shouldve: (Default)
blake langermann. ([personal profile] shouldve) wrote2017-05-11 07:01 pm

canon interpretation

OUTLAST 2 SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT! CONTENT WARNING FOR VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, BASICALLY EVERYTHING.

Given Outlast 2's ambiguous plot, I decided to outline the interpretation of the canon that I personally am playing from; I'm open to adjusting this in any threads or PSLs, just let me know!

TEMPLE GATE:
  • The Temple Gate delusions were caused by microwaves from the radio tower as part of a mind control experiment by Murkoff, as evidenced by the document found by the lake.

  • The helicopter crash was caused by the flash of white light from the Murkoff tower, but was a genuine accident. Purely my own opinion, since there doesn't seem to be any evidence suggesting Murkoff took the helicopter down.

  • Everything "supernatural" witnessed after the first flash of light that took the helicopter down, such as it raining blood, the signs of the end times, etc., is a hallucination.

  • Lynn was sexually assaulted when taken by the Knoth cultists. This is never actually stated, but given the other actions of the cultists and Lynn's refusal to talk about what happened, it's what I'm going with.

  • Blake never mentions Val by pronouns and Red Barrels just states that "Val is Val", but since every document he has read involving Val has used "him" pronouns, I imagine those are the ones he would use. Given the divisive nature of anything surrounding Val's gender, I'm happy to change this as I have no strong opinion.

  • The dust/powder blown into his face in the mines by the heretic is some sort of drug. Given the description of the cut scene and the overall actions of the heretics, I think one can safely assume Val sexually assaults Blake. Due to what I assume is the drug making him woozy, he hallucinates the school scene with Jessica and Father Loutermilch during.

  • Lynn's pregnancy is entirely psychosomatic, similar to the often fatal psychosomatic pregnancies experienced by female Murkoff employees when around the Morphogenic Engine. She dies either from the same thing that caused the Murkoff employees to die, or from internal bleeding caused by either the helicopter crash or Knoth's examination.

  • Going along with the above point, there was no baby, Blake's or otherwise. The pregnancy is impossible, the birth is far too quick, the baby has no shadow, and Lynn says "there's nothing there". If the Knoth seen after the birth is real — we'll get to that in a second — he only mentions seeing the baby because of the mass hallucination or because Blake has already swaddled the baby by the time he arrives, meaning all he sees is a swaddle of cloth.

  • It doesn't matter much, but I personally assume the Knoth seen in the last scene of the game (in the chapel with the baby) is a hallucination. The bench he's sitting on does not exist when Blake and Lynn enter the room, and his death seems to mirror that of Father Loutermilch's for Blake, at least feelings-wise.

  • The bright light seen at the end of the game is not a nuke sent to wipe out Temple Gate — why do so when all the test subjects have already committed suicide? — nor the actual apocalypse, but either another hallucination, the radio tower being destroyed, or simply a stronger flash of the radio tower's light than we've previously seen. For this reason, I assume Blake survives past the end of the game.

    My default will be that it was simply another hallucination — especially since it was followed by another school/Jessica hallucination and that the "end of the world" make sense for Blake to hallucinate after hallucinating signs of an impending apocalypse — but I'm amenable to changing that.


ST. SYBIL:
  • Jessica's father was at least physically abusive to her, as evidenced by the message on her computer asking if you can call the cops if it's your family raising a hand to you and her apparent fear of Father Loutermilch calling her father.

  • Jessica was sexually abused by Father Loutermilch. There's been some controversy over whether she was sexually abused or abused in other ways, but due to sexually suggestive cut footage, the demon (meant to resemble Loutermilch) having several wandering hands and a very prominent tongue that he literally shoves down Blake's throat, and Loutermilch's general creepiness coupled with the sexually aggressive vibe of the game, I think it's practically confirmed.

  • Given the thing above about the Loutermilch demon shoving his tongue down Blake's throat and his apparent lack of sex life with Lynn, who he doesn't seem to have a troubled marriage with beyond that, some people have suggested that Blake was also sexually abused by Loutermilch. I don't know if this is true and I'm not saying one way or another, necessarily, but I definitely think he was scarred by knowing what Loutermilch did to Jessica and that Loutermilch abused him at least emotionally, which I'll talk about more in a second.

  • Father Loutermilch killed Jessica in the stairwell, most likely on accident, and thus starts Blake's cycle of repressing the memories by telling him he didn't see "what you think you saw." This is definitely controversial and I've seen a lot of different theories, so I'm all right adjusting to other ones, such as Jessica committing suicide after the fact.

  • Assuming the above is true, Blake was coerced into keeping the secret and possibly even made to believe that Jessica really did commit suicide (which Loutermilch likely staged) through emotional manipulation. Blake apparently being a huge pushover, at least according to Jessica, does what Loutermilch says, whether it's leaving Jessica alone with him or not telling a soul what happened in the stairwell that night.

  • I personally believe Loutermilch staged Jessica's suicide after convincing Blake she wasn't dead, and he came to school the next morning to see it as evidenced by his lines about not being strong enough to hold her up, etc.

  • Loutermilch appears to become a much bigger figure in Blake's life after this, since all the lines echoing in Blake's mind appear to take place after Jessica's death, such as "You're not evil, Blake, just confused" and "Let me help you." His representation as Blake's own personal demon corroborates this.

  • This would mean Blake's nonsensical ramblings in The Storm recording — "We're out. I got Jessica out. It was cold but the snow had just started. We'll find a grownup and we'll tell them what happened. We'll be okay. It's not my fault." — were just that, nonsensical ramblings. He clearly shows a desire to not let what happened to Jessica happen to Lynn, and certain things happening in modern day parallel what happened at St. Sybil, so I believe that, in his hallucinating mind, he was confused between Lynn and Jessica, modern day and the past.

  • The scene at the end involving the two endings — one with Jessica with rope marks around her neck, etc. and one without — seem to have to do with documents and recordings collected and likely represent whether or not Blake has fully uncovered the true memories of what happened or is still repressing the truth.


If you don't agree and still want to play, that's totally okay. I'm willing to adapt to your interpretation given that there's nothing that officially conflicts it, just shoot me a PM or something.