to find that purple like thing, which she believed to be God. Boon who seemed to be wearing a vocal amplifier/changer in his neck said that Anthika will resurrect the God. He said that the fireball across the sky would be the sign that Antika has to prepare for God’s return. But, now we know the fireball across the sky was Dome’s entry to this world. So, at some point, Boon had also thought Dome is the God. Anthika, however, misunderstood that the purple thing she saw and Dome are both the same God she had been worshiping.
10. Anthika’s devotion to God: Anthika tells June that his grandfather Boon drew God’s image and during death, he had met God(which in blurred state looked like Chan/Dome). Boon had written this version of Book of Revelation based on everything that God had said to him. But, June tells that Book of Revelation is sorta like a Bible, but there are some context missing like The King of Tyre, who wanted to be above God due to his pride. It seems like Boon had brainwashed Anthika into believing in his God and took advantage of her devotion. But there are two possibilities we need to take into account: 1. If assumed that Boon didn’t meet the God at all, then we are sure that he had made everything up based on Chan’s curses, fabricated them and earned Anthika’s faith and used the cult for his own evil ideas. 2. If he had really met God, he didn’t meet Chan/Dome, but The One. If you look carefully at the picture he drew in the Book of Revelation, the person in that picture is wearing a kind of collared and a bit ruffled shirt. And that kind of dressing doesn’t belong to both Chan or Dome. In the Limbo, The One wore the same dressing as the picture. So, my hypothesis of ‘The One has no physical form’ is somewhat true. The One took the advantage of the situation when Boon went to Limbo(he was dying, so he was on the path of afterlife), introduced himself as Chan to him. As instructed by him, Boon wrote his version of Book of Revelation and included Chan/The One’s picture, just like the monk included the Devil’s picture in The Codex Gigas. So, The One is the Devil.
11. Khatha destroys Chan’s body: Khatha meets Boon taking unconscious Dome with him. He asks how Boon has survived till now, and he replies that he had immense faith that Chan will return. He questions Khatha’s love and loyalty to Chan because he had been possessing Chan’s body all this time but didn’t take any steps to resurrect him. Boon points out that Khatha had been keeping Chan’s body not out of guilt, but because he is afraid that Chan will destroy everything if he returns and Chan’s body with him ensures that he has not returned yet. Khatha’s leg becomes crippled once his fear kicks in. Boon challenges to Khatha to destroy Chan’s body if he fears that Chan would return some day. With a heavy heart, Khatha destroys Chan’s body with the staff he has — the spear ball on top of this staff was given to Khatha by Chan and it breaks into pieces when Chan’s body gets destroyed. But, I have a feeling that Boon somehow knows there is no need for Chan’s body to resurrect Chan. He just challenged Khatha to distract him. Even Anthika used Dome’s body to resurrect Chan, not Chan’s dead body. So, Chan’s body was not needed at all.

Key observations of EP 10 — The Magician’s embodiment :

