Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘It’s What’s Inside,’ a reunion of college friends turns into a devastating series of events that upends each of their lives in unimaginable ways. It was supposed to be a fun party on the eve of Reuben’s wedding, but when the group’s estranged friend, Forbes, shows up with a suitcase and the proposal of a game, everyone is intrigued. Forbes introduces his friends to a machine, though he doesn’t go into its origins and why exactly it has been created. He asserts that it doesn’t matter how the machine works because it’s all just fun and games. In the end, however, the machine and its working become critical in understanding what has happened to Reuben, Forbes, and their friends. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The Machine Allows to Swap Bodies
The machine is introduced to the group by Forbes, who they don’t realize is actually his sister, Beatrice. While the real purpose of the machine’s creation is not revealed, it is true that Forbes and his team have been working on it for five years. Beatrice claims that it is made for a top-secret thing, which she, as Forbes, cannot divulge to the group. Still, it raises a question, which is reiterated by Nikki: why, if it is supposed to be so confidential, has Forbes brought it to a party with his college friends?
The intentions behind the use of the machine are entirely different, but there are certain rules that must be followed while using it. Every participant has to hook up electrodes at their temples to connect their minds to the machine and allow them to be swapped. When the machine is stopped, the swap takes place, and to reverse it, the participants must hook up to the electrodes and the machine again. A key element of the swap is that it cannot take place with a dead person. So, for instance, when Reuben dies in Dennis’s body, Dennis cannot swap back into his body, which means he must find another body to live out the rest of his life.
The Machine is Constructed to Make Intentional Swaps
When Beatrice (in the body of Forbes) proposes the game of body swapping, she demonstrates how the machine works, especially to Shelby, who later becomes the only other person who can work the machine. At first, it seems that the swapping that happens through the machine is entirely random. All the participants need to do is slap the electrodes to their temples, creating a connection between them. In a way, they are all connecting their hard drives, and the wires (electrodes) are meant to allow the free flow of their minds until the machine is stopped. At the end of the process, anyone’s mind can be in anyone’s body, which is where the fun is supposed to lie.
The idea of landing in someone else’s body sounds fun in the beginning, but nobody would try it if they didn’t have the confirmation that they could get back in their bodies at the end of the day. To make sure that this reversal happens, there is a circuit board. To use this, it is essential to know who is in whose body. Once that is confirmed, the wires can be arranged in a way that everyone ends up in their own bodies. For instance, in the beginning, Cyrus ends up in Reuben’s body, Reuben ends up in Forbes’, Forbes (really Beatrice) ends up in Dennis’, and Dennis in Cyrus’.
When they have to be brought back into their original bodies, the wires are connected such that the wire connecting to Cyrus’ mind (which is in Reuben) is fixed to Cyrus’ body, the wire connecting to Reuben’s mind (which is in Forbes) is connected to Reuben’s body, and so on. If the wires are attached to the wrong body, that is where the mind will end up. This is why, to make sure that everyone is identified correctly, it is suggested that each person should wear a polaroid with their picture and name on the body that they are currently occupying. It removes any possibility of confusion unless people start lying about who they really are.
In the end, it is this working of the wires that Beatrice uses to her advantage. She and Shelby are the only ones who know how to get people back into their bodies by the end. Shelby (in Nikki’s body) is incapacitated due to Nikki’s peanut allergy, which gives Beatrice the whole ground to herself. She arranges the wires in a way that would benefit her the most. So, instead of ending up back in Forbes’ body, she wires things in a way that she would end up in Nikki’s body. The rest of the arrangements don’t really matter to her, which is why part of Shelby’s original arrangement (where she and Cyrus go back in their bodies) remains as is.
Read More: It’s What’s Inside Ending, Explained: Who is in Whose Body?
