Imagine you wrote a poem and then turned around and the journal you wrote it in is now gone, so you go about your workday, and it turns out someone locked it in a box in the exact same way they also boxed up a severed penis labeled with your rapist’s picture and name, and also they made your poetry now cost one hundred million doubloons in order for anyone to open the locked box and read your work, when obviously you would’ve just read it out for people (and beamed it directly into their brains) as you don’t believe in exchanging currency for goods as much as you do believe in spreading the good word.
This happened to my good friend, Sister Liliya Bogomolova.
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I really love Blake, I’d say he and Lynn are my absolute favorite characters in 2 and they’re both up there as my faves in the franchise. I think about them literally too much!!! I think Blake IS the most fully realized protagonist we have in the roster. I like how much Blake cries, I like how much he screams; he is really multi-faceted in presentation and in characterization. I like how much of this game IS about his own personal story.
However, I will say I don’t agree that “None of this was my fault” was Blake’s true answer, was his big ‘healing’ moment in the story. I mean, outside of the literal blame side of it—for Outlast 2’s story, this IS Knoth’s, and even above that, Murkoff’s fault. But compared to at least Miles’ journey, Blake’s struggles with his PTSD (at least I’d personally quantify his symptoms as this diagnosis) are much more of a central focus to the narrative of Outlast 2, and detangling that means realizing where he’s even getting that rhetoric of “None of this is my fault” from, and why it results in such a sad ending.
It’s not that Blake is a bad person, I would never argue that and I’d even say believing that is missing the general point of 2. However, the story does require him to do bad things at times. Specifically, the things he was groomed to do since his childhood—to ignore, to not see, to live in a reality that simply is not reality. It’s a tragic, tragic flaw, one that is understandably exasperated given his circumstances. It’s not like there was a way out of Temple Gate that was going to be morally okay anyways. There was no way out of Temple Gate. There was no way to have the experiences he had with Loutermilch and not come out changed. That was Loutermilch’s entire goal with Blake.
Does that make not being able to see his wife as her own person okay? (Lynn’s last moments has her hair caked in mud, almost blonde). Does that make allowing Mary to be tortured so Josiah could tell Knoth AND Blake where Lynn was being held okay? (Knoth sits right next to Blake in that scene, at the confession booth. It's also this exact room where Lynn dies, with Josiah still in the background. JUDAS is scratched into his chest.) What about lying to Ethan about Anna Lee’s fate? (He also suggested to Lynn to not report Anna Lee’s death as a murder, saying to echo what the authorities reported.)
These are all understandable actions, and it's not like Blake had countless other options at his disposal throughout the story. He’s also under the effects of Morphogenic Engine experimentation; I wouldn’t say he does all of these actions willingly or maliciously.
BUT. I feel absolutely awful when I play through all of these scenes regardless. I think Blake himself knows this all to not be okay, what he’s doing in these moments is wrong. He says so in his notes. “They always torture women to punish men. It’s sick. It’s cowardly.” Note “always.” He knows this is a cycle he’s seen before, and he’s had to be a part of before. Not because he wanted to be…
But that IS the tragedy of Blake Langermann. Whatever you feel the experiment of Temple Gate all represents at the individual level (the radio towers are described as operating in a feedback loop. Blake gets stuck in the past and in the present, a man and a child at the same time), to me it means Blake doesn’t get the ability or opportunity to reach a catharsis, to heal. He ends the game with the corpse of Lynn and the corpse of Jessica. Can you be a “gentle savior” to the dead? Maybe. What about a baby daughter that might or might not exist? Maybe! I don’t think I even have an answer for myself really. It’s less about how “good” of a person Blake is—I just don’t think Blake healed any of his wounds, and that results in furthering the tragedy.
