Alan Wake: Full Story & Extended Lore Explained

foreign here once again to dive into the depths of cauldron Lake if you're getting ready to play Ellen wake 2 and you'll want to get caught up on the Ellen wake story so far this is the video for you the basic premise is that 13 years ago a writer went missing and there are a lot of mysteries and unanswered questions and strange occurrences surrounding that disappearance we'll be covering the entire story of Ellen wake all the way up to the events of Ellen wake 2 that means we'll be talking about the bright Falls web series Alan Wake the game Alan wake's American Nightmare some of the books regarding Ellen wake and parts of the game control however we're not going to just be going in a straight line recapping each piece of media instead I hope to kind of pull everything that I know about Alan Wake from playing the game and reading all these books and everything and kind of putting it all together in a form that I think is a lot more digestible than just getting each piece you know spread out over the course of the past 13 years I won't be discussing games like Quantum break or Max Payne because those games don't share a direct continuity with Alan Wake but if you do want a video that covers all of the remedy games or almost all of the remedy games and how they're all connected well we've got you covered with the exploring the remedy connected Universe video so you can check that one out as well but if you're focused on playing Ellen wake 2 stick around here it should go without saying that a video like this is going to be full of spoilers I'm gonna cover what I think are the most crucial parts of the story but I also think that a video like this could never be a replacement for actually playing the games there's so many little details and just awesome sequences that you really got to experience firsthand to fully appreciate however in the case that you just want to get caught up on the lore and get a recap of every thing that's happened so far this video is like I said for you if you find this video useful or entertaining go ahead and leave us a like and consider subscribing to Hidden machine we've got a huge backlog of videos covering all the remedy games as well as plenty of other games and if you're in a position to help the channel grow we've got a patreon and channel membership so check those out if you want and without further Ado let's get into it bright Falls is a six episode web series that is the prequel to Alan Wake the series opens with an unidentified diver pulling a body bag out of a lake the diver lays the bag on the shore and unzips it revealing another unidentified individual inside the diver then gets into a robo and leaves the body bag behind when the camera returns to the body bag we discovered that the person in it has disappeared this scene really sets the tone for the web series the show is a rather dark and mysterious look at the idyllic small town of bright Falls Washington where the show and most of the Ellen wake story take place this is also the type of mystery that will encounter many times throughout this video every time you hear this sound we'll attack another mystery up on the board now we'll revisit all of these at the end of the video but go ahead and feel free to keep notes and try to keep track of things to see what you can figure out on your own in the meantime bright Falls the show focuses on a journalist named Jake Fisher who travels to Bright Falls to interview Dr Emil Hartman Dr Hartman was a psychiatrist who was promoting a book that he wrote called The Creator's dilemma Hartman's practice was focused on artists and he ran a clinic called The Cauldron Lake Lodge where artists would stay and be both counseled and monitored by Hartman well the entire text of the Creator's dilemma isn't available to us we do have access to several excerpts thanks to a book called The Alan Wake files which we'll be referring to throughout this video the book is a physical book that came with the special edition of the first Alan Wake game and it's included as a PDF with copies of the PC release of the original version of the game however it's not a traditional lore guide like you might find with some other games instead the book is presented as if it were written by a character from the game named clay steward we'll get into his story a bit later but essentially after The Disappearance of Ellen wake clay traveled to Bright Falls to investigate the situation and his findings were collected and published as the Allen wake files through that book we learned that Hartman began his career as a psychotherapist working in the state of Vermont he felt limited by his work stating that the standard procedures he was utilizing never really helped people to fully conquer their psychological challenges over time he moved out west and eventually opened up his own private practice at The Cauldron Lake Lodge it was there that he developed two trademark methods called engagement therapy and the flow it was through the use of these methods that he claimed to attempt to help troubled artists overcome the Creator's dilemma which is basically a form of creative blockage occurring when some internal conflict in an artist causes that pure spark of creativity and inspiration to be extinguished the book reads like a long-form advertisement for the lodge and although it was marketed towards a mass audience as a sort of self-help guide the book also insists that the only way one can truly benefit from the methods within is to become a guest at the lodge when Jake Fisher drives into bright Falls he first stops at the oh dear diner for a bite to eat the show indicates that Jake Fisher is a troubled man he seems to be avoiding his significant other not even telling them about his trip to Bright Falls before leaving and he appears to be self-medicating to cope with the stress that he's experiencing perhaps Jake hoped that his trip to Bright Falls would alleviate his situation but he soon finds the town to be a bizarre although not entirely unwelcoming place at the diner Jake is greeted by a waitress named Rose Marigold who quickly identifies herself as a big fan of writers especially Alan Wake before he can even put in an order Jake is presented with a large plate of food and a birthday cake accompanied by the entire Diner singing happy birthday to him Jake departs for a local motel but on the way there he strikes a deer with his car Jake shines a light onto the deer and the deer cries out in pain while it's easy to assume that the cries of the deer are in response to having been hit by a vehicle it's much more likely that the deer is responding to having had the light shown on it and we'll get into why that is a bit later Jake's light goes out and as he fumbles with it the deer appears to run off into the woods shaken Jake eventually arrives at the motel where things are no less odd he has another strange encounter this time with the motel's owner before he knows it a new day has begun and it's time to meet Dr Emil Hartman during the interview with Hartman Jake becomes distracted by a photo on the wall we then see a series of strange images and when we return to Jake we can see that the interview is over Jake has little to no memory of what happened but he has a notepad full of increasingly bizarre writings over the next several episodes Jake continues to have bouts of memory loss resulting in extended periods of lost time he wakes up in strange places and there's evidence to suggest that he had become violent toward others Jake had a friend in bright Falls named Ellen a woman from his past who had moved to Bright Falls a number of years prior having become increasingly panicked and feeling as if he had lost control of his mind and body Jake attempted to enlist the help of Ellen to drive him out of bright Falls but another sudden gap of lost time suggests that he may have killed her as this Dawns on him Jake realizes that he's driving right back into bright Falls he swerves hits his head on the steering wheel and hours pass before Jake disappears from the car this is the last time that we'll see Jake Fisher but we'll discuss his Affliction in more depth a bit later as the series ends we see Alan Wake and his wife Alice driving into bright falls on that same road this brings us to the story of Alan Wake it is September 2010 Alan Wake is an accomplished writer who has a background in Pulp novels and some television writing credits Allen contributed Scripps to an anthology program called night Springs which is similar to shows like the Twilight Zone or Black Mirror he is most well known for a series of novels starring the hard-boiled detective Alex Casey two years prior in 2008 Allen released the final Alex Casey novel titled the sudden stop in which he killed off the character as Ellen wanted to break free from the cycle he had been in and create something new instead however Alan was experiencing what Dr