Yes, Pulp Fiction is the best-written film of its generation. Yes, the acting is superb. Yes, the soundtrack is phenomenal.

But if you’ll forgive me for being “that guy”, I’m here tonight not to review this incredible film, but instead to add my thoughts to the ever-growing list ofPulp Fictiontheories out there.

My theory is that Pulp Fiction is a work of evangelical propaganda.

Yes, this theory will involve the contents of the suitcase and the bandage on the back of Marcellus Wallace’s head, but let us first start at the chronological beginning of the narrative, which is the scene in which Jules and Vincent confront Brett and his cohorts in the apartment building to retrieve the stolen briefcase. As we know, our heroes obtain the briefcase (which opens with the code “666” — the number of the Beast — which is no coincidence), kill Brett and then are attacked by a gunman hiding in the kitchen, who fires several shots at them and manages to miss them completely. Jules interprets their assailant’s complete lack of aim as an act of divine intervention, a notion which Vincent rejects wholeheartedly.

Now let’s jump ahead to the diner scene, as the Bonnie Situation, while an extremely entertaining addition to the film, does not directly pertain to the subject at hand. Jules and Vincent are having breakfast, and Jules is expanding on his “moment of clarity”. He informs Vincent that he intends to quit “the life” and spend his days walking the Earth, until God leads him to where He wants him to be (sounds a lot like a certain Biblical character who also has a five-letter name starting with “J”, huh?). Vincent is still having none of it, and retires to the lavatory to drop a deuce.

While Vincent is sitting on the toilet, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny hold up the diner and Jules talks his way out of a bullet to the face, preaching about good and evil and the shadow of darkness and sheep (or something like that). While the old Jules would have resorted to violence to resolve the situation, the new Jules lets the robbers go and Jules and Vincent leave the diner without incident, presumably going their separate ways: Jules chooses to start on the path of good (God) and Vincent chooses to continue down the path of evil (the Devil).

Chronologically speaking, we are next taken to Vincent’s date with Mia Wallace, which goes swimmingly, and leaves Vincent struggling with the allure of Mia’s mystic. This isn’t the first time, however, that Mia has represented dark temptation: We know that Marcellus Wallace threw an associate out of a fourth-story window, allegedly for giving Mia a foot massage (which, for the record, is totally inappropriate for a man to do with another man’s wife, despite Jules’ argument to the contrary). We don’t get to find out how well Vincent resists this temptation, however, as Mia snorts his heroin and overdoses.

Skipping ahead again to Marcellus’ meeting with Butch, we see the bandage on the back of his head for the first time. This has led many fans to believe that it is Marcellus’ soul that is contained in the briefcase, as it was extracted from the wound covered by the bandage. I concur with this popularly held belief. We see Butch cut a bribery deal with Marcellus, the Man with No Soul. We already know that the combination to the suitcase is “666”, so that must mean that Marcellus Wallace is a personification of the Devil, right?

Wrong. As previously mentioned, we’d already seen two men (Vincent and the Samoan associate) fall under the temptation of Mia, and in some folk stories, when the Devil bargains for one’s soul, he takes it from the back of their neck. Marcellus has a bandage on the back of his head because he made a deal with the Devil, and the stolen briefcase belongs not to Marcellus, but to the Devil. Butch is not making a deal with Marcellus, he is making a deal with the Devil and Marcellus is simply acting as the middle man. In reality, Mia Wallace, who I reiterate represents evil temptation, is the personification of the Devil.

So Butch reneges on his deal, proving that the Devil can be outsmarted and defeated by a common man, and when he returns to his apartment to obtain his father’s watch, he finds Vincent there and kills him. This is an extremely important point in the film, because if Jules had not had his “moment of clarity”, it’s safe to assume that he would have been with Vincent in Butch’s apartment, and thus there’s at least a reasonable chance that he would have been killed alongside Vincent. The respective paths that the two men chose after leaving the diner have caught up to them already: Jules chose the path of God and lives, Vincent chose the path of the Devil and is gunned down coming out of the john.

Butch leaves the apartment and is on the way back to his hotel room when he encounters Marcellus Wallace by complete random chance. The two have a bloody confrontation, until they fall into the wrong store and Marcellus is bent over by a crazed policeman. We have now seen unfavorable fates befall all three of the men who have given into Mia’s temptation: the Samoan got thrown out of a window, Vincent got shot with his pants down and Marcellus got fucked in the ass. We’re beginning to see a trend developing, and that trend is that it just doesn’t pay to associate with the Devil.

Meanwhile, Butch saves Marcellus, who lets him go, and Butch ends up riding off into the sunset with his girlfriend on Zed’s motorcycle, er…chopper. We have now seen favorable fates befall the two men who resisted the Devil and the Devil’s associates: Jules changed his ways and lived to walk the Earth, and Butch tricked the Devil and lived happily ever after with his French sweetheart.

As I result, I have come to the conclusion that Pulp Fiction is a Biblical allegory that promotes a very pro-Christian message. After all, nobody wants to get man-raped by a guy named Zed, do they?

ThatFilmGuy is the founder of That Film Channel as well as its main contributor. Follow him on Twitter: @theREALjshaff