Remaining Hal positions (compact)

theory

The rubric's inference ceiling does the work: the motive triangle is real, in-scene, and better anchored than any rival camp conceded, but it is dispositional through and through — the variant is corroborated as a possibility the text deliberately arms and anchored as an event by nothing. Its liabilities (refusal, quit-arc) are two-sided in place, so it does not sink to strained; its event-lane is empty, so it cannot rise.

In plain terms: a cluster of minority answers for what broke Hal -- that he dosed himself knowing DMZ beats a urine test, that he watched the Entertainment, that Pemulis dosed him, that discovering abuse triggered it, or that Avril dosed him (the accusation glimpsed at p. 30).

Where the text lands: mostly unresolved or a stretch; the "Avril dosed him" line is pursued by no source, and "Hal watched the Entertainment" is well-rebutted. Among readers: each is a minority or fringe sighting rather than a leading answer.

These are the remaining Hal-collapse readings that never consolidated into a camp. The self-dosing motive is real and in-scene but has no event anchor; the Pemulis-dosed and watched-the-film versions run against the text; the abuse-trigger reading rests on unproven abuse. See Hal's collapse -- the theories.