Emil Hartman would have called The Creator's dilemma Alan was unable to write and he was caught up in a cycle of alcohol abuse spats with his wife and run-ins with the law Allen's career was being managed by his longtime friend Barry wheeler who had a strained relationship with Alice wake despite this both Alice and Barry were eager to see Alan get back to work seeking a solution to Allen's writer's block Alice came into a copy of the Creator's dilemma Alice is an artist herself a photographer and she often helped Alan with things like promotional shots for his books she engaged in a series of informal sessions with Dr Hartman over the phone she expressed her concern for Alan but she also divulged some very personal details regarding some of the relationship troubles that her and Alan had been experiencing after an invitation from Dr Hartman Alice decided to arrange a trip for the couple two bright Falls hoping that meeting with Dr Hartman could help Alan overcome his troubles however she did all this without Alan's knowledge choosing to disguise the trip as a peaceful getaway rather than an intervention the couple was slated to rent a cabin in bright falls from a local mechanic named Carl Stuckey however it wouldn't be long before the same mysterious force that was afflicting Jake Fisher would interrupt their plans the Allen wake files offers us a glimpse into the strange history of bright Falls rumors and recorded claims of paranormal activity in the area go as far back as the 1850s before Washington even became a state there have been reports of Bigfoot sightings strange lights in the sky and a variety of people animals and objects that appeared to be cloaked in shadows as if they had a sort of cloud of Darkness surrounding them out of all these strange happenings one of the most important to our story occurred in 1970. it was around this time that Dr Emil Hartman was living in bright Falls and working as a writing assistant for a poet named Thomas Zane foreign 's background is shrouded in mystery from what we can piece together it appears that he was an author filmmaker in Europe who in the late 60s moved to the U.S to pursue poetry Zayn was an avid diver and he spent a lot of time on cauldron Lake in bright falls in the center of that Lake was a small island called diver's aisle and that Island was home to a cabin called the bird leg cabin and the name came from the fact that the island had the shape of a bird's foot Thomas Zane stayed in this cabin and he drew great inspiration from his time there he would regularly explore the depths of cauldron Lake often accompanied by his girlfriend Barbara Jagger it was through those Expeditions that Thomas Zane began to learn that the Waters of cauldron Lake hold many Mysteries and those Mysteries became a thing of great interest to the poet and his assistant you see cauldron lake is what's known as a place of power and in the remedy Universe places of Power are places that are imbued with Supernatural energy in the case of cauldron Lake that energy has the power to turn dreams and art into reality through his poetry Thomas Zane and Emile Hartman experimented with the powers of the lake discovering that Zane's writing could Bend or alter reality but they also just covered that there was something else in those Waters something much more strange and alien than anything else in bright Falls earlier I mentioned that there was record of reports of people animals and objects appearing to be cloaked or enveloped in Shadow these shadowy entities are affected by something called the dark presence which is an alien force that resides in another dimension called the dark place the dark presence is an entity that doesn't operate on human logic and its Origins and motivations and even physical appearance are still unknown to most people beneath the Waters of Colburn lake lies a portal to that other dimension the dark place and that portal is called a threshold now thresholds can open and close with little to no explanation and most people aren't aware of them at all but there are people who are aware of them and they study them and explore them and we'll talk more about those people the little bit later in this video the enemy of the dark presence is light and we saw evidence of this battle Illustrated in Jake Fisher's Story the deer that Jake hit with his car had been affected by the dark presence which is why it screamed in pain when Jake shown his flashlight on it Jake 2 was affected by the dark presence possibly as a result of this very encounter before attempting to leave bright Falls Jake reached out to Dr Hartman for help Hartman immediately recognized what Jake was going through and confirmed it by shining a light on Jake which caused him to recoil in pain but what Jake was experiencing was likely different than what had happened to that deer Jake had only been touched by the dark presence and wasn't fully taken over by it when someone is taken by the dark presence that's when they become covered in Shadow Zayn and Hartman did have some knowledge of the dark presence but they didn't really fully comprehend it at the time and didn't really know its ways on July 10 1970 Thomas sane's girlfriend Barbara Jagger drowned in the waters of cauldron Lake distraught Zane was convinced by Hartman to use the power of the lake to bring her back to life Zayn wrote a poem that aimed to conjure her return and he was overjoyed to discover that it worked however he soon came to realize that the resurrected Barbara Jagger was actually the dark presence wearing the skin of Barbara Jagger Zayn tied her to a chair and cut her heart out but she wouldn't die realizing that he had unleashed the dark presence into reality he believed that he had only one option to undo his mistake he decided to write himself and all of his work out of reality and to drown himself and the resurrected Barbara in cauldron lake so he put on his diving suit he held the body of Barbara Jagger close and he jumped into the water for one last dive and as they passed through the Threshold at the bottom of the lake they entered the dark place the dark place is a universe all its own and it's actually bigger than our universe as Barbara Jagger or what was left of Barbara Jagger and Thomas sane Dove down into the dark place they were greeted by entities both light and dark presences came to see them and just as a dark presence had taken over the body of Barbara Jagger now a light presence or a bright presence was coming to Thomas Zane to take over his body now before he entered the dark place Thomas Zane wrote a poem and the intention of that poem was to erase himself and all of his writing from reality thus undoing what he did when he brought back the evil version of Barbara Jagger but he also wrote a second poem bodies of the two lovers now both taken over by their respective presences moved upward to continue their eternal battle and while this was happening the Essences of Barbara Jagger and Thomas Zane continued to descend deeper into the dark place as this was happening the essence of Thomas Zane recited that second poem and this poem was giving birth to a new baby universe that was being born inside of the dark place so you had a universe inside of a universe and that Universe was intended to be a sort of safe haven for the Essences or Souls of Zayn and Jagger to live happily ever after and as far as we know they're still there today Colburn lake is a Caldera uh Caldera is formed by a volcanic eruption and there's a underwater volcano beneath cauldron Lake when Thomas Zane banished himself and the dark version of Barbara Jagger into the lake it caused that volcano to erupt and it swallowed the island and the cabin hole leaving them intact but bringing them down into the dark place as I said before the bodies of Barbara Jagger and Thomas Zane now taken over by the dark and bright presences continued their battle these entities would also reach into reality from time to time and there are people who have claimed to have spoken to or seen Thomas Zane coming to them in dreams or through radio and television signals appearing to be wearing his diving suit people in bright Falls also claim to see Barbara Jagger and those claims led to a sort of urban legend known as the scratching hag which is a witch with a penchant for Darkness who also likes to eat children according to the stories she lives in a house that's able to move around from place to place and she's cloaked in a shroud of Darkness that makes it difficult for people to really make out her features the bright presence in the form of Thomas would do what it could to keep the dark presence in check however in 1976 there was another event that caused the threshold to the dark place to open and once again unleashed the dark presence upon reality this event was caused by a heavy metal band called the old gods of Asgard the band owned a farm in bright Falls which acted as a sort of headquarters for the group