Jack Stauber's Opal was released on Adult Swim on October 31st, 2020. The movie has become loved by fans and non-fans alike since its' release, but many have yet to figure out the meaning behind it. After all, our beloved Mr. Stauber has a habit of making things very cryptic, confusing, creepy, and some other things that don't start with "c", such as just downright weird. So, how does the film go? As always, you need to know what happens in the film before you start to analyze it, especially if you're dealing with someone as cryptic as Mr. Stauber. 

THE FILM

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The film starts with a piano melody and a montage of a bunch of items around a house, such as cigarettes, beer cans, bottles of pills, mirrors, tape measures, and various beauty products. It then cuts to the title screen, saying "Jack Stauber's OPAL", along with a window that opens to show a small house. The viewer is then introduced to the main character, the titular girl, Opal. She seems to be grimacing in a dark room before she unscrunches her face to show an innocent expression and the room lights up. She then looks in front of herself, to see her father in the middle of her view and her mother and grandfather at his side. They then start to sing a song titled "We See You, Opal". But before they start to sing, they make various statements about how they can see her, quite literally saying they know she is there. Opal then looks down at the burger on her plate, seemingly not knowing what to do with it. So, she simply picks it up and starts dancing on the table, with her family members cheering her on.

She then pauses, looking out a window to see a mysterious and broken-down house on the other side of the street. She is drawn to said house, her eyes widening as the light from the windows reflects in them. However, her family tells her not to worry about that house and tries to keep her inside. After that, she goes to bed. Or, so her family would believe. She instead gets up and leaves to explore the mysterious house. When she finally gets to the door of said house, she is scared by a bright light, most likely a flash of lightning, and runs inside, slamming her back against the closed door. In the house, there is an old blind man who is watching TV. He hears her and assumes he's talking to a girl named Claire.

He says, "Claire? Is that you? Come here, I need you to bring me my cigarettes. Hey! Don't think about hiding them again, either! I know it's you who's doing that. You know, it's evil to help people who don't need help, Claire.". He then lets out a cough and continues talking. "Just like these people on television, Claire, they're far more interested in me than anything you've got going on. H-how the hell did this...", he trails off. "...Oh, Jesus. Where are my cigarettes... Why do they just keep going on and on with that... Why...", he then lets out a gasp before starting to sing a song. In the song, titled "Easy To Breathe", he asks why it sounds so easy to breathe on TV. This is because he cannot breathe easily due to his nicotine addiction, so he uses the television to cope. 

He then says "It sounds so easy.", but then smells the air, saying "You smell weird. Why aren't you saying anything? You're... You're not Claire. What are you doing in my house? Get out! Get out of this house! Get out!", he screams. His chair then tips over, scaring Opal into running up the stairs. She then sees the room with the glowing window, with beautiful singing and lace ribbons coming from it. She walks towards it before getting interrupted by a man in a different room. "Hey! Just gonna walk by without saying hello?", he says. Opal takes time to look at him. He is surrounded by mirrors, all of them obstructing his view of her. "Look at me, yeah, they're going to be kicking themselves.". He then gasps, saying "I actually look really good in that! I'm glad I don't have your ankles, though. Nothing, nothing against them.", he stutters. "I just- Nevermind. Sorry, my brain- fix it.", he says. When he says "fix it", his tone changes from sassy and rude, to deep and corrupted sounding.

"I often find myself at wit's end in here, that's just part of my journey, you know? I'm just a small- I'm like a tiny glowing thing. I mean, my skin is forgetful sometimes, but what- You could hold me in the palm of your hand. Hold on a second... You could spare me a little time, you know. You act like I'm a complete stranger. Wait, hold on...", he says as he adjusts one of the mirrors around him. "Everybody's so mad at me, like, I'm growing though, why be so negative? Why do people look at me the way you probably are right now? You wanna know why I get so worked up? I'll just tell you.", he says before turning on a radio and starting to sing his own song.