The other thing is that “it’s not my fault,” is not an organic Blake thought, and I think embracing this is where Blake fully loses himself to the Engine/towers/his PTSD, the horrid mixture of all those things. There’s a specific man that told Blake this, over and over again. WHO was saying “you” to Blake here? “You didn't have to do anything. You were a child, nobody could expect anything of you. None of this is my fault.” …Nobody could expect anything of you? Is that not a horrible thing to believe about yourself? That you are unable to do anything, change anything, child or not? Who is it that wanted to keep Blake feeling small, that his words didn’t matter? What inner demon follows that child-who-is-a-man-now, all over that school to yell at him and berate him and choke him, including into the pool and into the bathroom? I wonder even if Loutermilch said that full quote to Blake first, that Loutermilch also ended his own speech with, “None of this is my fault.” Loutermilch says God killed Jessica. It's just genuinely one of the lines that chills me the most in 2, because I wish so badly Blake could have escaped that hold Loutermilch has even past his death.
(...And the fact Blake can find those secret recordings at all? And remembers other things Loutermilch told him? "A teacher once told me that the music of birds was proof that God exists and loves us." To me that reads that these recordings and some other dialogue by the demon are things Loutermilch has TOLD Blake before, and that the real priest followed child Blake all over the school, all the time, until his death. It's why I have no issue calling what Loutermilch did to Blake grooming, even if the abuse suffered was different from Jessica's. They were stalked and they were sexualized by a predator.)
It is too painful for Blake to accept reality. It’s understandable why, and yes, none of this IS his fault. It’s Loutermilch’s, and later on it’s Knoth’s. 100%. But the fact it did hurt the woman he loved, it did continue to desecrate the memory of his friend, it did prevent him from helping anyone else (the girl in the basement was alive when Blake walked past. I'm not saying Blake could have helped her really...but Blake saw her as Jessica, not as her own person, couldn't even see that she was alive and breathing still)…It just hurts! I do think the game wants you to contend with these questions, even if we all reach our own separate conclusions on it.
I think what Blake needed to say was not “None of this was my fault.” What Blake needed to say was that it was Loutermilch.
Or, is Liliya Bogolomova a Variant? Theory
(Created during the Advent of Bogomolova event!)
I know a lot of people have been connecting Liliya Bogomolova, our newest Prime Asset, to Outlast 2, due to the religious imagery involved in both. And that all tracks for me, there are a lot of parallels that should not be ignored. However, I do think we're missing the forest for the trees, so to speak. It’s important to remember everything that created Knoth and the Cult of Ezekiel. All roads always lead to the Morphogenic Engine.
I will likely have to re-explain everything regarding the Engine, as it has been 13(!) years since the original Outlast. But, we already know that Wernicke will be using all of Easterman's work/developments and repurpose them for use in Project Walrider. You must look at everything happening to the Reagents and Ex-Pop as a predecessor to everything that will happen to the Variants in 2013.
"The Morphogenic Engine process needs a delivery mechanism...It's not surprising religion would be such an effective delivery mechanism."
In one of the Rebirth endings, your Reagent can be thrown into the Engine that is being operated under Mount Massive. (Project Walrider has been happening since WWII, keep in mind.) Before dying, the doctors will note you’ve developed too many lesions in the brain. However, Wernicke, as he looks over to the dying Reagent, says, “What you’re calling "tumors" may be the fingerprints of a god.”
...And Liliya is causing lesions with her voice, the voice of God. And Ex-Pop like the Screamers are based on failed experiments with the Engine. ...And they both look and move like that...
Hold my hand, and let me take you down this long, very painful road of total madness: I think Liliya Bogomolova is a Variant. As in, I believe she has been through the Morphogenic Engine.
A recap for those who have not played Outlast (+DLC) in many years. The Morphogenic Engine is basically the process of turning a living person into a machine. It involves training a person down to their core, their very cells, to become part of the nanobot-swarm called the Walrider. First, a person is put through "therapy," developing lucid-dreaming abilities guided by the doctors to lead that person towards becoming part of the Engine, accepting their new role. This person is then made to interface with the full machine, injected through every part of their body with a precursor for nanobot production, and then their bodies should ideally begin producing the nanobots inside of themselves and can now manifest within the Walrider.
(Miles Upshur's very correct opinion on the whole situation.)
This is what leads to the metal and lead found in people's bodies and brains at Mount Massive. Those who have gone through the Engine will always end up changed by the experiments, and are (derisively) named Variants by Mount Massive and Murkoff staff. Chris Walker, Richard Trager, Eddie Gluskin, etc., are all Variants.
