I was joking about Kojima doing something freaky with Heartman in Death Stranding 2 but never in my wildest imagination could I have come up with this.
Spoilers below the cut.
This right here has some insane implications for Heartmanβs future love life.
Deadman and Sam are this gameβs version of Hal and Snake from Metal Gear Solid. In their first game together Hal will ride off into the sunset with Snake if Meryl, the female love interest, dies and in subsequent games Snake and Hal have moved in together and raised a daughter though Snake still has flings with women here and there. Even though theyβre never a confirmed couple itβs strongly implied by them living as a family and they get a lot of callbacks to other confirmed couples, including confirmed same-sex couples.
Sam and Deadman arenβt far off. Once they start suspecting that they canβt trust the president Deadman joins Sam in the shower partly to drown out their conversation but he also press Sam up against the wall so itβll look like theyβre having sex. That way no one will wonder why theyβre always sneaking off together. But later on they get a much more emotional connection and in a heartfelt scene Deadman puts his hand on baby Louβs pod as if it was a pregnant belly and basically asks Sam βThe three of us, weβre a family, arenβt we?β and by the end they hold Lou together looking exactly like a couple of loving dads. Before they part ways they hold each other tight in a way Sam hasnβt done with anyone else. In the second game Deadman even tells Fragile he knows Samβs body better than anyone, which is even less subtle than βI know the major better than anyoneβ from Metal Gear which is considered one of the most explicit confirmations of a gay couple in the franchise.
So Sam is devastated when he learns Deadman died in Death Stranding 2. Deadman plays a cruel joke on Sam by letting him think he can hug him only for Sam to tumble through the holographic message. In Deadmanβs defence he didnβt know heβd be dead by then and probably assumed theyβd be able to hold each other for real eventually.
He still found a way to return to Sam though. He donated his heart to Heartman who had abused his own heart to the point of breaking it completely. With Deadman and Heartmanβs newfound connection Deadman is now able to possess Heartmanβs body in the three minutes Heartman dies every 21 minutes and later on they seem to come to an agreement where Deadman can take over Heartmanβs body whenever he wants.
Deadman in Heartmanβs body lures Sam to a hidden corner where he explains the situation and Sam eagerly throws himself into Deadmanβs armsβ¦just in time for Heartman to wake up. Everything about both Sam and Heartmanβs reactions tells us this wasnβt an innocent hug. Heartman clearly feels confused and violated so Dollman asks Sam to leave so he can explain the situation to Heartman.
Heartman seems to really think it over because one morning Sam wakes up in Heartmanβs lab just as Heartman is coming back to life, suggesting Deadman had a hand in setting the situation up. Heartman sits down uncomfortably close to Sam as if heβs trying to tell him something. They talk about the state of the world for a bit before Heartman tells Sam that he too is in love with a woman, The Hydrologist, who lives in his lab and who has build a hotspring for Heartman, comparing the hotspring to love and making love. He then tells Sam that he can use his hotspring whenever he wants. No prices for guessing what he means.
We donβt know if Sam takes him up on the offer but Heartman basically told him βIβm okay with the three of you sharing my bodyβ The Hydrologist even calls Heartman βour shared friendβ whenever she talks to Sam. Just wild Kojima.
