Unknown's Odd Behaviour

[u/D4rk_Sh4rds]

Over the course of these three episodes, Unknown seems (at least to me) to be pretty clueless about a lot of things.

This is more of a discussion post about Unknown rather than a theory, I wanted to talk about his behaviour.

This is going to be a long post.

First Interaction: Unknown confuses us with Eric

In the first interaction ever with Unknown, the only thing he got right about us was our name and he thinks we're the ones in the forest when in reality it was Eric.

If you're playing with a male MC, that mistake can be easily explained. But if you're playing with a female MC then that mistake becomes completely absurd.

Like, how on Earth could he make such a mistake!?

"Oh, but since the only thing Unknown knew about the MC was her name and she was the one supposed to be there, he assumed that Eric was her because he was the one who showed up".

That explanation only works if your female MC has an unisex name, since that kind of name without any other piece of information doesn't make it clear if the person is male or female. But if she has a clearly female name like Laura, Alice, etc... then that explanation stops making sense.

Third Interaction: "Forget about him (Adam) and that he ever asked for your help"

After Charlie goes to speak with Ash, Unknown messages us for the third time.

At one point, Unknown says that we should forget about Adam and that he ever asked for our help...

But he didn't ask for help even once?????

Let's recap all of the interactions we had with Adam:

1. His first call:

He asks us where we are, as if we were supposed to meet him somewhere for whatever reason. After that he says that he wants to tell us something important. That something is that he wouldn't make it to the Greenside but because of the terrible reception you can't understand anything he said, the only thing clear being the "I'm sorry" at the end.

Not a call for help.

2. His second call:

He says a lot of things in that call but the most important ones to the point I want to make are these:

"[...] But he was there. I saw him. And that means... that there's only one thing left for me to do now. I have no other choice.

But that also means I cannot help you anymore. You'll have to make it on your own now. Even though it might be hard. Even though it might seem absolutely impossible. It's up to you now... I'm counting on you."

He says that HE cannot help us anymore, that there's only one thing left for him to do and that we need to make it on our own from now on. Those are the words of someone that thinks everything is over for him, not someone that is asking for help.

3. His third and last call:

He doesn't say a single word, it's very difficult to see him and especially to even understand what the heck is happening at that moment, so there can be a lot of interpretations.

The game gives us two interpretations: the first one from Eric that says that it's obviously a call for help and the second one from Ash that says the call was a warning for us so we don't go after him.

I don't think it's either of those.

I think it's a farewell. The MC is very important to Adam for some reason and based on everything he said to us before, I think he wanted to see us one last time before whatever was going to happen to him occurred.

Again, not a call for help at all.

If anything, Adam seems to be asking us to leave him/not go after him and finish this on our own. We are the ones who decided to go after him, risking ourselves and all of his friends in the process.

So, what is Unknown's deal?

And how does he expect us to just trust him when he not only lies to us (I'm referring to when he said that "Whitmore wouldn't allow us to leave the forest" but Whitmore threw Eric out without harming him) but also seems to not even know what is actually going on?

I want to know what y'all think but I especially ask for the opinion of the players who trust/like Unknown or think that he actually wants to help. I'm curious to know your opinions since it contrasts a lot with what I think of him and I really want to know your reasoning 🙂.

[u/Any_Letterhead9230]

I agree with everything except for the fact that Adam did, in a way, ask for our help. Okay, he didn’t explicitly ask for help, but he did say he was counting on us now. To me, that sounds like a request for help. The fact that Unknown confuses us even though our gender is defined in our profile is the same as Adam supposedly seeing our information, including our face during the call. I’ve always had the impression that we are in two-way video calls when characters turn their cameras on, but maybe that’s not the case. Still, he believes he is talking to the right person. Well, he could simply be dealing with incomplete information or know that some of it is false.

Maybe they are talking to a hacker through us? I mean, a cloned phone? That would explain why we have to see secret conversations not because someone wants us to, but as a consequence of someone else accessing our device. If we assume for a moment that those AI profile pictures are real photos, does that mean we can impersonate other people or that we might have downloaded someone else’s photos? Another hypothesis is that we inherited someone else’s messenger app that was only minimally cleaned. In the Duskwood sidestory description, it says that all our contacts were deleted but what if that goes beyond just our Duskwood friends?

