Home Alone is an absolute classic, and the internet has had loads of fun dissecting it far more than it should. From articles pointing out when burglars Henry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) would have actually died from their injuries to conspiracies that dad Peter McCalister (John Heard) worked for the mob, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the 1990 Christopher Columbus movie. One of my favorite fan theories I’ve come across is one that hypothesizes that Kevin McCalister (Macaulay Culkin) being abandoned was far from an accident.
While it’s popped up Reddit in recent years, the first place I hear it was on an October 2016 episode of That One Video Galaxy Podcast courtesy of co-host Brett Bayonne. Bayonne tells co-hosts Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil and Al a.k.a “Ejektt” that he thinks Kevin was left home alone on purpose, and the proof is in the pizza. “I don’t think it was an accident. Listen, here’s all it is, this is all it takes. It’s one critical element, and it’s one that’s very important here at TOVG, and it’s pizza. It’s pizza, dammit,” Bayonne says. “They’re all going to Paris the next day, right? In the morning, right? They order pizza for dinner, right? Let me ask you this, do you know how many pizzas they ordered? 10 pizzas, lot of pizzas.”
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The hosts then do the math, estimating there were around 80 slices of pizza ordered for around 14 family members (give or take). If you give the generous estimate of four slices per family member, that gives you 56 slices eaten. That leaves 24 leftover slices that would definitely go bad in the fridge while the family is abroad. Bayonne theorizes Peter intentionally ordered too many pizzas in order for Kevin to have food for the week ahead.
It seems mom Kate McCalister (Catherine O’Hara) wasn’t aware of the plot, due to her being openly concerned about the milk in the fridge expiring in the famous pizza scene. Furthermore, the factual detail that Peter is the one who tosses Kevin’s plane ticket when milk is spilled during dinner doesn’t help his case. While the movie writes that move off as a mistake, this theory would mean Peter knew he was tossing the ticket into the trash. Plus, Peter attempts to calm Kate on the plane when she has the nagging feeling something was forgotten at the house.
“I don’t think the mom was in on it,” Bayonne says. “I think it was just the dad. I think the father of the family, Peter McCallister, saw his wife frazzled by their youngest boy and wanted to give her just a little vacation from him and wanted to give Kevin McCalister a little ‘growing up’ lesson.”
The podcaster adds, “He assuaged her. He wanted to make her feel comfortable. He just wanted to give her a stress-free vacation for Christmas. Daddy left Kevin home with way more pizza than he needs cause he’s a 6-year-old. Home Alone was not an accident in my opinion.”