it had a large Farmhouse and Outdoor Concert area and a Distillery that the band would use to make their own moonshine the farm is located near cauldron Lake and the band would use water from the lake to make their moonshine just like Thomas Zane before them the old gods of Asgard experimented with the powers of the lake it appears that drinking the moonshine made with cauldron Lake water would give the band visions and sometimes these were visions of the future back in the 70s the band was writing songs referencing events that wouldn't take place until decades later on top of that the songs written and performed by the band on that farm were prone to altering reality and during that 1976 event a great flood hit the area and the proverbial door to the dark place was opened for the dark presence according to their recollection of events the band fought off the dark presence which at the time was still wearing the skin of Barbara Jagger she summoned a dark Army to protect herself but the band was persistent and they were eventually victorious in pushing back the dark presence however the event took quite a toll on members of the band one of the members known as Odin Anderson cut out his own right eye so that he might more resemble his namesake Odin the one-eyed God his brother Tor Anderson was struck by lightning during the event the Anderson Brothers would eventually wind up in the care of Dr Emil Hartman and become semi-permanent residents of The Cauldron Lake Lodge but they would remain Vigilant in their opposition to the dark presence after that event the dark presence would remain in a sort of state of limbo not entirely banished but also not entirely present in reality this is because the Anderson Brothers were able to fend the dark presence off but they didn't completely seal it away the threshold or the door so to speak to the dark place was left cracked open the dark presence would lie in wait anticipating someone to come through and open the door once again Dr Emil Hartman was not an artist he didn't possess creativity and so without the Poetry of Thomas Zane to drive his research into cauldron Lake and its powers Hartman was compelled to find a new partner for this endeavor this search for a new collaborator was the real reason behind Hartman having an artist focused practice at The Cauldron Lake Lodge the lodge existed for Hartman to use as a sort of laboratory where he would lure in troubled artists sedate them and then exploit their creative Works hoping to harness the powers of cauldron Lake for himself there's also some evidence to suggest that he may have believed he could even harness the powers of the dark presence after speaking with Alice wake Hartman anticipated the arrival of Alan and Alice and he sent out a Lackey named Ben Mott to track the couple the dark presence also anticipated their arrival and it sabotaged their cabin rental unbeknownst to Alan the dark presence had already started to take over Carl Stuckey the man who they were renting their cabin from well stopping at the oh dear Diner to get the cabin keys from Stucky Allen was intercepted by the dark presence wearing the skin of Barbara Jagger the dark presence gave Alan the keys to the bird leg cabin although it had sunk down to the dark place the dark presence used its power to make it appear above the water to the wakes and Alan and Alice unknowingly headed into the doomed cabin as the couple settled in Alice revealed her ulterior motive for the trip she presented Alan with a typewriter and let him know about Dr Emil Hartman Allen was Furious and he stormed out of the cabin moments later there was a sudden power outage Alice wake was deathly afraid of the dark and upon hearing her screams for help Alan ran back inside only to realize that Alice had fallen from the balcony of the cabin into the water Alan Dove after her but was unable to find Alice in a frenzied and Confused State Allen emerged from cauldron Lake and was greeted Once More by the dark presence in the form of Barbara Jagger the dark presence had wake under a spell and led him back into the cabin the dark presence told wake that Alice had died and that he needed to get to his typewriter and set things right Dazed and Confused Alan listened to the dark presence and began writing a manuscript the dark presence directed Alan's writing guiding him toward creating a story that would set it free to wreak havoc on reality Allen spent the next week working on this manuscript but over the course of that week he began to realize what was happening he learned how the dark place worked and how his writing could affect reality he also learned about the Lost poetry of Thomas Zane this was possible because although Zayn wrote himself and his works out of reality he also made a loophole for himself any items placed within a shoebox any shoe box would be exempt from the reality bending powers of the dark place and cauldron Lake he left a shoebox full of his poetry in the cabin which Alan discovered Alan realized that if he wanted to save Alice he would need to write himself into the manuscript as the hero of the story he began to change the story using elements from The Works of Thomas Zane and moving further away from what the dark presence wanted Alan wrote the story that he believed he needed to write and it turned out to be a sort of Horror Story due to the powers of cauldron Lake he was now subject to the dangers of that story and the danger and risk of failure had to be there in order for the story to work it had to be written in such a way that the hero might not survive in general for the reality bending powers of cauldron Lake to be successful the artist must make a realistic scenario Alan can't just give himself superpowers he has to write in such a way that meshes cleanly with reality the writing has to make sense the actions and motivations of the characters in it need to be believable and consistent in collaboration with Thomas Zane or more likely in collaboration with the bright presence in the form of Thomas Zane Alan was able to break free from the grip of the dark presence long enough to exit the cabin and get to his vehicle Alan then drove a short distance before crashing his car and losing consciousness upon waking Allen had no memory of the previous week spent writing in the cabin and he did not yet know that he was experiencing a reality that he had shaped with his own writing Allen's last memory was diving into cauldron Lake to save Alice and he would spend the next seven days putting everything else together seeking help after the crash Allen decided to make his way to a nearby gas station but had to pass through the woods to get there throughout that Journey Allen faced opposition from a number of people who had been taken by the dark presence this included a maniacal ax-wielding Carl Stuckey who had now fully completed his transformation into one of the taken Allen was forced to defend himself and killed Stuckey he did this by first using light to break away the shield of Darkness that was protecting sucky and then shooting him to death however Carl Stuckey's body disappeared Without a Trace as had the bodies of various other unnamed individuals who had been pursuing Alan throughout the woods although he may not have remembered it at the time this was all very similar to a dream he recently had during the trip to Bright Falls Alan was sleeping in the car while alastrove in this dream Allen was driving a car at night and hit a hitchhiker who had suddenly appeared on the road When Alan got out of the car to check on him The Hitchhiker was already gone and the road behind him had been covered up by a brick wall somehow Allen knew that he had to get to a nearby lighthouse as he headed toward it The Hitchhiker reappeared covered in Shadow and identifying himself as one of Allen's creations The Hitchhiker said that Allen was now stuck inside of a story and that The Hitchhiker was going to take revenge on Wake for playing God with his characters Allen ran away and eventually came to a bridge and he saw a man on the other side who was motioning him into a nearby cabin this man was Clay Steward author of the Allen wake files although Allen didn't seem to recognize clay clay definitely recognized Alan clay Steward was having a series of recurring dreams in which Alan Wake would appear through these dreams clay began to know and understand things about Alan and his life that were not public knowledge it was this bizarre series of dreams that spurred clay to investigate The Disappearance of Alan Wake in this particular dream clay was mauled by The Hitchhiker while Alan was watching seemingly stuck inside of a cabin as The Hitchhiker made his way toward Allen a bright presence blew open the back door and guided Alan to safety the presence recited a poem to Alan the meaning of which Alan didn't yet understand this was the bright presence in the form of Thomas sane which had entered Alan's dream and was