Latest / Replay Reviews / Happy Halloween! - Outlast II Summary

Transcript

Happy Halloween! - Outlast II Summary · Replay Reviews

• 0:00
  Thank you for coming back for Replay Reviews Horror Month.
• 0:04
  My name is Leah.
• 0:06
  And my name is Scottie.
• 0:10
  We are two friends who are here to Replay Review and analyze your favorite video games.
• 0:15
  And since Cathy has never seen the games before, it helps me view them through her fresh eyes.
• 0:20
  Almost like I am discovering them again for the first time.
• 0:24
  We have a similar experience for you.
• 0:27
  Do I sound like Dracula or just Italian?
• 0:32
  He's not Italian.
• 0:35
  Is there anything to announce before we get started?
• 0:39
  Happy Halloween.
• 0:41
  See, I knew there was something. There it is.
• 0:43
  Happy Halloween. Horror Month is at its end.
• 0:47
  I'm pretty excited for this one though because I found some nuggets.
• 0:52
  Good, because I'm still at a loss.
• 0:55
  Should we just launch into topic number one, our burning questions, starting with the burning questions this time.
• 1:01
  Yes, let's go for it. The first one being questions around pregnancies, the baby, how did Lynn get pregnant, and all that.
• 1:09
  Mine's pretty short and it goes in a few different directions in a way.
• 1:14
  I think there's different types of pregnancies, I guess, based on how horny some of the people are.
• 1:22
  Some maybe are naturally conceived.
• 1:25
  Other ones similar to Lynn is that they're like a baby that might already have been dead and they just replant them, which sounds really terrible,
• 1:35
  but they cut them open, stick a baby at a very late stage that was never fully formed, and then sew them back up.
• 1:43
  Then when they're giving birth is probably the radio towers making them feel like they're going through fake contractions and then voila, you have a baby.
• 1:53
  But I don't think the baby is alive. I think it's the radio towers making them feel like the baby's alive because at the very end, there's nothing.
• 2:02
  I think there's multiple answers to this.
• 2:05
  I would agree that there are multiple answers. Some things that we agree on is I think some children are real.
• 2:11
  But then I don't think that this child is real. So I guess my response to this is I don't think it's a real baby at all.
• 2:20
  I think it is in effect of the morphogenic engine.
• 2:23
  It's just the fact that she says there's nothing there and then that she dies after giving birth because this fits exactly what's described in that whistleblower document.
• 2:33
  We know that they came here to investigate the death of a pregnant woman.
• 2:38
  If you remember, Lynn says we should probably mention the fetus, how it just...
• 2:43
  And I am guessing that that sentence would end with disappeared.
• 2:47
  So I'm thinking that Annabelle, the woman that came to investigate, I'm guessing that she was also pregnant with one of these fictitious children and died.
• 2:55
  And so that's why I think that there is some of this going on, but also some of the real children as well, because as we've discussed, people are like crazy, like, orgy town that we're in here.
• 3:09
  That makes sense. What if the incomplete sentence was it was just hallucinations?
• 3:15
  But yeah, that actually makes sense. So that means that you'd agree at the very end, the so quote unquote baby that Blake is holding is probably his imagination?
• 3:27
  I do. I do think so. To backtrack just a second, I'm not 100% sure, but I think that, you know, because there's this whole apocalypse and the world Antichrist narrative going on,
• 3:38
  and I think that maybe they think that the Antichrist is one of these fictitious children. And that's why not all the children are killed immediately, because we know that Noth wanted Ethan to kill Annabelle.
• 3:49
  So I'm wondering if that's maybe why some children live and some die. Blake and Noth, I think they're able to see this fake child because of how much exposure they've had to the engine.
• 4:04
  I think that's really the only difference, because we know from the whistleblower document that this was a side effect of the engine. It's not a direct result of testing.
• 4:14
  So I do think that it's just a side effect in the morphogenic engine. Being able to activate any person is what allows them to see the child.
• 4:22
  And that's going to go back into that true way of seeing that memory I had in the last episode. I found some more on that. So, okay, keep your brain locked in on that one.
• 4:33
  But moving on, speaking of that same whistleblower document, it also mentions that they kept moving the female employees farther and farther away and eventually off of Mount Massive entirely.
• 4:46
  And so this definitely indicates the spread of whatever administers the morphogenic engine. It's broad. It doesn't really stop spreading, right?
• 4:56
  And then we also had another document at the end of the first game where they were talking about belief in the Walriders airborne, like different doctors are starting to believe in the Walrider and all this stuff.
• 5:07
  And so then that leads me to the question of how does this spread? And I'm wondering a couple things. Could these non-existent children be offspring of the Walrider?
• 5:18
  Could they just be morphogenesis in action, you know, the cells morphing? Or could this belief spreading be that feedback loop that was described in this game?
• 5:28
  It has something to do with the morphogenesis. And it has something to do with the radio towers being able to spread things through such a broad geographic location. I don't know exactly how they tied together.
• 5:43
  Something you said made me think because in the first game there was this still the spreading, the leaking of the treatment stuff, but we didn't know anything about the radio signal.
• 5:54
  So I'm wondering if the feedback loop, even that's being described in this game, if that can still happen without the radio waves, if the morphogenesis of the Walrider can be passed from person to person, you know, if just being near a patient, can it be spread like that?
• 6:10
  Maybe it's like anything related to like a reproductive system and different cells and hormones are in the air and it's airborne part to it. And maybe that's why we see these owls being very horny.
• 6:26
  Because that's what the letter said. And maybe it's not just impacting humans, but it's impacting animals.
• 6:33
  I had one more point on this burning question and it's again going back to the start of the game and that quote of Blake saying I had to get that hospital footage organized. And we theorized if maybe that hospital could be Mount Massive.
• 6:46
  And if we're right, if it was Mount Massive, Lyn could have been exposed to the morphogenic engine there.
• 6:53
  And that could have been where this false pregnancy started. And that would be why Wenoth performs this examination. That's why it's so quickly is obvious that she's pregnant.
