The Barbie Cult Hypothesis

From doktorsleepless

The Barbie Cult hypothesis proposes that, at some point in the past, John Reinhardt exerted sufficient influence, perhaps in a messianic-cult-leader sort of way, upon some set of people that various of them were willing to undergo extensive plastic surgery in order to take on his appearance. In this scenario, the John Reinhardt in Cell 23 of the St. Thomas Institute is probably a surgical doppelganger who allowed himself to be imprisoned so that the real Reinhardt could walk free, Doktor Sleepless is either the true Reinhardt or someone else who could have the Cthulhu memories (John's brother? Sleepless does speak of "we" when describing who saw whatever it was in his parents' room), and dead-in-Hamburg Reinhardt is presumably another surgical doppelganger who took a bullet for Reinhardt in some fashion.

Supporting Evidence

There are several prevalent themes in the story that lend support for this hypothesis. The first is extreme body modification, which would be necessary to actually create a surgical doppleganger.

Another theme is the widespread use of technologies that would have a net effect of breaking down the barriers of individuality (particularly shriekyware). As one of the first steps of brainwashing is to use "intense psychological manipulations designed to break down the autonomy of individuals", creating a network that makes someone constantly aware of sensory input that is not their own would be very useful.

The concept of at least one of the Reinhardts running around being a tulpa fits quite well, too. In issue #5 the Doktor indicates that he had "caused" Stoker to believe that he had managed to imprison John Reinhardt. In that same issue, he also went on at length about authenticity, and pointed out that every person that figures prominently into society's consciousness is a construct, that in order for us to consider something to be truly authentic, it must in truth be fake. The connection here is that there is no functional difference between these "authentic" figures and tulpas (if, indeed, there is any difference at all). Therefore, once Sleepless has convinced someone that they are Reinhardt (or anyone other than themselves, for that matter), they become a tulpa for all intents an purposes.

Also, the Fake Blood Swap event, would seem to corroborate this hypothesis, as a surgical doppleganger would not have the proper blood type. This is confused by the revelation that the fake blood did not match John Reinhardt's. This could mean that Doktor Sleepless himself is trying to give the impression to Preston Stoker and others that the Barbie Cult Hypothesis is correct. Alternately if Doktor Sleepless is not John Reinhardt he could be trying to prevent his true identity from being discovered or laying the groundwork to keep his identity ambiguous on the assumption that he would eventually be DNA tested. This might be a bit of a stretch though since only Nurse Igor currently knows about the blood swap and as yet we have no reason to think she has any special loyalty to John Reinhardt over whoever else Doktor Sleepless might be.

One random item that may be consistent with it is that Cell 23 Reinhardt really looks rather beefier than Doktor Sleepless.