Kriti Mehrotra
Before we used to be invested in watching reality series, we used to watch games shows, and before that, we used to watch overly dramatic and mindlessly distracting kids shows. But, even before that, we just used to spend all summer at home jumping from couch to couch, tossing pillows on the ground as imaginary safe pads, hanging onto rods, and climbing up on top of shelves just so we didn’t touch the floor and “burn” ourselves.
Netflix’s newest reality game show series ‘Floor is Lava,’ is a reminisce of all these things combined. The concept of it is simple and straightforward. Each level of the obstacle course is set in one of the “rooms” in the house – whether it be a basement or a dining room – and each team has to navigate these rooms by communicating with each other, jumping from one object to another, and swinging wildly from bars and nets, just in order to not get wet.
If a contestant does get wet and fall into the “lava,” it’s goodbye for them. The rest of their team members would have to continue finishing the level all on their own, hoping, that they can avenge them, and on the way, not face the same fate. Because once they slip and fall into the lava, they vanish. But, the question that remains is, where do they go? And what exactly happens to them after they fall? So, Let’s find out.
Where Do They Go When They Fall Into The Lava?
Once a contestant slips and gets into the crimson lake, they are treated as if they are dead, and the other contestants feign horror and pretend to believe that their teammate has been permanently sucked into the void of the bubbling “lava.” They do genuinely act as if the contestant has burned and perished forever. But, obviously, while we know that no one died in that hot lava, the show does not explain where the contestants go.
To be honest, even Netflix and the producers of ‘Floor is Lava’ have been very tight-lipped about the whole situation. They haven’t revealed anything that would give us a clue about what happens to the contestants after they drop and disappear into the lava as they try to navigate the obstacle course.
However, we noticed that once a contestant does fall in, the film immediately cuts to their teammates crying in horror and showing us a replay of what happened over and over again. This cut suggests that a big chunk of footage has been edited out, and we think that the part where the contestant emerges from the lava and then exits the course is the thing that we don’t get to see.
There is also a theory circling around that the contestants are pulled from below the set into another room. Well, theoretically, it is certainly possible, but practically such a maneuver is almost impossible to pull off for a simple reason that if there’s any hole inside the room, it will also start emptying the lava — even if the hole opens for a few seconds. So, the best explanation of where the players go after they fall in the lava may actually lie in the clever editing of the show.
After their fall, the players are presumably taken to another room where they watch the rest of the show from the sidelines, cheering for their team to win the $10,000 grand prize and the opportunity to meet Rutledge Wood, the host of the series. They are not dead, and they are definitely not kept under the “lava” for the whole time. The mindlessly distracting series may be a little dumb, but the childlike feeling it encaptures makes it fun to watch.
Read More: What Is The Lava Made Of?