trying to teach Alan how to fight the dark presence and the people taken over by it from here on out whenever we talk about the bright presence in the form of Thomas Zane we'll refer to them as the diver and whether Alan knew it or not the knowledge that the diver gave him in this dream wound up being crucial to Allen's survival as he traversed the forest well on his way to the gas station Allen began to find pages of a manuscript titled departure which was the title that he had intended to use for his next novel the pages appeared to describe the scenarios that Alan was Finding himself in he didn't realize it yet but these were the same Pages he was writing during his previous lost week in the cabin and they were being scattered around by the diver Alan wasn't the only person finding these manuscript Pages a number of them were found by a former FBI agent named Robert Nightingale who eventually began pursuing Alan Wake Alan reached the gas station which was empty seemingly abandoned by its former owner Carl Stuckey he noticed a sign advertising the upcoming local Festival deer Fest which was now one week closer than it was when he had first arrived in bright Falls it was at that moment that Alan realized he had lost an entire week as he entered the building Allen saw a television turn on by itself and a strange transmission showing Alan in the bird leg cabin played on the screen again Alan didn't realize it at the time but this transmission was showing Alan what had happened to himself during his last week Alan shambled to the phone and dialed the local sheriff Sheriff Sarah breaker responded to the call and arrived at the scene to find Alan Wake visibly traumatized and sporting a large head wound she knew that Carl Stuckey had gone missing so she was very skeptical about the man that she found inside of his gas station Allen tried to explain his situation to the sheriff leaving out the part about battling shadowy beings but letting her know that he and his wife had been staying in the cabin at cauldron Lake and that he had been searching for her after she disappeared Sheriff breaker listened to Allen's claims but she knew that the island was lost in the volcanic eruption of 1970 and she brought wake to the site to prove it Alan was confused and distraught after being checked out by a local Doctor Allen received an anonymous phone call the call came from a person claiming to have kidnapped Alice wake he told Alan to meet him at a point called Lover's Peak located within the nearby elderwood National Park Allen was instructed to come alone and to not involve police in the matter at the same time Allen's agent Barry wheeler was making his way to Bright Falls after not hearing from Alan or Alice for an entire week he became concerned he pulled up to the Sheriff's Station just in time to catch Alan engaged in a confrontation with Dr Emil Hartman who was there to apologize for two of his patients the aforementioned Anderson Brothers tour and Odin who were being unruly during one of their recent escapes from The Cauldron Lake Lodge although they were seen as permanent residents of the lodge the brothers would find a way to get out and raise hell around bright Falls whenever they had the chance to seeing Hartman brought Alan back to his fight with Alice and in a fit of rage Alan struck Hartman in the face Hartman didn't care to press charges and Barry hurried Alan out of the building as the two headed toward the visitor center at elderwood National Park where they would rent a cabin and wait for Nightfall before Alan would head toward Lover's Peak Allen attempted to explain the events of the previous night to Barry but Barry had a hard time believing Alan Alan Wake had been a long time vocal skeptic often being very critical of anyone who believed in the Supernatural or pseudoscience or anything that required more faith than proof to believe in still Alan was Barry's longtime friend and his most successful client so Barry did what he could to stay supportive especially since he knew that he wouldn't be able to change Allen's mind about going to meet the kidnapper upon Nightfall Alan started his Trek to Lover's Peak leaving Barry behind in the rented cabin as Darkness covered the area the dark presence once again made itself known to Alan Wake Alan saw a power outage at the visitor center and saw Rusty a park ranger who worked there badly wounded on the ground Allen had talked to Rusty earlier that day when he came to pick up the keys to the cabin that he and Barry were renting Rusty was almost in a trance having been deeply traumatized by whatever had attacked him it was clearly the work of the dark presence and before too long Alan ran into Rusty once more only this time he had been completely taken over just like Stucky before him Alan was forced to confront Rusty with lethal force and again just like Stucky Rusty's corpse vanished without explanation as he continued toward the peak more taken individuals showed up to impede Alan's progress and eventually wake was overwhelmed by them he dropped both his flashlight and his gun and seemed to be entirely out of luck it was at this time that a burst of red light filled the air and an unidentified man helped clear the taken away from Alan Allen soon recognized the man as the kidnapper and reluctantly followed him to Lover's Peak as they worked together to battle the hordes of taken infesting the forest once they reached the peak the kidnapper made it known that he was aware of Allen's departure manuscript and that he wanted the rest of the pages in exchange for Alice wake he claimed that he would harm Alice if Alan didn't deliver the problem was Alan didn't have the rest of the pages and he hadn't even finished writing the story incensed Alan lashed out at the kidnapper and the two tumbled over a guard rail landing on a hiking path below the kidnapper dropped his handgun in the tussle and saw Alan reach for it the kidnapper then ran off before Alan could fire a shot at him Allen decided to head back to Berry and plan his next move while Barry initially thought that Alan was going mad he had now come to realize that the horrors Allen was describing were entirely real a flock of ravens that had been touched by the dark presence were assaulting the cabin where Barry was waiting for Alan as Allen worked his way back toward Barry he was contacted Again by the kidnapper who gave Allen a deadline of two days to deliver the finished manuscript Allen rescued Barry from the birds and tried to get to work on finishing departure however he found himself unable to write during this time Barry was contacted by Rose Marigold the waitress and Alan Wake fan from the oh dear Diner she claimed to have Allen's missing pages but unbeknownst to Barry she was actually under the spell of the dark presence this was another case of someone having been touched by the dark presence rather than being completely taken over by it Allen and Barry showed up at Rose's home to retrieve the pages but were seemingly drugged by Rose Allen found himself deep in a dream in which he was being taunted by Barbara Jagger when he awoke Barry and Rose were unconscious in the Next Room Allen made his way outside only to be confronted by former FBI agent Robert Nightingale and bright Falls area law enforcement recklessly Nightingale opened fire on wake and Alan had to retreat into a nearby Ravine and attempt to flee the area well nightingale's actions may have seemed unprovoked he was actually operating under the assumption that Alan Wake was responsible for the death of his former partner agent Finn Finn was someone who had been taken by the dark presence and Nightingale witnessed the beginning of his partner's transformation which culminated in Finn disappearing and Nightingale presuming that Finn had died this led to Nightingale becoming obsessed with finding out what happened to his partner Nightingale began to drink very heavily to cope with the loss and subsequently lost his job at the FBI what we don't know exactly what happened to agent Finn we do know that nightingale's investigation eventually brought him to Bright Falls where he interviewed a number of residents and found the manuscript pages that led him to believe that Alan Wake was the person responsible for the darkness that had taken his partner as Alan fled the scene on foot he was pursued by local law enforcement led by Nightingale at the same time the dark presence had begun to take the form of a tornado that was trailing wake the tornado was wreaking havoc on the town of bright Falls and on the police that were pursuing Alan wake eventually made it to the kbf FM Studios a local radio station which was home to a DJ named Pat Main had met Allen a week or so prior When Alan and Alice were on the ferry into bright Falls Allen had hoped to find respite at the station but before long agent Nightingale had closed in on Allen's location Nightingale took another shot at Allen and Allen was