Something you may have found yourself asking is, "Why is every Outlast character like THAT?" Part of that is the tone of the series, of course. But in-universe, people's worse traits are exasperated because of the Engine and the experiments related to it. See, if you read between the lines of the process of the Morphogenic Engine...Read all the dialogue...The Morphogenic Engine is all about pregnancy. Forcing a person into "production." Reproduction. (Which builds on Easterman’s work with Rebirth.) This is why some women develop phantom pregnancies. This is why exposure makes so many of the characters obsessed with procreation, like Knoth. Eddie, in the first scene of Whistleblower, jumps at the glass and yells rape, because that IS what is happening to everyone plugged into the Engine. The phallic nature of the Engine is no coincidence.
The reason the Engine fails for most, especially within Mount Massive and Temple Gate, is that these are people with trauma and strong preconceptions surrounding this very topic. The Walrider did eventually manifest for Billy Hope and Miles Upshur, because while they had tons of trauma up to the point of being assimilated into the Engine, it doesn't read like they had specific trauma around the idea of pregnancy and birth. (We're not sure if it'd have worked on Waylon Park; I'd personally guess not. Likewise, the towers in Outlast 2 caused Blake Langermann to relive witnessing his best friend's sexual abuse and to become catatonic. Catatonia is a possible side effect of failed integration with the Engine.)
"Now why did you have to explain all of this to me? What did all that recap have to do with Liliya?" Good question. Two reasons!
One: The Engine has this specific effect on people, making them obsessed with reproduction. Store this information somewhere in your brain.
(...NOW WHY DOES SHE SAY THAT...)
Two: In every way we've seen the Engine, beginning to end, there is a connection that can be tied back to Liliya. To start off, we have bugs.
Simon Peacock is implied to be Reagent/Employee 0877. This would make him one of our oldest canonical Variants, as he was used in the Engine as a "rough draft." Employee 0877 is identified as suffering from myasis, maggots in his skin. It could be a mixture of both nanobots and bugs, as a result of this very early experimentation.
Obviously, we have “Spider,” as part of “Spider Eye Lamb.” Or spider-eyed lamb. Whatever your fancy is. This is from Easterman’s therapy, but once again, all roads lead to the Engine. If Murkoff is our spider/web, it's another bug connection you can make.
In The Murkoff Account, the Walrider possesses an entire ant colony to avoid being killed. It is our last appearance of the Walrider in the current Outlast timeline. The Walrider is currently bugs.
And then we have Liliya, who is identified with the praying mantis as her symbol. These are all obviously different insects; it’s more that you can draw a line here that the Engine is connected to bugs, and Liliya has a connection to bugs in a way all other Prime Assets do not. It makes her stand out.
Let's talk about the Screamers, which is the more important aspect of this theory. The Screamers are originally failed experiments with the Morphogenic Engine, unable to manifest the Walrider. They were victims from concentration camps in WWII and then forced to scream while plugged into the Engine. They are considered to be near-catatonic, and their vocal cords have been irrevocably changed. They can stand still for a long time in very odd standing positions. Just side-by-side, there's a lot of overlap between the Screamers and Liliya.
(Shared emphasis on an open mouth, neck, one eye, and general covering of the head.)
"Our most violent patients are kept chemically restrained at a near-catatonic base level...(one young lady has a bit of experience with Dr. Wernicke I believe you may find interesting.)"
"Screamers are always sleeping and never sleeping, near-catatonic but extremely sensitive to sound and motion."
The Screamers cause visual noise as well as auditory, making Reagents fall over and unable to run. This is also seen in Outlast 2, with the radio towers transmitting a signal that causes hallucinations and a loud auditory sound, and when active causes Blake to freeze. The radio towers ALSO cause lesions, just like the Engine.
I've always assumed that Liliya is causing you to hallucinate her and your own voice, coming from all around you. She can throw her voice, but unless Scarfiotti added speakers inside every mannequin and gave Liliya a microphone, it doesn't explain why we can hear her everywhere in a Trial. In my opinion, it seems like there's something more there.
