If there was any lingering doubt, it was laid to rest after it became clear that Danny Sullivan was not well, and most of the events he narrates never happened how he described them.
Danny ran away to London (or did he?) after his failed attempt to murder Marlin on The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 4.
Left without anyone to consult with after Ariana disappeared, Danny entered into panic mode, and the next thing he knew, he was on a plane to London, where he was under the impression his father lived.
But instead of finding his father, he met a former associate, Jack, who conveniently had a story about where Peter was.
Right after shooting Marlin, Danny knew that he had messed up. And not a tiny mess like leaving the lights on, but a huge one.
As a child, he had a limited view of the world, and like most children, the only safe place he knew was with his parents. They were the only people who wouldn’t abandon him and would listen to him with little to no judgment.
Jack: What’s your story, Danny Boy? Why have you turned up here?
Danny: I needed some help. The guy I rent a room off told me I should come to London to find my dad.
Jack: And who is this mystery man?
Danny: His name is Yitzhak.
Jack: Safdie? Yitzhak Safdie?
Danny: Wait, you know him too?
Yet, Danny was not like most children.
His stepfather was a sorry excuse for a parent, and his mother was an overworked woman with the fear of god instilled in her by her husband. She could barely help herself; how would she help Danny?
The only remaining option was to find the man from whose loins he came hoping that Pete would hold any sentiments for his son and help him.
And that had him on a trip to London where many interesting things happened.
Danny was very lucky to find Jack. His father was nowhere to be found, but lucky for him, Jack had all the answers. And Danny Sullivan has never been lucky in his life.
He was taken on a tour of London from the shielded dark streets where sex workers traded to a gentleman’s club where he didn’t fit in and a 1970s version of a love motel.
Jack told him about a man who owed his father; if he wanted money, he would have to be brave and go collect. The ordeal didn’t end well, with Jack nowhere to be found.
Later in the hotel, Jack showed up and gave him some words of encouragement, prompting him to return to The US and face his problems.
Now, since you’ve watched three episodes on The Crowded Room Season 1, you already doubt most of what happened, and if you’re like Rya and me, you doubt 100% of it.
The only thing that might have been true about Danny’s story was that his biological dad was British. Anything beyond that was subject to scrutiny.
We will begin with the trip to London. Did it happen? Not really, it didn’t. Danny might have played that whole thing in his head.
How could a child who had just barely turned 18, had never left the country, and was wanted by law enforcement just get on a plane and go to another country?
Rya: So after Rockefeller Center, why London?
Danny: Yitzhak told me to go.
Rya: But you… you’ve never even left the country before. How did you get a passport?
Danny: Yitzhak got me one.
Rya: How?
Danny: I don’t know. How does Yitzhak do anything?
There are big questions, but we will grant that it all happened, and Danny found himself in London.
On arrival, he just knew what exactly he had to do. After heading to his dad’s place of work, the receptionist was quite clear that no Peter Sullivan worked there.
Jack was conveniently available with a well-written story about Pete’s entire life and his unknown whereabouts.
Jack guided Danny through London, which was new territory, noticed how Danny carried himself with a slouched posture, and fixed him up.
But did Jack do that?
Jack did not exist, and if we are sticking with our initial analysis of The Crowded Room series premiere review, he was another one of Danny’s conjured-up alter egos.
Rya: Wait, you saw him (Jack) out the window on the phone?
Danny: No, I saw the booth.
Rya: So how could you know who he called, let alone what he was saying?
Danny: I don’t know. Maybe he told me later.
Danny needed a lot of support at that stage, and he needed a British father figure who could tell him everything would be fine if he was brave.
If he truly did go to London, there were signs that Jack wasn’t real. All the places they had visited the previous night treated him differently the following day, as if they held him responsible for everything that had happened.
He might have pulled a knife on a man in the club, given the waitress a huge tip because he was flush with Yitzhak’s cash, and the hotel receptionist couldn’t care less about what a younger and older man did in his hotel as long as they paid for their room.
Then Jack showed up out of nowhere in the hotel room.
I think Danny never left the house after the shooting, and everything that played out happened in his head. And if he did, Jack never existed.
Characters with split personalities and alter egos are not new. Anyone who watches Doom Patrol knows about Jane’s multiple personalities.
Each one comes up from The Underground when Jane needs them or when Jane doesn’t have the tools to deal with a situation she has found herself in.
Ariana, Yitzhak, and Jack are some of his alter egos for Danny. Ariana represents the strength needed to get through tough situations, Yitzhak is the protector when Danny’s frail body cannot handle physical trauma, and Jack is the father figure.
These are recent alter egos, but Rya’s research has established that this phenomenon wasn’t new.
There are signs that Danny was a victim of sexual abuse as a child. He couldn’t have normal non-violent sex with Anabelle, and Ariana had to step in. He only sought violent sex in clubs as Ariana.
Rya: Danny, what happened to Adam?
Danny: We spoke about Adam.
Rya: Not really. We didn’t.
Danny: He died.
Rya: How did he die?
Danny: I’m done. I’m done.
He and Ariana shared an eerily similar story of sexual abuse as children, but Danny said that his brother had been assaulted.
It’s possible there never was an Adam. He was another one of Danny’s alter egos to aid him in an incredibly traumatizing experience. And once he was grown, he killed Adam.
Rya met Jack.
Was Jack a real person? As far as Danny was concerned, 100%. On TV, creators have to instigate a sense of mystery by casting alter egos. And for all it’s worth, alter egos are distinct from the person.
While that might have been Danny sitting on that seat, Danny was absent in that room, and Jack had taken over.
“London” continued the story with a lot of mystery, but this far in the story, everything had started to unravel. A lot of mental gymnastics was involved in following the story because one was suspicious of what was real and what wasn’t.
Over to you, The Crowded Room Fanatics.
What in Danny’s story did you buy?
Have you figured out what Danny is on the hook for? Because it can’t just be a shooting.
Chime in in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.