• 7:06
  I don't, it's kind of an out there one because she could still just be exposed here, but I don't know.
• 7:14
  Number two is why all these connections between the real world and the dream world. Mine's pretty short. I personally don't believe Blake ever physically leaves the real world. I think he just is basically sleepwalking and visualizing dreamland.
• 7:31
  The dreaming is influenced by Murkoff and his surroundings. And that would be why we hear some repeated phrases spoken by multiple different characters. It could explain why there's similarities between Father Knoth and Father L.
• 7:44
  And it could explain his confusion of Jessica and Lyn. Like when you hear something when you're asleep and you insert it into your dream. I think that's basically what's happening, but it's all being exaggerated by Murkoff.
• 7:56
  I think so too. I think the purpose of even having this switch between real world and dream world is just to demonstrate how messed up his head is because of the morphogenic engine.
• 8:08
  And it gives us some kind of parallel plot between saving Jessica and saving Lyn in the past and the present. And needing Blake to experience horror because without him experiencing it, there is really no plot. It would just be a straight line of him trying to save Lyn.
• 8:25
  So this is just a way to demonstrate. And I don't think he, like you said, he doesn't leave the real world. He may be just like falling asleep or napping or whatever.
• 8:37
  Every time a radio tower triggers some kind of wave of whatever. But I agree with you. He doesn't physically leave and goes back in time.
• 8:48
  Hey, we agree on something. Yeah, look at that.
• 8:53
  I think that answers our two burning questions. I don't know if you thought of anything else.
• 8:57
  I just had little notes for our anything else topic. And my first question is, what explains the static that we see when Blake records when he's at the school?
• 9:10
  And I'm wondering if it could be because in whistleblower, we are a patient and we see this patient be forced to watch the morphogenic engine that like video sometime after that there's like that the flashes of the images.
• 9:25
  And I'm wondering if this could be something like that. But since it's radio waves versus just a video, it looks more staticky.
• 9:33
  The only thing is that doesn't really explain the logo.
• 9:38
  It could be that the radio waves just mess up the camera. Right. Yeah. But that doesn't explain why the logo is visible in the static, which is why I'm wondering if the static is really like visualization of the engine.
• 9:53
  But that also doesn't explain why the camera would be able to see that. I guess that's my biggest question. Why do we see the Murkoff logo in the static? How does that even work?
• 10:02
  Or is Blake just imagining it? Well, how would Blake know to imagine the Murkoff logo?
• 10:09
  Exactly. Unless they just implant information in his brain.
• 10:13
  Maybe there's some crazy AI that Murkoff is doing that anytime they get any type of incriminating evidence and with electronics, they may know to like automatically delete it.
• 10:26
  And they're just going to put their stamp on it when it happens. Yeah, this might be a Reddit question. Yeah. Are we ready for topic number two? Yes.
• 10:37
  So we are going to listen to all the reverse recordings in order and see if anything makes more sense. Does it? Is it linear? You know, that kind of thing. So I will share.
• 11:07
  I am weak, but you are strong for me. You are generous. You gave me life. You gave me talent. The gift of music and mathematics and love.
• 11:24
  Those fleeting moments within the serifs of which music and math become the same thing. You let me share my peace with the children who may be able to take my bigger talents and turn them to glory.
• 11:40
  You let me share in the rugged path to adulthood. Those moments when a child learns those things everybody else already knows, doesn't talk about. She was so right with possibility. So resilient.
• 11:59
  Smiling and flirting. Never even aware of the power she had. And you killed her. You saw what she was. You knew the sin rested on her shoulders as much as on my own.
• 12:19
  You took her. And I could not. You killed her. And I never told a soul. I kept your secret. Our secret. Thank you. Thank you.
• 12:34
  You let the small sorrow of her suicide wash over the unacceptable tragedy of her murder. This is where my questions arise because listening to those it sounds to me like all of them except for the very last one.
• 12:52
  That's like a prayer. Like he's praying. But the last one sounds like he's talking to Blake.
• 12:59
  I can see that but I still feel like the last few it could go either ways as he's talking to himself or talking to Blake. And a lot of them I feel like are just him trying to justify his decisions and I feel like we can agree that it's Father L saying this right?
• 13:21
  Yeah. I can't figure out who he's talking to. The first one sounds like prayer. I don't know. I feel like some of them maybe are addressed to Jessica? No, I don't know.
• 13:36
  I feel like a lot of them is his just talking maybe more in those like confessional.
• 13:42
  Yeah, I don't know if they have confessionals in Catholic schools but I'm wondering if maybe most of these are Father L confessing in a confessional and maybe Blake overhears these things.
• 13:55
  And this is why they're in his mind and in his memory. And that is maybe why he even feels more guilt because he's like, oh I heard these things and I should have known what was going on. And that's why this last one is where it's saying like you never told a soul you kept our secret.
• 14:12
  Because at some point he had to pull Blake in, you know, and manipulate him to get away with it.
• 14:17
  Wasn't he hiding in like a confessional booth at when they're torturing him and maybe that was some kind of parallel that he did the same thing hearing Father L do all this confessing in the beginning and maybe when he accidentally exposes himself and Father L sees that that's when he changes the direction of the conversation then to Blake.
• 14:37
  So our last topic is just what exactly is going on here. So, Kathy, what is your start to finish theory on this game?
• 14:45
  This is really difficult because I'm still pretty unsure. And this is just going to be my most linear wild one because I have so many different branches of potential but kind of going back from into whistleblower I think Waylon sent something out there, there's media attention, it ends up going to Lynn and Blake which starts everything here.
• 15:08
  Then as they're flying through the helicopter the radio towers are sending out those frequency which causes the helicopter to crash. The radio tower acts as a morphogenic engine at like a much bigger geographic scale.
• 15:20
  And because Outlast needs whore and that's how the morphogenic engine works, Blake needs some kind of whore otherwise he would just like save Lynn and game over. So I think for him it's that parallel between dream world and reality where he sees Jessica and part of that trauma and once he starts that, somehow the tower knows and they're just going to exploit that.
