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- Still Trying to Figure Out the Mystery Behind Palm Springs's Sweet Nana? We've Got Some Ideas
Still Trying to Figure Out the Mystery Behind Palm Springs's Sweet Nana? We've Got Some Ideas
Everett Collection / Christopher Willard
Hulu’s Palm Springs is equal parts romantic comedy and time-travel fantasy, and it feels very relatable to everyone staying at home right now. The film stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as Nyles and Sarah, respectively, as a pair of strangers who manage to get trapped in a time loop after they wander into a mysterious cave while attending a wedding. Nyles has been stuck in the loop for close to a million days by the time Sarah joins him, and the two embark on an emotional journey that would do any Groundhog Day fan proud. But the film isn’t without a few mysteries that the cast and crew intentionally left open to interpretation which, as it always is with time travel films, we can’t help but obsesses over.
One such mystery is the identity of Sarah’s grandmother, played by actress June Squibb. Though she doesn’t feature heavily in the film, whenever she does make an appearance, it’s often punctuated by a seemingly cryptic line that hints to her knowing more than she lets on. Though she seems like a simple, sweet grandma celebrating her granddaughter’s nuptials and doling out advice at the perfect moments, fans of the film have come up with a few ideas to explain her too-convenient flashes of insight. Keep reading for three explanations behind the mystery of Palm Springs‘s dear Nana.
©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection
Nana Is an Older Version of Sarah
Early in the film, Nana interrupts a conversation between Nyles and Sarah to tell him that she’s been to “more weddings in my life than you can imagine” and calls his speech the best she’s ever heard. Later on, while talking to Sarah during what will be her final night in the past, Nana reveals that she lost her mother at a young age, just like Sarah, and ends their conversation saying, “I guess you’ll be going now. Good luck.”
The two conversations have led to the theory that Nana is an older version of Sarah who knows how the events will play out and is bearing witness to them. There are different variations of the theory on Reddit, but the basic idea is that when Nyles and Sarah break out of the time loop, one or both of them are sent to the past. Sarah lives out her life and somehow has a granddaughter that becomes the woman that gets trapped in the time loop. An alternative to that theory is that Sarah lives a separate life and makes it back to the wedding to watch it all go down.
The problem with the first theory is that it’s genetically impossible for Sarah to begin the family that she would be born into. Her granddaughter would be an entirely different person, not her clone. The second theory could be more likely, but again, genetically there’s no way Sarah and Nana are the same person. Sarah recognizes the older woman as her family, which means that she’s grown up with her (assumedly) all her life. So there’s no way an older Sarah could have slipped into the party and pretended to be her Nana – she’s the real deal. And unless older Sarah married into the family – which is never even hinted at in the film – there’s no reason Sarah would be referring to her so familiarly as Nana. Plus, Nana has blue eyes and Sarah’s are brown. The movie doesn’t give us any hint that either woman is wearing contacts, so it’s safe to say that Nana is a completely separate person from her granddaughter.
©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection
Nana Is Aware of the Time Loop
There’s more weight to this theory than the first. Though Sarah comes up with a plan to get her and Nyles out of the time loop for good, that doesn’t mean everyone else who was stuck in it has gotten away too. Nana does say she’s been to more weddings than one can imagine, so what if she meant that literally? If Nana is stuck in the time loop, it would make sense that she is more content with her situation than everyone else. After all, she’s surrounded by her family and gets to celebrate a joyous occasion where everything usually goes down without a hitch. She doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to break the time loop, though she does seem to understand when her granddaughter is permanently leaving. Makes you wonder how many times she’s had to say goodbye.