When it comes to Remedy Entertainment, the studio is a masterclass in pushing the boundaries of narrative and game design in video games, creating mind-bending and thought-provoking stories with unique visuals and elements you may’t get quite anywhere else.Alan Wake 2is no exception, delivering one of the twistiest, most ambitious, and most compelling Remedy stories yet.
Alan Wake 2continues to bridge the shared universe with Controlwhile also returning to Bright Falls and introducing new characters that get sucked into the neverending battle between Alan’s stories from the Dark Place and reality. And there are enough twists and turns to generate an entire list discussing them!
In-depth discussion of plot details and spoilers for Alan Wake 2 below.
10Deputies Mulligan And Thornton Becoming Taken
Perhaps this won’t come as big of a surprise twist, more so if you played the first game, but theordinary characters in Bright Falls you grow fond ofend up as Taken. In Alan Wake 2, the comedic pair of deputies Mulligan and Thornton, who help you out at your first crime scene with Nightingale, become the Taken boss battle in Coffee World’s parade float Overlapduring the third Return chapter.
The twist comes in as Saga encounters Mulligan’s Taken form in the trailer park wearing the Cult of the Tree mask, so not only is he consumed by the Dark Presence, but also a confirmed cultist along with his partner. Their boss fight is particularly vicious and difficult, where they arise from the well in the Overlap, Thornton a sharpshooter from above while Mulligan gets up close with a shotgun.
9Saga Is A Seer Like Her Relatives Tor And Odin
Her last name is not a coincidence, because Saga Anderson is indeed related to Odin and Tor Anderson. The stories written in the Dark Place are changing reality and making her forget that she’s the daughter of Freya, making Tor her grandfather. Her name “Saga” itself is actually derived from Norse mythology for the “Seeress” goddess.
So now it all makes sense as to how Saga is ableto exist in the Mind Place and deduce her casesand hear the thoughts of the suspects she’s profiling. As her great grandfather, the All-Father Odin, explains, Saga is born with the hereditary ability of the Andersons as a Seer, and that’s also why he and Tor can take her place inside it.
8Sheriff Breaker’s Connection To Mr. Door And Jesse Faden
The first chapter in Saga’s story, Return 1, ends with two huge twists. One is that the corpse of Nightingale is resurrected in the morgue as Taken, and the other is Sheriff Tim Breaker disappearing before everyone’s eyes and ending up in the Dark Place. Even more of a shocking twist is the reveal that an average Joe from Bright Falls, like Breaker, has been seeing Mr. Door in his dreams for a while and is now doing investigative work on him in the Dark Place.
The last mention of Mr. Door was in Controlwhen the character Dylan Faden said Mr. Door appears in his dreams, precisely what’s been happening to Tim for a long time. Now he’s drawing up a whiteboard filled with stuff about polyhedrons, Mr. Door, and claiming to know a red-haired woman coming to get him (who’s undoubtedly protagonist Jesse Faden from Control). Breaker’s knowledge is utterly baffling.
7Alan And Scratch Were One Person When They Came Out Of The Overlap
This is one of the first huge twists in the game. When you complete the Overlap in the Witch’s Ladle by Cauldron Lakeand defeat Nightingale, Alan Wake does resurface from the Dark Place. The game leads you to believe it’s now the real Alan retelling his journey fighting Scratch in the Dark Place through the Initiation sections, but the truth comes out that Scratch has been inside Alan this entire time!
And it comes out the hard way in Return 6 - Scratch, where Alan is being held in a cell for questioning and reveals himself as Scratch to Saga, which leads to two boss fights with Scratch, first outside the Sheriff’s Station with the Dark Presence and then Alan’s possessed physical form at Cauldron Lake. In his escape, Scratch also kills Ilmo’s beloved twin brother, Jaakko Koskela.
6The Cult Of The Tree Is A Neighborhood Watch Led By Ilmo Koskela
In another shocking twist, you find out that the Cult of the Tree is not the antagonistic group you suspect it to be after all, nor is it a cult. Sure, their methods might be gruesome and unconventional, but their goal is an honorable one to help the people of Bright Falls and Watery deal with Taken emerging from Cauldron Lake. Killing them in their ritualistic way is how they ensure the bodies won’t become Taken.