Here's a question we HAVE to ask: Why would Murkoff keep Liliya around in Mount Massive? Murkoff will pinch pennies and kill people for the most minuscule of reasons. Walrider is a BIG deal for the company, so the idea they're letting this woman who, in just six months of stay, caused 20% of their insane budget to go to waste? That doesn’t sound like a good investment if all they have her do is sit there.
But she has been in Mount Massive for years, brought in by Nichols in 1952 (so about 8 years). There is plenty of time for experimentation. She willingly went to Mount Massive, aware of SOMETHING going on there. She could’ve learned all about the Engine from the Nazis and later Murkoff staff (or whatever combo of those two groups exists within Mount Massive) under her sway. Maybe she herself wanted to see the experiments. To "egregore."
Dr. Wernicke is super invested in Liliya. He has a tape of her in his office in The Murkoff Collections #7. He makes sure to warn Avellanos personally about her, Avellanos being his prime contact in Sinyala. He is aware of Liliya's background, her being someone who fought against the Nazis. I could see multiple reasons why he'd throw her in the Engine: to experiment with her known abilities, or as a punishment for her actions here and in the war. Maybe for all the above reasons.
Finally, the reason I went into the provocative nature of the Engine for multiple paragraphs is Liliya's effect on people, particularly men, in Sinyala. Of the Murkoff staff, it all first seems to get to Scarfiotti, who doesn't appear to have any extreme trauma surrounding these topics. This is also how the Engine operates, working better on those without those specific problems.
But her noise does start to infect other people. Dr. Easterman starts dreaming of birth canals. The Reagents are feeling a certain type of way. Easterman describes that if the male Reagents weren't given drugs they'd be acting like dogs. Just as they do in Mount Massive during Outlast, becoming more depraved after being subjected to the Engine.
(Sighs. Also another reference to catatonia.)
EGREGORE is a collective group thoughtform, especially in a religious context, which is a perfect summary of the Walrider. But also of Liliya Bogomolova. (It's also been referenced by Amelia's followers. There's definitely a connection being drawn through all these characters.) I do wonder if Liliya's work in Sinyala will be about revealing Reagents (and staff…) who'd best suit Wernicke's interests, choosing who should be used in the Engine. He's already used a Reagent in the Engine, 0877, and the player; It's entirely possible this is where we're headed next.
(Easterman should be careful he's not used as a test subject. Richard Trager wasn't safe from the Engine just because he was higher staff.)
OF COURSE, THIS IS ALL JUST A GAME THEORY! The other, maybe bigger possibility is that studying Liliya will lead to Project Walrider taking on aspects of LILIYA, rather than the other way around as I've proposed. I just think it's an explanation for some of her abilities that we see in-game, and maybe what we’ll be seeing as time goes on. And also if updates prove me incorrect at least I got to share before then!
Like Dr. Wernicke clinging to German folklore and Frankenstein as he experiments with the Morphogenic Engine, the Kress twins make reference to literature and mythology to find an answer to the question: Are they the monster, or are they the man?
Otto hears a noise and says a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, specifically said by the character Caliban. In some iterations, Caliban is a half-man, half-fish-beast. Caliban is decidedly not the hero of the play. Instead he's bullied and mocked, the comic relief, and presented both as a rapist, and also as a slave. A villain and a victim.
The Minotaur is also a half-man, half-beast. A monster that eats human flesh, but abandoned in a labyrinth and is ultimately killed by the hero. A villain and a victim.
If Otto is the man-half of something, what is he implying with the “monster”-half? Is he himself both the man and the monster?
Possibly, with Leviathan explicitly being a sea monster (which connects back to Caliban). Of course, there's still a dual meaning to the figure of Leviathan, where it represents a symbol of chaos and of evil, but also showcases God's power over the world through creating and taming it.
So yes, the two "half-men" referenced here could all be Otto referring to himself. But he is still in a pair, with someone who sees herself as an ugly monster.
(You’ll notice the flaw that was present in the original question: Arora is not a man. And unfortunately the question being asked has only two answers.)
Arora references not a play, but one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 130. This poem is a parody of other love sonnets, depicting the mistress as "overwhelmingly ugly," but Shakespeare’s love for the mistress still true.
