We could be wrong, but it adds up that Yellow Hoodie is Jonah Taylor, who’d be somewhere in his early 20s now. Twisted, perhaps by nature and certainly by nurture, Jonah grew up to become a monster. As another “anomaly” whose loop, like that of Evelyn and Sylvia, was irrevocably changed by Gideon, perhaps he too was haunted by echoes and ripples. Perhaps that what sent him on his cruel and inhumane killing spree.
It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but one season two clue in particular could suggest we’re right.
The Teddy Bear
At Evelyn’s cottage in season two, Gideon discovers some drawings on the kitchen table. There’s one of Rigby’s toy shop – the target of Yellow Hoodie’s bombing – and one of a teddy bear wearing a t-shirt and dungarees. Evelyn is a keen artist, so we might assume that she drew them. We know that she knew about the Rigby’s bomb because of her memories of previous loops.
But either Evelyn drew the teddy bear pictures based on Jonah’s descriptions, or the artist behind those particular drawings was Jonah himself.
In season one, we see Gideon driving Jonah away from home and explaining why he had to take him. Jonah is holding a teddy bear, which is dressed in a little t-shirt and toy dungarees. He drops the bear out of the van window, and it was later discovered by the roadside as a major clue in his kidnapping case. Look again, and it’s obvious that this is the same bear as in the drawing. Those pictures connect the Rigby’s bomb to Jonah’s disappearance, which must be why Gideon folds them up and puts them in his pocket – perhaps Gideon already suspects that Jonah is Yellow Hoodie, and is trying to keeping his suspicion a secret from Lucy and the police because of his own guilt. Perhaps the teddy bear was originally bought from Rigby’s (est. 1926, says the sign on the door), and Jonah has a twisted explanation of why he decided upon that particular target?
How Yellow Hoodie Gets Away With the Bombing
Usually in the case of a mass bombing, the police and intelligence services would uncover the culprit’s identity – information Gideon could wait for and then act upon in his next loop. Yellow Hoodie though, isn’t found by the police, hence Gideon’s need to see his face and identify him personally.