I Have a Theory About Riley’s Deep Dark Secret in ‘Inside Out 2’—and It’s Not What the Rest of the Internet Thinks

I firmly think we’d all be better people if we could understand our emotions the way Pixar explains them in the Inside Out franchise. Sadness is a feeling to be recognized and appreciated, not stuffed away. Joy is useful, but can turn toxic quickly. And, per the new film, anxiety can be mitigated, embarrassment overcome and ennui…well hopefully waited out through the teenage years.

Anyway, the point is that these delightful movies, which focus on now-13-year-old Riley and the glittery emotion puffs that live in her brain, teach us that all feelings have value as long as you can name them. This is why, when I recently went to see Inside Out 2 with my kids, I was surprised by the introduction of Riley’s Deep Dark Secret, a playful, little Easter egg with some payoff in the credits’ final seconds.

As a quick reminder: We meet the Deep Dark Secret (an oafish, glowy-eyed ghoul who prefers to stay hidden) alongside Riley’s other repressed thoughts and obsessions: a Blue’s Clues­-esque cartoon character and a comically earnest video-game warrior.

So…what is the secret? Within the movie’s script, we never learn. But the answer that the internet and TikTok has glommed onto is that Riley is gay or otherwise gender-nonconforming. And there’s oodles of evidence that hint at this: She wears a rainbow shirt…she lives in San Francisco…she plays ice hockey [insert gay stereotype eyeroll], she has both male and female emotions, while her dad and mom only have men and women, respectively…

But then…in the final moments of the credits (which my kids and I stuck around for, like the good Disney fans we are), the Deep Dark Secret reveals his true meaning: He is the hole she once burned in her parents’ rug!