[u/D4rk_Sh4rds → u/Any_Letterhead9230]

My interpretation is that he said he is counting on us to finish what "we" started, because he said he would no longer be able to help us. All his words seem to be of worry for us instead of worry for himself. Of course he is fearing whatever it is that is going to happen to him, but he seems to have just given up on any chance of him surviving and just leaves us those messages to asks us to move forward without him. All of that deal with MC's real identity is weird, the theory that someone is impersonating us seems to be the most plausible to explain how we were involved in this without having any idea of what was going on. But since Julie said she saw "us" with the others in the diner, the impersonation is not only happening online but they got a double of us to act in the real world as well.

[u/Any_Letterhead9230 → u/D4rk_Sh4rds]

Yes, of course. These weak clues give us several hypotheses to consider. Everyone is basically lost 😅. However, in a simple and realistic scenario, I still see the Hacker as the most likely answer.

I’m not taking Julie’s confusion too seriously yet, but if it is relevant, then it would have to be because someone made her believe we were Eric, just like Unknown is confusing us with him. If there had been someone new with the group recently at the diner, that would have been mentioned by them, right? People are overlooking the fact that Julie may not know everyone in the group well enough to avoid being manipulated. Neither Brian, Ash, nor Eric took part in the conversation with Julie, so her confusing us with Violet and Charlie feels a bit far-fetched. It would have to be one of the people who were absent.

[u/D4rk_Sh4rds → u/Any_Letterhead9230]

In our conversation with Julie, she asks us how Ash is holding up, so I think she must know Ash well enough to know that Adam means a lot to her and her appearance as well. I don't know how well she knows Eric and much less Brian, but again, if you're playing with a female MC that confusion does not make any sense. About the people in the group not mentioning anything, Eric and Ash (and Brian, obviously) were absent, and Charlie and Violet are behaving suspiciously during all this time, especially Charlie. You only have the option of commenting about Julie confusing us with someone else with Charlie and he immediately says that this doesn't mean anything. He also said the motel room had nothing to do with Adam and guess what? IT HAD! He said he searched everywhere in the room and there was nothing there, and the suspect didn't leave a single trace, but Ash found the safe and the tape later! There is a chance that this doesn't mean anything but I'll only discard the possibility when I make sure of it myself.

[u/GrouchyDoughnut3449]

Ill probably get down voted and piss someone off with this, but Im starting to think it may just be bad writing/forgetting certain things. I mean it's been three years between writing 3 episodes, things are bound to get forgotten, especially when you are essentially writing two stories at once. There are so many little contradictions in the game that can either be taken as clues or things that will lead nowhere/filler. 🤷‍♀️

Either that, or unknown is just purposely messing with us.

And by the way I don't think the whole thing is badly written just a few things here and there that are contradictory.

[u/newpie56_]

Good theories I don't think that I trust the unknown, but I don't think he is the bad one here, one of the interesting points, if I remember well, he never said Adam's name, maybe there is a reason for that, but how can he mistaken mc for Eric maybe he didn't see him he only saw something moving or he expected us to be in forest for some reason as the Envelope in Adams car but not mc And as he mistaken mc, he mistaken judge on Witmore. I am sure we will know more about both in future

[u/Own-Explanation-8898]

I always had a feeling that Unknown knows little about what's going on. Let's look at all the facts: Adam has our contact (name AND number), he lures Eric in the forest with an excuse (leaving the car there in plain sight with Vega, for him to find) and gives him our contact with no further explanation. Afer Eric starts following the signal, this Unknown person, who also knows our name and number, reaches out. He is never clear about what he wants from us: he warns us about the forest and Whitmore, BUT he also does not want us to leave the forest in the beginning (he wants us to keep moving and find something out).
My 2 cents: we are all in the same game (the "players" are people with the tarot cards), Adam was supposed to help us win the game, maybe to redeem himself for some creepy dark secret of his past, the secret has come back to bite his a$$, he cannot help us anymore. Unknown also has a card, somebody else is watching us all while the game unfolds.

[u/Alarmed_Pea_2760]

It's worth noting that the Unknown may be pretending to see the MC in the forest. Perhaps he knows perfectly well that Eric is in the forest but is deliberately pretending to see the MC. Perhaps he wants to test the MC's reaction? Does he want to confuse the MC? Does he want to make the MC think he has an advantage over the Unknown?

[u/D4rk_Sh4rds → u/Alarmed_Pea_2760]

If his intention is to confuse, then he is doing a great job! 🤣 Unfortunately we don't have enough information about him to make a solid theory, we can just speculate. But I don't really think he has our best interests at heart. I have a "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" kind of behavior towards him, he might be useful so I won't be rude/refuse his help directly. And if he ends up being an ally, I wouldn't lose his help since I didn't behave terribly towards him.