• 15:45
  And that's obviously so much of that. And in the end, I don't think he died. And I'm jumping really far ahead but I think in the end, I don't think he died because otherwise it wouldn't have ended up in him in dream world. I think he's just sleeping every time he thinks about the dream world.
• 16:07
  It looks like the sun's about to explode but I don't think so. I think that's part of the hallucination. That's another wave of that radio frequency that's going to trigger him into the hallucination where he ends up with Jessica praying.
• 16:23
  And one of the earlier sentences that she has two sentences but the first one is, now the light has gone away, Savior listen to me while I pray, begging thee to watch and keep and to send me quietly to sleep.
• 16:37
  So like dissecting the sentence, I think the light has gone away so that weird sun probably if it explodes it's going to be dark, begging thee to watch and keep and to send me quietly to sleep. I think the send me quietly to sleep reinforces that Blake is sleeping, that he's not dead or maybe he's just in a coma but he's sleeping and that's why he's dreaming back in dream world with Jessica.
• 17:01
  All right, we have a lot of overlap but this is where I found a lot of nuggets. Okay, so mine is going to be a bit longer than yours so get ready.
• 17:11
  But yeah so this industrial building that we see at the lake I think this is a Murkoff facility. And I think that they are now testing the morphogenic engine without any influence from Warnocky.
• 17:21
  We know from that document at the end of Whistleblower written by our good friend Helen, Warnocky was sort of distracted. She says, we're all terribly excited at the obvious profit potential of the new project, my researchers have combed through Warnocky's files and found no mention of the three lucid dreamers.
• 17:39
  I think we can safely assume Warnocky was sufficiently distracted by the partial success of patient Billy Hope to be ignorant of the real discovery at hand.
• 17:48
  And also, in the document we find after that one in Whistleblower, this is about the transfer authorization of the three lucid dreamers.
• 17:57
  And it says, attempts at communication should be assumed to be hallucinations and disregarded.
• 18:05
  Facial disfigurement should not be taken as a sign of lost acuity. They are physically blind but not unseen.
• 18:13
  And that's where I again was like, oh my gosh, this truer way of seeing stuff. And in this document, they're transferring these three lucid dreaming patients to the Zeichner facility.
• 18:23
  And so I'm wondering, is this new place, the Zeichner facility? We don't know, but it could be.
• 18:30
  And then we also have another document written by the annoying Jeremy Blair when he talks about the side effects on females and wants to make money off of it and says, why are we not testing female subjects?
• 18:43
  So there's maybe another hint of focusing on this pregnancy side effect at the new facility or a new facility.
• 18:50
  Building off of that and back into this game and what I think might be happening, Murkoff has developed a new way of administering the morphogenic engine.
• 18:58
  I think there are one or two possibilities that they're maybe doing at the same time or I'm reaching. So number one, the radio waves, right?
• 19:07
  We've talked about this. They administer them through these blasts of light. And maybe the subjects mistake these blasts of light for the trumpet blast of the apocalypse.
• 19:15
  Maybe that's a Murkoff script. Maybe that's just a delusion that Knoth passed down similar to what Father Martin was doing.
• 19:22
  And then here's the second. The second. OK, this is where it gets weird. And this is where I found some some nuggets.
• 19:29
  So the second potential process for administering the morphogenic engine, we find that a very revealing document in part three, the one discussing the radio tower and the owls.
• 19:40
  And it mentions Jenny Rowland in this document. There is a document in the first game.
• 19:47
  It's document number six in gameplay part four, if you want to go look. And this is a report written by Jennifer Rowland.
• 19:55
  So, first of all, direct connection, right? This is a direct connection. She's working on both projects.
• 20:01
  So 100 percent, I believe the morphogenic engine is at play here. I think that's proof. But also mentioned in that document written by Jenny.
• 20:08
  And I have very little knowledge on any topic, even remotely relating to this. But bear with me, she says, that she may suggest hanging less hope on the far flung theories of a senile Nazi and moving towards using a simpler mechanical engine based on major sperm protein.
• 20:25
  So I'm wondering, can they spread the engine through sperm? Hence all the STDs in the horniness.
• 20:34
  What if they're they're like sprinkling Viagra in the water, contaminating it in the water or something? You know what I mean?
• 20:41
  I think you're onto something because they're probably isolated group projects.
• 20:46
  And maybe the project that Jenny was working on had something and she handed it over to someone else because she couldn't physically be there.
• 20:53
  I think you're right. And they're definitely spurning something in the water or messing.
• 20:58
  Because if this can mess with cells, I think that they can do something with people's hormones.
• 21:04
  If they can tap into people's dreams, they can tap into their hormones and adjust that and cause people to react a certain way.
• 21:12
  Maybe they're even trying to to breed with a morphogenic engine.
• 21:18
  Maybe they're trying to see if these non-existent children can turn into something that exists.
• 21:23
  So they're trying to create life like a physical wall rider. I don't know. They're trying to create life. Isn't that what it is?
• 21:32
  They're trying to play God. Yeah, because that's really what Papa Knoth is doing.
• 21:36
  He thinks himself as kind of like such a high power.
• 21:40
  And this has been a recurring theme with all the other types of villains that we've seen in Outlast.
• 21:46
  Maybe that's the goals. They're trying to create life and control it.
• 21:51
  Yeah, I think it's at least a metaphor of, yes, this company is trying to play God.
• 21:57
  And now they're messing with genetics at such a rate where they're trying to literally create like a new being.
• 22:05
  I don't even know what it would be, but I'm liking this theory.
• 22:09
  So going back to this game, Murkhof's goal could still be to create this perfect host by inducing horror and subjects,
• 22:16
  allowing the morphogenic engine to fully activate.
• 22:19
  But the question is why? And I think you're playing God is a good one.
• 22:24
  And also, do they just want to control people?
• 22:27
  Because we've heard throughout all the games mentions of sleep inducing machines, lucid dreaming, dream tests.
• 22:33
  And then there was a document referencing or the patient status report about Billy
• 22:39
  and about how he entered the blood dreams of Traeger, who he was supposed to have never met.
