While the movie is super confusing, the time travel mechanism in Caddo Lake is simple. But even so, I’m sure there are a ton of questions that are nibbling away at your mind. Let’s simplify the whole thing and give your brain some peace, shall we? Here’s the Caddo Lake time travel travel explained in the simplest way possible; spoilers ahead. If you’re particularly interested in the climax, read the explanation to the ending of Caddo Lake.
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Caddo Lake Time Portal Explained
What Is The Caddo Lake time travel mechanism, you ask? As the poster of the movie makes it clear, Caddo Lake has an area that is a naturally formed portal which connects random points in time. Any living thing or item that goes through this portal is transported to a future or past moment.
While it appears random, walking through a particular path in the woods takes a person precisely between two times. In the film, Ellie is able to tether a rope, navigate to the past, and return to the present. This means the two ends of the rope connects exactly two times. Ellie could have been taken to another arbitrary time if not for the rope, smart girl.
Caddo Lake Portal Theory: How does the lake’s water level affect the portal?
The film Caddo Lake makes it clear that when the water level rises beyond a particular level, the time portal closes, terminating everything at the portal’s opening. So, if a rope is at the portal’s mouth, it will get cut when the portal closes. At the movie’s beginning, we see an alligator sliced perfectly in half. It’s now clear that the poor gator would have been at the mouth of the portal when it closed. One half of it remained in 2022, while the other was thrown to another time – future or past, we don’t know.
Why is the passage of time tied to the rising and falling of water?
Over the years, Caddo Lake has seen changes in the weather. In a few years, there have been droughts causing the water level to fall, opening the time portal. Other times, rain keeps the water levels high and keeps the time portal closed. In 1952, a dam was built, which further changed the terrain, altering the portal’s behaviour.
Caddo Lake: Anna’s Seizures and Time Travel
Paris correlates his mother’s seizures to the water level in Caddo Lake. In years of droughts, the time portal opens, causing her to have seizures. In 1999, there was a terrible drought, and as she drove over the bridge, her seizure made her lose control of the car and caused it to go over the bridge. While Paris, who was with her in the car, could make it out, his mother drowns and dies.
Paris is obsessed with the death of his mother because she hadn’t had a seizure in six years, and the nature of her seizure didn’t correlate to one suffering from epilepsy. This obsession is what makes him correlate her seizures to the occurrences of droughts.
Why was only Anna getting seizures?
There is a town full of people, and yet Anna is the only one who was getting seizures when the water level was low; why? Well, Anna was misplaced in time. She is someone from 2022 who was unknowingly taken to 1952 by Paris when he wandered into the lake. Since Anna is the only one living outside her natural time, she’s the only one who gets the seizures when the time portal opens. The ending of Caddo Lake tells us that Anna’s fate is to be stuck in the past.
Caddo Lake Timeline: Time Loops in Caddo Lake
We have to understand one critical plot point – there is precisely one timeline in Caddo Lake. This means the events of time travel don’t alter the future, they only cause it. This is called the Predestination Paradox. So when Paris accidentally takes young Anna to the past, that is already the history of that timeline. The action in the future predestines the effect in the past, thus making it a paradox that can’t exist in reality. Fictional time travel causes this to happen. What is crazier? The young Anna is Paris’ mother! You can understand this whole other chaos in this article where I’ve explained the Caddo Lake Family Tree with a diagram.
The rules of time travel: What can be changed, and what is fixed?
In this movie, no one can change history; any effort to do so only ensures that history takes place. Paris’s obsession with his mother’s death results in him taking a young Anna to 1952, leading to the history where she becomes his mother. It’s predestined.
Ellie’s meddling around in the lake with the rope leads her dad astray to 2022, eventually leading to his death. It also results in Ellie travelling back in time to meet her own mother, leading her to believe Paris eloped with a young girl.
Paris’s time loops: How and why Paris can’t escape his fate?
Paris is inadvertently stuck in a Predestination Loop or a Causal Loop. The universe ensures that the past remains unaltered; you can call it fate if you like. Anything Paris tries to do only causes the past to happen. Wandering through the lake gets him lost in time; he disappears from 2003, accidentally abandoning his partner and child. Caddo Lake does not have alternate realities. Unlike Primer or Avengers: Endgame, there is precisely one reality, and nothing anyone does can cause any alterations.
Read this to get a detailed walkthrough of Paris, Anna and Ellie’s paths though time.
What are your thoughts about the time travel in Caddo Lake? Drop a comment, let’s discuss!
Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time.
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