Remedy Connected Universe: Alan Wake ending explained
Alan Wake is set in the fictional American town of Bright Falls. It follows the titular character, Alan Wake, a famous crime writer who suffers from writer’s block vacationing in the town with his wife, Alice. When Alice is kidnapped by an evil presence, Alan has to fight monsters that come from a dimension known as The Dark Place to rescue her. Meanwhile, he’s trying to piece together a manuscript he doesn’t remember writing that seemingly foreshadows the game’s events.
The game ends with Alan reaching Cauldron Lake, the source of power for The Dark Place, and jumping into the lake to reach the other dimension. It’s here that he becomes trapped by the evil forces that inhabit the dark place, and continues work on a new manuscript, seemingly allowing Alice to escape in exchange for his entrapment.
The game ends with Alan finishing his work on the manuscript, saying “It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean”. This implies that the Dark Place and the evil entity that’s trapped him stretches much farther across the world than just Bright Falls.
The ending also sets up some other potential plot threads to be explored in sequels, namely having a doppelganger of Alan called Mr. Scratch walking around in the real world, as well as Rose and Agent Nightingale taking on their new roles as the harbingers of light and darkness.
Control AWE DLC: Alan Wake connections
Control’s second DLC, AWE, delved deeper into the lore that connects the game with Alan Wake, while also setting up some plot threads to be explored in future sequels of both titles.
The DLC involves Jesse heading to the Investigations Sector of the Oldest House, which holds the Bright Falls AWE as a result of the events of Alan Wake. She is summoned here by an apparition of Wake, who guides her through this sector of the building.
Most importantly, the DLC provides some context on what happens to Dr Emil Hartman. In Alan Wake, he was a psychologist who owned a clinic for artists who were struggling to produce new pieces of work. In reality, Hartman used the clinic to try and harness the power of Cauldron Lake by leveraging the artists’ work.
By the time of Control’s AWE DLC, it’s revealed his research was later confiscated by FBC agents and he ended up diving into the lake itself in a final effort to study it. This caused him to be taken over by The Dark Presence and later contained in the Oldest House.
During the events of Control, the Hiss invasion of the FBC causes Hartman to breach containment and become twisted into a new kind of monster. Jesse, still seeing visions of Wake, ultimately defeats Hartman in the Bright Falls AWE area and is able to contain the sector.
What’s most interesting about this DLC is that it ends with the FBC receiving a report of a new AWE coming from Bright Falls, but it’s dated several years into the future. This sets up the events for Alan Wake 2, featuring a return to Bright Falls.