• 22:46
  And so I'm wondering if if the lucid dreaming can progress into dream walking,
• 22:53
  a fully fledged patient could enter someone else's dreams.
• 22:58
  I think you're onto something because how else would they know to use Jessica and everyone's worst fears against themselves?
• 23:07
  Because we have mentioned of these three lucid dreamers and their astounding potential.
• 23:12
  What would they do with this? What is that potential?
• 23:16
  I have a follow up to that, which is at the very end, like you were talking about, he's with Jessica now.
• 23:22
  And I'm wondering, is Jessica really one of these lucid dreamers?
• 23:27
  Can they do that? Can they insert themselves as anyone into anyone's dreams as a way to to guide them through it
• 23:34
  as part of the process of accepting the engine?
• 23:37
  All right. Surrounding this facility in general, though, there's some questions that we really need answered,
• 23:43
  like how long has this place been here? How long have the people been here?
• 23:47
  And then bigger question is, is this the Zeichner facility reference that these three lucid dreamers would be transported to?
• 23:55
  And if so, could not be one of these dreamers, because we do have a pretty good connection with the eye thing in Outlast 1,
• 24:03
  part two, document number one. There's a document written by Father Martin, and a line from that says,
• 24:09
  the scales on Saul's eyes were fear, and when you see beyond it, you truly see.
• 24:14
  And then in this game, one of the pieces of the gospel says,
• 24:19
  you have not cut away thine eye, but the scale you took for an eye, and now you may see.
• 24:25
  So that's another direct correlation.
• 24:29
  Why not? I don't know what else to say.
• 24:33
  And you've mentioned similarities between Father Martin and Father Knoth. Are there still scripts at play here?
• 24:40
  Unless they're referencing each other, but then I don't know who comes first. Like, who wrote it first?
• 24:45
  But the question remains, like, what is the connection?
• 24:48
  Because, well, going back to the true way of saying we had that patient status report for Chris Walker,
• 24:53
  where he took skin off his head to see more truly. We have their physically blind but not unseen.
• 24:59
  We have Father Martin saying, when you see beyond it, you truly see. We have this gospel saying,
• 25:04
  and now you may see. And then we have Lisa, good ol' horny Lisa,
• 25:09
  saying, the blessed music rose inside me and sank me into true sight.
• 25:14
  There are so many mentions to this truer way of seeing, and I don't know if that's like the lucid dreaming.
• 25:20
  I don't even know what to tell you, because I don't know. I feel like this is a Reddit question too.
• 25:26
  I want to see what other people think.
• 25:28
  So you already touched on this, but like the point too to this question is, is Blake still alive?
• 25:33
  And I think we're kind of on the same page. We're like, yeah, I think he's alive, but he's a full blown Merk off subject now.
• 25:40
  The engine process is complete in him. I think he's wandering around the real world,
• 25:45
  but I think he's indefinitely visualizing Dreamland.
• 25:50
  We see him struggle more and more to separate the school timeline and this timeline.
• 25:55
  When he reviews the recordings he takes, it starts out very coherent and very sane when he records the pilot
• 26:03
  and the town where he's like, there's not supposed to be anything here.
• 26:06
  And then it slowly turns into, she hanged herself, or no, she didn't.
• 26:10
  And then it ends with him not correcting himself on anything about her getting to grow up and her getting to have a life.
• 26:17
  I don't think he can distinguish the difference anymore. I'm not sure he even knows the real world ever existed.
• 26:23
  I think he's permanently stuck in that timeline.
• 26:26
  He also has nothing to stay in this real world for.
• 26:29
  His whole purpose of surviving through this was to get to Lin, and we saw his determination.
• 26:35
  But now that he knows Lin is dead, there's nothing keeping him attached in the real world.
• 26:41
  And we know that Jessica is dead, but in the end he still sees her as alive.
• 26:47
  So he's already accepted the fact that he's living in a historically incorrect, unrealistic dream world.
• 26:56
  Okay, you gave me a crazy theory.
• 26:58
  Oh, what is it?
• 26:59
  So, I was trying to figure out, because the line when Jessica says, I'll never let you go,
• 27:04
  that's kind of what makes me think, like, that he's permanently here.
• 27:08
  Is Blake one of these lucid dreamers now?
• 27:10
  I don't think that's it, because you just said that he still has this baby in his arms.
• 27:15
  I think what might be going on here, I said maybe like I was a hillbilly.
• 27:20
  I think what's maybe going on here is, like we were saying with this breeding thing,
• 27:26
  maybe this is part of it and you can't see the baby, but maybe it's still there.
• 27:31
  And maybe the baby needs to be in this dreamland to survive.
• 27:36
  Oh, what?
• 27:39
  Okay, oh my gosh.
• 27:40
  What if this baby is dead in the real world because it's alive in the fake world?
• 27:47
  And it's like this life-giving thing, and he took the life in reality and moved it into the dream world,
• 27:53
  therefore giving Jessica life again.
• 27:56
  Because in the end, up until right before this, she was dead.
• 28:02
  He saw her in the stairs with Father L, right?
• 28:05
  But taking this baby might have been the one thing that, it's the life-giving thing.
• 28:11
  We've got a lot of crazy theories. This is going to be a fun one to edit.
• 28:15
  Yeah, we're in like a minute, an hour and 10, so let's move on.
• 28:19
  I know.
• 28:20
  And this might change a lot of our theories, which is why we saved it for after we gave our theories.
• 28:27
  I could have said that better, but oh well.
• 28:29
  We're going to read the Murkoff account comics, which bridges the gap between the first game and the second game.
• 28:35
  All right, so there are six editions of this Murkoff account comic.
• 28:41
  I don't think that the first one is particularly important for us for this game.
• 28:46
  I don't know if you had any notes on it. It's basically just a backstory for Chris Walker.
• 28:50
  It's very interesting. I do suggest reading it if you're a fan of the series, but I don't think that we really need to discuss it.
• 28:58
  But I do think that these were pretty interesting. I feel like the first one, not very captivating.
