system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why didn't the Thing assimilate Clark?

Blair assumes that Clark has been assimilated because he spent a significant amount of time alone with the Thing in dog form. This turns out to be untrue and Blair may have accused Clark to throw the trail off him and cause paranoia.

However Clark DID spend a lot of time alone with the Thing. In fact, he was the one who put the thing away in the kennel right before it changed. So why not assimilate Clark? He's human, so he had more access to the camp. Plus, and I'm not sure if the Thing knew this, he had regular unrestricted access to the dogs, so that would make assimilation easier.

Why *wasn't* Clark a Thing?
gpt
**Excerpt from [redacted] briefing following the [redacted] [redacted] Antartica incident**
*
This excerpt requires Tangerine elephant security clearance and above. If you do not possess it please leave the room immediately and report to your superior officer.*

-A good question senator. It is important to note that the dog, alaskan malamute was probably the last remnant of the thing from the Norwegian camp which managed to nearly destroy it.

As such, the dog may not have been fully assimilated, and its energy and mass was barely enough to retain conscious control.

Based on the testimony of late mr. Childs, it is important to note that the dog did wander our camp, probably surveying the layout and habits of the inhabitants, possibly planning its next move.

When it has been placed in kennels, its first move was to assimilate other dogs, probably to acquire more mass. With additional mass it could have taken a form which would easily and quickly convert Clark or others.

Our scientists are sure that speed of assimilation is proportional to the mass of extraterrestrial cells involved. The more there are, the faster the conversion. This is supported by the speed new infectees were discovered (according to our reconstruction). The thing was probably infecting dogs first because it could convert them faster and then use its additional mass to quickly convert humans.

Remember, assimilation takes some time, and a dog could not have subdued mr. Clark easily. At best it could have bitten him which would result in slow conversion and medical examination which may have blown its cover. Clark could also have been quarantined from the others.

It is important to note that the thing overplayed its hand and assimilation of other dogs alerted humans. The extraterrestrial is unfamiliar to normal man-dog behavior and probably concluded that dog barking will not alert others. It may have succeeded if not for the late mr. MacReady which forced it to flee and attack openly some of the others.

It is unfamiliar to us how and when extraterrestrial thing assimilated others like Blair, Norris and Palmer. It is possible that it used microscopic traces to poison their food or infect them during sleep, slowly converting them. Its initial plan may have been underway, to slowly subvert all of the humans in the camp.

For all we know, mr. Clark has been already been under assimilation process. Creature has managed to implicate and manipulate others and gain access to blood samples. There is evidence of strategic foresight. It was savvy enough not to convert Clark immediately as he was the obvious choice so it wasn’t being targeted for initial assimilation in order to cover its traces.