Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Caddo Lake.The timeline of Max’s Caddo Lake is both extremely confusing and extremely important, so understanding when everything happens is imperative. Throughout the film, the characters of Caddo Lake travel to several different points in time, and the movie doesn’t provide much besides context clues to show when they travel to. That can make it difficult to follow all the important developments, including the twist that Caddo Lake shares with a Netflix show, that make the film so engaging. In fact, understanding Caddo Lake‘s timeline is one of the most important parts of the movie.
As Paris (Dylan O’Brien) learned, time travel in Caddo Lake was only possible when the lake’s water levels were low. While that posed quite a few problems in the film, it helps make the timeline easier to sort out. There were five years that Paris, Ellie (Eliza Scanlen), and Anna (Caroline Falk) traveled to over the course of Caddo Lake. The easiest way to understand the timeline of the film is to look at when everything happened from a linear understanding of time, starting with the earliest year they traveled to and ending in the present.
1952
Anna Was Trapped In 1952 After Paris Brought Her To Safety
The earliest year shown in Caddo Lake is 1952, which becomes a very important moment in the film’s timeline. The portal Anna originally disappeared through took her to 1952, where she was stabbed by a branch. Paris then emerged in 1952 and found Anna wounded on the ground there. He then took Anna to a group of farmers, saving her life. Anna, however, didn’t know that the time travel was connected to periods of low water levels at Caddo Lake, so she was stuck in the past. Since no one else ever emerged in the portal after Paris left, Anna was stranded there.
Anna, however, didn’t know that the time travel was connected to periods of low water levels at Caddo Lake, so she was stuck in the past.
Most of Anna’s life took place between 1952 and the next year depicted in Caddo Lake, 1999. After she was saved by the farmers, Anna was adopted, grew up, and lived most of her life normally. She eventually married Ben Lang, Paris’ father. Then, based on the missing person’s flier Cee printed out, Anna gave birth to Paris in about 1972, when she was about 28 years old. By the time she dies, Anna was 55 years old, meaning she had lived in the past for 47 years of her life.
1999
The Year Paris’ Mother, Anna, Died In A Car Crash
Though 1999 isn’t one of the years the characters of Caddo Lake actually travel to, it’s a very important year in the film. 1999 was the year that Anna had a seizure while driving and crashed her car into Caddo Lake. Paris was in the passenger seat with her, and though he survived the crash, Anna couldn’t get out of her seat, and she drowned. Anna’s drowning was a major motivating force for Paris’ actions, especially closer to the end of Caddo Lake. Since he was trying to get back to 1999 to prevent his mother’s crash, Paris made some drastic decisions that ultimately led to his death.
2003
The Starting Point For Paris & Cee
The first major year when a large portion of Caddo Lake‘s story takes place is 2003. Both Paris and Cee (Diana Hopper) were from 2003. The first major event in 2003 was Cee’s return to Caddo Lake, and her decision to rekindle her relationship with Paris, which resulted in her becoming pregnant with Ellie. It was also the year that Paris harassed both doctors and his father looking for information about Anna’s seizures. Then, as Paris was working in the lake, he found a time portal and the exact necklace his mother wore throughout her life, one that had the Cancer star sign on it.
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After finding the necklace, Paris developed a theory that turned out to be true: whenever the water levels in Caddo Lake got low enough, portals to other places in time opened up. Still in 2003, he told Cee about his discovery, and she initially thought he was suffering from the same condition that caused Anna’s seizures. Then, the final event of Caddo Lake that took place in 2003 was when Paris entered the time portal. He was presumed missing, at least until the events that took place in 2005.
2005
Ellie’s Fateful Meeting With A Younger Version Of Her Mother
The Caddo Lake scenes that take place in 2005 are brief, but they’re among the most important in the movie. After she emerges a handful of different times, Ellie eventually ends up in 2005 and makes her way to a grocery store, looking for Anna. In the parking lot, she breaks into a truck that has the same copy of the Cancer necklace that Paris found in 2003, and the same one Anna had when she went missing. Then, Ellie met Cee, who was carrying a child that turned out to be the infant version of Ellie.
In 2005, both Ellie and viewers learned that Cee and Celeste were the same character, only one was 20 years older.