• 29:04
  It's just like, oh cool, we finally know what happened to Chris Walker and stuff.
• 29:09
  But I ended up by issue three or four maybe, I was like, this is good. I really like it.
• 29:15
  And I hope they continue to do this throughout the rest of the games.
• 29:19
  All the bridges and backstory, which is what I felt like was missing from the games.
• 29:23
  So I really like the way they delivered it.
• 29:26
  Oh yeah, I thought it was real. I mean, I read it twice and I caught things both times.
• 29:30
  So I think, yeah, it's really well done.
• 29:33
  Part two is where we get a little more information relevant to the second game. Not a lot, but...
• 29:40
  This is when we do hear references to Waylon and Miles and someone named Simon Peacock, all of which have played a part in trying to bring Murkoff down.
• 29:49
  And then we see this damage control team who are following in these comics.
• 29:53
  We see them sort of discovering the false pregnancies, which is tying into the second game.
• 29:58
  I don't know if there's anything else to say. Did you have any specific notes on part two?
• 30:03
  There's one part where Traeger is offering some stuff to Pauline and the quote is just too good to not mention, but it says,
• 30:14
  I turned down cocaine, so you offered me scotch. That's such a Traeger move.
• 30:19
  Nothing that Traeger does in these comics surprises me at all.
• 30:23
  Yeah, so in line with his character too.
• 30:26
  So we'll move to the part three, the third edition.
• 30:29
  And this is when all the poo poo hits the fan at Mount Massive. We see all the stuff with Glust Skin happening and Chris Walker turn off heads.
• 30:37
  And the damage control team is trying to track down Waylon.
• 30:41
  And they say that Miles was neutralized at Mount Massive, but it kind of seems the way they say it, like it's a cover.
• 30:47
  I think the neutralized part is because the level of security clearance is so different for everyone.
• 30:54
  That's just a good blanket term and some know what happened and some don't.
• 30:59
  Yeah, I agree. I think I have to do a security clearance because someone says and Miles Upshire was and then someone kind of cuts them off and says neutralized.
• 31:08
  And then they say, oh, right, neutralized.
• 31:11
  But then they also say it seems like they think Billy could still be alive.
• 31:15
  And so these two things seem kind of opposite to what it feels like we see in the first game.
• 31:19
  It feels more like Billy's dead and Miles is maybe alive, but as a wall rider.
• 31:24
  And this is when they go to investigate the home of Billy Hope's mother, which is where I got confused the first time because we thought he was dead, right?
• 31:34
  Like we saw him turn into a bloody soup in that fish bowl.
• 31:38
  So I find that interesting.
• 31:40
  I don't know if there's really anything important in the conversation with her, but when they're leaving, we see like these two wall rider figures above the trailer.
• 31:48
  And so that kind of makes you wonder why are there two of them?
• 31:51
  Is it Billy and Miles? I don't know.
• 31:54
  Did you have any thoughts on that? I thought so.
• 31:57
  I and I can't remember which issue was it that they said that Billy was like the first person to fully go through them successfully go through the morphogenic engine.
• 32:09
  And maybe that turned him not exactly a wall rider, but maybe like wall rider 3.0.
• 32:15
  Right. And that's this new thing, similar to what Miles is.
• 32:21
  And then eventually they think they killed a wall rider, but it seems to have just switched hosts to a colony of ants.
• 32:29
  Which makes me hate ants even more than I already do.
• 32:33
  You know, I've had bad experiences with ants.
• 32:36
  All right.
• 32:37
  Anything else in part three that you wanted to talk about?
• 32:41
  Well, seeing that they can switch the host into like animals and multiple animals, like an entire colony.
• 32:49
  Do you think that is even possible that if there could be more than one wall rider, maybe all those box elder bugs are another former wall rider that switched hosts into that?
• 33:02
  Yeah, I mean, we have these ants, we had the box elder bugs and then we had locusts too.
• 33:06
  So you never know.
• 33:09
  We have to say that so Billy ends up killing his own mom without even giving her a chance to explain.
• 33:14
  He just takes Pauline's word for it that he was sent there without any issues, which made me kind of sad if that was true.
• 33:23
  So moving on to part four, they search Miles' home and they find evidence, but it all gets destroyed when the ants possessed by the wall rider eat it.
• 33:33
  And then they run into Simon Peacock, who I think is the OG whistleblower.
• 33:37
  And he gives Paul coordinates and asks him to investigate, but he decides not to.
• 33:43
  So yeah, not a lot really to discuss there except how the ants get there so fast.
• 33:48
  Maybe it sounds like they emailed them.
• 33:49
  So maybe this goes back into the radio waves, some sort of electronic thing at play here.
• 33:54
  But to summarize part five, we see that Paul has decided to secretly investigate the coordinates.
• 34:01
  And this is when he runs into Annabelle and we see what happened with her.
• 34:05
  It also looks like one of these blasts of light occurs while Paul is there and he starts having these wicky nightmares about his wife's death.
• 34:12
  And so this is also where we confirm that the radio towers are Murkoff because we can see the M logo on the towers.
• 34:19
  So it makes sense that they're also the ones controlling the frequency of when all those different flashes of lights happen.
• 34:29
  And then that baby, though, that baby was actually real.
• 34:33
  It wasn't the what did they call them?
• 34:36
  The no psychosomatic thing.
• 34:39
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:41
  So so we know that there's different forms of pregnancy.
• 34:44
  Some result in an actual baby and some don't.
• 34:47
  But here's where I am either confused or there's a potential plot hole because in the start of Outlast 2 when Lynn says how the fetus just and we're like, just what?
• 34:59
  Like what would make sense in the context of this game and disappear just kind of what we landed on is what would make sense.
• 35:05
  And then with the ants, Pauline is saying what they emailed ants to him.
• 35:09
  So could this be like they could see the baby inside of Annabelle because they were using something electronic?
• 35:16
  Is there a correlation between electronics, radio waves and being able to visualize the child?
• 35:22
  And then at the time of birth, they couldn't see it anymore.
