We left with our WaywardVagabond (WV) on his butt having failed to get out of the ladder tube. He has a few seconds left though, he can try again.

At this point we get an epic animation to the track “Explore”. There’s a lot to unpack here. A “5x cliffhanger combo” with much more going on.

• WV again climbs out of the hatch.
• Near WV is a statue’s hand holding something orb-like. I think this is a wizard statue in Rose’s house Implying that WV and the bunker are near her. Just years in the future.
• The entire bunker under him rockets him far into the air and westward. It looks like a can.
• We see him pass what was John’s Suburb, It’s now a sand filled creator with a giant white tree growing from it. The tree has grown a “fruit” being a large metal capsule with some SBURB branding on it. -The Peregrine Mendicant is next to this. The thing we saw in the sky was WV riding a bunker can rocket thing.
• Still blasting westward WV goes to an area where a volcano very many years prior had erupted. This may be prehistoric.
• A meteor seemingly summoned by a spirographic portal left a huge crater next to it.
• A frog temple is later built in the crater.
• And then everything got flooded. This makes the frog temple ruins, and volcano into an island. The island is flush with life including dinosaurs?
• And now the frog temple ruins lay in the middle of more desert. This is where VW lands.
• Some fans discovered that there are real latitude and longitudinal coordinates. These show you where some of the characters lived on Earth. For examples:
• Rose’s home was near the Victory Basin wildlife management area in Vermont USA. It makes sense as she’s surrounded by forested areas.
• John’s house was located in Maple valley Washington near Seattle. You can even see the lakes in the animation. Not sure who lives at that exact address but they must get plenty of very weird visitors.
• The Frog Shrine is in the middle of the pacific ocean. This is actually also very close to the anti-prime meridian. In this place you can travel “backwards in time”. Though that’s more to do with our wacky time zones and politics.
• Dave’s home isn’t shown in this segment
• We also see Rose battling her generator trying to get it to work using only violence. It is not working out and she’s surrounded by fire. Her mother looks on from the house, unlocking a hidden passage in the Cat Mausoleum. Proof she really does care about Rose. Maybe?
• We see John’s father. He is in the dark castle. The imps have foolishly handcuffed him with his own trick handcuffs. It seems John’s father got captured purposely. He’s decided now is a good time to break and unleash creamy hell upon his captors.
• We also see Dave on his rooftop. We also see Big Bro for the first time, not as a shadow. He has really cool anime triangle shades, and a katana.

This is the end of Act 2. Ending each act with mind blowing animation sequences really worked for me.

I’ll give you the epilogue this time. Because there’s a lot to unpack in that as well. We see a note written to John. It’s in John’s first edition copy of Colonels Sassacre’s Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery. It’s another Nana lore dump!

She’s saying she wishes she could give this to John “in the flesh”. She mentions John will be “thrust into another world” which has definitely happened.

“A realm of Warring Royalty in a Timeless Expanse.” We have that as well though we haven’t seen much of it yet.

“A realm of Agents and Exiles and Consorts and Kernelsprites. Of toiling Underlings and slumbering Denizens” We’ve only seen Kernelsprites so far.

“A realm where four will gather, the Heir of Breath and Seer of Light, the Knight of Time and Witch of Space, and together they will Ascend.” We have seen a few “==> Ascend” moments, but these roles sound cool as hell.

Nanna ends the note suggesting they may someday meet. And that’s also true, they have.Note her heart in the signature has a ghostly tale, and the PS. Hoo Hoo Hoo!.

You could make a few theories here. John found the book with some articles about meteors and a fire at Croker labs. One theory is that this has all happened before. Nanna experienced a similar grand adventure. Somehow she knows her grandson’s destined to do the same. It’s also possible Nanna has whatever weird ability GardenGnostic [GG] has. They both can predict the future.