again forced to flee Nightingale was immediately reprimanded by Sheriff breaker Allen kept running into the night and eventually hit his two-day deadline with the kidnapper Allen had been instructed to meet the kidnapper at the old Coal Mine which had since been turned into a museum Allen waited all day for the kidnapper but he never showed instead he called Alan after Nightfall and told him that there had been a change of plans Alan was to now meet the kidnapper at the Lookout Point on mirror Peak which overlooked cauldron Lake left with no other choice Alan worked his way toward mirror Peak all the while pursued by the taken as he finally approached the Lookout Point he could hear the voice of the kidnapper pleading with someone the kidnapper was speaking to the dark presence begging for forgiveness the kidnapper admitted that he never actually had Alan's wife and that he had no idea where Alice was as Allen made his way closer both he and the kidnapper were swept up by the dark tornado and thrown into the nearby water Allen was nearly unconscious but a hand emerged to bring him to the surface that hand belonged to none other than Dr Emil Hartman we already know the true nature of Hartman's work at The Cauldron Lake Lodge but this knowledge was unknown to Alan at the time Hartman had sedated Alan and attempted to convince him that he had been a patient at the lodge for a while now according to Hartman's version of events Alice wake had drowned and Alan had been having severe episodes in which he concocted a false reality to cope with the loss of his wife all of the strange things that Allen had experienced in bright Falls up until this point were merely delusions created by Alan because he couldn't accept that Alice was dead however Hartman was fully aware of the situation he knew that Allen had interacted with the dark presence and he knew that Allen's writings were already having an effect on reality Hartman hoped to become Allen's editor on the manuscript and Coach his writing in the same way that he guided the writing of Thomas sane Allen knew that he was being lied to but felt that he had to play along for the time being before too long a power outage struck the lodge which appeared to be directly connected to the dark presence and a large storm that was brewing in the area amidst the chaos the Anderson Brothers attacked one of the orderlies at the lodge and encouraged Alan to move forward in his battle against the dark presence prior to the blackout they confided in Allen letting him know that They too had engaged in such a battle in the past and acknowledged that it was partly their fault that the dark presence was able to push into reality they also told Alan that he needed to go to their farm and find what they referred to as the message as we've seen the dark presence can cause memory loss in people knowing this the Anderson Brothers created a song called the poet and the Muse which was intended to act as a sort of Crash Course for anyone who might be facing the dark presence in the future song was the message that the Anderson Brothers had been referring to and it was just the thing that Alan needed to defeat the dark presence and save Alice Alan took the opportunity to escape the lodge but first headed for the offices so that he could retrieve his seized belongings he lifted a key from the unconscious orderly and headed into the restricted area of the lodge there he saw a photograph that put his entire situation into a much more clear perspective in the photograph standing among the staff of the lodge was the kidnapper Ben Mott wake immediately recognized the man but what he may not have realized was that Mott had been tracking Alan as soon as he got close to Bright Falls and that Mott was there on the ferry that Alan and Alice took into town Allen also found a series of recordings that Hartman had made while talking to Alice on the phone prior to their arrival in bright Falls at one point in his journey Allen received a strange call from Alice only he knew that she didn't sound quite right this was because that call had been manufactured by Emile Hartman who used these recordings to trick Alan as he continued through the lodge Allen unexpectedly ran into Barry wheeler who explained that Hartman and his goons had locked him in a room after he came around looking for Alan Barry also revealed that he had stolen roses prized Alan Wake cutout in Revenge for giving them false information about the manuscript Pages apparently Barry didn't realize that Rose had been under the control of the dark Presence at the time but regardless he hung onto the cardboard cutout as if it were the most important thing in the world next Allen entered Hartman's office where he found his manuscript Pages as well as the handgun that he had on him before showing up at the lodge Hartman emerged from the shadows and attempted to bargain with Alan finally coming clean about the ruse that he had subjected Alan to Allen was Furious but before the situation could escalate the dark presence intervened and Allen locked Hartman in the office alone with the dark presence while Alan couldn't be sure of Hartman's fate Hartman did survive that encounter with the dark presence and we'll come back around to resolve his story a bit later Alan and Barry battled through the lodge and eventually made their way to the Anderson Farm where they were again confronted by more of the taken when they finally got to the Anderson's Farmhouse they found the message that the Anderson Brothers had been talking about the message was on a final record which Alan and Barry listened to as they partook in some of the special moonshine that the brothers had distilled the song told Alan that he needed to seek the lady of the light which he immediately recognized as Cynthia Weaver a local eccentric who he first met while stopping in at the oh dear Diner just after arriving in bright Falls Cynthia Weaver had been a long time resident of the town and was a bit of a local historian Cynthia Weaver had been close to Thomas Zane and she actually had an unreciprocated crush on him she claimed to have kept in touch with Zayn even after he disappeared although it's unclear if she was talking to Thomas Zane or if she was talking to the diver regardless she was well aware of what had happened to Zane and Barbara and she had dedicated herself to holding a guard against the dark presence in bright Falls Thomas Zane entrusted Cynthia Weaver with a shoebox full of very important items and she kept that shoebox in part of an old decommissioned military base she called that place the well-lit room it was a room that was entirely void of any shadow Thomas Zane knew that the dark presence might return to reality one day and if so there would need to be some sort of mechanism to fight it back and he hid that Fail-Safe in that shoebox however Alan and Barry weren't quite yet ready to meet Cynthia Weaver first they needed some time to rest but secondly they needed to get drunk once Allen eventually drifted off to sleep he found himself experiencing a dream that allowed him to piece together what had happened during his lost week he saw that after he dove into cauldron Lake in search of Alice he had been taken in by Barbara Jagger and compelled to write he also saw how the diver helped him escape the cabin Allen was now more well equipped for this journey than ever but before he could act on this newfound information he was awakened by former FBI agent Robert Nightingale who then arrested Alan and Barry accompanied by Sheriff breaker Nightingale brought Allen and Barry to a holding cell at the Sheriff's Department Allen began to break down which alarmed Sheriff breaker Nightingale thought that it was some sort of ruse but breaker stood her ground letting Nightingale know that she was on to him and the fact that he wasn't actually their unofficial business suddenly Nightingale realized what was happening he had seen this all before written on a manuscript page nightingale's fate had been sealed the dark presence broke the door down and swept him away there was now no room for denying it Sheriff breaker knew that something catastrophic was happening in bright Falls however as a long time resident of the area breaker wasn't entirely unfamiliar with these sorts of strange occurrences there was a group of people in the area who were uniquely equipped to handle situations like this and breaker gave Barry instructions to call those people and to give them the Code phrase night Springs one of the people at the top of that list was Sheriff breaker's father Frank breaker Frank breaker had also been in law enforcement he worked as a police officer in New York City for a time but also worked for a particular branch of the federal government I mentioned earlier that there are people out there who study and explore thresholds and while there are disparate groups aware of such things there's one group in particular that is likely the