Cee then mistook Ellie for Paris’ new girlfriend and scratched her across the face, revealing that she was the same person as Celeste (Lauren Ambrose). 2005 is also the year that Cee stopped searching for Paris, as she thought he had simply run away with Ellie. After her encounter with the younger version of her own mother, Ellie went to the internet café. It was there that she unraveled what happened to Anna, and discovered that she had been transported back in time to 1952.
2022
Ellie, Anna, Celeste, & Daniel’s Starting Point & The Latest Chronological Moments In Caddo Lake
The most current, and arguably most important, year in Caddo Lake was 2022. Unfortunately, it was also one of the more complicated years in the film. Ellie, Anna, Celeste, and Daniel (Eric Lange) were all from 2022, and it was also the year that Anna went missing at age 8. The first event that took place in 2022 was when Ellie destroyed several china plates at Daniel and Celeste’s house, though it took place a month prior to Ellie’s first scenes in Caddo Lake. That night was one of the last places Ellie traveled to, but its place in the timeline makes it one of the first chronologically.
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The next 2022 event in Caddo Lake was the beginning of the movie, when Ellie took Anna home from school on her boat. That was the same night Ellie pulled Anna’s loose tooth out, asked Celeste for her father’s death certificate, and it was also the same night Anna went missing. The next morning, Ellie took the boat back to Celeste and Daniel’s house, only to find it missing when she went back outside. At the same time, a version of Ellie from three days in the future came out of a portal and took the boat back to the portal.
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Caddo Lake 2022 Order Of Events |
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Ellie revisits the night she broke Celeste’s plates. |
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Ellie brings Anna home from school. She and Celeste fight, and Anna goes missing. |
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Ellie returns home to search for Anna. A version of Ellie from three days in the future emerges and steals the boat, which had previously mysteriously vanished. |
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The search for Anna intensifies. Sheriff Taylor considers opening the dam to let water in. |
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Ellie finds the portals and begins traveling through time. |
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Paris emerges from the portal and steals Ellie’s boat. He runs from the police, but is ultimately caught. |
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The 2022 drought ends. Paris escapes police custody, eventually jumping into Caddo Lake. |
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The dam breaks, drowning Paris. |
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The portals close, spitting Ellie back out in 2022. She reunites with Celeste and explains what happened. |
After Ellie from the future stole Ellie from the past’s boat, the search for Anna intensified. Ellie decided to go out on the lake to look for Anna, which is when she originally found the time portals. Shortly after, Paris emerged from the time portal and stole Ellie’s boat, only to be caught by the police, who suspected him of being involved in Anna’s abduction. After Paris was transported to the hospital, the 2022 drought broke, and a deluge of rain came, spurring Paris to escape and head for the portal before it closed. During his escape, Paris jumped off the dam, it burst, and he drowned.
Then, in a rare moment of timeline clarity, the final moments of Caddo Lake were also the final moments chronologically.
At nearly the same time, Ellie returned from 2005 just as the dam was breaking and the portals were closing. Daniel then found her, and Ellie assured him that they really were family and that she knew Anna was safe. Then, in a rare moment of timeline clarity, the final moments of Caddo Lake were also the final moments chronologically. Ellie reconnected with Celeste as she saw Paris on the television, told her that neither Paris nor Anna meant to leave them, and the mother and daughter hugged.
Caddo Lake follows a chilling mystery centered around a young girl’s disappearance in a small Texas town. As the community grapples with the unsettling events, hidden secrets and tensions unfold. Directed by nan, this suspenseful narrative explores themes of fear and the unknown surrounding Caddo Lake.
- Director
- Logan George , Celine Held
- Writers
- Logan George , Celine Held
- Cast
- Dylan O’Brien , Eliza Scanlen , Caroline Falk , Lauren Ambrose , Sam Hennings , Diana Hopper , Eric Lange , Lance E. Nichols , Nina Leon , David Maldonado , Kim Baptiste , Jules Hilillo Fernandez
- Character(s)
- Paris , Ellie , Anna , Celeste , Ben , Cee , Daniel , Doctor Mitchell , Doctor Martha , Sheriff Mark Tanner , Church Lady Bev , Claire
- Runtime
- 104 Minutes
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