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If anyone wants the explanation, Resident Evil Requiem launched with a funny little in-game challenge called "The Final Puzzle", with the ambiguous description of "Let the sweet pair hear the voice."

In a game where most challenges are described as clearly as "Beat the story on Insanity difficulty", this quickly generated a lot of excited and confused people coming up with ideas as to how to get this challenge. This speculation ran RAMPANT, and lead a lot of people to believing that it was part of an ARG, jumping at the chance to draw up any obscure or strange seeming hint for potential relevancy. We are talking full blown mew-is-under-the-truck-in-pokemon-red-and-blue type nonsense speculation.

Of course, a few people stumbled through and got it, but weren't sure how they got it. People started to piece together some of the pieces -- "the sweet pair" likely referred to Emily, a young girl who serves a role in the main story, and her friend, Marie, who she hadn't seen in a while (but likely became one of the main monsters of the game, referred to as The Girl). Now, The Girl dies in the story, but Marie's room still has her doll in it.

The problem was, you couldn't really interact with the doll in any way, and there wasn't any way to play a sound in the room. But, some players -- most notably, GengarCollects on Youtube -- discovered that significantly later into the story, you can get an item called Marie's Doll, in a completely different area than where Marie and Emily's rooms were. And, once you beat the game having received the doll, it would remain in your inventory storage through new runs of the game. This cemented the likelihood that people needed the doll and Emily (who can travel with you for some of the game), to take them somewhere.

Of course, the problem then became -- how do you get the doll? Players were starting to solve what to do with the doll and with Emily, but the way to get the doll was not clear in the slightest. This is where toiletgate happens -- some players, including GengarCollects -- started to spread the rumor that you needed to flush the game's toilets at least 8 times as part of a mandatory step. The notion was laughable, seeming completely unrelated to other, more concrete hints that had more support in the game's lore. Other rumors spread at the same time, including shooting Marie's doll.

And yet, when the dust settled, toiletgate was real -- flushing at least one of the toilets at least eight times was confirmed to be a required step to getting the Doll. Those steps are well documented elsewhere, including this reddit post which appears to be the original solve and lore explanation. If you're curious about more specifics, I'd check there. Personally, I didn't keep up with a lot of the speculation as it happened, since I only picked the game up about a week after release.

I tracked down a copy of this invaluable classic and somehow got my hands on a near pristine copy secondhand from the 4th printing. It’s lost the dustjacket, alas, but that means I got it for like £5 and not the £4200 a first edition printing in fine condition goes for.

(Who’s the author? *looks at smudge on spine* uhhhh Mkkhill Montanann)

It looks right at home in my bookcase 🥰

Under the cut: a look inside at what the book holds: