How does it feel to discover life’s potential coming out of a machine? “The Big Door Prize” starts with answering the above question to discover one’s life potential coming from a machine written on a piece of paper. But could a piece of paper determine one’s life potential? The question has been bothering Mr. Hubbard ever since the machine was introduced.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is The Mystery Of The Machine That Told People Their Life’s Potential?
In “The Big Door Prize” Episode 1, Mr. Hubbard is shown celebrating his 40th birthday with his wife and daughter, whereas the town is going gaga over a machine called Morpho that had been installed in the local general store. The machine shows the potential of a person’s life when the person gets in contact with the machine. Mr. Hubbard is the only person in town who does not believe that a machine can determine a human being’s life potential and is probably the only person who has kept himself from getting in contact with it. On his way to school, he got to see people lining up to get inside the machine as well as the people who were following the machine’s suggestions to alter their life choices and decisions. He observes that people learning about their life’s potential are focusing on their newly discovered capabilities and making changes accordingly. It feels quite absurd to rely on a machine to know what a human being is capable of doing, which has been bothering Mr. Hubbard for the most part. For example, his students in the school were all excitedly getting to know about their life’s potential and making choices based on it.
Mr. Hubbard tried to explain to the kids that they should not rely on a machine because the future is supposed to be uncertain. With reference to history, he tried to explain his theory that a machine cannot determine one’s life potential. But his lecture and understanding got overshadowed by the popularity that the machine projected, and it started to bother Mr. Hubbard’s psychology. He could not stop thinking about the machine, even when he was having birthday dinner or having sex with his wife; the machine kept popping up out of nowhere in his head. The sudden obsession with the machine was bothering him as well; on his way to school, he kept questioning himself about the purpose of the long line outside the local store. On his way to school, he witnessed people changing their lifestyles according to the machine’s results, which seemed unrealistic and over the top to him.
In one sequence, he heard the principal of the school saying that she had bought an expensive motorbike, a Harley, with her provident fund, as the machine suggested she was a rider. All of these events had taken a toll on Hubbard, and he tried to inquire about the machine’s origin from a student who worked at the local store and was present during the time of the machine’s arrival. But the sources were unknown to everyone, and nobody cared about the machine’s origin but rather focused on its purpose. Gradually, Hubbard got interested in the machine and wanted to be aware of his hidden talents apart from being a teacher and whistler. He wanted to know about his hidden talents like everyone else, so he decided to give it a go.
Does Hubbard Get Satisfactory Results From Morpho? How Did It Affect Him Psychologically?
One day late in the night, he stepped inside the machine, provided his social security number, and waited for the results. The results were teacher and whistler, meaning his life’s potential was what he was capable of, not anything that he wasn’t aware of. The results pissed him off, and he figured that the machine might be a hoax that was misleading people and playing with their emotions. People in his neighborhood were all getting results about their hidden talents or careers that they did not pursue, but for Hubbard, the results were nothing like that. Nothing extraordinary came, and that disappointed Hubbard; the results were a projection of whatever life Hubbard was already leading.
Episode 1: Ending Explained – What Results Came For Hubbard’s Wife?
While Hubbard was busy looking for some extravagant answers from Morpho, his wife had gotten a result secretly, which her husband was unaware of. Her husband did not want any of his family members to get influenced by the machine, which might be the cause of her secrecy, but it seemed more than that. What were the results that she wanted to keep to herself? What was so secret about them? Do we get to know about the results in the next episode?