Thoughts and prognistications?

[greatblueheron]

I just finished reading the six available parts of The Plant (obtained through The Office quiz), and was curious to know what other people thought of it and if anyone has predictions for how it will (or should) turn out.

Spoilers ahead.

Reflecting back on the book, my guess would be for a fairly dark ending, with perhaps the closest parallel being something like Needful Things. The reason for this is that most of the characters seem fairly reactionary - that is, they kind of go along with the flow without consciously thinking ahead and trying to alter the course of things. They accept the plant and try to use it for their advantage with only vague reminders to themselves to stop it before it goes too far.

The main exception to this (and in my opinion the most interesting character in the book) is Riddley. He makes one of the few conscious decisions that could have really altered the course of things, deciding to keep the plant initially so that John would face it for himself, to better himself. He also seems most likely to reject using the plant for personal greed, given the side-story with his siblings, although perhaps his desire to write his novel to prove himself in spite of his siblings feelings will be the manner in which the plant uses him. There is also is the foreshadowing from the owner of the greenhouse that Riddley will be the one to know when it is time to stop the plant.

Given all of this, I would imagine an ending where most of the characters pay the (ultimate) price for giving in to their greed, with perhaps Riddley being the sole person to get out and put an end to the plant.

Of course, before that happens, it seems like there should be more with Carlos, returning as a tulpa, and possibly Ruth, as foreshadowed by Carlos before he met his end.

[GNTLGNT]

There was an unfortunate mix-up at feeding time and instead of Miracle-Gro, a healthy dollop of Miralax was added to it's water-and well, I won't "dump" the rest of the gory details on you...