most knowledgeable that group is known as the Federal Bureau of control or the FBC they're a shadowy arm of the U.S federal government with a focus on all things Supernatural although they prefer to use the term paranatural this organization works hard to remain largely unseen by the public however they aren't completely invisible Frank breaker is a former FBC agent and when he received the call from Barry wheeler he immediately sprung into action Frank breaker had seen all sorts of seemingly unexplainable phenomena over the years and knew that he had to be ready for anything he dialed a former colleague of his William Kirkland who at the time was the head of Investigations at the FBC bright Falls had already been on the fbc's radar due to some of the events that took place there in the 1970s the FBC calls those sorts of occurrences awes or altered world events when the threshold beneath cauldron Lake opened up in 1976 that was an awe everything that Alan Wake had been experiencing in bright Falls that was also an awe Frank Breakers called the Kirkland put bright falls on the map once again for the FBC and they would continue to monitor the area for years to come Frank breaker coordinated with local law enforcement to address the chaos being caused by the dark presence while his daughter accompanied Barry wheeler and Alan Wake to the well-lit room the trio was split up due to the dark presence interfering but they eventually all made it to their destination once there Alan was met with the shoebox left by Zayn inside of it was a manuscript page which described a scene from Alan's childhood it explained that young Alan Wake was afraid of the dark to help Alan conquer his fear his mother gave him an old light switch which she called the clicker she said that it had been given to her by Alan's father now Alan never knew his father so anything that had passed through his hands had a sort of mythical quality to Alan Allen's mother explained to Alan that all he had to do was press the clicker and it would instantly Vanquish any beasts that were hiding in the shadows the page went on to describe Alan holding the clicker as he stood at the edge of cauldron Lake ready to dive in and face the dark presence head on Allen didn't totally understand what was happening the page had been written by Thomas Zane but how did Zayn know about Alan's childhood beyond that how did the clicker get into the shoebox as we mentioned before Alice wake was also afraid of the dark and a few years prior the couple experienced a power outage in their New York City apartment after lighting a few candles Allen pulled out the clicker and explained its Origins to his wife he gave the clicker to Alice that night but now it was there in front of him in the shoebox Alan declared that he had to finish this journey on his own and he set forth for cauldron lake with the clicker enhamped he left Cynthia Weaver Sarah breaker and Barry wheeler behind none of them knowing if they would ever see him again the dark presence tried to impede his progress but he pushed through and eventually reached the edge of cauldron Lake just like it was written on the manuscript page Alan dove into the lake and passed through the threshold into the dark place immediately the dark presence began to play tricks on him in the dark place reality operates on a sort of dream logic and almost anything is possible the dark place will appear different to different people as they explore it Allen found himself back in his New York City apartment but he knew that the whole thing was an illusion cooked up by the dark presence with guidance from the diver Alan was able to break through this illusion and used the power of his own creativity and Imagination to literally Forge a path to the bird-leg cabin where he came face to face with the dark presence still wearing the skin of Barbara Jagger the dark presence let Alan know that it would easily find a new host if it needed to but Alan was undeterred he pulled Jagger close to him and shoved the clicker into the hole where her heart had been he pressed the clicker and filled Jagger's body with light destroying the vessel that the dark presence had been occupying this resolved the story of departure and Allen's intended ending had been seen to fruition Alice emerged from cauldron Lake confused and alone but safe for the time being the citizens of bright Falls were celebrating deer Fest almost as if the events of the past week hadn't happened at all except they did happen Rose Marigold was clearly affected by her brush with Barbara Jagger and other people who were taken or affected by the dark presence appeared to also be suffering long-term consequences in general only people who have been directly affected by the dark presence or the powers of cauldron Lake are able to really remember these shifts in reality that occur however for some people small remnants might remain and over time those remnants become folklore and urban legends like the scratching hack surely the events that took place during the 2010 bright Falls awe have gone on to form their own legend for the people in the area the FBC would arrive in bright Falls shortly after the altered world event that was occurring there had finished over the next few years they would interview and monitor several key figures related to that awe clay Steward was interviewed and placed under indefinite surveillance by the organization the FBC suspected that he may have minor paranatural abilities people with these qualities are categorized by the FBC as Para utilitarians and they suspected that Alan Wake was also a para utilitarian their investigation into the awe and his disappearance also LED them to interview Alice wake the FBC identified that Alice wake had been trapped in the threshold during the 2010 bright Falls awe and that she suffered some memory loss during that time after the event Alice continued her work as a photographer and eventually dipped into making some short films as well during her interview with the FBC she mentioned that she had been seeing someone who looked like her missing husband although she described this person as a monster wearing Ellen's skin she was able to capture a photograph of this person who no doubt looked very similar if not identical to Alan Wake however this was not Ellen wake well the identity of the person in this photo may be open to debate it is likely an entity named Mr scratch Allen encountered Mr scratch very briefly in the dark place before entering the bird leg cabin on his journey to defeat the dark presence Mr scratch is a doppelganger of Alan Wake born from the most negative and selfish parts of his own psyche When Alan Dove backed down into the dark place he became fractured his rational mind separated from his body and it may have been through a similar process that another part of him separated to become Mr scratch under guidance from the diver Alan was eventually able to mostly reunite the different parts of his mind and regain the Lucidity that he would need to navigate the dark place well writing departure in order to save Alice Alan wound up putting himself in the dark place instead of her and there was no sure way for him to escape unfortunately as far as we know Alan is still stuck inside of the dark place presumed dead by many who knew him on top of that Mr scratch is still at large terrorizing people who were close to Allen and giving fuel to the urban legends and rumors surrounding Alan's disappearance not much is known about Mr scratch but we do know that he's an entity that serves a higher power with their ultimate goal being to break into reality and change it to their will scratch is evil and murderous and he has the power to freely cross the barrier between reality and the dark place he has gone out of his way to show Alan what he's capable of and Alan has done all that he can to thwart scratch's evil plans however Alan has not been able to completely defeat this foe Beyond his struggles with Mr scratch Alan continues to try to find a way to write himself out of the dark place although his attempts so far have been unsuccessful we've established that Thomas sane was allegedly in touch with Cynthia Weaver and similarly Alan Wake has tried to send messages out to reality from the dark place messages from the dark place can travel through dreams as well as television and radio signals messages can also enter the dark place and while the mechanism that controls that flow of information is still a mystery to us Alan has received glimpses of reality and has put those images into his writing it is very much possible that Alan had this sort of power even before entering the dark place possibly confusing his own form of Clairvoyance with inspiration or creativity through prolonged isolation in the dark place it seems as if Alan has begun to suspect that he may have a para natural link to the world around him one that allows him to see and know things that he couldn't