Plot explained [SPOILERS], and two questions asked [?]

The Doctor had invented a method, a “cure”, to distill a life essence from his unsuspecting patients, who would slowly become weaker and weaker (loosing teeth etc.) to the point where they would eventually end their lives as fodder to the eels living and thriving in the underground water reservoir of the Sanitarium. This water, in turn, was an integral part of his “cure”.

This “cure” was essentially slowing down ageing.

He had done so for the last 300 years at least, meaning he and his peps were 300 years old or older.

Under the cover of a fancy pants sanitarium he would keep on getting fuel for his essence. Read; wealthy old people would keep on joining unsuspectingly.

He had once been burned severely (300 years ago) by angry mob-villagers and so had found a way since to make a humanoid looking mask for his face.

On top of this, he was obsessed with keeping his bloodline clean and so kept his sister captured so he could procreate with her. 300 years ago when the angry villagers had burned him, they also burned and killed his sister. Though, their unborn daughter survived her mother’s death partly because the fetus was dumped in the water reservoir (which had heeling properties that he later (or already did) would use in his “cure”). This baby is the girl we meet. In other words, she had been slowly aging over the last 300 years to become a teenager by the time we enter the story. And apparently this whole situation is unknown to her. Or she was kept in the dark. Since The Evil Doc is still obsessed with keeping his bloodline clean, he planned to procreate with her once she had had her first period.

Our hero unveils all this and rescues the girl just in time. And in the process, his actions kill the Doctor and burn down the Sanitarium. He and she escapes, and he also tell his boss off and so escapes the corporate life he lived before. Now a free man, perhaps for the first time in his life.

Role credits.

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My two questions:

QUESTION 1: Water tanks. We see patients suspended n water tanks, apparently dead. However, we also see our hero in one and he survived. And so I ask what was this about?

I assume it was part of the distill process. Getting the patients ripe, perhaps? But normally, they should be dead as no oxygen were administered to them while underwater. I guess, I am answering this myself, as the magic healing water is… well magic. So this was all part of the process of getting them ripe for harvesting.


QUESTION 2: When he confronts the Doc in the dining hall, it results in all the patients rallying around him as almost zombies. What was that about?

We know they were kept in the dark and in this sense they were normal and innocent, and so I struggle with understanding this. Anyone, can help?