Boon becomes the new Midnight Museum owner

1. Khatha and the museum: After Chan died, Khatha had retrieved Chan’s dead body and kept it with him, apologizing over and over again, for 114 years. In March 1983, Annop, Triphob’s grandfather finds him with Chan’s body. He lets Khatha to stay with him. Later, we see Annop and Khatha retrieve the poisonous-animal dagger from a gang. At this time, Khatha was probably addicted to cigarettes(explains why he eats gums at present). He builds the museum from nothing after he decides to house all the cursed artifacts. That’s how the museum came into existence.
2. Chan returns: Dome’s body is taken over by Chan. Chan destroys Khatha by burning. Both Khatha and Dome are at the space like thing that was seen by Dome and Anthika. The voice from that space says that it is God and this is the last light of himself since he’s already dead. He requests Khatha and Dome to save the planet from destruction — which was something he had failed to do. He keeps his hopes on them. Dome returns to the world and take’s over The One’s(Ton’s) body.
3. Chan dies: Anthika believes that what she saw in her childhood was her God and sacrifices herself. Because of her sacrifice, her energies awaken Khatha from death. Khatha didn’t return because of Chan’s curse of eternal suffering, but because of Anthika’s sacrifice and to save the world. In the battle between Khatha and Chan, Chan is defeated. Chan recalls how he had been watching over all these years as the dead human figure. He releases Khatha from the curse, wishing that they could meet someday again.
4. Dome saves the world: Dome in Ton’s body uses the rock to stop the moon from enlarging and exploding. However, there are still stars falling as rubble. Dome(Ton) and June realize that there are people like themselves fighting this battle against the apocalypse, they are not alone.
5. The One takes over Ton’s body: Through June’s phone screen, The One again takes over Ton’s body and Dome’s soul again disappears. The One calls himself as Death, one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse(as explained in recap of episode 4). The others are Famine, Pestilence/Plague and War. These four will bring destruction to the world. The One said its God had died because he had killed him(the same space like thing is shown, now in gray). The One says he wants humans to have choices, rather than predestined paths. Khatha refuses to follow The One or the God, as he would pursue his own path. Meantime, we see Dome in a universe with two moons as a soldier, where he meets Khatha’s doppelganger. Fun Fact: The One in Ton’s body buys some stuff at a convenience store, which amounts to 666 Baht. Well, 666 is said to signify the devil.
6. Tum accepts Phone’s love: Tum gives another go at the payphone to save Phone. This time he succeeds in connecting with the past of his doppelganger, who lives in a universe with three moons. Whatever Tum had said to him we don’t know, but Tum from three-moon world accepts Phone’s love. Maybe he can’t save Phone from the accident that was prone to happen. Maybe he can. But, both three-moon world Tum and Tum can at least live without regrets. Another possibility is Tum traveled back in time to a parallel universe via the payphone and accepted Phone’s love. But then, we wouldn’t know what happened to three-moon world Tum. Maybe just like how new Dome overthrew old Dome’s soul, our world Tum might have overthrown three-moon world’s Tum and took his place. Poor old Dome and three-moon world Tum!
7. Khatha goes to the two-moon world: Through the payphone configured by Tum, Khatha goes to the two-moon world and finds Dome. They both escape, as war breaks out in this world(Dome runs into Khatha just like they did in the first episode). I think Dome’s mission is to go wherever there is a disaster. He is ‘tested’ if he can save the world from the destruction. Looks like Chan was also sent to be ‘tested’, but in the end he lost his life, which lead to another destruction in future…and Dome was sent to save the planet. After a test, there begins a new test and the cycle goes on.
8. Triphob and Bam: In order to save Bam, Triphob takes hold of the cursed piano key which makes him sworn assistant to Boon(remember the piano key was given to Bee by Boon). Bam has no knowledge of who is Triphob, but he is with peace at that fact. Since both Khatha and June have went their ways for their respective goals, the control of the museum goes to Triphob.
9. The cult and Boon: The Eternity is investigated and everyone involved is arrested. Boon, wearing gloves, shoots a police officer and his burned scars heals itself. Because of Triphob’s piano key, Boon now becomes the owner of Midnight Museum(I had deja-vu of Kim Soo Hyun of Blue Moon Hotel(Hotel Del Luna)). The gloves of Boon is important — now we know who picked the business card that ended up with Jib and who rolled the rock to Auto.

Bonus speculations and interpretations:

1. The One is a personification of Satan: If you look at the behavior of The One, he oddly represents many traits of Satan. Satan was a creation of God, who lured Adam and Eve to betray their God. The One/Death is also a creation of God. He had killed his own God. He began to search for a new God and an opportunity presented itself when Chan cursed Khatha and died. The One took the form of Chan and addressed himself as God to Boon, when Boon was in the Limbo. Boon believed him and wrote the Book of Revelation with the picture of Chan/The One. And the prophecy came true — Chan returned. And because of the purple God’s instructions, Khatha killed Chan. The One’s plan got ruined, he now started to lure Khatha as the New God. But, Khatha refused to listen to him or to the old God. Now, The One might again lure Boon and make him believe he is the God. Actually, I think The One’s mission is to find someone to act like a God, but he will be the one pulling the strings of that person…whoever he chooses to be the God, will become a mere puppet in his hands while he would have power over the entire world and would do whatever he pleases.
2. Khatha is the God: The purple like God’s voice and Khatha’s voice is very similar. Khatha in that another universe, was a God. He was the same God who was killed by The One. I think that purple God had an inkling on what The One would do. As I said earlier, the purple God sent Chan on a mission to save the world. Chan died unexpectedly. Because of Chan’s curse, another disaster was bound to happen and to stop that, the purple God sent Dome to prevent it. Dome would be again and again sent to various universes whenever any calamity happens. After Chan’s death and The One overthrowing Dome’s soul through the phone screen, Dome went to the two-moon universe in December 1941. Well, if you know your history well, then you would know World War 2 happened in 1941. And precisely in December 1941, Thailand was attacked by Japan.
3. The One’s riddle: In episode 7, The One makes a statement — “To heal a poor man’s sightless eyes. To give a muted companion a voice. To ease the pain weakening a warrior’s leg.” Thanks to u/Virtual_Tadpole9821 again, this riddle is about Khatha and Dome. Answer to this riddle lies in episode 10 4/4: December 1941 in two-moon world(war) — Dome meets Khatha’s doppelganger who cannot talk; July 1997 probably in three-moon world(famine), someone with specs and Libra baseball cap looks at Khatha’s doppelganger who has low eyesight and suddenly the specs is on his eyes and he can clearly see but that Libra cap person had disappeared and there’s a board where Lily of the valley is chalk-drawn; May 1820 in our past world(plague) — Chan with Libra baseball cap appears and cures Khatha’s crippled leg. In every universe, Dome and Khatha meet at some point and Dome always helps Khatha.
4. Dome, Chan, The One and ?: For me, the Libra baseball cap was a heavy giveaway. After curing Khatha’s doppelganger’s eyes, Chan with the cap from the three-moon world disappeared and appeared in May 1820, our universe. As believed by many watchers, I too think that there might be four Domes. Dome from one-moon world, Chan from three-moon world who disappeared and appeared again in our one-moon world, The One from Khatha being the God world and another one who would be in the two-moon world. If there are four Domes, then they represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Pestilence, Famine, War and Death. To conclude, Dome is an entity who can time-travel and cross-travel to parallel universes to prevent the destruction of that world.
5. Khatha and The God: In my opinion, there are actually four universes. Three universes being ruled by one major universe where Khatha is the God and The One is the Death. Khatha is ordinary human in other three universes. The One doesn’t want to go by the rules and kills the God. Khatha the God had already anticipated this. He knew that after his death, there will be no control over the three universes, so he sent three of the horsemen, except The One to the three universes where they each meet with the Khatha of the respective world. Their mission was to save the world from The One or Death. Unfortunately, Chan dies which becomes an advantage to The One. But, Khatha and Dome of our world saves the day.
6. Who was Anthika’s God?: The last episode emphasized hope and faith a lot. What Anthika saw in her childhood was the God — the same God who was killed by The One. She had somehow managed to open a portal to that universe and saw the God. She believed in what she saw, her faith made her powerful, just like how Bee’s faith in her music skills made her powerful. Boon brainwashed Anthika into believing that she is chosen by God to revive him. Since Boon had met The One in the Limbo and believed him as the God, he taught the same to Anthika. And, Anthika thought the God and Dome(who looks like The One from Book of Revelation) are same. She tried to revive Dome thinking he’s her God but fails. Yet, her faith in what she saw that day remained. When Chan challenges her devotion to God, she sacrifices herself. The root of a human’s energy comes from faith. Her energy passed on to Khatha — which means Khatha was the God she saw in the portal. Anthika, as she always wished, revived her God Khatha, who she believed in.

That’s it, I guess. Thanks for reading till the end. I hope this review shed some light on the plots and subplots, which would help you to understand the hidden meanings behind the story. Overall, I really liked Midnight Museum and I wouldn’t mind a season 2, but there’s no update on it. So, let’s just be satisfied with this one alone!

Please free to comment your doubts and your own interpretations. I will read every comment and respond, I swear!

Take care of yourselves, you awesome people! Bye-bye!