And as she finishes the line, Otto replies, “You know me well, love.” Her reference seems less about her own possible love of Shakespeare, and more an appeal to her brother’s interests. The choice of poem was still hers, though. And she similarly chose a character that is, in the text, considered ugly.
Despite how much Otto talks about how beautiful Arora is, how much power they wield, all that beauty does still seem to involve and center himself as the primary focus. Narcissus is, after all, another male figure. Two male figures if you count the reflection!
"I would drown in your beauty like Narcissus." "One cannot be guilty of incest against oneself." These two statements don't really seem to value Arora as her own separate person. The pair are both referred to as the Buffalo Minotaur, one entity, one male character.
(Funny when she says this about Coyle. And how Project Walrider fused a man to another man.)
And if Arora can’t be that, this other half to Otto, the same, she must be the monster, the parasite of the two. Like she can’t just be her own woman, like she can't just be his sister. (The answer to the original question for everyone involved has always been, "Monsters aren't real, you are all just terrible human beings.")
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Dr. Hendrick Joliet Easterman is devoted to his work. Due to his circumstances, it is the one thing bringing his life any sort of value and keeping him alive (for now). Dr. Easterman mainly quotes from two sources, that being the work of Carl Jung and the Bible. Jung is where he gets his inspiration for archetypes, and the collective unconscious. The Bible is because of his Christian beliefs and how it draws into his various, various complexes. The few times Easterman references literature outside of those two items, they are are tied to "work." Dying for your work.
He quotes the beginning of H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu:
"The Horror in the Clay" is the first part of the short story by Lovecraft, focused on the manuscript of Professor Angell. Before he died, he had discovered a large amount of people, specifically artists, have had terrible dreams of a nightmare city, a large figure in the distance, a connection to a "CTHULHU CULT." This discovery leads to the professor's demise as he pieces the conspiracy together, with the narrator warning that those who discover the truth may become victims of the cult and the nightmares.
"An artist must allow himself a few emotional moments now and then."
"...don't let some clumsy craftsman shatter the work before the artist is finished."
There's plenty in Outlast that is reminiscent of Cthulhu, especially in regard to Easterman. The Skinner Man is also a figure that exists in the Reagents' dreams, there's the tentacle aspect of both, the fact that to look at this "thing" is inherently frightening, can cause you to faint and to die. The fact that both figures can control you, make you worship them in a way.
It could be a hint towards what the Skinner Man is. Not some otherworldly being, but a figure from a nightmare. The Skinner Man was NOT a planned aspect of the Therapy. A "Doctor Skinner" appears to a man that was tortured by Easterman prior to Project LATHE, during his "studies" in Hong Kong. Easterman is the one to connect it to a Jungian archetype, giving it more life, and there's also the name being a reference to the "Skinner Box" conditioning experiment. If the Skinner Man has an origin point, it's Easterman's own mind. His love for these stories as a child doesn't feel accidental. Even if only subconsciously, Easterman's work is also his nightmare, and is exasperating his vulnerable mental state.
Next, we have a quote from Robert Frost's poem, The Death of the Hired Man. It's a poem about a husband and wife, farmers, and their old farmhand, Silas. Silas is not a useful man due to his age, and has returned to the farm during winter, a time he is both unneeded and unwelcome. Silas could've returned to his brother, but instead Silas returns to the farm. He returns to work, to die "useful." He is dead by the end of the poem.
It all sounds like a man we know.
"...nothing i can do but make the world for Murkoff. Weeds."
During the Escape event, Easterman lets go of Irene and of Stanley, his family, and solely devotes himself to work. Even when he knows there's really no good ending that's going to come out of it. Not even a legacy.
In the quoted section however, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in," Easterman has placed himself as the husband, the farmer, deciding if "Silas" dies here or elsewhere. The farmer, while at first angry, does soften on the old man's plight, but a lot of that is due to the urging of his wife. Perhaps here, with no wife (and perhaps no "anima," if you want to follow Jung's theories), Easterman interprets the line even more cruelly than intended. "Amelia will die when we allow her to die.” The farmer doesn't control death or time or nature, but in the Trials, Easterman is playing as a god.