His song, "Mirror Man", explains why he surrounds himself with mirrors, constantly attempting to be more beautiful or perfect. He says that people criticize him for his appearance, which is why he does this. After the song ends, the mirror man starts talking again. "I don't really see why we always have to talk about these sorts of things, but you know it puts things into perspective for you, I'm sure. And th-", he is cut off by the man from downstairs screaming at Opal. "Hey, where are you going? Woah!", he says as he breaks a mirror of his. "You know how this makes me feel!" is the last line heard from him before Opal runs away to the room with the lace.

She runs into the room, pressing her back against the door. She then realizes the room isn't that appealing, with disheveled furniture and peeling wallpaper. As she walks into the room, looking for the window, a hand suddenly latches onto her ankle, pulling her downwards onto the floor. She screams as she is greeted by a scary, seemingly intoxicated woman. "Who's that? Mph, Claire? You're gonna be a person today, huh?", the woman says, slurring her words. "Goodness exists... If I wait, Claire, and I sit still, it'll arrive. You should be more considerate, honestly, but I forgive you. I forgive every single of of you, every night.". She hiccuped before continuing to talk. "It's a virtuous cycle. How did this get so bad? I feel terrible for all the things... I feel terrible. You and I don't live, Claire. We survive.". She sighed, lying down on the floor as she started to sing her song, titled "Virtuous Cycle".

After she's done with her song, she continues talking, saying "Our adversaries are in denial. They don't know the wrong that they do. And they'll never repent how I want them to. And you, you're just like me. You're just as powerless as I am, Claire. See?". Opal panicked again while an intense and out-of-tune piano riff played in the background. She then found another set of stairs leading to an attic, went inside, and put a chair under the doorknob to keep everyone out. She then sees in front of her the glowing window from before, and she walks towards it. She looks outside, only to see a billboard for "Opal's Burgers" on the other side of the street. With her family and everything. No house, just a billboard. Seeing this, her hair goes down in shock or sadness and her lip starts to quiver. She then hears everyone from the house banging on the attic door, suddenly cutting to a montage of her family members with their titular items being replaced with Opal's face.

The old man's eyes become her face. When the mirror man turns around his mirror, for a split second we see his disfigured face, but then we see on the other side of the mirror is Opal. And the woman's pills that she takes turn into Opal's face as well. She then suddenly snaps back to reality, screaming and running to the end of the room, curling up in a ball. The wall she stands at then turns into a strange living house with a moving mouth and skin, and she grimaces only for the room to lighten up and for her to return to her innocent expression, just like in the beginning. She then sees herself back in her house from earlier, with the mother closing the curtain to the mysterious house, and for them to walk back to the table and sing the same song again. It then zooms out to her house, then the attic, then the mysterious house, then the street. 

WAIT, WHAT?

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So, what does all this mean? Well, Opal isn't Opal. She is Claire. She saw the portrayal of a healthy, loving family across the street, so she recreated that family and that house in her head to cope with the neglectful and dysfunctional "family" she deals with. Hence, why the mother says "You're gonna be a person today, huh?". She also says "You and I don't live, Claire. We survive.". This is her acknowledging how they both have strange ways of coping with their current living situation. All of them use Claire to take out their frustration about their lives. But none of them deserve sympathy. Two of them use other people and other things to rid their minds of their addiction, and the last one uses other people's appearances to boost his ego.

Well, maybe the father, mirror man, could use some sympathy. Many people have theories that the mother abused the father due to the disturbing imagery shown in her song, that being the mother hitting and maiming a brown-haired person, and it couldn't be Claire, because she has blonde hair like her mother. The only brunette in the film is the father. There are millions more theories, all alike but different ideas. So, what's mine? I agree with all of them. Most, if not all of Jack Stauber's work has always been subjective when it comes to meaning. It's anything you want it to mean. Or at least, I think "It's whatever" is the best answer we're gonna get since Mr. Stauber no longer makes music, or does anything, really.