possibly know otherwise similar to how clay Steward began to know things about Alan Wake that he couldn't explain after the 2010 bright Falls awe very wheeler reached out to the old gods of Asgard and became their manager by 2012 the band was touring in support of a new single although the band was as unruly as ever and their aging bodies really weren't equipped for these sort of depravity that they wanted to subject themselves to Barry wheeler made the executive decision to call off the rest of their gigs and use the money that the band had amassed through a greatest hits album and the shows they did play to establish the Valhalla nursing home which opened in 2014 and it was a place where the Anderson Brothers could live out their final days in peace once The Cauldron Lake threshold had again closed in 2010 Dr Emil Hartman knew that he had to start over he had survived his encounter with the dark presence seemingly unscathed although the lodge had been wrecked by the awe his Lackey Ben Mott was not so lucky Mott had become one of the taken and was disposed of by Hartman eyeing the destruction to his lodge Hartman made a phone call to someone we don't know exactly who Hartman spoke to but he said that he was ready to reconsider their offer he also established that whoever he was speaking to was already aware of what had happened in bright Falls it seems likely that Hartman was speaking to someone at the FBC Harmon saw himself as a serious researcher and scientist and someone who was on par with the paranatural experts at the FBC the FBC interviewed Hartman after the bright Falls awe and he tried to present himself as their peer however due to the nature of Hartman's experiments the FBC charged Hartman with violating paranatural law they detained him confiscated all of his research and permanently revoked his medical license with his credentials stripped they saw Hartman as being relatively harmless so he was soon released by The FBC left with almost nothing but his desire to further comprehend the mysteries of cauldron Lake Hartman convinced himself that he could succeed where Thomas Zane and Alan Wake had failed he dove into the lake and was promptly overpowered by the dark presence fully possessed Hartman was soon apprehended by the FBC and taken to their headquarters in New York City known as the oldest house the oldest house is a paranatural phenomenon in itself a building that is able to change its shape and appearance at will and is essentially invisible to most of the public it Blends so neatly into the background of everything that people just don't notice it unless they are already looking for it the oldest house is linked to a paranatural entity known as the board the FBC was active before discovering the oldest house but shortly after finding it the FBC and the oldest house became inextricably linked board spoke directly to Broderick northmore who at the time was the director of the FBC northmore began to claim that all prior directors of the FBC were illegitimate due to them not having been recognized by the board northmore made contact with the board after discovering something called the service weapon which is a paranatural item that can take many forms the FBC calls items like the service weapon objects of power retrieving the service weapon was a sort of ritual that all future directors would have to successfully perform in order to obtain the position well not all members of the FBC agreed with this newfound relationship to the board and the oldest house the relationship moved forward and in 2019 the director ritual was performed by a woman named Jesse faden who is the current director of the FBC when Hartman was apprehended by the FBC after his dive into cauldron Lake he was held in the investigation sector of the oldest house at one point during his detainment Hartman became especially worked up this was because Alice wake was on the premises for one of her interviews with the FBC the connection that Hartman and Alice both shared to the dark place and cauldron Lake stirred something within Hartman he broke free from his confines and began to terrorize the investigation sector he killed anyone he could and overwhelmed by the Monstrous thing that was once Emile Hartman the FBC decided to close off that sector of the building entirely trapping the monster within its walls in 2019 there was an event that was not totally dissimilar from the bright Falls awe in that event a threshold was opened in the oldest house releasing a hostile entity known as the hiss the hiss is a resonance which can quickly infect anyone or anything that it encounters somewhat similar to the way that the dark presence can take over things the person responsible for opening the threshold was former FBC director Zachariah trench who shot himself with the service weapon shortly after opening the threshold Jesse faden found his body and was compelled to pick up the weapon that was lying next to Trench she was being pulled in by the board to complete the initiation ritual that would make her the new director of the FBC as director she would be directly responsible for eradicating the hiss from the oldest house before it could escape and affect the outside world the hiss was flooding the oldest house and when it made its way to the investigation sector what was left of Hartman was mutated and turned into an even more horrific vessel containing elements of both the dark presence and the hiss normally something possessed by the dark presence would be able to resist such An Occurrence but the former Dr Hartman was so far from cauldron Lake and the source of the dark powers that it was too weak to hold out against the hiss when director Jesse faden was working on clearing out the hiss she had to go to the investigation sector and battle the monster that Hartman had become while making her way toward the monster faden began to see visions of Alan Wake first she saw him in her Mind's Eye and later she peered at him through a threshold the oldest house has a link to a mysterious location called The Ocean View Motel the motel is a place of power similar to how cauldron lake is a place of power the motel doesn't appear to remain in one physical location and can somehow manifest itself in different places however there is a direct threshold to the motel in the oldest house which is accessed through a particular ritual that involves pulling a light cord three times in the motel there is a corridor with a series of doors each door is a threshold to another dimension and it appears that one of these doors a door marked with a spiral is a threshold to the dark place well director faden didn't actually enter the threshold she did open the door and peek inside what she saw was disturbing at that point in time Alan Wake had been in the dark place for nearly 10 years and he was clearly suffering faden saw Alan speaking to another man who looked just like Alan Wake a man who identified himself as Tom Zane Allen was having trouble remembering where he was and what he was doing but Zayn let Alan know that they were collaborators suddenly Alan remembered Tom the poet and Tom the diver but Zayn said that the diver was just an old role of his from a film that he had made more details surfaced in Alan's mind and he remembered his double presumably Mr scratch Zane assured Ellen that he was going to handle that double for him but Alan didn't trust Zane faden closed the door confused by what she had seen Thomas Zane was actually Jesse faden's favorite poet and although most of his work had been erased from reality somehow Jesse was familiar with it when she was younger Jesse faden quoted one of his poems to a psychiatrist that she was seeing the psychiatrist attempted to look up the poet but all they could find was record of a filmmaker named Thomas Zane who moved to the United States from Europe in the 1960s what we don't know for sure how Jesse faden was able to read Thomas Zane's poetry it's possible that she found a shoebox that contained some of his Works Jesse is from a town called Ordinary in the state of Maine in 2002 there was an awe an ordinary during which a threshold opened up that released hostile entities into the small town all of the adults in ordinary disappeared during this awe FBC agents were eventually dispatched and they attempted to round up anyone still left in the area Jesse was only 11 years old at the time terrified she ran away and was able to escape the FBC agents who had come to take her after that Jesse spent most of the next 17 years drifting from place to place the FBC had entirely covered up the ordinary awe and anyone who Jesse tried to confide in about her experiences saw her as delusional Jesse faden had a brother named Dylan who was one year younger than her together they found an old slide projector and a number of loose slides that had seemingly magical qualities while the siblings didn't quite understand what they were getting into the slide projector