Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s sci-fi comedy ‘They Cloned Tyrone’ follows Fontaine as he drowns in a series of revelations that change everything he thought he knew about his life. It begins with his death, which he doesn’t remember. He wakes up one morning feeling a little off but doesn’t get to the root of the problem until it is pointed out that he is supposed to be dead. The previous night, he was gunned down by a rival gang, but there are no bullet wounds on his body. There is not so much as a scratch, yet witnesses claim they saw him die. Unraveling the truth behind this mystery leads Fontaine to stumble upon some shocking things, which include the truth about his mother. Who is she, and what happened to her? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Truth About Fontaine’s Mother
When we first meet Fontaine, he is stuck in one place and follows the same daily routine. He has been a drug dealer in the Glen for god knows how long. His brother died a while ago, and he now lives with his mother. He makes a sandwich every morning and asks his mother if she wants one. She never comes out of her room, never even opens the door. He only hears her voice from the other side as she makes one or the other excuse about why she doesn’t want to eat. Fontaine doesn’t think about it too much, as he has other things on his mind.
Eventually, Fontaine discovers that he is a clone and his line is not the one he wanted, but one that was imposed upon him because the people conducting the experiments want to secure their control group. He discovers that there are many clones who look just like him, which will be decanted in case he dies. In fact, he has been one of the clones that was decanted when his predecessor died. He is advised to stick to the life that he is given and not stray away from it because he can easily be replaced by some other clone.
Knowing that there is no option but to give in to his life, Fontaine tries to go back to how things were, but he becomes more frustrated every day. When he tries to talk to his mother, she still doesn’t come out, which makes him angry. Usually, he would walk away, but this time, he breaks through the door and finds the room empty, except for a table where a recorder plays a woman’s voice. It keeps repeating the answers that he’d heard all this while. What happened to his mother? There never was one.
To keep the experiment going, keeping Fontaine’s sense of reality was important. He needed to know that he was living a normal life, with nothing out of the ordinary happening in it. He needed to believe he had a family; just an illusion of it would do. In the end, Fontaine discovers that his memories of his brother, Ronnie, are also planted in his brain. He never had a brother because he is a clone. He wasn’t born but decanted. He never had a childhood or a family. All of this was created for him, with some memories from the real Fontaine, who made them.
The voice on the other side is a tether for Fontaine. The narrative explains his mother’s unwillingness to come out of the room. Ronnie’s death has turned her into a recluse, and Fontaine doesn’t want to push her to come out, so he never opens the door. He just listens to her answers and leaves her to her own devices. However, once the truth is out, Fontaine can’t help but wonder why he should go on living this lie.
Read More: They Cloned Tyrone Ending, Explained