• 35:25
  Maybe it's what we were saying where the baby's protected and the side effect affected mother.
• 35:31
  But when it enters the real world, it needs to be in this dream state, this dreamland to be able to survive or to be visualized.
• 35:39
  Because I don't believe based off of what Lynn said that this child was born and it was normal.
• 35:44
  And then when it's obvious Annabelle has memory of more cuff related events, Pauline murders her.
• 35:49
  But a big takeaway for me from this part is it seems like Temple Gate was not after Mount Massive.
• 35:57
  This seems like it was going on at the same time, maybe even before.
• 36:00
  So I think that answers one of our questions, which this could have been going on for a long time,
• 36:05
  which would explain all the references to like growing up and childhood and all of that.
• 36:11
  So I think that answers that question.
• 36:14
  Yeah.
• 36:15
  All right, so the epilogue, this is when actually the ant colony destroys the radio tower.
• 36:21
  And when we see this, one of the frames shows a big blast of light.
• 36:25
  And I'm wondering if that could be what was mistaken for the sun exploding.
• 36:30
  And maybe when it crashed, it even sent out some sort of radio signal.
• 36:35
  I don't know. Do you think that that could be what Blake saw?
• 36:38
  I would be surprised if something very absurd has a very logical reasoning behind it.
• 36:45
  Like a sun exploding sounds pretty wild.
• 36:49
  But then if it's just a radio tower blast, and we've seen transformers accidentally like someone like crashes into it.
• 36:55
  It's like this massive shock to the light.
• 36:57
  So it actually makes more sense that the light is coming from just these radio towers blowing up instead of a sun blowing up.
• 37:05
  Especially when he's got his weird hallucination mind going.
• 37:09
  Sometime later in Temple Gate, they find a deadlin and a still alive Blake.
• 37:15
  And they're going to dig into his head.
• 37:18
  And they say that he is completely catatonic.
• 37:21
  So I think we were right in our assessment of what's happening to Blake.
• 37:25
  I think he is stuck in Dreamland. His brain is just there.
• 37:31
  So this is where we're going to really start digging into these more.
• 37:34
  So at the end of the epilogue, we have Simon Peacock talking to Paul.
• 37:38
  And I'm just going to read the whole quote. It's pretty long.
• 37:41
  What they stumbled onto when Miles Upshire found Billy Hope in The Wall Writer is a masterpiece.
• 37:46
  The morphogenic engine process needs a delivery mechanism, a method of infection.
• 37:51
  At Mount Massive, in the lab, they could customize the process to the patient, force it into their brains with video, mold the nightmares to open their minds.
• 37:59
  But out in the real world, it's not surprising religion would be such an effective delivery mechanism.
• 38:04
  God's communicating with men. God's dividing themselves into components that men can understand.
• 38:09
  A trinity. Even in Temple Gate, they practice the sign of the cross.
• 38:13
  In the name of the Father, and then they show Warnocky.
• 38:16
  And of the Son, and they show The Wall Writer.
• 38:19
  And then of the Holy Spirit.
• 38:21
  And they show Noth.
• 38:24
  And this is where I get confused.
• 38:26
  Same!
• 38:28
  Maybe we'll back up just a little bit.
• 38:30
  And dissect the first half of the quote first.
• 38:32
  So back in the first edition, when we're looking at Chris Walker's origin, there's mention of Sumerian gods.
• 38:39
  And there's always a supernatural belief to make the patient sort of accept what's happening.
• 38:46
  So I think what they're saying about religion and gods is if the Wall Writer or the engine speaks to you, if you tell them it's a god, then they're going to listen.
• 38:55
  I mean, is that how you interpreted it?
• 38:58
  Yeah. There's talks about how religion is the easiest way to justify either converting someone into believing something or to even just get more sheeps and followers.
• 39:10
  And that's the case here is that they're using religion to justify all these nightmares or this therapy that they're giving.
• 39:18
  And that's the easiest way to get people to build trust.
• 39:24
  They can't even question it because they believe in a higher power.
• 39:27
  And the people who are saying that I am the higher power, they're the ones saying that, oh, great, we have people just blindly follow us and we can start experimenting on them.
• 39:36
  So that's how that probably doesn't answer your question, does it?
• 39:40
  Kind of. I don't think they're justifying it because I don't think they care if it's justified or not.
• 39:46
  I think they're using it as just a way to get them to believe, to not reject, because he says it needs a delivery mechanism and talks about customizing to force their brains, like basically into accepting the process.
• 40:02
  This thing is crazy and it's communicating with you. But what would make it not seem crazy? A higher power. Right.
• 40:09
  I think it's not justification. It's just what are they going to accept? What are they going to believe?
• 40:16
  And that's why the people who are maybe more susceptible, like Knoth and Father Martin, become these sort of leaders and religious type figure leaders.
• 40:29
  And that's why they gain a following, because they're basically what's spreading it.
• 40:34
  So the whole purpose of all this, kind of taking you another step back, why is Simon revealing all this to Paul?
• 40:45
  Is it more for us just to get an understanding and to think about it, or is it more for an explanation of what's happening?
• 40:53
  Or do you think that this whole thing is going to be into an at last three?
• 40:58
  I also have some questions and I think it's because I think they rushed the ending of this epilogue,
• 41:04
  because they just have these two talking and Simon's asking Miles and Paul says dead, the Walrider killed.
• 41:11
  And so they just very quickly say these things that I don't even believe, and Simon accepts it and then just starts spilling his guts about what's going on.
• 41:20
  I found it to be rushed and confusing. But let's dig into this weird Trinity thing, because the first two make sense to me.
• 41:27
  Warnocky would definitely be the father and he created the water, so that would definitely be the son, but the Holy Spirit being Noth, I don't follow.
• 41:36
  I feel like they're just forcing his character to fit with it.
• 41:42
  I do... if Noth was so powerful, I guess, in transforming all that stuff, I feel like he wouldn't have killed himself in the end.
• 41:55
  I think the closest we can get to it is probably through the baby that I don't think is there.