was an object of power and it had the capability to open thresholds each slide represented another threshold and another dimension through the projector Jesse and Dylan made contact with a seemingly benevolent entity which Jesse refers to as Polaris Polaris bonded with the siblings creating a sort of psychic link to each child this Bond also gave the siblings paranatural abilities the projector also brought forward hostile entities which were ultimately the main cause of the ordinary awe when the FBC agents came to ordinary in response to the awe Dylan was captured by them he spent the next 17 years at the oldest house being monitored and subjected to a series of experiments that attempted to gauge his paranatural potential Jesse never forgot her brother and although she spent many years seemingly wandering from place to place she never stopped searching for the truth behind what happened to Dylan it was that search Guided by Polaris that brought her to the oldest house and inadvertently led to her becoming the director of the same organization that had torn her family apart sometime after the ordinary awe the FBC led a program focused on repopulating the area and in 2012 a woman named Samantha Wells bought a house in ordinary it was an old house that she wanted to fix up and turn into the house of her dreams she documented this renovation progress on a Blog called This House of Dreams according to her posts she found a shoebox in the Attic of the house that contained a series of poems as well as some photographs of a diver and a woman although the faces of these individuals were blocked out by some sort of inkblot the poems were by Thomas Zane and the photos were presumably of Zayn and Barbara Jagger taken before the 1970 bright Falls a awe among these poems was one that contained the line Beyond The Shadow you settle for there's a miracle illuminated that poem was not only Jesse faden's favorite poem but also the favorite poem of Emile Hartman while we don't know for sure if this shoebox in the Attic is something that Jesse interacted with as a child the potential for that to be the case is definitely there well both faden and Hartman had a deep appreciation for the Poetry of Thomas sane by the time the two met there was no chance of them discussing their mutual love for his Work Director Jesse faden killed the monster that Hartman had become and in doing so closed one chapter of our story but another chapter is now ready to be opened in 2019 the FBC received a request for information regarding bright Falls and the disappearance of Alan Wake this request came from an FBI agent named Alex Casey the fact that this agent shares a name with the protagonist of Ellen wake's most famous novels is not lost on the FBC and it's likely that they are running surveillance on agent Casey the FBC honored Casey's request but heavily redacted the documents that were sent to him this investigation by Alex Casey the involvement of the FBC and the complex relationship between Alan Wake Mr scratch and Thomas Zane all helped to form the basis for Ellen wake 2. and with that you should be pretty well caught up on things now let's revisit some of those Mysteries that we identified during this recap the team behind bright Falls worked hard to stay true to remedy's Canon in episode 4 titled local flavor Jake Fisher visits a general store in the background we can see a character dressed like Ben Mott the character only appears briefly in the background of this scene but thanks to some sleuthing by a dedicated Alan Wake fan we know that this character was portrayed by James A Smith who also worked as the stunt coordinator on the show IMDb lists this character from The General Store scene as Ben Mott but the show has no official credits posted anywhere else so without further confirmation this should be taken with a grain of salt however James A Smith recently acknowledged that he also portrayed the diver on bright Falls this could mean that the diver from the opening scene is Ben Mott which would make a lot of sense in that scene the person in the body bag that the diver deposits on the shore is Jake Fisher that opening scene was inserted out of sequence it was a glimpse into Jake's future in bright Falls which is clarified in a later episode if Hartman saw Jake as a potentially useful resident of The Cauldron Lake Lodge it would make sense for Hartman to send ma out to follow Jake just like he would do with Alan Wake again without an official credits listing this theory that Ben Mott is the diver is a little shaky but knowing how dedicated the bright Falls crew was to staying true to the world that remedy was getting ready to present in Ellen wake I wouldn't all be surprised to find out that this theory is entirely accurate the identity of Thomas Zane remains one of the most persistent mysteries of Alan Wake When Alan first encounters the Anderson Brothers they call him Tom when we see Thomas Zane in control he looks identical to Alan Wake throughout the first Ellen Way game we never actually see Thomas Zane's face does he actually look like Alan or is that just some mechanism of the dark place giving Zane that appearance honestly there are no clear answers to this one the best guess that I can give is that Thomas Zane was indeed a filmmaker at some point in his life and he later started writing poetry in bright Falls before disappearing into the dark place but none of that accounts for Thomas Zane looking just like Alan Wake in control Jesse faden can find some confiscated audio recordings made by Emil Hartman in one of these recordings Hartman says that people in bright Falls had reported seeing Thomas Zane after Alan Wake disappeared into cauldron Lake we don't know exactly what these people were seeing or what Zayn looked like but that's a very interesting detail that's really easy to overlook in Allen wake illuminated which is a book covering the making of Ellen wake it says that there is a lot about Zayn that didn't make its way into this first game as much as I would love to crack the code on this mystery I think that playing Alan Wake 2 is going to be crucial to figuring any of this out When Alan Wake first met Ben Mott Mott said congratulations you're gonna bring about something glorious and terrible once we get you some proper editorial control when Hartman is confronted during the blackout at the lodge he tells wake that they should work together to create something wonderful in the fbc's opinion Hartman wanted to shape reality to his own benefit I read this all two different ways in one sense Hartman may have wanted to create a reality that fit his own selfish desires however that line from ma about something glorious and terrible really makes me wonder if Hartman wanted to unleash the dark presence into reality and thought that he could somehow benefit from doing so Hartman was definitely aware of the dark presence and knew that light could be used to battle against it both literally and figuratively but maybe he also thought that light could tame it in some way with Hartman now dead it's unlikely that we'll get any further clarification on this but it's still a fun one to think about ever since players First dove into Alan Wake there was discussion online about who made who did Thomas Zane create Ellen wake did wake create Zayn how did Zayn know about Alan's childhood was the story about the clicker even true all of this stuff about the clicker and Cynthia Weaver holding on to the shoebox was confusing for players but it was confusing for Alan Wake as well he asked the diver about the page to which the diver replied I am not the author of your story okay fair enough but the diver technically isn't Thomas Zane it's the bright presence just using the form of Thomas Zane so if that's the case it's possible that Thomas Zane did write this manuscript page and somehow knew about Alan's life before Alan even showed up in bright Falls it's also possible that Zayn and wake have been Long Time Collaborators this is another one of the more persistent mysteries in the remedy connected universe and the story of Ellen wake at the time of making this video I haven't yet played Ellen wake 2 but I get the impression that if we're gonna solve this particular mystery we're gonna need to play that game first and I also believe that Alan Wake 2 is going to present its own series of mysteries for players to get into and I look forward to getting into them and I thank you for getting into these ones with me if you've stuck around this long thank you if you want to support the channel you know how to do it there's links down below you can like subscribe Channel memberships patreon it's all there please share this video with anyone you think might enjoy it and until next time see ya [Music]

Channel: Hidden Machine

Views: 168,566

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Id: lF6j81lVyCc

Length: 89min 39sec (5379 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023