Yesterday, the guy had a really good day of building shapes and exploring the park to find "new stuff" (e.g. mystery insect, pond recession, playhouse windows). He saw the purple train go by three times, twice at the crossing, which is a big deal for him, as it's time-gated event.
But by dinner, he was really upset at having to stop playing. This escalated into him yelling, "I'M DEAD AND NO ONE CAN HELP ME!" 💀
Our best guess that eating really far off-schedule messed him up. If that doesn't seem like a really solid explanation, few explanations of new behavioral kid developments are. It's like medieval medicine.
This morning he said that he was still dead, but he was very chipper about it. Then, he switched over into being a (presumably alive) squirrel.