• 42:02
  But maybe there's something, maybe they create something and that is part of Nosplad.
• 42:08
  I'm wondering now if we're looking at this from the wrong angle, because Simon says it's an effective delivery mechanism.
• 42:16
  If we go back to at last one and they're talking about belief in the Walrider being airborne and it affecting scientists and doctors,
• 42:24
  maybe Warnocky is the one who convinces those types of people to accept the morphogenic engine, because they believe in that kind of thing, right?
• 42:36
  Science and Warnocky is a scientist. And then the Walrider is the delivery mechanism for these mentally disturbed individuals, right?
• 42:47
  And then maybe Noth is the delivery mechanism for just the subjects that are not mentally disturbed, like the patients at the asylum.
• 42:58
  I could see that. I guess the purpose is through spreading horror, because what did Noth do that really...
• 43:06
  The thing was that his religion wasn't really preaching anything similar to what Warnocky or about the Walrider.
• 43:14
  So I think that's where the disconnect for me is. Yeah, but I guess it does get them, the followers to accept the nightmares,
• 43:24
  which are administered by Murkoff. So maybe that's the connection, but I still feel like it's weak.
• 43:32
  I feel like Noth being on the same level as Warnocky and the Walrider is weak.
• 43:37
  It's almost like Simon is saying, at Mount Massive, with these tests, it was like molding minds to get them to accept versus what's happening at Temple Gate is getting them to believe on their own,
• 43:48
  without having to morph their brains, you know? I can understand that perspective, but it doesn't answer the question of who is Noth to Murkoff.
• 43:57
  And I think that's the question that now remains.
• 44:01
  Moving on though to our other, I think, biggest question from after reading these is, what's up with the Walrider? Right?
• 44:09
  It seems like Miles was the Walrider, but it seems like Billy's the Walrider now, and are they their own Trinity?
• 44:15
  Is Billy and the Walrider and Miles the Trinity, or is Billy the Walrider now? Were they that connected?
• 44:21
  Is that what completing the morphogenic engine process gets you, is you are the Walrider?
• 44:28
  I think that's the thing, though. I'm thinking that there can be more than one Walrider, and when we talk about the Holy Trinity, and we see that there's something wrong with Simon, he's deteriorating or something,
• 44:38
  I'm actually thinking that maybe what if everything's in threes, right? Maybe the three future Walriders that all exist in the same place,
• 44:47
  would be Miles, Simon, and Billy.
• 45:02
  Here's why I disagree. I disagree just because Simon is describing all of these things, and he says what they stumbled on when Miles found Billy Hope and the Walrider.
• 45:12
  So to me, that's three right there, because Miles is one, he found Billy, that's two, and the Walrider, that's three. So he's not lumping himself in with that.
• 45:22
  Another quote, I think Paulina said it, she says, basically after all the poop pit the fan at Mount Massive, and something new was created.
• 45:33
  And so I think that something new that was created is this Trinity of Miles, Billy, and the Walrider.
• 45:42
  Would something come out of Blake, though? Do you think he'll, maybe it's not Simon, and it's not the Walrider, but maybe it's Blake.
• 45:52
  Well, and that goes into a question I have, because, well, first of all, I think we need to decide, are Miles and Billy tied up in the Walrider, because another quote is,
• 46:03
  IT just got a ping on Miles Upshur's account from a cell tower outside Nathrop, Colorado. Miles Upshur had no connections to the town of Nathrop, but when we ran it against Mount Massive patient files, Nathrop, is it Nathrop or Nanthrop? I wrote it three different ways. Anyway.
• 46:23
  So we have a connection to Miles and Billy right there, right? Miles account, but Billy's location, and then at some point Miles' neighbor says that she saw him last night.
• 46:34
  There's a visualization now of both of them as well, after they're both supposed to be dead, apparently. So are they basically existing simultaneously in the Walrider?
• 46:47
  And then my follow up before you answer that question is, when he kills his mother, he says, I'll take care of you, Mom.
• 46:56
  So do you think that the Walrider slash Billy, can it keep its victims with him? And is that what Dreamland is? Is that like the Walrider's realm? And then they can morph into whoever's there? Like, why are we seeing both of them?
• 47:12
  And with all the radio frequency, and I don't know how frequencies work, but I can assume that they can teleport to locations pretty quickly. So that's why they're able to spot them there. And maybe that was just Miles destroying more evidence by getting the ants to do it, or maybe he helped deliver those ants.
• 47:31
  And that's why he was spotted.
• 47:33
  Yeah, you're right. We do see those two figures at the same time. And so maybe Miles is still possessed by this original Walrider, but maybe for Billy, because he was so successful in the Walrider treatment, maybe when he dies, he becomes a Walrider.
• 47:53
  Maybe that could be how it works. And maybe that would explain why they're saying Noth is the spirit, because maybe he died and became a Walrider.
• 48:03
  Honestly, some questions answered, some questions discovered, some new questions.
• 48:09
  So part five, KFC. I'm just gonna have you pick because it's so hard to list out reasons. So who do you think my KFC is?
• 48:19
  Uh, Lynn?
• 48:21
  No. So it's not Lynn, it's Ethan. Do you remember Ethan?
• 48:26
  Oh god, I forgot about Ethan.
• 48:28
  Right? I had a look at some of the different characters in this game just to come up with it. I guess Ethan, because I mean, he didn't have to keep Blake alive, but he did. The Kentucky Scorcher. I feel like he didn't really leave me a choice though, to be honest, because there really is no-
• 48:42
  I didn't leave you a choice. Red Barrels didn't leave you a choice.
• 48:45
  Yes, sorry. Sorry, Red Barrels did not leave me a choice. I mean, Blake, we've never seen his face, but who else was I supposed to choose? And I don't even know who I chose in the original, so you're gonna have to tell me.
• 49:01
  Okay. You left me notes again.
• 49:05
  Oh, yay.
• 49:07
  In the PowerPoint. So, okay.
• 49:09
  I'm excited.