Even more of a shocker, you discover the Cult of the Tree is led by none other than coffee enthusiast and creator of the Koskela Brothers commercials Ilmo Koskela. He explains to Saga that they’re on the same side of justice and light as everyone else, so no wonder they were after Alan. The group was originally the “Torchbearers,” but Ilmo wanted a more frightening name to ward off innocents from their business and opted to call it a cult.
5Scratch Taking Alex Casey’s Form
The next shocker with Scratch, after it’s revealed he was inside Alan, is what immediately follows when FBC agent Kiran Eztevez, Casey, Saga, Tor, and Odin attempt to trap him and contain his Dark Presence. Saga lures him into a special FBC cage, which causes a reaction that ultimately allows Scratch to possess Saga’s partner, Alex Casey.
Now Scratch has moved on from Alan and is using Alex Casey’s form, with the Clicker now in his possession and ready to do some damage to Bright Falls. In the next chapter, Deerfest, Alan will have one final chase sequence escaping an Alex Casey Scratch inside the Valhalla Nursing Home’s Wellness Center.
4Alan Stopped Himself From Finishing Return
This is both a mind-blowing and mind-bending twist in Alan Wake 2. The whole time in the Dark Place, Alan figured Scratch was nefariously rewriting the manuscript of Return, and he had to tirelessly rework the story to try to save everyone and preserve the balance. Well, after finding out his wife Alice took her own life, Alan shot who he thought was Scratch manipulating the manuscript in the Writer’s Room.
Except that it wasn’t Scratch typing away at the manuscript but rather a past version of himself from another loop, so Alan only prevented himself from fixing the Return manuscript and realized he was haunting Alice, not Scratch. He now repeats the loop by replacing his former version and sitting down to complete it with Saga.Even more trippy is the cryptic and perplexing ending, which has Alan proclaim what he’s going through is “not a loop, it’s a spiral.”
3Saga Going Through The Dark Place And Facing An Evil Double
In a shocking turn of events, Saga herself gets sent to the Dark Place. It all happens when Alex Casey becomes taken over by Scratch and throws Saga into Cauldron Lake. However, things start out differently for her, given her special Seer ability. Saga must first fight her own evil Dark Presence double inside the Mind Place, referred to as Other Saga, which manifests all of Saga’s worst anxieties.
When she escapes the Mind Place into the alternate reality world of the Dark Place, she immediately begins receiving phone calls, presumably from Alice Wake, who helps her with the exit strategy linked to the photos Alan placed in the shoebox at the statue. Also there to provide additional support is Sheriff Tim Breaker, who gives Saga a manuscript page he meant to give her back at the morgue before he disappeared, which describes the passageway Mr. Door uses to get to the statue.
2Room 306 In The Valhalla Nursing Home Is The Writer’s Room Attic
This twist was hiding in plain sight the whole time, but it came together nicely in the game’s final moments.In the Old Gods chapter, where you’re paying a harrowing visit to the Valhalla Nursing Home as Saga, there’s a metal door on the third floor marked with a Spiral that’s locked, and Ahti has a clever way of telling you it’s off-limits by saying now is not the time in his odd speech.
“Time is long for those who wait,” and toward the end of Return 8 - Deerfest, Ahti now believes you waited long enough and allows Alan to enter the spiral room. What’s hidden away behind 306? Why, only the location of Writer’s Room attic, where Alan has been spending all his time in the loop visiting the plot board and trying to fix the story of Return.
1Alice Wake Is Alive And Faked Her Suicide
There is a mid-credits scene in Alan Wake 2, so don’t exit right away once they start rolling and instead speed them up or skip because you’re going to want to see this. Alice Wake has one more recorded message addressed to her husband. It seems like she didn’t actually commit suicide as she led him to believe and that it was to make sure he was put on the correct course.
Furthermore, not only is she alive, but she’s been in contact with the FBC ever since Alan started haunting her, also supported by the email correspondence with agent Barry Wheeler on her home computer. She signs off that she voluntarily chose to come back to the Dark Place and that the “only way out of [Alan’s] loop is destruction or ascension.” The ascension part does indeed hint at the meaning of the spiral.
NEXT:Alan Wake 2: Things To Do After You Beat The Game