In both cases, someone's work leads to their death. I don't know what Dr. Wernicke has in mind for Dr. Easterman, but everyone is aware that Hendrick is as much patient as he is doctor.
(Considering the "mistake" line is also referenced by Knisely above, it seems like everyone major involved in Murkoff is somewhat aware of Dr. Easterman's dual roles.)
(Avellanos works closely with Dr. Wernicke. Knows the importance of lying to him and keeping him controlled, even when he's supposed to be "Project Lead.")
(Easterman also calls himself both, but he does end this entry thinking he's grown past those titles. He has not.)
It's intriguing to me that the Lovecraft entry is placed on May Day. May Day is about protesting against unsafe working conditions, and Easterman is both in charge of and stuck in some of the most unsafe working conditions imaginable. He has so far been poisoned, lied to, he's been attacked and bound. He's losing his sanity. He's not left Sinyala for a long time. Do we know if he's even getting a paycheck? (Silas from the Frost poem went unpaid. If Easterman is getting money, it isn't exactly useful to him now.) Mayday is also a sign of distress, specifically when facing life-threatening emergencies. Because it's Easterman, I do have to consider the double meaning.
Perhaps this is partly why he's so spiteful of the Escaped Reagents, of Amelia. If he can't dream of leaving, if this is all he has and is, why should his children dream of more? Why should they deny him the one bit of control and autonomy he's allowed to have?
I suppose the question gathered from these readings is if Dr. Easterman's going to be condemned to the same fate as the professor and the farmhand. Is he going to die for his work? Or is he going to face something worse?
It is Kress CHEMICAL. It is the Kress Precursor. Kress MIVIM. Let’s be real. It is Arora’s work and name that created Communal Rebirth, it is Arora’s work and name that Easterman likes getting high on and is pumped into the Reagents. Sinyala as it is right now is not functioning without Arora Kress. They need her.
And Otto has to be aware of that. The reason he gets to continue on is simply because of his connection to her, and frankly, that she needs him. Begs the question: who’s relying on who? Who’s sacrificing who?
I do feel safe saying that Sister Liliya Bogomolova does not care about men. If anything, I think she hates them more than she hates anyone else.
Liliya doesn't kill Dawn. I don't know if she tied Dawn up to the contraption in Despoil the Auction, but she does not cut away at Dawn with her own blade. She uses her voice on Dawn instead, making Dawn want to hurt herself, as all of Liliya’s followers do. That seems to me like she would want Dawn as a follower. In comparison, Liliya does kill the Wounded Reagent with Dawn, a man. There was no attempt to talk to him, to try and convert him, it was just an immediate kill. (Did she want them to be separated?)
There are two sets of dialogue for those in the cages throughout the Resort too. With male Reagents, it appears that she shames them, calls them unclean. Wants them carved. The male Reagent is begging to just understand our dear Sister.
The male Biters are near-universally emasculated, directed to by Liliya. She did the same to her abuser, a man. The female Biters do not appear to be cut near their genitals at all.
Jacque Trégouët, his personal valet, George Nichols, they are all men who fall quickly to her effect. Nichols was traveling with a woman, Domitille. She is not reported to have suffered from Liliya's charms despite having traveled and translated for Nichols throughout his quest. Easterman is majorly succumbing to Liliya's voice but Avellanos has not reported anything like this happening to her. Even Scarfiotti has a line about listening to Liliya's voice, but not Avellanos.
The female Reagent found in the cage simply does not speak in the same way as these guys do. There's more awe to what she's saying; it's not just begging.
The female Reagent could be further along in her brainwashing/worship, but even that makes me lean towards Liliya prioritizing female Reagents/Ex-pop within her service. Not for a good reason. Especially with the mentions of being "still," and to have a "new ingress for unimaginable gods." Dawn was placed in a wedding dress, her body in a display to be sold. Liliya sees Amelia's A and scratches at it (a scratch, an open wound, an ingress: an entrance). I want to be clear, I don't think Liliya likes the women she's targeted either--I think she finds them to be more useful for her goals. I suppose as she's been made useful for her own God. Or she doesn't care. It is however, much more apparent that she views the men in her service as a lesser. They're not being told gods will be entering them. Not by Liliya at least.
