There’s something wrong with Ricken (and it’s not what you think)

I’ve been seeing a lot of theories that Ricken is secretly a Lumon plant or that he’s going to be a major antagonist of season 2, and while I can see how someone would connect those dots I think his character is a lot simpler and sadder than that.

I think Ricken is a man who is severely grief stricken to the point that it’s causing all of his relationships to fail. I believe he effectively unknowingly “self-severed” himself after Gemma’s death and I believe his character exists to mirror Mark’s.

Let’s look at Ricken’s character from the current point of the show: he’s a bumbling artist-type who enjoys engaging in shallow intellectual debates. He’s a writer who, from what we’ve seen so far, has previously written somewhat anti-establishment books. He is married to Devon and, from the framing of the show currently, they seem like an unlikely pair. However, I think the Ricken we meet is a completely different person from the Ricken who existed prior to Gemma’s death.

We have seen from small flashbacks as well as interactions that Gemma, Ricken, Mark and Devon were all close friends. Mark’s character arc up until this point has been to show us that his “outie” has done everything in his power to push away the memories of Gemma through severing and also drinking (in season 1) Devon, on the other hand, has at least tried to face the loss of her friend through going to therapy and also trying to get mark to talk about Gemma’s death. Sadly, Mark was overwhelmed by grief and chose to create his “innie” persona- a version of Mark who doesn’t know the pain of loss. I believe Ricken also tried to push the memories of Gemma and his grief away-albeit in a different way. I believe the shallow, self obsessed man we meet is effectively Ricken’s “innie”, the persona he created as to not face the loss of his friend.

We see that Ricken is possible of occasional moments of emotional depth, however they are fleeting and often he shifts back into his pseudo-intellectual character quickly. I think, even while he is being pseudo-intellectual, we are able to get glimpses of the man prior to Gemma’s death, as in the first episode one of the first things he is shown to do is to create three beds for his child so they don’t face the pain of transition and loss. This moment is played for laughs but I think it’s indicative of his headspace; he is doing everything in his power to shield himself from loss and he will do the same for his child.

I think, after Gemma’s death, he threw himself into his writing to the point it consumed him, much like it consumed mark. However, unlike Mark, Ricken instead underwent a self imposed “severing” and is now the self obsessed incompetent man we see currently.

Idk, I’m probably rambling but I wanted to offer a different perspective on him.