• 49:10
  I love the PowerPoint. You only had four options. There were Slam Pickens in this one. This is your initial reaction actually just to the slide in general of all four characters.
• 49:21
  Okay.
• 49:22
  Ugh. And then you said number one, which is a picture of Father Lauder Milt, you said. Has the looks like a priest but is a murderer vibe. So that was pretty good.
• 49:32
  Yeah. Cool.
• 49:33
  Number two is Father Knoth and you said, probably has been a thug his whole life and has no other ambitions.
• 49:40
  And then number three is Nick and Laird, a creepy duo.
• 49:47
  And you said, first impression is, is he a zombie? Is his face bandaged? Or what is going on?
• 49:54
  And apparently that was your only reaction.
• 49:57
  Number four and final is Ethan, who I forgot about. And you said, the dude looks like he owns a cabin in the middle of nowhere and people go there for shelter when they're lost in the woods.
• 50:08
  Only to find out he's on the FBI's most wanted list. You capitalized that properly, which I find hilarious.
• 50:14
  For being a serial killer on the loose. And then you're going to watch all your friends die as you try to escape only to run into a trap that you get stuck in as he's catching up and then captures you making you his dinner cannibal lecture style.
• 50:26
  I'm going to cheat and say literally no one.
• 50:31
  Why is this so accurate? That's how I feel.
• 50:34
  Because you wrote it.
• 50:38
  Okay.
• 50:42
  I don't even know what to say.
• 50:45
  Okay, at least you didn't pick Gordy Kramer over Norman Jaden again. At least we didn't enter into that situation.
• 50:52
  Oh my gosh.
• 50:54
  But you know what I have to say that you are here by band.
• 50:58
  You are never allowed to not pick anybody.
• 51:01
  You must make a selection.
• 51:04
  Did you not know I didn't choose anyone?
• 51:07
  Yeah, I knew.
• 51:08
  Okay.
• 51:09
  What was I going to do about it?
• 51:11
  You're going to probably force me to go back and choose one.
• 51:15
  I understand why you picked Blake though because if you reverse engineer like, Lynn's not ugly.
• 51:21
  And he married her.
• 51:24
  He's got to be a decent looking fella, right?
• 51:27
  I expected you to pick Father Loudermilch.
• 51:30
  You didn't know he was such a creep at that time.
• 51:33
  He looks like a creep?
• 51:34
  Okay, but compared to the people who look like zombies, he at least looks like a normal human man.
• 51:41
  No, he's a creepy. I could spot him a mile away.
• 51:47
  Well, it's outlast.
• 51:48
  Yeah.
• 51:50
  Stale Biscuit.
• 51:52
  Who do you think I chose?
• 51:53
  Father Loudermilch.
• 51:55
  Yeah.
• 51:56
  I mean, you heard my opinions.
• 51:59
  He's a killer.
• 52:01
  He's a manipulator.
• 52:02
  He's a pedophile.
• 52:04
  He's a rapist.
• 52:07
  I mean, there's more.
• 52:10
  I mean, he's worse than medicine.
• 52:13
  Finally.
• 52:14
  Yeah.
• 52:15
  I mean, once a freaking child rapist and killer and a pedophile and another one is just like, yes, I don't like medicine, but she didn't kill kids.
• 52:26
  She didn't do a whole lot to save them either.
• 52:29
  Like, let's just let this rain keep rising and maybe I'll get a book out of it.
• 52:35
  Anyway, though, moving on to the final battery and bandage count.
• 52:39
  So your game total guess for batteries was 38.
• 52:45
  The correct answer is 40.
• 52:50
  Oh, so that wasn't bad, but you're not getting a pack of Costco batteries.
• 52:54
  Sorry.
• 52:56
  And then your game total guess for bandages was 18 and the correct answer is 25.
• 53:03
  So not quite as close that time.
• 53:06
  I'm pretty proud to be just too off for batteries.
• 53:11
  It's not too shabby.
• 53:13
  All right.
• 53:14
  So last order of business is the next game quote.
• 53:17
  And some of you might have noticed I did not put the correct quote in the Yakuza Kiwami summary.
• 53:25
  So if you did not guess Outlast 2, you're off the hook.
• 53:29
  It was my bad.
• 53:31
  But the good news is you get another chance to guess the quote.
• 53:34
  So here is the quote for our next game.
• 53:37
  And let us know what your guess is.
• 53:39
  You might win something.
• 53:40
  Damn things gonna be crooked by the time I'm done with this city.
• 53:44
  Well, you know, I really hoped that we would have more answers by the end of this game.
• 53:48
  I don't think we do.
• 53:50
  I'm still confused.
• 53:52
  No, I think there's a lot going on in their creation, and I'm excited to see what they bring next.
• 54:02
  Agreed.
• 54:03
  We might have to tackle the Outlast trials at some point soon.
• 54:07
  See if that can actually tie some of these loose ends together.
• 54:10
  But unless it asks more questions.
• 54:12
  I know that's what my worry is.
• 54:15
  But I think that's it for now.
• 54:17
  I guess it's time to hop off.
• 54:20
  All right.
• 54:21
  And Asody on one, three, two, one.
• 54:25
  Thank you for listening.
• 54:26
  And don't forget to send in any questions, comments or game suggestions.
• 54:29
  You can find all our contact info on our website, replayreviewspod.com or contact us directly through our site.
• 54:35
  Do we completely miss something?
• 54:37
  Are we way off the mark?
• 54:38
  Or you just want us to take a deeper look at anything from the game?
• 54:41
  We'll tackle any topics you all want to hear in our season wrap up episode.
• 54:45
  We also have a Reddit where we discuss anything we're curious about.
• 54:48
  Go take a look and let us know what you're thinking.
• 54:51
  Think you can guess which game is up next based on this obscure quote?
• 54:54
  Damn things gonna be crooked by the time I'm done with this city.
• 54:58
  Message us on Instagram or contact us through our website to see if you're right.
• 55:02
  Our theme music is Condemned by Eggy Toast.
• 55:04
  They'll play you out and we'll be back next week with a new game.
• 55:34
  Thanks for watching.