The conclusion of Alan Wake 2 leaves as many questions as it answers. It is a straight sequel that carries on the story of the world-famous writer who is the title character. The first Alan Wake ended with the writer disappearing from Bright Falls into the enigmatic Dark Place.
Its release date and setting coincide by 13 years, just like the first game’s. Now, a new spate of esoteric killings is occurring in the peaceful community surrounded by trees, and FBI agent Saga Anderson must investigate. Though the game tries to convince players otherwise, Alan Wake 2 has only one viable ending.
As players go on the last quest, there is plenty of notice that the conclusion is near, thanks to an on-screen popup. Saga has devised a plan for it. She is aware that the enigmatic events in Bright Falls are the work of a mysterious figure known only as Mr. Scratch.
She must summon him with an eye-catching, exploding piece of art, then turn on Alan’s clicker to make him tangible so she can get her hands on him. More ideal than a show with heavy metal music?
Alan Wake 2 Ending Explained
However, Alan is also rather busy while Saga is arranging all of this. At last, he has arrived at Scratch’s flat in the sinister noir version of New York, where he has been busily composing the narrative that has trapped Alan and Saga. Still, he knew the location right away.
Although it’s hinted that this is Alan’s residence, he doesn’t seem to recognize it after all these years in the Dark Place. But as he passes through it, he notices a projection on one of the walls of the living room.
Tears well up in Alice’s eyes as she explains that the goal of her last photography exhibit was to depict Alan the way she remembered him. She conveys her unavoidable sorrow, which she had hoped this endeavor would lessen. Alice is shown walking off a cliff in a succession of grainy pictures taken from behind.
Alan is really angry about this. He accuses Scratch right away of torturing his wife and ultimately leading her to commit suicide. He notices a figure seated at a neighboring desk while he screams and raves. Without thinking, he pulls out his revolver and fires, only to discover that he accidentally shot himself.
Then everything collapses: Scratch is Alan, who carries the Dark Presence within. In an attempt to give the game a satisfying conclusion, the man he just shot was a manifestation of himself making changes to the book that has been the source of all the game’s horrors.
Alan and Saga, who are still alive, must now make things right. Alan Wake, or more precisely, an Alan Wake possessed by the Dark Presence, is the last boss in Alan Wake 2. When Saga’s scheme succeeds, Alan emerges from the lake. He charges her, talking incoherently while she tries to have lights placed in key locations to point at him.
Her ultimate plan is to entice him into a cell, where she will aim all of the available light at him in an attempt to drive out the darkness. Even though Saga is confined within the jail with Scratch, they eventually succeed in locking him there. The darkness dissolves as they close the door and turn all the lights inside. As a result, the cell’s roof is blasted off, rendering Alan and Saga both unconscious.
A little while later, they awakened, largely unscathed. But now that Alan is free, they understand that Scratch now has Casey, Saga’s partner. He flees, sending Bright Falls into complete darkness. Alan awakens in an unfamiliar Bright Falls. It’s the day of Deerfest, and it’s gorgeous and sunny.
But this is strange: people are much more enamored with Alan’s book Return than they are with his other works. That’s all everybody has been discussing. Seeking a copy of the book, he wanders around the fair. But as soon as he locates one, the town starts to burn down around him.
He flees until a door is opened for him by Rose, the diner waitress he met during his initial visit to Bright Falls. Rose shows him the way inside the writer’s room so that everything can end there and for good. Saga is thrown back into her mental realm by Scratch. One of the main novelties in Alan Wake 2 is the investigation mechanism, which lets users piece together clues.
But now that Saga’s notes have vanished, the room is empty, save for a couple of furniture pieces. Saga takes a seat and attempts to reconstruct her memories. Though she continues to deny it, she has images of herself imprisoned in the Dark Place and says, “That’s not me.”
She starts to rewrite some of her notes, but they don’t read the way she meant. They make fun of her errors, tease her, and make fun of her. Saga doubts the truth of her circumstances. Is all of this just another creation of Alan’s? Doubt consumes her, causing her to spiral. She begins to think she will never be able to leave the Dark Place after realizing it is the same as the Mind Place.
She sweeps the room with her flashlight, dispelling the shadows and bringing to light several charming keepsakes. A bottle of whiskey she shared with Casey, a certificate of success from the FBI, and a friendship bracelet from her daughter Logan Enormous realizations set in: Casey is redeemed, Logan survives, and she must flee. She opens the door bravely and strides out into the night.
As Saga steps out into the dimly lit New York, she hears Alan using the same payphone earlier in the game ring. When she answers, a woman’s voice—possibly Alice’s—says she needs the contents of a shoebox in New York to complete the story. The sheriff, whom she encounters, gives her a page from Return that describes the specifics of teleportation.
When she does, she appears in the subway system of New York. Saga goes back the way she came after grabbing the shoebox, which holds Alan’s clicker and a bullet covered in light.
When Saga goes back to the Mind Place, she encounters Alan directly. Before outlining his strategy, he affirms that the shared visions she has with him are real. Alan turned Casey from a real person into a fictional persona.
He is unable to host Mr. Scratch because he is not entirely Alan’s creation. Scratch will, therefore, have to depart Casey’s body if Alan mentions that detail in his last chapter. When Saga enters the writer’s room, Alan hands her the final few pages of his book.
Stepping out of the doorway, Scratch enters with an air of authority. Saga turns the clicker around. The light activates. Scratch squirms with agony. She loads the gun and pulls the trigger. The scene is shown in slow motion for the remainder of it.
A circle of light appears on Alan’s head from Saga’s bullet, making him reconsider everything he knows because shooting Scratch also implies shooting Alan. Then Alan falls back in his chair, and everything goes back to real-time. Saga pulls out her cell phone to contact Logan, and as the phone rings, Casey gets up, leaving up the possibility that she was able to change the course of her death by killing Alan.
Alice reappears in an epilogue, this time speaking with Alan face-to-face. She claims that after researching the incidents at Bright Falls, she has started to recall what transpired there. She was drawn out of the dark place by Alan’s light after becoming stuck there.
But to assist Alan in unraveling the mystery, she decided to come back and present her last exhibition. Alan will have to “keep going through the loop” a few more times, she says, but they’re getting closer to a definitive response.
However, she assures him that assistance will be provided. Upon awakening from his purported “death,” Alan exclaims, “It’s not a loop.” It is cyclical.”
Scratch, or Mr. Scratch, is a recurring nemesis in the Alan Wake series. It’s fairly intricate and covers numerous media pieces, including the end of Alan Wake and the themes prevalent throughout Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. Scratch is the main enemy of the game and an evil duplicate of Alan Wake.
He is an evil incarnation created by the mystical powers of Cauldron Lake and, in a literary sense, embodies all the worst qualities of Wake’s personality. On a more literal level, though, he represents evil in the game through the Dark Presence and otherworldly powers of Cauldron Lake.
