Operation Do-Over Theories + Others

Hey dudes! This is A.J., and I’ve been a fan of Gordon’s for about 2 and half years now. One of my favorites is Operation Do-Over, which I’ve spent way too much time considering various theories and alternate universes for. I’m open to commentary on these ideas:

One of my favorites is the idea that Mason was genuinely insane, and this could be labeled as a form of depressive psychosis called Cotard’s syndrome, or as it was originally known, “delusion of negation”. People with this disorder firmly believe that they are dead, dying, immortal, are missing certain limbs or organs, etc. I do think that this could have some flaws present, as it’s divergent from canon, but there are many principles that credit toward the possibility of this being true. One factor is that fact that Mason, in senior year, was known to have depression, which is stage one of the delusion. It’s also possible that the car crash could’ve altered his brain, causing disturbances in the amygdala and leading to false beliefs.

Another theory involves references to religion and scientific theories, rather than psychiatry. This strays pretty far from average beliefs, but it is possible that Mason’s soul could have traveled universes after the car crash, and once again when he was punched by Dominic.

Another possibly could be more simple: that the car crash had him enter a comatose state.

And, finally there’s the obvious trope: it was all a dream! ghost noises lmao

While those are just theories (A GAME THEORY/REF), there are also various alternate universes that may make the story much more interesting, such as an AU where Mason opens up about what happened and is sent to a children’s mental hospital, or (this is dark but) an AU where he attempts suicide to see if he travels through time no matter what. There’s also more outlandish ideas I’ve had, like a They Both Die at the End (Adam Silvera) x Operation Do-Over crossover AU, where Mason receives a call from Death-Cast the day he would’ve gotten into the accident and Tyrus finds him over the Last Friend App.

Since I don’t want to bug anyone with multiple messages, I’ll just put my other questions here:

In The Superteacher Project, Darryl and Mia’s relationship only gets more confusing as the book goes on. Is there any actual confirmation on what was happening between them?

And In Mixed Up, I find Reef and Theo’s relationship to be strangely romantic. Was this purposeful, and is there any possibility that the two of them together could be canon despite Gordon’s obvious hesitance to include LGBT ideologies in his books?

• Out of genuine curiosity, A.J.