Summary
- The ending of Alan Wake 2 leaves many questions unanswered, but a post-credit scene reveals that Alice's death was part of a plan to rescue Alan from the Dark Place.
- Alice faked her death in order to guide Alan without revealing herself to Scratch, who had invaded Alan's body, and orchestrates the events of the game to destroy Scratch.
- The line "It's not a loop, it's a spiral" carries depth and significance, representing Alan's slow progress and the circular structure of the game as he navigates the Dark Place.
Alan Wake 2's explosive ending took me a while to process. In typical Remedy fashion, it refuses to tie things up neatly, instead leaving many questions unanswered and many plot points unresolved. It isn't even clear whether or not our heroes managed to accomplish anything, or if they've just fallen deeper into the labyrinthine madness of the Dark Place. If you watch through the credits, you're treated to a pretty revealing post-credit scene that sets up the next chapter of Alan's story. And while the information it gives you may seem straightforward - and perhaps even a bit contrived - a close reading of this scene shows just how carefully constructed Alan Wake 2 actually is.
There's 2 parts to Alan Wake 2's post-credit scene. The first is a video log from Alan's wife, Alice. Throughout the game we're shown a sequence of videos from Alice meant to promote the opening of her new photo exhibit. Alice does not remember what happened to her in Bright Falls, but she's haunted by visions of Alan that slowly drive her to suicide. At first Alan believes it's Scratch pretending to be him to haunt Alice, but eventually he discovers that it was his own attempts to reach out to Alice from the Dark Place that caused her visions and eventually led to her death.
Alan Wake 2 Captures My Fear Of Old Age Like Nothing I've Ever Seen
Alan Wake 2 features a terrifying journey through a n♐ursing home that perfectly captures the fear of old age.
The post-credit scene (or technically mid-credit, but it's the only one) reveals that Alice did not actually kill herself. In a video she says is "just for you", Alice explains to Alan that she takes her death as part of a yet-unrevealed plan to rescue him from the Dark Place. She explains that she visited an organization (the FBC) when the haunting started, and when she got home she finally remembered what happened to her in Cauldron Lake, and realized that Alan sacrificed himself to rescue her. She says she had to mislead Alan about her death so that she could get Alan to where he "needed to be". Finally, she says that destruction and ascension are the only way out, and as he gets closer to escaping, she'll continue showing him the images he needs to see until he's ready.
They may all seem too convenient at first, but looking back it was well-telegraphed. Though Alan and Saga are still trapped in the Dark Place, they accomplished something important that, until the final moments of the story, neither of them realized they were even trying to do. Alan believes that Scratch, the physical manifestation of the Dark Entity, is pretending to be him, but we learn during Saga's rescue attempt that Scratch has invaded Alan's body, and that the two are sharing part-time access to his consciousness. Alice figures this out and orchestrates the events of Alan Wake 2 in order to destroy Scratch, including providing Saga with the photos of the clicker and bullet of light she uses to kill him. When Alice begins her video revealing that she's still alive by saying "this one's just for you", she means that it's for Alan to see once Scratch is no longer hiding inside his mind.
Alice's visit to the FBC isn't mentioned until this moment in Alan Wake 2, but it isn't featured in the Control expansion AWE, so the hints were there that there was more to her story. The details of her plan to rescue Alan are left vague, but this isn't just a deus ex machina. She needed a way to guide Alan without revealing herself to Scratch. By faking her death she seemingly gives the Dark Place a way to further torment Alan, giving her the ability to slip in and start pulling strings undetected. Getting rid of Scratch is just the first step of Alan's escape, and as Alice's video explains, freeing himself from Scratch will allow him to break the loop and ascend out of the Dark Place.
The other part of this scene is Alan waking up after being shot by Saga and proclaiming, “It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral.” This is, of course, a call-back to the original Alan Wake, which ended with Alan announcing, “It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean.” That line has become a calling card for Alan Wake fans over the last 13 years, and a source of endless speculation about what would happe𓃲n in the sequel. But just as that line has unexpected depth, pun intended, so too does Alan’s statement about loops and spirals.
At a surface level, Alice’s final message gives plenty of context. Alan is getting close to f♔inding his way out now, and while it may feel like he’s trapped in a loop, going in circles over and over again, he’s actually been making slow progress after all. Thus, it’s a spiral: it looks like a loop, but it has an end.
It’s a clever line when you consider the actual structure of the game. Every journey♛ into an overlap is loop-like, with repeating rooms and hallways meant to make Saga feel lost and confused. But each “loop” through these spaces is slightly different from the one before. It’s the same with Alan in the Dark Place, especially when he gets stuck roaming the hallways of the television studio. The code to open the door changes from 666 to 665. The directions of the hallways change from one loop to the next. There’s always something new to see as you make your way around the spiral. The entire game has a circular structure as you travel back and forth between Bright Falls, Watery, and Cauldron Lake, repeating your steps but inching your way closer to the truth.
If you watched Thomas Zane’s film Nightless Night in the movi💜e theater, you hear Alex Casey utter the same line. In the film, a man (played by Sam Lake/Alex Casey) is tricked by Barb🌠ara Jagger into being sacrificed by cultist ritual by Barbara so that he can trade places with Thomas Zane in the Dark Place. That’s a lot to unpack, but what’s interesting is how different the line, “It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral” is used in Nightless Night compared to when Alan says it.
When Lake’s character finds himself in the Dark Place, the realization is filled with terror. Alan, on the other hand, says it as a revelation - a eureka moment. That makes sense, after all, spirals turn in two directions. You can spiral your way in, falling deeper and deeper into oblivion, like the character Nightless Night, or you can spiral your way out, following a path that seems to continue on indefinitely until it's suddenly over. Two ends to a spiral, or as Alice says, destruction and salvation.
